Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the iconic gaming franchise The Elder Scrolls by Bethesda Game Studios nor am in any way associated with them or their affiliates other than through the purchasing of their various products.

Author's Note: Unless the escape from Helgen counts, it looks like Gio is headed out on his first dungeon crawl: Bleak Fall Barrows. Warning: this is gonna be a long one. I'm not only going to be covering most of the trip to the Barrow; I'm going to put down every last detail on his actual experience traveling through his first official dungeon. Enjoy.

Chapter 3: Bleak Falls Barrow

"You'd have job requests piling in from all over Skyrim if you decided to become a mercenary," Camilla complimented me as I drew my bloodied swords from the last wolf of the pack that had attacked us.

I grunted in response, sheathing my twin blades.

"You don't talk much either, do you?" she asked.

Keeping up the appeal, I shrugged. She'd gotten bored a while back with her one-sided flirting.

"Well, mind if I just kind of ventilate to you then?"

I said nothing.

She sighed. "You know, it's kind of awkward trying to talk to someone who acts like their tongue has been cut out, but okay.

"I don't get what it is that's so special about that dusty old thing. It's a family heirloom and all, something that could only be important to a member of the Valerius family. But when those thieves broke into the shop that was all that they took. We have plenty of things back at the Trader that were worth much more than that claw and also were more useful.

"I'm not sure if my brother ever noticed this before, but if you look really closely at the bottom of the claw, you can see some crude animals etched into it. I can't remember what order they were in, but I know that there was a bear, an owl, and some sort of insect like a moth. It almost seemed like a code to something, like a combination lock."

"That may have something to do with why they took it," I said.

"How do you mean?"

"They may think that it's a key of some kind and want to use it to gain access to some sort of treasure trove."

"Yeah, you could be right."

Her eyes wandered to my armor. She'd looked at it several times already, but hadn't said anything about it.

"No, I'm not a Stormcloak," I told her before she could ask.

"I didn't think so," she said. "Ralof is the rebel I've ever met that's reckless enough to wander far from the pack and still wear the colors. I figured you'd probably just looted it or something, since it doesn't seem to fit you so well."

I didn't answer, and she sighed. Snow started falling, and she shivered.

"Excellent," she muttered. "We must be almost there."

I squinted through the snow, which seemed to be thickening rapidly as we ascended, but I noticed something tall and broad just a little ways ahead.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing in the direction of the object.

Camilla followed my finger, and she answered, "It used to be a guard tower back when the Barrow was still a keep. Now it's just a crumbling mound stone and mortar. We should take shelter in there, maybe warm up a little bit."

We trudged forward through the snow towards the ruined shelter. As we drew closer however, I noticed the light of a campfire through the flurries.

"Get down!" I whispered sharply, pushing Camilla into the snow.

She cursed, but I clamped a hand over her mouth and pointed to the orange light. When she realized what was going on, she nodded her head and pried my hand away.

"It's most likely bandits keeping a watch for anyone like us," I said softly into the Imperial woman's ear. "I'm going to go ahead and see what's up. If they seem hostile, I'll take them out before I come back for you. If not, then we'll just continue forward."

"Be careful," Camilla warned me as I crept by way towards the flickering flames.

I stopped behind a snow bank, close enough that I could see but whoever was ahead could not. It dawned on me that I was unsure what a bandit might look like, but I figured that it wouldn't be too hard to tell the difference between a cutthroat thief and a weary vagabond.

There was only one person who sat huddled up by the flame. They appeared to be a woman, built similarly to an Imperial but a little too dark-skinned. She wasn't wearing much more than a little fur armor, but she seemed comfortable enough by the fire. A hide shield was propped up against her side to ward off the wind that was blowing in from her left, and an axe was embedded in the ground by her other side. On top of the tower I could see torchlight, probably someone else.

The wind changed direction for a breath of a second, and the woman's head snapped up.

"Who's there?" she demanded, slipping on her shield on and picking up the axe.

I kept still and silent, hoping that maybe I could convince her she hadn't actually caught my scent. I silently cursed the sweat and blood covered Stormcloak mail I wore.

"If you don't show yourself," she warned, "then we'll fill your sorry arse up with arrows."

"Watch the language," I said, standing up from the snow bank and advancing with my arms out to my sides.

"Stop right there!"

I complied. "You're a bandit, I take it?"

"If you don't turn around and go back the way you came, then I'll show you."

"Too bad," I said, smirking.

I dashed forward, ducking low as I could to dodge the arrows that suddenly hailed down from the top of the tower. As I approached the bandit, I drew my swords, slicing her with a double drawing-slash. Her armor did little to protect her, and she collapsed in a bloodied heap, her axe dropping out of her hand and her shield sliding from her forearm.

An arrow embedded itself in my left shoulder, and I glared up at the top of the tower. The archer was too far for my flames to reach, and it would be too difficult to aim my new sparks spell. I yanked the arrow from my arm, adding it to my collection before using a healing spell (which I'd discovered I knew quite by accident on the way up) on the wound.

I started to produce my bow to counter the archer, but two more bandits charged out of the tower, one of which was bearing a banded iron shield, the other a two-handed battle axe. Sacrificing my second sword to its sheath I took the fallen bandit woman's shield and held it above my head to ward off any arrows as I prepared to counter the approaching thieves.

The one with the axe reached me first, swinging his weapon heavily for my side. I casually backed away just out of reach of his strike so that he only scratched my light armor before countering with a thrust of my blade into his gut. I wrenched it around a bit for good measure before ripping it upward, rending his abdomen and allowing his insides to flop out.

The second man reached me, and he was taking a clearly more defensive stance as he hid behind his heavy shield. The moment he moved it aside to attack me I thrust my sword through his throat, blood spurting out from both the entry and exit wound as he drowned on his own blood.

I discarded the shield and advanced to the inside of the tower across a short stone bridge that I wouldn't have even realized was there if I hadn't approached the outpost as a whole from the side. The inside of the tower wasn't much warmer than it was outside, but it wasn't snowy at least. There were a couple of tables inside, both of them covered with gold and coin purses that I decided I would loot once I was done with the last bandit.

I climbed up the steps to the more exposed second floor, where I had to then move on to an exterior ramp to reach the top of the tower. I kept only one sword out; bandits wouldn't be smart enough to carry both a bow and an efficient melee weapon.

As I rounded onto the top of the tower, I just barely managed to deflect an arrow with my blade. The bandit seized the opportunity to toss his bow aside and draw a dagger, but by the time he'd gotten that far I'd already gutted him.

I quickly made my way back down the stairs and to where I left Camilla. She was beginning to look a little blue, and I quickly lead her over to the fire. While she warmed herself I looked around inside the tower, coming up with some measly gold and a few potatoes and cabbages.

"You've got frostbite," I noted, examining Camilla's exposed hands and forearms.

"I'll be fine," she said from chattering teeth. "We're almost there."

I looked in the direction of the barrow. I could already make out its tall, arching columns even through all the snow.

"It's only going to get worse from here," I told her. "I'm going to leave you here by the fire, but once you're warmed back up, I want you to head back to Riverwood. Your brother will likely murder me if I let you die of cold."

"Yeah, you're right about that last part, and I guess you are about the first part, too. Fine, but don't let yourself get gutted by any of those pigs up there."

"I hope for their sake they aren't all as helpless as these swine."

I stood up from the fire, flinching at the sudden bite of the cold away from the flames. I continued up the mountainside, checking over my shoulder to make sure that the Imperial woman was doing as I instructed. Just as the tower was beginning to leave my range of sight, I could see that she was gone.

It didn't take long for me to reach the top of the mountain and Bleak Falls Barrow with that. It was difficult to tell, but it was probably only a few hours past noon.

I climbed up the stone stairs that lead to the keep carelessly. The snow was falling so thick that I could only see a few meters in front of me, so by the time I'd notice any bandits, we'd already be so close that I'd be forced to engage them.

What I didn't count on was that the arches would somehow create a sort of invisible dome over the Barrow, and as soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I was spotted by a trio of bandits.

These ones didn't ask any questions as they readied their weapons. Two of them, a man and a woman, readied bows, but the third, a large Nord man, drew a pair of war axes from his belt and charged me.

I countered him as best I could with my swords, but stopping the towering bandit was like stopping a charging bull. We connected hard, and he actually pushed me backwards as I struggled to keep his axes from cleaving me, guarding myself from them with the flats of my sword blades.

He stopped pushing me suddenly and swung his axes back to strike me with a double descending slash, but I danced out of his way. An arrow stung my side and another whizzed past my face, but I paid them little mind as I severed the behemoth man's hamstrings before slicing his neck bone. Whether I'd properly killed him or just paralyzed him was beyond me, but it did the trick.

With the remaining archers I entered a sort of bow battle as we took turns diving behind cover and sending volleys of iron needles at each other. I'd quickly killed the woman who'd only been a few meters away, but the man was much farther away, making him a much more difficult target. Eventually I figured out his pattern, and by leading him with my bow, I managed to take him down with a single lethal shot in his armpit.

I considered looting them, but decided against it. The bandits at the tower hadn't had much gold, and I didn't feel like committing more necrophilia. I sated myself by taking the woman bandit's dozen arrows to replenish a portion of the ones that I had sent flying over the mountain side trying to kill the last man. After that, I followed a second flight of stairs to a set of heavy oaken doors and entered the Bleak Falls Barrow.

Inside was earthily warm. I could hear people talking, but they didn't seem alerted to my presence, and I intended to keep my stealth in check. I readied my bow to snipe some bastard-borne.

All over the inside of the barrow were dead bodies. Some of them were fresh, travelers who'd mistakenly wandered in and bandits who must've been killed by their partners during scuffles; some were the withered corpses of mummified soldiers from ages past; and then there were oversized, dead rats all over. I felt oddly compelled to cut off their tails and take them with me, but I ignored the feeling. I'd soon feel down a hundred dead men and women's corpses.

Stalking towards the pair of bandits was painfully easy with all of the rubble inside the barrow. I simply crept from rubble pile to rubble pile—the man and woman too engrossed in their conversation too even notice. Before long, I was crouched down behind a pillar not three meters away from the duo. The man—a large specimen like the one outside—was busily trying to seduce his female companion, but even I could tell that she wasn't in the mood for a sporadic fucking.

I aimed over top of the pillar, directing my arrow at the big man first. I let the arrow fly at his unarmored back, but it caught in his sinewy muscles, barely scathing him and only succeeding to alert the bandits of my presence.

"Who's there?" they demanded, preparing their weapons. The man picked up a great sword while the woman had an iron shield and longsword.

I ducked out of hiding, this time letting the arrow fly at the man's head, hitting him right in the eye and causing him to drop like a stone, but the woman spotted me.

"You're dead!" she screamed at me, charging headlong at me.

I managed to produce my blades while rapidly backpedaling from the ferocious female (it wouldn't be until later that I discovered she was on her monthly cycle, making her all the more threatening), but tripped over a corpse of some kind and nearly skewering myself but also managing a reverse roll.

She brought her blade down on me, and I barely managed to catch it between mine. I pushed her back, buying myself enough time to right myself before she swatted at my head with the rim of her shield. I recognized that she was a bit more experienced than the other bandits and would probably be a much more worthy opponent for one of my caliber.

"You're pretty good," I complimented her as he struggled for dominance, our blades locked and our faces inches apart. "But I'm better."

I kneed her in the crotch (which is how I discovered the aforementioned), fazing her long enough for me to drive my blades home through her leather armor and into her lungs. No crying out for help or raising the alarm; her death would be silent and tragic as she gurgled on her blood.

Even though it was a life or death situation, I felt somewhat badly about the dirty trick I'd used to beat the bandit, but I decided that it was no different than how I'd snuck up on them and tried shooting them in their backsides.

This time I did check the bandits, coming up with a fair amount of gold. I almost considered switching armor with the fallen woman, but I'd ruined it and I definitely didn't feel good about undressing a woman, so I continued forward.

There weren't nearly as many bandits down the cave-like corridor that I followed, and all the twists and turns made it easy for me to sneak up on them and take them out with my bow. I hadn't encountered anyone worth fighting in a proper duel yet, and I was actually getting slightly bored with the redundant nature of my exploration. So far, none of them seemed to be carrying Lucan's golden claw.

I stopped at a crude stairwell. Just down the steps I could see another bandit who was better dressed than the others in quality leather armor. I took out my bow, intending to shoot him in the back of the neck. He was about my size, and I didn't want to ruin the armor that could potentially be better than what I wore. But just as I'd aligned my arrow, he stepped forward and out of view.

I started to inch forward, but stopped when I heard the sound of someone pulling a lever. In response, I heard dozens of rapid thumping sounds, as if a hundred archers were all releasing arrows from their bows one at a time.

Curious, I moved forward, hugging the wall so that the frame of the passageway into the room kept me hidden. Peeking around the frame, I saw the bandit, lying dead on the ground, filled full of oversized arrows.

"Thanks for ruining my armor," I said, standing up straight and walking into the room.

He was in front of a lever in the ground, which seemed like it probably opened the gate four meters ahead of it. Even without the bandit's death I could tell that it was a trap simply based on the lever's positioning. But how to get around the trap I didn't know. Even when the trap was sprung, the gate hadn't risen. I immediately suspected a hidden switch and started searching the room.

After nearly half an hour of searching I hadn't come up with anything more than some coin and a few red potions. I'd discovered the slots where I suspected the arrows were shot from and plugged them with rocks and linen wrappings I'd found lying around, but it didn't change the fact that I couldn't continue forward.

I searched the bandit, hoping maybe that I could find some clue as to what I should do. I found a journal, and scribbled on one of its pages I found a representation of some images of a serpent, a marine animal, and a bird. They were similar to the carvings on a series of stones in the room, and I decided that that must be the hidden key.

To the left of the lever were three stones, all with a carving of a snake on them, but they appeared as though they could be rotated. Above the platform that shaded the gate were three larger, unmoving representations of the stones. Or, at least where there might have used to have been three of them. Only two were still standing; the third seemed to have crumbled away long ago. The only difference was the animals carved on them: the middle one had a dolphin, and the one to the right was a snake.

What a fool, I thought. The answer to this puzzle was right in front of him and he didn't even know it.

I rotated the stones so that they matched their larger representations up on the wall. It took me a while to decide on the left one, but I decided that it would be the snake by random assumption.

I braced myself behind the lever, prepared to dive out of the way in case I sprung the trap and my plugs didn't hold off the darts. Slowly, hesitantly, I leaned against the switch, and when I heard a clicking sound, I instinctually jumped out of the way. But rather than having set the trap off, the gate was sinking slowly into the floor.

I allowed myself a slight grin. It was nerve-racking, knowing that your next action could be either the death of you or your greatest achievement. In this case, it probably wasn't my greatest achievement, but I still felt satisfied as I crossed into the next corridor.

The next corridor wasn't nearly as subterranean in appearance as the last, but it was still musty. It didn't seem as though the bandits had ever made it so far; the corridor was empty of life save living, aggressive versions of the rats I'd seen at the entrance, and everything appeared as though nobody had interacted with the treasures that included gemstones, masses of gold coins, and a large variety of potions of all different colors that I was in no mood to experiment with to discover their effects.

I stopped short when I entered a large, empty room. There were slots in the walls, filled up with sarcophagi. It was a cryptic feeling, with even the stale air seemingly lifeless. Lifeless, all save the one sarcophagus lid that was slowly sliding out from its position on the wall.

It clattered to the ground, shattering into several large fragments, and I drew my swords. Something flopped out after the lid, standing up on withered legs and hefting a rusted but fearsome-looking great sword. The thing that had just crawled from the wall resembled the mummified corpses from the entrance, only this one was still very much alive, as was the other one that had just crawled out from its own slot and was readying a war axe.

"You must be these draugr I've heard so much about," I said, looking for intelligence. They gave no reply, save a constant chattering of their teeth.

Not waiting any longer, I leapt at the one with the great sword, embedding my blades halfway through its shoulders. The draugr seemed totally oblivious to the bite of my steel however, and it shoved me away from it, my swords still buried in its arms. Now I was unarmed, save for…

I raised my hands, focusing my energies as the tome had instructed. Hot energy collected at my hands, and after only a second, red fire erupted from my palms, cloaking the undead warrior in a red inferno as it screamed and wailed. Seeing as how affective the flames spell was on their dry flesh, I focused on the second draugr as the first fell in a charred heap. Before long, I had the both of them returned to the dead.

After retrieving my swords from the draugr, I continued forward and right into another room where this time three undead were waiting for me, two with swords and one with a battle axe. All of them had a single, cold intent.

Fighting the three already ready draugr required more finesse than I'd ever been required to exert before on a foe. For being dead, they were extremely synchronized, as if controlled by a single hive mind as they attacked me one at a time. While I blocked the heavy battle axe of the third draugr, the other two sword-wielding monsters would try to slash at me legs, and while I blocked their attacks, the third was trying to cleave me down the middle. Disarming them wasn't an option; it was as if their weapons were affixed to their hands.

I'd taken several hits before I was finally forced into a retreat to drink some potions and hopefully disorganize the draugr. The corridor connecting the two rooms was narrow, and I decided to finish them in there where they couldn't come at me all at once. The two sword-wielding draugr lead the axe wielding one, the two of them shoulder-to-shoulder in the corridor. They attacked me simultaneously, and I deflected their attacks, unbalancing them and making it easy for me sever them at their torsos. I caught their blades as they fell, finding the longswords to be comfortably heavier than by Imperial blades and they also seemed slightly sharper, oddly enough. Given an hour or two of love at a grindstone and a little (read: a lot) polish, they would be fine swords.

The following draugr swung its axe at me, but I easily side stepped the attack and cross chopped the monster, cleaving through it like butter with my new swords.

I sheathed my new and also ironically old blades, discarding the cheap Imperial ones altogether. They'd only weigh me down at this point.

I continued forward uneventfully, save for the trap that I'd activated while exiting the sarcophagus rooms. The tile that activated the large spiked gate was placed very obviously, but I didn't expect any traps like that one to appear. But after that, continuing forward until I reached a winding rout that wrapped around a small waterfall was very monochrome in how easy it was and even almost boring. Another draugr was waiting for me there, but the lone undead warrior didn't stand a chance as I simply used magic on it to kill it before it'd even seen me.

I first followed the path the rest of the way down, reaching a small pool at the base of the waterfall. There were drowned giant rats floating in the pool, but nothing living was down there, although there was a chest filled with some gold and a few odd gemstones that were pretty and I assumed could probably sell for a purse-full of coins. As I handled them, they seemed to hum lightly with some ominous power, but only two of the six did that. Those two were also much more radiant, practically glowing.

Following the path back up and into another cavern corridor, I eventually reached another burial room. But this time, no draugr awoke to attack me, and I became suspicious. Only a few out of several dozen dead had awakened, but it seemed odd that none were rising here. It wasn't until I turned my back to move on when I heard the sound of stone against stone as the lid to a stone casket was pushed to the side.

Slowly, I turned around, my swords all ready in my hands. A draugr was standing behind me. But this one was different. It was taller and broader shouldered than the others were, and it wore ancient iron armor that was bound to be strong as its great sword. It only wore a breastplate and guards for its upper arms and thighs, leaving its stomach and head wide open, but this draugr bore itself differently than the others. This one was sophisticated and proud, raising its blade high above its head as if preparing to take me on in a formal duel.

"Let's dance," I challenged it. The restless draugr growled in response and we charged each other, colliding with so much force sparks flew from our steel blades and there was a stink as the rust began melting from the tension.

We were performing a waltz a death, our blades connecting with such force and volume that probably every draugr in the barrow was being awakened, but I didn't care. This was the opponent I'd been looking for. The draugr fought with such speed and elegance, it was mystifying to think that a stiff, undead mummy could move as though it were alive and well. At least, that's what I thought until it caught the tip of its great sword on the wall and its arms fell off. Dispatching the quite literally unarmed draugr was embarrassing in its ease.

"So much for that," I mumbled, genuinely disappointed. "There'd better be more like you ahead."

I exited the room and entered another hall of limestone lit by an odd, luminescent moss. I went several yards down before stopping to examine an odd, rainbow-colored liquid on the ground. I stooped down low, touching my finger tips to it. It was warm despite the chilly cave air, and sticky like melted pig lard. Its smell was odd as well, almost like fuel. Dangling above the long, multicolored puddle that stretched down the rest of the hall and around a corner was a ceramic jug that appeared to have a flame lit inside of it. It was hanging by a rope that appeared as though it had been fragile even when it had first been hung up, and I recognized the primitive but effective trap.

I backed several paces away before raising my hand, aiming carefully before casting sparks at the rope. The electrical spell blew the hook that the rope hung from out of the ceiling and the jug fell to the ground, shattering. At first, nothing happened, but in just a moment the liquid erupted into a colorful blaze. Down the hall, I could hear the screams of burning draugr.

After waiting for the flames to burn out, I continued forward, finding the draugr just around the corner lying in blackened lumps. They smelled even worse after having been burned, if it was possible for age-old corpses to stink any more.

After continuing onward, I reached an abandoned cave-room, save for a lonely draugr shambling around a back corner. I dispatched it with an arrow before investigating the room. The room was mostly collapsed, including the other passage.

I continued searching the room, coming up with some more potions and gold and a handful of those odd gems I'd found before, but no other ways out of the room. I was at a loss. And if I hadn't already found it, then the golden claw most likely wasn't here.

I leaned up against a metal grate in one of the walls. It blocked off the only pass that hadn't collapsed, but it was just a drainage area for an indoor stream to run through into and I couldn't manage to break through the rusty iron bars. Destroying the rock around it also wasn't an option.

I slid down the wall, and I felt one of the straps on my quiver catch on the manacle dangling next to the grate. But rather than hold fast, the chain pulled down, like a switch, and I heard something go thunk similarly to when I pulled a lever.

Unsure of what to expect, I propelled myself away from the wall, prepared for any sort of trap. But rather than having a hundred darts shot at me or a spiked wall swinging out to trap me or a ton of stones dropped on my head, the grate fell over, splashing in the stream.

"Hunh," I said, examining the new path. "Not what I was expecting."

I continued forward cautiously, but the path seemed empty all the way until it bent suddenly around a corner and I also couldn't spot any obvious traps. Continuing down the corridor gave no new surprises, save some shelves with burial urns on top of them.

As I went deeper down the corridor, I noticed more and more webs building up on the walls. I recognized the work of the frostbite spiders, only these webs also had human bodies entangled in them as well as the rats. Some of the bodies seemed like they'd been there for years, but others looked as though they'd only been there for a few days.

I continued down the hall but was brought to a halt when I found the passage into the next room completely blocked off by a thick wall of spider silk. When I pushed my hand up against it, I found that t wasn't sticky, but the intricate weaving of the thin threads had created a solid wall that I wasn't just going to walk through.

I produced one of my blades, raising it above my head before slashing the threads. They resisted at firsts, tangling the sword up, but after only a few swings I had broken through to the other side.

"Hey you, help me!" I heard someone shouting at me. "Hurry up, it's coming back!"

I heard an odd scuttling noise from the ceiling. I looked up, watching as a huge frostbite spider crawled down from the ceiling on a rope-sized strand of silk. I kept a straight face despite the hideousness of the arachnid that was five times bigger than a Clydesdale, calming drawing my blades as it clacked its hooked mandibles at me, all eight of its beady black eyes focused on me.

"Come and get some," I challenged.

"KREE!" it shrieked, spitting a globule of silk at me.

I dodged to the side, the sticky orb splattering against the heavy webbing on the far all, causing the skeletons of its past victims to rattle. I tried to stick my blade into its side, but its carapace was too thick and I barely made a scratch and was forced to retreat as it spun around and tried to lunge at me.

"Use fire!" the trapped man called. "They hate fire!"

"Thanks for the tip," I called back, although I still didn't know the location of him.

I raised my ancient swords in front of myself, focusing my energy. The metal began to glow with power as I funneled my magic into it, and a red blaze flared up from the hilt of the sword. The frostbite spider shrieked at me, and I charged at it, sliding under it and cleaving its legs as I passed by each one with my blazing blades held out to the sides.

It let out a scream as I stood up from its other side, collapsing to the ground as I sheathed my extinguished blades.

"Thank the gods," the man said in relief. "Now, hurry up and cut me down. I know something about the golden claw and how to get into the treasure room. If you help me, we can split the gold!"

I looked for the source of the voice, finding a tomb raider suspended in a large doorway that lead to another corridor and eventually what seemed to be some sort of embalming room or shrine.

"So you are the one who stole the golden dragon's claw from Lucan Valerius?" I inquired.

"What?" the man asked. "No, of course not. I hired those bandits outside to take care of that. If it's the claw you're after, I promise I'll give it back as soon as I'm done with it. Just get me down from here before that thing finishes regenerating its legs and calls in more of them!"

I looked over my shoulder at the giant frostbite spider. It was still alive and was struggling to lift itself up onto the little stumps that were left of its legs. I could see new legs growing from its sides already in a slimy mass. The last thing I needed was to fight a rejuvenated giant spider without any magicka, but I wasn't going to be suckered by this guy so easily.

"Give me the claw first," I demanded.

"You're bloody joking, right?" He struggled his arms, which were bound tightly to his sides. "I can't move my hands."

I looked at his side, where his satchel hung away from his body. I pulled out my dagger, slicing the bag down, opening it up and pulling out the claw which was hidden inside.

"Hey, you can't do that!" the tomb raider cried indignantly. "That's thievery!"

"Is stealing from a thief really considered theft?" I said blankly, placing the claw in my bag. "Don't worry; you've piqued my interest with the mentioning of treasure. Unless you'd rather wait up there."

"No, damn you! Just hurry up and cut me down."

I returned my dagger to its sheath, drawing my sword and slicing through the webs. The threads were easily severed, and the ensnared man fell to his knees.

"Thanks," he said quickly before snatching by bag and running off.

"You were a fool to think I'd share the treasure of the ancient Nords with anyone!" he cried victoriously as he ran. Unimpressed, I raised a hand and cast my sparks spell on him and he collapsed into a heap pulsing with blue electricity.

"You were a fool to think I'd let you get away with a move like that," I said, walking casually up to the man's twitching form. He wasn't dead; only paralyzed. I reached down, retrieving my bag and continuing forward without a second thought. By the time he recovered, the frostbite spider would have finished recovering and he'd be trapped again. Which probably meant I wasn't getting back out the same way I'd come in.

I looked around the second room, finding it to be some sort of a shrine. There wasn't much anything of value in the room, not even a few stray coins, but I came across more of those shining stones. Up on the stage there was a pedestal with a book resting wide open on top of it. As I leafed through the pages, I realized it was a tome on necromancy that explained how to put your energies into a fallen comrade or enemy to bring them back from the dead as a mindless servant. I doubted I would use magic so dark, but I took the spell tome anyways.

I continued forward without much event for a while, save the occasional draugr team and another one of the restless draugr. I realized most of them carried a few coins on them, but not enough to make much a difference. It felt too embarrassing scrounging around for a few measly coins, so I left them alone.

Eventually I reached a long hall decorated with archways and murals of various animals. At the end of the hall was a grand door crafted from tarnished plated gold, and I was instantly put on guard for any traps as I started forward. But even as I approached the door, no traps were sprung.

I examined the grand entryway. There were three rings around a circle with four round holes in it barely big enough for me to fit a finger through. I produced the golden claw, noting that the claw tips aligned perfectly with the slots in the central circle on the door. I slid the claw into position, and it fit snugly. I tried turning the circle, but it held fast. The rings around it had emblems of three different animals, and I remembered what Camilla had said about the underside of the claw.

I turned the golden trinket in my hand, discovering carvings of a bear, an owl, and a moth carved in a row on it. The emblems on the door bore similar creatures, but in a different order. I realized that this was probably a puzzle like the one at the gate at the entrance of the dungeon. By pressing the emblems, I found that they rotated on an automatic mechanism of some sort.

After aligning the emblems in the proper order, I replaced the claw to its slot in the door. This time, I could turn it all the way around until it was upside-down and it popped out of the door and back into my hands. The emblems each rotated, circling until they all were set to the owl. Then, the door opened, sliding down into the ground, grating against stone that had collected around its hidden enclosure over the centuries it'd gone unused, but nothing so much as slowed it as it slid into place. It finally went all the way below the ground with an affirming ker-chunk.

"Talk about the red carpet welcome," I mumbled, ascending the steep stairs that I found on the other side of the elaborate locking system. Somehow, I felt that whoever had built this shrine didn't expect anyone to make it this far and didn't bother laying any traps out, but I still proceeded semi-cautiously.

When I reached the top of the staircase, I couldn't help but stop in awe at what I found.

I'd wondered into some sort of an ancient tomb, placed remotely in the back of a deep mountain cavern. There was still some sense of the cavern's natural state, with rock outcroppings formed by the wondrous mason that was nature and waterfalls filling deep, crystal pools in the ground serenely. In the very back of the cavern was a sort of dais, at the top of which was a lone coffin and a treasure chest.

I climbed up the dais steps, immediately going to the chest. Inside, I found a fair stash of gold along with gemstones and radiant crystals and an odd set of iron armor. It not only seemed much sturdier than my mixed Imperial and Stormcloak suit, but somehow I could tell that magic had been worked into it to give it extra strength. Coincidentally enough, it seemed a perfect fit for me, and I promptly changed into it. I almost put on the helmet, but it still seemed too much more of an extra distraction than it did any sort of help to me.

I looked at the coffin. There was an odd power radiating from it, almost omnipotent. Some morbid curiosity prodded at my mind to slide the lid aside and gaze upon what was within, but I also could tell that I didn't want to see what was hiding within.

There was another power tugging at my mind behind me, and I turned around, finding a great monolith of some sort with numerous odd runes etched into its stone. A row of them at my eye level were glowing, and I could somehow find myself reading and understanding them.

"Fus," I whispered. Force.

I heard the grinding sound of a coffin lid sliding from its box and the crashing sound of the lid breaking against ground. Cursing silently, I turned around, already drawing my blades as I sensed the awakening of a powerful foe.

A draugr rose out of the coffin, but it was different than the other ones. This one had more presence; more power. It was taller than the other draugr were, and could even look down on me. It was wearing full armor, and it carried an ancient great sword that seemed imbued with the powers of frost.

"Fus!" it shouted in a voice distorted by death.

A shockwave shot from its mouth, knocking me back and against the monolith like a ragdoll, the ringing in my ears and my blurry vision reminding me of the dragon back at Helgen. Though it wasn't nearly as devastating as the dragon's blast, it was still painful, and by the time I'd recovered the draugr was already on me and I was forced into the defensive as it swung its great sword wildly at me without relent.

I struggled to keep up with the draugr that was an overlord of draugr in terms of power. Its attacks were disorganized and random, but that proved to be its greatest strength. There was no constant pattern for me to get into the loop of and to use against it; I was struggling just to keep up with the attacks, let alone launch any of my own.

The draugr overlord released another shockwave from its mouth. This time, I allowed it to carry me away and off the platform, putting some distance between us so that I could recover my injuries with some potions and healing magic.

Damn! I thought to myself. I can't manage to keep up. By the time I've finished recovering from one of its attacks, it's already launching a new one. I could try fighting it from a range with magic and my arrows to avoid that great sword, but that shockwave…It's tearing me to pieces.

I raised my blades, charging them with sparks, launching into a blade flurry on the draugr, but it easily blocked all of my attacks with that flat of its sword before countering.

Suddenly, I remembered some scrolls I'd picked up earlier. They were about extremely powerful spells called fireball and blizzard, but I hadn't used them yet because a warning on them said that the scrolls emitted their own power for use of the magic, and a spell caster whose level in the arcane arts wasn't high enough would be incapable of replicating the spells a second time.

"Good a time as any to use them," I thought aloud, sheathing my swords and producing the fireball scroll. The spells required two hands to charge and then cast, and I already knew that the draugr seemed weak to fire.

I started focusing my energy into the scroll, and it magnified my power tenfold, bursting into a ball of red flame. The draugr seemed to realize just what I was doing and started running to interrupt my spell before I could use it. I knew that this spell could be my only chance, and if I allowed the draugr to get me with one good strike, the spell would be interrupted and the scroll destroyed.

I had nearly charged the scroll to its max and was ready to release the power, but when the draugr overlord shouted "Fus!" I knew it was too late as a shockwave hurtled toward me, knocking me off my feet and effectively interrupting the spell.

The draugr sauntered over to me, knowing it had won as I was left splayed out on the ground, exposed. As it loomed above me, it chattered in an unintelligible language, no doubt savoring its first victory in years since death.

But I wouldn't have it.

My senses no longer my own, I uttered three words whose meaning I failed to understand, but I knew they were the right ones to say: "Mul qah diiv."

Tremendous power filled my body and soul. I felt as though I was practically expanding from the power behind the words that my mouth had formed without my consent. But before I could get a full taste of the foreign power, I blacked out.

End Chapter

Author's Note: Quite the finale, wouldn't you say? Especially those of you who know what exactly it was that Gio had said. And for those of you who do know, please try to refrain from putting spoilers in your Reviews (so long as you actually leave a Review). So, what would you say to this chapter? Only chapter three and already Gio is having near-death experiences and is sub-consciously using powerful magic. So, this chapter has about 7.5 thousand words long and is fourteen pages long, give or take on both accounts. Well, hope you liked it. Not quite as in-depth or to-the-game accurate as I promised, but, hell, I'm not writing a walkthrough; I'm writing a god damned FanFic! So, Favorite, Follow, and/or Review, maybe leave your favorite waifu/hubby in the Reviews so I can do a short for you with a little bit of fluff between them and Gio (or a generated female character). Until my next chapter (which is hopefully going to be mid-length), see you all later, and enjoy the Fun Fact.

Fun Fact: For those of you unfamiliar with the metric system, a meter is about equivalent to a yard and six inches, a kilometer is about three-quarters of a mile, and a centimeter is either half or a third of a inch (I myself am foreign to the metric system; I only use it here because it's period-appropriate). Also, I will be using the term 'league' a lot later on, which is equivalent to three miles or however far you are capable of walking in an hour (note that a league is neither a metric or other sort of measurement, as it is a rough judge of distance based on how far one can walk in an hour, three miles being the average).