Chapter 11: Bleak Falls Barrow

[21stof Last Seed 4E 201]

Once Faendal and I had managed to rescue the two ladies, Fiona and Freya, we had rested for one night in the entrance area of the barrow, and we had decided to go in and see what we'd find; the four of us should be able to handle the dangers, or so we hoped.

Now, Bleak Falls Barrow. Who had come up with a name like this, and what did I recall about that place? I did not have a photographic memory; I certainly was not going to be able to predict which draugr was really dead and which one would rise to challenge us, and I also did not recall the exact sequence of rooms and encounters. As the ruin was a mandatory part of the main quest in the game, I knew about the basics, of course, like the pillar puzzle, the giant spider, the claw, and the end boss, but one never knew if everything was exactly like in the game anyway. But, before heading on, first order of business was to check the food and potion supply. Fortunately, my large backpack had some extra padded storage for small potion and poison bottles, and for now we had six potions of healing, two for magicka, and three for stamina, plus food and water for a couple of days at least; that should do, shouldn't it? How much time would we need to get through the place and reach the final room? In the game, this was maybe half a day or so, or less if you hurried and knew what you were doing, but again, this was reality, and we'd better be prepared for taking our time and proceeding cautiously. Rushing ahead would make it possible or even likely that draugr started to rise behind us, and I did not think that this was desirable.

The first section was pretty easy; we stepped through the only visible entrance, followed a passage, and without encountering any obstacles we found ourselves in a larger room. It was eerily quiet in here, and I immediately recognized the room with the pillar puzzle, specifically as it was nicely illuminated by a couple of braziers. A dead person was on the ground close to the big lever in the center of the room, and a number of arrows could be seen sticking out from the body. A metal gate blocked the exit on the other side of the room, and, like in the game, a set of stairs lead up to some kind of balcony or gallery.

Fiona looked shocked when she saw the corpse and asked:

"Was ist das denn?"

{"What is this?"}

"That, my friends, is a lesson. The bandit, maybe the one the other two mentioned before, the one who had entered yesterday just before we came, just pulled the lever without checking for traps, and this was literally the last mistake he will ever make."

I looked closer and noticed that it was actually a female bandit, and she looked cross-eyed; probably this was indeed 'Crazy Eyes' the two male bandits had mentioned, the one who had entered the depths of the barrow on the eve before. I could not help wondering why the bandits were so stupid; there was Arvel probably further down, there was the dead woman here, there were two we had killed to rescue the two ladies, there had been one guard outside the barrow, and there had been two or three others who had been met by one of Faendal՚s arrows; they could have gone in in force and have a much better chance of making progress and overcome all obstacles together. Maybe they had been greedy, and the leaders had just tried to skim some riches to not share with the others?

Freya went ahead and looked around, found the pillars, and exclaimed:

"There are symbols on the pillars – what are they for?"

Faendal took that:

"Those symbols are usually related to a puzzle. I am not sure if those puzzles are more for keeping people out or keeping danger in, but I have seen some of those before. Curiously, most of them are not very difficult to solve."

"I like puzzles – let me see!"

Fiona also went ahead, and once she had walked around the pillars a few times, she asked:

"Can we turn the pillars?"

"Yes, they can be turned, and turning by itself is not usually dangerous."

The petite Bosmer stepped next to the first pillar and tried to move it, but failed. Only when Freya joined her and the two ladies combined their efforts, the pillar started to rotate with a scratching noise. Fiona and the shield-maiden played around and turned the pillars in various positions, before I heard the Bosmer asking:

"Okay, there is snake, whale, and bird. But what is the proper one to select?"

"Usually, there are some hints around, either in the same room or not far from here at least."

"How do you know all of that?" Faendal asked. "Didn't you say that you just arrived in Skyrim very recently?"

"Aye, that's right. I am some kind of scholar and have read lots of books already as a teenager, including reports on Skyrim, ruins, dungeons, and more. I am very curious to see how that works out in reality."

"You have got books on our lands in your home world?"

"Aye, that we have."

Mentioning books might be somewhat easier to explain than talking about computer games; it was not even a lie, as there were many books in the game. Faendal nodded, and Fiona had now seen the plates higher up, once she had climbed the stairs:

"Look up here, those are the same symbols! All right, so we just turn the pillar to match the symbols on the wall?"

The two ladies worked together and initiated the turning, and Fiona looked at me again:

"Now what?"

"Now we can try the lever again."

"No, not me! What if we are wrong?"

"I will do it!" Freya announced eagerly. She stepped forward, but before pulling the lever, she placed her large shield right above her body, just in case; that was actually quite smart. As I had expected, the iron gate opened now, no arrows came down, and we could go on. Fiona had a question, though:

"I don't get it. If somebody did what Freya just did, shielding herself, couldn't they just pull the lever so many times that the supply of arrows is gone?"

"In theory, yes, but I haven't heard about that happening. Most of those ruins and the traps in there are very old, but they are still operational. Either the traps have a huge arsenal of arrows or they are magically resupplied, I guess."

"But the bandit leader, Arvel, went in first, and as we did not pass him, he's somewhere further in, right?"

"That seems to be a reasonable assumption, yes."

"So, if he managed to solve the puzzle and open the gate, why was it locked again when we came and the pillars changes?"

"There must be some kind of Dwemer magic at work resetting puzzles and traps after some time. Don't ask me how this works; I do not have a clue."

The next room offered a few goodies on a pedestal, including a book with the title 'Thief'. Wasn't that supposed to be a skill book? In the game, you could just read such a book and increase a particular skill. How would that work in the new reality? I would not find out today – I picked up the book and read the beginning, but nothing happened.

The four of us proceeded, and the next passage had some spiderwebs on the walls. I could see that Fiona did not like that look, and Freya looked outright disgusted. Eventually we got to the big room, almost a hall, which was partially covered in spider nets, but did not enter yet. Freya, who had already shown her problem with spiders under Helgen before, refused to step into the room before we had cleared it. A voice was heard from the distance, calling for help, and Fiona asked with a trembling voice:

"Wait, is there a person ahead caught in spider webs?"

"It sure looks like that, yes."

"But, that implies that there is a real big spider around somewhere, doesn't it?"

"I am afraid that it does, yes – we need to be careful."

I asked Faendal to stay back and prepare his bow, and I stepped into the hall, looking up. Indeed, the giant spider promptly showed up, and I retreated, allowing Faendal to release a few arrows. When the beast came close, I blasted fire at it, and when it retreated, I stepped forward again to lure it back for the wood elf's arrows. This was not extremely efficient, but it worked, and it allowed us to get rid of the giant spider without exposing ourselves to its fangs; I had absolutely no interest to be caught under the spider or have my face disfigured by spider venom like the poor dead lady we had seen earlier. The spider was not smart enough to change its strategy, and ten minutes later the beast was dead. Fiona, who had kept back together with Freya, looked at it and said:

"Die ist ja so groß wie die im Hobbit-Film!"

{"It's as big as the ones in the Hobbit movie!"}

Yep, good comparison. I had fought against giant spiders plenty while playing the game, and while reality was quite different, I was still able to fight them without wetting my pants, at least if I could avoid getting too close. In close combat such a beast would most likely kill me.

Fiona got busy freeing Arvel, and I could the dark elf saying:

"It's coming loose, I can feel it."

Of course, the bandit took off as soon as he could, and we could hear him from a distance:

"You fools! Why should I share the treasure with anyone?"

Fiona yelped when the bandit ran away:

"What? I help him, and he runs?"

"Don't worry; the draugr will take care of him."

"Draugr?"

"Undead Nordic warriors, something like zombies."

"Giant spiders, zombies, what else? Are there going to be magical unicorns and minotaurs, too? Fauns? Trolls? Farengar did not say a word about all of that!"

"Of course he did not; that would scare away all of the volunteers. And, as far as I know, unicorns and minotaurs are more frequent in Cyrodiil than in Skyrim, but there certainly are trolls and some more magical creatures like wisps, wraiths, and spriggans."

The petite wood elf was clearly undecided about believing me or not, but Faendal confirmed my statement, and he also explained that Cyrodiil was the neighbor province to the south of Skyrim and that it was the seat of the Empire. Cautiously we moved on, and when we did encounter the first draugr, I could take my time to explain about some of them resting in stone niches in the walls and how one could, with careful observation, sometimes distinguish those which were really dead from those which would rise when some one approached. When we had defeated the first couple of draugr archers, Fiona picked up an Ancient Nordic Bow and a few quivers with Ancient Nord Arrows, and she was in business. It turned out that she could indeed handle a bow properly; she was no Legolas, but pretty good. Faendal, who had likely been practicing archery for quite a few decades, gave her some advice on proper stance and all, but basically she could shoot. The two wood elves handled practically all draugr opposing us from a distance, and a few minutes later we found a very dead Arvel, who had not been so lucky, and we picked up the claw and a significant amount of septims from his body.

Before we headed deeper into the barrow, Fiona had a question:

"It just struck me; what about all of the lights here? When we got to the room with the puzzle, there was light there, spread by the two pan like structures on the upper level. When we went further, there were occasional torches along the walls. Now, around here, there are more light sources. Has somebody just done that for us?"

"Good question, Fiona, and I have to admit that I do not know. Faendal?"

"Me neither" the male Bosmer admitted. "However, there are rumors that dark magic keeps all of the braziers, torches, candles and similar on eternally. I could imagine that much fewer people might want to explore dungeons which are completely dark, and maybe the dark forces around do that to lure more adventurers in?"

Neither Fiona nor I were convinced, but we did not have a better explanation either. Freya had her own idea, though:

"I seem to know something you don't. See, I did not come to Skyrim fully unprepared, and one of the books I read was called 'Amongst the Draugr'. It is about someone, a Breton from the College of Winterhold, I believe, who succeeded, after many months, to live among the draugr, and she observed that they needed to kind of recharge the few sparks of like they still had in their niches and that they worshiped their buried priests from to to time. Obviously, the tasks included some kind of cleaning and maintenance, and it makes sense that keeping the braziers and torches lit is part of that."

"Maybe so", Fiona replied, "but there weren't any draugr niches in the puzzle room."

"Yeah, and wouldn't they need a coal mine or so to keep all of the braziers on for centuries?"

Freya did not have an answer to that, and I just muttered:

"Heinzelmännchen!"

Fiona smiled, and I guess that she understood my reference. We went ahead, and together we marveled at everything we saw in the barrow, from strange rock formations and occasional creeks and waterfalls to glowing mushrooms and various loot, and I made sure to give the two ladies time to get used to the environment. From one of the more powerful draugr I picked up a battle axe which was bigger and looked to be of better quality than the iron war axe I had taken in Helgen; while the weapon was designed for two hands, I found out that I could easily wield it with one of my big paws; it was heavier, more sturdy, and probably dealt more damage than the Iron War Axe I had used so far, so that I exchanged weapons. Faendal explained that this was an 'Ancient Nord Battleaxe', and for some reason many draugr used the design. When I did a few practice swings with my new weapon, the Bosmer was a little bit in awe when he watched me handling it with just one hand. Freya took a similar weapon from another dead draugr, but shook her head and dropped it again:

"No, that's too heavy and large for me in one hand, and I need my left hand for the shield. Can't call myself a shield-maiden without using a shield, can I?"

She had a point, and I smiled at her. When we proceeded deeper into the barrow, we even heard some odd noises from afar at some times, and I wondered if the place had some special ancient 'Dwemer scary noise generators' or so. Really, if there was some magic at work to keep the occasional brazier and torch lit, or lighting up just before we came along, there could also be something to expose visitors to some creepy background noise? Not that I minded; I had always liked haunted house rides, although I knew my limits with some horror movies. Skyrim monsters were unlikely to scare me, but if I encountered something like a monster from the 'Alien' movie series, I'd probably run back screaming, if I still could.

They way down had its set of dangers for sure. Fortunately we all agreed to take our time, and we always scouted a room or a passage carefully before entering. Doing that prevented us from being killed by a nasty spiked door, which moved swiftly once a pressure plate on the ground was triggered. Those plates were actually harder to see than in the game, and an opposing draugr coming from the other side stepped on it while trying to get to us; the spikes turned out to be deadly even for an undead.

The swinging blades a few passages later were also an obstacle which was not so easy to overcome. Fiona, with her petite body, might have managed to crawl on the floor and avoiding them altogether, but she refused to even attempt that. As nobody else volunteered, I dropped my backpack and decided to handle this obstacle. The blades had, of course, some distance from each other, and they swung in regular intervals. Thus I did what I had done in the game multiple times – I stepped close to the first blade, waited a minute or so to get a feeling for the rhythm, and stepped forward quickly at the right time, positioning myself between the first blade and the second. The procedure was repeated with the next swinging blade, and so on, but I really needed to focus; moving forward with blades behind and ahead was irritating and dangerous, and I started to sweat. When I passed the last blade, I miscalculated slightly, and the blade got the skin on my left shoulder, so that I yelped. Adding to that, a draugr started to move in its alcove right ahead, and I rushed to pull the chain which disabled the swinging blades, so that my friends could come to my aid. Next I blasted flames against the approaching draugr, which stopped the undead enough to allow me aiming and hitting with my axe which I had not left behind. Proudly I pointed to the dead draugr when my companions arrived, and then I slowly slid down to the floor, exhausted from the exertion and the minor wound I had taken from the last blade.

Faendal gave me a potion of minor healing to drink, and ten minutes later I was ready for action again.

Some rooms, more passages, and many draugr and other obstacles later we reached the big stone door; once we got this open, the boss fight and, hopefully, the word wall and the Dragonstone were waiting, and I might get a better understanding on who really was the Dragonborn.

When we had reached the big stone door in Bleak Falls Barrow, I got the claw out and showed my companions – Fiona, Freya, and Faendal – how the symbols on the three large rings in the door could be aligned with the small ones shown on the back of the claw. I had to admit that I felt a little bit special about being the one who knew how such a door worked and being able to show off. Fiona eagerly moved the rings, not without some effort, and the door opened when I pushed the claw in, by having the huge stone sink into the floor. It was really amazing how this old mechanism still worked just fine, and it probably was a masterpiece of ancient mechanical engineering plus maybe some magic. The noise of stone scratching against stone made a shiver run down my spine, even though I roughly knew what to expect. That reminded me that my companions might not know, and before we stepped through the opening I warned them:

"I have read in books about those barrows and ruins that there is usually a particularly tough enemy lurking behind the Nordic puzzle door, and in particular behind those special ones which need a claw to open. I suggest that we prepare ourselves accordingly."

A few steps later a strange rustling was heard above our heads and Fiona flinched, but that was just bats. We first looked to our sides to make sure that we did not pass a lurking danger, like hiding draugr, and then we slowly walked towards the center of the big cave and climbed the few stairs up to the platform. Fiona suddenly said:

"Listen, where is this chanting coming from? Is this from the curved wall over there?"

Slowly she moved over to what I knew to be the barrow's Word Wall, and she looked like she was in trance. I got my battle axe ready and asked Faendal to get his bow out and keep some distance from the sarcophagus in the center, and I also asked Freya to get ready for combat. And, right on time, when Fiona knelt down in front of the curved wall, the stone cover blasted off and a very nasty looking draugr started to climb out from the sarcophagus. I sent a quick fire blast over, Faendal started to work his bow, and Freya uttered a war cry and attacked with her sword. Naturally, the draugr shrugged this off, and as Freya was next to him, she was the first target. The draugr used its big sword on her – it was probably even enchanted – but the young lady was tough; she raised her shield and managed to deflect the blow. Faendal continued to release arrows, and I stepped forward now as well to find an opportunity to hit with my battle axe. Ouch! The draugr had managed to cut a gap in my left leg, not very deep, but it hurt, and it got very cold, too.

Despite the pain I looked up just in time to see the draugr open its mouth and heard the first syllable: 'FUS…'. That was enough to force my mind into overdrive, as I knew that this particular draugr might actually know the entire three word shout, and this could be lethal at close distance. I dropped to the ground, hurting my leg again, and when the draugr completed his shout - '... RO DAH!' - most of the energy fortunately exploded above me, and I was only pushed back a few meters and got a few additional bruises and scratches.

Faendal and Fiona had been too far away to be impacted much, and Freya had been standing at the side, so that the shout fully missed her. She now used the opportunity to attack again, and in my mind I had to apologize to her, as her attacks showed a lot of courage and at least some skill. Freya and I soon found a rhythm together, alternating with our attacks and stepping back when the draugr came too close. Fortunately the bad guy was not very agile and quick, and we used that to our advantage. Each time it started to open his mouth we dove to the ground, and the draugr was either unable or not willing to turn or tilt its head once the shout had been initiated; this way we managed to avoid being blasted to Oblivion (pun intended) and potentially being killed.

Fiona had now finished her trance, and she also shot arrows from a distance; slowly we could see our attacks affecting the enemy, and the draugr attacks got less frequent and less powerful, or so I thought at least. Just when I believed that we were about to win the fight, I turned around to my companions to see if they were all right, and when I focused my attention back on the draugr again, I realized a little bit too late that it had opened the mouth once more and that it was directed right at me. My reaction time was not good enough to fully evade the shout; the blast of 'FUS RO DAH' hit me with considerable force so that I got blown across the ground until my body was stopped by the word wall; unfortunately, my head got in contact with hard stone and I blacked out immediately.

[Author's Notes: I decided to skip describing each and every detail in the barrow; most readers will have played that for the umpteenth time or read plenty of other stories about it anyway.

So, it seems to be decided who the Dragonborn is. Not a warrior woman, but rather a timid and petite wood elf. What had Akatosh had in mind when deciding that? How will she be able to survive in this harsh world?

About the term 'Heinzelmännchen' being used: That's based on a German legend; they are like little gnomes cleaning up the house during the night when everybody sleeps. Feel free to look it up in Wikipedia or so for the full story; the English language equivalent might be 'brownie'.]