//------------------------------// // Chapter 48: Everything Burns // Story: The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter XLVIII: Everything Burns “If the Cloven Hoof aren’t attacking my town, the earth ponies are trying to force me off it.” After we claimed our reward from Jarl Sibli in Foalkreath, we headed back to Whitetrot. Faniar had another ruin ready for us to look into when we arrived, a crumbling fortress called Four Stars Lookout built in the northern Karth. We left immediately and were able to make it to the ancient earth pony fortress by the time the sun was setting. Four Stars Lookout was built high upon a mountain near Karthpasture, and the front tower of the ruin looked out over a small valley between the mountains. There was no possible way to sneak up on the ruin without being in sight of its windows. Soon we found out that it was currently occupied. We were forced to dodge arrows as we made our way up the mountain. Whoever was shooting at us would need some explanation when we made it up to them. Turns out, no explanation was necessary. Ponies in bandit armor stood outside the base of the tower as we approached, their weapons drawn and ready to keep us out. I blasted one with my lightning right away, frying her with the elemental energy. An arrow from Mephalda dropped the other, and we passed over their corpses on our way into the tower. In the close quarters I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and slashed through a bandit’s neck as we rounded a corner. Before we headed up the stairs that led to the upper levels of the tower, Mystic sent a wall of flames billowing up the stairway. A few screams confirmed that her attack had been successful. Galloping up the still-warm steps, we climbed higher into the tower. As a mare with a bow tried to shoot down at us, I sent ice spikes up at her, forcing her to dart around the corner. Steadfast was first around the corner and tackled her to the ground, crushing her bow with his warhammer. Another archer higher up the stairs fired down at him as he swung at the bandit he’d disarmed. Mystic stepped in, her ward causing the arrow to snap into pieces. Mephalda fired her own arrows up the steps, first crippling, and then killing the bandit archer. We continued to climb the stone stairs until we neared the top of the tower. I began to trot into a room at the top, but ducked back as a warhammer slammed into the wall next to my head, breaking bits of stone off. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I pushed the warhammer away and down to the floor. A scruffy looking stallion came into sight, levitating his weapon. I immediately stabbed toward him with Calcion’s Cleaver, but he was able to jump out of the way. Shooting flames, I forced him back as I ascended up the stairs and into the room. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at his legs, but he was able to block with his warhammer and force me back. As he did so, I brought out the Blade of Hoofingar and slashed down at him, though he was able to block that too. Using both my blades, I blocked his weapon as he brought it down toward me. While I held the block, my friends were able to make it up the stairs. First was Steadfast, who slammed his own warhammer into the bandit’s side. He staggered toward an opening in the wall that appeared to be a large window. He moved back even farther as Mystic shot flame at him. Then Mephalda shot an arrow that stuck in his eye, and it was all over. As he fumbled around, trying to see, he tripped and fell out the window, his body breaking on the rocks far below. Looting the chests stockpiled up here yielded a large amount of gold and arrows, as well as a hearty supply of all kinds of potions. After we’d thoroughly looted the top room, we headed down the tower to the small landing it was built on. The tower itself was only an outlying building of Four Stars Lookout. The main building butted up against the cliff face a short distance away. There was no door built into the entrance, but rather a curving entryway such that the interior and exterior were separate, but easy to pass between. Around the entrance was a makeshift barricade of piled-up tree branches. Apparently somepony didn’t want anypony getting in . . . or out. After Mystic levitated some of the larger branches away, we entered the ruin. Once inside, we found ourselves in a modest entry hall. Compared to some of the other ruins we’d been to, this place seemed small. I wondered if maybe Faniar had made a mistake in sending us here. But, he was a friend and I trusted his judgment, so we’d just have to pass further in and see if things got grander and more befitting of a Dragon Priest. Scattered around the entry hall were the bodies of several bandits and Draugr, explaining why the entryway was barricaded. If Alduin’s return had awakened the Draugr, it seemed that now they were preparing to move out of their decaying fortresses and retake Horizon. I sincerely hoped I was wrong on that point. A few Draugr emerged from the shadows at the far end of the hall. As I charged in to attack one of them, Calcion’s Cleaver drawn, an arrow came flying from the dark and sheared past my neck, tearing through the skin a bit. I quickly bandaged it as I ran and swung my ancient earth pony sword around in an arc that would cut up the neck of the Draugr I was attacking. It blocked with its war axe, however, twisting Calcion’s Cleaver down toward the floor. I pulled my sword away before it could be thrown from my grip and swung it around toward the Draugr’s neck. The war axe once again blocked, and this time it slid down the blade toward me. Before the war axe could strike my chest, I whipped out the Blade of Hoofingar and blocked. As I did so, I finally managed to swing my ancient earth pony sword through the zombie’s chest. With a dry rasping, it fell to the floor dead again. Another arrow went flying over me, though quite a bit off this time. Turning toward where the first shot had come from, I could see that Mystic was frying the archer with her lightning magic. The bow combusted, and the Draugr gave a shudder before falling to the floor. The path clear, we proceeded on. Only one door led out of the entry hall and deeper into the Draugr ruin, so we strode through it, following the twisting passages. As we passed through a tunnel lined on either side with Draugr tombs, many empty, we heard the rasping of more Draugr up ahead. The ground was slick with lantern oil, spilled from a pot and pooling in the uneven hallways. Mystic conjured up a fireball and sent it barreling through the fuel, lighting it up at once. From down the hall, Draugr screams came as they met a fiery end. Once the flames died down, we strolled forward over the burnt stone. Suddenly, from around the corner came a flaming Draugr. It slammed into Mephalda, catching her on fire too. Before it could run any farther, Steadfast crushed it with his warhammer, though the corpse continued to twitch as the fire went out. On the ground now, Mephalda was working to put out the flames on her body. Once they were extinguished, she placed some salve on them and drank a healing potion to help fix things faster. Gritting her teeth, she froze up as the magical healing passed through her body, repairing her burns and even regrowing the hair she’d lost. Once she was back in fighting condition, we continued down the hallway, stepping over the burnt corpses of Draugr who had died to our trap immediately. At the end of these passages was a narrow stone bridge leading out across a large hall below. A single Draugr patrolled it, armed with a bow. A shot from Mephalda took it out, and she quickly flapped up to keep it from falling down below and alerting the other Draugr. One of the walking corpses had noticed, however. It was standing on another bridge crossing the cavern to the right and began to shoot arrows at us as we crossed. Mephalda, Mystic, and I all shot at the Draugr in our own ways, but it continued to evade us until at last we managed to corner it. With lightning shot from me on the left and ice shot by Mystic on the right it had nowhere to run as Mephalda’s arrow hit it in the forehead. However, though the arrow had gone all the way through, protruding out the back, the Draugr continued to function. That is, until Steadfast suddenly galloped onto the bridge, and used his warhammer to knock the zombie off into the hall below. We followed his lead and crossed our bridge, circling around through the tunnels until we managed to make it to the second bridge. Crossing it as well, we made it to a small staircase that led down into the hall below. Steadfast cleared the way ahead of us, smashing Draugr against the wall before they could fight us. As we entered the hall, all the Draugr turned to fight us, and chaos broke out. Mystic began blasting them as fast as she could with every spell she could muster. Steadfast rushed in, swinging his warhammer about and knocking the Draugr every which way. Mephalda flapped up higher to get a better vantage point for raining arrows down onto the zombies. As for me, I took off into the crowd, both swords swinging. Calcion’s Cleaver electrocuted my foes while the Blade of Hoofingar sucked out their life. It was an exhilarating experience. Of course, it had to come to an end, and it did so when my blades met the sword of a Draugr. As I tried to swing around toward its forelegs, I found myself blocked by the sword of another. They were working together! I swung my ancient earth pony sword at the first while bringing my ebony blade around toward the second, only to have them both blocked. I backed away from the first and swung both my blades around toward the second walking corpse. Its blade blocked Calcion’s Cleaver, but the Blade of Hoofingar was blocked by another Draugr. I was forced to back away from the trio of zombies as they began to slash at me. I was unable to keep up on blocking all three at once. Time suddenly slowed to a crawl, and I was able to anticipate the Draugr’s moves, dodging all of them as I ran my swords through their shriveled hearts. I took out a few more of the zombies before time snapped back to normal. I was now behind the majority of the walking corpses, close to the door that led deeper into Four Stars Lookout. Near where my friends were fighting, I summoned a flame atronach. It began to incinerate the Draugr between us while I pushed back toward it. My blades gleefully slashed through the Draugr, meeting only minor resistance from time to time. As the Blade of Hoofingar became notched under the blade of a Draugr war axe, I tried to pull it away. Just the opposite happened, however, as the zombie was able to rip the ebony sword from my magical grip. I met its blade with Calcion’s Cleaver, sending lightning pulsing down the blades. As the Draugr spasmed to death, I ran to retrieve my gift from Jarl Radiance. A Draugr was standing over the sword, and I ripped open its stomach as I retrieved my blade. Another Draugr nearby swung a battleaxe at me, which I quickly dodged before shooting lightning at it. When the lightning proved ineffective, I switched to flames, igniting the Draugr’s head and causing it to run away screeching, dropping its battleaxe. That Draugr was the last in the room, and I rejoined my friends before proceeding deeper into the ruin. The doors leading out of the hall were rather large, and as I pushed them open I was struck with awe by the sight that greeted us. A large cavern spread off into the distance, and within it was built an entire Draugr city. Perhaps Faniar had been right to send us here after all. This place resembled Volsteed so much, it was uncanny. While the town was set up in a different way, the Draugr buildings looked exactly the same, and undead townsponies trotted about on business as if nothing was different. Much like at Volsteed, I was reluctant to disturb their lives (or rather unlives) but it was the only way we were going to get to the structure built on the far end of town. It didn’t seem to be a temple like in Volsteed, but I had no doubt that if this place had a Dragon Priest, it would be there. The building seemed to climb the wall, jutting out as the cavern got narrower at the top, and finally disappearing right through the ceiling, apparently continuing on into the mountain above. If there was an Element of Harmony buried deep in this ruin, it was on the other side of the town. Carefully, we descended into the town, following the stone stairs that led down to the floor of the cavern. Pieces had been worn away over the years, and bits of the ceiling had fallen in, making the journey a bit more precarious than it must’ve once been. Eventually, we made it to the Draugr town’s streets and tried to blend in. We’d learned from our experience in Volsteed that any Draugr, even one of the unarmed ones, could easily trigger an alarm calling down a whole army on us. As such, we tried to stay out sight as much as possible. Through the streets of Four Stars Lookout we stalked, until we were forced to pass through the market district. Many of the Draugr had set up stalls, selling wares I couldn’t recognize. Still, if it wasn’t for the fact that the merchants were rotting away and speaking Draconic, I could’ve believed we were trotting through the marketplace of any town in Horizon. Of course, the inevitable happened as we stalked through one of the town’s back alleys. A Draugr with a spear caught sight of us, giving a howl in Draconic to alert its fellows. An arrow from Mephalda knocked the spear away from the Draugr just instants before a blast of magic from Mystic’s horn annihilated it. As we emerged from the alleyway, we caught sight of more guards coming from each side. A blast of ice went flying over our heads, shot from the staff of a Draugr in the back of the group and splashed against the wall behind us. I headed off toward the left, and Mephalda came with me as Steadfast and Mystic headed toward the right. The Draugr approaching us soon found themselves tripping as Mephalda shot arrows into their forelegs. The first wave fell into my blades as I brought both my swords around. The next was not killed quite so easily, and I found Calcion’s Cleaver blocked by the pike of one of the zombies. Holding the weapon in place with my ancient earth pony sword, I separated the blade from the staff using the Blade of Hoofingar. The ebony blade swung up into the Draugr’s chest next. Spinning around, I lopped off the head of a Draugr wielding a mace before my sword met the blade of another of the undead ponies. Pulling my blade back, I struck at the Draugr’s forelegs, slicing through the rotting flesh. I ducked as the zombie’s sword whisked over my head. While I held the sword off with the Blade of Hoofingar, Calcion’s Cleaver went up into the Draugr’s heart. The Draugr before me suddenly froze solid as the mage behind it blasted ice at me. Projecting flames in front of me, I managed to push my way toward the zombie holding the staff. When I finally reached it, I drew out Calcion’s Cleaver and knocked the staff away before the mage could use it. Ice splattered the ground around my hooves as the Draugr fired the staff anyway. My dragon breath torched the Draugr, but somehow it was able to keep from dying again. As it swung the staff at me, I brought up Calcion’s Cleaver to block. My blade nicked the staff only the slightest bit, but lightning jumped from the sword and into the weapon’s magical innards. The staff began to shoot ice everywhere, freezing everything, including many of the Draugr warriors. At last, it exploded in a shower of ice, freezing the mage where it stood. Most of the rest of the Draugr around had retreated into their homes, and we got no resistance as we passed through the now-icy alleyway and headed toward the tower at the edge of the town. With no further problems, we made it to the tower and pushed open the heavy stone doors to enter. No Draugr soldiers stalked these halls, only attendants that seemed content to run away or slink into the corners at our approach. Eventually, we found the set of stone stairs that led up through the structure. It was easy going as we ascended, meeting no Draugr at all. Still, it made me a little jumpy wondering when we were going to run into another. It was inevitable, after all. Finally, the inevitable happened. As we reached the top of the stairs, a Draugr with a battleaxe emerged from the doorway. Mystic blasted it with ice, causing the zombie to drop its weapon. Steadfast followed up by smashing its head into the door frame. As the corpse slid to the floor, we passed through into the next room. We had climbed quite a ways upward on those stairs, and I reckoned we were now atop the mountain. Real moonlight angling in through a hole in the ceiling and through the windows proved my point. We were standing in some sort of circular room built at the very top of Four Stars Lookout. In the center was an ornately carved sarcophagus, no doubt containing the Draugr lord of this barrow and hopefully an Element of Harmony. Around the room, several Draugr were adjusting tiny mirrors. In each of them shone a single star high in the sky above, their light reflecting toward the center of the room and the crystal placed atop the coffin. As all four lights converged on the crystal, the sarcophagus began to shake. Mephalda shot an arrow through the head of one of the Draugr as it attempted to adjust the mirrors further. We all rushed in, working to cut down the Draugr before the overlord arose. We even angled the mirrors away from the coffin, but it was no use. The Draugr burst out anyway, sending bits of stone flying everywhere. From the sword gripped in its mouth, it sent lightning flying across the room toward Mystic. Her ward went up and reflected the bolts back at the Draugr until it stopped. As I shot an ice spike at it, it chopped it in half with its sword, knocking the shards of ice aside. <<>> I Shouted, charging up to the Draugr and slamming my ancient earth pony sword into its chest. That is, I would have stabbed my sword into its chest if it hadn’t been deflected first. The end of Calcion’s Cleaver screeched across the floor before I was able to bring it up and around at the Draugr’s neck. The zombie’s sword was already up, however, blocking my strike. <<>> I was thrown back by the Draugr’s Shout and sent skidding across the stone floor. As the overlord shot lightning at me, I rolled to the side. While the Draugr was focused on me, Steadfast had managed to sneak around behind it and crushed one of its hindhooves with his warhammer, sending it tumbling off the sarcophagus. Recovering, the zombie swung its sword at him, but he managed to nimbly jump out of the way. As the Draugr slashed at him with his sword again, he blocked with his warhammer and managed to push the zombie a few steps back. <<>> Steadfast went flying backwards as the Draugr Shouted him, but still managed to get up in time to avoid the strike of lightning sent at him. As ice began to coat its left side, the Draugr turned to face Mystic. It began to charge toward her, until an arrow from Mephalda burst through its head, the tip protruding from its eye. Annoyed, it sent a blast of lightning at her before turning back to Mystic. Lifting its sword as high as it could, the Draugr slammed it down into Mystic’s ward. At first, the sword began to heat up, glowing red and threatening to shatter apart, but as lightning shot from the tip, it began to sink through the magical barrier. Mystic began to sweat with exertion as she bolstered her force field, but the sword continued to push through anyway. <> I Shouted, sending the blade flying from the Draugr’s mouth. It growled and turned toward me. Giving a jump, the zombie tackled me to the ground. With its surprisingly strong forelegs, it pinned me down. Luckily, I could still use my magic and slashed my sword across the back of its head. Though I could see I had inflicted a wound, and ichor was bleeding down the sides of its head, the zombie didn’t seem to care. It smashed its skull into mine until the rotting flesh began to peel off its face and the bare bone struck me. I tried desperately to slash its head off with my sword, but as the bone hit my horn, I lost control of my magic, and Calcion’s Cleaver fell to the stone floor. As the Draugr was about to beat me again, Steadfast’s warhammer threw it off of me. As it slid across the floor, Mephalda managed to get an arrow through its other eye. As the Draugr screamed in anguish, Mystic torched it. The world spun around me as I rose from the floor, and it took a minute for me to get my balance. When I did, I retrieved my sword and trotted over to where the charred corpse of the Draugr was lying. As I had feared, there was no amulet around its neck. “Another bust,” Steadfast commented from beside me. “I don’t know,” I said, refusing to believe that the Element wasn’t somewhere, “This is a pretty large ruin; maybe we just haven’t found the Dragon Priest yet.” A door on the other side of the room led to a set of stairs. Following them took us down onto the top of one of the Karth’s many mountains. A snowy little valley was nestled atop these peaks, and I took a look around. A short distance away, there was something I recognized. A Word Wall was pressed against the mountain, seemingly carved from the cliff itself. As I moved closer, the words began to burn before my eyes. I suddenly absorbed all the knowledge there was on the fury of a storm. Of course, storm wasn’t the word I knew it by now. ~STRUN~ There was no sarcophagus nearby, however, and no sign of a Dragon Priest. Four Stars Lookout was not home to one of the Elements of Harmony after all. Though I was glad to have learned a new Word of Power, our jaunt here seemed a hollow victory without the very thing we’d come for. I was shaken out of my misery as a roar suddenly shook the mountains around us. Over the peaks to the west flew a massive dragon with ruby red scales. It paid us no mind as it flapped overhead, stirring up the snow with its mighty wing beats. “It’s moving fast,” Mephalda noted, “And isn’t that the way to-” “Karthpasture!” I exclaimed. ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ The dragon was already at the tiny town by the time we arrived. Flames burned in patches here and there, and several of the homes had been smashed to rubble. Karth guards, from the town’s looming barracks, were fighting to keep the dragon on the ground and wound it as badly as possible, but it looked to be doing more damage to them than they were to it. As we galloped along the dirt path through Karthpasture, the dragon vomited fire, dousing the nearby guards with the heat and flame. They never stood a chance as their armor melted around them, and their bodies burned to cinders. The dragon turned its head toward another grounp that was striking it and snatched them up in its jaws, swallowing them whole. <<>> I Shouted, knocking the dragon’s head to the side as it attempted to roast more of the town’s guards. The flames went off course, burning down two more homes. The dragon twitched its head as Mephalda shot arrows at us and turned in our direction as if we were a minor annoyance. A wall of flame separated us as we were forced to dodge the searing fire launched from the dragon’s maw. I shot ice spikes into its side as I ran, but they seemed to merely stick in the thick scales, barely making a difference. <<>> I Shouted, rushing in toward the dragon with my swords drawn. I went straight for its wings, which proved to be a bad idea. The dragon quickly drew its wings in toward its body and, as I was standing on top of one, I was thrown toward its back. I rolled across the scales, digging my swords in as I went, until I came to a stop. I looked up to see that the dragon was staring straight at me. As fire began to build in its nostrils, Steadfast cracked it across the jaw with his warhammer. It released the flames at the ground where Steadfast had been standing before suddenly taking off into the air. I tried to keep my balance on the dragon’s back as it glided through the sky. It let loose a barrage of flame at the ground, burning up everything, including the last few remaining houses. As it circled back around toward my friends, I advanced up its back. Holding Calcion’s Cleaver above my head, I brought it down into the dragon’s wing joint. The wing suddenly seized up, and the dragon unexpectedly turned, crashing through the guard barracks. The multi-floored structure was ripped in half as the dragon plowed through it. I managed to jump off on the fourth floor, getting one last hit in as the dragon slid on. As soon as it recovered, the great lizard came rampaging toward what was left of the building. Using its claws, it tore walls and floors apart searching for me. I fought to stay one step ahead, galloping down stairs and under wreckage to stay out of sight. Eventually, though, there was nowhere else to go, and the dragon found me, preparing a flame attack to roast me alive. As time slowed, I galloped out from under the barrage of fire. As I passed beneath the dragon, I held my swords out, slicing through its legs. I had to duck to avoid the tail as time snapped back to normal, but I had made it and gotten away from the dragon. As the great beast began to turn toward me, it was suddenly bombarded by arrows from Mephalda. As it opened its mouth to shoot fire at her, she fired even more arrows into the soft interior tissue, causing the dragon great pain. A blast of magic from Mystic knocked the beast to the ground, where Steadfast was able to get his own attacks in. I Shouted as the dragon began to get up, and it fell to the ground again, weakened. “DRAGONSLAYER??” the dragon asked as I approached, “ALDUIN SAID THAT YOU WERE DEAD!!” “Alduin was wrong,” I said as I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver through the dragon’s skull. It spasmed for a bit, fighting against the lightning coursing through its brain, before finally allowing itself to die. As it combusted, I relived the dragon’s life and learned how to use the Word I’d learned at Four Stars Lookout. I could see and understand everything about storms, including how to call one to my aid. I Shouted, and clouds rolled in from distant corners of the sky to send down snow and lightning. We were victorious, but as I looked around, it seemed to be another hollow victory. Though the dragon was dead, the entire town of Karthpasture was destroyed, and only a few survivors remained, certainly not enough to restart the town. We’d managed to save the town, but in doing so had lost what we’d been protecting. ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ After the battle, we tended to the wounded as best we could before helping them on their way to Marekarth. Karthpasture was gone and most likely would never rise again. Helping the last few residents was the least we could do. As we left the great Minotauran ruin that was the capital of the Karth, a pony in light armor with a courier’s saddlebag galloped up to us. I was amazed how these couriers were able to find a single pony in all of Horizon, and so quickly too. “Letter for Sapphire,” the courier announced, pulling the message in question from his saddlebags. “Thank you,” I told him before taking the letter. As he galloped off, I broke the seal and opened the letter up, curious as to who would write to me. I found out immediately who it was when I saw the black hoofprint at the top of the message. Sapphire, We have need of your help immediately. Come to the Sanctuary as fast as possible. There was no doubt that this letter was from the Dark Brotherhoof, it appeared even from Merrifeather herself. But, I really had no great desire to return to that band of assassins. They had been helpful in finding Mephalda, sure, but I didn’t intend to become a permanent member. On the other hoof, the message was very short and urgently written. Perhaps the Dark Brotherhoof was in trouble. They may have been assassins, but the ones I had met had been decent enough ponies. It wouldn’t do to just abandon them in their hour of need. Making my choice, I set out on the path south of the city, headed for Foalkreath and the Dark Brotherhoof. Level Up Health: 260 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 250 New Perk: Metal and Magic [Smithing] -- You can now repair enchanted weapons at forges, as well as improve both their physical and magical properties. Word of Power learned: STRUN -- Storm; Storm Call – A Shout to the skies, a cry to the clouds, that awakens the destructive force of Horizon’s lightning. Dragon Soul collected New Quest: A Brother in Need -- Come to the aid of the Dark Brotherhoof, whatever their problem may be.