Husks and Bones Content . The Journal of Sorexius Lentulus 12th Second Seed Boss bought a map off of some Wood Elf , says it ' s the shortest trail to Elden Root he ' s seen by a long shot . He thinks we ' ll make a killing getting these lumber shipments down there , and if we can do it faster than anyone else , all the better . He told me the Wood Elves won ' t cut down any of their own trees because of some deal they have with them . Deal with trees , ha ! Crazy Elves . As long as they have the gold , I ' ll bring the goods . None of us have ever been down that way , but I bet it ' ll be a nice change of pace from the old Elsweyr routes I ' ve been running . Tired of all the sun , anyway . 18th Second Seed I hope they have really , really nice beds in Elden Root . And less bugs . I ' ve never seen so many in my life — beetles the side of my hand , snaky things with more legs that I want to think about , and the biting ! I can ' t sleep for the itching , and I swear they settle all over you as soon as you sit still . We haven ' t passed any kind of village , and I ' m starting to doubt this is a trail at all with all the slashing we ' re having to do to make passage for the wagons . It ' s all overgrown , like no one ' s used it forever . 24th Second Seed Last night , I dreamed I was in the Roosting Quail back home . My favorite tavern . Best ale I ' ve ever had . Maxintius and I were sitting in the common room , and he told a joke so funny that I spat out ale and couldn ' t stop laughing . Then I was awake , but the laughter wasn ' t gone , hooting , high - pitched laughter coming from the trees . The guard on watch , that Argonian whose name I can ' t pronounce , he didn ' t see anything . We scouted around , but the laughter stopped , and then we all just sat by the fire feeling uneasy . I grabbed my flask of Flin and raised it to my mouth , only to feel wiggling legs ! In my mouth ! Everyone else ' s flasks and skins were full of ' em too . Akatosh ' s fiery roar ! 2nd Mid Year Things are just getting weirder . Today , we were slashing our way forward double - time , because we all want to get this done with and get out , and Maxintius spotted giant beetles up ahead on the trail . Not just big bugs — huge bugs . Bugs the size of wolves . Massive pinchers , shiny shells . They weren ' t doing much , just crawling around , but we hadn ' t seen their like so far and approached slowly . When I got within a short stone ' s throw , I noticed something strange about their legs . They looked like a man ' s ! They were ! In a flash they stoop up and rushed towards us , running and flipping and laughing , covered in beetle shells and grabbing things from the camp before disappearing off into the trees . We tried to give chase . The Argonian fired a quick arrow , but it bounced right off that carapace armor . Were those Wood Elves ? I heard there were really wild ones , but dressing up as giant bugs ? They aren ' t bandits , they hardly even took much and didn ' t hurt anyone . 4th Mid Year That ' s it . We ' re turning back . There ' s no way we ' re making it to Elden Root . and I ' m getting a pretty clear message that they — whoever they are — don ' t want us to . No amount of gold is worth this , I ' d rather haggle with a Khajiit for a week than deal with this place . This time , our water was drugged . That had to be what happened . Who knows how they got to it or what they put in it , but when we woke up in the middle of the night , skeletons were dancing around the campfire . I couldn ' t move , could only watch in a haze and listen to the strange music , the ratting and hissing and ow , warped flutes . Were they wearing bones ? It ' s all fuzzy except one thing : we are getting out of here , profits be damned !