[Jon's POV]
The journey to 'Cracked Tusk Keep' was not long. A 'Flame Horse Atronach' is the fastest way to travel on land ever known in these parts and I am proud to be the owner of the spell.
Keeping the 'Alarm' and 'Scan' spells casted was already a second nature to me. Nothing could escape my detection now.
Due to that, I managed to find one of the werewolves sniffing around Falkreath last night then went in the direction of 'Cracked Tusk Keep'.
This meant that the werewolves wanted to move earlier than what they planned to.
I need to arrive before them if they haven't arrived yet and make the necessary preparations.
I am carrying my Skyforge Saber and two staves on my back, the first is the Fire Destruction Staff I got from 'Hob's Fall Cave' and the second is a staff I acquired lately and it is a Conjuration Staff.
The Conjuration Staff was something I bought from an Imperial Battlemage stationed in Helgen and it was one hell of a deal. The guy was only expert in Destruction magic and the staff did him no good so I took it for a very good price. The staff has the ability to buff the control of the mage over the conjured creatures to another level.
Thus, I am going to rely on this staff in the coming fight if I got outnumbered.
After some time of riding, we finally reached the place I planned observing things from. It was a place on top of a mountain slope northwest to the keep.
I had previously made the system use some of my memories about the place to make a map of the terrain.
Now, let's see what we know.
Cracked Tusk Keep is a fort located to the west of Falkreath. It is occupied by a group of Orc bandits led by an Orc called 'Ghunzul'. I don't remember him being a werewolf in the game though!
The fort is named after the Orcs who now reside there. It was an abandoned fort that has now become an Orc Stronghold and is now guarded by hostile Orcs that will attack on sight.
The keep was surrounded by the mountain range from the northwest and the west all the way to the southeast, with a wide path that leads to it from the northeast.
From my vantage point, I can see that the grounds of the fort have the typical wooden palisade surrounding the keep. The guards are Orc bandits and they make good use of the many elevated positions around the keep.
It can be infiltrated by using the keep's series of ramps and lookout platforms, approaching from the west and climbing up the rubble to the top.
The keep's courtyard has several outbuildings designed for sustaining a small force. From left to right around the courtyard is a smokehouse with a variety of meats being cured and various animal pelts, a small rest area, and then the main door to the keep.
Across from the door is the fully equipped smithy, complete with a forge, workbench, grindstone, and a tanning rack.
Inside the smithy's shed is a table with a selection of varied quality armors and weapons.
There are three entrances into the keep. The first, and most direct, is the front door. The second is ideal for stealthy people, a door with a bit hard to unlock, directly south from the smithy and down a flight of stairs. This is the door to the cellar and can grant an advantage towards the guards in the main room. The third is a trapdoor, located on top of the southeast tower, which leads directly to the most inner area inside the keep.
The fort may look damaged but it will need a small force to force the way in through all those Orcs. The number of the Orcs itself has exceeded my expectation. I thought it would be something near to the number of cultists in 'Hob's Fall Cave' but the number of the Orcs here is around a hundred Orcs, all armed and alert.
I was greatly taken aback by that!
It's impossible for all of that number of Orcs to be werewolves, maybe some of them but certainly not all.
There were males and females which is rather unusual for an Orc settlement. Orc males tend to leave the settlement when they reach a certain age and have no right to inherit the chief position unless they challenge the chief in combat and slay him, even if they were father and son. That's why most Orc settlers should be females that serve that chief, the Alpha male of the settlement.
But to me, it looked like a combination of Orc males and females. young and old.
Interesting!
I know that there is a certain treasure in the keep other than the ring and I intend to steal it.
Wait a minute!
The ring and the treasure.
It makes sense now.
The treasure the fort hides is some part of an artifact that should be sealed in there. The ring they have is the ring of Hircine.
I see!
So those Orcs are not your usual clan of Orcs.
They do not worship Malacath, the usual Daedric deity that the orcs worship. They are worshippers of Hircine, and that's why they live like this.
I guess not all Orcs are the same, some may worship Aedra instead of the Daedra too. Morbagog from the Creation Club and the head librarian of the Arcanaeum of the College Urag gro-Shub both worship Julianos, the Aedric God of Wisdom and Logic like many other mages.
But never mind that now!
The most important question is, how will Sinding group attack that number of Orcs?
I mean, five against hundred is too spartan even for me.
Just as I asked the question in my head, the answer came out immediately.
"Jon, look!" Jull called for me and pointed at the path that leads to the fort from the northeast.
Sure as hell that was Sinding and his group but...
They are not alone!
They had a band of Nords with them.
They looked rather strange!
Hmmm!
Bandits.
They were all bandits.
Something like a hundred bandit or so.
So that's how it was. They also had an equal force.
"That's a little bit too much for us to deal with!" Jull face was smiling but it showed some hints of anger.
"Well, we still have to make it somehow."
"Got any ideas?" She asked.
Hmmm!
I activated 'Scan' and started sweeping the sides with my magic, there was no one with a strong magic signal anyway. It meant both sides have no mages.
Based on that, I started making scenarios in my mind and it felt a little bit too annoying to deal with all that number on my own.
Fine!
"We are calling for reinforcements!"
Jull looked at me as if she was looking at some idiot.
"We don't have reinforcements." She said.
"We don't?" I was taken aback.
"Do we?" She became confused.
"We do." I said.
"There is?" She asked.
I took the Conjuration Staff on my back and waved with it to her.
She raised her brows from the surprise.
"Don't say it!"
"Yep, the reinforcements are conjurable."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Sinding POV]
Torkild has called for his acquaintances, they all look like bandits. I knew I shouldn't have become part of this from the start.
Still, Eriana and the others seemed to be fine with it too! Weren't they just hunters?
From what I overheard, Torkild's father seems to be someone with power and influence. But what kind of influence makes a man able to command all that number of bandits?
Just what kind of situation did I get myself into?
I only wanted to be a better huntsman, to hunt as the beasts do. Not some bandit!
What should I do now?
Rissing was still in his werewolf form from last night's encounter with the mages. How can he endure it that much?
The strange thing is the bandits who came barely reacted to him. Does seeing a werewolf can be something that usual to them?
"Listen men!" Torkild raised his voice and started talking. "Those filthy Orcs possess something that does not belong to them! It is a treasure that was passed down from Lord Hircine to his chosen ones. We are to retrieve that ring no matter what! Prove your worth in battle and all the treasures in this fort will belong to you!"
"""""YEAAAH!"""""
"""""KILL THEM ALL!"""""
"""""KILL! KILL! KILL!"""""
This is madness!
Why am I going to participate in a skirmish like this?
"Sinding! I am leaving the archers to you." Torkild turned to me and said.
Damn! I am too deep in this now.
"Fine! What do you want me to do?" I had no choice but to comply.
"Go to the south with thirty men, take down anyone on the south tower and the courtyard. Once we break the gate open, join the attack with the men!"
"Easy, I'll do it!" I said.
Actually, I was afraid of joining the fight head-on without transforming but it will be safer that way.
Still, I felt somehow uneasy!
That mage from yesterday is still in my head.
I commanded the men and took the high ground on the south! The Orcs tried to shoot us but we were already prepared to fend off the arrows with our shields.
Torkild, Eriana, and Heratar started transforming into werewolves and joined Rissing.
Their howls marked the start of the skirmish.
I spotted some Orcs on the tower and gave the order to shoot them down. They also started shooting at us but it was rather not that threatening for both sides.
Almost an hour passed!
No sign of our force breaking into the keep anytime soon.
The moment they move forward, they face a volley of arrows and stones from the keep.
Only around seven died on both sides with some injured people but it seemed that it will take some more time.
I was too focused on the keep that I didn't realize something was going on in the north!
The moment someone pointed it out I noticed a strange light coming from the slope to the north. Seemed like fire!
I suddenly saw something terrifying!
I realized what it was!
"RETREAT! TELL TORKILD TO RETREAT!"
I shouted as loud as I can!
My fear was on the spot.
The Mage is here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Jon's POV, a few minutes earlier]
The bandits started to make apply their plans.
Thirty men with Sinding to the southeast, seventy men with the werewolves to the east. The Orcs locked down their fort and started shooting arrows.
I was standing on my high ground northwest to the fort and saw how the scene was unfolding.
Hehe! This will be fun.
My first open battle.
It's only a hundred bandits against a hundred Orcs but shame on me if I didn't mess it up.
Okay, let's get down to business.
I took the Conjuration Staff and started evoking a spell on it while heading down to the north of the fort, as the place can take a small force in it.
I am going to summon my undead battalion.
Undead are the easiest to control so they will give me the highest number possible. With my training in the last four months and the staff I acquired, my conjuration will be much stronger than before.
The first thing I called for was fifty 'Bonemen', the archer type black skeletons. It took me quite a while and a lot of Magicka but Jull was pouring Magicka Regeneration potions and Magicka Restoration potions in my mouth when I ask to.
After calling for the fifty Bonemen, I changed to 'Conjure Mistman' spell.
The hovering half skeleton Mistmen are a bit harder to control so I summoned only twenty of them.
The last spell was 'Conjure Wrathman' spell. A spell that I took from Nurina and started studying during the journey.
Wrathmen are armored skeletal undead found in the Soul Cairn. Compared to the other Soul Cairn undead such as the Bonemen and Mistmen, Wrathmen are much more warrior-like, wearing ancient-looking armor and wielding two-handed weapons.
[A/N: a pic http://images.uesp.net//a/a3/SR-creature-Wrathman.jpg ]
The amount I could conjure of that kind of undead was not that high was only ten, but they are very powerful.
Ten Wrathmen heavy infantry, twenty Mistmen Frost magic casters, and fifty Bonemen Archers. Now that's what I call a formation.
"Jull, take the staff from me."
I handed the staff to Jull. Giving her that staff meant giving her the power to use the spell under my control. It also meant she is commanding eighty undead creature now.
We made a hasty formation with the undead and everything was in place right to the north of the fort. No one could see us here.
The last thing I have in mind was how to make an entrance.
I ran back to the high ground in the northwest and took the Fire magic staff.
"Now! Let's get this party started, 'Meteor'!"
[A/N: A pic for the battle plan https://ibb.co/j3p6sK ]