Jovur had caught up with the group, faking panting. "I apologize for being late. I caught and grilled some fish with my flames. They seem to taster better that way." Jovur handed each of the party members a grilled salmon, each wrapped neatly in linen cloth. Always conviently to have a cover story. "We're heading to Embershard Mine, correct?"
"Riiiight... well, thanks for the fish. And yeah, we're going to Embershard Mine. Are you ready?" Without waiting for a reply, Fox turned and headed out the gate. It struck her as odd that she hadn't seen him by the river, but she supposed he could have been fishing somewhere further downstream. She shrugged inwardly. It wasn't worth thinking about too much.
Mir grabbed one. "Thank you." He said. He ate it in almost a second and then followed Fox without saying anything else.
Niza looked over the salmon with some distaste as she followed Fox. "You know, I was never really a big fan of salmon... Anyone want my piece?"
"This one will take it off your hands," Q'discraan offered with barely contained glee; he preferred it raw, but fish was fish!
After a half hour of walking, Fox pointed to a group of three standing stones in the distance. "Those are the Guardian Stones," she said, almost excitedly. "We're almost there. Are we ready to do this?"
Mir nodded, having ready his sheld wuth him and his hand in the hilt of his sword to be ready for anything.
"Q'discraan nodded; he had eaten his fish and was feeling good. "Yes. If you want, I can scout ahead; see what awaits us inside?" He could evade trained guards, shuffling corpses would never notice his presence.
"It probably couldn't hurt. Just don't try to take them on alone." Fox looked at the Khajiit sternly. "I'm serious. In and out. Nothing foolish. I've lost more friends to overconfidence than I care to think about."
"Life is short," Q'discraan replied, "Q'discraan does not seek to make it shorter still. He will return soon." With that, he cast invisibility, and crept towards the mine, avoiding the path; the dead were none too sharp, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The entrance to the mine was abandoned, save for the corpse of a recently cut down miner. Q'discraan checked his pockets and secured a few septims before moving into the mine. The mine was in complete darkness; the torches had all either burnt out or been dropped by the miners in their hurry to get away. The darkness was not an issue for him of course; it was his ally, shielding him from view as he crept through the mine, keeping count of the aimlessly shambling Draugr and noting their equipment. He continued on until he came to a raised bridge; he could see more Draugr beyond it, so he assumed the miners had raised it in their escape. Seeing no way around the bridge, and not wanting to attract attention by lowering it, he returned through the darkness to report to the others. "Five Draugr that I could see," Q'discraan announced, emerging suddenly from the bushes next to the group, "Three with blades, one has a bow, and the last carries a battleaxe." He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the thought of such an inelegant weapon. "Then there is a bridge, Q'discraan does not know how many are beyond that, but he could smell their foul stench."
"Good to know what we're up against." Fox grinned and drew her sword. "Shall we?" Once again not waiting for a reply, she charged ahead and kicked open the door to the mine. A split second later, she jumped back as an ebony arrow whistled past her ear. "Ebony weapons... by the Nine..." She called back to her companions, "These aren't regular draugr. We're fighting deathlords."
"Tsk...." Deathlords, great, just what they needed. He drew his ebony sword and went to her help, blocking more arows with his shield to protect her. He had to keep his companions alive if they wanted to take them down. He charged against the first one. "Zun-Haal-Viik!" He shouted, making the deathlord drop his sword and making it easier to fight.
Fox spotted the archer, and charged forward. As she ran, she cast Flame Cloak on herself, covering her body in a magical fire that would burn anyone that got too close. A swift strike with her blade set the draugr ablaze, and it attempted to fall back to fire another arrow. It quickly found its path blocked by a Wall of Flames, yet another of Fox's favorite spells. Fox grinned widely at the doomed archer, and unleashed her Shout. "YOL TOOR SHUL!" A blast of flame shot from her mouth, immolating the draugr. It took a few weak steps towards her before dropping dead at her feet.
Q'discraan cast invisibility once more, and slipped around his companions at the mouth of the mine. He hurried down the tunnel as stealthily as possible until he reached the Draugr with the axe; drawing his dagger, he moved to the back of his foe, and drew the blade across the exposed portion of the corpse's neck. The dessicated flesh gave little resistance and the dagger sunk through to the bone. Grabbing his foe's head with his free hand, he sunk his claws into it's helm, jumped up, and planted a two footed kick to the creature's back. It's head separated from it's body with a satisfying crack.
With his fow disarmed, Mir quickly managed to defeat the death lord, decapitating.it with hiss word in just obe swift movement. He saw its head flying for a moment, but he remained calm after killing it. He was sure his companions managed to take down the others.
Q'discraan grinned as he pulled his claws out of the helm and dropped his opponents head, then quickly jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding being decapitated himself; one of the remaining Draugr had charged him whilst he was momentarily distracted. Cursing his recklessness, he continued to duck and weave, dodging the swings being directed at him. As soon as a window opened, he cast invisibility and once more disappeared into the darkness. (There are two left, by my count; are we waiting for the others to take them down?)
Niza, stunned for a few moments at the yelling and fire before charging in. She went for the Draugr that attacked Q'discraan, slamming her shield in to it's back to knock it over before repeatedly bringing her sword down on it.
Jovur torched the remaining Draugr with Incinerate, and then laid down his hands. "Anybody hurt? I got spells to fix that."
"I'm okay. How's everyone else doing?" Fox's nose wasn't as good as a Khajiit's, but she could definitely smell more of the undead further into the mine. The fight wasn't over yet.
