I was continuing down the crypt after watching my skeleton friend return to sovngarde. I pass through quite a few descending tunnels, lit dimly by braziers hanging from the ceiling. Said braziers eerily illuminated the stretched and dry faces of ancient nordic mummies. The ones who still had eyeballs stared vacantly ahead, silently studying me it seems. I eventually came up on a large open room, the ceiling reaching up to a rather large hole that let light in.

I was taking my time watching the beautiful light filter into the cavern, that I hadn't seen the pressure plate. I only took notice once I felt my foot press down, and I heard a deep click come from deep within the earth of this nordic ruin. I look down at the plate, and have barely a moment to think about it before several gouts of flame erupted from small holes on the pressure plate. The fire startles me and I back away quickly from the plate, slapping my bony hands into the fire that was soon on my foot.

Panicking, not because the fire hurt, but because the robes were a gift and I didn't want to ruin them. I look around for anything to put the fire out, soon spotting a small clay jar hanging from ropes not far above the ground. I quickly pull my axe out, stand under the jar, and smack it overhead with the flat side of the axe. If I wasn't expecting the fire in the first place, I really wasn't expecting the purple-orange oil to spill out of the ceramic pot.

I was soon a blazing inferno, as the oil caked my bones, and helped spread the fire along my entire body. My vision was soon obscured by the blazing immolation that I now was. I stumbled around in a very real panic, eventually splashing my foot into something, and hearing a loud hiss of extinguished flame. Taking a leap of faith, I dove forward and splash into a deep pool of mater. Soon sinking, to the darkened depths of this pool, I was just glad to not be on fire anymore, my feet hit the floor of the pool a few seconds later.

I couldn't see four feet in front of me under the murky water, and I could see scraps of grey cloth floating around, having fallen off of my robe, I hoped it wasn't to damaged. Not entirely knowing what to do, I shrug, put the axe on by back and begin trudging through the water. It took far longer than it should have to find anything under the water, but I eventually found a rocky wall. I do a little hop under the water, and with maximum effort, I only ride about a foot. This wasn't going to be easy, but I wasn't leaving anything behind.

I grab a rock on the wall, and start to scale the totally vertical rock face. It only took me a few seconds to sink to the bottom, but it took far longer to climb out. After what felt like an hour, I was finally lying on my back in front of the deep pool. I eventually struggle to make it to my feet with the sopping wet robes. I look around and see a small trail of smoldering ash leading to the water on the other side of the room. I take note of natural looking rock bridge leading over the massive pool of water, and turn around to come face to face with a draugr.

The draugr's glowing blue-purple eyes pierced me. But the ancient nord didn't move, it just stood there, raspily breathing. I back slowly away from the draugr, my foot slips on the rocks near by the bridge, but I regain my composure and continue backing along the bridge. I soon bump into something else. I turn around and see an ancient female nordic warrior, her lips dry and cracked, but still just standing and staring at me.

Sidestepping the draugr but maintaining eye contact, I turn to walk the rest of the bridge, and see more draugr. They were standing in two single file lines, all turned toward me, not moving a muscle. I slowly walk in between all of the shambling corpses, the water dripping from myself being the only noise in the cave, it was reverberating and echoing. The tension in the air was palpable.

The draugr weren't doing anything but staring at me, so it was possible, albeit difficult to ignore them and just continue on. At the end of the lane of the dead, there were three metal gates, and nearby three stones with strange markings on them. When I walked by one of the stones, it began to glow red with arcane energy, and one of the door opened. When I moved to the next stone, a few seconds later, the first stone stopped glowing and the door shut. The same thing happened with the second and third stones.

I backed up to the first stone and prepared to run as fast as I could. I needed to activate all three gates and run through them before they close. Hopefully one of them didn't close while I'm running and crush me. I broke into a sprint and activated all three stones within a second. Speeding up, I run toward the now open gates, "I'm going to make it" was the last thought that crossed my mind by the time the first gate shut while I was a mere foot from it. I bounce my skull off of the shut gate and fall backward in a heap.

Regaining my composure, I stood up and turned around to the various draugr, they were silently judging me. I sullenly back up to the first stone. I had to make it through those gates before they shut. Running through was impossible, I'm pretty sure I busted a kneecap with the speed I was maintaining. If a skeleton could smile, I would be. I turned to the draugr and began to speak. "Here he is folks! The mighty dragonborn… Brought down by a simple metal door!"

I wasn't exactly expecting a response, but they all looked at me and said "Dovahkiin!" in unison. I look at the foul menagerie again before I attempt the doors for a second time. They spoke together once again. "Wuld-Nah-Kest!" That was one of the shouts the greybeards taught me. Was it the one that launched me forward? It better be. I began to sprint again, activating all three stones. When I was roughly two feet from the door, I shouted "Wuld-Nah!" I flew at breathtaking speed through the archways that surrounded the open gates. They didn't close again after I made it through.

The draugr didn't follow me as I went further into the crypt. I didn't pass by much else of note, save for a few more staring draugr. It felt interminable, walking through the endless catacombs. But I was among them, there wasn't a living thing for miles, I was at home, among the dead and decaying, I fit in. I soon came to another stone bridge like structure that extended over a large pool of water. As I approached the bridge, The ground began to shake, and small pockets in the water bubbled.

I stared at the bubbling pockets of water and tried to maintain my balance through the shaking earth. From the water erupted two strange nordic metal structures. They resembled claws. Two more taller claws arose from behind the first two. All four stopped just short of walking height on the bridge. Once the ground had stopped rumbling, I tentatively made my way to a set of iron doors on the other side of the bridge.

On the other side, I saw a large dias, with a sarcophagus on the top. A stone hand reached out of the top of the casket and it held… a little piece of paper. While I was analyzing the scene, I heard another door open up on the other side of the massive room. I crouch down and do my best to remain quiet. I see a woman in leather armor and a hood approaching the casket, she had a dark grey horn in her hand.

I emerged from my hiding spot and began approaching her from behind. "Hello?" I say from behind. She turns, and in one swift motion, she has a katana to my face. "Skeleton! Get back or I will cut you down where you stand!" I back up from her with my hands in the air. She makes a face like she didn't expect that to work. "The undead usually don't venture from their crypts. What are you doing here skeleton?" I point to the horn she has in her hand. "I need that…" She tucks the horn further. "Why?" She's still holding the sword to me, not wavering at all. "The, greybeards, They sent me… for that."

The woman makes a disbelieving face, her sword shaking like she was seeing a ghost, I guess technically she was. "Skeleton, don't you play games with me… The is the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. The only reason the greybeards would have sent you here is if you were dragonborn." I lower my hands, "I… am, dragonborn." she sheaths her sword slowly, not breaking eye contact. After a few moments, she speaks again. "Show me."

I turn away from her toward the water. "Fus!" The water ripples and splashes as my voice reverberates through the cavern. She walks toward me. "I've seen draugr use the voice, I'm sure skeletons are no different. How does that prove you're dragonborn?" I tilt my head and shrug. "Have you ever seen a skeleton speak before?" She stops and looks me in the eye. "I knew the dragonborn. Halbjorn, I couldn't believe he had died. He came to ustengrav to retrieve the horn, just like you're doing."

"I have his soul. I have the dragon soul." She puts the horn into her bag. "Follow me dragonborn. I have a small test for you. If you pass, you may have the horn, if not… I'm sure you could figure it out." She walked away from me, her hand resting on her sword. I didn't really have a choice but to follow, so I did. The woman brought me to a large semicircular wall. "If you are dragonborn, one of the words written on this wall will become known to you. Or at least that's what happened to Halbjorn whenever we found one of these things. Step up to the wall skeleton."

As I stepped up to the wall, I began looking around, trying to find anything special. I heard the woman unsheath her sword again, and I quickly tried concentrating on one particular word. "Well, skeleton, it's clear as day that nothing's happened." once she finished, the word I was looking at began to glow. White energies flowed from around the wall, and channeled themselves into me. Once they stopped, I collapse to my knees at the wall. "By the divines, it's really true." I struggle to my feet and the woman runs up and helps me up.

The woman then pulls my hood down and grabs the sides of my head. "Halbjorn, can you hear me… it's Delphine. Are you in there Halbjorn?" Is this woman insane? "Not Halbjorn, Dragonborn." She grabs me by the hand. "You need to come with me. Esbern needs to see this." With that she pulls me down the stairs from the word wall. I shouted "Feim!" the word I had just learned from the wall. With that, my hand passed right through Delphines, and I backed up toward the casket. "You give me the horn, I will go back to the greybeards." Delphine turns toward my ethereal form. "They greybeards are a waste of time Dragonborn. Come with me, we can show you your real destiny."

As my ethereal form fades, I speak again. "I will bring the horn back to the greybeards, give it to me. And I might consider speaking with you afterwards." Delphine drops her shoulders and exhales. Before pulling out of her bag, the horn ,and a paper and quill. She writes a quick note on the paper. "Here Dragonborn, I wrote directions to riverwood. You can speak to me after your exercise in pointlessness... Know this dragonborn, the dragons have come back, they're burning villages, they're eating people. They greybeards will not help you stop them. We will." with that, Delphine turned and walked out of ustengrav.