Today was… Hard. It was hard and terrible and I don't think I've ever been so scared.

  We almost didn't make it. We've never come this close, and it's not like we haven't faced Falmer or bandits before, it's just… There were so many of them and they were strong. Too strong. We've never seen so many like that at once!

  If I go on about it too much my hands'll start shaking again and I won't be able to write.

  It didn't start out bad.

  Well, not for me. I was the only one who didn't wake up with a hangover!

  I got the others up and moving, then had a quick breakfast before I went across the street to Arnleif and Sons.

  I figured I could do what trading needed done while they got themselves together and had breakfast. I had to promise to take Septim with me, though. They're still paranoid about letting me out of their sight, but after the past week or so and with what happened yesterday, I understand.

  Lisbet was her usual cheery self, and it was obvious what had her in such a bad mood. The place was a wreck, and looked like the most picked-over stall in the Tower Market back in the Capital. I asked if she'd been having a rough time, and she told me about how the Forsworn have been hitting the trading caravans hard lately. She offered me a reward if I'd be willing to bring back a specific thing she'd lost: A custom statue of Dibella, made of gold and with a jeweled base.

  I said I'd look into to it, and she marked the Forsworn camp on my map once we were done trading.

  The others were more or less on their feet by the time I got back. I had to pick on them a bit for getting so trashed last night, but to my surprise, they remembered most of what was said!

  Erandur tried to disappear into his hood when he realized that he'd gone on a rant about love and confessed his undying devotion for everyone and everything.

  Still, Lydia thanked him for that. She feels a lot better about this whole "Agent of Mara" thing we're doing, now.

  As we were about to leave, Lydia tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a book. It was "The Last Scabbard of Akrash," and she'd found it while they were sorting the books for the library. She reminded me that we'd promised Ghorza the blacksmith that we'd get her a copy if we ever came across one.

  I completely forgot about that, so we made a quick stop before we left the city. Ghorza taught me some smithing tricks in exchange.

  A good trade, I'd say.

  I explained the agreement I'd made with Lisbet as we walked to the crossroads outside of Markarth. They agreed that getting the statue would be a good idea. We're still short on gold, and not only would we get a reward, but we could probably sell her whatever we got off the Forsworn, too.

  I swear, it's like our luck turned as soon as we got to the crossroads and headed towards the camp.

  First, a thief ran up and demanded that I hand over everything I had on me. I told him to back off, but he didn't listen and lunged at us. While we were fighting him, a DRAGON showed up!

  So, we had to deal with a dragon breathing fire at us, and a thief who was more determined to rob us than get his ass away from the dragon!

  We let Septim take care of him while we focused on the dragon. It was a smaller one, but because the road was so narrow, with a drop-off to the river on one side and the hill on the other, it mostly stayed in the air. They're harder to fight that way, but we managed to bring it down.

  The others took some bones and scales, and I took the soul.

  I saw a path leading up the hill, where the thief had come running down from. I was curious about it, and it was going the same way we were, so I figured why not? Maybe it was a shortcut. If not, we could easily get back down to the road.

  At the top of the path we found the Lovers Stone, on an outcrop overlooking the valley.

  We also found a bear!

  Well, the bear found us. I think it was sleeping behind a rock and I startled it when I walked past. It came out of nowhere and got me! The others took care of it, but I could feel a familiar chill settling in my body before it was even dead.

  Bone Break Fever.

  Again.

  At least this time I recognized what was happening and was able to down a Cure potion before it had much of a chance to set in.

  Erandur caught the whiff of potion when he came over to heal me, and made me promise that we'd get back down to the road as soon as I changed my sign. The Lovers is my birth sign, and I wanted to change it back from the Shadow.

  So, after the pretty light show, we went back the way we came. The road was quiet until we got to Broken Tower redoubt. It's been reoccupied by the Forsworn, and there were two Vigilants being attacked by the lookouts. We helped the Vigilants, then looked at the map and decided to head overland. There's an obvious path over the hill opposite Broken Tower, and it looked promising.

  As soon as the tower was out of sight, we were attacked by a sabercat.

  The fight wasn't hard, but I was still feeling a bit off from the fever. After the sabercat was dead, I had to sit down on a rock to rest. While I was taking a drink, Erandur said he could hear a fight somewhere. Septim could, too, judging by the way he was looking around.

  Valdimar spotted a door in the rock face nearby. Erandur said that was the place, so we got our weapons and spells ready, and came in.

  We were at the top of a set of stairs, and ran down. We came out on a platform, with stairs going down into the main room to the left. It was a carved-out cavern, clearly part of a ruin or fort, full of tables and chairs, with a bar at the back.

  At least, that's what it used to look like. Half the tables are smashed, and it was full of dead bandits, with a few living ones fighting a band of Falmer!

  There were a few… Well, I don't know what to call them, "regular" Falmer fighters in the mix, but most of them were the big ones covered in heavy chaurus chitin armor, and those really strong magic users!

  It was a terrible fight.

  I'll write what I can remember, if I can.

  Septim and I were the only ones left standing, and I was a breath away from dying myself when the last Falmer fell.

  Valdimar went down first. He and Lydia had charged down the steps, right into the thick of it. Erandur and I stayed on the platform, using magic to thin the crowd. Valdimar concentrated on keeping them away from the steps, while Lydia ran back to fight the strongest mage. The mage was hiding behind the bar, protected on both side by weaker mages and fighters. She sometimes ducked through the kitchen door that's back there, probably to heal up.

  We hadn't noticed the opening at the side of the room, near the end of the bar. A few more Falmer came out, along with a bandit, and they all set upon Valdimar. I was too busy trying to keep the other, weaker Falmer off of Lydia from my place up on the platform to really see what happened, but I heard Erandur call out his name, then run down the steps.

  Valdimar was laying in a heap, surrounded by Falmer. I saw a flash of Healing magic surround him, then Erandur practically exploded with that Flame thing he does. He drew both of his swords, and flung himself into the fight.

  I went back to trying to help Lydia, but she and the other magic user were gone. I could see flashes of magic through the door that leads to the kitchen, and then the mage came out.

  I couldn't see Lydia.

  I was already starting to panic at that, and then the mage threw a raging Blizzard right at Erandur. She hit her people, too, but I don't think she cared. She did what she intended. Erandur went down, and his fire went out with him.

  I was running out of magic, but I had enough to summon my bow and I hit her with a terrible poison, the worst I had.

  She retreated into the back, and then the last three Falmer came up the stairs.

  I tried to poison them as best I could, but poison takes time to work, and I could feel myself fading. Septim kept having to drop back to regain his strength, but he would get a few good bites in before he had to retreat again. I had a handful of paralysis poisons left, so I poisoned my daggers and started swinging. I managed to keep them down for short bursts, where I'd try my best to hack at them, but they never stayed down for very long.

  I wonder if they're a bit resistant to poison?

  Anyway, I was almost dead by the time they finally died, and I credit Septim with that. I had just enough potions to get my Magicka back up enough to Heal the both of us, then I staggered downstairs to check on the others.

  Valdimar was out, but not bleeding, and I was able to Heal him enough so that he could wake up on his own. I had to drag a few bodies off Erandur, and he was already starting to wake up by the time I got them off him.

  He understood enough to nod at me when I asked if he would be all right, then Septim and I went to look for Lydia.

  I found her in the kitchen, laying face-down in the middle of the floor. The mage wasn't too far off, clearly dead from poison. There was a blast of snow on the far wall, and when I rolled Lydia over I saw that the front of her Ebony armor was silver with frost. There were footprints - hers - in the snow. She'd taken the full force of a Blizzard, at close range, and she'd kept going.

  She was still alive, and I was able to use the last of my Magicka to wake her up.

  Of course, the first thing she did when she got up was lift her sword (she never lost her grip on it) and ask me how many were left.

  I told her that the ones we knew about were dead, but there was no telling how many more were through that opening in the side of the main room. She didn't put her sword away, and instead growled something about wanting to go find out.

  I told her to wait for a little bit, and at least eat something. She hadn't lost a lot of blood, luckily, but Valdimar told me how Frost magic can really drain you!

  I went back out to the main room to see how the guys were doing, but getting up to walk, now that the rush had worn off, made my stomach lurch.

  Yeah, I'd been drinking potions pretty much the entire fight to keep myself going, and I paid for it.

  Still am, actually. I feel like shit, but I should be better tomorrow.

  Erandur and Valdimar were both up, and we all sat at the bar for a minute to collect ourselves.

  I pretty sure we were all thinking about how we'd nearly died in that room.

  I grabbed a bottle of mead that was sitting there and took a swig before passing it down the row. It seemed to help break the heavy mood, and Erandur, who was last in line, finished it off, then said we should take some time to check over each other's wounds.

  Lydia asked why; we'd all been Healed, and aside from the aches and such we could keep going. Erandur explained that there's a point where Restoration magic can only do so much for a person. It can't restore the blood you lose, or fix a bruise or a pulled muscle. Sometimes, if the wound is too large, the new skin is so thin that it tears easily and needs to be wrapped to keep from splitting.

  I said that was a good idea, but Lydia was paranoid about someone coming in, so she insisted on there being a watch at the side entrance.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Nothing happened, but it was a good idea.

  While we took turns getting out of our gear to make sure there wasn't anything too serious to fix, Erandur told us more about Restoration magic. He explained how it can't really "set" bones, even though people think it can. It can put bones back together, but you have to make sure the bones are in the right place before you do it.

  He'd learned that one the hard way, he said.

  While he tended to what was left of a nasty axe wound on Valdimar's back, Erandur told us how one time, he got smashed across the face with a chair during a bar fight. It broke his nose, but he wasn't thinking, so he Healed himself before he got back up and kept fighting.

  His nose Healed crooked, so after the fight was over, he had to get someone to break it again so he could straighten it out!

  Valdimar made a joke about if there was a line or not, and Erandur laughed a bit because yeah, there was!

  I was grateful for the laugh, and once we were bandaged up, we sat down to have some food before going on. I had a bit of bread to settle my stomach, and I couldn't help but do a tiny bit of looting while I ate.

  I'm glad I did! I peeked in a barrel, and found what I thought were bits of broken Ebony armor. I lifted it up, and saw that it wasn't a bunch of scrap.

  Well, it had been, at one time, but when I laid it out we realized that it'd been reworked.

  For a DOG.

  Of course I immediately put it on Septim, and after a bit of fiddling with the straps, we got it to fit him perfectly!

  He looked great! He's not wearing it now because he's sleeping at my feet, but I think having him wear this instead of his harness while we're out and about is a good idea.

  Well, after that we felt good enough to keep going. The side door led to a hallway with three separate sleeping quarters. We found two small ones and this big one, where I am now.

  I didn't want to keep watch alone in the main room, and I don't think anyone else does, either.

  There was a bandit barricaded in the far bedroom, but we took care of him before we kept going. We found a section of wall that had caved in in the back hallway. This was clearly where the Falmer had come in.

  It was a cave full of spiders, but I didn't mind at all! It was nice to fight something easy after nearly getting killed!

  I wonder if the Falmer keep them like guard dogs, same as they do the Chaurus. It makes sense that they would.

  Anyway, we kept going, and were surprised to hear voices. It was bandits arguing, but as we came out of the tunnel we found more Falmer! There were only a handful of them, but they weren't easy to kill, either. It was more of those heavy fighter-types and another powerful mage.

  Past them we found a pen with some prisoners in it - The bandits we'd heard. We set them free, but they attacked us as soon as they got out!

  What was their problem?! I know if I was trapped somewhere in a cave I'd be glad to be set free and told to run!

  But no, they just had to try and kill us.

  Anyway, once we were finished with those two, there were three more Falmer to take care of in the next tunnel, and that was the last of them.

  The tunnel opened up into a large cavern that was dug out from inside a section of a Dwemer ruin. There were gears turning in the walls, and some pipes and all the normal things you'd expect to find. There were also some Falmer huts and a chest, and in the center of the room was a stone and earth pile that I think the Falmer were using as an altar. There was a dead man on it, with some weapons and things around his body, like a sacrifice.

  Weirdly enough, there wasn't another way out like there usually is, so we had to retrace our steps.

  We hadn't really done any looting as we went, so going back was a bit slower as we grabbed anything we thought would fetch a good price.

  We went back into the bar area to start checking those bodies when a handful of bandits came down the steps, loudly asking for a drink!

  They weren't too happy to see the bloodbath, and charged us.

  Of course, they weren't that much of a problem, but…UGH. I'm so tired.

  Anyway, I looted while the others got dinner together and cleaned up the big bedroom.

  The kitchen in this place is huge, and well-stocked with plenty of food and mead. While we ate, Lydia gave a… Tally from today's fighting.

  Apparently, she likes to keep track. I had no idea.

  Lydia's Count:

  1 Thief

  1 Dragon

  7 Bandits?

  10 or 12 Falmer

  1 Bear

  1 Sabercat

  4 Forsworn

  She's not too sure on the number of bandits or Falmer, because she's not certain which ones we killed compared to which ones they killed.

  Still, that's… That's a lot.

  So, yeah. Rough day.

  We were too tired to do much aside from getting ourselves to bed, so once we were done with our food, that's what we did. Valdimar brought a small table into the room for whoever was on watch to use, and I made sure to grab some extra food and drinks.

  I'm not a Healer like Erandur, but even I know you can't heal up on an empty stomach!

  I know I still have time on my watch but my head's killing me from those potions and I need sleep. I don't think she'll mind if I get her up a bit early.

  Well, we're in a spider den instead of a bandit den, so that's… Better, I guess.

  Septim's not happy, though. He's been glued to me the whole time we've been in here, and every time I hear a weird noise I think it's that creepy sound the spiders make.

  Anyway…

  We got up a bit late, but that was fine. We clearly needed the rest! We had a big breakfast, then left the cave.

  We were standing just outside, trying to decide which would be the best way to the marked spot on the map, when Erandur asked if we could hear that.

  It was an anvil! Then, we saw a Stormcloak walk out from behind an outcrop of rock, just down the hillside. We went to go see, and it was the same Stormcloak camp we'd found after the last Falmer cave we were in a few days ago.

  It was practically right in the shadow of the bandit cave!

  We went down and traded with them a little. The quartermaster didn't have much money, but oh, well. It cleared enough space in our packs to where I felt good going to the next spot.

  We went down the hill and crossed the water, but not in the same place as we did last time. We went a bit further downstream because I saw the glow of a Nirnroot.

  Lucky us, it was by a bunch of rocks that meant we could get across without having to get too wet. On top of that, there was another nirnroot just past that, which made 19 out of the 20 we need for Ingun.

  As I was pulling the second one out of the mud, Lydia shushed me, and pointed. There were goat heads on sticks practically right in front of my face. In my defense, I didn't notice them because they were in front of a rock and a bush, so they sort of blend in.

  But we found it!

  We went up, and realized that the place looked familiar. It was the same spot we'd taken refuge in months ago! Or rather, pitched our tent almost right up against their fence without realizing it!

  We hadn't gone inside that time, but just like before there were a few guards. We took care of them, then went in. It wasn't a very big place. There was a short tunnel going down, with a small hole in the cave wall right at the first bend that served as an overlook into a largish cavern area down below.

  We could see a Briarheart doing something to a dead body on a table.

  A fighter came at us, heavily-armed, but he was no match for us in the tunnel. Without him blocking the path, the others were able to rush the Briarheart in the cave. I went back up to the overlook to rain fire down on him.

  There were only the two in there, and after they were dead we hunted around for Lisbet's statue. We found it in a chest tucked in a small tunnel that was off to the side, along with a few other things.

  The dead man on on the table was a Forsworn, and we found his heart sitting in a small bowl off to the side.

  I wonder if the Briarheart was trying to make another one.

  Ugh.

  Anyway, we got out of there and decided to head back to Markarth. We were pretty laden down with stuff, but I had a plan. We'd return the statue, sell the armor and weapons we'd collected along the way, then duck into Understone Keep to see if Calcelmo had anything to say about the Aetherium we'd found.

  Whether or not he did, we'd head on over to his museum and take a look around. I'd promised Valdimar that we would, and I try my best to keep my promises.

  Valdimar brightened up after I said that. I'll bet he thought I forgot! But then again, it's sort of… Easy to forget about him?

  That's not the right word. He's just… He's always the first to volunteer to help, he never complains no matter what I ask him to do, and he never asks for anything. It's not for the same reason Erandur's like that, but I can't figure out why.

  Anyway, he was happy to hear it, so we went back to the water. I wasn't too eager to go for a long swim across the river, and there was a little path right there, so we decided to follow it up and see where it led.

  It went up the mountainside, and we could see, through the growing fog, a bit of a Dwemer ruin. I could hear a Nirnroot, too, and walked towards the sound.

  We were standing next to a small section of a stream, between two short waterfalls. The one to our right, uphill, came from… Somewhere, but the falls to our left, the lower one, went into the river. The ruin was just a Dwemer archway on the other side, standing free and a bit crooked.

  The water wasn't very wide, and on the other side, I saw the Nirnroot! I told the others I thought I could jump it. The water was shallow but really fast, and if I went in, I'm sure it would've swept me over the edge. Still, I gave it a shot.

  I made it, and grabbed the nirnroot. We've got the 20 we need!

  I only got my boots a bit wet, but Lydia wasn't so lucky. Septim and the guys made it just fine, but she ended up slipping and going over the falls!

  She hauled herself up the rock face on the other side, grumbling about how she just got dry from before when Valdimar spotted a glow through the mist.

  It was a heavy fog, so we walked towards it with our swords out. We saw a doorway at the top of a small set of stairs, and next to it was a brazier on a stand. The door was set into a proper bit of wall, unlike the last place we'd been in.

  We waited to see if we could hear or see any signs of bandits or Forsworn about, but there weren't any.

  We went up the steps and let Lydia dry off by the fire while we decided what to do. We could just keep going, or we could poke our heads in and see what was inside.

  It could be a good place to get some loot, so we went in, and like yesterday, heard the sounds of a fight.

  Except this was different. We heard the unmistakable sound of spiders, and a man yelling.

  He was clearly being attacked, so we ran in just in time to see him pull his sword out of the last one.

  We offered to check him over, but he said he was fine. He shuddered, and said that he doesn't like spiders at all, but these weird enchanted ones were where he drew the line! He said he was getting out of there, and that if we were smart, we'd do the same!

  Then, he left.

  We all know where I fall on the Stupid vs. Smart scale.

  Besides, I was curious about how the spiders got enchanted.

  I mean, it's sort of obvious when you think about it for more than three seconds, but I really wanted to see what else was in there.

  The spiders didn't look enchanted to us, but when I went to harvest the venom from them, It was... Weird. The spider was surrounded by an orange glow, then engulfed in a swirl of magical fire that faded almost as quickly as it flared.

  Best we could tell at the time, it was some sort of Flame Cloak thing put on them.

  So, we kept going. Unlike the bandit den, this place was clearly some sort of underground keep or something. We went down some twisting tunnels, and soon we found ourselves in a large room. There was a platform on one side, but the stairs going up were too crumbled. We could see a door, though, so we knew there was some way to get up there.

  There were some shelves in there with some weaker potions, and a table with a dead spider on it. It also flared up when I harvested the venom, but from what we can tell the venom is just like regular frostbite spider venom.

  After that we found another room with four levers in front of an archway. The hallway ahead was blocked by a series of spiked poles criss-crossing the corridor, and we realized that pulling the levers would either lower or raise certain spikes.

  It took almost an HOUR and A LOT of bickering, and I'm pretty sure that we didn't actually solve the puzzle, and just got lucky, but we eventually managed to get all the poles gone and the spikes cleared.

  We went down the hall and through some more twisting corridors until we came to another room. This once had an alchemy station, of all things, and a journal. I read part of it it aloud, and it outlined the enchanter's experiments to "infuse" the spiders with… Something. I still have no idea. We couldn't think of why someone would want to do this, unless he was just trying to make an army of magic spiders?

  Like I said, I don't know what I expected.

  There was another spider not far past that room, and eventually we got to a large, cavern-like space absolutely covered in webs! The journal said that the bigger ones took to the enchantment better than the little ones - Lucky us - and yeah, these were BIG.

  There was one loose, but two others still in their cells. They managed to break free, but they weren't too hard to fight. Septim has no trouble against them, but once they're dead he runs back to hide behind me. I think he's afraid they'll burst into flames on him!

  We had to burn our way through some webs to keep going, and after a hallway and some more stairs, we found a door. Erandur had us stop, and said he could hear whispering. Septim clearly heard it, too. We snuck into the next room, and we could all hear a man whispering to himself.

  We came out on top of a tall platform, and down below, there was an Altmer dressed in black mage robes, muttering to himself. There was a stone holding cell with a lever on the side, clearly to open the bars. Inside were three smallish spiders, skittering around. They were trying to get at the mer as he paced back and forth and looked them over.

  Clearly, this was the guy trying to… Make fire spiders? We still can't figure out WHY he'd want to do such a thing, but whatever. He was dangerous and clearly up to no good! For all we know, he could've been working for the Thalmor!

  The spiders noticed us first, and that alerted the mage. He started by throwing lighting at me, but I was able to distract him while the others rushed in. I think he focused on me because I'm the only one wearing mage robes. He didn't last too long, and the spiders were just normal ones, so they were no problem.

  There was a key on him, and in the next hallway we found two doors. One was to his quarters, and there was a chest in there with some potions and a bit of gold, that sort of thing. I also found a bunch of ingredients (including Fire Salts!) and a shrine to Julianos.

  I figured it couldn't hurt, so I got a blessing from Julianos, then we kept going.

  There was a large set of double doors at the top end of the hall. There were two more giant spiders in that room, and past that, we found another door that led back into the big main chamber.

  We'd come out on top of the platform with the crumbled staircase, so we jumped down from the wall, then came back here into the first chamber.

  There's two big braziers in here, so we set our bedrolls around one, and put the cooking pot over the other.

  I'd been poisoned a lot by the spiders, so Valdimar made a simple soup from the potatoes that we found, and that was a good idea, I think.

  Of course, we were filthy after fighting the Falmer, the Forsworn, and then the spiders, so we took turns washing up in the next room after dinner. Luckily, there's little braziers and fire pits all over the place, so it's actually quite cozy in here! Erandur even took off his hood.

  He was a bit surprised when Valdimar went to follow him into the next room, though. Valdimar reminded him that he had to check over his wounds from the other day (they were pretty bad) and asked where his potions were. Erandur tired to insist that he was fine, and that he should be all right, but I asked him if he really wanted to ruin his tattoos?

  He relented at that, and said that Valdimar could help him as he grabbed his things.

  As soon as they were gone, Lydia and I stared to gossip.

  We weren't able to the other night, and I just HAD to talk about what happened during the fight!

  I mean, Erandur would obviously be concerned if any of us went down, but I'd never seen him fly into such a rage! Not even when vampires were involved.

  Lydia said that Erandur had been extra careful to make sure the big tattoo on Valdimar's back was undamaged. He'd done a bit of extra work on it while she cooked dinner. I was in the other room then, going over the loot.

  I don't know what they've got going on, but we heard them bickering from in here after a few minutes. When Valdimar came back in he was as red as a snowberry! He said he couldn't bring himself to repeat what Erandur said to him if he wanted to, and we once again reminded him that he started it.

  He admitted that he had, even just now. He still wouldn't tell us what was said, only that if Erandur's words were anything to go by, he'd probably done things Sanguine hasn't even thought of!

  Anyway, I'm almost done, so I'll let this ink dry and start getting Lydia up so she can take watch.

  I just got a mod that has your followers go down if their health gets too low, and this was the first time I got to see it in action.I wish it wasn't as dire, because holy crap, I nearly died! The fight went down pretty much exactly as I wrote it, with Erandur using his classic, "I'll see you burn!" line as he threw himself into the fray after Valdimar went down.And Septim looks SO CUTE in his Ebony Armor! ^_^ I love that mod, I'm never playing without it again!

  And why was that guy trying to make flaming frostbite spiders?! One of those, "Let's see what happens!" things?

  Apologies, the link for the Shoutout in the last update was wrong! Here's the correct link. Happy reading! ^_^