Once within the confines of the Barrow, they heard talking up ahead. Quickly and quietly they moved behind a nearby platform. Yew had his bow drawn.
"If that dark elf wants to go on ahead, let him. Better than us risking our necks." A nord bandit said.
"What if Aravel doesn't come back? I want my share from that claw." A female bandit said.
"Just shut it and keep an eye out for trouble." The male nord grumbled.
Yew nocked an arrow, aimed and loosed it at the female bandit, catching her in the neck. She grabbed where the arrow struck and fell backwards. Immediately the man drew his sword and ran for cover. Yew nocked another arrow and loosed it into the male bandits leg. Impairing his mobility. Greta drew her mace and charged at him. After a quick scuffle, Greta managed to bash his head in. The two nodded at each other and stripped the corpses of gold, with Yew also taking the female's nearly full quiver of arrows.
The two began to make their way through the winding and eerie passages of the Barrow. Yew managed to find a magicka potion on some shelves but there wasn't much else to note. Just a long, mostly silent trek through dark abandoned hallways.
They eventually found their way into a large chamber complete with what seemed to be some kind of puzzle and a dead bandit, riddled with arrows, next to a switch. The door to the next room, however, was clear.
"Huh. Looks like whatever was happening here...someone solved." Greta said.
"Maybe Aravel." Yew said.
"If he's not the guy down there." Greta said gesturing to the corpse. Yew nodded.
"Let's keep moving. Just be careful, this place seems to be trapped." Yew said, and he gestured to the wall slits on either side of the dead bandit. Greta agreed. The two walked into the next room. There was a table with a Health potion and a book on it. Yew took the potion of course and then took the tiem to read the short story within. Somehow he felt like his skill with one handed weapons had increased.
"Greta, I think you should take a look at this." Yew said and handed the book over. Greta nodded and gave it a read.
"Huh. This story has some useful strategies in how to utilize one handed weapons in battle." Greta said. Yew, of course, realized this was some sort of game mechanic. However, it seemed like it had that sort of rationalization attached to it. It was still clear that the universe worked a bit differently from his own, even when it came to learning.
"I'll keep this in my pack if you don't mind." Greta said. Yew nodded and she put it away.
In the next room, there was a large hole in the ground, one that had a ramp leading down it. Greta took lead, and Yew followed close behind her, his hand on his dagger. Suddenly they heard claws on the ripe and squeaking. Before Greta could draw her mace she was bitten by a skeever. Greta grunted but managed to draw her mace and bash in the skeevers head. Yew drew his dagger and went to slashing the second Skeever who had been angling in an attempt to flank Greta.
The skeever was able to slash into Yew's wrist, even as Yew cut the Skeever with several slashes. Then Yew dealt the death blow by stabbing his dagger into the eye of the monster. Greta rushed ahead, and while she took a couple of wounds from the last skeever, it soon lay dead at her feet.
"Those skeevers fought like mad." Greta said, tending to her wounds with her magic.
"Yes. They seemed particularly vicious. Perhaps driven madder by hunger or disease?" Yew said.
"Perhaps. In any case make sure you make sure to report to me any symptoms of sickness as soon as possible. Either I will be able to heal it myself otherwise we can take you to the Temple of Kyreneth for treatment as soon as possible." Greta said.
"Alright." Yew replied. Greta then tended his wounds with magic. Before too long they were once again on their way through the Barrow. Faintly, they heard a voice call out.
"Is there someone coming? Is that you Harknir? Bjorn? Soling?" The voice called out. They continued carefully until they found a doorway completely covered by spiderwebs. Yew took out his dagger and hacked through the webbing. They walked through to find themselves in a hall covered in spider webs and spider eggs.
"Th-This is..." Greta said.
"...Fascinating." Yew said. Back on Earth he had always been a bit afraid and disgusted by spiders. That was still true to a lesser extent here, but mostly he found himself captivated by the sight. He supposed his personality had changed somewhat, being a druid now. And it was certainly true that spider silk could be quite useful. However, his new fascination with nature was going to take some getting used to.
"N-Not what I would call it." Greta squeaked. Then a giant spider plopped down in front of them. It didn't make very much sound at all, which again intrigued Yew. This spider, despite its massive size, was still quite silent in its movements.
When it spit acid at him, he was quite surprised, but managed to duck out of the way of it. Yew was again impressed. The acid seemed fairly potent. He again quickly cast Piercing thorn and it went rushing into the spider's side. The creature let out an unearthly shriek, which caused Greta, who had been charging to stop. She'd been paralyzed with fear. And Yew realized after several moments that he was too. His hands were shaking and his mind had been completely blank for a moment. Yew imagined it must be even worse for Greta who had expressed more fear then him when entering this spider's lair. He needed to do something, but what? For some reason, his thoughts were just so scattered.
The spider pounced, knocking Greta off her feet. It began hitting her with his forelegs and biting into her with it's fangs. He needed to stop this. His thoughts came back to him. He repeated the spell and another thorn went rushing into the behind of the giant spider. The spider got off of her and turned it's attention to Yew. It scuttled quick as it could over to Yew. All the while Yew was casting another spell.
"Sparks." Yew said and a small arc of electricity went coursing out of his hands into the giant spider. The smell of burning spider flesh filled the air, but it only slowed down the giant spider. It continued to charge for Yew. He didn't have time for drawing his bow and so far, all his spells had failed to drop the monster and he didn't want to use any more. He still had his dagger in his hand. He could outlast the thing if he just kept slashing and dodging.
Yew slashed the spider, causing it to bleed even more. The spider barely flinched and instead used it's forelimb to knock Yew to the ground. He dropped his dagger and it went clattering to the ground. The spider bared it's fangs, which glittered with venom. Yew felt himself on the verge of death. He was almost accepting of it. Like it was inevitable. He hadn't felt like this before. No, that wasn't accurate. He had felt that way before. But not on Earth. It was in High Rock that he felt it. But where? When? It all seemed so distant.
He supposed it didn't matter now. The spider's fangs were close to his neck. He couldn't cast any spells now, because his hands had been pinned down by the spiders was over.
Suddenly The spider pulled back. Soon it was off him, rearing and letting out small shrieks. Yew got to his feet as quickly as he could. It had engaged with Greta, who was covered in wounds but was still fighting violently, swinging her mace and letting out battle cries of her own. Yew felt a surge of rage within him, he cast the spell Piercing Thorn and the thorn sailed over Greta's shoulder, embedding itself into one of the spider's eyes. It gurgled and fell, spasming into a death rattle.
Greta bashed the Spiders head until it cracked open. Then the two of them caught their breath.
"By the Nine that was a terrible battle." Greta said.
"Ha. It was." Yew said, but he felt a sense of adrenaline. And he also felt more powerful. It occurred to Yew that if he could gain experience like when he read the book, he could likely level up. Though he wondered if that was a process He had to perform himself and allocate points or if it was automatic.
"H-Hey! Get me down from here! Get me down." Said a voice. The two of them looked up to see a Dunmer wrapped up in the spider webs.
"Don't leave me up here for Arkay's sake." The Dunmer said. Yew and Greta looked at each other. Likely he was one of the bandits. Almost certainly, in fact. So they couldn't exactly trust him. However, they couldn't leave him high and dry either. Yew went over to retrieve his dagger while Greta walked closer to the Dunmer.
"You did it. You killed it. So cut me down before anything else shows up." Aravel said. He sounded pretty desperate, which Greta could understand.
"Where's the golden claw?" Greta asked.
"Yes, the claw. I know how it works. The claw, the markings, the door in the Hall of Stories. I know how they all fit together." The Dunmer said.
"What are you talking about?" Greta said.
"Help me down and I'll show you. You won't believe the power the Nords have hidden there." The dunmer said.
"Hand over the claw first." Greta said.
"Does it look like I can move? You have to cut me down first." The dunmer said. Greta eyed the bandit suspiciously.
"It's fine Greta. I'll do it. If he betrays us, he will die." Yew said, having retrieved his dagger and moved to join Greta. Yew then cut him down from his web in a few, quick movements.
"You fool! Why would I share the treasure with anyone!" The dunmer said and began to sprint away. Yew calmly sheathed his dagger and drew his bow. Yew and Greta pursued Aravel through the winding corridors, as soon as they entered a circular room, Yew nocked an arrow and loosed it into the bandit's leg. He fell to his knees with a cry of pain.
"Wait! Don't-!" The dunmer started. But Yew soon silenced him with another arrow to the chest. Then Yew went over to his body, put away his bow and slit his throat with his dagger to make sure.
"I know that must seem brutal but-" Yew said. Greta shrugged.
"You did warn him. He was a bandit. Who knows how many people he's hurt. How many have begged him for mercy. And he seemed utterly unrepentant." Greta said. Frankly, it seemed amazing to Yew that he had accepted violence so easily, but a part of him knew that he had killed before in this world. He just couldn't remember.
Yew went through his body, grabbing the Golden Claw and his journal. His journal revealed the true nature of the claw. It was a key to open a door somewhere in the Barrow. Yew showed it to Greta.
"So what do you think? Want to see if we can open that door up?" Yew said. Greta nodded.
"We should rest and heal beforehand though." Greta said. The two of them did so. Greta healed their wounds and then they sat down on the floor. Yew found it slightly distasteful to do so, but he really was pretty exhausted. Plus he needed to replenish his spells. To do so he took out his grimoire and meditated on each of his spells. Drawing power from doing so.
"Is that a Druid's spellbook?" Greta said, as Yew put it back in his pack.
"Yes. I need to replenish my connection to these spells, through meditation on nature. Though in truth, the spells I have all used are cantrips, so once I become powerful enough I will be able to use them as long as I have energy." Yew said.
"I see. So Druids are very powerful then." Greta said.
"Eventually. But at first other mages have the advantage. They can cast spells as long as they have Magicka. We have a set amount until we have to meditate again." Yew said.
"I see." Greta said.
Yew then stood up. Greta couldn't help but notice how he looked even more feminine in those robes then he did in his hide armor. She found it sorta...pleasing.
"Let's get going." Yew said. Greta got up and followed him.