A Nord's Tale

Authors note: It has taken me so long because I can barely type a paragraph at a time before my hands get so tired and achy. Therapy sucks.


Sanyue hiked up her skirt and stepped into the passage. The floor was hard packed earth with little pebbles scattered here and there. It smelled musty and dank, like something had recently died. Sanyue suppressed a shudder that ran the length of her spine. To her left, she could just barely see the shape of a wooden chest. Opening it carefully, she sifted through the sparse contents. Someone had stored some cloth or clothing in it, but it had long turned to tatters from all the rats nesting in it. Under the tatters lay several pieces of gold and a rusty War Ax. She pocketed the gold since all of her possessions were now with the jailer. The ax was not the best she had ever seen. The blade was chipped and dull. It would more than likely just make its target angry rather than make it dead, so she left it behind.

Slowly she ventured further into the dirt room. There were several pillars made of rounded stone holding up the fitted stone roof. In the center was the remains of a well, the shaft having fallen into disrepair long ago was nothing more than a bucket hanging from the ceiling over a rusted grate. Sweeping her gaze to the left, Sanyue stifled a scream. The remains of a human lay against the wall, sprawled out on the ground. He or she was nothing but dry bones, but the leather armor was surprisingly in tact. Her skin crawled at the thought of wearing something that had had its previous owner rot in, but anything was better than a cloth dress drenched in rat blood. As she made her way toward it, she heard more squeaking. Fearing another army of half-crazed rats, Sanyue readied her katana. But instead of an army, only one slowly made its way out of the shadows. It was obvious that this pathetic little creature was near death from either starvation or disease. Taking pity on the creature, Sanyue stabbed it once with the sword, watching as it squeaked once and lay still. Listening for other rats, Sanyue sighed in relief. No more of those little beasts.

She focused on the remains. Since there was no point undoing the laces on the leather armor, she shook the previous owner out of it, wrinkling her nose at the musty odor that was left on the armor. At least she had come here after the messiest parts of decomposition or else she would have passed the armor up entirely. Quickly, Sanyue tore out of her dress and slipped the armor over her undershirt and bloomers. It was a snug fit, she had to let out the laces quite a bit to keep it from cutting off circulation to her arms and legs. Next were the boots, which were thankfully, only half a size too big. Either this was a big-footed Elf or a skinny Nord. Right next to the remains was a chest. A locked chest. At least there was a lock pick scattered among the bones, so she decided to try her luck. Slipping the lock pick into the lock, point up, she felt for the tumblers. The Gods must have been taking pity on her because only one of the tumblers was not locked up. She tapped the rod a few times, getting a feel for how loose it was. Being here for all this time without any kind of oil left the rods stiff, which made picking the lock only that much easier. Pushing the rod up, she tapped it into place and the lock clicked open. She opened the chest but instead of more weapons, there was more gold. Not that she could use the coins here but if she ever got out of here alive they would be valuable. Like for buying a decent meal. The sapphire was a welcome surprise. That would go for at least twenty more gold pieces. Now to get out of here so she could spend it!

As she slipped the katana in her belt, she caught sight of a bow and quiver of iron arrows next to the now scattered remains. She much preferred an arrow to an ax any day. She tested the bow, finding that it was still tightly strung. This would do nicely. She slung the quiver over her right shoulder and looked for something to test her aim out on. The bucket hanging down from the ceiling looked like a good target. Slipping a single arrow from the quiver of about twenty, and dancing around like an idiot again when she found a large black spider staring at her from the arrow head, and taking at least ten minutes to empty the quiver out of any other tenants, Sanyue was ready to fire her first arrow. She drew the bow back as far as she could, thankful for the leather gauntlets to keep the string from ripping into her arm, she fired. The arrow drifted to the left a little and caught the bucket on the side and set the thing spinning dizzily for several seconds before it unwound itself. Satisfied that she could at least hit something, Sanyue extracted the arrow from the bucket and returned it to the quiver on her back. Now there had to be a way out of here. The wall in front of her was solid, but to her left was a wooden door and a dead goblin. Sanyue felt her stomach flip inside of her again, thinking for a moment that the goblin was drunk and not dead. She gave it a shove with her katana just to make sure, though. She stuck her hand into the goblins pockets and pouches and came away with a rusty iron key, several spell scrolls and potions, and a lock pick. Not bad for something that had the intelligence of bread mold. Sanyue stuffed the spell scrolls into her armor's pockets and the potions into her belt loops. The key, obviously unlocked something, and she hoped it was the door because she could already tell that picking the lock on it would break her one and only lock pick. Slowly she slipped the key into the lock and turned it to the right. The tumblers inside moved with a satisfying click and the door swung open on its hinges. Pushing the door open, she winced as it creaked loudly. If she had thought she had the element of surprise, it was likely gone now.

She readied herself with her one and only defensive spell she had learned besides her Woad, and cast Flare on the advancing rat. The thing bound at her as though it were made of troll fat, bouncing along the ground. The rat instantly incinerated and flew to the back of the chamber. The entire chamber, however, was filled with the smell of charred hair and meat, making Sanyue retch. Slowly making her way further in, hand over her face, Sanyue found another chest. Inside, she found more arrows and a full suit of iron armor. She decided against it since she did not want to risk getting cut by the rusted edges. She slipped the arrows into her quiver and closed the chest. Behind her, the room narrowed into a hall way, the first few feet descending down like a dirt ramp. She notched an arrow and slowly made her way down. Immediately, several rats rounded the corner and bound in her direction. But instead of attacking her, they all ran past her, squeaking in what sounded like terror. Heavy foot steps followed the last of the rats. Whoever it was was not fast on their feet. In fact they were shuffling and moaning. Perhaps they were hurt? Sanyue lowered her arrow, expecting to see one of the Blades, wounded and needing help, but instead she was greeted by the sight of a one armed zombie rambling towards her. How the dead could see escaped Sanyue at the moment, but upon spotting her, the thing sped up and limped toward her, its one good arm out stretched.

Sanyue stood frozen on the spot. She had only heard about zombies from adventurers that frequented Luther Broad's Boarding house where she went for an occasional ale. What those adventurers had told of zombies had terrified her and now seeing one in the flesh (sort of), she was as afraid as she ever had been. Suddenly remembering herself, she raised her bow, drew the arrow back and fired without aiming. The arrow struck the zombie in the knee and succeeded in only enraging it. She remembered from the stories that the only way to really kill these things without them just getting back up was to dismember it. Sanyue retched again and withdrew her katana. She waited until the undead abomination ambled within striking distance and brought the blade down onto it's outstretched arm. Steel against rotting flesh was no contest as the appendage came flying off followed by black sick and thick white ooze. The smell was like nothing she had ever experienced and Sanyue stumbled back. The thing, armless, still stumbled toward her with its black toothed maw so wide, the jaw had dislocated.

She ducked as it lunged at her and as it fell forward, she hacked at its backside where the knee joint was. Black fluid and white ooze flew every where as the thing flailed on the ground, only stumps below the knee now. It still tried its best to crawl toward her, so Sanyue raised her blade and brought it down on the back of its neck. It took two swings to finely separate the head from the body, the zombie shuddering once before collapsing into a heap at her feet. Sanyue held her nose as she backed away from the finely dead corpse. How in Dagon's name did people hunt these things? They were the most disgusting things she could imagine. And some, according to certain Ayleid Specialists, exploded on the first blow.

She tried not to think about that as she slowly made her way down the hall way, turning left around the bend. Sanyue rolled her eyes, more rats. There were only about three or four of them, but they were persistent and came at her all at once. Still riding the adrenaline rush from killing the zombie, Sanyue swept her blade around her until all four rats were laying in pieces around her. A smaller room lay ahead of her, the walls the same hard packed dirt with wooden beams serving as pillars to hold up the ceiling. It looked like this place was being used to smuggle items into and out of the prison. But it had probably been out of use for years now. The only tenants that seemed to call this place home were rats and the zombie she had reduced to pieces. There was a chest in the middle of the room, against one of the beams, and Sanyue opened it. There were potions of healing and sorcery, both of which she would need before long, and several lock picks. After pocketing the items, she moved down a shorter hall way that opened out into an arena like area. There were bones and debris all over the floor and several rats devouring what looked like food.

Taking the initiative, Sanyue bound down the stairs and made quick work of the two or three rats that had been startled out of their meal. On the ground were several wedges of cheese, a tomato and an almost untouched head of cabbage. The cheese had a few bits of mold and dirt on it, but a quick brushing off and it was good enough to eat. The guards had refused to feed her food because of her 'crime', and now she was starving. She made quick work of the cheese and tomato, not caring that the fruit left her chin wet with red juice. The cabbage she stuffed into her pouch for later use. Eating raw cabbage was usually followed by a rather large bowel movement and Sanyue could not afford to be caught with her trousers down when a horde of rats came her way. That would have been a gem to tell to her grandchildren some day. Sanyue chuckled as she took up the iron shield, fitting her hand into the handles. It didn't weigh too much and would protect her if anything other than rats attacked her.

Running up the ramp, she made quick work of two rats digging around in the dirt for scraps. At least she wasn't missing so much anymore. The room narrowed into a hallway that ran for a few dozen feet before it expanded again into a long room, two openings framed by timbers on either side. The few rats that inhabited this area scurried past her and into the area she had left. She navigated through the tree roots hanging down, making sure to avoid the spider webs. If there was something she hated more than rats, it was spiders. And zombies. She entered one of the openings and found that they both led into the same open area. There was a large stone pillar in the middle of the room, nearly the size of a century old oak with smaller stone pillars around it. It looked like this room was carved from solid rock. Could this have been a mine once? Light came from the occasional opening in the floor where a grate emptied dim light into the catacombs. A few more rats called this place home and most avoided her. Some lunged at her, trying to bite her ankles through her boots. She gave one the toe of her boot, sending the rodent squealing across the chamber and against the far wall. The others were easily dispatched with her katana. Sanyue smiled, she was getting better at this! At the far end of the room, another hallway extended into the rock. Here, the walls were made from masonry, though the floor was still hard packed earth. A mass caught her eye to her left, and she moved in closer to investigate. A sack lay in a small indentation in the stone masonry. She opened it and found a healing potion and a lock pick. She pocketed the lock pick, and uncorked the healing potion. She leaned her head back and swallowed the liquid in one gulp. Instantly, every little nick, cut and bruise she had acquired healed within seconds. She felt so much better with a full stomach and now healed of all her small injuries.

She continued down the hallway as it opened up wider. The hall dead ended except for a hole knocked out of the masonry. Ducking into the hole, she found herself in the middle of a cave. She was immediately greeted by several more rats, all determined to chase out whoever had trespassed on their territory. A few sweeps of her sword was all it took to clear away the rodents, leaving Sanyue satisfied with herself. At least she was getting better with her aim and not swinging wildly from one side to the other. Her teacher back in Sky Rim had warned her about becoming very unpopular if she accidentally loped off the heads of her neighbors trying to protect them from bandits. According to him, such things were looked down upon. As she went further into the cave, a glint of silver caught her eye to the right. Scattered bones lay in a pile of dried hay and dirt directly in front of a wooden chest. Buried in the debris, a silver goblet glinted dully in the low light, tarnished with age and filed with detritus and small bone fragments. Sifting her fingers through the pile, she felt a small stone under several rib bones. She pulled it out and wiped it off on her leather armor. She could hardly believe her luck. Not only could she sell the sapphire, she also had a ruby! Granted, neither of them were in top condition to demand the maximum price, but this would probably get her started in moving out of Imperial City and moving somewhere away from all the Skooma dens. Bruma perhaps? She missed snow in the winter terribly and the low coastal climate was beginning to wear on her. A Nord could take only so much humidity before they ran back into the mountains.

The chest held a few vials of some welcome healing and sorcery potions, and she stuffed these into the pouch at her belt. She crept around a stone column and into a small alcove. Here, a fire burned on the floor, full of fresh dry wood. But what was hanging above the fire made Sanyue laugh nervously. Human skulls were strung together like beads, hanging down from the ceiling to form something that resembled a macabre curtain. Wonderful, she always wanted to wander into a nest of goblins and get the life beaten out of her. Maybe she would get lucky and sneak by them while they were sleeping. There was no going back. If the guards had discovered the door in her cell and followed the path they would catch her at the locked gate and probably accost her there. Slowly, she pushed open the door, being careful not to let it creak too loudly. The caverns continued on, another fire burning out of sight a head. Sanyue caught herself as she was about to go walking right up to a goblin paroling the small room. She had wondered why it smelled funny, but how was she going to get past the goblin? As she waited in the shadows, the goblin turned around and walked toward the back of the area where the fire was burning, in absolutely no hurry. She looked down at the arrow that was still in her grip. It was worth a try.

Sanyue crouched low and notched an arrow, drawing the bow so that it was gripped horizontally in front of her. Slowly, she crept up behind the goblin, looking around the small bend as he feasted on the rat cooking over the fire. She wrinkled her nose, reminded again how disgusting these creatures were. She lifted the bow, taking careful aim, her arm beginning to shiver from keeping the bow stretched for so long. Finely, she let the arrow loose, watching as it made a new home for itself in the back of the goblins head. The mottled green creature fell face first into the cooking fire, roasting himself along with the rat he had been eating just a few moments ago. A quick search of the pouch hanging from the goblin's belt turned up a couple of lock picks. Where a goblin would get the finesse to use one, Sanyue didn't know, but she did not turn them down. The chest by the cooking fire turned up a few more gold pieces and more lock picks. She estimated that she must have had at least thirty lock picks crowding her pouches right about now, but she did not want to shed any in case she came upon a locked door. She would be damned if she were stuck down here with nothing to eat but rats and mushrooms.

The thought of mushrooms made Sanyue turn her head. She remembered passing by a crate with a couple of mushroom caps on it. It seemed the goblin had been using it as a table to mix poisons on. Sanyue had earned her living by working in an apothecary shop making potions for traveling adventurers and mages and knew a poison when she saw one. The liquid was thick, perfect for coating the blade of a sword, or the head of an arrow and have it stick. It was weak, at least from what the smell told her and it was probably mixed by someone who had a limited knowledge of the ingredients' properties. The two types of mushrooms laying on the crate were quite useful for weak poisons, and the mortar and pestle would come in handy for the mixing of healing potions. Sanyue started going through her pouches when she heard something from behind her. She whipped her head around, half expecting to see another goblin behind her, ready to bury its blade in her back. She found nothing but empty cave, but she could faintly hear something coming from behind her. Walking further ahead in the dim lit cave, she found that it narrowed into another hallway. She followed the curve to the right, her now sensitive eyes catching the flicker of flames in the small chamber ahead.

She notched an arrow and crept around the bend in the hall. She could just barely see a goblin patrolling the small room up ahead, a bottle of cheap wine as a partner. It held the bottle limply in its hand as it squinted into the shadows. Slowly, Sanyue crept around the corner carefully putting one foot in front of the other. She had hoped to sneak up on the drunk creature, but her hand was getting tired of holding the arrow and it slipped from her grip to bury itself into the bottle of wine, shattering the glass. The goblin took offense to this and even in his drunken stupor could pick her out well enough to charge. Sanyue quickly reached behind her to notch another arrow, hoping that she had time to aim when the goblin's foot hit something stretched along the floor. It forgot Sanyue completely, its face falling as it turned around to watch as an enormous wooden flail caught him in the middle. The thing, which was half again as tall as the goblin was, tore it into a bloody mess on the cave floor. Sanyue stared at what was left of the goblin for a moment, wanting to laugh and retch at the same time. At least the hapless creature had served a purpose and warned her of the traps she was sure to encounter in the rest of the cave.

Making sure to step carefully around the expanding pool of blood, Sanyue quickly made her way into the next hall way. The next room was lit by a huge fire against the nearest wall, throwing the entire room into almost blinding light. The room continued farther ahead, the ramp down partially blocked by a stack of logs lashed together with rope. She stopped momentarily to pick up a couple of apples when her eyes were stung by flying dust. When she had cleared her vision, Sanyue found an arrow sticking out of the sandstone wall just inches in front of her nose. The goblin who had fired that arrow had retreated down the ramp to its companion, most likely to wait to spring what it thought was a brilliantly laid trap.

Sanyue peeked around the logs and down to the goblins. Both were just standing there with arrows notched into rusted bows. The two were standing entirely too still to be aiming in any direction she would come from. Her hand touched the rope, and understood. They were aiming for the ropes that held the logs, hoping to catch her as she charged them like an idiot and and got flatted. If there was one thing that Sanyue was not, it was an idiot. At least in her estimation. So, she took out two arrows, and used them to saw through the ropes holding the logs at the top of the ramp. She could hear the two goblins honking to each other like hoarse geese, probably wondering what was taking so long. The two brain-trusts were probably debating who was going to go up and find out. Sanyue almost giggled as the ropes finely frayed and snapped, letting loose the logs to roll down and crush the two hapless goblins as their own trap was turned against them. At least the two goblins had enough smarts to pack extra arrows on them and some healing potions in the chests behind them. Pocketing these, she continued on.

The next room was larger than most she had gone through. She could not see too well since the bright fire from a few minutes before had her eyes used to the light. She had to wait a few moments until she had her night vision back. She had notched an arrow in the interim and was about to walk forward when she remembered the drunk goblin. She had not yet run into that particular type of trap again, but that did not mean that these goblins would not try the same thing twice. Scanning the ground in front of her, she found a string running a couple of inches off the ground in the narrowest part of the hall. Following the string took her eyes to another pair of giant wooden flails anchored above her head, ready to make her into a gooey pulp. Softly she stepped over the string, and pulled back on the arrow. She tracked the patrolling goblin, waiting for it to stop for more than a second. The creature seemed bored, and drug it's sword along the ground making enough noise to alert a deaf scribe.

It stopped, eyes unfocused as it yawned wide. The rusty sword clattered to the ground as the goblin fell backward, an arrow sticking out of its wide open mouth. If only all of these creatures could be taken down so easily. Stepping forward, Sanyue could see that most of the room was taken up by a large pit. From what she had seen throughout the caves, it was likely that these goblins had taken to using the rats as a source of food and clothing. Traveling close to the edge of the pit, she avoided the attention of the goblin guarding the pens. She kept an eye on the goblin, crawling with her head turned until she ran into a stone hanging from a length of rope. Clearing her vision, Sanyue studied the rock for a moment before she reached up and pulled. Loud squeaking and screaming startled her and she pulled several arrows out of her quiver at once, nearly notching two as she watched as the 'livestock' turned on its masters and made a meal out of the goblin.

The noise had drawn another goblin from further in the room, apparently tending a cauldron full of burning bones. Most probably the bones were going to be used for potions since ground bone was something quite common in healing potions. The brown of her armor blended well with the brown of the dirt so that the goblin was nearly on top of her before he realized that he that the pain in his side was the arrow she had launched from her old bow. On her back, Sanyue could not reach for another arrow and the goblin was raising his short sword over his head for a killing strike. She just managed to keep her elbows from buckling as the goblin rained blows down on her. Using her feet, she kicked at his knees, using his stumble to get to her feet and draw her own sword. It felt special, her hands tightening snuggly around the hilt as though she had wielded the sword forever. She dropped her bow and gripped the sword with both hands as she brought it up to block the blows from the goblin. The creature was strong. Much stronger than his comrades, heavily muscled and possessed of the rage of a berserker.

The thing screeched and swung right and left as though he was chopping a tree from both sides. Sanyue waited and kept blocking the blows. She waited for the goblin to make a mistake or get tired and kept blocking. It was one of the failings of her character as a woman that had been used as a virtue of her style as a warrior. She was not one to easily give up and kept coming even when it was made clear that any further attempts would be met with failure. Sanyue waited, and as the goblin made to draw his sword back for a frustrated killing blow, she struck. She flicked her blade's tip close to the creatures' face, and while it was distracted with trying to retreat from what it thought was an attempt at blinding it she swung her sword vertically and sliced the creature open from its hips to its shoulder. Black blood sprayed from the open chest as it fell, slack jawed to the ground and lay still.

Sanyue sank to one knee, massaging her left shoulder through the armor. It had been a long time since she had practiced with either bow or sword and her arms were getting tired. She dearly hoped that this would be the last goblin she would have to deal with. She was not sure how much punishment she could take before she made a mistake and became the main course at a goblin feast. She waited in that same position, trying to work the soreness out of her muscles. As a last resort, she downed another small vial of healing potion. It was not powerful enough to take the ache away completely, but it was good enough for now. Sanyue cleaned katana on her pants leg and slipped it back into its sheath. Slowly, she lifted herself onto her feet and retrieved her bow, holding it in her left hand. She took another deep breath, trying to stretch the kinks out of her shoulders as she continued on around the pit.

There were torches ahead illuminating a single goblin carrying some kind of staff. And it was staring straight at her. She tried to quickly notch an arrow, but the goblin leveled its staff at her and she felt as though she had been struck by lightening. Her legs went limp for a few moments, her breathing harsh and labored. Somehow she had managed to hold on to her bow and arrow during the shock and notched it as quickly as she could again. Just her luck to run into a shaman. She aimed the arrow and shot, catching the shaman in the left arm. She was so scrambled from the first shock that she could not even aim for his staff arm. She dodged out of the way of another shock that sent the hair on her arms standing on end. Deciding that a change in tactics was in order, Sanyue slung her bow over her shoulder and lifted her hands. She waited until after the goblin had nearly exhausted himself before she began to cast one fire ball after another. Most missed, but the few that hit their mark seared his skin and set his skin clothing on fire. With the pathetic thing trying to put himself out, Sanyue took out her bow again and buried an arrow in the goblin's forehead.

For the second time in as many minutes, Sanyue was exhausted. She knelt in front of the wooden chest the goblin shaman was protecting and picked the simple lock. She had hoped for cheese or meat of some kind. She was already hungry again and she could feel genuine weariness descending on her. No healing potion in the world could make up for a lack of sleep. Even though she had spent several hours unconscious, being knocked out was not the same as sleeping. There was none of the rest involved and waking up on a hard floor was enough to sap any energy she may have recuperated. Sanyue pocketed the small gems and gold and drank the respite potion she had gotten earlier. She felt less tired, but she was still hoping to find a soft bed some time soon. Slipping the repair hammer into her belt loop she got to her feet again. She took a deep breath and slowly made her way into a smaller chamber. Thankfully, there were no goblins in here, but there was a chest full of arrows and several lock picks. She pocketed them all and, wondering what new challenges faced her, slowly opened the wooden door.