“Are we finally ready to leave?” – Lena looked at Hauk and Garrus with a trace of impatience. It was well past midday, and they were still in Cheydinhal, although their packs were stuffed with food and drink, and Garrus was still caressing his new Silver Ebony claymore and a steel crossbow. “All right, let’s go!”

They mounted their horses and went North – Lena wanted to start at Dive Rock.

“Isn’t it an awfully steep climb?” – asked Garrus. “Every adventurer passing by Cheydinhal claims to have been there, yet none can explain how they got up.”

“Well, I’ve been there just last month” – Lena turned to him. “Roach didn’t like the climb, yet climb she did, and your horses will do it too. There’s a small camp there and I found a journal telling a sorry tale about some unholy beast – a Matron of some sort.”

“Uderfrykte Matron?” – Hauk looked up. “Are you sure?”

“No, but it sounds about right” – Lena nodded. “Some Nord monster.”

“It’s an old tale, that one” – whistled Hauk. “But like all tales, there could be some truth to it. We should go see.”

But before they could get to Dive Rock, they got distracted by a cave and decided to investigate, even though it was already getting late in the day.

“Well, how long can it possibly take?” – reasoned Garrus. “It’s just a cave. We’ll be out in an hour or two.”

Kingscrest Cavern wasn’t just a cave, however. It was large, sprawling, filled with beasts and partially submerged. It also contained a wilted forest.

“A forest? Inside a cave? How could this happen?” – wondered Lena looking around, while Garrus was having the time of his life fishing, or rather fighting slaughterfish in the water. He took off his ebony armour and was diving in and out of the lake punching the fish.

Then in one of the nooks of that cave they stumbled upon an Orc Adventurer.

“We go out searching for treasure to bring back to Orsinium” – he explained. “To make it great again.” They chatted a bit longer, then parted ways. Or so they thought. The Orc actually followed them, and as soon as they looted the next chest, he attacked.

“Whaaa-?” – Hauk was bringing up the rear and got the hit of the Orc’s claymore. “Am I supposed to be impressed?” He summoned a Xivilai and stood back letting it tackle the Orc. Lena and Garrus turned around, Lena reaching for a throwing star and Garrus readying his claymore… But none of it was necessary – Hauk already got the Orc with a shot from his crossbow. “You’ve got to be kidding me” – he muttered, going through the Orc’s pockets. “He hasn’t got much by way of loot, and all the chests here were locked – I guess he waited for you to pick the locks and then thought to get the loot off us” – he turned to Lena. “Stupid, really. But I like his claymore” – he turned over the enchanted Dwarven weapon in his hands. “And how’s this?” – he pulled on the Orc’s helmet making Lena and Garrus burst out with laughter. “What?”

“You look silly in that” – Lena managed to say through giggles. “Take it off.” Hauk didn’t need to be asked twice.

22 Last Seed

It took them nearly twenty hours to go through the cave and there was no place to rest there, so they just kept going, munching on sandwiches and sipping mead between the fights. The afternoon was growing to a close when they finally came out – the afternoon of the following day.

“There’s a camp just up the hill” – said Lena mounting Roach. “May be we can rest there.”

Aerin’s camp was indeed very close by, but it wasn’t empty, and although the Nord there wasn’t hostile, he was also decidedly not friendly. They opted to take the climb to Dive Rock, after all the horses weren’t tired.

“This is a beautiful view” – they all agreed on that. They read the journal and decided to have a look downhill in the morning.

23 Last Seed

Uderfrykte Matron turned out to be a mighty troll. A really mighty troll – she really made them work for it. But kill her they did, then looked around finding many bones, armour and weapons strewn around. This was one evil troll.

“Well, that’s done” – Hauk said with satisfaction. “No one will be eaten by that ugly troll any more.”

They headed back to Dive Rock where they had left their horses, but Lena spotted something red a little downhill. Another corpse?

“Why, but this is Herminia Cinna!” – she exclaimed in surprise. “Whatever was she doing here?”

“Who is Herminia Whatever?” – Garrus and Hauk stared at her.

“She was a collector of Ayleid antiquities from the Imperial City” – Lena explained. “She was the one who had the Crown of Nenalata and wanted me to bring a different crown to Umbacano” – she turned to Hauk, reminding him of that story. “I never imagined she’d done any adventuring of her own!”

“And obviously she should not have tried” – he nodded with regret.

They returned to Dive Rock only to find that same fellow from Aerin’s camp there waiting for them.

“Is anything the matter?” – Lena asked him in surprise.

“No, nothing, just taking in the sights” – he replied rather absent-mindedly.

Lena shook her head. “Strange” – she thought. They mounted their horses and started a careful descent. The sights were remarkable indeed though, with Cheydinhal in the distance and the Chapel of Arkay standing tall and proud.

It was already dark when they got to Aerin’s camp again, and now it was deserted. The wind died down and it started to snow. The stayed the night.