The journal of Jonathan

Entry 4

Bleaks falls barrow. That was the place on my mind when I woke up this morning. I dreamed about it the night before with vivid visions of dragons and bandits along with other things hiding in the dark. I didn't know how or why when I woke up but I knew without a doubt that this place would be important. So I took my undertaking seriously. When I left Gurders house I went straight to Alvors forge and checked on the blade. It was coming along well and would be done by the afternoon. So with that done I decided to spend some times working on my gear.

I made myself a new fur cloak and reinforced the hood with bits of iron so It would be warm and protect my skull. Then I made myself armor that was a mix of leather and iron so as to give me a good range of motion and not be to heavy but at the same time protect me well. Along with a pair of leggings that matched the armor with the same Leather and iron style I had a pair of imperial steel boots. After a look in the river I was proud to say that I looked pretty dashing and just a bit dangerous. I also noted that I looked rather different from the scared freezing dumbass who crossed the mountains only a few days before. I looked across the river at the mountain that the Barrow rested on and knew it was time to set out but first I had one last thing to take care of.

So without delay I went to the Inn and sure enough there was Sven enjoying himself idly strumming on his lute. When he saw me he laughed and said "Jonathan! You're looking well. About to leave on a new adventure?" I smiled back at him and told him "Yeah I have a bit of a task to take care of." "Great!" he said smiling "I wish I could go with you! Oh the songs I could write about our epic journeys!" he laughed at that and took a drink from a nearby mug. I let him finish his drink and go back to strumming his lute before I spoke. "Good! I need a companion anyway so I'll be calling in that favor of yours." Sven's eyes shot open wide and he made a very unmelodious twang on his lute. "Excuse me?! Um I mean of course I've been waiting for the call to action!" he said trying to save face. With a deep swallow and a quick nervous look around he asked me "Umm for the sake of curiosity…where exactly are we going for your task?" "Bleak falls barrow." I told him simply but by the look on his face you'd have thought I'd said we were taking a stroll through Oblivion.

"Bleak falls barrow! But but it's filed with!" "Bandits I know." I said cutting off his sentence. "But listen don't worry it's probably not a lot. I'd guess 6 to 8 at the most now come on. We need to get you some clothes."

"Bandits?" he asked confused then shook his head and stood up "Yes bandits, your right of course. Anything else in there would have been cleared out." He said more to himself then me. "What else would be in there?" I asked him as we walked back to Alvors. "Nothing. It's not important forget I said anything." He told me as we walked to the forge.

"Ok then." I said warily. "Alvor I need that armor back I gave you." I said to the blacksmith who was hammering away at something. You mean the armor you sold me? "He corrected. "Yeah Sven's coming with me and he needs gear. "I said trying not to roll my eyes "Ok but you'll have to pay." I handed him most of my cash and tossed Sven the armor. He put it on and I was surprised that like the bandit who had previously worn it he left his chest bare.

"Ummm Sven, don't you need a shirt at least?" he looked at his chest and said "no. A Nord will fight naked if necessary. And my shirt would get in the way. Ill just go as the armors intended to be worn, besides as long as I keep moving out of their way I can't get stabbed can I?" he said with a grin. It seemed his earlier anxiety about our location was being replaced with excitement for adventure. "Now how's about a weapon?" he asked me. I was glad for the darkness of my skin otherwise I might have blushed. "Well… the thing is…I don't actually have enough for a weapon for you." Sven looked at me incredulously. "So you mean I'm going to have to fight bandits and gods know what else with my damn dagger?!" he said pulling out a small rusty blade from a sheath on his belt. "Well, pretty much. I mean until we can find you something better." I said trying to reassure him. "Just great." Sven said with a theatric sigh. "Well let's go. It looks like I'll be seeing sovengard sooner than expected." I heard Alvor laughing to himself as we walked away from the forge and began to make our way out of town.

"What is that anyway?" I asked him "Sovengard. Alvor said something about it the other day." Sven looked at me like I was stupid then realization hit. "O right! You're not a Nord so I guess you might not have heard of it. Sovengard is a place for fallen warriors. If you die in battle you go there. It's a mead hall were the feasts never end and mead always flows." He said dreamily. "I could sing a song about it for you." He offered "No thanks its fine." I told him not really in the mood for song. He shrugged and we began to talk about different subjects from our childhood to the girls we had kissed and the different things we had each done in our lives. It past the time well and soon we were on the mountain path that would lead us to the barrow. As we walked Sven asked me what I'm guessing had been eating at his mind for a while. "So how do you know it's just a few bandits?" "Well" I told him rationally "It's the only answer that makes sense. Think about it. What they have is a solid gold claw. " "That sounds pretty valuable to me" Sven pointed out. "It does but obviously it's not. Otherwise Lucan wouldn't have it on his front desk would he? No it's valuable but not by a ton." He nodded at my logic and I continued. "It does something. That's why they want it. Maybe magical powers or opens up a way to more riches. That's what I figure" Sven nodded in understanding me but then he asked. "Yeah but why would that mean it's a small amount of bandits?" "Well if you knew a way to get cool special powers or a ton of money and the only thing in your way was one man and some ruins would you tell a ton of people?" he thought about it for a little while. "Yeah I see your point." "Exactly! So logically its got to be a small group 6 to 8 at the most probably less."

"I hope your right." Sven said as we walked towards a small tower. It looked kind of run down and beat up. Most of the bricks on the upper level seemed to have disappeared. As we got closer to it I noticed two people standing around the doorway. Sven still was talking about something so I raised a hand and shushed him. He gave me a quizzical look and in response I pointed at the tower. He looked for a second and nodded when he saw the men. I motioned for him to go up the path and try to circle around to the front of the tower while I walked towards it on a slant. As I got closer I took out my bow and aimed at one of the bandits. After a few seconds I saw Sven was in place so I took the shot the arrow shot one of the men in the chest and he went down instantly. His buddy jumped back with a yelp and looked around in confusion then he made a yell in the tower calling to whoever was inside. He rushed away from the tower pulling out a sword and I jumped up and shot at him. The arrow missed but now he was aware of me. So he began to run towards me and pass Sven's hiding spot. As he ran in front of Sven, Sven jumped out with a yell and stabbed him with his dagger. The poor bandit let out a yelp of surprise and fell forward dead while Sven relieved him of his sword. "Now I can do some damage!" he said happily. "Good" I told him with a grin "See finding weapons is easy! Now let's go clear out the rest of that place." We walked into the tower to find a single bandit on the stairs of the tower. He tried to fight but he was out numbered and outclassed. After he was dealt with Sven and I checked around the tower to see if we could find anything of value. I found some cheese and wine and put it in my pack while he found some bread and a helmet. We were about to leave when I noticed a few red vials on the table which could only be healing potions. I snatched them up and placed them with my other things and we left the tower continuing up the mountain path.

As we neared the summit snow started to fall and I began to see stone structures and a huge stone staircase. It was slightly difficult to see thanks to the snow but the structures were clearly ancient. "There it is!" Sven told me talking over the wind that was starting to pick up "Bleak falls barrow. Come on let's get inside!" he said trying to move faster. He got to the edge of the stone stairs when I looked up to see a Wood elf archer standing above us at the top of the stairs with a drawn bow. "Shit Sven move!" I yelled running in front of him and raising my shield. I moved just in time the moment my shield was raised an arrow shot right into it with a loud thunk. I know if I'd been even a little slower either me or Sven probably would have been shot. But at the moment my only thought was to take care of the archer. I charged forward and the wood elf dropped his bow pulling out a small dagger. I don't know what his plan was but clearly it wasn't thought through well because a second later the snow was pink with his blood and Sven was taking his bow. I looked around and saw we were in what once had been a great outdoor plaza the floor we stood on was of carved stone and had some pattern on it but I couldn't make it out through the snow. We moved forward towards the center of it and looked around. To the left of the staircase lead down the mountain but to the right was a stone archway and the mountain itself it appeared they had built this place into the mountain. "Sven! How did they build this place in a mountain?" I asked looking at it in wonder. "The ancient Nords were great builders." He said as if that was a clear answer. "Thanks Sven that really cleared thing up" I told him sarcastically. We started to walk forward when we heard a woman's voice from behind us. "Hey! Were back! We couldn't find any meat though, ass breath over hear scared away the deer I was chasing." Sven and I stayed frozen in place not sure what to do as the woman kept talking casually "Anyway why are you two here? Shouldn't you be in that tower? We would have sent Karolas to get you." She must not have realized something was wrong yet but I knew this wouldn't last long. So I turned around and stabbed my sword into the snow and quickly raised my hand summoning the lightning spell I knew thanks to that book. Before she or the burly Redguard man who was with her could say anything I blasted her with lightning. She went back with a scream and I kept the pressure on her while Sven charged at the Redguard with a roar. They fought each other while I went to the woman who it turned out was a dark elf, her red eyes were open wide and totally unseeing. I could tell she was dead just from them alone I didn't need to see the marks the lightning had left her chest making her dark blue skin a burnt black. After looking at her body for a moment I looked up to see Sven was having difficulties defeating his opponent. The Redguard was a tough fighter and worse he was angry. I feared he'd do Sven in with his twin axes so I summoned up more lightning and blasted him as well. It wasn't enough to hurt him like it had done the dark elf but it stunned him and made him drop his axes in surprise with a yell. Which allowed Sven to cut him down with a vicious slice.

Sven dropped his sword and was doubled over panting exhausted from his fight, but after a moment he caught his breath enough to speak to me in short burst. "Where did you…how…lightning?!" I laughed as I picked up my rapier out of the ground. "A spell tome. I learned a little destruction magic in Hammerfell. I mainly used it to help with my blacksmithing techniques. So it wasn't that hard to switch from my little fire magic to basic lightning magic. " "You killed her" Sven said not exactly making sense but I could guess his meaning. "It's lightning Sven. Lightning stops hearts even simple lightning magic. Honestly I just got lucky. If I hadn't taken her by surprise she wouldn't have died probably. Now come on let's just go inside." I didn't want him to know but killing the dark elf had slightly upset me. I know she was a bandit and usually I don't give a damn if I kill one. But the way she spoke made her not seem so bad and more normal, not the kind of person that deserves a lightning bolt to the chest although in truth more likely than not she was.

As we walked to the door I took a second to look at it. I didn't understand why but it felt like something was in the air besides the cold. I shivered for a second before Sven snapped me out of it. "Come on! I don't exactly have a shirt you know!" he said impatiently "and whose fault is that?" I asked him jokingly "Yours for bringing me here now come on!" he went passed me and opened the door enough for us to get inside without hopefully alerting anyone.

As we walked inside I got my first look at the barrow and it looked like a massive old building. Bits of light filtered in from the holes in the ceiling but the main source of light was from a fire deeper in. I figured then there must have been some people so I tried to sneak up on them with Sven. Unfortunately I tripped over a dead rat (how gross is that?!) my unfortunate stumble alerted them to me so the bandits (Thankfully it was just two) jumped from their fire and attacked us. Sven defended me valiantly while I was trying to get up but once I finally got up I joined the melee instantly. I bashed one of the bandits in the throat and sliced my sword into his neck,. Then with a quick turn pulled the blade out and used the momentum to slash the throat of the other bandit.

"Way to go idiot." Sven said stretching his arms. "Could you have been any louder? I think the people in solitude heard that!" "O shut it. Look their dead so bandit problem solved. Now come on let's find this claw." We walked down the stairwell next to the bandit's fire and began to explore. After a good 10 minutes of nothing I was getting a bit restless when we spotted a lever in the middle of the floor in the chamber ahead and a dead body next to it the gate that would take us forward past the room containing the dead man was notably barred. "What happened to him?" I asked out loud looking around the room. "Well these places supposedly were booby trapped" Sven said nervously looking at the ground. "Watch your step and don't pull that lever!" I walked up to it and heard Sven shout "The fuck did I just say!?" "Shut it Sven I'm thinking not touching." I looked to my left and saw three pillars with faces on them. A bird, a snake, and a fish. I looked near the gate that barred our way and saw the broken statue head that held the same snake symbol in its mouth. I looked at it closer and looked up to find two more identical heads one with a snake and one with a fish. There was a bit of wall between the two that collapsed between the two. I got the feeling that the statue head on the round probably went between them.

"Sven. I have a plan" I told him walking towards the lever "What did I say about touching things." He said taking a step back. "Just trust me! Go to that pillar and turn it." He gave in after a second or two of internal debate and turned the pillar. Sure enough it turned revealing a snake picture. "Good! The poor sap was one off." I said as I gave the lever a tug. I'm pretty sure Sven was about to yell when he saw the bars go up giving us the freedom to delve deeper into the barrow. I grinned at him and he returned it with a frown. "Let's just keep moving." Was all he said so with a shrug we walked forward. After moving for a minute or two I began to notice the spider web concentration was beginning to increase a ton until an entire doorway was covered in them. They were huge thick webs too I knew I need my sword to get through it. "That's not comforting" Sven said eyeing the webbing. "It's just a web" I told him as I hacked at it. "Yeah but who made it?" he retorted "A spider duh." "But how big was it!" he shouted getting frustrated. "Could just be a lot of them" I said optimistically as I walked into the now web free doorway and into the chamber beyond which unsurprisingly was absolutely covered in webs.

"Help! Get me down" I heard a gruff voice say with more than a hint of panic in his voice. I looked to my left and saw a man entangled in another huge web that blocked the door way out. "Little spiders don't do that". Sven said growing pale. "Ok ok let's just get him down before it-" but I never did finish that sentence. I was interrupted by the appearance of a large spider bigger than any I had ever seen before drop out of the ceiling in front of us. "SHIIIIIIIIT!" was all I heard Sven say as the thing began to shuffle towards us awkwardly. It was then that I noticed the axe lodged in one of its massive limbs. Somebody (My bet was on the wrapped up guy) wounded it. But still it looked like it was pretty damn dangerous. I was trying to think up a battle plan when it chose for me. I felt a massive claw of its reach out and pull me right towards its maw. But thank the gods I had my sword out. With my arm fully extended I stabbed it in its head between two of its eyes. The beasts fangs twitched and moved as it tried to get at me but it was already impaled I hoped it wouldn't toss me in its fangs anyway but thankfully it didn't have the strength. After the most terrifying moment of my life of watching the vicious thins mouth twitching and trying to unsuccessfully reach me it stopped moving and I backed away pulling out my sword.

"Thank the gods you're here!" the ensnared man said. "Quick cut me down!" as I walked closer to him I noticed he was actually a dark elf. "Where's the claw" I asked making no move to free him. "I have it on me!" he said desperately. "Listen if you free me it's yours I swear!" "Fine." I told him "Claw first." "I can't! You have to cut me down." I sighed and cut him loose. He fell to the ground and stayed on his hands and knees. "You ok? " I asked reaching to help him up. "Yeah fine!" he said as he shot up and punched me in the face. He took off running and I fell on my butt. Sven shouted after him with an angry "hey!" and chased him. "Sure now you help!" I yelled remembering his lack of assistance during the spider incident. I got up and quickly ran after the two of them we chased him through about three rooms before I tackled him and stabbed him with my sword while he was on the ground. "Ha!" I said feeling victorious as I pulled the claw out of his satchel. "I win!" I turned around feeling awesome but my smile fell as soon as I saw the look of pure horror on Sven's face. He had gone paler then when he saw the spider. "Don't….don't move." Was all he said as he slowly started to back away. I don't even think he realized he was moving. I looked around and saw an empty room except for holes in the wall and the occasional coffin I didn't see anything special but then it dawned on me. This was a crypt, an ancient Nord crypt. He was probably having a religious freak out. "hey were ok Sven well leave no problem" I told him trying to calm him when I heard a pop noise. It was like the sound a book makes when it hasn't been opened for centuries. A dry pop. But this sounded so much more sinister. As I turned around to see what made the noise I was greeted with the sight of an emaciated blue arm pulling itself and the body it was attached to out of its hole in the crypt wall. When the creature was free I saw what it truly was. A corpse but perfectly preserved. It was nothing but blue skin taunt over dry bone. It had no hair on its head but a beard and it had these blue eyes. They were an unnatural blue soulless would be a good word to use. The creature fixed its eyes on me and raised its arm and began to speak to me in a rumbling gurgle language that I had no hope of understanding. It reached for the black blade from its belt and then made a shout. After that it charged forward and I was forced to fight this nightmare but in the background I began to hear the popping noise again and again and again. it was then that I realized just what Sven had been fearing all this time.