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Went to Ranveig's Fast to find the word of power. Despite usually taking the side routes to treasure - I made a bee-line for a chest in here - and just my luck -there was a nasty trap waiting, set by Sild the naughty warlock. He was experimenting with some kind of soul stealing, but luckily while he was blathering on, I picked the cage lock and finished him off.
Got the second word of the Kyne's Peace shout but won't bother unlocking it, as one word is quite sufficient.

Received a courier note from Ralis Sedarys, saying that he'd cleared the entrance way to a barrow he was excavating, but he'd run into some problems. Sailed back to Solstheim to check it out. Unfortunately the hired diggers/miners had been attacked and killed by draugr in the barrow and it seemed to be a dead end.

Serana and I investigated and cleared out the draugr. The dead end was created by a stone door and appeared to have no lever or chain to open it. I looked about for a while and then thought their was what looked like a possible pressure plate on the table in the middle of the room. I picked up the skull that was on said plate but the door did not open.
I then proceeded to spend rather a large amount of time combing every inch of the room to try and find a hidden switch or something but I could find nothing. Eventually I decided to fus-ro-dah the dead bodies that were strewn about the floor and on the table, incase they were hiding something but still no luck.

Just as I thought I would have to give up, I noticed that a pickaxe on the table was very slightly on the 'pressure plate' so I moved that with telekinesis and hurrah, the door opened.
That damn pickaxe wasted a lot of my time. Not sure if an earlier 'fus...' shout at a draugr moved the axe or if it was when I decided to climb on the table and stand on the pressure plate -whatever it was was inconvenient anyhoo.
Found some snazzy water-walking boots, the first part of Azhirdal's(?) relics, but now have to wait for Ralis to get more workers to dig out the barrow further.

Went to see Neloth in Tel Mithryn to see if he knew the whereabouts of anymore black books. I find him very amusing. We were in a Dwemer ruin the other day and he kept mocking me when I shouted, saying sarcastic things like, 'yeees, you're Dragonborn, how impressive.'
My favourite line was 'By Malacath's hairy fingers, you'll pay for that!' Not sure who he was talking to.

Neloth said there was one of the books in Benkiongke (?) (why must these places have such hard to remember names!)
This cave was a Reikling habitat, so had to fight past those and then found the book, 'Untold Legends'.
I like it when Serana reanimates a Riekling, as seeing him hopping about, throwing his little spear is cute and it's funny when he runs to follow her whilst jabbering his funny words.

The morning after finding Helgen destroyed and overrun by bandits, Larawen, Bosmer assassin, left with her current traveling companion, Jenassa. Larawen is in Skyrim on a mission so secret that she doesn't even know what it is. Her sparse instructions are to go to Riften, where she will receive her first payment, and to listen for promising rumors and follow them until she meets someone named Astrid. For now, she decided to follow Jenassa to her destination, Whiterun, try to learn what happened to Helgen, and pick up rumors along the way.

Walking with Jenassa toward Riverwood, Larawen met Balbus, who attempted to discuss fine cuisine with a woman who ate raw dog meat for breakfast. Then some Imperial soldiers tried to recruit Larawen for the Legion, but Larawen did not believe that her employer sent her to Skyrim to become a common footsoldier. At Riverwood, the guards clued in the elves that a dragon had destroyed Helgen. Larawen thought that was interesting.

They traded in Riverwood, splitting the profit from their venture into Helgen 50/50. Meeting Delphine, the Breton seemed familiar to Larawen, but the former Aldmeri assassin wasn't sure why. Larawen pressed Ognar for any rumors he might have. Ognar's gossip included a good one about some kid in Windhelm trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood - kind of far way, but she made a note to look into it. Ognar also mentioned the Shrine of Azura, which the Bosmer also noted. The final tidbit was a juicy one, about a love triangle. It was local, so Larawen went ahead and followed the lead, eventually resolving the love triangle in favor of her fellow wood elf, Faendal. It led her no closer to Astrid, though. After chopping some wood for Hod, the two elves left for Whiterun.

Along the way, they got an up-close look at a dragon when one attacked them. They killed it, but Larawen was not impressed with Jenassa's dragon fighting tactics, which were mostly to waive her sword and yell threats at it (use your bow!). Larawen absorbed the dragon's soul, and Jenassa seemed too astonished to ask how she did that.

I can't blame Jenassa for being astonished, as even I, Larawen's creator, can only speculate about why she can absorb dragon souls (not being the Dragonborn and all). But this isn't the place for such speculation. She did it. That's all we need to know.

In Whiterun, the elves spent the night at the Bannered Mare. The next day, they traded in town and split the proceeds from looting the dragon. Then they parted ways, with Jenassa wanting to look for work by hanging out at the Drunken Huntsman and Larawen having her own agenda. The Bosmer was tired of splitting profits with the Dunmer, anyway.

That night, Larawen heard another interesting rumor from the innkeep Hulda. The next day, she followed the rumor to Jarl Balgruuf, and then his son Nelkir. Larawen found the "whispering door" and the entity responsible for the whispering - but it wasn't Astrid. Still Larawen felt that she needed to get to the bottom of it to prevent Nelkir from becoming further corrupted. But she found herself in a bind - opening the door would require stealing the key from Farengar, but Larawen does not steal. She resolved the dilemma by "borrowing" the key from him. Etc. Behind the door was the Daedric artifact the Ebony Blade. It was wise that Balgruuf and Farengar kept it locked away, but obviously, their security was a bit lax, so Larawen took the Blade to keep it out of the wrong hands. In the end, Larawen probably saved Balgruuf from being murdered by his own son, but now she has an Ebony Blade she has to tote around in her magickal underwear until she can find a secure place to store it.

Whiterun had so far been a dead end toward finding Astrid, so Larawen decided to resume the original plan of going to Riften. She returned to Riverwood for the night. There, Larawen and Delphine took a long, almost knowing, look at each other - don't worry, innkeep, my character does not kill Blades anymore. Larawen rented a room from her former enemy and went to sleep.