(Re-reading this post, I'm not quite proud of it, nor content about it, I feel as if I failed to present the cynicism felt by Demlas and the three bandits properly, as well as being a bit too long-winded, alas, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.)
More than a few days had passed since Demlas had accepted the contract posted by Angela, in which he said he would bring her two barrels of Skeever hides. The number of times he rubbed his neck during these few days caused quite a bit of chafing and some nasty rashes, a constant reminder of his inaction and procrastination.
Finally having enough of his idleness, Demlas jumped on a boat by the docks of The Bastion and made his way to Bravil's inn, 'Silverhome on the Water.' There, he met with a Breton he had befriended during his travels; there was a plethora of differences between the two, the self-described 'Manmeri' was quite exuberant, eccentric, and egomaniacal, but despite their differences, they managed to become close friends quickly.
Daranold spent a good few minutes laughing at Demlas' undertaking, which left him coughing and having to clean tears from his eyes. Though the Redguard was frowning the entire time, he couldn't help but chuckle slightly as he saw his Breton friend enjoy his predicament. After the Breton had enough, he suggested Demlas made his way further to the north, as Skeevers were far more common around Skyrim than in Cyrodiil, and as a way to apologize for his mocking, Daranold sent him to the Mages guild so that he could be teleported to Falkreath, as well as giving him the location of a few ruins that he remembered being plagued by Skeevers.
Without any more hesitation or dillydallying, Demlas went to these ruins, he had already prepared himself with dozens upon dozens of bolts for his crossbow and had bought some poison for his saber, perhaps the only thing he hadn't prepared was his psyché for what was to come, but it was far too late to worry about that. Taking a deep breath, he entered the Nordic ruins, unsheathing his weapon and lighting his torch.
The first room of the ruins was nigh empty, with just a few skeletons littering the floor Demlas managed to take note of the lack of spiderwebs around these skeletons as if they had been disturbed not long ago. Lighting a few of the torches on the nearby walls, he continued pushing forward, he could already hear the skittering of the different beings waiting for him in the further chambers of the ruins.
He sheathed his saber and prepared his crossbow instead, then, he threw his torch inside the next room, the moment it hit the ground, what seemed to be an entire swarm of Skeevers started running around, once he saw them, he shot at the closest one, landing a clean hit, he didn't bother cocking the crossbow completely, and loaded it as quickly as possible to kill a few more before they scurried away.
Once the Skeevers were gone, Demlas managed to notice what had caused them to gather around, the dead body of a Nord was proving to be quite the feast for the creatures, approaching it carefully, Demlas noticed he had been killed recently, examining the body, other than dozens of Skeever bites, he found one single wound on the back of his head, caused by a blunt object, possibly killing him instantly, he looked through the Nord's possessions but found nothing, after some thinking, Demlas carefully picked the dead body up and placed him against a wall, just to make sure he wouldn't stumble on the dead body if he had to make his way out of the ruins quickly.
His interest in finding out the truth of the scene took over gathering the Skeever hides, he pushed forward, and the next few rooms were empty except for a few occasional Skeever which he managed to kill without any issues. Finally, he stumbled upon another dead body, yet another Nord, this time, a woman wearing heavy armor without a helmet, and an Iron Warhammer next to her body, her armor kept her protected from Skeevers, after inspecting the dead body, he found one single deep wound, on the side of the woman's neck. The blood stains on the floor and the woman's gauntlets led him to believe the wound wasn't fatal, and she instead bled to death.
Gulping down dryly, Demlas closed the woman's eyes and pushed forward, he could only guess what had happened, but wanted to find the truth behind the situation, and thus, he pushed forward, reaching the deepest chamber in the ruins. This chamber was the main burial site of the ruins, there were a few sarcophagi around the room, all of which had been looted and desecrated, the Redguard couldn't help but raise his upper lip in utter disgust.
An Imperial man was sitting against one of the open sarcophagi, panting and holding a sword in one hand, and a dagger in the other one, both stained with blood, next to him, three dead Draugr and quite a few dead Skeevers that had tried to take him down. Seeing as how the man was injured and couldn't move much, Demlas readied his crossbow and aimed at him.
The Imperial dropped his weapons and raised his hands, as much as he could in his condition, that is. "Wait, wait! Don't shoot me damn it! These things killed all of my friends, but I can still make it out alive, I'll even let you take most of the loot I have!" The Imperial's voice was faltering as he begged for his life, Demlas simply stared at him, frowning.
"Tell me what happened to the other two, I have never seen someone get stabbed in the neck by Draugr." Demlas said, still aiming at the Imperial. A few seconds of silence went by as the two stared each other down, swallowing dryly, the Imperial spoke up.
"I... Biro and I were married, the Nord woman you saw. We came here with her brother to explore these ruins, that's what we told him at least-" He coughs, trying to sit up, but failing to do so. "We were planning on killing him all along, she was the one to come up with the idea, to kill her brother and blame it on a Draugr, just so that she would be the sole inheritor of her parents' money and properties." A non-sensical thread of lies spun in hopes of appealing to the Redguard's emotions, one that only a compulsive liar could come up with.
Demlas moved closer, still aiming at the man, he thought about what the Imperial was saying, remembering the bodies, he didn't think either of them looked alike, nor did the Nord woman wear an Amulet of Mara "Why kill her then?" The Imperial looked at the dagger that was next to him and shook his head. "My wife killed her brother because of her greed, I... I was worried she would kill me if I gave her the chance as well." He muttered, to Demlas, he was just lying through his teeth, and unwilling to hear any more lies from the Imperial, he took a step forward, and a deep breath, and shot the man on the head to at the very least grant him a quick death.
The Redguard looked at the scene once more and shook his head, disgusted by a situation he did not even understand completely, the mystery he wished to discover and solve was still a mystery, one shrouded by lies and betrayal, he walked up to the Imperial man, gathered the dead Skeevers nearby and started walking outside, picking all the dead Skeevers on his way out.
Once outside, he made it to a nearby forest where he skinned the animals, the task was gruesome, but his mind was preoccupied with the dead inside the ruins. Despite the number of rats he killed, everything he saw and heard was starting to make him question his usual anthropocentric values, the repetitive task of skinning the animals was mind-numbing enough to make him stop thinking about the betrayal, he wasn't affected by it after all, nor did he understand it completely, so why bother trying to figure out what happened? He thought as much.
Once he had two barrelfuls of Skeever hides, he had someone teleport him back to Bravil so that he may deliver them to Angela. After delivering the two barrels, Demlas spent some time looking at his hands, he felt disgusted at himself, at those he saw in the ruins, and at men overall, taking his clothes off, he took a dip in the lake to wash away the filth, and though he managed to rid himself of the somatic grime, his psyché was still riddled with it.