Private To Kill The Dragonborn

The Jarl of windhelm scowled, his countenance covered with soot and grime. On either side of him, two of his men, each armed with iron blades stepped forward to guard the killer of the High King. Mugen smirked as Sonnex lept to his side, dagger and vial in hand. This is gonna' be good Mugen thought to himself.

"Ahem... Gentlemen, I think we have more... pressing concerns." Gweezdo said in an attempt to reestablish any notion of reason in the current situation. Mugen furrowed his brow, annoyed by his companion's remark. "Can it, man." He snapped, glaring at Gweezdo. It didn't matter that Gweezdo meant well and was only looking out for what was best for the group, once Mugen got going there was no stopping him. "I've had a reeaal bad day, and all this pl*ps's gonna' pay off one way or another." He said, turning back to Ulfric. "Now hand over your coin before I send you and your boys here to Sovngarde." Mugen said in a deathly serious tone.

Outside, the High Elf fled from the tower. "THERE'S A HOLE!" He heard a woman loudly exclaim behind him, and he turned for a moment to see the figure of someone standing in the gaping crater left in the side of the tower. Sneering, he turned and continued to run.

The High Elf came across the corpse of one of the Thalmor, his limp body sprawled across the dirt with an almost comical expression of shear terror on his face. The High Elf immediately knelt down and saw to relieving the corpse of its black coat, realizing he could easily disguise himself as a Thalmor and escape. Upon putting on the Thalmor jacket, the High Elf smirked before noticing a group of Imperials taking shelter against a wall up ahead.

"Hey! You there!" He yelled in an attempt to get their attention. One of the troops looked over to see the Elf in Thalmor clothing waving and beckoning for them. "The traitor is in that tower there!" He said, gesturing towards the tower sheltering Ulfric and the group of bandits.

The troops looked at each other for a moment, clearly perplexed. "Why should we trust you, Elf?!" One of them called back.

Pausing for a moment, the Elf responded "You dare question your Thalmor superior!? Get over there and kill that fool!" He retorted, sounding more snide than usual while playing the part of an agent. The Imperial troops hesitated, before begrudgingly complying as they ran towards the tower, weapons in hand.

The High Elf smirked as he pulled on his hood, making his escape.

The corridor was dimly lit, the fire was slowly dancing in its trance against the darkness yet the shadows were strong and refused to be cast away. It was the same with the fire, refusing to be snuffed out by the shadows. He carried a small candle along the path, waiting to go into the brighter torture chamber which held an elfish hostage from Whiterun. He was an easy catch, just lurking along the roads at night and we were doing this to get paid. Somebody wanted his farm, his wealth and his position and nobody liked him enough to even glance at his disappearance.

The chamber held a number of odd gadgets and contraptions, a table in the centre with the prisoner on it. Some odd chair with nails in it, and knives and other painful things on another small table. Most of it had come with the fort, it even had a blacksmiths forge and anvil. While he made his way over to the struggling elf. He slowly ran a sharp claw against his arm, which drew blood. The elf screamed in pain.

“You have no idea what you’re doing! Do you know who I am? I suggest you let me go, and I will make your death quicker!” He bellowed out in rage. Nergal just slowly made to the forge and pulled out a hot knife which glowed ember orange. The elf panicked, screaming and shouting more, and finally started to beg for mercy in his own way as Nergal stopped at the edge of the table. He slowly looked at the elf, before he received a face full of spit. Nergal just wiped it off with a piece of cloth.

“My, my, you do need to learn some manners,” Nergal maliciously whispered to himself, before he forced open the elf’s mouth and cooled off the hot blade on his tongue. The elf thrashed out in agony, and passed out from the pain. Silence filled the room, and it was bliss. He had only wanted to check up on the prisoner…

He made his way out of the room, the blade back in the forge regaining its glow. He got to the entrance and got weird stares as he passed his bandit colleagues. He sought out his smaller group, they had been gone for quite a while now. Too long for just robbing the Stormcloak leader, and supposed High king. He wondered what had happened, but he long felt bored and wanted something other than checking on a prisoner.

Thorar looked inside the box his comrade had brought back. Inside, lay his Greatsword, which had been broken into three pieces to even fit in the box. He grabbed the hilt, and about a foot of sword that was still attached to the hilt, and lifted it out, along with one of the pieces of the blade. "That's rude, the broke my blade. All of yours were set in there gently." He said, frowning. He heard his Bosmer comrade call out from above, and he put the hilt in its sheath on his back. Running up the stairs, he tossed the broken part of the blade downwards, possibly with a little to much force, because unknown to him, the blade lodged itself in the back of a Stormcloaks head down below. Finding Vaerwen standing next to a hole in the tower, and looking a bit frustrated, Thorar looked out the hole, to see a burning building below. Looking at Vaerwen again, he sprinted out the hole. He needed to test out the jump, make sure it was safe for his comrades to make. Falling through the roof, he landed rather hard on the ground. Getting up, all he saw was fire all around him, except a small wall to his left. Thorar bellowed, and charged at the wall, busting through the logs and wood, and creating a makeshift exit. Entering back into the building, Thorar looked up, through the hole in the roof he had made, at the hole in the tower. "Come on! Through here." He yelled up.

Clearly the hazardous situation wasn't enough for the two factions to quit wantingto tear each other apart, neither the nords or Gweezdo's friends. "Boring!" Vaerwen sneered behind him, once his peace wishes were converted to words. "Can it, man." Said Mugen, with a slight frown. "I've had a reeaal bad day, and all this pl*ps's gonna' pay off one way or another. Now hand over your coin before I send you and your boys here to Sovngarde." His voice was heavily toned with severity and menace, despite being outnumbered even if Gweezdo actually fought on his side. Just about half a second before they would jump at each other's throats like dogs, Vaerwen, either accidentally or on purpose, Gweezdo knew she was clever, saved the day. "THERE'S A HOLE!" The imperial was easily the first one to make up his mind about taking a look at whatever it was she had found, not wanting to stick around downstairs for too long to be either slain by the hands of Stormcloaks or a dragon.

The bosmer stood next to some rubble, in the middle of the destroyed spiral stairs. On her left, there was a smoldering crater, that would indubitably lead them out of the tower, in a less obvious and arguably less dangerous path. Gweezdo was about to approach it, hoping to measure the fall with the slightest accuracy he could afford simply from his eyes, when Thorar boldly jumped out of it, landing inside a building embraced by the dragon's hateful flames. The smoke was too thick for Gweezdo to completely understand what was going on. For a few seconds, he thought his friend had become uncounscious, or worse. A few noises below them, however, told them otherwise, as something with distinguished power seemed to be battering through the weakened walls, creating an exit from the simmering inn that once probably made a lot of drunkards happy. Thorar eventually spoke up, erasing any doubts Gweezdo had about his death, much to his relief. "Come on! Through here."

The skinny weakling peeked through the hole hesitantly. Sure, a man like Thorar was capable of performing those stunts unscratched, but someone like Gweezdo? The consequences that awaited him for such a reckless move were definitely more severe. He slowly shook his head as the thoughts of broken limbs began to haunt him. "Uhm... Ladies first?" Gweezdo smiled towards Vaerwen. Everyone knew how courageous he was when a physical challenge beckoned, but he still hoped, at that given moment, that another option would come up while everyone else jumped.

Sonnex was admittedly disappointed when it was clear that blowing up the leader of the rebellion wasn't going to be an option. Still, they thought, a chance to follow through might arise later on. Perhaps Gweez was right. The way the afternoon was going, it was probably wise to get going, rather than linger any longer than necessary.


Vaerwen had already dashed upstairs in search of an escape, and though the impish imperial was loathe to do so, Sonnex had to admit that escape was probably the best course of action at this current time. Letting out a world weary sigh, Sonnex palmed the explosive phial one last time and roughly slid it back into a pouch hanging from their hip. Looking up forlornly at Mugen, Sonnex jerked their head towards Gweezdo as he fled upstairs. “They have a point ya know.”

Glaring up at Ulfric, Sonnex couldn’t help one last taunt however. Despite the soot and ash that coated the inside of the bandits mouth, Sonnex was able to gather some saliva, spitting squarely at the rebel leader’s chin. “See you ‘round bear-king.” Grinning madly Sonnex turned and started after the others, tugging at Mugen’s bracer to try to dissuade the giant from the fight. The action hardly accomplished anything aside perhaps, the scene bringing an unexpected smile to some of the stormcloak’s weather beaten faces.

Trudging upstairs, stopping briefly to kick at a dying soldiers boot, Sonnex went to see what exactly had grabbed the bosmer’s attention. Peering out from behind the elf Sonnex inspected the suggested landing area. In theory the jump was manageable. In practise laden with numerous explosive materials, it seemed a little bit harder. Pursing their lips, Sonnex reached up to tighten their various belts and pouches, ensuring that nothing was likely to slip out during the free fall into the burning house.

"Uhm... Ladies first?"

Coughing roughly Sonnex nudged Gweezdo’s side. “I’ll go last then eh? Let you guys jump ahead in case I blow up when I land.” Patting the bottles dangling from the roughly made leather bandoliers that hung around their shoulders Sonnex gave a pointed look. Truth be told, being laden with things that liked to go boom, during a fire-breathing dragon attack, was not most people’s idea of fun. Sonnex was surprisingly calm all things considered, simply in acceptance of the situation. The imperial counted themselves lucky to still have all their fingers. Either reason would prevail and Sonnex would be blasted into bits, or the bandits dumb luck would continue, and they would walk out of Helgen, missing only their eyebrows.

Thorar rushed past and leapt to the burning building below. Vaerwen peered over the edge, waiting in suspense with her small jaw dropped, until she heard cracking and crashing sounds through the smoke. To her relief, the bear of a man entered into view once more, calling for them to follow.
"Come on! Through here."

The leap wouldn't be anything new for her, but with the addition of flames, jagged broken wood planks, and a nearby dragon, it occurred to Vaerwen that she should be scared. There was very little room for error, and very little time to waste.

Vaerwen took a deep breath before looking over at the others.
"Uhm... Ladies first?" Gweezdo smiled nervously.
"I’ll go last then eh? Let you guys jump ahead in case I blow up when I land," Sonnex suggested.
The mental image of all the colorful elixirs and potions bursting in a deadly explosion of flame and destruction left Vaerwen momentarily entertained.

She hesitated for a moment before grabbing them each by the hand and squeezing.
"That would be so sad, Sonnex. But it would look so pretty."
She let go of them both, and before she could think much about the length of the jump, called out to Thorar below.
"Catch!"

Then, she felt nothing but hot air whipping around her. The moment seemed to last longer than it should have. She tensed her body, ready for impact with her Nord friend, or the unforgiving fiery ground next to him.

Thorar had turned to look at the activities going on outside the makeshift exit he had made, when suddenly, he heard Vaerwen yell "Catch" from above. Jerking his face back up, he whirled his arms up, and the Bosmer woman landed gently and safely in them. Quickly setting her down, he pointed to the exit he had made, then looked back up. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Sonnex had all those vials on him, and Thorar imagined them all exploding, and blocking off his companions escape. "Sonnex, you go last!" He yelled up from below, hoping he had heard him. "Alright, who ever is next, jump, I'll catch you!" He called out.

Mugen scowled as it became apparent that the majority of the group had decided to, what he considered, bail out. He glanced over at his friends as they left the main chamber of the tower and headed up towards the escape that Vaerwen had supposedly found. "You've gotta be kidding me." He said through his teeth, feeling anger well up inside of him. For a moment he thought about the first run in the group had with Ulfric, and what a colossal mess that was which, in Mugen's mind, was entirely not his fault. For weeks now, things had been pretty tense between the bandits, due in major part to Mugen's fervent temper and his uncanny ability to dodge accepting responsibility for any of his actions. And now, with the majority of the group seemingly turning his back on him, this is the last straw... he thought to himself.

“They have a point ya know.” Mugen glanced over at Sonnex, his brow furrowing in frustration. He simply remained silent, too stubborn and too prideful to admit defeat and back down from the challenge. He simply stared down Ulfric, his glare seething with intense anger which made it seem like at any moment Mugen would lash out and attack. "...Man, fl*ff this." He finally muttered, shaking his head and lowering his sword. "This ain't the end of things, I'll be back for you, bear boy." He sneered, furious that he was backing away from the confrontation.

As Mugen turned to head up the stairs, legion troops suddenly stormed inside with swords at the ready. "What the--?" Was all he could manage to say before the Stormcloaks and Imperials were at arms with each other. he watched as the Jarl fled down a previously hidden trap door leading beneath the tower while leaving his men to cover his escape. Mugen sneered at such cowardice, and for a moment he was tempted to rush through the ensuing battle and go after Ulfric on his own. However, he didn't have time to dwell on such thoughts as he suddenly met the eyes of one of the Imperials. "Hey! It's the prisoners, stop them!" The soldier cried, gesturing towards Mugen and the rest of the bandits standing along the stairwell. Two of the troops immediately broke away from the main fight, and began charging up the stairs with swords at the ready.

"Not to rush you guys or anything, but that was our cue to get moving!" Mugen called out to the others, raising his sword to do battle. "I'll cover you." Mugen smirked, satisfied that he'd get to have some fun. Against two tired and battered Imperial lackeys and fighting with the high ground, the odds were ever in Mugen's favor. With his sword at the ready, he let the soldiers come to him. The two of them charged simultaneously, their iron blades poised to strike. Mugen weaved to the side to avoid one of the blows, before swinging his sword around to parry the other attack. Moving quickly, he slammed his shoulder against the soldier closest to the edge of the stairs which sent the man barreling over the edge of the stairwell and letting out a panicked screech as he fell down to the battle below. Mugen quickly followed up with an overhead slash at the other soldier, who managed to block the strike. Moving faster than Mugen had anticipated, the soldier caught Mugen by surprise with a left hook to the face.

"Oof!" Mugen grunted as he stumbled back, stunned for a moment from taking a gauntlet square in the jaw. Looking to take advantage of his dazed opponent, the soldier immediately rushed forward to attack. Quickly snapping back to his senses, Mugen quickly blocked the incoming strikes before finding an opening and striking the soldier down with a hard blow to the side. The soldier collapsed along the stairs in a gust of blood, sending his body tumbling down a few of the steps.

Mugen stood there panting, taking a moment to survey the situation below. The Stormcloaks were quickly being overwhelmed, outnumbered and outmatched by the Imperials. Mugen glanced up towards the hole in the wall, and realized it was time for him to leave. He bounded up the rest of the stairs and stood at the edge of the hole, peering down below into the swirling clouds of smoke and fire. He gulped, "Throrar, I'm coming down!" He called out, before leaping over the edge.

"That would be so sad, Sonnex. But it would look so pretty." Gweezdo massaged the temples of his head, trying to get his mind off the idea of a burning death. Was he the only one actually interested in making it out of there alive? Vaerwen jumped out of the hole, while Sonnex (surprisingly wisely considering his usual disdain for security), chose to stay behind and be the last one to jump, just in case of an explosion after his impact on the ground.

Downstairs, just as Mugen began to climb the partially disintegrated stone stairs, a fight had broken out between Stormcloaks and Imperials who, thanks to whatever god they had forbidden worship of, chose to try to kill them instead of running for their lives. The nords were being overwhelmed quite quickly, and it would not come as a surprise if the imperials turned to their merry group once the rebels were dispatched.

Once Mugen got his stunt over with, only Gweezdo remained, taking in account Sonnex would have to jump last. He flinched at the sight of the flames that hungrily awaited him below. "Here goes nothing... Literally." He sighed as his feet moved slightly away from the gap on the wall. The imperial closed his eyes as his short sprint began and flung himself out of the soon-to-collapse tower. Once he felt like he had stopped falling, Gweezdo opened his crystalline eyes at last. The burnt out planks of the floor were merely inches away from his face, with him hovering above them merely thanks to Thorar. "Thanks..." Gweezdo jumped back on his feet, in the middle of the flames, trying to locate himself between the heavy clouds of smoke.

That building was barely livable. His lungs had trouble finding any oxygen in the toxic air he inhaled, and that same smoke that made breathing difficult, kept tears in his eyes for as long as he remained inside. And Gweezdo knew that he did not want to be inside. A Sonnex loaded with enough vials full of stuff more igniteable than a dragon's stomach acid to blow up a hold was about to begin his leap of faith towards the same building the imperial was in. If that wasn't scary, then nothing was. As quickly as his weakly starved legs (it had been long since his last meal, taking in account they couldn't eat too much before trying to pull off a heist such as the one that had condemned them to Helgen) allowed him, Gweezdo crawled out of the building, joining his friends as they spectated Sonnex's jump. "Why not just leave that stuff behind?" he shouted. It was usually pointless to say such a thing. As Gweezdo knew Sonnex would probably rather die than leaving behind any of his drinks of the devil for any other scoundrel to get his hands on, but still, he could have been changed by his near-execution, or the sight of an effing dragon. Nobody really escaped any slight change on their personality upon staring death in her eyes, not even someone like Sonnex. Unless... Well, one could never know with Sonnex. His stomach growled one last time before the jump that would determine how alive they would be when that episode was over, and Gweezdo massaged it while paying close attention.

Vaerwen's feet found the ground gracefully as Thorar set her aside. The heat from the flames altered the way the air around them looked, and the smoke was overwhelming. Thorar pointed her to an exit, and she was only too happy to take it.

Out in the fresh air, her thoughts collected-- as much as they could-- and she caught her breath. Her heart was still pounding from all the excitement, but the reality of the situation was beginning to set in.
They were all going to die if they didn't transcend the situation soon.

It was difficult for Vaerwen to keep her head level, but she tried very hard to do so. A strange emotion had been toying with her mind since the dragon first interrupted their execution. It wasn't happiness and it wasn't fear, but it greatly resembled both. The longer they lingered in Helgen, the more it gravitated towards the latter.

Gweezdo soon joined her, and they looked up at the next jumper: Sonnex.
Vaerwen's eyes widened in anticipation.
What would all the flasks exploding at once look like, anyway?
Although her mind did wander, she would rather it stay a mystery during their current circumstances.

"Why not just leave that stuff behind?" Gweezdo shouted up to their flammable friend.

The voice of reason sounds again, Vaerwen thought. Boring. But I can't argue this time.

"Sonnex, dear! There's more at home!" she echoed Gweezdo's suggestion. Vaerwen shook her head at herself, almost cringing at the thought of leaving the weapons behind.
"Not worth blasting your scary little face off for!"
She couldn't help wincing through her words.

Leaving the potions behind would be tragic. But losing any one of their number, Vaerwen felt, would be much worse. If Sonnex jumped into Thorar the wrong way while wearing those explosives, they could lose two in a single breath.
She didn't like leaning towards the cautious side. She didn't like thinking about being cautious.
But here she was, suggesting somebody else be cautious with her.

She glanced over at Gweezdo, who was rubbing his stomach.
"Look what you've got me doing now. I'm starting to make sense," she complained, looking back up at Sonnex.

Sonnex watched anxiously as one by one, their companions leapt to safety.

Sonnex knew, they knew, they should leave their concoctions behind and join the others. But some of the potions, tucked snugly into bandoleers and handsewn pockets, had taken months to develop. Months of furious note-taking, experimenting, rapid dashes to someone with mediocre healing abilities...the little imperial had poured their blood sweat and tears into their work, in the most literal sense.

Looking down through the flames however, Sonnex admitted that it wasn't worth the risk. With shaking hands, the sapper quickly and efficiently removed their burden, till all that was left was a smoke bomb and their trusty killing knife. Glancing at the impressive pile of potions one last time, Sonnex choked back a sob and took to the air, leaping through the climbing flames that licked at the charred and cracked stone bricks.

Sonnex landed heavily, rolling forward with the momentum of their jump, tumbling awkwardly to the feet of the others. Standing up, Sonnex wiped away a stray tear with a grubby sleeve and sniffed. It would take a lot of time to rebuild that inventory. But they still had their meticulous notes, scrawled on linen paper and stored lovingly in the trunk they kept under their cot. There were enough ingredients stored in their bases cellar to start with, and a few longer lasting poisons were stockpiled in various marked barrels. While it would be a lot of work to restore, it was worth it, just to know that they might live another day, and more importantly, so would their friends.

Looking up rather sheepishly at the group Sonnex nodded brusquely. "Well, we better get going innit?" As far as they were concerned, the matter was dealt with. Any mention of the sacrifice would likely reduce the bandits to further tears and that would only make everybody uncomfortable.

It was surprising to see that Sonnex had actually listened to Gweezdo about the safety of his stunt. Their little group wasn't particularly known for their affection with security and control, and even they were aware of such. Gweezdo offered Sonnex a hand to help him get back on his feet, but his friend proved not to need it, and got up by himself. The imperial did not take it the wrong way. The man had just lost his collection of bottled death. He deserved some slack cut at the very least, taking in account he had sacrificed it for everyone and not just himself. Plus, even if Gweezdo DID feel pettily stingy, his stomach was bothering him a lot more than any tantrum or whim could.

"I can't wait until we get back home and Kromar prepares us one of those stews of his..." He drooled a little, while looking around for a way out that wasn't either crowded with imperials or littered with Thalmor. He still remebered his first visit to the gang's fort. Gweezdo could not bring himself to believe that a man like Kromar would cook anything without jeopardizing everyone's lives. A large man, with a hook for a left hand, and a disturbingly never clean bloody cleaver on his right one would more easily be believed to be a heavy member of the Stormcloak infantry rather than a chef. It came as a pleasant surprise when a skinny man like Gweezdo that night was the one who ate the most bowls of his secret porridge.

But that was not the time to wander off to pleasant memories. The time was to run away, for a dragon still flew around them in circles and a small squad of imperials seemed to be considering the chance of going after them. A nearby semi-fallen wall seemed climbable, at least for his more physically apt comrades, seemed to be a plausible way out. Between the group and said exit were only a few soldiers, whose concerns were more about shooting a dragon rather than keeping an eye on who left Helgen alive. "Hmm... What do you think of escaping through that wall?" Gweezdo pointed his shivery bony finger. "From there we can surely find a road and, at the very least, head to Riverwood if all else fails."