Loki was unsure what to make of the scene as the unlikely band of adventurers entered Bleak Falls Barrow. The bandits patrolling outside indicated this was going to be a large group here to loot the barrow, so they proceeded with caution expecting to encounter more trouble from the group, but also hopeful that they had cleared plenty of the traps in the barrow.

As they entered the foyer of the ancient ruin with their weapons at the ready, they didn't know what to make of the scene. There were dead skeevers everywhere, and a few dead bandits who had obviously been viciously attacked by the oversized rodents. Loki walked over and examined one of the big rats. It was roughly the size of a large dog, maybe a rottweiler. This thing made a New York sewer rat look like a baby mouse.

Just as Ralof was about to search one of the dead bandits for anything useful he might have been carrying, he heard a commotion coming from near the corridor at the back of the foyer. He scouted ahead in the large room to discover two bandits by a makeshift campsite. Having already decided to take a stealthy approach to this since they didn't know how large a group they were facing, Ralof motioned to Hadvar to indicate two enemies and their location. The two Nords nocked their bows and dispatched the brigands quickly and quietly.

A fast search of the room and the bodies for anything useful and then they set off down the entrance shaft. Hadvar was less than pleased to find huge spiderwebs covering the way. They went down a slightly winding descent, and much of the stairs were covered in roots making walking without tripping difficult. Reaching the bottom they came upon a room. Loki motioned for everyone to stop and stay quiet while he snuck forward to the entrance of the room where he witnessed a single bandit throw a lever to open the portcullis blocking the way and get shot dead by a dart trap.

Once the coast was clear, he called to the Nords to follow.

"I suppose you knew that was going to happen already." Hadvar said, looking over the misfortunate bandit.

"Yes, I did. But what I don't understand is why the gate was down. I know there are another bandit farther in which means he had to come through here. Why relock it? Unless the one that went on through intended to escape out the rear exit and cut the others out of their share of whatever loot he finds."

"That really wouldn't surprise me," said Hadvar, "thieves don't exactly keep an honorable code, even with each other."

"No honor amongst thieves, I know." Loki said. "Ok, we need to set the pillars to open the gate. Snake, snake, whale."

"Did your visions from the Elder Scrolls tell you that too?" Ralof inquired rather sarcastically.

"No, it's right there on the wall, and the missing one is laying on the floor over there. The only puzzle here is how that dumbass didn't figure it out." Loki pointed up and then rolled his eyes at Ralof.

They set the pillars and pulled the lever, and proceeded through the next room and down the stairwell only to be greeted by skeevers, live ones this time. The three made quick work of the rodents with a few arrows, but didn't make it much further down the corridor before hearing someone calling for help.

Ralof started to run towards the voice, but Loki stopped him. "The voice you here is the thief who robbed Lucan. Arvel the Swift they call him. He will have the claw we are looking for. Oh, and guys, watch the ceiling." Loki nocked his bow and slowly eased down the hall.

As they eased into the next room, they saw a man bound between the doorposts on the opposite side, there was nothing else in the room but spider egg sacs. Then Loki saw it, clinging high on the wall was a spider the size of a Volkswagen. It must have had a 30 foot leg span.

"HOLY SHIT!" Hadvar had noticed it too. "Maybe we can sneak by it, like we did the bear escaping Helgen."

"We can try, I just hope he isn't hungry right now." Ralof was also visibly nervous at the sight of the arachnid.

As they eased their way across the room Hadvar kept his bow aimed at the huge spider on the wall, Ralof continually scanned the rest of the room for any more spiders, and Loki went to assess the situation with Arvel. He was wrapped up pretty good and most of the doorway was blocked so the first thing loki did was cut a hole at the bottom for the three to slip through and get behind Arvel and out of the room with the huge predator.

"Cut me down" Arvel protested when he realized the three were not very concerned about him.

"Give me the claw," said loki, "then I will consider it."

"Do I look like I can move?"

"No, but tell me where it is, I'll get it, then I'll cut you down. With a name like 'the swift' i can only imagine you will run as soon as you are free."

"Fine, it's in my bag on my right side."

Loki cut through the web to get to the bag, cut the straps and removed it, then turned to walk away.

"HEY! You can't just leave me here! CUT ME DOWN!"

"I'd be a little more quiet if I were you, sound and movement in the web is what attracts the spider to come inject you with venom. You robbed the good people of Riverwood, this seems a fitting karma."

"NO! NO! YOU CAN'T… YOU CANT LEAVE ME HERE! HOW COULD YOU… AAHHHH" Arvel was squirming as hard as he could against the webbing when all of a sudden, he stopped and screamed in pain. The spider was on the other side of the web with both his fangs sunk into Arvel's shoulders pumping him full of digestive venom.

Loki and the others backed away, then turned and took off in a run until they got to to a crypt room. The three adventurers froze in their tracks as three of the dead Nord warriors rose from their resting places and drew their weapons.

Hadvar and Ralof met the draugr in true warrior fashion with sword and shield in melee combat. Loki, on the other hand began firing arrows at the one coming in his direction, surprisingly sticking most of them in the dead man's abdomen and shoulders with two shots bouncing off the chestplate of it's armor.

"How the hell do you kill something that is already dead?!" Loki exclaimed as he evaded the zombie warrior while sticking more arrows in it. In a final, desperate attempt to stop it's relentless pursuit, Loki stuck an arrow directly through the draugr's eye socket. It dropped immediately. "Of course, I should have known. Every zombie flick ever, hit them in the head…"

About that time Hadvar did a reverse spin and decapitated his opponent while Ralof cleaved the legs in two on his and, once on the ground, drove his sword through the back of it's head.

Loki sat down against a column to catch his breath while having serious second thoughts about if he knew what he was doing. He had evaded well, but there were a couple of times that draugr got very close to making contact with that rusty iron war axe he was swinging. He decided to take a different approach to these opponents, so he put away his bow, drew his sword in his right hand, and summoned his fire to his left. He had gotten pretty good at it on the way to the barrow, now it was time to put his magic to the real test.

They continued down through the winding crypts fighting the dead defenders of the barrow until they came to a hallway full of swinging blades.

"Great, how do we get through this?" asked Hadvar with a very worried look on his face.

"Only one of us has to do it," said Loki. "See, there is a chain on the other side to stop them. Don't worry, I got this."

With that, Loki began moving through the blades, one at a time, staying tight to the left wall so that as the blade left the wall he would have maximum time to move forward before the blade could get back to his position. He got through rather quickly, though it actually took him longer to pull the chain due to all the time it had sat idle. It took his entire body weight to pull it.

Just down the corridor were 4 more draugr, but Loki noticed that the place was covered in oil from the lamps overhead. Oh, I've been waiting to do this! he thought to himself as he launched fire into the oil and watched the draugr burn and drop.

Further down, and further still, they began to think there was no end to this ancient ruin. They came to a part where the corridor had collapsed but instead of clearing it, someone had made a detour through some caves. One of these areas included a frost troll. Loki was terrified, knowing how strong and regenerative these beasts were, but the three of them took it down with two quick volleys of arrows. Six hits that fast was too much for the troll to regenerate from.

As the trio came back into the corridor on the other side of the cave-in they spotted a lone guard in front of the door to the sanctum. Ralof readied to attack, but Loki stopped him. "I need the practice." He drew his sword and readied his shield. "Just cover me in case I screw up."

When the draugr noticed him, he drew his sword and approached Loki. He was also carrying a shield and the two began the warrior's dance of death. Loki remembered what he had read in "The Mirror" about defensive combat and did his best to read his opponent's movements. He blocked his opponent's attacks and if he saw his opponent tense his shield arm he would hold his own attacks and conserve his energy. After a few minutes he realized that the draugr always attacked from the top with a downward swing. The next time he swung Loki blocked the blade high while simultaneously swinging low horizontally severing the draugr's right leg just above the knee. This move dropped the draugr behind Loki face down. As it pushed back up on its hands Loki took a step back and swung a backhanded slash through his neck, beheading him and ending the fight.

"That was excellent form, where did you learn to do that?" Hadvar asked, very impressed with the rookie warrior's victory.

"From a book, and maybe a few ideas from the thousands of 'visions' I've had from the scrolls. I'm also really lucky that the dead aren't as fast as the living, kinda the reason I wanted to practice on him. Thanks for keeping me covered though, he could still hit pretty hard for a dead guy."

They continued on, fighting draugr and avoiding traps until they came to a simple looking door that opened to reveal a long, wide hallway.

"The hall of stories…" Ralof said in awe. "The panels on these walls tell the stories of our ancestors, their battles and conquests."

"I really wish we had time to check them out, but we need to get this over with." Hadvar said as he looked at one of the panels. "Perhaps one day after the war is over I'll come back and take a look."

"I thought the barrow creeped you out." Ralof jested, nudging Hadvar's shoulder with his shield hand.

"Yeah, it did, but now i know what's really in here. It's not as bad as I thought when I was a child. Except that spider, that thing has to die!"

While the two Nords were talking and looking around the hall, Loki was examining the door to figure out how to move the rings. He tried gripping the emblems on the ring and spinning it, but he couldn't get it to budge. Then, he pushed in on the ring. To his surprise the ring rotated to the next symbol on it's own. Loki couldn't tell if it was some sort of mechanical motion from inside the door or some kind of magical enchantment that moved the ring, but he didn't think he should take the time to figure it out now. He set the rings in order with the symbols on the claw and then activated the lock. The door opened with a grinding protest, then it was up the stairs and into the main burial chamber.

As they walked up to the platform with the sarcophagus Loki tensed up his sword arm. The Nords picked up on this and prepared for a fight, but as they reached the sarcophagus nothing happened. Loki turned to the word wall. He could feel the power emanating from the ancient language written on the wall and he started walking toward it in an almost trance-like state. The feeling of power turned to chanting as he got closer, then, all of a sudden, everything went black and it felt like the words were being burned into his mind. It was nothing like the game, one word at a time, but every word on the wall. He felt them in his mind and he knew their translation to his own tongue.

He turned back to his companions still blind from the power of the wall. His vision returned just in time to see the lid of the sarcophagus go flying into the air and a very angry draugr climb out. The sound of the lid bursting off was enough to make the Nords turn and poise for battle.

"FUS RO DAH"

The three were slammed into the wall hard as the draugr bellowed the shout at them. They pulled themselves up and charged into the fight, the Nord soldiers going wide to get on either side of this powerful opponent and Loki charged straight up the middle. The draugr swung his axe and planted it directly in the center of Loki's raised shield, but what happened next was something loki never expected. His shield turned so cold the moisture in the air began to turn to frost on it, the cold went through his gauntlet into his arm and traveled most of the way up his shoulder. The freezing pain as the chilled blood in his arm ran into his body was bad, but it was nothing compared to the burning sensation of the hot blood in his body being pumped into the frozen limb.

The draugr pulled his axe back and Loki's shield with it and with a quick flick he sent the shield flying across the chamber. Loki was down on one knee, the draugr about to take his second swing when not one but two blades burst from the corpse's chest. Hadvar and Ralof had run him through from behind with a power charge to ensure the blades went all the way through armor and all.

As the draugr went down from the shear impact Loki stumbled back to safety. Looking down at his arm he found it had turned extremely purple and he knew he had severe frostbite. He didn't have time to try to heal himself with magic so he grabbed the flask of healing potion he had ready on his belt and chugged it.

The draugr stood back up as the feeling came back to Loki's hand. He felt fear well up in his chest, but then a thought hit him that he figured he might as well gamble on. He knew the words, he knew the meanings, and now he had felt the thu'um of Unrelenting Force. Just maybe, he had the understanding to be able to do it without a dragon soul. Ulfric could do it, other non-dragonborn could too, and his knowledge of the thu'um was far better than some beginner. Hell, he already knew how to read the dragon language. (Yes, he was an ultra-nerd). He inhaled as deeply as he could and focused everything into his voice, trying to imagine it or will it into being just as he did with the spells in his hand.

"FUS RO da!"

The shout surged forward and knocked the draugr back several steps, forcing him back to his knees, but what happened? Something went wrong. Only two words had worked. Loki didn't understand. Did he not understand 'Da' the way he did the others? Did he lose his focus? He didn't know but he didn't have time to find out. At least he knew he actually could shout, and hopefully his first dragon would know more than one word of power so he could understand more of them.

But for now, Loki had to finish this opponent while he was down. Hadvar and Ralof had switched to their bows since their swords were both stuck in the plating of the draugr's armor and were turning his back into a pincushion. Loki grabbed his sword and charged, thrusting the blade forward through the eye socket of the helmet, but he put so much momentum into his charge he couldn't stop and went toppling over the draugr and ending up on the floor on the other side.

"Well my young friend, that has to be the clumsiest victory I've ever witnessed." Ralof was laughing as he pulled Loki to his feet. "And you shouted, just like Ulfric. Did you learn that from the scrolls as well?"

"Yes, but apparently not well enough. My last word failed. I will have to study it more in depth. Loki was now about 80% sure he was the dragonborn of the story, but he knew that even the Greybeards could hear the words from the walls and they weren't dragonborn, so he still wasn't fully confident. The blood seal would tell him for sure, then he would know.

"You learn fast, keep it up and you will become a legend."

"I don't want to be famous, I just want to keep the people safe"

Hadvar was pulling all the arrows out of the body when Loki walked over and picked up the axe that froze his arm.

"I'm claiming this. I want to learn its enchantment, it nearly cost me an arm."

"Go ahead," hadvar said, "I've never cared for all that magic stuff. I don't trust it."

"Thanks, now where is the tablet he is supposed to have?"

"Is it this thing?" Ralof lifted a stone map about 12" X 12" X ½" from the sarcophagus and handed it to Loki.

"Yes, that's the one. Now let's check that chest for loot and then get out of here"

Hadvar was staring at the wall and curiosity got the better of him. "Any idea what this says?"

"HET NOK FaaL VahLOK

DeiNMaaR DO DOVahGOLZ

ahRK aaN FUS DO UNSLaaD

RahGOL ahRK VULOM

Or in the common tongue:

Here lies the guardian

Keeper of dragonstone

And a force of unending

Rage and darkness"

Hadvar turned around amazed. "You can actually read that?"

"Yes, I learned the dragon language even before I came to Tamriel. I was a bit of a nerd and I did it for fun."

"Nerd? Is that like a scholar where you are from?"

"Umm, yeah, something like that…" Loki just rolled with it.

They emerged from the barrow near the lake and they were all glad to see the sun, though they didn't get to see it but a few minutes because it was setting.

"Well, that took a lot longer than I thought it would, I was expecting to be headed to the reach by 2 PM. How about we change up the plans since it's so late? Spend one more night in Riverwood and leave for the Karthspire in the morning."

"Suits me fine," said Hadvar. "One more night of my Aunt Sigrid's cooking before I have to eat camp food again."

"I'll second that," Ralof nodded.

So off they marched, for one last rest before their journey. Not to mention Lucan's gold for the reward would help out a lot for the travel expenses.