7: Poor choice of sleeping area

The large entrance hall where I had fought the archers had only one other passage leading off of it, and this contained another flight of stairs. I descended, and immediately ducked into the shadows. Not far off, through a few doorways, was a bandit holding drinking from a crude mug. They were standing in front of some sort of drop off, but I couldn’t tell if it was a balcony or what. The bandit turned and leaned onto the railing before the drop off, and I took this opportunity to sneak up behind them.

On my approach, I stopped and planned my next move. I could use my cold spell to freeze them, or my Flare spell to blast them over the balcony, or I could resort to a good, old fashioned smacking with my mace. I decided on the latter, and limbered up my right arm as I continued to move closer to the bandit. I got within range, and pulled the mace far behind my back.

My strike hit the bandit and sent them careening over the drop off. I stepped up and saw that it was a fairly low balcony, and that the bandit now was motionless on the ground a few feet down. I also noticed that a Khajiiti bandit had rushed to his compatriot’s corpse, and as he drew a massive warhammer from his back, I leapt over the balcony and brought my mace down on him. He brought the shaft of his warhammer up to block, and my blow bounced off harmlessly. I stumbled backwards and pressed against the ancient marble wall. I was in a bad position, the Khajiit had plenty of room to maneuver his huge hammer, and I had nowhere to dodge to! I decided to get in close so that the effectiveness of his hammer would be reduced, and started swinging my much more compact hammer with as much force as I could muster. Soon I had brought his defenses down enough to get my hands on his chest and freeze his heart.

I went through the two bandits pockets and found some more coins and lockpicks. I hefted the warhammer onto my back because it would fetch a good price, and I had emptied my pack of unnecessary items so I could carry more. The room I was in was small and lit by a fire the Khajiit had started, and the only way out was a beautiful Ayleid door.

The door was marble like the rest of the ruin, but it had a design resembling a tree etched onto it. The tree was reflecting every beam of light that hit it, but in such a way that it glowed blue and swirled gracefully. I wanted to better examine this etching, but as I reached out to touch it, it drained off of the door in all directions and the door slid open. I sighed, but I moved on down the stairs and found myself in a cramped room filled with light. In the middle of the room was an Ayleid cask that was bathed in light. I cautiously moved up to it, but then I noticed less natural light coming from a side passage, and ducked into the shadows. They provided little cover, but they were better than nothing. I moved up to the source of the light, and found a sleeping cot and a fire. It was then that I noticed the Khajiit. His eyes were flicking from side to side, and he was mumbling very softly to himself. He looked totally insane, and I readied my mace as I stepped into the room. His head snapped up and he bared his teeth, but his eyes grew incredibly wide.

“Ghosts…” He whispered a little more to himself, but then his eyes returned to their normal size, and he drew his shortsword. In his maddened state he proved to be little challenge, and I was finished with him in a matter of moments. I wondered what had driven him mad, but then I realized that he had been sleeping in a tomb. The sarcophagus dominated most of the tiny room, and the cot had been shoved into a corner. I backed slowly out of the room, and turned back to the illuminated cask.

It was locked, and I broke a number of lockpicks in it before I was able to pop it open. It contained a large amount of gold, and as I emptied it out, a healing potion was uncovered. I estimated about 130 coins were in it, but I didn’t really count. After emptying the cask, I decided that the side rooms deserved a decent inspection.

One of the side tombs was empty, holding little more than an ancient sarcophagus. The other tomb had a chest shoved into the corner, and as I went to collect its contents, I stepped onto a pressure plate that sunk several inches into the ground. I threw myself to the ground, expecting some trap to crash into my prone form at any second, but none came. I looked up at the sound of grating stone, and found that an entire wall was retracting into the floor! As it made its slow descent, I opened the chest and found a bag containing more gold. I estimated it at about 70 septims, but I had no tiem to count because the wall had finished its crawl.

Beyond the secret wall I found a sprawling tomb complex, filled with the whispers of the dead, as well as much more aggressive spiritual activity, but now my hand grows weary, and the dawn is beautiful this morning…