“Found it.”
Dardeh swiveled around to look at Viggun, the big Nord who’d been assigned to them for this next cleanup task. They’d been unable to get through what felt like a magical barrier into the ruin below Bleak Falls Barrow on the Lake Ilinalta side, forcing them to take the long way around, through Brittleshin Pass. The weather had gotten progressively worse, and was now foggy with spitting snow and bitter winds. Roggi had been getting progressively crankier all the way here and Dardeh wished that he could Shout a hole into the barrow to end their frustration. Not Viggun. He’d said that he’d had nightmares about draugr since his childhood–and that it sounded like lots of fun to go get rid of some. He was of that rare breed of Nord possessed of a sunny disposition and good sense of humor, and Dardeh had to admit that it was infectious.
Now he was pointing at a cleverly-placed trap door nearly obscured from most angles of view. Behind Viggun, Dardeh caught a glimpse of light. There was a small table tucked up against the rocks, a lantern and a small journal resting on it.
“Don’t know how I missed this,” he said, picking up the journal and flipping through its pages.
“Well finally,” Roggi grumbled, coming up behind them. “I was expecting a cave entrance. Something normal. Never would have thought to look down.”
“Me either,” Viggun chuckled. “I was heading for that light and tripped on the edge of it. What’s the journal say, Dardeh?”
“It sounds like the explorers Korst was laughing at really did have a bad time of it. They came around here because of that weird barrier on the other side of the mountain. There were trolls down there when the first guy lowered himself into the cave, and he met a bad end…” He trailed off as he read ahead and found a chill running up his spine.
“And?” Roggi pressed.
“I don’t know what they found. Whoever wrote this says: ‘All I can tell you is that death awaits anyone who goes in there.’” He read further and ended up shaking his head. “Ever heard of something called Staadomaar Temple?”
“Not me,” Viggun said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dardeh said. “But apparently these researchers were following up on an old legend that says Bleak Falls Barrow is just a part of this larger temple, and that it was closed off because it has something evil sealed up inside.”
“Great!” Viggun chuckled. “It would be sad if we went through all of this just to fight some ordinary trolls.”
Roggi stared at him for a moment and then burst into laughter. Dardeh swapped a quick glance with Viggun and grinned. Thank the gods, something broke through. I love you, Roggi, but sometimes your mood gets too heavy. I wish I knew what was eating at you.
“Well, let’s go see what it is,” he said, flipping the trap open and stepping down onto the ladder. “If it’s trolls, I know how to deal with those.”
What he found at the base of the ladder was not a troll, but a skeever that rushed at him from a dimly-lit tunnel to one side. He took it out with a quick swipe of his sword and laughed.
“A fearsome skeever,” he called back up to the others. “All clear.”
He moved forward into the short, winding tunnel as the others followed down the ladder. It ended at the mouth of a much larger cave, from which came the unmistakable grunts of a troll. Dardeh stepped into the space and gasped. It wasn’t simply a troll’s den. There were bone chimes hanging from the roof, and carefully-placed painted rocks; and before him, at the base of a stone pillar, was the body of a giant.
It must have been some troll! Or… more than one?
Just such a troll rumbled out from behind the pillar toward him. He buried one arrow in it; it snorted and hopped around in frustration. Roggi and Viggun rushed noisily into the area, catching the troll’s attention long enough for Dardeh to send a second arrow into it, this time directly into its brain. It dropped.
Dardeh didn’t get a chance to breathe. A second, much larger troll barreled out and made a beeline for Roggi. He scrambled to fit another arrow to his bow but Roggi took a massive swing at the beast.
“Just DIE!” Roggi screamed; and while Dardeh’s arrow did in fact strike the troll it was Roggi’s greatsword slashing diagonally through the creature’s midsection that sent its corpse flying backward, to fall beside that of the giant near Dardeh’s feet. He glanced at it, and then back to Roggi, who was loosening his shoulders and shaking his head.
“I guess I needed that,” Roggi mumbled. “I don’t know. I’ve been on edge for awhile now.”
Viggun clapped him on the back. “That was a good kill. To think these trolls took out a giant! No wonder the archaeologists had a bad time of it.”
Around the cave they found a small altar with a deer skull mounted above it, clearly the work of the giant. A fairly fresh deer carcass in a depression might have been the work of either party. Finally Dardeh stubbed his toe on a bone and looked down to see a very human skeleton, face down in a dark corner.
“Must be Baro, the guy mentioned in the journal,” he said, pointing at it. “And that means we’re not far from…” He looked around and pointed up. At the top of a dirt bank were the remnants of a collapsed archway, carved in the distinctive scrollwork of ancient Nord ruins.
“Yup, here it is. Here’s the entrance to Staadomaar. The journal says they broke through into it.”
“Let’s get going, then,” Roggi said.
They clambered up the bank and through the opening to be greeted with another skeever, the corpse of a third troll, and iron doors set into the end of a corridor. Dardeh pushed them open, bow in hand, expecting danger; but all he found was another corridor with a pressure plate at its far end, just beneath a set of stairs leading upward.
“Watch your feet,” he said quietly. “This is where we start going back up into the mountain, I guess.”
He’d only gone a few steps up when a familiar grunt and movement above him caught his attention; he readied his bow. Then he groaned to himself as the draugr stepped out in front of him and he saw the distinctive horned helmet.
Damn. Deathlords. Just what I need.
He managed to loose one arrow. Roggi rushed up beside him, yelling “Look out!” just as the draugr Shouted, staggering both of them. Viggun was trying to find a way around or over; but there wasn’t enough room for him to pass on the narrow staircase. Dardeh fired again and, to his shock, knocked the Deathlord off its feet. Roggi then stepped forward and hammered at it; and before Dardeh could do anything to help the draugr was done.
“Great. Well, I guess that tells us what we’ll be facing. You up for a Deathlord or two, Viggun?”
“Of course. I hope I get a chance to take a swing at one. We need a bigger space, though.”
“Something tells me we’ll find one,” Roggi said. “These old ruins always lead to something big.”
The stairs turned left at the landing where the draugr had been, and up another short flight to an iron door with a conspicuous trigger trap at its base. Dardeh peered at it, then turned and grinned at Roggi.
“So show me how it’s done. You know I’m bad at lock picking and I don’t trust whatever that thing is hooked up to.”
Roggi smiled, and Dardeh thought he saw an eager sparkle in his eyes. “Stand aside, then.” He knelt, and in no more than a couple of breaths the trigger released. “There now, we can go…”
Roggi had started to stand up, but as the door swung open flames exploded into the space he would have occupied. “Get back!” he yelped, pushing Dardeh back down a stair or two where he bumped into Viggun.
“Not fair!” Viggun chortled. “I thought those triggers were supposed to turn off the trap if you picked them open.”
“Yeah, so did I,” Roggi grumbled. “Thing must have malfunctioned. I did pick that lock.”
Dardeh nodded. “You did. Quickly, too. I’d have gone through half my picks just trying to figure out what kind of lock it was. Not your fault the thing’s so old it doesn’t work properly anymore.”
“Oh it works properly, alright,” Roggi snorted. “A trap meant to make sure nobody got any farther even if they could pick a lock.” He frowned at Dardeh. “Get a chance to show you what I can do and look what happened.”
Dardeh smiled. “And I was impressed. Try to relax, Roggi. I know you’re worried about things but we’re fine and there are three of us here.”
Roggi heaved a heavy sigh. “Sorry, Dar. I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”
“I know.” Dardeh looked up the stairs and scanned what he could see of the large area beyond the door. I don’t really know whether it’s me he’s worried about, or what happened to Sayma, or… Dardeh frowned and headed into the next area. It’s always in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s Ulfric he’s thinking about.
“Well here’s the bigger space you wanted, Viggun,” he said as they entered. It was the landing of a wide staircase leading down into a partially collapsed, two-story high chamber. Green banners on the walls were faded but in surprisingly good repair. Roggi turned his attention to a locked door to their right, which opened with a loud squeak to reveal only shelves holding a few potions.
Either the door or their movements alerted the denizens of this barrow. One draugr rose from a coffin on a raised platform below them. A draugr with magic readied in its palm appeared in an upper-level doorway with no obvious access, across the way. Dardeh sighed, raised his bow, and took a shot at the undead mage, and both Roggi and Viggun ran down the stairs ahead of him to attack the single draugr below.
Dardeh stepped left and saw then that there was in fact another doorway at the bottom of the chamber. Roggi and Viggun chased the draugr into it; and then whispers of frost from beyond his sightlines told Dardeh that the mage had come down to meet them. He was halfway down the stairs when a sarcophagus to his left burst open and another draugr stepped out. Dardeh sneered.
He didn’t waste time pulling his weapons. He merely Shouted a ball of flame at the draugr and watched it drop to the floor. And then his mouth fell open in amazement.
As the fireball dissipated, a long, sinuous form emerged. With a segmented body and a head like that of a miniature dragon, a fiery creature floated through the air and toward the doorway where the sounds told of Roggi and Viggun’s fierce battle beyond. He bolted across the room to chase after the creature.
What is it? Did I do that?
Am I really seeing this?
Viggun was farthest into the hallway, pounding on an ice atronach. Roggi was just behind him, trying to find an opening. The flame wraith rose to the ceiling of the corridor, slid past all of them, and then turned and attacked the atronach. It collapsed in on itself; and then Dardeh could see that the wraith had also taken down the draugr that had conjured it.
“Don’t attack it!” he yelled.
“What in Oblivion is that, Dar?” Roggi said, backing away from it to stand beside Dardeh while Viggun scrambled up the stairs past it.
“I don’t know, Roggi, but… you see it too, right?”
“Of course I see it. It’s hard to ignore something made of fire that’s wriggling in front of your face. Did you make that, Dar?”
“I… I must have. But I don’t know how. I Shouted at a draugr out there, and when the fire died off this thing was left behind. I thought I was losing my mind, Roggi. But if you see it…”
“I see it, too,” Viggun called from up the stairs. “That must have been some Shout.”
“I guess.” I have no idea what happened! “Ok. Well that’s a relief. Let’s continue. I don’t know how long that thing will last.” Dardeh picked his way over the dead draugr and up the steps, then to the left into a long room lined with offerings for the dead. He could feel air currents from the large space just beyond, and crossed onto a stone walkway bridging the gap to a stone support pillar. Far below, the flame wraith still patrolled near the open door they’d come through.
A draugr began laughing somewhere above him. Before he could react, Viggun bolted past him and across the walk, then up a wooden ramp.
Dardeh darted for the ramp, with Roggi close behind. Viggun was pounding at an ancient redhead standing precariously near the edge of a platform. Dardeh reached for his own swords but Viggun had the situation well in hand, taking the draugr’s legs off at the knees and sending it tumbling to its death far below.
A short walkway extended to a double set of locked doors. Dardeh turned to look at Roggi, grinned, and then began working on it himself, tsking when he broke the first pick. He was very aware of Roggi’s heat when he moved up beside him to watch; and he broke a second pick out of sheer distraction.
“It’s an easy lock, Dragonborn,” Roggi murmured. “You can do it.”
“Thanks, wiseass,” Dardeh grumbled as the lock finally clicked open.
As soon as they pushed the doors open, the skeletons piled up near them said that the lock had been designed to keep things in, not out. A moment later they all heard a Shout that had them all stumbling backward.
Dardeh pulled out two of his swords: the double-edged blade he’d been using since before Skuldafn and his newest weapon, an ebony scimitar he’d fashioned for himself while they were at home resting. His enchanted sword, while highly effective against dragons, was not as good in heavy-duty melee combat as he liked. He’d thought long and hard about a sword to craft, and while he would never use his father’s blades again he was as familiar with the curved shape and how to use it effectively as he was with how to breathe. He threw himself up the stairs and into the Deathlord, smiling to himself as he saw the damage the new blade dealt; then he Shouted fire at the creature to give himself an additional edge. The draugr staggered, but before it could ready another Shout Dardeh made three quick double strikes in a row and finished it.
The room behind the draugr had clearly been an alchemy lab at some point in the distant past. Roggi made an interested noise and moved past Dardeh to pick several of the still-vital plants: a juniper, some deathbell petals. Dardeh looked around the space and found no other exits. Frowning, he retraced their steps, turning onto the balcony he’d ignored earlier while trying to help Viggun and then down a set of wooden stairs. Their path led through a door to a room with an embalming table. The three men took a few cautious steps down the slope beyond the table, past a number of sarcophagi.
I give it five seconds before they…
Behind him, the first of several coffin lids burst open and a draugr Deathlord stepped out to glare at them. It rasped a rusty FUS, but Dardeh dodged the worst of the shock wave and bolted back up the slope toward it, swords flying. He heard more sounds of battle as one draugr threatened them: “Dir volaan!”
Die, intruder? Dream on my desiccated friend.
Between sword strikes Dardeh heard Roggi reply to the draugr with “behold my power!” Then came the unmistakable sounds of the dragonbone greatsword slicing through an enemy. Viggun grunted with exertion as he met yet another draugr’s weapons with his own. By the time Dardeh dropped his opponent and turned to help, there were only corpses littering the floor.
The corridor continued to descend, emptying into a curious oval chamber lined with upright sarcophagi. There was a pool of water dominating the space, shallow along the edges and of a depth he could not determine in its center.
“Got a feeling there’s trouble ahead,” Roggi murmured.
“Yeah, me too,” Viggun agreed. “My guess is that every one of these things is going to come greet us.”
“Well,” Dardeh said, grinning at them, “we’re ready for them if that last room was any indication. Let’s go.”
It was quiet until he was approximately halfway around the perimeter of the space. Suddenly the gates at either end of the room dropped shut. Then, as they had all expected, a coffin lid fell to the floor and an ancient woman stepped out, eyes blazing blue. It took Dardeh only a moment to put her down.
Then it got interesting.
One after another, in a crescendo of thuds that increased in speed with every breath, the sarcophagi yielded up their contents. Dardeh found himself fighting a mage and saw Viggun battling a sword-and-board warrior; Roggi sloshed through the shallow waters to take on at least two more draugr at a time. The battle turned from a manageable one-on-one to a chaotic war zone in a matter of moments. Dardeh did the only thing he could think of.
“MID- VUR SHAAN!”
His Shout knocked things off tables and dead draugr into the pool, its volume made even more overpowering through bouncing back and forth between the walls of the enclosed space. He saw Roggi grin with the increased energy that his battle Shout imparted; and while Viggun looked shocked for a moment he too broke into a wide grin and attacked the draugr with greater speed and purpose. The cacophony increased as some draugr hurled imprecations at them and Roggi returned the insults. Other draugr Shouted, and still others noisily conjured atronachs to assist them. Weapons and shields clashed and then clattered to the stones as draugr fell. Dardeh howled his own personal rage, barely audible in the overwhelming noise, and began flying from one enemy to the next, slashing and blocking until he barely knew where one draugr began and the next ended. Finally Dardeh faced a Deathlord which Shouted at him – “FUS!” – only to be met by one of Dardeh’s overpowering fireballs. The Shout did not kill the draugr instantly but did stagger it enough for Dardeh to finish it with a couple of quick swipes of his blades.
One of the gates rose, and Dardeh thought that perhaps they were done. He was wrong. At least three more draugr woke from their long sleep to attack them, and the three men pushed their tired bodies back down the length of the room to take them out. At one point Dardeh saw Roggi take a knee and panicked, flying to shred the draugr that had been attacking him; but Roggi shook his head, smiled, and pushed himself upright as the draugr dropped.
“I tripped. I was ok.”
Dardeh peered at him, seeing the fatigue on Roggi’s face as clearly as he felt his own. Perhaps; but we’re all tired and I will take no chances with your life. He smiled.
“Yeah, well. I think we rest for a few minutes before we continue.”
“Good idea,” Viggun said, coming to join them. “I could use a breather myself.”
They waited only long enough to grab a quick snack and a few sips of water before starting off again. The corridor ahead of them was partially flooded, but led to an upward stairway. Dardeh took several of the steps and then ducked as a pressure plate released flames toward his face.
“Mind the trap,” he called back over his shoulder.
There was a draugr waiting for them at the top of the stairs, along with another fire trap; but those were easily dealt with. Around another corner, the corridor ended in a long spiral staircase; Dardeh led the way up it cautiously. An open grate at the top took them into a dining hall with two long tables and a closed gate to one side.
“What do you think?” he asked, pointing to the gate as Roggi and Viggun entered the room.
“Oh that’s where we need to go, definitely,” Roggi said. “Now to find the lever to open it.”
Viggun found an alcove that looked likely but turned out to be the cooking area, in which a draugr waited. He swatted it down quickly and ran it through, then stepped farther back into the darkness.
“Found it. It was up on the wall behind the draugr.”
“Great!” Dardeh watched as the gate rose, and then entered a short passage leading to a downward stair. They passed a side room with a fire trap that refused to be disarmed, and continued around a corner to yet another downward corridor.
“You know,” he said halfway down, “I’ll never understand the thinking behind these places. Why make a person walk up three flights’ worth of spiral staircase just to get to a hallway that leads down again?”
“To keep the draugr in and treasure hunters out,” Roggi mumbled. “That’s what I was always taught. All the people who will come in just for the gold and not even leave any for the dead out of respect.”
“And here we are, all the way back down to the flooded level,” Viggun chuckled.
Dardeh marveled at the man’s good temperament. There was nothing about wet feet that could coerce me into chuckling, he thought as he stepped into the water and felt it seep through the joints of his boots.
The chamber they were in had a waterfall flowing into it, and a stone chair to his left with a draugr seated therein. He took a massive swing at the draugr, only to find that it was truly dead and all he had accomplished was to get his sword stuck in the ancient man’s torso. As he struggled to pull it free, he heard Roggi shout “you’re mine!” and whirled to see both Viggun and Roggi running up yet another spiral staircase hugging a central stone support pillar. He turned back to the draugr and planted one foot on it, hauling on his sword with all his strength; and when it came free he came within a breath of sitting in the icy water. He followed the others up the spiral stair and arrived just as Viggun’s solid blow sent the draugr back to its eternal slumber.
Roggi and Viggun had started swapping notes about the creature when movement off to his right caught Dardeh’s eye. Another draugr was shuffling its way across a stone walkway. It took Dardeh only a single backhanded blow to knock it off the walk to the floor below them, where it crumpled into a silent mass.
Just beyond where the draugr had appeared was a final ramp, ending just below the ceiling at another closed gate. Dardeh approached the gate and groaned.
“What’s wrong?” Roggi asked, coming up beside him. Then he snorted. “Oh. Great.”
Before them was a pedestal with a familiar locking mechanism embedded in it. In order to continue on their way through the ruins they were going to need a dragon claw key.
“Have you seen anything like that on our way through?” Dardeh asked.
“No, sure haven’t,” Viggun said. “In fact I don’t think we’ve missed anything so far. I’ve looked at all the dead draugr… where do you suppose the thing is?”
“Back down, I guess,” Roggi grumped. “There sure isn’t anything else up here.”
There was a promising ledge halfway down, at the walkway where Dardeh had killed the draugr; but the large kettle at its far end held nothing more exciting than an old helmet. He sighed and continued back down to the now-shredded seated draugr. “I could have sworn we looked everywhere down here,” he started to say; but a half-turn to his right had him wanting to smack himself in the forehead. “Except for over here.”
Off to the side, where they had missed it in their haste to engage the draugr farther up, was a closed gate leading to a narrow walkway with a second closed gate where it ended at another stone support pillar. Dardeh crossed and opened the gate, stepping out onto the platform beyond.
It was another huge space they had entered, several stories in height with water flowing in, trees clinging to life atop the few dry spots beneath and at least one corridor exiting the area that Dardeh could see. He heard Roggi say “by Ysmir! That’s impressive!” just as the familiar growl of a draugr sounded just below them.
There were two draugr, one of them a mage who conjured a frost atronach. The next few minutes were a blur to Dardeh as all three of them flailed wildly at the three opponents. He wasn’t entirely sure who had done what but it didn’t take long before all were down and they were once more searching for a claw-shaped key.
“Look at this workmanship!” Roggi breathed, running his hand down one of the columns.
“Yeah, if the water hadn’t gotten in the whole thing would still be standing. Let’s hope this hasn’t rusted shut,” Dardeh said, standing before another lowered iron gate. He pulled the chain to its left and sighed in relief as the mechanism worked as designed to raise the gate. This passage wound up over a short staircase, turned at right angles and then descended around several more corners, ending at a set of iron doors opening into a large cavern.
“This has to be it, doesn’t it?” Viggun asked.
“Gods, I hope so,” Roggi said. “But I see at least three doors here. Which way?”
“Well have to check them all,” Dardeh said, opening the door closest to his right. It led downward and left to a circular opening filled with deadly spikes, a skeleton, and a relatively fresh body. He returned to the main chamber and started for the far side only to have Roggi tell him “watch out for the grate.” Set in the floor, the grate was not firmly closed and, when he touched it with his foot, opened downward, dropping a basket down onto the very same spikes he’d just seen from below.
The second opening was a metal gate hanging at an angle, broken by a collapsed wall on its far side. There was a chain pulley beside it, which did what it was meant for based on the sounds; but Dardeh couldn’t see what it might have operated. He circled around the open pit to the doors on the chamber’s far side. A long, oval barrow passage beyond had a considerable amount of spilled oil on its floor and a draugr standing upright in a niche at its far end. Dardeh looked at Roggi, who pointed toward the passage’s far end and then at Dardeh’s bow.
You’re always the best when it comes to this kind of thing, Roggi.
Dardeh smiled at him, nodded, and took careful aim at the draugr. He released the arrow, half expecting an explosion of fire or a horde of draugr. Instead, it simply thunked into the ancient corpse and stayed there. They moved carefully toward it; and it was then that Dardeh realized what the chain had controlled. Around the corner to the left of the draugr was another corridor filled with swinging blades. He sighed.
“Figures.”
The draugr in the niche beyond those blades was waiting for them, descending and drawing its weapon as soon as Dardeh’s arrow struck it. Before he could take stock of his options Roggi and Viggun dashed down the hallway, dodging the blades and disappearing around the corner to the left.
“FUS- ROH DAH!” Dardeh heard the draugr’s shout and before he could make a move to follow the others, watched in horror as its shock wave dislodged a firepot burning above the spilled oil. He heard Roggi cry out.
“FEIM!”
Dardeh only knew the first word of Become Ethereal but he used it then and rushed through the deadly blades, panicking when he rounded the corner and saw Roggi once more down on one knee, flames from the oil licking up around his armor. Just past him, Viggun was battling a draugr and seemed to be holding his own. A frost atronach and a female draugr stood over Roggi, and each raised its arm to pound down on him.
Dardeh began slashing.
It wasn’t until after the battle was over that he stopped to count how many draugr they’d fought. He could see at least four down, and Viggun assured him that they had also left several more to burn as they fought. All he knew was that Roggi was in danger, and he had to stop it somehow. He grabbed Roggi by the shoulders and shook him.
“Are you ok?”
Roggi laughed. “I will be if you stop shaking me, Dar. You didn’t hear me taunting that last draugr I guess.”
Dardeh blew out a deep breath. “No. I didn’t. I had another one of those… moments. I saw you were down and…”
“You’re a regular berserker, aren’t you, Dragonborn?” Viggun said, grinning.
Dardeh felt a shock run through his body. A berserker? Is that it? Is that what happens to me?
“Dar. Call me Dar, Viggun. Dragonborn’s just…”
Roggi snorted. “You are not going to tell him it’s just a title. Not after the grief you gave Ulfric about it.”
Dardeh felt himself flush. He ran his hand up over his hair and laughed. “Ok, ok. But call me Dar anyway, ok?”
“Ok, Dar,” Viggun grinned. “Let’s go kill some more draugr.”
The path forward wound through a small warren of rooms and ended at a chamber lined with banners of Arkay. There were openings to either side, but the one to Dardeh’s right caught his attention with a bluish mist lending a strange hue to the area.
This has to be it.
Dardeh paused at the entrance to the glowing chamber. Two orbs of magic energy floated above either end of a raised platform before an arched niche. A pedestal in the niche held what, as he moved closer, was clearly the dragon claw key they’d come for.
And I don’t trust it a bit.
“I’ve got a feeling there’s trouble ahead,” Roggi murmured. Dardeh nodded at him and edged forward.
As soon as he took the claw from its resting place, every draugr in the area rose from its rest to attack. Two normal draugr went down easily. He whirled when an arrow bounced off his armor; a deathlord archer stood directly behind him, drawing to take another shot. He rolled forward and sliced at the beast’s knees, knocking it down and then laying into it with a flurry of slashes. Behind him, he heard Roggi threatening another snorting draugr; then a distinctive squish told him that one of them had taken it down.
When he turned to them, he saw one more Deathlord creeping down the hallway behind them. He rushed through the space between Roggi and Viggun, colliding with the draugr at full tilt and knocking it over. Once more he was able to take it down in just a few rounds of furious slashes.
“Huh,” Roggi said, sheathing his sword. “You’re getting better at this fighting thing, Dragonborn.”
Viggun snickered.
Dardeh grinned. “I watch the best.” He straightened up and stretched out his back. “Let’s head out. I want to see what this claw opens up for us.”
“More draugr, I hope,” Viggun said. “I’ve hardly drawn my sword with the two of you around.”
“Yeah,” Roggi said, smiling into Dardeh’s eyes. “We make a pretty good team.”