I began my day dabbling in alchemy, woodcutting, and blacksmithing. I ended it fighting legions of undead Nords in a long forgotten barrow. Before yesterday I wouldn't have thought the life of an adventurous explorer would be the life for me, but it does have its benefits. And downfalls. But more on that later.
In the morning I walked into a trader's house only to be dragged in to some sort of mission. I honestly don't remember agreeing to anything but before I knew it I was heading up a mountain, my tail in danger of snapping off like an icicle. Normally I would have ditched the trader and his sister, and their tale of a missing golden claw, but the story did involve bandits. And I hate bandits. Night was falling as I finally made it up near the summit and came face to face with the barrow. It was a sight to behold, even moreso if I wasn't blinded by the snow that had whipped up around me. The place was large, imposing, and full of bandits. I have to admit my skill with a bow improved dramatically over the course of my adventure today. I started by missing almost every shot, even when perfectly hidden and in line of sight of an oblivious bandit. But by the end I was hitting craniums like they were a slow fat boar in the woods.
I began my descent into the barrow, dispatching bandits and avoiding traps that the builders had left to ward off grave robbers. Not that it helped much, as I helped myself to a good bit of loot on my way. weapons, coins, potions, this was a pretty nice place to be buried. I came close to being buried in there myself on more than one occasion.
I felt myself nearing the one bandit responsible for all this, only to be met by a sealed gate, a lever, and a dead bandit. Interesting. I refrained from making his mistake and instead turned my attention to the many wall carvings adorning the room. Three of them hung over the gate...well make that two, as one had fallen below, and three more were on my left. Inspecting the carvings on the left yielded the ability to move them, and change the facing to different carvings: snakes, whales, that sort of thing. Using my superior Khajiit brain I matched the wall carvings on the left to those above the gate, and was able to pass through unharmed.
It was then I heard shouts from a few rooms below. Someone had gotten themselves stuck in a web. Somehow I got the feeling that was my target. I began to cross the room to take back the golden claw when I suddenly realized why the inept bandit was trapped in a web. Giant spiders tend to do that. I peppered the eight legged horror with arrows and retreated behind a doorway when the spider came close. It rapidly became uninterested with a meal it couldn't reach, and started toward the bandit. Now, take note that I had no reason to save him, other than I did not want that spider damaging or eating my prize. And so throwing caution to the winds I threw myself and my daggers upon the spiders back. I was met with poisonous fangs, not my best strategy. Perhaps I got lucky, but the monster finally crashed to the ground, and I savored a health potion as I approached the trapped bandit.
He began raving about how he had solved all of the secrets of this place. Secrets I wasn't interested in. I began cutting the webbing in order to take back the golden fang, but the lunatic broke free and ran off, yelling about how he wouldn't share the prize. I chased him through several winding passageways into a great burial hall. I raised my daggers to strike and he screamed - though not at me. All around us the dead had risen, and someone was kind enough to bury them with their weapons. They slew the bandit and tossed his body aside as three of them advanced on only one of me. I'm no expert on fighting supernatural horrors, but if someone killed these people before, then I could do it again. Darting in and out of their thankfully slow reach, I played a dangerous game of trading blows and avoiding death at every step. I was losing and I knew it. I jumped backward as they advanced, only to hear the click of a pressurized plate. A sixth sense inside me told me to dive, and I did, clipping my shoulder as a massive spiked grate crashed past me and into the undead, making them re-dead. I began to realize the value of using my environment to my advantage. I was no hardened warrior, unable to go toe to toe with the living dead I instead used the barrows own traps against them, lighting floors of oil on fire and leading them into blades that swung from the walls.
With the golden claw in my possession I found myself deeper and deeper in the barrow, unable to find my way back I continued on until I came across a great door, inscribed with symbols of animals and a three hole key slot. My mind went back to the bandits rant about the secrets of this place and I consulted the golden claw, only to notice very similar symbols on the inside of the claw. Matching them up and using the claw as a key the door opened for me. On the other side was an incredible sight: A giant cavern with flowing streams, bridges...and an amazing wall carving. I can't quite explain it, but something in the carving...resonated with me. It was as if I was reading a language that I once knew. I couldn't pronounce it but it felt so familiar. I wrote it down and turned to leave... and instead faced a tall imposing walking corpse. He looked at me and shouted with such force I flew against the wall. As I crashed to the ground I couldn't help but think this wasn't the first time I'd been in this situation, this time with less firebreathing. I was lucky that his forceful shouting did not do much to harm me, other than opening me up for his attacks. As luck had it, I managed to swipe an enchanted dagger earlier and put it to use deep in the corpse's ribcage, which promptly burst in to flame. He responded with a sword slash across my arm, which froze in place for a few moments. He began to open his mouth, which in a moment would chant the words that would no doubt send me into the air. I wasted no time rushing up to him, barely dodging a sword swing, and planting my enchanted dagger deep into his throat. He had very little to shout about after that.
My enemy had been defeated, my prize and its accompanying rewards had been claimed, and my wounds were beginning to annoy me. I found a secret passage by following an underground stream to a small fissure leading back to the surface. Judging by the sky, I had been down there a full day. I guess time flies when you are fighting the undead. I had just enough strength left in me to trudge back to the town of Riverwood, give the golden claw back to the owner (and not tell him about the better treasures I found) and bought myself another night in the inn. Perhaps tomorrow I will leave this town behind and head north to where that nice stormcloak fellow said I should go. I may have no love for the empire soldiers, but I'm not sure I'm ready to fight a war for someone yet. Time will tell... and to be honest I'm feeling more alive than I ever was.
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