Rigmor and the guardian drove deeper into the depths of the barrow and all along their path the lost had risen to guard the way. They were both getting worn from this continuous effort of trying to put the Draugr back to their final rest. Rigmor called out while battling with the guardian one particularly nasty one, “Well guardian you certainly have found the trail of the lost. I mean how many have we put back to sleep now hopefully sending them on to their final rewards?”
The guardian replied as he slide his curved blade through the parts of the Draugr, “Thanks Rigmor, but how about less talk and more hacking right now. We can discuss my bad decisions later.” Rigmor smiled briefly at his banter, “Okay guardian, let’s get this done and on to the Hall of Stories.
They completed the work of putting the Draugr back to rest here and moved on through a large set of double doors in the next chamber. After that they made their way through an area with a small chamber, a burial crypt and a small gate on one side. Once they resolved the single Draugr left to guard the way, they made their way down to a narrow passage with a bridge over a waterfall that tumbled down to pool at the bottom. Here they did battle with a single Draugr left to guard the way across the bridge.
Rigmor had taken the lead on this one as she sensed the guardian was wearing down a bit. After she used her blade to remove the remaining life the Draugr had in it, they both stood there in silence, listening to the waterfalls tumble to splash up on the bottom floor of the chamber they were currently in.
They continued forward and fought several more battles but at last arrived at the Hall of Stories. Rigmor was amazed and comment to the guardian, “Guardian do you see these, these are motifs of the Dragon Priest and their followers from the Mythic Era. How cool is that guardian?”
The guardian had walked forward towards a door with a rounded top, three rings each with different symbols on them, and a spot in the middle of the door where it looked like the golden dragon claw would be used to open the release the mechanism on the door once the sequence was correct of the three rings preceding it.
Rigmor moved over to the door after looking at each of the motifs on the walls. She studied them briefly and then said, “Guardian, check the claw itself, didn’t I see symbols on it?” The guardian lifted the claw out of the sack they had put it in for safe keeping. Sure enough there were three symbols on it. He said to Rigmor, “Look three symbols on the claw, three rings with symbols too. I say we match the rings to what the claw has on it. What do you think Rigmor?”
Rigmor responded, “It makes sense, it would have been likely that only the dragon priest would have had the claw with the correct sequence on it. The priest would have been the most powerful of those that were there outside of an actual dragon of course.”
The guardian nodded his agreement then turned each ring until it matched those on found on the claw. He then took the claw and aligned it with its claws inserted into the holes, turned it and the releases gave way as the door began a decent into the floor.
They could both see an open stairway leading up beyond the door. Rigmor looked at the guardian and said, “Well guardian, you lead, I’ll follow!” They both moved forward until they entered a vast chamber that opened up into a natural cave. Beyond it was a stone bridge over a creek and up to the left-side was a wall with a dragon’s head carved into it.