"That was a bit of a pain in the ass," Ena mutters, kicking the dead vampire. "Anything interesting in that book?"
There's a metallic screech - heightened when Ena follows up with some quick arrows - and it finally collapses.
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."
"I'll certainly try. I think I have a mildly paralytic poison somewhere, too, I'll move that so it's more to hand."
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.
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."
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.
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.
She finishes with the staff, confirms she can draw it quickly, then goes back out to the ramp and looks over the side. "Yeah, I think so, too. That platform isn't too far? Though I don't exactly spend my time jumping from ridiculous heights, that's more my sister's speed."
"If you like." Elana cracks her neck and allows the vampire lord within to emerge.
She shifts and in a whirl of color and sound she's down. She coalesces back into her vampire lord form, then drops the transformation.
There's three paths leading off the platform. One, to the northeast, has caved in. The western ramp leads up, while the eastern leads down. Their endpoints aren't clearly visible from here.