The sun had yet to rise, but Rez was awakened by the sound of a Nord yelling. “Get that damn cart out of the way. Yes, you there, move it!”
“What the fuck are you yelling about,” Rez groaned.
“Is anyone…. Oh, forgive me. There’s a cart in the middle of the road. Apparently, everyone around here is deaf and stupid. They should know not to leave something in the middle of a carriage path. The least someone could do is acknowledge that I’m here.”
“Well, no use sitting here with our thumbs up our asses.” With that, Rez stood up and stretched out. His back and legs let out loud and satisfying cracks as he did so. “Well, are you getting down?” The driver finally sighed and stood up. Bothe men jumped down and started walking towards the cart. Rez realized where they were, Shor’s Stone. He hadn’t spent too much time here, but he passed through several times on trips to the Meadery in Riften.
When they were only a few feet away from the cart, they saw what was inside. Bodies, recently dead. “By the Nine, what happened to them?” the driver exclaimed. As if on cue, voices started welling up to the right of them. Soon, people started coming into view from the dark. They were carrying a few more people with them. One of the men saw Rez and the driver and started to yell at them. “Clear out of here. Can’t you see that we had a cave-in. Either help out or get out.” He sat one of the bodies down in the cart and went over to another man that was carrying someone that was still alive. Rez quickly went into his pack and grabbed his Resoration potions. He walked over to the injured man and knelt next to him. “Here my friend, drink this. It won’t heal you completely, but it should numb your pain.” The man nodded the best that he could and Rez poured the potion into his mouth. The man looked at Rez and started to open his mouth, but Rez put his hand over the man’s mouth. “Thank me later. For now, try not to do anything.”
Rez sat down his potions and started walking towards the mine. He looked over and saw that the driver was gone. When he turned towards the mine, he saw the driver exiting with another dead in hand. Rez saw the dead man as he walked past him. He had deep purple war paint covering half of his face. The other half of his head had been crushed in the cave-in. Rez turned forward and entered the mine. Luckily, someone had lit some torches inside. I wouldn’t have any idea where I’m walking otherwise, Rez thought. The people that had been helping the miners were all towards the front of the mine. They must have got everyone out of the back first. You can’t call these Nords stupid. Only two injured remained. One of the injured miners was so large that two men had to carry him out. Another carried a small Breton out by himself.
Rez stood by himself for a few seconds before turning to leave. One step away from the entranceway and he heard a groan echoing through the mine. Rez quickly darted back into the mine and started calling out. “Hello. Can you hear me?” Rez did not hear a reply at first, but a few seconds later, he heard the groan again. Further down. He kept going and calling out, getting closer to the source of the noise. Finally, at the back of the mine, he saw a green arm sticking out from under some rocks. He ran over and started clearing the rock off of the Orc. When the Orc was no longer covered, Rez turned him over to pick him up. “What do you think you are doing Redguard?” Rez looked at the Orc’s face and saw that he was glaring at him.
“I’m getting you out of here. That is, unless you want to stay?”
“I can walk out of here myself.” Surprisingly, the Orc stood up and started walking towards the entrance. After a few steps, however, he fell down to a knee. Rez quickly walked over to him and crouched under his arm to help him walk out. “Thanks.”
“Think nothing of it.” The Orc was a heavy mass of muscle, but Rez had no trouble helping him out of the mine. Rez sat him down near the other inured and looked over at his potions. As he suspected, they were already gone. He reached into his pack and produced a bottle of Black Briar Reserve that he picked up back at Candlehearth. He handed it to the Orc who promptly guzzled it down.
After a few hours, the sun was coming up and the injured had been all attended to. Someone had also sent a courier to Riften to send a healer. The people that helped bring out the bodies were trying to identify them. Rez walked over to the Orc who was attending some of the injured. The Orc turned to Rez and said, “Sorry about before. I don’t think I could let someone carry me out when I could walk out myself.”
“I understand. I don’t think that I could either.” Rez extended his hand. “My name’s Rez’Aleem.” The Orc grabbed it and shook it. “Fahlzgrub.”
“What were you doing down there anyway?”
“I come down here from the marsh to mine. I was walking out when it caved in. I ran in towards the back. I knew there were a few back there, but they were already dead. I started dragging them towards the front and then… I’m not sure. I just remember falling down.”
“You probably had some rock fall on your head. You were pretty covered when I found you.”
“It wasn’t a rock. I woke up at one point and started to get up when there was a second cave-in. That’s when I got covered.” Rez thought about this for second, but wiped it from his head. “We’ll figure that out later. You think you can help identify some of these bodies since you work in there?”
“Should be able to help.” The men walked over to the cart where the bodies had been. Four of the five dead had been removed so that their families in town could see them before they went to the Hall of The Dead in Riften. The remaining body was the Nord that the carriage driver had carried out. Rez saw that the Orc was looking him over carefully. “I’ve never seen this one before this morning. He was the first one that I found.”
“He must have been under quite a big rock to get a wound like that.”
“That’s the thing. I found him first because he wasn’t under any rock. I found him with his face like that.” Rez thought about what the Orc said about falling down and realized that there may be more to it. “Do you think that it may have been a weapon hilt that hit you?”
“Anything’s possible, but no one else was alive in the back of the mine. I don’t know who could have done it.”
“I have an idea. Did you notice anything unusual about the cave-in?”
“No. Although, there was a burning smell that’s never there. Like someone had blown something up. Not sure what any of that means.”
“It means that it’s something I will need to look into. For now, don’t worry about it. I’ll passing back through here in a day or so. If you think of anything, let me know.”
“I’ll probably be back in the marsh by then, but I will try to stick around.” Rez looked over at the carriage and saw that the driver was saddling back up so he figured that he should as well. He walked over and climbed back onto the carriage. The driver looked back him and said, “I guess we’re off to Riften then?”
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