Fredas, 21st of Last Seed, 4E 201 – Day 5

Well, it’s time to head back to Riverwood and then on to Bleak Falls Barrow.

Just as a I reached the bridge to Riverwood I found a path that, if my map was true, would lead me to Bleak Falls Barrow.

God, that ride up the hill was cold, encountered a few bandits in some kind of outpost but they were no match for me.  At the top of the mountain at the entrance to the Barrow were a number more bandits. I can only guess that inside was going to be swarming with them. Its going to be good exercise.

I can only imagine what this place looked like before it fell to rack and ruin. It must have been a great hall with roaring fires, barrels of mead and great men singing great battle songs.  Now I know it was a temple, but still the vision of the great hall refuses to leave me. The views from up there were staggering, how I wish I could have seen it in the old times.  Instead it’s just a shell of a hall with the inside infested with bandits. How the mighty have fallen.

Inside was a mess,  I could still see what it once was like: grand, imposing and huge.  It only made me more determined to see the bandits gone, and boy there were lots of them.

I did run into a fascinating chamber with a combination lock on one of the gates.  It didn’t take me long to realise how to get through as the answers were on the wall, albeit one had fallen to the ground.

I meet Arvel the Swift, the guy who stole a golden claw from the merchant in Riverwood. He was stuck in a very thick, giant spider cobweb and well, after I rescued him from his would-be eater, he decided to run away instead of giving me the claw. Luckily I caught him and sent him to the after life.

I did find the claw and his notes on his body, so I was able to carry on. Not long after retrieving the claw I came across undead swordsmen, not nice but easily dealt with.

As I ventured deeper into the Barrow I found more and more undead.  Now I knew that they must be guarding something impressive. I did reach an end of sorts. I found another combination lock on a door, with what appears to be the answers on the claw itself.

I arrive in a large chamber which appears to be my destination, however there are some ancient words on a wall, with one of the words glowing, and as I approach I swear I hear chanting in my head. As I reach the wall I’m surrounded by a glowing light and all of a sudden the noise in my head shouts one more chant really loudly and then is mysteriously silent. I wonder what all of it was about.

I go to investigate the chest in the room and all of a sudden a rather nasty looking undead breaks out of his coffin and attacks me.  While I fear nothing and no one, this one sent chills up my spine, it was an interesting challenge to defeat him and the battle was a glorious one, our blows went back and forth for what seemed an age. Eventually I was able to kill him with a double swipe from my two swords cutting off his head. On him was the stone that I was sent to collect as well as a stunning battle axe. The axe was hugely heavy and it was difficult for me to walk around with.  I needed to get out of here so I could store it somewhere.

It was getting very late by the time I made it out of the Barrow so I decided to make my way to Riverwood to spend the night and stay at the inn there.

I got there and of all my luck it was closed so I decided to sleep in one of the chairs there.  I knew it wasn’t going to be as refreshing as a bed but I needed to sleep.