Proceed to the tomb.

 After a long moment of hesitation you **** aside the momentary flicker of self-doubt that had fluttered through you and continue on your approach to the barrow Lucan had told you off the previous evening, there are faint humanoid tracks in the snow outside of the tomb, however both time and harsh weather have distorted them too much for you to learn anything other than several people had entered the tomb sometime in the last few days, your right hand drops to the sword at your hip and pulls it from the sheath, your sword and iron rimmed shield at the ready you slowly enter the tomb.

   From somewhere ahead you can hear a pair of male voices; the two are complaining about a dark elf they call Arvel apparently this Arvel has gone missing somewhere inside the tomb, seeking cover you quickly take shelter behind a large pile of rubble, peering around the rubble heaps edge you spot the two men.  You’d bet that the one with the long blond hair and wild beard to be a nord, the other is a shaven headed redguard, both of the men are standing only a few yards ahead of you and both are thankfully facing the opposite direction, scooping up a piece of brick with your shield hand you shoot to your feet and fling the rock as hard as you can, the nord bellows in shock and pain as the fist sized stone takes him in the back of the head, he staggers forward clutching his skull and roaring with fury. 

   As you race towards the pair, the redguard hears your steps and whips around to face you, his hands drawing the two swords sheathed at his waist with enough speed to parry your first two blows but he is still not fast enough to avoid your ramming the iron edge of your shield into his throat, he staggers backwards gurgling and clutching at his throat.  You turn away from the dying redguard and take a step nearer to the bearded nord; he had already recovered from your **** and was moving towards you with a snarl on his face and a sword and shield of his own in his hands.

   A smile quickly settles onto your lips, the first few passes with the nord had told you everything you needed to know about the outcome of this duel, the nord was good but you were better, a lot better.  It was over soon enough, the severed head of the nord bouncing to the floor right next to his crumpled body.  Searching the two bodies gained you little of any immediate use, though the sparkling ruby and a trio of lock picks in the nords belt pouch bring a smile to your lips, the redguards body offers only a dozen septims and another lock pick.  Leaving the bodies behind you continue on your way, eventually finding your way to a long narrow tunnel.

   The tunnel comes to an end at a large cavern, the walls and ceiling of the cavern are thickly matted with what seems to be spider webs of all things, a chill runs down your spine as you mentally compare the size of a house spiders web to the size of these webs….  A voice startles you as you step into the cavern “You there! You! Please help me! Help me before it comes back” peering through the gauzy webbing you can make out the form of a dunmer male imprisoned in a thick knot of webbing, a few quick slashes with your sword cut the strands holding the man in place, he points behind you eyes wide with fear.

   As you spin around you spy an immense form dropping from an alcove in the ceiling, an immense form with eight glittering eyes and eight more multi-jointed legs, no doubt the very spider responsible for the webs adorning this chamber.  A shudder of disgust runs through you as you look at the beast, beside you Arvel turns and races off into the depths of the cavern, bellowing a war cry you loose a furious barrage of swings quickly opening a pair of deep gashes in the chitin covered legs of the beast, after deflecting a viscous bite with your shield you bury your blade hilt deep into one of the creatures many eyes, the beast emits a high pitched wail of pain and collapses to the ground before you, twitching once or twice before falling still.

   You turn away from the fallen frostbite spider and move deeper into the web chocked cavern, at the far end you find another opening into the cavern, the webs that were once draped across are now torn free and dangle from the walls “did you go this way Arvel?” you murmur rhetorically as you step through into the tunnel beyond.  This tunnel is not a natural fissure or even a crude passageway, the walls here are heavily worked with intricate if now worn frescoes, and large, beautifully shaped vases stand in alcoves running the length of the hall, at the far end of the tunnel is an ornate and intricate marked door of some kind before which lies the body of Arvel, the blood oozing from him makes you doubt the dunmer still lives.

   You put away your sword and crouch beside the body, it bears only a few small shallow looking wounds, the wounds look to small to be fatal though the thin greenish liquid leaking from the wounds makes you suspect it is not the depth of the wounds that made them dangerous, on the floor beside the body is a claw shaped piece of gold roughly twice the size of a mans hand, “I’ll take that” you mutter reaching for it, as you pick it up you notice the ‘palm’ of the claw is marked with a trio of symbols, more specifically a bear, a moth and an owl.  As you stand you step back from the body and take a studying look at the door, it is large and marked in the centre with a stone circle marked with the outline of a clawed hand, a clawed hand the exact size of the golden claw you had just scooped up you notice, on the door around the claw marked circle are a trio of ever large concentric circles bearing the pictures of various animals.  

   A sudden suspicion runs through you, your eyes dart from the picture bearing stone rings on the door to the picture bearing palm of golden claw and then back, the three symbols on the hand are among the symbols on the door, quickly spinning the trio of symbols into place you slide the claw into the indentation the door emits the tortured groaning of stone rubbing on stone, the rings suddenly spin of their own volition and the door rolls back into the wall.