Turdas, 19th of Last Seed, 4E 201

I have made a grave tactical error. The leather tent kept me dry, but it did next to nothing for the cold. That wouldn't be a problem, except I didn't grab firewood or an axe good for chopping wood when I was in town. Luckily, I have soup - eating as I write - but I'm going to freeze to death if I don't get out of the weather. There’s a bend in the road not far from the tower. I’ll take a peek and if I see the Barrow, I’ll head there. If not, I go back to Riverwood and gear up properly.

It would be nice if I could go a few days without horrible monsters trying to kill me or ancient mysteries coming to light.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Right now I’ve set up my bedroll by a large gate somewhere hopefully at in the bottom of Bleak Falls Barrow. It’s a bit early for sleep, but this feels like as safe a place as any to pass the night, and it gives me time to write and relax. Besides, there’s a lit brazier here, and it’s actually sort of cozy. In it’s own way.

First off, I’ve found the golden dragon’s claw, but it’s really more like a foot. I mean, it has toes and everything. There are claws on the foot, but it’s clearly not just a claw. Nothing like I expected, but it doesn’t matter. Lucan can call it whatever he likes once I get paid.

Well, like I said before, I decided to take a look around the bend in the road, and the Barrow was right there! There were three bandits outside, but they gave me some trouble because I was just too cold to do much.

Is it too morbid of me to say that I briefly considered burning the bodies to warm myself up? Does that make me mad? Or is that just how a person’s mind goes when they’re desperate?

I wanted to explore more out there, but as I said, I was freezing. I could barely open the door, I was shaking so hard.

Inside, I first saw a bunch of dead skeevers surrounding two dead bandits, and then I noticed a campfire! There were live two bandits at the fire, a man and a woman. They were arguing about an elf who I assumed hired them. He’d gone ahead of them and she was worried that she wouldn’t get her share of the pay.

I want to say that I normally fight fair, but let’s face it: I don’t. I’ll cheat and use every advantage I have. I was still shivering, so I poisoned my bow and hoped for the best. I managed to kill them, but not before they got a few good hits in.

I warmed up, then looted everything I could find and stored what I didn’t want to carry in a chest that probably used to belong to the bandits. I’ll come back for the goods later.

There was a stairway going down into the Barrow, so down I went. Yes, I looted urns, but it’s not like they’re using it. There were a lot of skeevers, embalming tools and scraps of linen for wrapping bodies, too. I don’t know why that surprised me. It is a barrow, after all.

What did surprise me was the poison dart trap. I was creeping down the stairs towards an open chamber when I saw a bandit in the room ahead. He pulled a lever on the floor in front of a portcullis that blocked the way ahead. I heard the darts go off, and he died almost instantly.

I mean, it makes sense that the high-status people would be buried deeper underground with lots of treasure, so I shouldn’t be surprised at the traps, but still… They’re still active after who knows how many centuries?!

Are all ancient Nord barrows are like this?

In the room with the portcullis, there were two massive stone faces on the wall, with another one fallen onto the floor. Each one had an animal symbol in its mouth. There were three spinning columns to my left, each side decorated with a different animal.

It was clearly a lock, and those heads had the key in their mouths.

Here’s one of the heads, and the symbols from the columns:

How witless was that guy? A child could have figured that out. And why have such a horrible trap when the solution is so obvious? A well-made lock and a solid door would do a better job, I think.

I spun the columns to match the animals in the mouths of the stone faces - Snake, Snake, Whale – and pulled the lever.

I admit I was still ready to jump out of the way of any poison darts. The gate opened, and I went through. There was another lever that closed the portcullis behind me. I found a handy book titled “Thief” in the next room, along with a few other things.

Other than a few skeevers, it was pretty quiet until I got to an area covered in cobwebs. As I was burning my way through them, I heard a man yelling for help. I stepped into a large chamber (cave?) that was covered in cobwebs, like that place under Helgen, and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life dropped down from the ceiling.

That thing was easily bigger than a draft horse, and I ran back the way I’d came. The room had two archways leading into it, both smaller than the spider. There was no way it could fit through to get me, and one of the archways was conveniently covered in a lattice of thick roots that I could throw fire through!

It took a while, and I did get poisoned a bit, but I eventually wore it down to where I could finish it off with my axe. I glimpsed the yelling man once or twice. He was at the far end of the chamber, trapped in webs and screaming himself hoarse. It was distracting, to say the least.

The man, a Dunmer, said his name was Arvel the Swift, and that he knew the secret of the claw and how it “worked”. He said he’d show me if I cut him down. I was tempted to kill him and then just take the claw, but I cut him down.

I would say that I should have killed him, but it didn’t make much difference in the end. Like I thought, he jeered at me and bolted deeper into the Barrow as soon as he was free. I followed him, and upon rounding a corner I heard a creaking, crashing sound, then a familiar scream.

Silence did not follow. There were shuffling footsteps and this barking, cough (?) like air in an old bellows. I peeked around the corner, and saw a dead warrior with glowing blue eyes walking around Arvel’s body, carrying a drawn sword. The room it was in had open niches cut into the walls, and most of them held bodies. Some were just bones, and some were wrapped. Most were bare, but there were a few with armor and weapons.

The undead warrior hadn’t noticed me, so I shot it.

Now, I’ve heard of the dead rising, but I’ve never seen it before. I used to believe, like everyone I’ve ever talked to about it, that the dead can only rise while under the control of another person. They’re zombies, and they can’t think or make decisions. They just do as they’re told, like evil puppets.

As soon as my bow made a sound, the armored dead woke up and got out of their little alcoves like they were getting out of bed.

By the Eight, I actually felt my blood run cold. I always thought that was just an expression.

I managed to kill them, I think. Will they get back up later on? Were they truly dead to begin with? They were pretty rotten, so I’m sure they were people who died, but how are they still guarding their tombs? It was only those with weapons, so maybe that’s just… How they were? Are their souls just sleeping and waiting to be called to fight? Is it just their Will left behind in their bones? Am I going to find some powerful Necromancer on the other side of this door tomorrow?

I shouldn’t be thinking about that so soon before bed. I’ll give myself nightmares!

So – Arvel. Once I “killed” the zombies, I went over to his body. He was in a heap near a large, spiked gate, not far from a VERY suspicious-looking carved stone in the floor. Clearly another trap.

He was fast, but not too swift.

He had the claw, and a journal. His journal said that the claw wasn’t just a decoration, like Lucan had thought. It was a key, and that I needed to find the “Hall of Stories” to use it. I looked over the “claw” and saw a bear, a moth, and an owl on the bottom of the foot.

Here’s the “Golden Dragon Claw” and the markings on the bottom.

See what I mean? It’s not a Claw, it’s a Foot. Yes, Golden Dragon Claw sounds very mystical and exciting, like that “Hall of Stories” in Arvel’s journal, but it’s still a foot.

These markings look like the ones on the spinning column locks from before. There’s probably another set of those and more poison darts up ahead. At least whoever made the lock for this key had the good sense to not put the key in carvings almost as tall as I am.

Now, I could have turned around right then and there, gone back down the mountain, and returned the foot to Lucan and gotten my reward, but Arvel’s journal made me curious.

Well, that and the idea of more loot. Hopefully I’ll find some behind whatever door this foot unlocks.

Which brings me to here. Not much to tell other than fighting more zombies. Some of them did use magic, though. I had no idea anything undead that wasn’t a vampire or a lich could use magic! Is there something in the water here in Skyrim?!

I also found a trap between rooms that was less of a trap and more… A barrier? There was a short hallway that had three blades on pendulums in it, swinging at even intervals. They weren’t triggered by anything that I could see. I heard them moving before I got to them, and they weren’t going that fast. It was kind of easy to step through and avoid them.

Is it really a trap? It wasn’t hard to get through, so maybe it’s just there to scare people off?

There was a pull chain beside the door once I got through, and it stopped the blades.

If the undead down here can fight and use magic. I’m sure they can use a door or a chain like this. It won’t stop them. This is to keep out people like me.

What’s down here? What am I going to find tomorrow?