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Morndas, 13th of Evening Star, 4E 201

So, tonight's sleeping arrangements aren't as glamorous as where we spent last night, but at least we don't have to worry about assassins.

We're still keeping watch, obviously, but I'll have to be careful to keep the snow from blowing onto the page and smudging the ink.

We got up bright and early, and left the house so we could get to Dragon Bridge.

We ran into Vittoria Vici as we left out through the patio. Turns out, she's our other neighbor!

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

She was surprised to see me, and VERY surprised to see Lydia, who hadn't put her helmet on, yet.

They made some polite small talk as we headed for the gate, but I could tell that Lydia was struggling. We parted ways at the market, and as soon as we got through the gate Lydia snarled and said, "I can't STAND that woman!"

We were all shocked and didn't say anything. She usually doesn't react to much, and especially not like that!

Lydia jammed her helm on and apologized while she buckled it. As we walked, she explained that Vittoria's family and hers were close. Vittoria's her sister's friend, and she explained it as, "That's what they call it when their idea of fun is trying to backstab, blackmail and belittle each other."

Yeah, they're those kind of "friends".

What's worse, Lydia said that Vittoria agrees with her mother. She thinks it's "unseemly" for someone of her station to be out here, fighting and "living wild".

We all rolled our eyes at that, and I was just about to gripe about how much I couldn't stand people like her either when (speaking of stuck-up assholes) we ran into some Thalmor officers leading a prisoner.

I'm sure you know what I did next, but this fight was different.

All of them could use magic.

The Justiciar only used magic, but the two guards with her were both skilled fighters and mages!

The prisoner ran off as soon as the fight started, and I'm glad he did! With all the magic flying everywhere he was bound to get hit.

Once the three Thalmor had fallen, he walked up to us so we could untie him. He thanked us, then ran off towards the Stormcloak camp.

The rest of the trip was quiet, and we soon found Commander Maro at the Penitus Oculatus outpost. He couldn't believe what I told him, but when I handed him Arnbjorn's bloody ring to match the one he had from Astrid, that was good enough for him! He gave me 3000 septims, and we got back on the road.

I figured I'd get more for destroying the assassins guild, but right now we're so broke I'll take what I can get.

Hopefully we'll be less broke tomorrow, what with all the Falmer gear we picked up.

Which brings me to now. We're at a campsite not too far from Dragon Bridge. We went over the bridge, and then kept going until we crossed another, smaller one not too far past that.

That was where Lydia and I had found a cart a while back, with a dead woman and her horse, and now there was another wrecked cart.

It was almost exactly the same as last time. The caravan had clearly been attacked, but this time, we knew what we were looking at. The arrow was a Falmer arrow. We wondered where they could be coming from, and we saw a campsite across the river, with smoke coming from it.

We went across - Luckily its not that deep, so we didn't have to swim - and went to see if anyone was there. It was empty, but there were two small tents, a bed roll on the ground, and some supplies around the still-smoking logs in the firepit.

We found a journal on one of the bedrolls, so I picked it up and read aloud what the latest entry had to say.

They were a group of adventurers, like us, investigating the caravan attacks. They said they knew it couldn't be animals or bandits, because those don't take prisoners.

At the mention of prisoners we all looked at each other, and we didn't say a word. We just turned to follow the trail that led from the camp, and towards the mountain. There was a cave, with some obvious signs of Falmer outside of it.

I took a moment to apologize to Erandur for the delay before we went inside, but he said it was all right. His Lady is nothing if not patient, and she would understand.

So, we went inside. Before we ran into any Falmer, we found the dead body of an adventurer, laid out on a bedroll next to a small fire that was still burning. He hadn't been dead for long, but we couldn't find any clues on him. Erandur looked more closely, and said that he'd been poisoned by Frostbite Spiders.

The path split right there, but to the right was what looked like a dead end, with an opening near the ceiling. Every other Falmer cave we've been in has had a back way out, and we all figured that was probably where we would end up eventually. So, we went left and kept going.

Erandur was right about what killed that guy. We came across at least a half-dozen spiders as we walked through. At once point we found a large cave with an incredibly high ceiling. I looked up before we went in, and I could just make out a massive spider above us, waiting to drop. We unleashed our magic at it before it could, though, but it was ANGRY when it hit the floor!

Unfortunately, I didn't see the second one that was crawling along above my head.

It would've landed right on me, too, if Septim's barking hadn't warned Lydia. She tackled me just in time! We rolled away and the guys started in on it, along with Septim.

There were a few more spiders after that, but it wasn't long until we found the Falmer. First we found a lady who cast some powerful magic at us. She wouldn't have been too hard on her own, but her pet chaurus was a pain! The room was full of mushrooms, and I even found baskets in there full of them.

I've been wondering what they eat.

We kept going, and found more Falmer as we went. The tunnels twisted and circled back on themselves at a few points, but eventually we found a largish, open area with a few huts where a handful of Falmer attacked us.

That's also where we found the prisoners.

We were too late to help any of them. I think some of them were the adventurers, and on one man, a Redguard, we found a note.

I cast Candlelight, and read it aloud. The man's name was Firir, and he had been with the caravan. He wrote about the attack, and said that anyone who resisted was blinded. He wrote that the others were taken off one at a time to who knows where. He was certain some had been fed to the chaurus, but he didn't know what happened to the rest. He said he knew he didn't have much time left, then begged someone named Eydis - his lover, probably - for forgiveness.

Now I remember where I heard that name before! Eydis is the lady who runs the Old Hroldan Inn. She said her husband was a soldier, though, so probably not the same Eydis.

Anyway, the dead man was right about the Falmer feeding prisoners to the chaurus. There was a Chaurus pen at the other side of the cavern, and in it we found bones among the egg piles. We also found some strange spiky pods, and one of those giant winged bugs burst out of one when we got near it! After we killed it, we destroyed the other pods before anything could pop out of them.

No wonder Septim wouldn't stop growling at them!

We took a minute to look the pods over. Far as we can tell, they're sort of like cocoons, and they're disgusting, slimy, and smell TERRIBLE.

The sound the flying ones make is like a wasp in your ear, I hate it!

We kept going, and came to… Some sort of ritual chamber.

There were three Falmer in there, including one in the center who was powerful magic user. The room was round, with a pit in the middle spanned by a narrow arch of stone and earth. In front, where we came in, was a stone slab that looked like some sort of altar. There was a dead man on it, clearly used as a human sacrifice.

I could hear Erandur draw in a sharp breath and grab at his heart when he saw it.

I think the mage we killed was a priestess of some sort. She'd been sitting on a stone… Throne? I think? at the other end of the bridge, and behind it was an archway that led to another tunnel. I saw the glow of dozens of chaurus eggs down below in the pit, and the path to the left of us sloped downwards into it.

I told the others that I was going to grab a few of them - They fetch a good price! - and I didn't feel the need to hurry, now that we knew the prisoners were all dead.

As I went down to gather them up, my boots kept kicking what I thought were sticks in the dark, and cracking what I thought were eggshells or bits of shed chitin.

Valdimar got his boot tangled up in what looked like a bunch of roots, but when he lit his torch to see well enough to get his foot free, he gasped. The light was behind me and I was bent over, too focused on digging out Chaurus eggs to notice. Then, Erandur called my name, so quietly that I almost didn't hear him. I looked up - he was standing on the raised circular path on the right of the pit - and I saw that he had his hand over his heart. He told me, almost in a whisper, to watch were I stepped.

I looked down, and realized that I was standing in a pit full of bones.

I don't mean a skeleton or two. There were at least a dozen bodies worth of bones down there, and that was what I could see with just a glance. The floor was practically carpeted in them!

Valdimar had put his boot in a rib cage.

Needless to say, I got out of that pit like it was on fire, and we made for the tunnel behind the "throne" as fast as we could.

The tunnel back there was short, and midway along it was a small open area, like a room, with a table and some barrels in it. Clearly looted goods, so I took what I could from there and we kept going.

As we suspected, the end of the tunnel was the hole in the wall we'd spotted near the entrance.

We hopped down, and made our way out of the cave.

It was dark by the time we left, so we decided to set up our big tent by the adventurers' two little ones, and use their campfire.

Erandur said a short prayer after we had dinner, simply asking Mara to guide the souls we'd found, and to thank the adventurers for their sacrifice in their willingness to help.

My watch is almost over.

It's chilly out tonight, with the faintest bit of snow, but with this big fire and Septim's head on my knee, it's not so bad!

I wonder if the Silver-Blood Inn's built a bath? I hope so! We all smell like low tide at the height of summer after being in that damp, muddy cave all day.

I can't wait to get to Markarth!

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