Many wonders exist in our land of Skyrim, some yet to be discovered, some best left undiscovered. My name is Joirel thorgenik, former adventurer of Skyrim. I once did much travelling during my days as an explorer. I met many people and explored many places in my travels. I've seen things most would say are myths. Countless times I have gotten into trouble, but I have always been able to get out of it. Until the 14th of Frostfall, 42 days ago. People still have no idea what happened or what caused all of that chaos for the matter. As I have said I had seen many things in my travels, but nothing could have prepared me for what I uncovered in that ruin. Perhaps if I hadn't tripped on that artifact, perhaps if I had not gotten lost in those mountains, none of this would have happened. Alas, it did and I am to blame. I understand whoever you may not know what I am talking about. Allow me to explain. It began when I was on one of my treks in the mountains near Riverwood. I was going to visit High Hrothgar to sketch a drawing of it for documentation when a massive blizzard began. In the fray I lost sight of the path and veered off into Talos knows where. I became lost and needed to find shelter before I froze to death. I was stumbling blindly through the snow when I tripped over what I thought was a rock. I got to my feet and realized that I had tripped on an ancient Nordic shield. I realized I must be near a Nordic ruin. I groped around blindly till I found a metal object covered in snow. I brushed off the snow to find a door underneath, engraved with language that I had never seen before. I forced it open and ducked inside, shutting it behind me. At first I couldn't see so I pulled out a scroll from my backpack. It was mage light. I read it aloud and a small ball of light appeared in front of me. Reaching into my pack I pulled out a jar then caught the orb in it. Holding up the jar to observe my surroundings I discovered that I was indeed in a Nordic ruin. I observed the walls to see what information they might hold. Written on the wall was a message. It read "Among this crypt lies an ancient evil sealed away deep in the depths. Beware, if released only the blood of dragons shall seal it away." I began to try to make sense of the message when the smell of rotten flesh hit me and the sound of bones creaking could be heard behind me.
"How could I have been so careless?" I thought to myself. "Of course there would be draugr in here, after all it was a nordic ruin." Quickly I covered up my jar of mage light with me cloak and hid behind a rock. In the darkness I could see the undead monsters eyes glowing blue. I hadn't brought my sword with me because I didn't think I'd be doing any fighting. What's worse is the fact that it was standing between me and the door out. There was only one way to go now, deeper. Slowly a snuck by the creature and deeper into the darkness. Pulling out my jar again I kept a cloth on it to keep the light dim to stay hidden. I recognized that I was on a descending spiral staircase. Following it down I found a large room where parts of the wall were made out of ice. It wasn't dark anymore at least, but that made hiding harder. Quickly checking for any draugr that might be near, I crawled through the room. To my surprise there was a table covered in valuables. Gold! Entire stacks of it! There was also jewellery. I was about to reach for it when I stopped. I needed to be careful to not draw any attention from the draugr. Carefully I slipped pieces of gold and jewellery into my pouch making as little noise as possible. I was just about done when my elbow brushed off of a gold goblet, knocking it off the table where it stood, and onto the floor. The clang from it echoed off the walls of the ruins. The echoing got quieter but a new noise erupted from the dark passages, deep growling. I had to hide quick! They were coming my way and I was in the open. Then I noticed that the stone block covered in treasures. I realized it must be a coffin. The draugr were getting closer, almost at the room. "I could use that to hide!" I thought to myself and began to push on the lid with my all my weight. Finally it budged and with a final shove the lid came off. What happened next was truly horrifying. A large cloud of white and black smoke shot out of the coffin and formed into an orb in the are. Looking at it I was instantly paralysed with fear. I knew it was evil, I could just feel it. I cowered to the floor unable to do anything. Then the being that had formed in front of me let out a terrifying screech and shot off into the dark tunnels around me. It literally split into each and every one of the tunnels. It took me awhile but I regained my senses, got to my feet and listened. The sound of draugr had stopped. Cautiously I crept toward the tunnel that I had come from and to my astonishment, three draugr stood there. They were frozen solid.