Online:Alwyn

Alwyn
Location	Outside of Midnight Barrow
Race	Nord	Gender	Female
Health	39,959
Reaction	Friendly

Alwyn

Alwyn is a Nord who can be found outside of Midnight Barrow. She is a descendant of Jarl Hagridden, a former jarl who was cast out for crimes her family never speaks of.

She has come to Midnight Barrow because the spirit of her ancestor has been appearing in her dreams. As Alwyn was drawn to the place by said dreams, and figures that she should enter the barrow and find out why the cast-off jarl showed her this place if she wants to get a good night's sleep.

Related Quests

• Prisoner of the Past: Uncover the truth about a woman's ancestor.

Quest-Related Events

Alwyn can be found outside the barrow on the scaffolding, she can be heard pleading, "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't make me do this."

Speak to her to begin the quest.

"Ah! Oh, thank Kyne, you're not one of these tomb robbers. Or another ghost. I've had my fill of ghosts."

You've been seeing ghosts?

"Mainly one ghost, honestly. A distant ancestor. Every time I try to sleep he's in my dreams. I've barely had an hour's rest since I came to Dusktown. It's going to kill me, if it doesn't drive me mad first. He's been calling me here, I think."

To what end?

"To put him to rest, I think. He's being tormented as much as he's tormenting me. I came to this terrible place to find his remains, but the tomb robbers have angered the dead and I'm terrified to step foot into the barrow alone."

I'll help you find your ancestor's remains.

After you agree to help, you can ask her some questions before you enter the barrow.

"My damned ancestor is the traitor-jarl, Hagridden. He was buried alive in the Midnight Barrow long before I was born.
Unfortunately, he has no tomb and what's left of him has been scattered around by these Draugrkin thieves."

What did your ancestor do to deserve a traitor's burial?

"My family only speaks his name to curse it. I'm told he betrayed his hold, so he was cast into the Midnight Barrow with other exiles and traitors. Far out of reach of Sovngarde.
I can't say whether he deserved that, but I know he's suffered for it."

How so?

"Call it a feeling. What I've seen in my dreams are a jumble of incoherent events and feelings. There's little that I remember that makes any sense, but when I wake there's a pall that hangs over me. Like I've been wronged somehow."

What is the Midnight Barrow?

"This place, I think. I've only seen glimpses of it in my dreams. It used to be a place where terrible criminals were exiled to be forgotten, until it met the same fate. Faded into myth, just like Blackreach."

Who are the Draugrkin?

"Ghouls picking the bones of the dead. Necromancers, and the like. They seem to be the ones who found this old lost barrow. I don't know what they came here for, but they've disturbed Jarl Hagridden and gods know what else."

Once inside the barrow, she will enter and begin to follow you.

Alwyn: "I saw my ancestor's remains in my dreams, but I only know roughly where they are."

Speaking with her here:

"I only have a vague sense of where my ancestor's remains and possessions wound up. I just know his things have been scattered around by the Draugrkin's looting.
Let's search quickly. The people buried here aren't the kind I want haunting me."

She has commentary that she says throughout the ruins, triggered when walking in certain areas of the barrow, one of which being the area with the skyshard.

Alwyn: "Careful of the Draugrkin. They'd sooner make a corpse of you than talk."

Alwyn: "This place makes Blackreach looked more comforting."

Alwyn: "If something happens, please don't leave my body down here."

Alwyn: "I've decided never to be buried. Put me on a pyre and Kyne whisk me away."

Alwyn: "None of the souls in this horrid pit received a proper burial. Neither will we if we aren't careful."

Alwyn: "I can't believe how many bones are down here. How many bones are down here. How many were left to die down here?"

Alwyn: "An axe is kinder than this torture pit. I'm glad this place was forgotten."

When you witness at least one vision after picking up Hagridden's remains, she can instead be asked questions about vision attach to a particular item.

"I—I'm not dreaming, right? You saw what I saw? I feel my ancestor's presence here."

We should talk about Jarl Hagridden.

"It's not wise to talk about the dead in their presence! Though I'm already being haunted, so … what did you want to talk about?"

Why was that woman giving orders to the Jarl's thane? (Hagridden's Bones)

"She must have had his confidence. If he trusted her enough to deliver orders to his highest-ranking soldier, then she held a lot of influence. Enough so that his subjects would offer her deference."

What was that woman trying to convince your ancestor to do? (Hagridden's Helm)

"It sounded like she was trying to convince him to sacrifice someone for her immortality. That's worse than anything my family ever spoke of. No one ever mentioned a woman. Hagridden was never married, that I know of. Who was she?"

Do you know anything about the trap Jarl Hagridden's soldiers fell prey to? (Hagridden's Sword)

"That was always a mystery to me. I was told he forewarned the Reach of an attack, but no one ever said why he betrayed his own soldiers. It never made much sense to me.
I feel betrayal in my heart, but … he sounded astonished by the accusation."

He proclaimed his innocence until the end. (Hagridden's Shield)

"Many condemned criminals do, and if that fate awaited me, I'd have said anything to be spared from this place. Still, I don't feel deception from him. Hurt, fear, desperation, but not deceit. He's still proclaiming his innocence."

At the vision near Hagridden's Helm, Jarl Hagridden and Lady Essenia talk to one another.

Lady Essenia: "Don't you love me, Hagridden? Do you want to see me grow old, wither, and die? It's a small sacrifice for eternity."

Jarl Hagridden: "Listen to yourself, Essenia. Even one life is too many! I can't make that kind of sacrifice. Not even for you."

<The vision disappears.>

Alwyn: "Sacrifice? Just what was that woman asking for?"

During the vision near Hagridden's Bones, Lady Essenia appears to be speaking with a thane.

Lady Essenia: "Jarl Hagridden has a matter of urgency for you to attend to."

Reach Warrior [sic]: "What does he know to send us this far into the Reach?"

Lady Essenia: "You have your orders, thane. I trust you know enough to carry them out."

<The vision disappears.>

Alwyn: Who was she to be bossing a thane around?"

During the vision near Hagridden's Sword, Swordthane Ysmal confronts Jarl Hagridden over the deaths of his soldiers.

Swordthane Ysmal: "You thought no one would find out? That none of us would survive? One is enough to expose your treason!"

Jarl Hagridden: "I—I gave no such order!"

Swordthane Ysmal: "I have your betrayal penned in your hand and stained in our blood!"

<The vision disappears.>

Alwyn: "So that was his crime? Sending his soldiers into a trap."

The vision at Hagridden's Shield shows another confrontation between the two.

Swordthane Ysmal: "For your treason against your hold and your people, we cast you from the halls of your ancestors. May they never know your name."

Jarl Hagridden: "I did not betray my hold! She's the one who should face your judgment!"

Alwyn: "Oh gods, I can feel his terror. It's suffocating."

Swordthane Ysmal: "Seal him in."

Once you have collected all the remains, she will run out of the barrow and you can meet her outside next to small cart.

Alwyn: "That's everything! Let's get out of here with Hagridden's remains before we join these tortured souls!"

Speak with her.

"I can't believe I'm still alive. That place will haunt my nightmares long after my damned ancestor's ghost gives me rest.
May I have him, please?"

Here are your ancestor's remains.

"I can't help but pity Hagridden, despite what he's put me through. I've felt his torment. An eternity in the Midnight Barrow seems cruel, even for a traitor. From what I saw, it seems like he was the one who was betrayed.
Was he really innocent?"

I don't believe he was the one responsible for those deaths.

"That was my feeling, but I didn't know if it was Hagridden affecting me.
I wonder what became of the woman who betrayed him. Did she get what she desired from those peoples' sacrifice?"

What will you do with your ancestor's remains now?

"I'll take them to a temple for consecration and see that he gets a proper burial. It won't be a jarl's funeral, but hopefully it'll allow him to reach Sovngarde.
Then I can finally get some rest. You've spared us both. Thank you."

His guilt lies in trusting a woman who confided her wicked intentions to him.

"You're right. He was the jarl. He should have thrown that woman in chains at the mere suggestion of taking another person's life, let alone making some kind of sick sacrifice.
Instead they all paid the price. Did she get her desire, I wonder?"

What will you do with your ancestor's remains now?

"I'll give him the burial he seeks, so we can both finally get some rest, but it'll be an unmarked grave. His name can stay buried down here. Call it mercy, not forgiveness.
But at least I won't join him. I never could have done this without you."

Speaking to her again before turning in the quest if you told her Hagridden was innocent:

"My family will never believe the traitor-jarl was wrongly condemned."

Speaking to her again before turning in the quest if you told her Hagridden was responsible for his inaction:

"Hagridden may not have been a traitor, but his poor judgment cost a lot of innocent lives."

After the quest:

"The things we do for a good night's sleep."

Notes

• The quest journal refers to her full name as Alwyn Felsdottar.