Fredas, 15th of Frostfall, 4E 201
Tonight we're sleeping in Red Eagle's crypt.
Turns out the sword was more dangerous than we thought!
So, this morning we left the Old Hroldan Inn and walked up to the top of the mountain. We could see the tall spires of an old Nord ruin up there, and that seemed a likely place for it.
We ended up coming in through a break in the rocks, a bit to the side of the ruins, where we ran into a pair of Forsworn archers. They were no match for our fireballs and my atronach, so we were able to get rid of them easily. We went up a few sets of stairs, and found ourselves in the middle of an entire camp full of them!
I'm glad the camp was mostly broken up into small sections because of the rocks and the ruins, because otherwise we'd all look like pincushions. Almost all of them used bows, but there were a few with axes and swords, and even a couple of mages.
While we were fighting, I learned that Forsworn archers typically carry a dagger as their spare weapon, and that while they can fight a person just fine, they don't know what to do when a dog attacks them. A lot of them ran!
Septim is the BEST boy! He's chewing on a goat leg right now.
And yes, there was a battle, it was tiring, there was a lot of blood and screaming and magic, and I lost count of how many arrows we pulled out of each other, but I NEED to talk, in private, with Lydia as soon as I get a chance, because Valdimar has to be flirting with Erandur. I mean, I can't think of any other explanation for what we saw earlier.
The main camp area is a giant loop around a section of rocks and part of an archway, with the stairs coming up on one side, and more stairs going up to the top of the ruin on the other end, along with a tower. While we were in the wider section, right before we ran up to the top of the ruin, three fighters came in from the side and managed to get the jump on Valdimar and Lydia.
Valdimar ignored them, and instead put so many Ice Spikes in the Briarheart and the archer at the top of the ruin that they looked like Frost Atronachs. It was easy for me and Septim to run up and finish them off. I ran back down the steps and saw Erandur finishing a fight with a mage that had been hiding in a tent, and Lydia putting her greatsword through the last man standing.
Valdimar had taken a beating, and was in bad enough shape that he was kneeling and leaning on his shield for support. Erandur ran over to heal him, and I went to check on Lydia. We both heard Erandur offer to help him up, and Valdimar said something like, "What, you don't like me on my knees?"
Erandur got flustered and said that he couldn't believe him, and muttered about how he must have an arrow lodged in his brain as he cast a bunch of Healing spells on Valdimar.
Lydia and I just stared at each other, and we were trying hard not to laugh, but I failed and ended up hurting myself. There was an arrow in my shoulder, but Lydia got it out for me and I Healed myself. That's gonna hurt in the morning, but oh, well.
Erandur sighed when he saw her yank it out, and said that he'd have to give her a lesson in field dressing wounds.
We took some time to check for goodies in the camp section before we went up the steps to the ruined platform. We got some ingots, gold, foodstuffs, bits of jewelry, and a few nice potions, too. There was also an alchemy table, so I took a second to mix up some potions to replace the ones I'd taken.
Septim had knocked the Briarheart that had been on top of the tall platform off the side, and the man died when he hit the ground. He was so ran through with Ice Spikes that they hadn't faded, yet! He was carrying Red Eagle's Sword.
It's a wicked-looking weapon, and enchanted with Flame magic. Nice!
We went up the steps, and found the archer by an altar-like table with a journal on it. I read it aloud and we all agreed that coming to get Red Eagle's Sword was the right thing to do.
It contained… A spell? An Oath? Some sort of ritual, that was sure, because it called for the blade to be "bathed in human blood" and a sacrifice to be offered at a place called Rebel's Cairn. The person doing this would seek a blessing from Red Eagle, and bid him to rise from the dead.
We had no idea where Rebel's Cairn was, but at the bottom of the camp, where we first came in, there was a door to get inside a platform that was built into the rock. We'd been too busy fighting to investigate it.
We checked out the tower before we went back down to try the door, and found some loot, along with a little drawbridge to another tower that led us onto the mountaintop. We didn't see anything right away, so we walked all the way back through the camp and tried the door into the hillside.
It took us into a cave passage filled with the usual charming Forsworn decorations of severed goat heads, blood smears and wooden spikes. We ran into a few Forsworn fighters while we were in there, and some traps, but they were kind enough to trigger them for us!
The passage went down, and soon we came out closer to the bottom of the mountain, where there were two men guarding the cave entrance. We took care of them, and realized that place was the start of the whole Forsworn encampment.
We all figured that we must've missed something, so we went back up and walked all the way through to the towers. I climbed to the top of the last one, and looked around to see if I could see this Rebel's Cairn place at all.
The sun was starting to set, and I spotted a light nearby. There was a little dip in the plain, next to a big stony outcrop, and I could make out a tattered banner waving in the wind. I couldn't see the fire beyond the ledge, but there was clearly a cave right there.
I called down to the others, and even though it was getting dark, we all agreed to see what was over there.
We didn't want to sleep in the Forsworn camp in case some roving patrol came back in the night or something, and a cave is more protected than the treeless mountaintop.
So, we came here, and in the first area we found a dead Orc adventurer with a copy of "The Legend of Red Eagle" on him. There was also a pedestal with a slot in the top that looked suspiciously like it could hold a sword.
I put Red Eagle's Sword in it, and a section of the wall opened up. It closed when I took the sword back, so I left it there and we headed in.
The door leads to a short, winding passage before it opens up into this huge cavern!
Erandur calls it "Damn impressive," and he's right. There's pillars, with caved stone faces holding lit braziers in the mouths, and a big archway on the back wall over an alcove full of grave goods. In the back, on a raised bit, is Red Eagle's sarcophagus, and guess who popped out?!
Surprise surprise, it was Red Eagle himself, turned Draugr Death Lord(?). A handful of skeleton archers got up off the ground to fight alongside him. Septim and I went after the skeletons, while the others concentrated on the draugr. He used Shouts, but like most draugr, Red Eagle was weak to fire. I turned around once to see Erandur, cloaked in Flames, brace himself against a blast of Frost, then charge at the undead king.
Yeah, I've never seen a priest of Mara do that.
I didn't have the heart to tell him last night that even though I've seen priests of all the other Divines put on armor to fight, he's the first I've seen of Hers.
Once everything was dead - again - I searched the body and found another Flame enchanted sword. I'll have to see if Lydia wants it.
We searched the rest of the room, and found potions, soul gems, and some sparkly goodies along with some gold. Also a few bits of armor that were nicer than what we were planning on selling.
But it's late, so we're just relaxing in here around the fire while Valdimar makes us dinner. We're set up near the tomb's entrance. Erandur is saying some prayers in the back of the room for Red Eagle, I think, while Lydia looks through the weapons we've found.
What I want to know is HOW Red Eagle rose from the dead? I mean, we didn't do any ritual or -
Help me, Julianos. You're my only hope.
I was writing when I suddenly realized, and called out "DAMMIT!" so loud I made everyone jump!
Erandur came running, demanding to know if we were all right, Lydia got a sword ready, Valdimar almost dropped our dinner in the fire, Septim spilled some of my wine, and I had to admit that I'M the reason Red Eagle rose from the grave.
Valdimar said of course I was. I disturbed his rest. That's what draugr do when you go in their tombs.
He wasn't wrong, but I explained that I did the ritual.
Erandur crossed his arms and asked when exactly did I do a necromantic ritual?
I told him to calm down. I didn't mean to! I explained that when I'd read the journal back at the camp, I had the sword on me, and that it had already been "bathed in blood". I didn't make anything of it at the time, because let's face it, we've ALL got blood on us.
Erandur asked about the "sacrifice" and Valdimar laughed in an apologetic way and shook his head. "The dead Orc by the pedestal."
Lydia burst out laughing and said something about how it's been a while since I did something really Stupid! She'd almost started to miss it! Erandur covered his eyes with his hand and muttered that if we needed him, he'd be off to the side, begging Mara to forgive us.
Valdimar convinced him to have some dinner, first.
Now that we've eaten, I'm going to bed. Erandur asked that we trade our usual watch spots so he can do some more prayers, and that's fine with me. I'm exhausted.
Note: Apparently, when he's exasperated, Erandur's idea of "praying" to Mara is pacing back and forth with a bottle of wine in his hand and trying not to whisper too loud as he goes off about how we're all idiots and he's sorry for all the damage we've done.
