บท 543: Battle for Winterhold (2) : Wulfur Strikes Back
Yesterday was an exhausting day for Alina. Not only did she have to fight twice but she even drained a large chunk of her own vitality as a price for Divining the truth behind what is happening in Winterhold.
Alina's divination filled many gaps and answered many questions so she shared those answers with only Jullanar and Wulfur, the only two who can be trusted at the moment.
Even Jon must not know… especially Jon must never know.
As Alina soundly slept in her bed while Aela was watching over her, Jullanar closed the door of the room and dismissed the rest of the people. Alina needed some quiet or that was the excuse.
The only one who stayed with Jullanar was Wulfur. She already shared with him what Alina told her and his face was dark with worry.
"Such a thing… it can't be true… no, we must not allow it to be true." Wulfur said as he squeezed a tankard with his bare hand from the frustration.
"It won't be true." Jullanar confirmed him.
He looked at her and his eyes showed anger that was never seen on him before. He is never angry but the thought of what Alina passed to him was eating him from the inside.
"Let's face it. We all know Jon and how he thinks. You of all people have been with him since childhood…"
"What do you know? The Jon I know never crosses his lines. You were nothing but a mere killer when he found you so don't ever think…" Wulfur lashed at Jullanar with an annoyed face but stopped the moment he knew that he crossed the line.
Her face twisted in anger but somehow, she managed to remain calm and held herself.
"You are right… I was nothing but now I am something. And if you are so knowledgeable about Jon's lines, you tell me what they are! You are his brother alright but it is I who serve his darkness and that's a depth you will never know, Wulfur." She said with a solemn look in her eyes, "Now tell me, what are his lines?" Jullanar retorted to him.
Wulfur wanted to answer her but his anger didn't get his thoughts straight and he chose to remain silent.
"We are those lines. I know what Alina said got to you more than anyone. But the true… the real enemy has realized our weakness. So, for the time being, we have Fate to serve… and people to murder."
It was hard for Wulfur to accept the words of a lunatic like Jullanar this easily but he knew she was right. As he gradually calmed down, he nodded and apologized for what he said.
"I am sorry."
"Don't be a softie. I wasn't even offended."
She looked away from him as she was clearly offended so he changed the subject.
"It is almost dawn, we have to move towards Kastav."
"Naturally!"
"The Boss is away and the Lady is unable to lead. Should we call the Jarl?" He asked.
"Bah! You are the only one with a title like them. They call you the Chief for crying out loud."
"Yeah… that makes me the Third in Command… right?" He asked.
She dubiously looked at him.
"Took you 5 years to figure that one out?" She asked.
"… I guess."
Wulfur didn't want to go headbutting with Jullanar again and so he sat simply just waiting.
"… What will you be doing when the group moves?" He asked.
"I am staying." She said, "You are the offense, I will stay here and watch over the city. Uncle Jonrad will accompany you so you have more than what you need to drive those fuckers out of Kastav."
"It wouldn't be a problem." He nodded, "And…"
"What?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to ask if Jon has also given you some notes telling you to do stuff." He said.
"Both of us as well as Alina. Alina operates here, I operate in Riften with the Thieves and you in Whiterun with the Companions."
"But he said there is a fourth Fate. We are clearly three."
"Well don't ask me. As far as I am concerned, Jon didn't have that one fully planned out just yet." She shrugged her shoulders.
Wulfur nodded with a hum as he rested his hand on his hammer's shaft.
"And what hunt did he send you on?" He asked.
"Me? Clearly not as much as you." She said as she gazed at the Hammer he has, "I got a new bow."
Jullanar walked inside the armory and returned with a terrifying-looking bow that made Wulfur have a strange look with his face.
"That's… Daedric, right?"
"Ruin's Edge, it is called." She nodded.
"It's a bow, not a blade. Why call it an edge?"
"Cause it's… edgy!" Jull made a wild guess then pointed at the side of the bow, "Look, there's even an eye. A living eye on the bow that makes its arrow chase the target no matter where it runs."
"Eww… edgy indeed." Wulfur felt bad for whoever used to own that actual living moving eye on the bow, "Who made this monstrosity?"
"It was made in the Shivering Isles by the Mazken, Dark Seducers. Jon told me it was with a crazy bandit leader in Eastmarch. I traveled there, killed the bandits, faced their leader in a legendary battle where I was actually racing arrows and killed the guy in a cheese-eating contest."
"I won't try to figure out how it escalated that way." Wulfur said.
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[Runes Edge] <Daedric Ebony Bow>
- Random Effect
- Homing Arrows
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"What about you?" She asked.
"Me? Jon sent me to Riften to meet up with some Orc Clan that was being attacked by Giants." He said.
"Interesting."
"Turns out the leader of the Orcs was a craven and Malacath cursed him so I acted as a champion for the clan and redeemed them to Malacath after killing the Giants Leader and the Orc Leader as well. Malacath rewarded me with this hammer… the hammer that an entire nation was named after." He pointed to the Warhammer he is leaning on.
"Hammerfell? So this is it… Volendrung?"
"Yes, Volendrung. The Great Hammer of the Dwemer Clan Rourken which was claimed by Malacath after the disappearance of all Dwemer."
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[Volendrung] <Daedric Dwemer Warhammer>
- Absorb Stamina
- Paralysis
- Disintegrate
———————————
"It looks… evil." Jullanar commented.
Wulfur silently pointed back at her bow.
"Well, that wasn't the end and actually, the second part of the journey was… illuminating."
"Do tell."
"I met an Argonian Woman going mad over a Dwemer Lexicon that she possessed or rather… it possessed her. Either way, she wanted to get rid of it and hired me to do so. Thankfully, Jon advised me to contact our excavation team beforehand and make them ready for a Large Dwemer Ruin exploration. This ended with us in the Ruins of the Dwemer City of Avanchnzel… this place was out of the world. It took us a full week to follow it up and the Lexicon showed me ghosts of the ones that stole it from its place until I reached the deepest vault. There, I placed the Lexicon on its pedestal and managed to delve into its memories."
"And?"
Wulfur remained silent for a while before grinning.
"I inherited Dwemer Knowledge… lots of it."
Jullanar raised her brows.
"You're too tall to be a dwarf."
"You're right but I still got it."
"So… where did the Dwarves go? You at least know that, right?"
"Eh… not that kind of knowledge." Wulfur said apologetically.
"Tsk! I thought it was something fun."
"What are you talking about, I gained knowledge of Dwemer Contraptions, Steam Technology, Machinery and Dwemer Metal Processing! Even that Scholar from Markarth that would jack everyone off for their Dwemer Artifacts would kill for what I have." He retorted.
"I said it is not fun. You boys get too excited for weird stuff."
"Sigh… whatever!"
"I at least rose up a couple of ranks at the Thieves Guild." She said and looked at Wulfur.
"Yeah… I almost punched a Companion for calling me Whelp." He said with shame.
She grinned at his situation. Wulfur is famous around the warriors of Skyrim but he still had to start from the bottom with the Companions. She, on the other hand, had a good relationship with the Guild and managed to raise her rank. She uses the false name "Sparrow" in the guild but the only ones who know her real identity are Delvin Malory and Brynjolf. Jon didn't want her to catch the attention of the Guild Master, Mercer Frey.
Wulfur and Jullanar chatted for a bit until someone knocked on the door and walked it.
"Trudvar, are we ready?"
"Yes, Chief. 500 Dare Troopers on their horses are waiting outside Winterhold. We will be joined by 500 Guardsmen at Whispering Town and a Force of 1000 Stormcloak Soldiers coming from Eastmarch. The Clans will also send their men."
"Good. Let's move out." Wulfur nodded and followed Trudvar before he stopped and turned to Jullanar, "I am sorry about what I said once again…"
"Don't worry about it. I will tell Jon definitely."
"… Great! I trust he will say bros before hoes."
"Fine, I'll tell your wife."
***
From Winterhold to Fort Kastav, that was a long journey as Wulfur and the Dare Troopers were racing on their horses to get past Whispering Town before first light.
The raiders or the mercenaries or whatever would surely expect retaliation but what they are not expecting is Alina being on to their plans. Now that Wulfur knows the objective of those evildoers, he was going to play a powerful reverse card on them and wreak havoc in their ranks.
They met with Jonrad Firemane in Whispering Town and were joined by a band of Firemanes and Moonblades on Flame Horse Atronachs. Wulfur was riding a large Bear Atronach which gave him the airs of a War Chief.
Soon, they were but a mile away from the Fort when Wulfur noticed a few wolves circling a man lying in the snow. They seemed to have not preyed on him yet so Wulfur signaled the Army to continue without him and chased the Wolves away. He didn't suspect to feel some life force from the lying man but to think that he was actually alive.
"Over here, send a healer!"
Wulfur called and the healer arrived to rescue the man. He happened to be a Stormcloak Officer and the last of his attachment. He said the two words "cave" and "vampires" and much else then he passed out afterwards.
But to think that the whole garrison was annihilated. The one who was assigned to Fort Kastav was Thane Ironbeard from Eastmarch, a well-known warrior who was a veteran from the Great War.
Wulfur returned to the lead and went with the army until they could see the pillars of smoke up above Kastav. There, Wulfur decided to strategize and take all the available routes to the fort.
Jonrad Firemane took the direction of the mountain to find the caves along with a band of experienced fighters and Wulfur took the other three routes; over the mountain back, through the wooden Palisade Wall and far across the fort wall from the other side to prevent the enemies from escaping.
It was a good plan but way too good to be done in less than a few minutes.
Why?
Less than a hundred enemies were present in the Fort and they resisted and fought to their demise but the evildoers summoned many undead from the Fallen Stormcloaks. There were no vampires or anyone else in the caves either.
On the other hand, Wulfur and some Battlemages didn't participate in the assault. They spread widely all across the Fort looking for barrels and crates that didn't look too suspicious. Once they found a mound of them in the upper yard of the Fort, Wulfur used a Grand Freeze Scroll on these containers and carefully started dismantling them.
"Fire Salts Mixtures… highly unstable and would explode right away if they were moved violently." A Mage from the Trooper analyzed the components of the crates.
"Keep them frozen. Transport what you can away from the populace and bury them in the snow. This amount of Fire Salts will certainly be useful." Wulfur said.
Fire Salts are some rare Alchemy ingredients that can only be harvested by hunting Fire Daedra. That amount of Fire Salts is by no means anything to laugh at. It also can be mixed with other Alchemy Ingredients to create a highly unstable mixture that can be used in making explosives but the recipe itself is abnormally advanced and with a low success rate.
From what Wulfur can tell, this amount of Fire Salt explosives were meant to target the whole force of Winterhold. If not for Alina's warning, avoiding such a thing would have required an abnormal amount of luck.
But the question remains, where are the rest of the attackers? They surely should have stayed close to watch the explosion annihilate the men of Winterhold first-hand. With that in mind, the search started and Jonrad Firemane found traces on a nearby mountain.
As he told Wulfur, a scout came from the nearby road which led west shouting that the bandits were attacking Nightgate Village.
"It's a trap." Hafthor Firemane said.
"Why are you saying it like it is a joyous occasion?" Wulfur asked.
"It's a Jon impression. He always says it with a delighted face."
"Believe me, you don't want to know what comes to Jon's mind when he says it." Wulfur assured him.
*Mirren sneezes badly back in Winterhold*
"It is still a trap though." Vladimir Firemane cut their laughs.
"I know. We still ought to Welcome it head-on." Wulfur said.
They have to act or the village will suffer the same fate as the fort. With that, a band of 300 Dare Chargers sped through the snowy road led by Wulfur towards Nightgate. The rest of the army followed and Vladimir Firemane summoned a Flame Hawk Atronach and scouted the sky from up ahead.
The situation near Nightgate was still escalating. Almost 400 raiders were starting to burn, pillage and loot the village but they met the superior force of the Dare Chargers. Wulfur who led the attack against the raiders was driving through them on his Bear Atronach as [Volendrung] in his hand was claiming lives and damning them to Malacath. The people of the village escaped behind the coming rescuers and a skirmish occurred in the middle of the village. There where Wulfur met the first sighting of the Vampires among the raiders.
Wulfur didn't even face a problem against Vampires, he is a user of the Holy Aura and he is insanely armored. It was safe to say that his Hammer battered through mortals and vampires alike turning the men into mush and the monsters into dust.
Still, there was another problem.
"They were preparing something for us." Wulfur said as he stood in the middle of the village's square.
Around him, many soldiers were fuming with anger as they rounded up all the remaining Raider captives and put whoever survived their leaders in chains. Before they arrived, the raiders seemed to have killed the Dare Troopers and the Guards that were stationed in the village and crucified them for display in order to break the morale of the soldiers who supposedly survived the blast in fort Kastav.
A rapid situation of interrogation and executions happened afterward. Those who don't give out information were beheaded on the spot and from the surviving raiders, a handful few barely said anything under torture. It was strange as most of them wouldn't even speak or say anything not out of loyalty as there is no honor among thieves. They were rather driven by fear.
Now what could make men like those raiders follow Vampires to raids? There were Vampire Thralls alright but these men were silent as if death is something they would simply welcome from the fear of what comes. When a Dare Trooper roared at the one he was holding if he was not afraid not to go to Sovngarde when he gets slaughtered like sheep, the captive merely laughed and said that what awaits in Sovngarde is nothing but pain and fear for the faithless. There when Wulfur's understood what kind of people they were up against.
Nords hardly lose faith in Sovngarde no matter what but the truth that Sovngarde is haunted at the moment is only known to a very closed circle of people around Jon. The only outsiders that may know of this are the Dragons and supposedly, their followers.
But saying that those Raiders are Dragon Cult is too shortsighted. There are forces more at play rather than a Dragon Cult here and they were driven by a Mastermind. Someone who carefully picked every enemy that was ever wronged by Jon or Winterhold.
Bandits, Pirates, Daedra, Vampires, Worm Cultists, Dragon Cultists, Old Enemies, Clan Remnants, Criminals, Spies… they all banded together rather harmonically under the Banner of Dread and Fear.
"That's enough. Take no prisoners." Wulfur ordered the raiders all dead.
The bodies of the raiders were piled and burnt at the end of the first day. By the second day, news reached that the Raiders were attacking Fort Fellhammer occupied by Stormcloaks on the other edge of the Hold.
"The Garrison there should be stronger than Kastav as it is close to the frontier." Wulfur said.
"You are not reading the situation right. They want us to rush after them." Jonrad corrected Wulfur.
"Right. But that means… they want us to take the short route up on Wayward Pass but… an ambush?" Wulfur asked.
"It is obvious but it would give them a great advantage. We would be forced to take it either way since we don't want them to attack us from the back or expose the Nightgate village to them again."
"So we walk into the ambush willingly?"
"They expect us to be worn out
because of the trap they laid to us in Kastav and the fight here. I say we ambush them at the Wayward Pass before they discover how fast we are moving."
Jonrad's suggestion took wide approval. The man himself is an expert when it comes to ambushes and acting in unexpected ways.
An hour later, the army was organized to split into two groups, one to the west through the Pale under Stormcloak leadership and the other to the North to confront the ambushers.
Meanwhile in Winterhold, Jullanar was sitting on the roof of the Sea Mist Manor playing on her flute alone. Alina was still resting and Aela was patrolling the streets on her own.
The city was as silent as a grave and every business in town was temporarily shut. It all began when the horn was blown three times indicating an emergency situation in the city then the eerie sound of Jullanar's flute carried by the gentle air.
There were visitors in Winterhold, not the welcomed kind of visitors but they appeared across the shadows indicating their dominance when the fight is far from sunlight.
Silently and rapidly, eight-legged creatures crawled in the shadows and watched those figures as they slowly headed towards the Manor.
The music of the flute went down and went up slowly then extended widely with a sweet tone before turning into beats and rattles as if Jullanar was speaking a language rather than playing an instrument.
And the spiders lept on the head of the Thralls of those Vampires.
And Aela the Werewolf moved.
And every Dare Agent jumped out of their hiding spots
"… And so it begins."
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