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Private What Lurks in the Dark

"Ho, there, friend! Might ye be looking to make some easy coin?"

A Nord called across the way, with a hearty smile and a friendly demeanour.

"Well, easy coin is always a welcome arrival! What do you have in mind? By the looks of some of this lot, nanny services?"

Arok had said his words in jest to the Nord, but he did harbour concerns for some of this ragtag group, particularly the petite Breton girl and a small Imperial boy, shifting his feet nervously. There also seemed to be an abundance of Elves, especially considering the rarity of Elven bounty-hunters of any sort in Skyrim.

"My name's Arok, friend. And by what may I call you?"

The Orc had made a point of maintaining his Imperial-like elocution; Orcs often had a hard time picking up work for being seen as savages and simpletons, but Arok wanted to make a first impression of intelligence. The way some of the group looked, you could say that maybe half of them had been visited by nightmares, there was something about this group, they were somehow tied together. Not by any physical force, something much more subtle.
 
Ghubaric watched the group, and decided to steal a glance at the hooded one from before. The others seemed to be worried about the quote unquote children. But Ghubaric had seen younger deal with worse threats than bandits. Though it was starting to look like a small war band than anything. Warriors, mages and rogues preparing to assault a bandit camp. Ghubaric sighed hopefully Songbird will sing soon.

Since he hadn't officially introduced himself Ghubaric stayed quiet. Though it seemed pleasantries were quite the fad in the Inn. The redguard began wondering if he should just go out and take the bandit camp himself. But he shook the foolish thought away. So he leaned against the wall, listening and taking in every detail.
 
Torins' cloak whipped around him as the stiff wind came up out of nowhere it seemed. That was the weather of Skyrim, always changing, from hour to hour, day to day. Then again, Falkreath was famous for its rain and clouds almost year round. The hooded Thalmor sorcerer seemed a little too relieved as the clouds moved in to cover the sun, blotting out the rays of daylight. Then he realized what the man was. Not only an Altmer Thalmor, but also a vampire, either extremely bold, or extremely powerful. There was one thing the ranger knew, and it was that he had to put down the creature before it killed again. In the blink of an eye, the Nord had an arrow on the string, and a blink later, had the arrow soaring towards the beasts chest.
 
Salthar had been paying little attention to the ranger, or anyone else, for that matter. He'd been busy reviewing his spells, wondering whether it would be better to concentrate on his frost, lightning,flame, or other arcane spells. He decided to focus on none of them, preferring the variety of spells he had at his command rather than being confined to one school or element. While a wizard would need to study all of his spells in order to be able to cast them, and at the end of each day, he or she would need to study them again, if they wished to use them again the next day.

Being a sorcerer, he didn't need to do any of that, although it was easier to use one element of magic for the duration of a battle, rather than switch back and forth between them. He was so absorbed in his choice of spells, he didn't notice the observation of the green garbed ranger. A sudden movement on the Nords' part drew his attention, and he noticed the arrow soaring towards him. Salthar had to give the man credit. Any lesser vampire would have been struck through the heart by the arrow. However, Salthar was no lesser vampire, and he'd spent decades studying in the academy in Alinor. To him, the arrow moved with painful slowness. Flicking his wrist at the projectile, he watched in satisfaction as the arrow was consumed by burst of black flame. Making eye contact with the ranger, he smiled coldly.
 
Aliah watched as the green cloaked ranger fired an arrow almost impossibly fast and then saw the Thalmor vampire destroy the arrow with a burst of magic she'd never seen before and disintegrate the thing. As surprised as she was by the sudden, although small, show of power, she moved quickly to stop a fight from breaking out. Positioning herself between the two men, and giving them each a stern glare. Her magical proficiency wasn't all that great, but she was fairly certain she could interject herself between the two of them before the vampire turned the ranger into a pile of steaming entrails, and the ranger filled the vampire with arrows. "That's enough. Both of you. If you wish to be part of this hunt, you will not fight one another, or I'll kill you myself. Are we clear?" That last bit was a bluff. She could probably take on the ranger if she got him away from that deadly looking bow of his, but she had a feeling that the vampire would be a lot more dangerous. Physically, anyways. Raking her gaze over the assembled adventurers, she made it clear that her warning went for all of them. "We're moving out, if you have anything else to attend to, I suggest you do it now, and catch up with us. We're headed east, after we leave Falkreath. I don't think we should be too hard to find" truthfully, Aliah suspected that the group might need to stick together much longer than just for this one trip. Something about her dreams, and the way the clouds moved in a little too suddenly unsettled her. Motioning for the group to follow, she turned towards the town gates. She didn't doubt that the guards would be all to happy to see them leave.
 
Donath shrugged off the orcs' rejection. Personally, he didn't really care, because the less people there were, the less gold needed to be split. They were already splitting it a lot of different ways. Turning back to the group, he began trudging back, when he saw the warrior all in greens and browns stiffen, then, almost faster than Donath could blink, fired an arrow at the robed vampire. The elf simply flicked his hand at the thing, and it was burnt up in a flash of what looked like black fire. "Damn, that elf is fast" the warrior muttered to himself, wondering if the attacker was about to be ripped apart. He had some experience with vampires, and most didn't appreciate being shot at. Before the robed elf could do anything else, the pretty elf lass all but jumped between them, looking more than a little angry. ' I guess there's naught to be a fight then' he surmised, making his way back to the group. On the way, he heard their leader mention moving out. 'About damned time' the Nord thought, reaching back to pat the handle of his ax, and wink at the young imperial lad.
 
Averain watched the short, although surprising confrontation between the ranger and vampire with mild surprise. Actually, considerably more than mild surprise. The speed with which the ranger drew and fired an arrow was nothing short of astonishing, as was the reaction of the robed and hooded Altmer vampire. When the leather clad Altmer woman stepped in, Averain was relieved, but at the same time disappointed. He'd have liked to see how the fight played out between the two. But he wasn't one to endorse needless bloodshed, and it seemed like everyone would be needed for this assault. Well, maybe. They were going after bandits, after all. As the group began to move out, he picked a spot beside the Thalmor vampire. "That, my friend, was quite an impressive reaction" he said, nodding back towards the porch.
 
Salthar nodded in acceptance of his fellow Altmer's statement. He doubted the woman could actually kill him, vampire or not, but had no desire to create a rift in the group. Not over a failed attempt on his life, anyways. As she announced that the group would be moving out presently, Salthar moved to the rear of the group. He'd always been uncomfortable when stuck in large groups, knowing that any mage worth his salt would aim a fireball or blast of chain lightning square in the middle of the group. Feeling no special attachment to any in the group, he let himself be passed by, before falling in the rear. The red armoured Breton/Altmer knight, who also happened to be a vampire approached him, and said "That, my friend, was quite an impressive reaction" the Altmer vampire inclined his head to his fellow blood drinker. "It would have been more impressive by far had I been allowed to continue...but alas, I don't think I would be overly welcome if I began killing members of our party" he replied.
 
Shadari crossed her arms as the Altmer woman announced that if any of them fought among themselves, they'd be killed. The Khajiit assassin didn't believe her for an instant, but she hardly wanted to fight against a vampire, especially if it could be avoided. The group began to move out, and she took a position near the front, keeping an eye on her companions, but ready to scout ahead, if need called for it. She was a solo fighter, and intended to fight alone if she could help it. She was tired of Falkreath, and glad that some action seemed to be coming up. Shadari could be patient, but only while hunting a target. This stretch of idleness wore on her nerves.
 
Elizabeth was shocked by the speed with which both her ranger escort and the hooded elf moved. Torin fired a shot in the blink of an eye, and the robed elf destroyed his arrow with almost contemptuous ease. It looked like they might start a throw-down, drag out brawl, (or duel at least) in the street when the other Altmer, this one wearing leather coat, boots, and gloves, stepped in between the pair of them, talking them down. Relieved that they had (apparently) been accepted into the hunt, she moved to walk beside the ranger. He had rescued her after all, and he wasn't sure she trusted all of the others. None of them looked like they were strangers to killing, except maybe the Imperial boy.

She shivered and pulled her robes closer to her thin frame as the wind cut wound through the village, and struck her with freezing talons of wind. By the look of the sky, it was probably going to rain or something as well. Elizabeth was more than a little glad that her robe had soft wool on the inside, and her hood was lined with wool as well, keeping her warm. As a little girl, she'd had the worst immune system, and caught almost every sickness there was. That was why she'd become a healer, to help others who got sick as easily as her, although she could hardly stomach the sight of blood. Maybe joining up with this venture wasn't such a good idea after all.
 
Averain noticed with some relief that the Breton girl was staying behind. While she looked like she could handle herself, he wouldn't enjoy wiping out the bandits quite so much if he had to worry about the welfare of children. Then the young Imperial healer joined the group and the knight sighed. That still left two young ones that might, or might not know what on Nirn they were doing. Shaking his head, the vampire continued on, noting the relieved glances the guards and townspeople alike were giving the group. 'They're relieved we're leaving. Then, if I had such a ragtag group of people in my town, I'd probably be happy to see them leave as well' he thought to himself.

The Altmer lady was leading the way, with a calm, yet determined stride, perhaps eager to kill the bandits' claim the reward, and go to wherever she was planning on going when the killing was done. Averain didn't blame her, because he knew what it felt like to be an outsider in Skyrim. He had fought as a mercenary knight for the Empire, until Tullius got himself killed, and the Stormcloaks took over. Averain had been on the run since then, and had only really taken a breath once he learned of the High Kings' death. Still, non-Nords in Skyrim were hardly welcome in most of the major holds.
 
Julius noticed that when he left the inn,the man wearing the green cloak, with the bow and sword was staring at the hooded and robed elf. Then suddenly, the man fired an arrow straight at the robed elfs' heart. Before Julius could yell a warning, the elf destroyed the arrow with some sort of black fire. Before they could really start fighting, the Altmer lady (who Julius thought might, or might not want to eat him) stood between them and ordered them to knock it off. Then they started moving out, the robed elf near the back, the cloaked man, who was a ranger or something, more in the middle of the group, walking with a robed Imperial in healers colors. He decided to also take a place in the middle, keeping an eye on the leader, and wondering how he was going to fight if he could barely hold down his breakfast.
 
Aliah lead the group of vampires, mercenaries, and other more mysterious figures out of Falkreath. She was fairly certain that she heard one of the guards let out a sigh of relief as they did so. The letter said that this particular camp of bandits was to the east, thick into the pine and fir trees, probably hugging the small mountains at the edge of the forest. In her experience in Skyrim, the vampire had found that most bandit's enjoyed making their encampments near large rock formations, which from a strategic standpoint, was pretty smart for bandits. If a group of guards or soldiers stumbled across the camp, or were attempting to attack it, all the bandits would need to do is close off the entrance and pelt the attackers with arrows and other projectiles.

More and more often, the bandits were ex-legion, or ex-stormcloak. They'd been fighting for a long time, and now that the war was over, they didn't know how to do anything else. That was what Aliah expected to find at the camp, a group of former soldiers, expecting an attack by a force of guards, or perhaps soldiers themselves. They wouldn't be expecting Aliah's mixed bag of warriors and mages. How could they? Already, Aliah was preparing her walk to Solitude. She'd walk, because she didn't want to waste any gold on a carriage. Once she got there, she'd fire the fastest ship she could find, and have them bring her back to Alinor.Home. Unless of course Sidgier was planning on double crossing the group, which, in that case, Aliah would tear him limb from limb and take her reward from his treasury. It was that simple, really. After a few minutes of walking, the trees began to get closer together, the branches almost touching the trunks of their neighboring trees. It's almost as dark as night in here she though. With the cloud cover up above, a gloom had settled under the boughs of the evergreens...almost an unnatural gloom, she reflected.

Then she shook herself out of it. What is wrong with me? First those damned dreams, and now I'm afraid of a little darkness? I'm a blasted vampire! Despite her inner thoughts, the vampire could still feel goosebumps raising on the nape of her neck and forearms. Straining her eyes, she sought see clear through the forest to no avail. That was a strange development. In life, Aliah had excellent vision, and in undeath, her eyesight was increased tenfold. Yet they couldn't seem to cut through the shadows and darkness in the forest. It's probably just a bigger forest than I thought she reasoned.
 
Shadari was uneasy. That in itself was unsettling, mostly because it took a lot more than the dark to scare the normally unshakable assassin. Her eyes glowed as they captured and reflected what little light there was under the thick canopy of pine branches. She alternated in twitching her ears forwards, to the side, and back, listening for anything that was out of place. All she heard, however was the singing of birds, chattering of squirrels, and the soft, muffled boot falls of her companions, as they walked over a blanket of fallen pine needles, some of which were orange, some green, and some brown. Sniffing softly, she smelt the distinctive needles, of course, a deer which was just getting up about two hundred yards to the right, and the various body odours of her companions. Strangely enough, the three vampires in the group had no scent at all.

Her tail twitched back and forth softly, a sign of anxiety among the Khajiit. Growling to herself, she attempted to stop her tail from betraying her feelings, but that of course only made her tail twitch even more. Sighing, the assassin settled for resting her hand on the hilt of her falchion. She hadn't heard or smelt anything out of the ordinary, but that didn't mean no one was out there. There were ways to mask your scent, muffle your footsteps. If anything, the gloominess of the forest made Shadari more eager than ever to find these bandits, cut them into little pieces, and go claim her reward.
 
The group gradually made their way through the gloomy, pine scented forest, although even the most unobservant must have felt the oppressive, sinister force pushing down on them, surrounding them. Aliah noticed that the Khajiit, Shadari, seemed just as uneasy as she was. At least the vampire wasn't alone in her nervousness, which meant she probably wasn't insane. After maybe another half hour of walking through the almost too silent forest, she slowed, smelling the distinct scent of mortal blood. A few minutes later, the companions could see the bandit camp. A swathe of trees had been cleared in front and to the sides of the encampment, giving the inhabitants a clear line of sight to the front, right and left of the wooden camp.

As bandit camps went, this one was fairly impressive. A wooden wall created a semicircle, with two open topped towers, with a gate made of chopped down trees and half trees, bound together by strips of leather, and nails in some places. A bandit stood on either tower, scanning the forest floor vigilantly. Both wore the typical fur armour, and had what looked to be longbows. Motioning for the others to stop before they emerged into the open and gave away the advantage of surprise, she crouched down, motioning the Altmer sorcerer from the inn to come forwards. She inquired, "Do you think you could take out the gate?" The gate was really the only thing that Aliah could see giving the group trouble. Unless of course the camp was built like a fortress on the inside, removing the gate should be the only task that required real effort.
 
The oppressive attitude of the forest was clearly beginning to wear on the others of the party. From his vantage point at the rear of the group, the vampire could read the tension in their bodies like a book. He didn't mean he wasn't tense, the vampire was feeling the gloomy darkness pushing down on him, but Salthar had his fair share of experiences with dark, gloomy areas.

When the Altmer woman called him to the front of the group, he was glad for an excuse not to dwell on the strangeness of the forest. Moving quietly, he approached the woman, noticing the wooden gates, and towers, along with the bow-armed guards, who were vigilantly patrolling. "Do you think you could take out the gate?"
Salthar grimaced. "Certainly, but as soon as the gates go down, those archers are going to pinpoint our position. I'd rather not attack while being shot at over that much open ground" he explained.
 
The forest put Torin more than a little on edge. He found himself glancing around nervously, expecting enemies to leap out from every shadow and attack. That was foolishness of course. Torin Greenbow had lived in the wilds of Skyrim a long time, and knew how to tell when he was being watched by an enemy...or when it seemed to quiet for a forest. Still, he could not shake the feeling of something...lurking out in the gloom, just waiting for the ranger to turn his back. Making his way to the front of the group, longbow in hand, he overheard both Altmer speaking about the defenses, a pair of archers and a large, wooden gate. The Thalmor vampire seemed reluctant to destroy the gate, as it would alert the bandits' of their presence and bring a hail of arrows down on their heads.

Barely containing his immense dislike of the vampire, he said, his tone just short of mocking: "Are you telling me that you couldn't just use your flame spell to disintegrate the arrows before they struck us?" The ranger knelt, taking in the fortifications for himself. And that's exactly what they were, which meant that these rogues were probably ex-military. That was not overly surprising, because now that Skyrim was 'At peace', there really wasn't much for a soldier to do these days.
 
Salthar was still frowning at the gate. He wondered how many bandits were inside, exactly, and what their reaction time would be once he destroyed the gate. If they were simply normal thugs, who'd joined up with the bandits to make a little (or a lot) coin, then they wouldn't have much to worry about. However, if they were all ex-military, or even if just the two archers were, they could cause some trouble for the group. He didn't believe they'd all be able to make their way across the open stretch of land before the two archers, who seemed rather vigilant for thugs, opened fire on them.

Then, the rangers voice came from behind them, hinting on mocking."Are you telling me that you couldn't just use your flame spell to disintegrate the arrows before they struck us?" The Altmer vampire glanced over his shoulder, to see the ranger kneeling in cover, bow in hand. " It isn't a matter of can and can't, ranger. Rather, do I want to stop the archers from turning you into a pin cushion" smirking, the vampire turned back to studying the situation. In truth, he did want the group to succeed, if only for the pleasure of killing mortals. The look of sheer terror in a humans eyes as Salthar ended them was... invigorating. Finally, he turned his attention back to his fellow Altmer "I can destroy the gate, but we will need to kill those two sentries, and fast, or we may be facing an organized counter assault" he warned, preparing the thunderbolt that would sunder the gates, and hopefully, stun the archers before they could attack.
 
Torin narrowed his eyes at the vampires' back. Then, he shouldn't be all that surprised by the vampires callousness. He listened as the Altmer told their leader that he could indeed destroy the gates, but needed someone to kill both archers before they could sound the alarm and attack. Clearing his throat, the ranger fitted a steel arrow to the string of his bow. "I can take down both before they sound the alarm. It will be your job to get inside quickly, for I know not how many enemies may be on the walls."
 
Aliah could all but taste the tension between the two men. Hopefully, they could work through this one bounty, and then sort out their differences after they'd received the reward. Drawing both of her ebony swords, she looked from ranger to sorcerer. "We will most likely only get one chance at a surprise attack. As soon as the gate goes down, kill the archers. We-" she gestured to the others in the group "will already be moving" looking to the Altmer sorcerer, she nodded once, standing, and preparing to sprint as soon as the gates were destroyed.
 
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