The Jarl beckoned me. "Come, let's go find Farengar, my court wizard. He's been looking into a matter related to these dragons and... rumors of dragons."
We made our way into a room full of enchanting and alchemic apparatus. A man in a blue hooded robe stood there, frowning at a parchment on the table. The Jarl got his attention. "Farengar, I think I've found someone who can help you with your dragon project. Go ahead and fill her in with all the details." I glanced at the parchment. It was filled with complicated diagrams and I couldn't make head or tail of it.
Farengar noticed my confusion and sneered at me. "Come to to discuss the ongoing hostilities, like the rest of the 'great warriors'? It seems this damnable conflict has claimed everyone's passions of late. Me, I prefer my books, and my spells. There's a tranquility in magic, don't you think? It is simply energy, to be harnessed by those with the will and knowledge to do so." I smirked at him and thought to myself, there was nothing a cold steel sword through the heart couldn't solve.
The Jarl went off after impressing again upon me the importance of this mission and promised me- "Succeed at this, and you'll be rewarded. Whiterun will be in your debt." It was irksome how I had spent the past few days being treated as an errand girl, but after seeing that terrifying black dragon, I knew that someone had to do something. Farengar spoke up. "So the Jarl thinks you can be of use to me? Oh yes, he must be referring to my research into the dragons. Yes, I could use someone to fetch something for me. Well, when I say fetch, I really mean delve into a dangerous ruin in search of an ancient stone tablet that may or may not actually be there."
Lovely. Ruins meant traps and draugr. This sounded like a hell of a trip. I sighed and asked him what needed to be done. Of course, the damn man took that for eagerness. "I, ah, learned of a certain stone tablet said to be housed in Bleak Falls Barrow - a 'Dragonstone,' said to contain a map of dragon burial sites. Go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet - no doubt interred in the main chamber - and bring it to me. Simplicity itself."
If it was so simple, why don't you go? I almost asked him, but bit my tongue and asked him instead if he had any spelltomes. After looking through his vast collection, I ended up buying two of them-leaving me bereft of most of the gold I got from Lucan- one for summoning a Flame Atronach and another for Fast Healing. I knew the latter would be extremely useful in the long run. I went out of Dragonsreach and stopped in front of an inn. The Bannered Mare was fairly crowded that evening and after paying the innkeeper some gold for a room, I thought about the quest I was going to go on. Someone to watch my back would have been useful, I wistfully mused and the first person to come to mind was Ralof. I wondered if he had met up with Ulfric yet.
I took a quick bath, grimacing at the black colored water remaining after I was done, and went to my room. The armor was dumped on a chair, and I carefully pulled out my swords. The Imperial bastards make good steel, I grudgingly noticed as I set about sharpening the mismatched weapons. That was something Kharjo had drilled into me. I remember sitting on a ledge beside him near Riften, our legs dangling as he lectured me about the importance of keeping one's weapon in perfect shape.
"Khajiit with blunt steel is dead Khajiit.", was the constant refrain, and I wondered how the caravan was. Resolving to find them and say hello after this dragon mess was over, I pulled out the horrendously expensive spelltomes and began learning first to heal myself. The process was arduous but I knew it was going to be well worth it. I finished it an hour later with a huge yawn. I started to open the tome of summoning an Atronach but I was so sleepy, I gave it up as a lost cause. I practically fell into a coma as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next morning, I got up early and sat on the steps outside the inn. I enjoyed watching the merchants set up their little stalls and after buying a fresh loaf of bread, made my way towards the place where the annoying priest had been screaming about Talos. Fortunately he wasn't there this time and I sat on a bench placed beneath a gigantic tree that seemed to be dying. Chewing mouthfuls of the warm bread, I finished learning how to summon an Atronach as well. I tried it out and a fiery humanoid creature appeared. The spell drained most of my magic though. It vanished after a minute and after stuffing the remaining portion of my loaf in my travel sack, I went back to the inn to pick up my armor and weapons, then started on my way out of Whiterun. Bleakfalls Barrow awaited me.
Five hours later, I was still trying to make my way up the mountain where the ruin was supposed to be. I had almost run smack into two giants, and thanking fate for them not noticing me, I sneaked around their camp and tried to find an actual path. To make things worse, a blizzard started blowing around me and I shivered, promising myself that the next time I was in town, I'd buy myself a thick hooded cloak. My old one had been lost at Helgen. Bloody Imperials.
I almost tripped over a pile of stones that on closer analysis, turned out to be a cairn. Cairns meant paths, and paths mean destinations. I trudged up the barely visible route and after a quarter of an hour, finally came across the damn place. Intimidating stone arches reached towards the sky and I noticed a fire burning. There were bandits on guard. Sneaking up towards them, feeling grateful for the blizzard now, I pulled out the bow Ralof had given me. I carefully took aim and fired one, then another arrow into their throats. Archery wasn't really my forte, but I had had enough training to kill at close range. After searching their bodies and taking their fur armor and weapons, I entered the barrow. There were two more bandits inside, immersed in an argument about someone called Arvel going down into the ruin alone with a claw. My ears perked at the mention of the claw, even as I remembered that Lucan had asked me to retrieve a Golden Claw from this very place. Two errands down with one trip. Brilliant.
There were only two of them so I pulled out my swords and charged them with a yell. The first didn't have time to even pull out her hammer and died from my sword in her stomach. Unfortunately, she twisted as she fell, pulling my sword from my grasp even as the other one grabbed a pair of wicked looking war axes. Two axes against a sword does not a victory make, I grimly thought as I summoned a ball of fire in my left hand. Sending it flying in the bandit's direction, I dove to the right as he hacked at me. The flame almost completely missed him but did one important thing- in the dark cavern, the sudden light blinded my opponent, and while his vision was adjusting to the blackness, I neatly slashed him from sternum to hip, then finished him off with a stab through the throat. After more looting of the bodies and lockpicking a chest open, I had some more health potions and good sales-worthy merchandise. I retrieved my blade from the woman's body and after wiping it clean, sheathed it. I'd need the fire spell to see anything in the ruins below and I could manage a fight with a single blade.
I quietly moved into the ruin's depths, stopping when I overheard a voice cursing, then screaming in pain. I rounded the corner to see darts shooting into another bandit after he pulled a lever. Poor man. Ascertaining that he was a good as dead, I slit his throat with an iron dagger I had found and examined the room. There were rotatable stones with animals carved on them. It was obviously a puzzle of some sort. I glanced around, looking for clues, when I noticed a carving on the wall. After twisting the stones so that the animals on them matched the ones on the wall carving, I gingerly pulled the lever. The door opened without darts flying at me and I sighed in relief and continued exploring. There was another chest which I got open and a rather interesting book 'Thief'. After collecting everything I might use, I started descending the spiral staircase that was there past the chest.
The base of the staircase was covered in cobwebs. I heard a voice moaning, and that combined with the presence of cobwebs meant there was no pleasant thing up ahead. By the Nine, I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means. It did though. In the next room, a giant frostbite spider stood clicking its pincers threateningly. It was twice the size I was, and I gulped. This could end very badly indeed. I let loose my flames with everything I had, setting the creature ablaze. I tried to dodge those damn pincers but failed. My vision was overtaken by pulsating lights and I was barely able to remain upright as the venom flowed through me. With a stupendous effort of will, I drove my sword into the creature's soft underbelly and collapsed beside it. The poison was hitting the nerves- paralysis was next. Unless I healed myself. Draining all my remaining magicka, I managed to dispel the poison. But I was still tired. Pulling out the remains of the loaf I had bought, I finished it and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. After a potion of restore magicka, I was ready to get moving again. There was a tunnel in a westward direction, and on my way through it, I encountered a man trapped in spider webs. It was obvious the spider had stored him as a snack for later.
The man groaned and seeing me, he said- "You did it. You killed it. Now cut me down before anything else shows up." This must be Arvel, I thought and asked him where the Golden Claw was. He promised to help me with the Claw and told me the Ancient Nords had unbelievable power. I was skeptical about his offer, but cut him loose. He immediately started running down the tunnel and I mentally groaned. That'll teach you to trust thieves. Hopefully he'd at least distract any other nasty surprises up ahead.
There were some burial urns in the corner, and I was happy to find some gemstones, as well as a small pile of gold in them. After passing through two more rooms, I heard a strange noise, like bones grinding against each other. The source was a embalmed corpse rising, creakily pulling out an ancient sword and staggering towards me. Draugr. Not good.
"Aav dilon!", said the remains of some long dead warrior even as it took a swing at me. I slashed at it but the wound didn't even faze. "Oblivion take you!", I shouted as I hacked at it with all my strength. After a few blows, it finally fell, the eerie blue light in its eyes draining into nothing. I warily stepped past the thing, on my guard for the traps these Nordic ruins are notorious for. I gingerly sidestepped a pressure plate that triggered a wall of spikes and found Arvel the thief impaled upon it. At least one of is getting what we deserved, I smirked, as I retrieved the Claw from his corpse, as well as some more armor and even a journal. The Claw itself was made of solid gold, with animals carved into it. Bear, moth, owl. Strange combination.
In the next hour or so, I found myself slaying a bunch of draugr, dodging swinging axes (one of which almost decapitated me), turning a frost troll into a pile of ash, and after almost falling down a waterfall, killed another of those pesky undead before finding myself in front of a door set with rotatable rings. It was obvious the Claw held the answers, and after I turned the rings to the pattern engraved on the Claw, I set it into the gap provided in the door. A slight twist later, the door grated open releasing clouds of dust. I coughed, and entered a large chamber, with waterfalls and a skylight.
There was a sealed coffin in the middle of the room and a wall behind it. The wall itself seemed to sing, beckoning me closer. On approaching it, one of the words cut into the stone glowed brighter than the rest. Fus. The word resonated in my brain. Force.
I heard a crash behind me and turned. A draugr lord stood up, and stepped out of the coffin. Unlike the others, this one was almost as fast as I was. I pulled out my swords just in time to stop a brutal slash, and trapped the creature's blade between my own ones. I then twisted, causing its sword to fly out of its grasp and hit the wall with a clang. "Die foul creature!", I shouted as I tackled it, burying both my swords inside its chest. It swayed for a few seconds before sinking to the ground. I searched it and found a stone tablet. This must be what Farengar wanted. I looked around the room and found two treasure chests. After emptying them and grunting at the weight of all the loot, I promised myself the next time I went ruin-delving, I'd bring someone along to carry the treasure. I took a last look around the room and realizing I'd forgotten the draugr lord's sword, retrieved it. The steel was colder than ice and I realized it was enchanted. Replacing my iron sword with the weapon I decided to call Frostfang, I climbed up a stairway that had a lever at the top. On pulling it, a hidden door opened in the wall that led back to the entrance chamber. Pity there wasn't a lever on this side.
I walked out into the blizzard and began my long trek back to Whiterun, grimacing at the extra weight.
The first place I visited on entering Whiterun was Belethor's General Goods. Belethor himself was a Breton, who leered at me as I walked in. "Everything's for sale, my friend!", he proclaimed, going on to say he'd even sell his sister if the price was right. I believed him.
After unloading multiple sets of fur armor and a bunch of weapons, we compromised on a price that made neither of us happy, and I got a slightly ragged cloak thrown in the bargain. I kept the gems, not knowing when I might need some quick money, and spent some of my new coins on replacing the potions I used up, as well as a bottle of Colovian Brandy that I slipped into my bag when he wasn't looking. I didn't usually steal stuff- not that I was the persona of honesty, not at all, but this man was just asking for it. After this was done, I went to the Bannered Mare and rented a room, depositing my armor. With my new cloak on and my swords strapped to my back, I locked the door and walked towards Dragonsreach. Night had fallen, and the sky was ablaze with waves of light. I stood still for a while, staring wonderingly at the display of blue and green. I entered the palace and found Farengar talking with a familiar looking woman. I had seen her before, and realized she was the innkeeper at Riverwood. She seemed to know a lot about dragons, as she and Farengar debated about the age of some document. Noticing me, she said- "You have a visitor."
I held the Dragonstone out to him and taking it, Farengar burst into thanks. The woman seemed impressed as well. I then went to ask Jarl Balgruuf for my reward, but as I neared him, Irileth ran towards us. "A dragon has been sighted near the West Watchtower!"
The court was jolted into action, and after some discussion, it was decided we would hunt the damned thing down. I was still weary after my journey through Bleak Falls Barrow but I agreed to accompany Irileth and her band of soldiers. The dragons are coming back. But why?