"Broke idiots."
Rowan stepped out of the watchtower, unimpressed.
After searching every corner and every corpse, he had come away with less than three hundred septims.
It made sense.
Bandits lived fast and died fast. Whatever coin they earned usually vanished into cheap ale, gambling, and fleeting pleasures. Only large, well-organized groups with hidden bases ever managed to stockpile real wealth.
From what Rowan had heard in Riverwood, this gang had only recently moved into the area. The previous group had already been wiped out by soldiers from Whiterun.
Small crew. Poor equipment. Temporary shelter.
Not worth much.
Rowan glanced toward the winding mountain path Camilla had described.
"That route's a waste of time."
Bleak Falls Barrow sat almost directly above the watchtower.
So Rowan bent his knees.
And jumped.
The ground shattered beneath his feet.
His body shot upward like a missile, cutting through the freezing air.
If he pushed himself, he could leap from the base of the mountain straight to the summit. The only real challenge was not overshooting his target.
High above, on a snow-covered ledge near the tomb entrance, two archers stamped their feet and rubbed their hands together.
They belonged to a bandit group that had drifted in from Falkreath Hold.
A week earlier, a newly recruited dark elf had brought valuable information.
A golden claw stored in Riverwood's trading post could unlock an ancient Nordic treasure hidden inside Bleak Falls Barrow.
Their leader had acted immediately.
They camped at the watchtower.
Stole the claw.
Planned to enter the tomb.
Then everything went wrong.
The dark elf stole the claw back from the leader and slipped into the barrow alone, intending to claim the treasure for himself.
Furious, the leader took most of the gang inside to hunt him down, leaving a few guards outside in case the thief tried to escape.
A faint tearing sound cut through the wind.
One archer stiffened.
"Did you hear that?"
They looked down.
A black speck was rising from below.
Rapidly.
"It's—"
The speck resolved into a man.
Before either archer could fully process what they were seeing, Rowan streaked past them and landed in the courtyard before the tomb.
Stone crunched under his boots.
He straightened and took in the view.
The entrance plaza alone was massive, nearly the size of a small arena. Ancient carvings covered pillars and walls. The sealed stone doors towered more than five meters high.
Whoever had been buried here had ruled in life.
Two arrows shrieked toward Rowan's back.
At the same moment, a greatsword-wielding guard charged from the doorway with a roar.
Three seconds later, three bodies lay motionless on the ground.
Rowan collected thirty septims and pushed open the tomb doors.
Inside, the air was cold and stale.
The first chamber told a clear story.
Eight bandit corpses.
Two fallen draugr.
"So that's the exchange rate."
More than twenty bandits had entered.
Two undead defenders had killed eight of them before going down.
If draugr were as fragile as legends sometimes claimed, every ancient tomb in Skyrim would have been looted centuries ago.
Rowan crouched beside one of the fallen draugr.
Faint black patterns along the walls pulsed.
Dark energy slowly seeped into the corpse.
Cracks in ancient bone began knitting together.
"They regenerate."
Not quickly.
But steadily.
Given time, the draugr would rise again.
That explained why Bleak Falls Barrow had never truly been cleared.
Unless every undead guardian inside was destroyed in one continuous sweep, the tomb would eventually restore itself.
Rowan stood and moved deeper.
He found no more intact draugr along the outer passages.
Only dead bandits.
Some skewered by spikes.
Others crushed.
Others burned.
The tomb was far larger than it had ever appeared on a screen.
Multiple branching corridors. Hidden chambers. Vertical shafts.
A true maze.
It didn't matter.
Rowan could hear heartbeats.
Smell sweat.
Track movement.
And if a wall blocked his way—
He could simply break through it.
Collapse wasn't a concern.
This mountain was solid stone.
Even if sections fell, it wouldn't harm him.
At worst, it would make collecting loot inconvenient.
Rowan continued forward.