The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

chapter thirteen.

(Tully pov)

My stomach twisted as I hadn't fed on blood recently I reached into my knapsack and pulled out a potion of blood before gulping it down to satiate my thirst for a while we found an opened barred gate in a large circular room with a carpet in the middle and the entrance had a chain which if we pulled it would close the gate which would eliminate the chance of us being blindsided. Making note of this and reminding myself to pull the chain when we went back we went down the spiral staircase and through the door on the immediate right the hallway was cut off aside from the doorway to the left upon entering we found what appeared to be if I had to guess a break room of sorts. Searching around with the group Sabrina found a bunch of potions in a barrel which she immediately tucked into her satchel bag setup that she had slung over her shoulder and found some alchemical ingredients on a shelf and tucked them away in the pouch. As we proceeded our way further down we came into what appeared to be the torture room, on the ground there appeared to be four or five skeletons at this point, two of which were wearing light Imperial Armor which I recognized, the remaining three appeared to be wearing the Stormcloak cuirass along with a bunch of rusted iron weapons that had seen better days, at that point cleaning, repairing, and reselling was hardly worth the trouble of salvaging them. We spread out more we didn't find anything valuable aside from the rare old and rusted iron weapons that had been here since Helgen fell which at best could be sold as soviners for travelers passing through. Walking down the corridor there were multiple cages on both sides all were empty thankfully we came out into a cavern with a stream in a big open cavern. Me and Sabrina went across the bridge to the left while Suvvan and Shadow-step took the low ground with Suvvan making annoying jokes which I couldn't help but chuckle at his antics. " You take the high road and I'll take the low road hahaha!" Suvvan yelled in his manic nature as we met up on the other side once again not finding anything useful aside from a bunch of skeletons after we came to a dead end which was made by a broken bridge and a large rock face in the way we circled back as the only way through was a teen foot drop straight down we carefully climbed down and took the small sewer like-path which went underneath the wall and came out into a stream which met up heading down another pathway which branched off to the right surprisingly there was a coin purse sitting on one of the ledges. Carefully taking the coin pouch and putting it in my bag we proceeded into what appeared to be a massive frostbite spider nest. Before anybody had time to react or quietly sneak away our resident nutcase let out a burst of crazed laughter and charged in with his beloved Nerveshatter drawn before bashing and crushing arachnid after arachnid until they were big fleshy exoskeleton piles on the floor quickly washing the hammer off in the stream he looked back and quite literally skipped over. " Hehe ahh that was fun, whoever says eight legs are better than two sure doesn't mean them! Hahahahaha!" Suvvan yelled as I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the terrible joke but I also knew that it was a very good thing Gila didn't see this because if there was one thing that woman hated more than trolls, it was spiders. And it wasn't because she was scared of spiders it was because she just flat-out hated them. Entering what appeared to be the last room the stream ran underneath a Natural Bridge which led out towards Riverwood and the Embershed mine. The only living thing in that Cavern aside from us was a regular pack of bears that were huddled in the corner other than that there was nothing of value over this way we circled and made our way back towards the rest of the group once we made it back to the room where the gate as I waited for the rest of the group to get through before I pulled the chain which made the steel bars come up out of the ground and seal this room from that room the group was in which meant there was no way an enemy could flank us. Once we entered the main room the group was in I approached Ebon-shi who was talking with Asadelf and Lianya and I waited for him to stop talking before I gave him the report. Ebon-shi looked up at me before giving a nod to go ahead complying I proceeded to speak. "There is nothing of value further down unless you count rusty iron armor and weapons as valuable, we also cleared a frostbite spider nest and our resident nut job smashed each one of them into a thick exoskeleton paste." I said giving the madness armored nord a side eye from under my daedric helmet. " We also sealed the gate in the hallway outside this room so the only way into this room is through that front door and there's no other way for someone to blindside us." I said as Ebon-shi nodded. " Good work you guys, knowing our surroundings and knowing that there's no way an enemy can blindside us is very comforting indeed. Why don't you guys get your bedrolls down and try to get some sleep?" The ebony armored dark elf spoke as he lightly gestured to the soft pile of hay against one of the pillars most of the group agreed to save for me for obvious reasons because I'm a vampire and I am typically nocturnal. " Okay let's alternate every couple of hours four of us up, nine of us down and then we'll rotate this way everybody gets some sleep but we have a watchman and a ground unit." Upon nodding I decided to take first patrol around Helgen kicking in my embrace of shadows power I turned myself invisible and made my vision much better in the dark before walking around the outside of Helgen while Severin was sitting at the top watching Salazar came up and informed him that I was taking first rounds and was invisible at the moment. Nodding in understanding he proceeded to watch the paths being extremely careful as he had made a camouflaged blanket with a dark gray back which he was laying under both to stay warm and conceal himself from view so if he did spot an enemy he could take them out without them knowing where he was. I had to give that argonian credit when credit was due, he was a silent killer and I am well and truly grateful he is on my side because I don't think even my daedric armor would stand up to one of the bolts that he has because I have watched one of his bolts go clean through a dwarven centurion multiple times and drop it at our feet without us even knowing where he was. I walked around to that burned building that had the double bed where Gila shot the arrow to alert us of the thalmar convoy, quickly clearing up our tracks I retrieved the arrow and put it in on the side of my bag so I could return it to Gila when she woke up to switch shifts. I noticed a light reflecting against the wall and I turned seeing Severin using a piece of glass to reflect the moonlight towards the wall to get my attention. I looked over to him before returning the signal letting him know I saw it he moved the light over to a chest that was hidden under a bed that we didn't see. I walked over and opened the chest and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire chest was full of gems jewelry and even some glass weapons which were extremely valuable. I put them all in my bag and then proceeded my patrol route making sure I kept my invisibility up I knew I could relax because if Severin saw anything I would be the first to know. I proceeded to pass through the courtyard where the cracked chopping block was lightly rubbing my neck unconsciously at how close it was to my final resting place. I looked around before I made my final round if I had to guess judging by the location of the moon I'd say it was approximately between eleven to midnight, eleven-thirty to forty-five somewhere in that time frame. Which meant I had been away from the keep for about a half hour I had about another hour and a half to go before my shift ended so I just proceeded to wander about locking the gates of the south and east entrances of Helgen to take some heat off of Severin so he only had to focus on the west side and the north side for the next hour and a half I simply proceeded walking around watching the night sky and going through the house after house trying to loot whatever I could find in case we missed anything. Not finding anything aside from the decayed burned corpses once my shift was up I walked back toward the keep where Severin was no longer up there but instead was Shadow-step. When I walked inside who did I see getting ready to take up the next round was none other than the behemoth of an orc. " I already did my rounds I locked the gate to the East entrance and the South entrance is already blocked by debris so the only two ways in are the north and west entrances, " I said to the group who nodded in understanding as Yamma walked out I noticed that the boss, Asadelf, Lianya, Severin and Salazar were already resting but they nodded to assure me that they heard me. As Gentu and my dear cousin Myra perched themselves at the desk in the corner talking Gentu working on what could only appear to be a Dwemer-looking mechanical platform that was very thin and had four fan blades on each corner like it was supposed to fly meanwhile I gave Myra the glass weapons, gems, and jewelry I found on my round so that she could sell them off once we got into Falkreath. " Thanks Tully, you got a good haul here I can't believe we missed a chest in broad daylight." Myra says in a jaw-dropped motion. " Well if it wasn't for Severin I wouldn't have seen it either so thank him not me oh, that reminds me." I said as I took the steel arrow that I got from the burned house and put the arrow back in Gila's quiver that was sitting next to the bed she was lying on after that I walked and sat down on the ground I put my feet up as I leaned up against the pillar where the hay was before I went to sleep I took a potion of blood and gulped it down to keep my urges under control. I couldn't sleep so I remained awake as the group rotated shifts with the boss taking patrol around the grounds and Gila climbing up the tower watching as Sabrina sat at the desk on the corner more than likely doing the calculations on the loot we got, Myra might have been the barter of the group, but Sabrina was the best with math and those two were the business savvy duo meanwhile Suvvan was in the corner of the room talking to himself and laughing like an absolute mad man to the point where he almost surpassed the prince of madness himself. Rolling my eyes I took off my daedric helmet and examined the hardened ebony-infused helmet i was disappointed that the helmet seemed to be worse for wear as it was warped and cracked in multiple places. I could tell it was in desperate need of repair but perhaps later when were on the road I'll ask Gentu if he and Yamma can repair it. If not I can simply find something else. I put the worn helmet next to me as I lay my head against the concrete pillar I was resting against. Suvvan started going on about cheese wheels and other nonsensical things as I closed my eyes. I drifted off to sleep for a while and when I woke I looked toward the ladder that went up. I climbed up and noticed it was daytime and I tapped Gila's shoulder letting her know that I was there I used my vampire sight as I looked around and spotted an army of heat signatures. " Shit we have company, Gila go tell the boss and wake the others. I'll hold them off!"  She nodded and shot an arrow at Ebon-shi then ran down the ladder as I rushed over to the outside of the north gate and made myself invisible as I watched the army approach.