She throws her arms up to fend it off.

It leaves gashes in her arms, then backs off for another attack.

Ena plants a dagger into one of its main joints, then backs off. The spider whirs, but the dagger's stronger than it, and its limb is noticeably affected as it presses its attack.

She pushes it back with the sheer weight of the spray of flame she directs its way.

It stumbles... And then lightning arcs Elana's way.

The machine will have to try harder than that to beat her with her own school of magic. She pulls the lightning aside and sends it back.

There's a metallic screech - heightened when Ena follows up with some quick arrows - and it finally collapses.

Elana examines her scratches. "Tch."

They don't seem poisoned or dirty, at least.

"Yeesh. We need to be more alert going forward. Especially since I suspect those eyeless creatures might be fond of ambushes, too."

"They'll be easier to see coming, assuming they're actually alive."

"Perhaps."

"Try to take the first one we meet alive."

"I'll certainly try. I think I have a mildly paralytic poison somewhere, too, I'll move that so it's more to hand."

Nod. Onwards, senses alert this time.

Ena spots another possibly machine-releasing scuttle and steers them clear of it. 

After a few feet, there's a table with a strange, primitive-looking, darkly colored sword. Next to it are a pile of blueish, spherical things, held together by dark grey webbing. It looks vaguely like an egg sac.

Further on is a ramp. Ena peers up it, trying to find shapes in the gloom. There's a metal channel down the center of the ramp. "I don't like the look of that," she says, nodding to the ramp. "Think it's worth risking a light?"

"The constructs don't seem to react to light, and it shouldn't draw the notice of blind creatures."

"Alright." She creates a small globe of light that follows her, bobbing as she slinks up the ramp - and her paranoia pays off, since she's able to spot and avoid several pressure plates, that she points out to Elana. 

And with the spots to avoid pointed out, she's able to neatly do so.

There's more strange egg sacs at the top, and along one wall a suspicious-looking scuttle. Ena eyes the room, and says, "We can probably avoid triggering that by sticking to the opposite wall. Maybe."

She ices over the opening again.

Between avoidance and ice, they're able to get past the scuttle. 

Around the corner, there's a gate over the entrance to a cavernous room, undone by a lever that Ena cautiously pulls. The gate slides down without triggering any traps, and Ena slinks through. The room extends into mist both below and above, numerous walkways cutting across the space. A bit below them is a large platform, rubble-strewn, with an pool of blood and the body of a female orc. 

Ena follows the ramp they're on, sniping a spider that's off in an alcove, until they reach a large room off to the side, at the bottom of the ramp. There's a spider on the far end attacking the rubble, which Ena again snipes. The way forward is blocked by rubble; Ena goes to investigate the side rooms, which are mostly uninteresting, though the locked one on the left contains a skeleton and a locked chest, holding a staff that Ena turns over in her hands. "I think this summons a flame atronach?" she says. "That's not any better than my spell, but it'll save me magicka. Still, looks like the way out of here is blocked, and I didn't see a ramp further down outside."

"You can have the staff, if you want it." If there's no way forward, perhaps the time has come for the crazed hermit's key. Are there any divots or depressions that seem like a place for the orb?

"Thanks." Ena starts figuring out how to strap it so it's convenient if she needs it. 

Nope, not in this room. 

Any side paths?

There might've once been a hallway going forward, but there's rubble there now. The ramps don't branch, unless you count the ones below the one they were on - it didn't go down any farther, but there were more in the depths below.

"We might have to jump down."