I don't know how he slept, but I'm pretty sure Tiber Septim didn't wake up to screaming like I did.

  Eydis was screaming that there's a GHOST in the Inn.

  And there is! An actual ghost!

  I watched him walk through Septim!

  He's just sitting there, in a chair, drinking ghost mead from his ghost mug like anyone else here at the Inn. I didn't know what else to do, so I went up and talked to him. He was dressed in old-style armor, and he called me Hjalti.

  Apparently Hjalti owes him a sword, and he won't rest until he gets it. Eydis had never heard of this Hjalti character, but said Tiber Septim was known by many names, back in the day. Lydia confirmed that one of Tiber Septim's names was Hjalti Early-Beard, so yes, the ghost thought I was him for some reason.

  Luckily, Eydis did have an idea of where the sword might be. Tiber Septim had attacked a camp before the big battle here. I promised that we'd bring the sword back, and she marked the location on my map.

  I groaned inwardly and promised her that we'd leave as soon as I finished writing. I showed the others the map. "Ah," was all Lydia said, and Erandur made a pained sound. Valdimar took a deep breath, and muttered something about needing new boots after all this.

  I think we're all gonna need new boots.

  It's between Dragon Bridge and Solitude.

  We'll go get Red Eagle's Sword, first.

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  We're back at Old Hroldan. It's been a rough day. Too much happened.

  At least the ghost is well-behaved. He's just milling about, sitting by the fire and whatnot.

  But more on him, later.

  We left the inn and set off on the path towards Red Eagle's Sword, when we ran into a bear in the middle of a small campsite. It didn't take us long to kill it, but unfortunately it mauled the two people at the camp before we got there.

  We found the body of a Dunmer man with red hair and that of a young Nord woman. Next to her I found her journal. Her name was Karan, and his was Talvur. They were in love, but she was a noblewoman and he was just a poor miner, and her father would never approve. They'd run off together, but their elopement was cut short by the bear.

  The journal also mentioned where Talvur had hidden a secret stash of gold. I soon found it in an old stump nearby. Lydia scolded me a bit, but I pointed out that they wouldn't need it, and she couldn't argue.

  While I was clearing out the stump, I saw a small house nearby, and a smelter. Figuring it was the mine the mer used to work at, I called out to the others to wait there for a moment.

  Turns out, I was right, and came upon a Breton man with red face paint standing near the entrance of the mine next to a Reach guard. I told him what we had found, and he cursed a blue streak before he caught himself and apologized. His name is Perth, and he runs Soljund's Sinkhole, the mine.

  He said they've been having a tough time, and this wasn't helping any. He asked me to wait while he got the other miner that worked there, along with some shovels.

  I led them back to the campsite, where Lydia and Erandur had carefully laid the couple out next to each other. Valdimar was working on the bear's pelt.

  Perth and Tuthul, the other miner, took a moment to take everything in before they started poking around at the ground, trying to find a good place to dig. Erandur offered his services as a priest of Mara, and the two Bretons readily accepted. Any priest would have been fine, but considering the circumstances, it was strangely appropriate. I apologized for interrupting their mining with grave-digging, but they said it was all right. They hadn't done any digging for a while.

  I asked why that was, and they told me that the mine was closed because it was crawling with undead! They had broken through into an old crypt about a week ago, and the draugr weren't pleased. Perth said the jarl was going to send a regiment to clear it out, but who knows when that'll be with the war on?

  I just gave the others A Look, and they nodded. I offered to clear the mine while they dug, and they were thankful for the help. So, we went down the ridge and into the mine. In between fighting off draugr, I took some time to get a bit of moonstone for myself. It'll come in handy when I get the hang of improving Elven weapons and armor.

  We soon found the hole in the floor where they had broken through to the crypt below. Aside from some particularly nasty traps, it was mostly just a bunch of twisty catacombs full of draugr until we got to the last room.

  Once there, a Death Lord broke out of a sarcophagus, and attacked!

  Now, normally it would've been a hard (but fast) fight, but we had some extra problems. There were two statues in the room that didn't look any different from the normal dragon-like ones we've seen everywhere before, but they were enchanted! The one on the right would glow green, and Heal the draugr! The one on the left would glow red, and then shoot fireballs at us!

  That took at least three times as long as it should have, but luckily Septim proved to be a great distraction for the draugr, and he can dodge fireballs pretty good, too! Once the Death Lord was dead (haha), I searched the chest that was there and found some potions and gold, along with some old iron armor I didn't take. We also found a bunch of alchemical ingredients, including another briarheart. I held it up and jokingly asked Erandur if he wanted a snack, and Lydia cuffed me upside the head.

  That hurt, but it was worth it for the laughs it got.

  Valdimar and Erandur had been strangely quiet since we found the dead lovers. I figured that Erandur was just thinking about the job he had to do once we got out of there, but I could tell it got to Valdimar.

  We soon found our way back out of the mine, and when we emerged we were ready to hold a funeral, but instead got attacked by a PAIR of dragons!

  YES. A PAIR.

  One landed in front of the miner's house, and stared to attack both us and the guard! The other circled overhead, spewing fire. They alternated, taking turns landing and being airborne. Lucky for us, they weren't very big or very strong, as far as dragons go, and I managed to poison them enough that the magic and Shouts did their job before anyone got killed.

  Fighting one dragon would have been tiring enough after that Death Lord, but two had us dragging our feet.

  Perth and Tuthul came out from where they'd been hiding, and thanked us for taking care of the draugr and the dragons. They'd finished burying the unlucky pair, and took us to their grave. They'd marked it with Talvur's pickaxe.

  Night was falling as we gathered around the grave. Eydis and her son were there, along with Leontius, the man who helps her run the inn. Leontius got out a torch, and Eydis placed a wreath of flowers on the pickaxe before Erandur started his prayers.

  You know, I think the Divines have a flair for the dramatic. As he began, the moons broke through the clouds overhead, and the soft light shimmered on his white fur cloak and hood. Like before, his armor seemed to reflect the torchlight more than usual, and the wind didn't feel so cold, anymore.

  In his prayers, Erandur thanked Mara for bringing them together and letting them know love, even though their time together was brief.

  At this, I heard Valdimar, who was next to me, start to sniffle.

  Admittedly, there wasn't a dry eye there, but Valdimar was taking it a bit harder than I'd expect. I mean, it's incredibly sad, but we didn't know them. Anyway, I carefully slipped my hand into his, and gave it a squeeze. He squeezed back, and Lydia, who was on his other side, put her hand on his shoulder. That seemed to help, so I turned my attention to Erandur.

  His head was bowed and shadowed by his hood, but I could see tears glinting on his face, too. Despite this, his voice never wavered, and there wasn't any sadness there. He was actually smiling a little.

  He finished by asking Mara to look kindly upon Karan and Talvur, and to extend Her Benevolence and Warmth to their friends gathered here, on this cold night. He asked that we go with Her Love, and carry it in our hearts.

  With the funeral over, we all quietly walked back here, to the inn. Erandur's still not back. I know he was stopped for some talks and I saw him refusing payment from the miners.

  As soon as Eydis had pulled herself together enough to step back behind the bar, I put a pile of gold on the counter and said the night was on me.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Neither of us bothered counting.

  I took some mead over to Lydia and Valdimar. They were sitting at a table in the back, near the ghost. The pair were doing that silent drinking thing that's absolutely deafening. I wanted to ask questions, but instead, I told them we did good today, and let them know that food and drinks were on the house.

  I sat down by the ghost, and tried to talk to him. He kept calling me Hjalti, and said that he'd been waiting for me. Skuli was petting Septim by the fire, and I asked him if the ghost had said anything else. He said the ghost only talks to me, and wanted to know why.

  I had no idea, and I was surprised to hear Valdimar say, "You mean you don't know?"

  "Know what?" I asked, and he explained that the ghost probably thought I was Tiber Septim because I'm a Dragonborn, like he was.

  That explains it.

  At hearing this, Skuli looked at me with big eyes and asked if I really was the Dragonborn. I said I was, and Valdimar took that as his cue to start in with the storytelling.

  Talking about our adventures seemed to put him in a better mood, and Lydia soon joined in. I sat there for a bit, then got up to get this thing so I could write everything down.

  Skuli's learning about the Dwemer ruins, now.

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  A note before bed.

  I went to take some warm wine to Erandur because he still hadn't come back inside, and I found him leaning on the porch railing next to Leontius. They were talking and finishing off some bottles of mead.

  Erandur thanked me for the wine, and Leontius excused himself to take in some firewood.

  Erandur said they were talking about Karan and Talvur. The man had known both of them, but had been good friends with Talvur and just needed to talk.

  I asked Erandur if he was all right, and he said he was, actually. He told me it felt good to "shine Mara's Light" where it was needed the most.

  I told him he was a good priest, but he disagreed. He's never even been to the temple in Riften.

  I pointed out that I'm the Dragonborn, and I've never been to High Hrothgar.

  He stared into his mug while I told him that there's more than one way to be a priest. I should know! I met a lot of priests in the Capital. Sure, most of them stay in their temples, and some go on pilgrimages to do whatever priest stuff they do on pilgrimages, but I've met dozens who wear armor instead of robes.

  "Even servants of Mara?"

  I laughed and said that I've seen priests of Dibella dressed for battle. "They only wear leather. Obviously."

  That got a laugh out of him! I told him that he did good today, and to come in before he freezes.

  I made sure that he was settled by the fire with the others, then had Skuli get him something to eat before I came in here to finish my wine and sleep.

  Tonight we're sleeping in Red Eagle's crypt.

  Turns out the sword was more dangerous than we thought!

  So, this morning we left the Old Hroldan Inn and walked up to the top of the mountain. We could see the tall spires of an old Nord ruin up there, and that seemed a likely place for it.

  We ended up coming in through a break in the rocks, a bit to the side of the ruins, where we ran into a pair of Forsworn archers. They were no match for our fireballs and my atronach, so we were able to get rid of them easily. We went up a few sets of stairs, and found ourselves in the middle of an entire camp full of them!

  I'm glad the camp was mostly broken up into small sections because of the rocks and the ruins, because otherwise we'd all look like pincushions. Almost all of them used bows, but there were a few with axes and swords, and even a couple of mages.

  While we were fighting, I learned that Forsworn archers typically carry a dagger as their spare weapon, and that while they can fight a person just fine, they don't know what to do when a dog attacks them. A lot of them ran!

  Septim is the BEST boy! He's chewing on a goat leg right now.

  And yes, there was a battle, it was tiring, there was a lot of blood and screaming and magic, and I lost count of how many arrows we pulled out of each other, but I NEED to talk, in private, with Lydia as soon as I get a chance, because Valdimar has to be flirting with Erandur. I mean, I can't think of any other explanation for what we saw earlier.

  The main camp area is a giant loop around a section of rocks and part of an archway, with the stairs coming up on one side, and more stairs going up to the top of the ruin on the other end, along with a tower. While we were in the wider section, right before we ran up to the top of the ruin, three fighters came in from the side and managed to get the jump on Valdimar and Lydia.

  Valdimar ignored them, and instead put so many Ice Spikes in the Briarheart and the archer at the top of the ruin that they looked like Frost Atronachs. It was easy for me and Septim to run up and finish them off. I ran back down the steps and saw Erandur finishing a fight with a mage that had been hiding in a tent, and Lydia putting her greatsword through the last man standing.

  Valdimar had taken a beating, and was in bad enough shape that he was kneeling and leaning on his shield for support. Erandur ran over to heal him, and I went to check on Lydia. We both heard Erandur offer to help him up, and Valdimar said something like, "What, you don't like me on my knees?"

  Erandur got flustered and said that he couldn't believe him, and muttered about how he must have an arrow lodged in his brain as he cast a bunch of Healing spells on Valdimar.

  Lydia and I just stared at each other, and we were trying hard not to laugh, but I failed and ended up hurting myself. There was an arrow in my shoulder, but Lydia got it out for me and I Healed myself. That's gonna hurt in the morning, but oh, well.

  Erandur sighed when he saw her yank it out, and said that he'd have to give her a lesson in field dressing wounds.

  We took some time to check for goodies in the camp section before we went up the steps to the ruined platform. We got some ingots, gold, foodstuffs, bits of jewelry, and a few nice potions, too. There was also an alchemy table, so I took a second to mix up some potions to replace the ones I'd taken.

  Septim had knocked the Briarheart that had been on top of the tall platform off the side, and the man died when he hit the ground. He was so ran through with Ice Spikes that they hadn't faded, yet! He was carrying Red Eagle's Sword.

  It's a wicked-looking weapon, and enchanted with Flame magic. Nice!

  We went up the steps, and found the archer by an altar-like table with a journal on it. I read it aloud and we all agreed that coming to get Red Eagle's Sword was the right thing to do.

  It contained… A spell? An Oath? Some sort of ritual, that was sure, because it called for the blade to be "bathed in human blood" and a sacrifice to be offered at a place called Rebel's Cairn. The person doing this would seek a blessing from Red Eagle, and bid him to rise from the dead.

  We had no idea where Rebel's Cairn was, but at the bottom of the camp, where we first came in, there was a door to get inside a platform that was built into the rock. We'd been too busy fighting to investigate it.

  We checked out the tower before we went back down to try the door, and found some loot, along with a little drawbridge to another tower that led us onto the mountaintop. We didn't see anything right away, so we walked all the way back through the camp and tried the door into the hillside.

  It took us into a cave passage filled with the usual charming Forsworn decorations of severed goat heads, blood smears and wooden spikes. We ran into a few Forsworn fighters while we were in there, and some traps, but they were kind enough to trigger them for us!

  The passage went down, and soon we came out closer to the bottom of the mountain, where there were two men guarding the cave entrance. We took care of them, and realized that place was the start of the whole Forsworn encampment.

  We all figured that we must've missed something, so we went back up and walked all the way through to the towers. I climbed to the top of the last one, and looked around to see if I could see this Rebel's Cairn place at all.

  The sun was starting to set, and I spotted a light nearby. There was a little dip in the plain, next to a big stony outcrop, and I could make out a tattered banner waving in the wind. I couldn't see the fire beyond the ledge, but there was clearly a cave right there.

  I called down to the others, and even though it was getting dark, we all agreed to see what was over there.

  We didn't want to sleep in the Forsworn camp in case some roving patrol came back in the night or something, and a cave is more protected than the treeless mountaintop.

  So, we came here, and in the first area we found a dead Orc adventurer with a copy of "The Legend of Red Eagle" on him. There was also a pedestal with a slot in the top that looked suspiciously like it could hold a sword.

  I put Red Eagle's Sword in it, and a section of the wall opened up. It closed when I took the sword back, so I left it there and we headed in.

  The door leads to a short, winding passage before it opens up into this huge cavern!

  Erandur calls it "Damn impressive," and he's right. There's pillars, with caved stone faces holding lit braziers in the mouths, and a big archway on the back wall over an alcove full of grave goods. In the back, on a raised bit, is Red Eagle's sarcophagus, and guess who popped out?!

  Surprise surprise, it was Red Eagle himself, turned Draugr Death Lord(?). A handful of skeleton archers got up off the ground to fight alongside him. Septim and I went after the skeletons, while the others concentrated on the draugr. He used Shouts, but like most draugr, Red Eagle was weak to fire. I turned around once to see Erandur, cloaked in Flames, brace himself against a blast of Frost, then charge at the undead king.

  Yeah, I've never seen a priest of Mara do that.

  I didn't have the heart to tell him last night that even though I've seen priests of all the other Divines put on armor to fight, he's the first I've seen of Hers.

  Once everything was dead - again - I searched the body and found another Flame enchanted sword. I'll have to see if Lydia wants it.

  We searched the rest of the room, and found potions, soul gems, and some sparkly goodies along with some gold. Also a few bits of armor that were nicer than what we were planning on selling.

  We have quite the haul!

  But it's late, so we're just relaxing in here around the fire while Valdimar makes us dinner. We're set up near the tomb's entrance. Erandur is saying some prayers in the back of the room for Red Eagle, I think, while Lydia looks through the weapons we've found.

  What I want to know is HOW Red Eagle rose from the dead? I mean, we didn't do any ritual or -

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  Help me, Julianos. You're my only hope.

  I'm so stupid.

  I DID do the ritual!

  I was writing when I suddenly realized, and called out "DAMMIT!" so loud I made everyone jump!

  Erandur came running, demanding to know if we were all right, Lydia got a sword ready, Valdimar almost dropped our dinner in the fire, Septim spilled some of my wine, and I had to admit that I'M the reason Red Eagle rose from the grave.

  Valdimar said of course I was. I disturbed his rest. That's what draugr do when you go in their tombs.

  He wasn't wrong, but I explained that I did the ritual.

  Erandur crossed his arms and asked when exactly did I do a necromantic ritual?

  I told him to calm down. I didn't mean to! I explained that when I'd read the journal back at the camp, I had the sword on me, and that it had already been "bathed in blood". I didn't make anything of it at the time, because let's face it, we've ALL got blood on us.

  Erandur asked about the "sacrifice" and Valdimar laughed in an apologetic way and shook his head. "The dead Orc by the pedestal."

  Lydia burst out laughing and said something about how it's been a while since I did something really Stupid! She'd almost started to miss it! Erandur covered his eyes with his hand and muttered that if we needed him, he'd be off to the side, begging Mara to forgive us.

  Valdimar convinced him to have some dinner, first.

  Now that we've eaten, I'm going to bed. Erandur asked that we trade our usual watch spots so he can do some more prayers, and that's fine with me. I'm exhausted.

  Note: Apparently, when he's exasperated, Erandur's idea of "praying" to Mara is pacing back and forth with a bottle of wine in his hand and trying not to whisper too loud as he goes off about how we're all idiots and he's sorry for all the damage we've done.