What the barrow holds

My journey to the ancient barrow was cold and lonely but uneventful. Not suspecting anyone alive I was surprised that the entrance was full of bandits and tomb raiders, they proved to be no match as they, like me, were taken by surprise. After clearing out the riffraff I made my way through the precarious tunnel and cave network.

It was not long before I blundered into a room full of webs and came across the largest spider I had ever seen. It was easily my height and clearly pissed off. I can only imagine the strength of the webbing that was holding it from the ceiling. Evidently my complete lack of stealth tipped it off to my presence. As it lowered down i heard the plaintive cries of someone from the other side of the room, he looked like one of the bandits and had gone and caught himself in the webbing. Once the spider hit the ground it charged at me, the multitude of legs thundering along the smooth stone. Already exhausted that I was I wanted this over quickly. I rushed forward and slid on my knees with my axe held high, slicing the beast's thorax clean through.

The stuck bandit told me that he knew how to get through the locked passage further on and showed me a golden claw with some strange symbols. It turned out to be a key with a strange combination. After I freed him, he ran off with the golden claw, unfortunately for him I had just looted a bow.

I spent the next hour slowly trekking through ancient tunnels and burial crypts, carefully avoiding traps and spilled oil. And i tell you what, my heart almost burst out of my chest when one of the nearby crypts burst open and a dried up old viking fellow climbed out and started attacking me. They were slow cumbersome beasts and easy to put back down, but the sheer number of them had me pushing at my memory of the healing magic I was taught all those years ago.


It was not long after that that i found the location of the dragon tablet, but there was something else there, something indescribable to the human eye. The wall was covered in an ancient script and one section in particular was glowing and seemed to be emanating a chanting sound, it was not a sound though that i could hear but one that seemed to be sent directly to my brain. I stepped forward to inspect closer when everything went dark, my ears began to ring and bright blue letters of fire were pushed through my eyes and imprinted in my mind, i can still feel them in my head, almost as if it is a word that is yearning to be spoken, only i have no idea what it says.

I stepped back from the wall only to hear the ominous grinding sound of stone on stone behind me, another undead nord was rising from his burial place. The previous ones were easy enough to put back down so i gripped my newly found axe and readied myself, only, this one was different. His weapon glowed a cold blue and his eyes seemed to burn with righteous anger at my intrusion. Thinking to myself that this was a true threat i stepped forward with the intent of finishing this fight quickly only to stumble back as the beast spoke some sort of eldritch word that literally made me drop my weapon in a split second of terror, fortunately his previous companions had been well armed and now i was too. Drawing a second weapon i hastily parried his first blow and then felt true fear as it was apparent that his weapon did not just glow, but in fact pulsed with a coldness that numbed my fingers.

His mummified body though had him at a disadvantaged and i quickly and easily outmaneuvered him and went for a crippling blow to the legs. he stumbled down to his knees and i wasted no time in finishing him off.

Finally safe, i gathered the materials the Jarl requested, hefted my new weapon and made my way back to whiterun.