Go to the Tomb

  You quickly make you way into the ruin that Lucan the merchant had mentioned to you the night before.  A few minutes slowly pass as you make your way deeper into the network of tunnels and still you find no one, not the claw stealing thieves or the draugr that Lucan claimed infested this place.   Your blade still at the ready, you move down a crudely worked corridor; this one slopes downwards heading deeper underground; the tunnel comes to an end at what seems to be an entrance to a large cavern of some kind.

   Stepping into the cavern you see that much of the walls and ceiling of this cavern are thickly matted with thin, white strands of some kind; touching them with a cautious finger reveals the white strands to be coated with some kind of clear, incredibly sticky substance; a horrible thought suddenly occurs to you, ‘incredibly sticky thin white strands...’ “No” mutter to yourself “no, that’s just ridiculous” shaking your head in dismissal you take a step away from the wall, coming to a sudden halt as a shrill hissing sound comes from above you. 

   Clinging to the ceiling above you is a spider; the thing was immense, with legs even longer than your own and a bloated body the size of a beer keg.  “By the Nine!” you whisper, shocked at the things size; giving another shrill hiss the thing leaps at you, its mandibles snapping wildly.  Whirling away, you frantically slap aside the mandibles with your shield; the eight legged beast whirls on you, moving its bulky form with surprising speed as it lunges forward again.  Though you are able to block or parry its bites the beasts speed and strength are impressive, it’s all you can do to keep the beasts jagged mandibles away from your throat.

   You leap backwards away from the beast, **** for a free moment to gain a moment to regain the offensive.  As it scuttles forwards you step forward and swing, taking one its legs of at a joint; the beast howls as it staggers backwards newly shortened limb waving wildly and dripping a thick, bluish fluid.  Not giving the beast a free moment you follow, your blade quickly taking off another leg and slashing across one its glittering eyes.  The spider is in full retreat now, crawling backwards from you as fast as it can; but you are skilled with your sword and unrelenting in your pursuit and the beast soon falls to the floor, its body stilled in ****.

   As you approach the far side of the cavern you come across a trio of male corpses pinned to the wall, though much of the details of the three were hidden by the thick layer of webbing they were wrapped in, at least one of the three was a male Dunmer, however a glance at the dead men suggests they died from the spider poisons, as all three had thick green-white fluid oozing from their mouths and several large bite marks on their bodies.     

   As you stare at the three bodies a glint of gold on the leftmost corpse catches your eye, peering closer you see that the dead elf’s hands clutch a piece of gold perhaps twice the size of your palm, the gold was worked into the shape of a four fingered claw of some kind.  “I’ll take that” you mutter as you pry the claw loose from the dead man’s grasp, a further search of the dead trio rewards you with only a double handful of septims and a pair of weak healing potions, stuffing your new acquisitions into your own pack you turn away from the corpses and head into the tunnel mouth beside them.

   The walls of this passageway are worked in once intricate frescoes; though much of their splendor is marred now by stains, cracks and a thick layer of dust you can tell this place had been beautiful once.  The tunnel ends at a large and impressive looking door, you have seen a variety of locking systems in your travels but you have never seen anything quite like this one.  There are three bands of carved stone arranged in concentric circles, each band marked with pictures of different animals and at the center of the door is a circular patch of pale stone engraved with the image of a clawed hand.  

Your lips twitch into a frown as you stare at the odd door.