Erandur covers a smile with a hand.

"...I want to argue with that but I don't actually have an argument."

"It's because I'm right."

"Oh, shut up."

The ride to the dungeon is mostly uneventful. They're accosted by local violent wildlife when they stray off the beaten path up the mountains, including one mountain troll, but at this point that's barely a diversion for them.

Bleak Falls Barrow

The ruins are gorgeous, of course, like much of Skyrim in general. The ancient burial ground has been mostly reclaimed by time and nature, but there are still bits of the top of it standing, including a set of stone steps leading all the way up to the main temple entrance.

When they get close to the ruins, though, someone shoots an arrow at the ground just in front of them and a voice calls: "Do not approach!"

...well that's rude.

"Excuse us!" Ruby calls back, finding the source of the voice to be a man in furs standing guard in the ruins, a second arrow already nocked and pointed at them. "I don't suppose you could let us through? There's a little something we've been sent to fetch from the tomb."

"...no. The treasure is ours, we're not going to share."

Treasure?

"We're not looking for any treasure, there's just something that may or may not be in there that'll help us fight the dragons!"

The man falters, at that. "What?"

"Can I come over? Yelling is a very uncomfortable way to hold a conversation! I can come alone," not that that'd make much difference, he's a mage.

"Hold there," he says before gesturing for someone else out of view to come help. After some quiet discussion he says, "Fine! Just you."

"Are you certain this is wise?"

"I'm mostly positive that if it isn't it's recoverably unwise, and I don't want to initiate hostilities if they may be unnecessary."

He walks towards and up the stairs until he reaches the people there.

There are five of them there. The one who was talking is still watching Onmund and Erandur, pointing an arrow at them; three others are pointing various weapons at Ruby; and the fifth is sitting by a fire closer to the entrance to the ruins, watching this with some interest but not opting to join her comrades in being threatening.

"What do you know about the dragons?"

"Not very much. I know there's at least one dragon that's come back and destroyed Helgen, and there might be more. The thing we're looking for is a stone tablet with a map of the burial mounds of dragons around Skyrim."

"...you think they're coming back from the dead?" asks another one.

"That's one theory. But we're not here for any treasure, I didn't in fact even know there was treasure to be found. I'd have assumed treasure would've already been sacked by thousands of years of tomb raiders."

"They didn't have the Golden Claw, they couldn't have unlocked the inner sanctum," one of the people says, looking smug—at least until another one elbows him on the ribs.

    "Don't tell him we have the Golden Claw!"

"...what's this Golden Claw?"

"...you really don't know?"

"I am not here for treasure, I've literally just been sent here by the Whiterun court wizard on a suspicion that the map I said would be here. If there's some magic item that unlocks the inner chambers of the ruins though that will probably be necessary to get to the tablet."

"...I suppose there's no harm in letting you through..."

    "If he steals the treasure that's the harm!"

"If he steals the treasure we kill him."

Sigh.

"Are you prepared to fight the draugar inside, by the way? I assume there will be draugar, if there are parts of the ruins that are still sealed after however long it's been."

They exchange looks that say, very loudly, "we did not think that far ahead".

"Okay so here's the deal. You let us in past whatever door this claw opens, we make sure you're not taken apart by undead, we grab the dragonstone and leave and you keep the treasure. And you can kill me if I steal the treasure, whatever, I really do not care about the treasure."