The Riftwalker

by Eruedraieth

Chapter 2 - Dungeons and Draugr [TESV]

Author's Note:

Apologies for the long delay on this chapter. Imagination's been hard to come by lately, not to mention the fact that I have to go into Skyrim to check the area where the story takes place, to make the story correspond to the actual game. Plus, I'm simply being way too lazy

In other news, I had a brilliant idea for the next crossover, but.... Do you want me to continue the Skyrim story after Bleak Falls Barrows? Send me a PM with your opinion + any ideas for the Skyrim story if you wish it to continue!

-Eruedraieth
(Again, sorry for the delay in uploads )

"Phew.. Uh-oh, looks like we got out of the frying pan and walked straight into the fire.. There's more bandits over there. Looks like an archer, and some kind of berserker."

"Ah, to hell with it. CHARGE!" Sawyer raised his shield and stormed at the two bandits, taking them by surprise.

"I suppose we follow, then?" I glanced at Twilight and Night, and they both nodded. Twilight nocked an arrow to fire it, while Night charged after Sawyer.

By the time I was next to Sawyer, both bandits were dead. One sliced in half, courtesy of Sawyer and Night, and the other had an arrow in her knee and arm.

"Dammit, save some for me next time will you?" I checked both bodies for any loot, and retrieved the arrows for Twilight.

"Don't be so slow then! Y'were nearly walking over here! You got those fancy teleports, right?" Sawyer sheathed his shield and sword, and checked his new surroundings.

"They cost me a lot of energy. I'm not attuned to the magic in these parts."

"You're not attuned, we can't use anything but levitation spells! You should be happy you can atleast do those teleports!" Twilight scoffed as she placed some arrows back into her quiver.

"I'm sure you'll be able to cast proper magic eventually. Sawyer, do you have any magical scrolls perhaps?"

"Not with me, but I'm sure we'll find some in 'ere." Sawyer proceeded to walk over to the chest in the corner, next to a flight of stairs that led down. "Nothing all that interesting in 'ere... There's some gold, an uncut ruby, an amulet with an anvil depicted on it and a blue potion."

"A blue potion...? And an amulet with an anvil, you say? If only I could remember what those were...." I took the potion, and held it in my hands. "Might aswell take a sip of it."

I placed the potion on my lips, and poured its contents down my throat. There was a slight tingling sensation, and I felt magically renewed.

"And..? I do not have acces to my full power, so you can not count on me to bring you back to life if it went awry." Night looked at me curiously, searching for signs of disaster.

"Quite the opposite, I feel renewed. Magically, that is. I remember what these potions were now, they were Magicka potions." I dropped the emptied potion back into the chest, and walked over to the beginning of the stairs. "Take those other things with you too, we don't know what that amulet might be good for, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's to do with either crafting, or merchants. Let's go."

The party followed me down the stairs, into winding corridors overgrown with roots and covered in sticky spiderwebs.

"This place.... It's in such a state of disrepair.." Twilight examined the various roots and burial urns along the path, making sure not to touch any spiderwebs.

"It's an old burial temple, from what I remember reading back in High Rock. How we had accounts of burial temples in Skyrim, I have no clue..."

"It doesn't really matter.... What matters more is... I hear shuffling up ahead. Stay quiet, I'll check what it is." I moved further into the tunnel ahead, and found the source of the shuffling sounds: Rats, or something similar to them. I made my way back to my party and told them what I saw.

"Those are skeevers, their bites can transmit various diseases... Just... Don't get bitten, and maybe let Tracey strike them down. How many were there..?"

"One, maybe two."

"Yeah, Tracey should be able to handle them. Go ahead."

Twilight walked forward, her bow drawn and ready with an arrow nocked. A moment later, we heard an arrow let loose, and a body dropped to the floor.

"Nicely done Tracey. I can't wait for you to be able to use proper magic, imagine how devastating you'll be then..."

"Don't get your hopes up, I doubt I can figure out why my spells aren't working right now.." Twilight looked down at the ground, slightly ashamed.

"We'll find out. Let's continue."

We passed a bookcase with another magic potion, and a few rags and burial urns. We took the potion, but left everything else as it was.

"Hold. There's light ahead, and it's moving. Bandit." Sawyer drew his shield, and carefully moved forward.

"Let me do the sneaking, Mr. heavy armour. I'll take him out." I held him back, and proceeded to sneak onwards, my daggers drawn. The bandit was facing away from me, making for an easy target.

"He's dead. Coast is clear otherwise."

The others walked up next to the bandit's corpse. Sawyer looted his corpse for any gold pieces he could find, and left him in the corner of the tunnel. We continued onwards, and walked into a peculiar looking room, with a locked gate, a lever and various images along the walls.

"Looks like a puzzle room. I love puzzles! Let me figure this out." Twilight instantly searched the room for clues, and stopped at the similar looking images on the front wall and the left wall.

"I think it's a sequential code. Those images above the gate correspond to the images on these turning stones here. If it works from left to right, it would be...Snake... the broken one is also a snake... and a dolphin. Snake, snake and dolphin, from left to right." Twilight started turning the stones to the images she said, and pulled the lever. The gate opened with a mighty creak.

"Leave it to you to crack puzzles within seconds."

"Puzzles like these are nothing for me. I could do these with my eyes closed!"

"I've no doubt you'd be able to. Let's continue, shall we? I see a chest at the end there. You do the honours for that chest, Tw- I mean Tracey."

Twilight opened the chest, and removed it's contents: Gold, an uncut amethyst and a lockpick.

"There's another one of those soul gems here, and a red potion on this bench. If the blue one was magic, would that make the red one body?" Twilight curiously tapped her chin.

"I'll test it, even though I dislike being a test subject." I grabbed the potion and drank it. This time, I felt a burning sensation, as if my insides were being burned clean. "Oof, that one burned. As if my insides have been burned clean. I do feel slightly better though."

"This isn't the safest way of testing what potions do, but okay.." Twilight took the potion from my hands and placed it back in the chest.

"There's a stairwell here, and more shuffling from down the stairs. More skeevers?"

"Probably. Does sound like more of them though, so Tracey's arrows won't be able to deal with all of them in time. I'll go ahead and use my shield as a protective line for you guys."

We followed Sawyer down the stairs, and as we thought, a pack of three skeevers awaited us. Twilight shot the furthest one, while Sawyer and Night dispatched the other two with a quick slice of the blade.

"That dealt with them quite nicely. What's on the table over there, though? Looks like a scroll, and a sickly green potion." Sawyer walked over to the table, and inspected the items.

"That potion might be poison of some sorts. And I think the scroll might be something for Tracey to look at." I approached the table, and gave the scroll to Twilight. She unrolled it and started reading it.

"Interesting..." Just as he rolled up the scroll again, it started glowing. The scroll vanished, and left a glowing, fiery residue in the air. The residue then started moving erratically for a moment, and then shot into Twilight's eyes.

"Are you okay Tracey?" I asked, concerned for her wellbeing.

"Am I okay? I'm more than okay, I finally know how to cast magic! It's so simple!" She conjured a fireball in her hands, and shot it at the bookcase against the wall. It quickly burnt up in flames. She tried doing it again, but instead of a fireball, a sizzle was heard.

"Odd, I can't do it again."

"That's because that was just a scroll of Fireball. If you want to keep casting the same spell, you either need more scrolls, or read the corresponding book for it."

"I hope we find one of those books then... That feeling of casting a proper spell again was relieving."

"I think... Hold on, let me check." Sawyer opened his bags, and rummaged around in them for a while. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, and held it up for us to see. It was a red book, with a flame symbol on the front cover. "You might want to read this one."

Twilight took the book eagerly, and read it completely within a few seconds, pages turning with the speed of light. The book burnt up in flames afterwards, and Twilight looked to a different bookcase, and cast the spell she just read. A stream of flames erupted from her hand, and set the bookcase alight.

"If I'm correct, and the books back in High Rock are too, you should be able to cast it with both hands too. Try that!"

Twilight held both hands up this time, and a dual-stream of flames went out this time, but sputtered out after a few seconds.

"Costs more magicka, but you got double the firepower. I think you would be able to cast it far longer than most, once you get the hang of it. According to what your friend here says about you, that is."

"She's an avid magic user back where we came from, I have no doubt she'd be able to here. I do have a sneaking suspicion this scroll was placed here for a reason, though."

"I share your suspicion, Joshua. Something feels off.. C'mon, let's move on and see if we find anything that can confirm it."

We carried on through the corridors, and stopped in front of a door opening, covered in thick webs.

"Webs...? I suppose the fire spell you just learned will come useful, if we happen upon spiders. Burn the webs!" I stood at a safe distance as Twilight unleashed her flame spell on the webs, charring them in seconds. It led into a room completely covered in webs, and a few egg sacs in the corner. Another webbed doorway held a man captive, who looked oddly like a thief. He mumbled a few words through his prison, but they were too muffled to understand.

"Think whoever's trapped inside those webs is trying to tell us something. There's a lack of spider in this room, though..."

"That may be because...it's....right...there...." Twilight took a few steps back in fear as she pointed upwards.

There was a gigantic spider where she pointed at. Which obviously came down because it's webs were disturbed.

"That's.... a big..spider.... Sawyer..? Could you, umm...? Not that I'm scared of spiders...but eh, I'd rather not...be bitten by...that."

Sawyer, as heroic as he was, charged forward with his shield raised, in defense of the rest. Twilight prepared her bow for a second, but decided against it and held up her hands instead. Night and myself stood at a safe distance, knowing we would be of no use with no way to block the spider's enormous fangs.

The spider, noticing an immediate threat in the form of Sawyer, lunged at him, fangs bared and dripping with venom. I noticed the spider had a slight limp to it, however. His shield took the brunt of the attack, but a few drops of venom landed on his armour, sizzling and burning away the material.

"Tracey, I could use some help here!"

Twilight held up both her hands, and a massive stream of fire unleashed from both her hands, engulfing the spider in it's entirety, along with the rest of the room with it.

Once the spider was properly burnt to a crisp and no longer moving, I checked up on Sawyer to see if he sustained any major injuries. Other than a few burns, he was okay enough to continue onwards.

"That's some fried spider right there. I knew that fire spell was there for a reason. Luckily it was already wounded previously. Now, this guy in the webbing.." I walked over to him, and undid the charred webbing in his face. The webbing protected him from most of the fire, but he still had a few minor burns on his face and hands.

"Alright, who are you? And why were you trapped in webs? Didn't you know not to deal with gigantic spiders alone..?"

"My name...augh... is Arvel the Swift... The spider caught me by surprise as I was walking through this room, and it struck me..agh...in my back."

Before I could ask any more questions, he quickly took to his legs and made a break for it. Twilight was faster though, and used a telekinesis spell on him to drag him to the ground again.

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I'll give you the claw, just please, don't kill me!"

"Why would we kill you...? And what do you mean by 'claw'?" Twilight asked Arvel.

"You mean, you don't know about the treasure locked in this place?"

"Treasure?" Sawyer quickly became intrigued upon hearing about possible treasure.

"People say the ancient nords buried their treasure in this old, forsaken temple, but it's locked behind a door which you need this claw for. I stole it from a stupid merchant back in Riverwood."

"A thief, huh? I don't take kindly to thieves..." I drew my dagger agressively

"No, please! I won't do it again, I swear!"

"Once a thief, always a thief... You don't trick me." My hand moved to strike him, but was stopped in mid-air by Twilight.

"Don't. Even though he is a thief, he does not deserve this fate after being trapped by that spider. Give us the claw, and leave."

Arvel quickly scurried up to his feet, pulled a golden claw from his pockets which he gave to Twilight, and quickly ran back the way we came from.

"Can't believe you stopped me from slitting his throat. Scum like him shouldn't be allowed to live."

"Not even he deserved to die after what happened. Don't think you'd like being freed from the clutches of a giant spider only to be killed afterwards because you were a thief."

"Still..."

"Don't. Let's just continue on, he gave us what he stole anyway. We can go to this 'Riverwood' place after we finish up here, and return this claw."

"I suppose."

Sawyer took the lead, his shield raised for any potential dangers. After a few seconds of walking, we stumbled upon what looked like a burial hall, with countless decayed bodies. Some even had weaponry still close to their bodies, marking those as warriors in a past life.

"They did not just store treasures here, they also used it as burial grounds for their dead. We should tread carefully, the dead do not like being disturbed." Night said as she took a sneaking pose.

"Some of these bodies look awfully well-preserved... D'you think...?"

I spoke a bit too soon. A few of the corpses with weapons next to them started moving, and took up their swords and shields.

"Draugr. Nicole was right, the dead definitely don't like being disturbed. And they strike back with force!" He raised his shield in time to block an attack from the nearest Draugr.

Night charged forwards to the Draugr furthest away from us, and started wailing on him with both her swords. The sustained barrage of strikes eventually got too much for the Draugr, as he lowered his guard for just a moment, allowing Night to strike at his mid-section. She cut the undead creature in half.

As Sawyer was sparring with one of the Draugr, myself and Twilight took to eliminating the third and last Draugr. My daggers proved ineffective in one-on-one combat, but allowed for a few openings for Twilight to shoot arrows at it. After exposing his weak spots a few times, the Draugr fell, riddled in arrows. I quickly shadowstepped to Sawyer's adversary and struck it in the back, eliminating it instantly.

"Almost too easy with the four of us. We could've just let that thief run ahead, he'd be dead long before he even reached wherever the treasure might be!"

I looked ahead, and noticed a peculiar stone on the ground with an intricate marking, and next to it, a very, very spiky grate.

"Now this is the most obvious trap I've ever seen." I quickly checked if there were any other stones similar to the ones I saw, which there were none of, and proceeded to take one of the shields from the draugr to throw onto the stone from a distance.

As the shield hit the ground, the grate slammed back with force, it's spikes menacingly sharp. It retracted a few seconds later. I carefully removed the shield from the trap without triggering it again.

"Don't step on that stone, and we should all be fine."

We carefull shuffled past the stone and its gate, but found another one of the Draugr lying down just behind it. It quickly came back to life and raised its sword and axe, and charged at Sawyer. Sawyer blocked both it's strikes, before Night cut in and slammed her weapons unto the draugr's skull. The force of the weapons knocked it back, but it was still alive.

"This one's tough!"

"Not tough enough.." I quickly snuck to it's back, and stabbed it in it's neck with both my daggers as it was fighting with Sawyer and Night. It took my attack and went still for a moment, before pulling both my daggers out of itself and turning to face me, it's weapons raised to strike at me. It didn't get the chance, as an arrow struck it straight through it skull. It finally fell to it's knees, and promptly fell over in a heap.

"Pff.. Thanks. That thing was quite tough indeed. Didn't think it would survive that strike..."

"Atleast I got your back. Maybe we should get you a bow aswell so you can strike from a distance?"

"That doesn't even sound like a bad idea... Keep an eye out for any extra bows."

"Do you think these swords are any good? They look ancient, but they seem protected with runes." Night lifted up one of the Draugr's swords to show us.

"They certainly look good. Give me one aswell, and take two for yourself."
Sawyer took the blade given to him by Night, and Night herself slid the two blades she acquired in sheaths along her sides.

A sound was heard in the distance, sounding like swinging axes. We stepped down the stairs into another chamber similar to the one back where we fought the multiple Draugr in. I immediately noticed a few of the corpses lined up at the side to be Draugr, and those few quickly came to life. One had a bow (YES!), one of them had a massive axe and the other two both had shields and either a sword or an axe.

"By now, these Draugr are more a nuisance that a real fight! Although the one with the axe looks dangerous." I quickly stepped through the shadows to appear behind the Bow Draugr, and struck it before it could loose a single arrow. It quickly fell to the ground, considering it was ill-armoured. The others were fighting the other three draugr, but didn't look like they needed my help, so I checked ahead for any dangers. The hall to the next room contained some swinging axes, and I spotted a lever on the other side.

"Really? Swinging axes? What kind of burial tomb is this?"
I blinked through the trap and disabled it using the lever. The axes stopped swinging shortly after.

"Easy. Now let's see if they dealt with those Draugr yet."

VVVVV

Change of character - Primal Dagger->Twilight Sparkle

I saw Primal blinking and eliminating the Draugr with a bow, but I didn't know where he went next. I was too focused on keeping the Draugr, as Sawyer called them, away from myself whilst shooting arrows. I noticed after casting my spells previously that I would know when I could use them again to maximum effect, and now was such a moment.

I sheathed my bow, and readied my hands for the intense wave of heat they were about to deliver.

I hope we find some other spells soon. This one is getting boring...

I unleashed the torrent of flames, and noticed I could keep it up much longer than previously. One of the Draugr with shield managed to deflect my spell for a moment, but eventually collapsed to the sustained stream of fire. The other two Draugr saw their buddy die in flames, and stopped attacking Sawyer and Night to charge at me. This left them open for attack however, and both were quickly struck down by Sawyer and Night.

"Thanks. They sure don't like seeing their buddies dying in fire. They completely stopped attacking the two of you to go for me!"

"I think they might have an innate sense to target the ones most powerful. Since magic is a sign of power, they went for you. If I were to use magic now, they would all focus me."

"Ah. Did anyone see Joshua, by the way? He killed that bow Draugr but I didn't see him afterwards..."

"I'm here. I disabled the trap ahead of us whilst you were fighting."

"Trap?"

"Swinging axes. The tunnel up ahead had a set of them, with a lever at the other side. Not a problem for someone who can instantly blink through it." He yawned slightly, signifying his interest. "Can we please continue? These Draugr are virtually no match for us, and the traps are even sadder."

"Did you take the bow?"

"The bow that draugr had who I killed? No. You can have that one, it looks better. Give me your old one and a few arrows." He took the ancient runed bow and handed it to me. I gave him my old bow and a quiver with a few arrows in it, which he placed on his back.

We continued past the trap, through a few winding halls containing yet more Draugr. Most of them had heavy weapons, but were quickly dispatched by the nimbler four of us. After the windy halls, we ended up in a slightly larger chamber with a running waterfall, and a chest with a Draugr protecting it. Yet again, the Draugr died within seconds, and Sawyer looted the chest.

"Another bow, this one looks a bit sturdier. Replace your bow with this one, Joshua. Other than the bow, there's another soul gem, some gold, and a green potion this time. Care to test this one too?"

"Fine. Give me the potion." He chugged the potion, and placed the empty bottle and the bow I gave him into the chest while taking the bow Sawyer handed to him. "Don't really feel any different. You can have the next green potion Sawyer, and maybe drink it while we just finished combat. See if it does anything then. It definitely has restorative properties for something, but I'll be damned if I knew what."

I noticed a gate through which the water flowed, and a chain next to it. Pulling the chain caused the door to open promptly, allowing acces to a somewhat musky cave.

"A cave? This temple is one hell of a mess." Primal mentioned as he waded through the ankle-deep waterflow.

We turned a sharp corner, and ended up in a larger section of the cave with glowing mushrooms lining the walls.

"Glowshrooms! These give a boost to health and are resistant to electricity. Read that in an alchemy manual back at High Rock." Sawyer plucked a few of the glowing mushrooms, and placed them in his bag. "Another chest up ahead, and a view of a chamber with what looks like a skylight."

The waterflow fell down into chamber Sawyer mentioned, and the chest was next to the flow. Primal looted it's contents, and held up what he found: More gold, another magic potion and another scroll.

"I think you should have both the potion and the scroll. The scroll looks the same as the last one, so you might want to save it this time for a more dangerous foe. The potion will probably restore your magic, so use that if you feel drained." Primal handed me the items, and I placed them in my pockets, making sure the scroll was neatly tucked away for instant use if I needed it.

We travelled down the curving path leading downwards from the chest. Primal promptly stopped us before we got to the end of it.

"Think there's a troll ahead. An icy one at that, and it doesn't look friendly."

"Trolls have regenerative properties, so we have to strike it down quickly or else we have to face it for much longer than we have to. I'll charge in and tank his strikes, you three do what you have to do to take it down as fast as possible. I'm not entirely sure how long I can keep him on me." Sawyer readied his shield, and charged forwards, closely followed by Night. Both me and Primal readied our bows, and aimed for its head.

I landed a few arrows in his head, one even in his eye, but he was still standing. The troll suddenly lurched forwards and slammed Night off the bridge, down to the flowing water below.
"No! Night!" I quickly shoved over the edge to attempt to grab Night's arm, but failed and watched as she fell down a few meters. Luckily, she didn't fall a long height, but she looked injured.

Sawyer noticed my attempt, and enraged, he struck the troll wildly in it's chest. A few good stabs later, and the troll dropped to its knees, and collapsed on the bridge. After checking to see if the troll was dead, he quickly made his way down to Night to check if she was okay.

I followed him and tried to find any kind of healing potion or spell in my pockets, but found none. Primal knew what I was looking for, and gave me a red potion.
"Thanks. I'll make sure she drinks it."

We hurried to her side, and Night looked like she was in pain. Groaning and holding her leg, which was slightly bent at an odd angle, she was lying on the ground. I quickly placed the potion on her lips, and emptied its contents into her mouth. She coughed shortly, and with a small glow, her bent leg reshaped into its normal form.

"Thank you. I did not expect the troll to suddenly go for me."

"Atleast you're ok. And look, there's a chest here too!" Primal hurried over to the chest, but quickly discovered it was locked.

"Damn, it's locked. Tracey, you had a lockpick right?" Nodding, I gave him my lockpick, and he went to work on the lock. A statisfying click was heard, and the chest opened to reveal gems, gold, another, even sturdier looking bow and some very intricate arrows.

"I suppose I'll take this bow too, then. You can take this longbow, Sawyer. Never know what it could be good for. And Tracey, you can have these arrows. They look deadly."

"Those are of orcish make. They got a deadly sting to them, but there's few of them here so use them wisely."

"I'll use these on stronger foes then, if we find any." I took the arrows from Primal, and watched him take the new bow and give his old bow to Sawyer.

We continued further through the cave ahead, and after a few twists and turns, we stumbled upon a larger room with double doors closing the way ahead, with a very angry looking Draugr wielding a greatsword guarding it.

"Like that guy?"

"He looks tough. I'll let him taste these arrows."

I nocked the orcish arrows on my ancient runed bow, and released them in quick succession. Two arrows struck it's head, and the third one went through it's chest. It still started stumbling towards us, however.

"It's weakened by now. Strike it down!"

Sawyer didn't need to hear that twice, and bashed the Draugr with his shield. Once it was down on the ground, he stabbed his blade through it's chest multiple times, and it stopped moving shortly after.

"Good work. Now, let's see what is through these ornate double doors, shall we?" Primal said, with a slight excitement in his tone.