'You love anything fermented,' Lalaine remarked.
'It should get us into the right frame of mind,' Drelis said, 'The following also comes from Lydia. It seems that Khargol told her quite a bit about his introduction to Skyrim and his first impressions of the place.'
'Didn't he keep his own journal?' asked Phane.
'What did I say about interrupting?' Lalaine threatened him with her tankard.
'What a terrible waste of mead!'
'Actually Khargol did keep a diary,' Drelis explained, 'but that wasn't until much later. Here, listen to this.
'This must have been the eighteenth of Last Seed that year. Khargol was introduced to Ralof's sister, Gerdur, and brother-in-law, Hod. He spoke fondly of Hod so I presume they struck it off and became fast friends.'
'Maybe they had a drinking competition,' suggested Phane.
'Maybe. In any case, Khargol put his orcish muscles to use chopping wood and hauling lumber for Hod in the woodyard. He also met the village smith, a man named Alvor, and forged an iron warhammer that he was particularly fond of. Lydia mentions that Khargol was already familiar with blacksmithing, so one would presume that he worked as an apprentice in Orsinium.
'At any rate, Khargol also met the local trader, Lucan Valerius, who took Khargol for an adventurer or sword-for-hire and asked him to retrieve a trinket that had been stolen from his shop. The item in question was a golden claw, and it had been taken by thieves who then hid in a place called Bleak Falls Barrow, an abandoned old temple from time beyond memory. The barrow had an interesting history, but that comes later. Despite his original intentions of moving to Skyrim to pursue smithing rather than battle, Khargol agreed to climb up to Bleak Falls Barrow and retrieve the claw.
'Khargol might have been used to the climate of the Wrothgarian Mountains, but Skyrim's wind blew snow and ice mercilessly as he ascended the mountain slope. The warhammer must have felt like it was frozen in his palms when he finally reached the barrow, but I'm sure he was glad of it when he encountered the bandits who had stolen the claw!
'Khargol fought his way into the barrow. He had some experience with warhammers and battleaxes, and he had little to worry about from petty thieves and their meager equipment.
'Within the ruins, our brave orc warrior found one of the bandits stuck in the webbing of a gigantic frost spider! Such a terrible creature might have slain a weaker opponent, but Khargol's orcish rage gave him the strength to slay the monster and free the unfortunate thief. Lydia suggests that the thief was unwilling to part with the claw, and tried to double-cross Khargol. More fool him. Khargol chased him down and took the claw by force, leaving the thief in a pool of his own blood.
'Deeper within the ruins, Khargol found the dead themselves defending the secrets of Bleak Falls Barrow. Undead nords, called draugr, attacked him in the catacombs; but their old bones shattered and their dried skin split under the weight of Khargol's warhammer.
'Finally, after battling fearsome draugr and avoiding deadly traps, Khargol found the door to the inner sanctum of the barrow. The golden claw itself proved to be the key to unlocking the door; it appears that the bandits stole it from Lucan in Riverwood with the intention of using it to unlock an even greater chamber within the barrows.
'The inner sanctum was some kind of ancient nordic shrine to the dragons they used to worship ages ago. There was a wall engraved with writings in the old dragon language, and its power drew Khargol like a moth to the flame. When he was close enough, the mural bestow upon him the power of the dragon tongue itself! The power to shout the dragon language and invoke its power, like in the stories of King Wulfharth.'
'That's amazing!' said Lalaine. 'I've read The Five Songs of King Wulfharth, but didn't the thru'um require a special power to use? It wasn't just knowing the dragon language that allowed him to use the power of the voice was it? Something else was required.'
'Ah, I see you have read more than just novels and play-scripts.' Drelis took advantage of the pause to sip his mead. It had gone cold, but remained sweet.
'More than just the one about the argonian maid at least,' laughed Phane. Lalaine picked up one of the books to hit him with but Drelis grabbed her arm.
'Not that one, if you please,' he retrieved the book and placed it on the far side of the table. 'That one is particularly important. In fact, all of these are important. Without them, I would only be able to recount the empire's loose records of what happened in Skyrim around the time of the stormcloak rebellion and the return of the dragons. Do you want to know what else Khargol found in Bleak Falls Barrow?
'From a sarcophagus in the middle of the chamber rose a draugr overlord much more powerful than the ones gro-Mashnar had faced so far. It used the shout that Khargol had just learned, and Khargol learned that it was a power to be respected. After a bloody struggle, Khargol finally defeated the undead monstrosity and took its enchanted axe as a trophy.
'He also found a stone tablet with what appeared to be a map etched into its surface. He took it out of interest before leaving the tomb with perhaps more questions than answers.'
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