Chapter 6 – The Jagged Crown

“The crown should be around here somewhere,” Legate Rikke explained. “Spread out, and keep your eyes open.”

As the legionnaires look around the room for the crown, Avingard slowly approaches the slumped over Draugr. He also notices that the Draugr is wearing a crown. “Hey, I found a crown over here on this corpse,” Avingard calls out. “Is this the one we’re looking for?”

“Avingard!” Legate Rikke yells. “Get away from there!”

Before Avingard could move, two Draugrs emerge from two crypts – one on either side of the slumped Draugr. The two Draugrs converge on Avingard, who quickly backs up and readies his sword.

As he is about to charge one of the Draugrs, the one in the chair raises its head and then stands up. Avingard dodges the attack from the first Draugr, and then kills it with a swing of his sword. The other Draugr met its end when a Legion soldier thrusts his sword into the gut of the Draugr.

The crowned Draugr, wielding a two-handed battleaxe charges at Avingard. Before the Draugr can reach Avingard, three Legion soldiers converge on it and kill it after several slashes and thrusts. The entire battle is over in a few minutes.

Legate Rikke bends over the dead Draugr and picks up the crown. She then turns to Avingard and hands him the crown. “Take that crown back to Solitude, soldier. We’ll stay here and see if we can find anything else that could be of use.”

Not wanting to make his way through the crypt, Avingard looks around for another exit. He notices a passageway behind the crypt that leads up. As he makes his way behind the crypt he starts to hear whispering voices in his head. Looking around to see if anyone else hears them and noticing the rest of the Legion soldiers just going about their business, Avingard slowly continues to walk. The whispering gets louder as he approaches the back wall of the room.

Suddenly, Avingard notices blue writing appearing on the back wall, and as he approaches the writing a stream of fog appears to emanate from the writing and surrounds Avingard. Just a soon as the fog and the writing appear, the fog disappears and the whispering stops. Unsure of what just happened, Avingard slowly backs up and makes his way up the stairs.

Still confused as to what just happened, Avingard makes his way down a short passage to a barred-door. He removes the wooden bar and opens the door. He finds himself back near the entrance to the temple. He makes his way to the exit. While just outside Korvanjund, Avingard notices the dead Imperial Legion soldier on the path to the temple still had his Imperial cape wrapped around him. After the numerous battles in the temple, Avingard’s cape was torn and providing little in the way of protection from the cold. He bends down and removes the cape from the dead soldier and then places his cape on the dead soldier. Feeling the cold, Avingard wraps himself in the Imperial cape and begins to make his way to Solitude.

Avingard took basically the same route he took to get to Korvanjund. He made his way to Whiterun, and then took the carriage to Solitude. When he arrived in the large city, the sun was still high in the sky and the city was busy with citizens wandering about. Not wasting any time, Avingard made his way to Castle Dour and finds General Tullius sitting alone in the corner, contemplating his next move.

“Here’s the Jagged Crown,” Avingard said presenting the crown to the General. “Legate Rikke sent me to deliver it to you.”

General Tullius looked up at Avingard and a slight smile could be seen on his face. “Excellent work, soldier. I have to admit, I had my doubts it even existed. Did you run into any trouble?”

“The Stormcloaks were there ahead of us,” Avingard explained.

“Yes. Well, I didn’t respond as quickly to the Legate’s suggestion as perhaps I should have,” General Tullius replied.”But at least we ended up with the damn crown. Now then…”

General Tullius stops for a brief moment to compose his thoughts. “I need someone I can trust to deliver a message of great import to Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun. We have it on good authority that Ulfric has raised enough men to attack the city of Whiterun. The Jarl, however, refuses the Legion’s support. This missive should convince him. Be aware soldier, these documents contain sensitive intelligence for the Jarl’s eyes only.”

Avingard nods his head in acknowledgement and General Tullius hands him the missive. “Now get going,” General Tullius ordered. “We have no time to waste on this.”

Putting the missive away, Avingard salutes the General and then leaves Castle Dour bound for Whiterun.