- 15th of Sun's Dusk, 4E 202 -
After a fitful night's sleep I awoke this morning to head into the cave above the ruins. My morning meal was bread and apples. Not exactly a favorite of mine, but considering my location it was a pretty decent breakfast.
Within the hour I had entered the cave and already ran into trouble. Inside the cave I spotted a frost troll, and sneaking past him could be risky if I ran into trouble further ahead in the cave. If that happened, and this troll her the commotion and came running, I could end up in a very bad situation. So I decided to take care of him.
I started off with arrows. My bow transfers flame magic to my arrows, and trolls are notorious for their dislike of fire. The first arrow was a direct hit, and as the troll tried to figure out where it had come from I landed a second. After that he was on the move, and headed towards me. I waited until he was fairly close and then delivered a might shout of fire, which I'm sure the troll hated even more than my burning arrows.
He roared angrily and charged me as I raised my shield and absorbed his first attack. I struck back with my mace, now very glad I had a mace with magical flame enchanted into it. The troll bellowed again and swiped at me with both of his massive claws. I cushioned the blows with my shield again, and struck back with deadly intent.
We sparred for a bit like this, with me sometimes using my shield to preemptively disrupt the troll's attacks. I was beginning to become concerned for my health, since the troll was taking a lot of damage but didn't seem to be anywhere close to defeated. I switched up my tactic and began trying to avoid his nasty claws completely. I also stepped to the side to try and land strikes against the troll where he was more exposed on his sides and back. It worked .. and the heartless creature fell dead at my feet.
I moved on through the cave only to discover it was very small. I stepped out and realized I was now on the other side of the mountain range. I was on the Morthal side. It was good to know there was such a passage to slip through the mountains if I ever needed it.
For a moment I considered turning around and heading back to Whiterun. It was still early in the day and I would have plenty of time to sell some things and down some ale. But the trail ahead of me, that led away from the cave, would not let my attention go.
I began to wonder if it led to the top of the mountain I had just cut through. If so, I needed to know. Although I had found a word wall yesterday, I don't think it was the one I set out to find on Eldersblood Peak. I hadn't actually seen the summit of this mountain yet.
So I took to the trail and soon found myself heading up the mountain as I had hoped. But my good mood turned when I saw another frost troll on the trail ahead. I could have used the same strategy I had just used, but I suddenly had a better idea.
I snuck a bit closer and the readied my mace and shield as I stood up. The troll spotted me and came running. They are very base creatures, not dumb, but not exactly intelligent either. They cater to the rage inside them, and that was just what I was counting on.
The troll came crashing down on me with a roar and a giant swing of his arm. I was ready, and took the blow on my shield. Then, in a single beautiful move I stepped to the side of the narrow trail, putting my back to the mountain side and my front to the troll and the cliff behind him. I smashed him with my shield to stun him and buy a split second of time. And in that moment I parted my lips and shouted the violent monster right over the edge of the cliff.
I peeked over in time to see him bounce hard off of some rocks below, freefall another thirty yards, and bounce off of some more rocks ... only to continue his descent and disappear into the flurrying snow that was swarming across the mountain.
With the troll out of my way I continued up the trail and eventually reached the top of the mountain. Edlersblood Peak. And I saw a beautiful sight.
The word wall was completely out in the open, and I was positive that something evil and nasty was going to fall on me the moment I got too close to the wall. But there was nothing but peaceful quiet and soft flurries of snow to assault me. There were plenty of bones and burnt and bloodied bodies of men and mer around, but I decided those were probably all victims of the dragon I had killed the other day. After all, he had descended down from this very peak.
The word I learned was 'hand' in the dragon tongue, and it carried the power to help me disarm my foes .. especially when used with the other word I had learned recently .. 'weapon'.
With the wall found and the word learned, I headed back down the mountain to return to Whiterun. I was nearly to the cave that splits the mountain when I spotted something just below me that made me chuckle.