The group had started their work the moment the sun rose into the sky Asadelf and Lianya split the enchanting chore exchanging small talk regarding magicka, and other related topics. Gentu and Yamma take up the smithing chores with Yamma crafting the weapons from the ingots found in the keep while Gentu improves the weapons and armor passed to him by Yamma and loads them into a cart then passes them over to Asadelf and Lianya for the enchanting. Nearby Myra and Sabrina were reading a book while waiting for the pawn loot so she and Sabrina could count and estimate the income. Severin and Salazar were perched on one of the lookout points keeping watch as the door to the keep was wide open to allow easy access for the group although Salazar was blind he used the detect life spell and was acting as a sentinel. Gila was roasting a large elk over an open fire for their lunch as the els's hide was being tanned on a rack in the courtyard. Ebon-shi, Tully, and Suvvan went to Falkreath to pick up supplies and pick up Tully's helmet from Lod the blacksmith. As fortune had it, Lod was finishing the final repairs when Tully had entered his workshop. " Ah, there you are my friend, your timing is perfect I just finished the repairs on your helmet." Said Lod as he handed over the formally heavily damaged daedric helmet now looking brand new. " I'm shocked, it looks just like I did when I first got it." Tully said as he paid the man and met up with Suvvan who was unsurprisingly eating an elder cheese wedge while leaning against the border walls of Falkreath. " Hey, cheese nut, wheres the boss?" asked Tully who put the helmet in his bag. as he noticed the madness armored nord pointing at the guard's barracks where a skooma crazed breton was trying to pick a fight with Ebon-shi as the ebony shadow true to his reputation remained indifferent to the frantic man waving his arms not being hostile towards him, that was until the breton pulled out an elven dagger and stabbed it in the side of the ebony mail the moonstone blade not even scratching the dark armor as Ebon-shi turned his head slightly his blood red eyes peering from theeye opening the ebony helmet he was wearing. " was that your best shot? Now let me show you mine." He said as he turned swiftly smashing his ebony boot into the side of the breton's head and knocking him clean out. The Falkreath guards ran over investigating what happened as the local good trader explained that the breton was drunk with skooma and attacked Ebon-shi who then defended himself. Before the guards could ask Ebon-shi he was already gone along with Tully and Suvvan who silently were making their way back to cracked tusk keep in a triangular formation as these tall trees and the dense foliage provided the perfect cover for a sneak attack. The three heavily armored trio kept their guard up as they made their way back to the rest of the group but after a few more steps Ebon-shi pulled the bow of shadows from his back and trained an arrow about ten feet behind them in the bushes and loosed an ebony arrow into a bandit highwayman's torso pinning him to the large pine tree as Tully pulled the bloodskal blade off of his back while Suvvan pulled nerveshatter off of his back while they scanned their surroundings knowing these bandits never travel solo, like Falmer, where there's one there are always a whole infestation nearby. " Alright lads, to the keep and haul ass!" Ebon-shi said as the trio maneuvered back to back just in case there were any bandits following them just as the keep came into view a bandit marauder rushed them just to be dropped by a crossbow bolt between the eyes courtesy of Severin as Salazar was using detect life and pointing where the enemies were as Severin took them out. "We're back guys, and we got some small jobs to handle while we await Shadow-step, we'll wait for everyone to assemble before we start." Ebon-shi said as he laid the few papers on the table inside at the top of the stairs as he waited for the rest to finish their own collective work. After a bit the group reconvened at the table to hear Ebon-shi's report. " Alright we have three local jobs here, one is clearing out a bandit hideout about twenty minutes northwest of here, next we have a hunting job there's a herd of elk that the tavern wants to be hunted down to restock their supply, then lastly we have an extermination job some miners dug into a nordic tomb filled with ores, and infested with draugr and they offered a big reward if they were all eliminated so what do you all say?" Ebon-shi asked as he looks to his group. " I'll handle the hunting job, I love a good hunt." Gila said as she took the hunting bounty. " Since it involves undead, ill go, there are some new necromancy spells I wanna try." Tully said as Gentu stood up " I'll go to, destroying undead is one of my specialties." Gentu said as Lianya nods as she got up going with them Tully took the extermination job as Gentu and lianya grouped up with him. " And lastly there's the bandit hideout." Ebon-shi said. " We'll go." said Severin as he lightly pats Salazar's shoulder. " Me too, i wanna kick some ass." Added Sabrina as she walks up with Severin and Salazar. " I'll join up with you too." Said Ebon-shi as he walks to the group heading to the bandit hideout. " This leaves Asadelf, Suvvan, Myra, and Yamma, to guard the fort and wait for Shadow-step to return." Ebon-shi said as the group split up to take care of their own separate tasks. Gila left first her mouth watering at the thrill of the hunt as she rushed down the forested path, Tully's group went to the excavated nord ruin to deal with the draugr infestation, while Ebon-shi led Severin, Salazar, and Sabrina to clear out the bandit camp
(Gila pov)
My heart raced, my senses at their peak, my adrenaline rushing as I tracked the deer herd's tracks. I found a patch of fresh elk manure which I smeared on myself to mask my scent so they wouldn't smell me. My mother had taught me to master the art of tracking my prey, since the elk manure was still warm I knew I was close I pulled the glass bow of the stag prince off of my back and slid a bone arrow on the bowstring as I slowly and silently creep through the bushes with a predators grace. I peered into the meadow observing a herd of elk about seven bucks and four or five does with about six fawns I marked my targets and drew my bow. I took a moment to steady my breathing and fired a bone arrow into the back of the skull of the rear buck readying another arrow I shot another buck then a doe. I slung the bow over my back and went around the elk herd who by the blessing of Hircine was blissfully unaware they were being hunted as I shot the ones from the back rather than making the novice mistake of attacking the leader of the herd and because I landed headshots they didn't make a sound to alert the others of danger. As i was thinking of how to transport the prey i had just hunted i spotted a broken wagon with only one wheel. I nod to myself as I shoot two more big bucks on my way to Falkreath and I dragged the one wheeled wagon over as I lift each dear carcass into the wagon I pull the approximately eleven hundred and fifty-pound load on the wagon straining my muscles I growl as I struggle to both pull the wagon, and balance it on its one wheel behind me. I hope the others were having such a fun time.
(Tully pov)
Within a little while Myself, Gentu, and Lianya arrived at the excavated nordic tomb, we were not even inside but I could already hear the draugr skittering around inside. I use my vampire senses and use echolocation to see them through the walls I silently enter first pulling the mace of Molag Bal from my right hip with dawnfang and bloodthirst crossed on my back with the bloodskal blade in the middle as I enter I use one of the new necromancer conjuration spells I learned and summoned a bone colossus.
a skeleton champion.
and two skeleton warlocks.
The bone colossus shouted sending a few draugr flying while the two skeleton warlocks shot lightning killing more draugr as the skeleton champion clashed with a draugr scourge with ancient nordic swords clashing against one another. I mentally made a note to add these to my personal arsenal I had gotten ahold of another spell I was gonna try after my current summons expired, this one was very difficult as I pulled out the tome and sat on a nearby rock rereading the tome to make sure I understood it thoroughly as when it comes to conjuration there is no room for error. Sadly the bone colossus disappeared along with the skeleton champion and skeleton warlocks like all conjuration spells they had their time limit and their time was up. I readied the other conjuration spell and summoned an ancient death priest.
The undead summoned lich let out an undead shriek as it shot lightning from its hands killing and reanimating the dead draugr as undead thralls this one is a definite keeper in my opinion. But sadly all the draugr were dead already and I barely got to try out my ancient death priest so I made it disappear as we left the tomb after sweeping the rest of the ruin to ensure we didn't miss any sneaky draugr. After confirming we got them all we left the ruin and made our way to Falkreath to meet up with Gila and the boss's group.
(Ebon-shi pov)
We arrived at a cave that was supposed to house a bandit gang I looked over to Severin, Salazar, and Sabrina. who gave me the nod that they were ready. Severin and Salazar took the high ground while Sabrina and I took the ground level we crept till we found the bandit hideout was a commandeered Falmer lair evident by the corpses of the blinded snow elves accompanied by dead chorus bodies, clearly these bandits used an ambush tactic to take them out. I silently used our hand signals to tell Severin, Salazar, and Sabrina to be careful and proceed with caution. Severin and Salazar were perched on an overhanging cliff with a clear line of sight of the bandits, I crouched as the ebony mail enveloped me in shadows as I silently crept around them to flank them pulling the ebony blade off of my back, as Severin shot the lookout above where I was settled which got they're attention as they went towards the sound Salazar dropped down wielding his twin falmer war axes his vision being temporarily fixed using detect life as a replacement vision dashing from bandit to marauder to highwaymen as Severin fired more bolts from up high head-shotting two more bandits while Sabrina came in from the right duel wielding her twin scimetars as she left a trail of blood in her wake, I came out of the shadows and bolted towards the bandit chief who was wearing full carved nordic armor and a nordic battleaxe. the bandit heard me and pulled the battleaxe off of his back but I was faster as my ebony blade slashed cleanly through his neck decapitating him in a clean single strike. I swiped the air to sling the blood off of the blade although I'm sure it was enjoying its blood bath, too much of a good thing can go bad. I placed the blade on my back and regrouped with the other three who were looting the bodies for valuables "Anything good?" I asked as Sabrina nodded with a grin." About 498 gold, gemstones, and jewelry. We got an average profit from this job." She said as Severin was retrieving the bolts from the bodies. and putting them in the quiver on his lower back. Salazar stays close to Severin using detect life scanning for any runners, if they retreated we'd let them go and whack them another time, but if they attacked we'd retaliate with lethal force with Salazar shaking his head giving us the all-clear we left the bandit hideout and headed to Falkreath to report the mission complete and to regroup with Gila and Tully's groups.