The pair of unusual allies briskly, and silently, proceed down the poorly lit stairwell at the end of the hallway. As they do both keenly listen to their surroundings. "Lund" is taking in his surroundings more fully than his companion, due to the fact that his lycanthropic senses are not at all deterred by the piss-poor lightning only barely illuminating the militaristic scene he is in.

The werewolf focuses his senses in the direction the duo needs to go in. This seems odd in the moment, since the traveling companions are walking down the stairs and Lund keeps looking off in the distance, seemingly intent on staring at the slowly sloping ceiling as he attempts to make use of his ability to see the energy inside of souls to stay alert and ready in case anyone is waiting to ambush them.

The building the duo is inside of has good bones, it is of solid nordic make, but it is not an ancient building. The keep has not weathered a true siege, or an attack the likes of which the primordial dragon is unleashing on Helgen. It is of mundane make and lacks the esoteric, supernatural protections that adorn some of the primeval structures supposedly erected in the Mythic Era.

Outside of the keep, amid the chaos of battle, the cosmically ancient enemy waging war on both the stormcloaks and the imperials roars. The far-off sound causes the building to faintly vibrate. Neither nord dares to talk about the surreality of the apocalyptic situation they are in. Lund does not do so, despite his advanced, meta-knowledge, because he is not sure what good it would do at this moment. Hadvar does not say anything because he recognizes how odd his alliance is and acknowledging it vocally would only cement the awkwardness.

When the two reach the bottom of the stairwell they find themselves at the mouth of a narrow passageway. It is built like a short sword in the sense that it is short and narrow. A pair of doors are visible on the same side of the passageway, and both doors are of identical make, illuminated by flickering torches, connected to the same wide storeroom.

Hadvar smiles as he recognizes the space ahead of them, and Lund picks up on the excitement his ally feels. Hadvar is about to dart into the passageway, but the second he begins to speed up he inelegantly trips, his attempted dash interrupted by a subtle, instinctual use of telekinesis by his temporary traveling partner.

Hadvar is dexterous enough to catch himself mid-stumble but Lund's subtle usage of his supernatural ability is a life-saving one. As soon as Hadvar resumes his attempt to enter the passageway the building the two have fled into quakes violently and the ceiling a short distance ahead of Hadvar collapses, blocking the direct path deeper into the keep. Hadvar's face falls as he watches rubble, consisting of wood, stone, and other construction materials, cut off the route he intended to take to slip out of Helgen.

Hadvar stops some feet from where the rubble begins to pile up, even as the ceiling continues to collapse for a few seconds. Lund is not deterred by this significant obstacle, only somewhat due to the conceptual and narrative knowledge he knows due to his prior experiences with this particular world. His ability to ignore the sudden obstacle mostly stems from his determination to leave this place as quickly as he can without attracting the wrath or interest of the World-Eater.

As Lund steps to Hadvar's side his enhanced senses alert him to the nearby presence of people on the other side of the door on this half of the area past the collapsed ceiling. Lund focuses on the auras, as he wonders who is approaching and he wordlessly activates one of his new perks "Complete Control".

"Complete Control" is an ability he possesses due to his new nature as a lycanthrope. This ability allows him to more successfully do something he has been practicing since his first jump: toggle any of the perks he possesses fully on, fully off, or somewhere in between at any given time. He takes this moment to fully manifest all of his social perks, which number among the most dramatically powerful of the perks he possesses, just in case the people approaching him and his temporary traveling partner are friends.

Lund is a mixture of things, even beyond the man's true nature as a vessel for the soul of a jumper to occupy. Lund's manufactured history notes that he is a warrior, a decently experienced adventurer who has taken on fierce brigands, trolls, giant spiders, and the like. Additionally, the nord is a trained historian and something of a scholar, an up-and-coming historian, and these facets of his personal history became embedded in his soul due to the perks belonging to the origins that the eldritch benefactor watching Lund's adventures selected when creating and inserting Lund into Aurbis.

Brand new social perks are fully activated for the first time, and as they light up within the eldritch, modified soul of the jumper, knowledge swells into him. Perks with names like "Songs of Sovngarde", "Jagged Crown" and "Souls of Sovngarde", fill the imitation of a nord with knowledge well beyond what he knows as a casual fan of the complex world created by the Bethesda Game Studio.

This knowledge couples powerfully with other social perks that Lund possesses, and the figure smiles when the door to his left opens and a pair of nords dressed in the effective armor of the imperial legion gaze at the pair standing in front of an enormous pile of rubble. Hands quickly move to sword scabbards as the imperial guards size up Lund and Hadvar.

"What are you doing?! Do you not hear the carnage up on the surface?" One of the guards asks, his voice filled with powerful nordic fury. Hadvar steps forward, moving between Lund and the loyal citizens of the empire.

"I am following orders! I was instructed to head to Whiterun and inform the jarl of what is transpiring here." Hadvar states, his voice filling with pride as he thinks of serving the legion in his own way and getting to stay alive. The imperials study the figure for a moment, and Lund can sense that they are attempting to figure out if it is likely that Hadvar is telling the truth.

Lund's ears, hidden behind his messy hair, perk up as he hears something faint in the distance. His eyes narrow in confusion as he wonders whether or not to look in the direction of the sensory stimuli he is only barely perceiving.

The nords standing in front of Lund and Hadvar look at Lund in confusion, intimidated by the nord's large frame coupled with the unpleasant look on his face. The two glance at each other, and nod, before looking at Hadvar.

"Fine, go on. Do your duty. Report to the Jarl. But if we find out you deserted…" One of them says, his voice a low growl. The gesture is clearly meant to intimidate the duo, but both men simply give the imperial a blank, fearless look. The two nords move to the side and the warriors dart past them. As soon as the soldiers are out of the way Hadvar and Lund dart past him and into a huge chamber.

The chamber is being used as a storeroom for vast amounts of supplies. There are barrels filled with simple rations, ingredients for potions, and more, as well as bookshelves that are used to safely store and organize various records meant to account for all sorts of supplies, expenses, and more minutia related to military logistics.

"Lund, quickly check the barrels. See if there is anything we can take with us." Hadvar tells his ally, and the nord nods and does as the soldier asks. The tall warrior scholar darts over to a nearby barrel and inspects both the thing and its contents, before sighing in disappointment, though this is an act. Lund's sense of smell allows him to easily discern the contents of things like barrels from some distance away with ease.

The two nords do this for a brief handful of minutes, and end up leaving the room with a few potions in packs they grab from within the room. Lund, though, is clever and hides some extra supplies he finds in his inventory, which he is now fully aware holds normal objects and his fiat-backed belongings with the same ease.

Once the two have emptied the chamber of immediately useful goods they exit it and find themselves in the other end of the passageway Hadvar was, just minutes ago, so excited to dart down. A single stairwell leads deep into the dark bowels of the keep, and Lund can hear distant grunts and the weighty sounds of weapons slicing through air and into unlucky warriors, as well as see the faintest traces of the auric energy lifeforms passively radiate thanks to his supernaturally enhanced sight.

Lund looks at his companion and exhales quietly before he begins to race down the stairwell. Hadvar follows after the warrior, and as the two reach the bottom of the flight of stairs he begins to hear the sounds of battle. He is about to point the sounds out to his companion but when he looks at him he sees that the warrior is keenly aware of the battle that is occurring.

"Stormcloaks here in the keep… Gods help us." Hadvar mutters, darkly, as the two enter a room where a fierce fight is underway. The room is a large chamber where four iron cages take up prime real estate, and various warriors clash. One lightly armored imperial soldier wears a brown hood and roars as he points his hands at a number of stormcloaks who cautiously tread lightly around him, while a pair of warmly clad individuals wield iron weapons and have split up the remaining stormcloaks. The stormcloaks are cautious fighters, and they refuse to lunge into the steely embraces of their foes, instead seemingly content with the acts of bearing down on the members of the Empire and keeping them from reinforcing the members of the legion up on the surface.

Lund and Hadvar are on the other end of the chamber, a fair distance from the fighting, but Lund is quick to intervene with skillful uses of telekinesis. He reaches out towards distant foes and uses telekinesis to wrap invisible hand-like appendages around the weapons of the stormcloaks, before forcefully pulling the objects out of the hands of their wielders. In unintentional unison, the stormcloaks cry out as they find their weapons liberated from their grips, and the imperials notice this. The soldiers loyal to the Empire do not hesitate and seize the advantage, lunging forward with their swords drawn and their fury as readily equipped as any sword.

Stormcloaks cry out in pain as the trio of legion soldiers impale or burn them. When the wandering duo of adventurers reaches the edge of the battle Hadvar darts to the aid of the closest imperial soldier as one of the surviving stormcloaks bravely darts towards their weapons. Hadvar cuts down one of the warriors reaching for his dropped axe, and lashes out at another with a savage kick. Lund uses telekinesis, less subtly this time, to send the two surviving soldiers facing the other lightly armed soldier fighting for unity hurtling away from her, giving her time to dart towards them and then dispose of the unarmed warriors one at a time.

Lund moves to the far edge of the chamber, and as he moves he inelegantly has the stormcloaks facing down the hooded soldier forcefully crumple before the man. This causes the dark wizard to let out a wicked-sounding cackle and begin the split-second process of transforming the esoteric magicka within him into twin jets of scarlet fire.

He moves his arms towards the crumpled stormcloaks, just a split second before the air in front of his fingertips turns a sickly shade of red as fire rips through the air. Lund watches as the armor worn by the stormcloak soldiers catch fire, and he promptly uses his telekinesis to silence the screams that nearly rip through their throats, the sound dying on their lips as Lund begins to sweat due to the phantom sensations he is vulnerable to when telekinetically manipulating people or objects.

The torturer continues to laugh as Hadvar and Lund take stock of the situation. Hadvar commands the soldiers who aided the torturer to search the stormcloaks. Lund, meanwhile, walks towards one of the massive cages and studies its contents. Inside the cage in the middle of the room is a long-dead mage dressed in the robes and hoods of the students of the arcane and aspiring masters of the mystical energies that permeate every living being.

The werewolf opts to gaze at the robe the murdered magic user is dressed in and is surprised to see that the symbol hand drawn on the front of the robe. Lund's surprise is due to the fact that the iconic symbol serves as a handy identifier filling those reasonably cognizant of magical symbology with assumptions about whoever dons the robes. The symbol depicts an open hand and the fingertips turn into blood-red flames. The symbol assures all who see it that the one who wears the symbol is, at least somewhat, a deadly expert when it comes to precise uses of destruction magic.

Lund is aware of the magic in this outfit, immediately and correctly identifying that the robes were once part of a wizard's attire, all thanks to the advanced and bizarre knowledge the figure knows. He has spent hundreds of hours in this world, hours which he is now grateful to have spent in Skyrim. Hours he spent studying this place, exploring different plot lines and seeing how different choices affect the involved characters.

The telekinetic closes his eyes and wills the small object, which includes things like the mage's hood, off of the skeleton and into his hand. When it hits the front of his outstretched hand he wills the object to vanish, which actually succeeds when his inventory eats up the outfit. This causes the young werewolf to almost dance in victory, happy to have his own normal enchanting item, even as Hadvar has to again discuss what is going on on the surface with the tortuous sorcerer and his aides. All three warriors listen intently before the torturer nods in the direction of a short path just past the chamber. Hadvar thanks the warriors for their aid, and they return the favor with a hearty expression of gratitude themselves.

The two wanderers are guided out of the dungeon, a surprisingly large and well-stocked one, by a grateful guard tasked with ensuring that Hadvar gets to complete his mission. Much to Lund's surprise the rest of the keep is stormcloak free, contradicting what happens in-game, and Lund and Hadvar are shown the dungeon's back exit: a natural cavern illuminated by beams of sunlight that flow into the cave thanks to small holes in the cave's ceiling.

The cavern is part of a network of tunnels, tunnels which the two nords navigate together. Both of the men are outdoorsy types, but Lund quickly proves adept at subterranean stealth and strategy.

In the final leg of the journey to escape Helgen Lund and Hadvar battle a swarm of man-sized, horse-length spiders in the depths of a tunnel leading away from the doomed city. The spiders have slain a group of stormcloaks, and one of the bodies, in an unwrapped state, is being used to lure people into the cave. The werewolf uses a mixture of telekinesis and his sword and shield to help Hadvar dispatch the monstrous spiders before the two complete their journey out of the network of tunnels, never encountering a bear where one is meant to be according to Lund's internal dialogue and his memories of the many years spent playing Skyrim.

The two nords step out of the cavernous natural entrance to the network of tunnels and feel the light of the sun kiss their faces. Hadvar lets out a joyful exhalation as he feels sunlight on his face, and he even allows himself to forget what has just happened for a brief, blissful few seconds, before memories of the calamities he has just witnessed come racing back into his mind. The cursed things will surely haunt the back of Hadvar's mind for the rest of his life. He shudders as he is forced to remember them, before turning to speak to Lund.

The nord looks up at the lupine warrior, unsure of what to say at this moment, while Lund gazes down at him, and mentally examines a lengthy notification that has just appeared in his mind's eye. The lycanthropic adventurer is eager to learn what he can about the different powers inside of him and to make use of things like the personal reality supplement, which are some of the subjects mentioned within the notification that Lund is excitedly reading.