We made it to Ivarstead! The day actually went mostly as planned!

  And I have a bottle of mead to celebrate with! It's not as amazing as the man I got it from said it would be, but it's pretty damn good, all things considered. I'll have to buy some for the others.

  We set off from Fort Amol, and a little ways down the road, past a side track that leads down to a miner's camp, there's a large bridge. The view from that bridge is amazing! On one side you have I think five waterfalls going all down the cliff face, and on the other is more falls, with a wide, clear view of the plains beyond the river. There's a huge rock formation in the middle of the plain, with what looks like parts of old ruins sticking out of the top.

  There was also a dragon, circling the big rock and roaring.

  The camp is right on the edge of the water down below, and I couldn't see it over the side of the bridge. I told the others I wanted a better look because I was worried the dragon was close enough to see the camp, so I climbed up on the edge to see if the people down there were going to need our help.

  Of course, they all told me to be careful, and warned me about how slippery it was from all the mist in the air from the falls, and I insisted that I'd be fine.

  You probably know where this is going.

  I saw that the dragon and the stone it kept circling was farther than I thought from the camp, and while the people were hard to see, they didn't seem to be alarmed by it. They were obviously safe for now, so I turned around to get off, and that's when I fell.

  Lucky for me, there was a little outcropping of stonework on the side of the bridge, right there! I landed on it, and looked up to see the three of them starting down at me, and I could hear Septim barking up a storm. They tried to reach down and pull me up, but I was just out of reach. I tried to climb, but I slipped (again), fell into the water, went over the falls, nearly drowned in the current, and ended up washed up on the river's edge at the mining camp.

  I was a little banged up, but otherwise all right. Again, my strange luck held and I came out of the water right next to the campfire by the miners' tents. I dried off while the others ran down to me, and I could tell by the way Lydia was not yelling at me that one of the others (my pick is Valdimar) probably asked her to keep it to herself.

  I'm grateful for that.

  As I warmed up, the lady who runs the camp, named Anneke, came out of her house to see what the fuss was about. I explained my fall, and she laughed and said that she used to be an adventurer, too. She'd settled down here in Darkwater Crossing with her husband, to run the mine.

  Darkwater Crossing.

  I knew it sounded familiar, at the moment. I just checked my first entry, and I was right. It's the same place Ulfric, Ralof and the others were headed to before they got ambushed and taken to Helgen.

  That explains the Stormcloaks wandering around the camp. This must be how they get their weapons and armor.

  Anyway, Anneke said that she had been doing a bit of scouting, for old time's sake, and wanted us to get rid of some bandits for her. They're hiding out in the wreck of the Winter War, which is out past Windhelm. She said she'd do it herself, but her husband won't let her.

  I agreed, but made sure she understood that we wouldn't be back that way for at least a week, probably. She was fine with that. So long as we got their leader, the rest would scatter. No rush.

  I thanked her for the use of her fire, and we went on our way.

  The trip up the mountain was very boring, and very, very steep, with a lot of bears to contend with. At least I found lots of ores and alchemy ingredients. I also managed to hunt some goats, so we had a good dinner.

  As we finally got near the top of the mountain, I saw a cart tipped on its side just over the rise. It didn't look good, and as we crested the hill, we saw a man sitting slumped at where the road split. He said he'd been attacked by bandits who ransacked his cart and ran off. He asked us for help.

  I didn't really know how we could help him, aside from finding the bandits, but he asked if we'd escort him back to his camp.

  That's not a hard job, so of course we agreed to see him to safety.

  He got up a little too fast for my taste. A second ago he'd been sounding weak and injured, and now he was up and walking just fine. He went straight for the bridge. He said his camp was just over it, in the ruins of Nilheim.

  It didn't feel right. Why would he need help to cross a bridge? I could see the ruins he was talking about. They were right there, just past some stones.

  I walked up to him, and he turned to lead us across.

  That's when I saw the fancy Dwarven bow on his back, and I knew we were walking into a trap.

  Bandits, my ass. I looked at his clothes and shoes, now. That's what didn't sit right with me, at first. He had fine merchant's boots, and nice, clean clothes. Not a scuff or a scratch on him.

  I traded looks with Lydia, and through the slit in her helmet, I caught the slightest nod.

  I readied a spell, she got out her big axe, and I heard the other two get their weapons out, as well.

  I decided to summon a fire atronach, just to be safe.

  The man, who said his name was Telrav, mentioned that he didn't think that was a good idea. I just shrugged and said that another ally wouldn't hurt, even if it's temporary. The fire atronach flared up in front of us, and he went past it, telling us to wait here, and he'd get our reward.

  Just as I thought, once he was far enough away, he turned on us and started firing. A bunch of other bandits burst from the camp, and even some from behind the rocks that were on either side of us.

  I don't know if it's because I'm still recovering from that fever, or if I was just tired from the climb, but it feels like the fights are getting harder.

  There were maybe seven or eight of them, but the others all agreed with me that it was a battle.

  Poor Septim ended up with several arrows in him by the end of it, but he survived, as did we all.

  I actually stood in the back for this one, just conjuring fire atronachs and healing everyone. I did some fighting, but not a lot.

  I learned a fun trick, though - I went to put a Fire Rune in front of a bandit that was coming up behind us, but he was too fast and it ended up behind him. So, I just Shouted him back and he fell into it! I'm not sure if my shout activated the rune, or him flying into it did, but it worked!

  It didn't kill him, but it knocked him back far enough that Valdimar had time to fill him with ice spikes before he got to us.

  We did get a fair amount of loot from it, too, including some enchanted weapons and a decent amount of gold.

  As we explored the ruins of the tower, we saw two dead men thrown under the walkway, stripped of any gold or weapons. Were they like us, just people wanting to help, or the real owners of the cart? Maybe Telrav saw us coming and thought he had a good idea?

  Well, whatever their killers were doing before we got here, they're not going to do it again.

  I grabbed more than I could carry, much to Valdimar and Erandur's annoyance. To my surprise, Lydia said it was a good idea. She pointed out that if I was going to adopt Alesan, it would cost money to keep him fed and everything, so the more gold we got the better. Also, she'd been thinking about the numbers, and started to go over the figures of not only what it cost so far to support the four of us, but also what it would take to maintain a household.

  The numbers started to swim together in my head, and I asked her to stop. I didn't know she was keeping a ledger! I told her I'd read it later, but she was confused. She didn't have one.

  Valdimar was so surprised he literally stopped in his tracks. She'd been keeping all that in her head?! How did she learn to do that?

  Lydia just threw her hands up and started going on about how he didn't have to act so surprised.

  Here, I'll write down what she said, as close as I can remember. I know I've written about how she's sarcastic and lectures me and rants a lot, and this is pretty normal for Lydia, so you can get an idea of what she's like. She said:

  "Thanks a lot, Valdimar, you're really making me feel like a genius over here! I'm good for more than putting holes in people, you know! UGH! It's like a girl's not allowed to be good at anything other than killing things! Seriously, I thought you knew better than…."

  This is where Erandur and I started laughing while Valdimar ran up to apologize and calm her down.

  He has a point, though. Where did she learn that? She was in Jarl Balgruuf's guard, so she must have learned that cows cost 200 gold, or that it costs 1500 gold to hire a bard for your house just from listening while she was working. Was guard duty boring enough that she just did numbers in her head a lot? I can see it being like that. Maybe it's just habit, now.

  It was a long, slow, but thankfully quiet slog to Ivarstead. The only interruption we found were some drunk men in the road nearby a windmill, enjoying some Honningbrew mead. One of them was kind enough to offer me a bottle, and I accepted before Lydia or Valdimar could stop me.

  Considering that last time I accepted a drink from a stranger we ended up chasing a Daedra over half of Skyrim, I can't blame them, but I'm not saying No to a free bottle of mead! Especially since he said that it was as sweet as a "fair maiden's kiss on a starry night."

  I told him I'll be the judge of that!

  Everyone got a good laugh out of that one, and we were on our way. I saw that the road curved around quite a bit, so we left the path and followed the water's edge until we got to the bridge that goes into town.

  What I could see of Ivarstead - It got dark as we approached - was quite pretty, with the mountain on the left and the lake to the right, surrounded by yellow-leaved birch trees. I'd like to spend some time just enjoying the place when we're done with Geirmund's tomb!.

  Of course, that's not the only tomb we'll be looking at.

  Here at the the Vilemyr Inn, Wilhelm, the owner, told us about a haunting at the barrow in town. He said he saw one of the spirits himself! Lucky for everyone there, the ghosts don't leave the barrow to wander the streets, but it's still bad for business.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  We need to check that out.

  But that's a Later Bronwen problem. Now Bronwen needs sleep. Tomorrow morning we'll sell the loot, resupply, and open Geirmund's tomb.

  Mara's tits, why can't anything go right for more than a day?

  Ivarstead doesn't have any shops.

  Aside from food and water, you can't buy anything there. Not even logs!

  I trudged to the mill so I wouldn't feel like it was a complete waste of time, and I met Temba, the lady who runs it. She was so angry about the bears that are tearing up the good trees around here that she offered me a reward if I could bring her ten pelts, which is fine, except she won't sell any logs to me until I do.

  Are they really messing up her wood supply that badly? Why couldn't she stop complaining for a minute and take my gold?

  Ugh. I'm in a bad mood. I'm just not looking forward to the rest of the day.

  We're back at the Vilemyr Inn, and the plan is still to get to Gerimund's tomb today, but first we need to go back to the bandit camp we just came from, and dump the loot in one of the chests there. If we're lucky it'll be untouched by the time we're back to retrieve it.

  -/-/-/-/-

  So… I'm sitting in Sithis Gaulderson's coffin, using a piece of wood laid over the top as a makeshift writing desk. We're spending the night here in the tomb because we're all dead tired. Hah.

  It was a long, long day.

  We left Ivarstead for Nilheim, and had a slow, boring, strenuous hike over there. Well, I had the strenuous hike. I was the one carrying all the loot.

  I put everything in a chest at the dinner area, and we took a moment to get some food prepped for our trip into the tomb. I also recharged everyone's enchanted weapons, and we went over the armor before we stored it to make sure we had all the pieces we wanted.

  The tomb, properly called Geirmund's Hall, is on a small island in the middle of Lake Geir. It doesn't look like the other tombs I've seen, at least from the outside. The entrance right now just looks like a cave, but maybe it was once something grand and impressive?

  The passage wound down a ways into a cavern. There were only skeevers there to bother us, but we weren't the first to go down there. Septim found the body of a man, slumped in a corner. I almost walked right past it!

  I checked his pack, and inside I found a copy of "Lost Legends".

  Divines, I hate being right all the time.

  All right, I'm not right all the time, far from it, but when I am, it's usually bad news!

  We're not the only ones looking for the Gauldur Amulet.

  Lydia cussed and kicked a rock to the far side of the cavern. It clattered and then we heard a splash.

  We couldn't see any water, so we went to take a look and saw a hole in the floor that led down to a water-filled… Something.

  It was the only way we could possibly go, and as I stepped back to jump, Lydia grabbed my arm and asked why I was going first.

  "Because I'm the… Leader."

  I gave Erandur a look before I jumped, and I'm pretty sure I got him to smile.

  The water wasn't too cold, but it was still enough to make me gasp when I hit. There was a small brazier of coals right there, though, so I was able to dry off while I waited for the others.

  I wonder how they stay burning? I always assumed they were magic, but maybe it's some sort of alchemy? Do the draugr go around and make sure the lights are lit? I mean, there's a ring of lit candles here around the coffin I'm in. Maybe they spring to life once someone enters the tomb?

  Oh, well. There was a door there, and once everyone joined me, we entered the tomb.

  Getting through wasn't nearly as hard as Fulgunthur, it seems like. I mean, there were more draugr, and they were stronger, but the corridors were narrower, so it's not like they could mob us. We found another puzzle lock, but as before, it was easy to do. Just matching the pillars to the carvings, like all the others.

  Not far past the puzzle room was a chamber with a tall pillar in the center. We fought the two draugr at the bottom, but there was one hiding up top, raining arrows down on us. It was hard to get, because it was able to hide behind two wooden drawbridges that were upright at the time. There was a staircase up to a landing with a door, so I ran up and between me throwing spells at it from there, and the others hitting it from below every time it went to get away from me, we took care of it.

  It took a while, and I had been so focused on the fight I hadn't really looked at what was in front of me. I was too busy dodging arrows.

  There was one of those altar-like tables, and on it was a body, long-dead. It looked different from the others laid to rest in the niches we saw earlier in the tomb. This one was was contorted in a way that seemed like they'd died… Violently.

  There was a small plaque attached to the table with a piece of paper on it, and a key next to the body.

  The paper was an epitaph, and I couldn't believe my eyes once I read it.

  The body was Archmage Geirmund, himself.

  I called everyone over and showed them what I'd found. We took a moment as Erandur said a prayer for Geirmund. The epitaph started with:

  "Magus, keep thy vigil eternal. Serve now in death as you did in life."

  It sounded like he was bound here, just as the draugr were. Erandur prayed for Geirmund's soul to rest, and finally know peace.

  All right, I didn't say a prayer, really, but I did offer up a few words to his ghost, wherever it is. Mostly I apologized for what we were about to do, but I promised that I wouldn't do anything evil with the amulet once I got it back together. We were going to take care of Sigdis, once and for all.

  I took the key and the epitaph, just in case it still had any power to keep him there.

  Not far past the door was an enchanting table in front of a wall carving exactly like one I'd seen in the Hall of Stories. In the center of the carving is a woman, wearing a wolf's pelt, and to either side of her are soldiers carrying a dead king and queen to her. Above her are three wolf's heads (or a three-headed wolf?) and some wolf claws.

  I mention it because Valdimar got excited when he saw it, and made sure to show it to Erandur, who was just as confused about it as I was. I asked if it was Potema, the Wolf Queen, and Valdimar laughed. He said it was a good guess, but this place is older than her. The carving was how the Nords used to picture Mara.

  Erandur said he'd learned about how Mara was known in Skyrim as the Mother Wolf, but had never seen a depiction like this before. He thanked Valdimar for showing him, and said that he was glad to see Mara's light in such a dark place as this.

  It's nice to see him give a real smile. He hardly ever does.

  Lydia pointed out that we'd all seen this same image in Folgunthur, where we fought a room full of draugr on our way to unlock the circle gate. Valdimar said he'd been a little busy to appreciate the architecture!

  We laughed and went on, and while there were a lot of traps, it wasn't that bad, and they were as easy to avoid as any others I've seen.

  I'll admit, the swinging blades did get me a few times. The switch to turn them off was right on the other side, though, so I was able to take care of mysef while the others went ahead and took care of a draugr.

  Not far past that was this place. Sigdis Gauldurson's tomb.

  Fighting Sigdis was… Annoying. Not only can he teleport and Shout, he had a bow that can absorb magicka (HAH! Mine, now!) and he summoned doubles of himself to fight for him! It was like fighting a handful of angry wasps, if wasps could kill you.

  Like I said, it wasn't too hard, it was just annoying because he kept disappearing and reappearing, and then summon more doubles of himself. It was impossible to keep track of which one was the real Sigdis, but we got him in the end!

  His piece of the Gauldur amulet looks like a little double-sided axe head, and can boost my stamina.

  I had Valdiamr and Erandur look over the pieces, and we all agreed that for something so dangerous in ancient times, it felt a little…. Weak?

  Maybe the study of magic's improved since his times? Maybe back then casting Firebolt took more magicka and the spells were weaker? I'm not very good at Enchanting, but maybe after a thousand years or so they lose some power. I mean, we'd never know if they did - Everyone around when they were made would be dead.

  Oh, well. I can't explain it, but what I do know is that I need to get myself to bed. The others are setting up camp for me because even sitting hurts right now. Erandur says it's probably Rockjoint, and I think he's right. It's mild so far, but I should get myself to a shrine or something soon before it gets any worse. Maybe I got it from a skeever (there were quite a few of them) or I swallowed some brackish water when I first jumped down.

  Hmm - I just realized that I didn't need the Ivory Foot, yet. Maybe I'll need it on the way out.

  After a thankfully boring day, we're back at Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm.

  Getting out of Geirmund's Hall only took a few moments. There was a chest with a decent amount of gold, along with some nice pieces of armor. We did end up running out of food - we had just enough for breakfast - so we went back to Ivarstead to restock.

  Everyone at the Vilemyr Inn was still going on about the ghost, and I asked Wilhelm if anyone had ever gone inside to see what was going on. He said that about a year ago, a man named Wyndelius came by to take a look. That night, people heard screaming coming from the barrow, and he was never seen again.

  I made a promise to myself that when we came back to get our loot from Nilheim, we'd stop here to see what we could find. I'm not afraid of ghosts.

  I actually saw one once down at the docks when I was little. It didn't do much, just floated by and went through a wall. Looked like a sailor to me, and when I asked one of the dock workers he said that happened from time to time. Everyone else said that's usually all they do, too. They appear, maybe say something, but usually they just ignore you and go away eventually.

  I've never heard of them murdering poeple.

  Once we were restocked, we left and headed back down the mountain. We took the other route this time, and I wish we'd taken this way up! It was still steep, but it was a lot less so. It took a while because it switchbacked down the whole way, but we were back at Fort Amol before dark . Nothing terribly interesting happened on the way, aside from running into a troll that had killed a few unlucky Stormcloaks. I did find a note on one of the men that said there was trouble near the Rift, and that they only needed two people to sort it out.

  Hm. I don't know if he was the Captain the note referred to, or if he was taking it to a Captain, but I think we might be able to handle that, at some point.

  Speaking of Stormcloaks, Fort Amol's already been reclaimed by them. They've cleaned out the shrine to Julianos, unfortunately, along with all the alchemy and enchanting equipment. I'll have to get this Rockjoint taken care of tomorrow. It doesn't seem to have gotten any worse, but I keep having to move or I get too stiff and it hurts.

  Aside from a thief who thought he could get the better of me, the road from Fort Amol was quiet. Not even a wolf growled at us, and we were able to get to the Hall not too far past nightfall. It did start to get cold, but not so bad that I needed a torch or Bask.

  It's not actually that late, so we're going to just sit around the fire upstairs and enjoy the evening.

  -/-/-/-/-

  Well, I knew it would happen sooner of later. One of the locals mentioned that Bronwen was a strange name for an Imperial, (I look very Imperial) so I told them my story. Well, the parts that don't involve crime. Might as well write the whole thing here.

  The ladies at the orphanage said my mother was a barmaid, a Breton who went to the Capitol to find work. She did like many barmaids do when they want to earn some extra coin, but ended up with more than she bargained for – Me.

  She handed me to the orphanage when I was not far past newborn, and said my name was Bronwen. She couldn't take care of me on her own, and figured it was for the best. Miss Agrippina gave me the last name Legiano, which is a common last name given to bastard children of Imperial soldiers, so my father must have been one.

  There were a lot of Legianos in the orphanage.

  I’m not angry at my mother. Like me, she was just doing what she felt had to be done, and what she felt was for the best. It must have been terrible, but I’ve heard that Bretons can be as practical as Nords, even in matters of the heart.

  I didn’t have a great childhood, but it wasn’t awful, either. The ladies who ran the place treated us well enough, but it was crowded and aside from the basics I didn’t get the chance to really learn anything. As I’ve said, you can’t practice magic in the streets, and the alleyways are mostly too cluttered and narrow to practice fighting or archery. All I was ever good at was talking, so my job was to distract people long enough for my friends to pick some pockets.

  I did manage to find my way into some chests and basements, here and there. That’s how I learned Flames and how to Heal. Learning magic is easy, but the first time I helped light the fire in the kitchen, Lady Sabina was horrified. I didn’t know children my age (I can’t remember how old I was, but I know I was younger than ten) weren’t supposed to learn magic because they usually can’t control it, or be trusted with it.

  Bretons are naturally good at magic, so the ladies figured that was probably why I wasn’t having any trouble using it. One of them said she heard all Bretons knew at least a few spells, so she wasn’t surprised. I almost got a hiding for not asking permission to learn, but she was understanding. I was little – I didn’t even know what a spell book looked like! I like books, and I found some books with pretty covers, so I read them. How was I supposed to know they’d vanish into smoke when I was done and then make my head feel strange afterward?

  Magic’s come in handy for me here and there, but it didn’t help me get adopted. I learned later on that by law, anyone adopting out a child in the City has to tell prospective parents everything they know about them. Their health, parentage, and whether or not they have any special skills or hardships. This includes if they know magic, apparently, and what spells they know. Healing was a bonus, but the Flames made people nervous. This is probably why I’d meet with a lot of people but every time, they’d go with someone else.

  The orphanage never turned a child away, but twice a year, they did a count. If there were too many kids, they had to kick the oldest ones out. Eventually, it was me and Drusilla’s turn to leave.

  That’s as far as I told the folks upstairs. I ended it with “And now I’m here!” Luckily, they didn’t pry after that. I started to comapre the booze to lighten the mood, but Lydia asked why I came to Skyrim. I could see Erandur's reflection in my mug. He was behind me, and gesturing at Lydia to stop talking. Not in an angry way, but in a way that implied it's something bad. Like Helgen.

  I mean, he's not entirely wrong, and thankfully Lydia took the hint. She has no face for cards, by the way. She told me not to mind, and offered to get the whole table a round.

  I thanked Erandur after she'd gone, and said I had to get up and stretch a bit. Damned Rockjoint. After I left to walk a circle around the fireplace, I saw Valdimar and Erandur whispering. Valdimar looked serious, and I'm sure Erandur didn't tell him anything, just that it's something I don't like talking about.

  I came back as Lydia did, and one of the locals pulled out some dice for a few games.

  In all, we had a great evening! With any luck, we'll be back in a few days to sell off the rest of our loot, and then make our way to Sarthaal.