We arrived at the entrance to the barrows sooner than I expected, though we had to pause to fix a small wound. My wound. It was just a scratch really, but still, I find it almost funny that I received my first injury when I hadn't even entered the Barrow-downs yet. In the woods, very near the entrance, we were attacked by a single brigand. I wonder if he even noticed there were three of us, because I know that I wouldn't have attacked three travelers by myself. Four if you count the strange creature the elf had with him. Anyways, I was struck with an arrow by this brigand even when I was hiding behind a tree while crouching down with my shield up. He must have been a skilled bowmen, or perhaps it was just a lucky shot. But the arrow hit my father’s hard breastplate that I wore and did little damage to my flesh. Now on to the Barrow-downs itself…
There was a deep fog when we finally entered. It became worse as we continued on. Duindos was able to clear some of it through some elvish trick of his, but it did little good. We stayed mostly silent as we continued on and on until we met our first attackers. Barghests. Nasty creatures they were, though not too hard to fight… at least when it comes to only one or two. There were more later on. Much more. Fortunately, we did not receive any serious wounds from these beasts. The mere presence of the elf, Duindos was enough to scare away most of the foul things that lingered around us, for he said that he had been here before, and that the spirits remembered him. So thanks to the elf, the barghests were the only attackers we came across, until…
…Until it came. A seven-foot tall figure cloaked in dark red robes, wielding a long, wicked- looking, black sword. It spoke with a hissing, maddening voice, like the sound of a sword being sharpened continually every moment, only louder. After an exchange of words between it and the elf, it started forth with its weapon raised high. We managed to defend ourselves at first, though the elf was the only one that could actually do anything to it. Well, that’s not true. I only remember a little more than half of what exactly happened. It was all a light foggy daze. I couldn’t believe that only about a week ago I was still in Bree. In peace and safety. But now I was suddenly in the Barrow-downs, battling an evil creature or spirit alongside a strange elf and my captain. How did this even happen? It felt as if no time at all had passed between those two moments. Where did this being even come from?
We fought on, and every half a minute it would let out a screeching yell from its pitch black, hooded face, which would send my ears and head ringing. It was a most strange and horrible feeling that seemed to take my strength and every time it reached my ears, it got worse. I fell to my knees more than twice because of it. I’m lucky the dark figure was mostly away from me those times, because I was defenseless without my strength. Whenever we seemed like we had the advantage because of the elf’s skills or the blade that my captain carried, we were pushed back. Each time becoming deadlier until the elf was badly injured with Calagand unconscious on the ground…
