They glance at each other.  "That old Daedric shrine?" one woman says.  "Best leave it be, I think.  Supposed to be haunted."

"I've dealt with haunted areas before. But thanks for the warning."

"You have?"

"Got any tips?" the woman says, a bit impishly.

"Don't sleep inside. That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen new explorers doing in a large ruin. If it's draugr, you can avoid most of them by stepping soft and hugging the walls - they can't see as far as I can tell, seem to go by sound and proximity. Ghosts don't like fire or silver, but most of them won't attack if you don't startle them or get too close. Would expect anything around a daedric ruin to be pretty aggressive, though."

The woman whistles.  "Looking for a job in between archaeology trips?  We could use a bodyguard."

"The museum keeps me busy, unfortunately. Can do trips, I always have some kind of business somewhere, but not really hanging around."

"Ah well."

"Looking to buy?" says another hunter.  "We'll take coin, or barter for healing if you know any.  One of our hunting dogs got gored pretty bad by an elk."

"Yeah. Could use some supplies, and I'm a decent healer."

Hunters show off their supply of fish, and cuts of deer and elk.

She doesn't need much, though she might swing back by after finishing delving - all in all, it's a very reasonable trade.

"Have fun storming the castle!" the woman says as she departs.

She laughs and calls an "I will!" over her shoulder.

Onwards towards the ruin, then.

It's another day's travel up Mount Kilkreath before she reaches the shrine.  It's a raised stone platform, perhaps 25 by 25 feet, with a towering stone statue of a luxuriously robed and winged woman looking sternly down across the landscape.

And that'd probably be Meridia.

She goes before the shrine, takes the beacon stone in her hand, and calls out, "Meridia, do you have guidance for me?"

place͡ t̷hę ̶bea͏c͠o͠n̡ ̡wit̸hin ͝t̷h̛e̢ ̵a̸lt́a҉r͏

The altar, presumably, is the smaller statue at the foot of the image of Meridia: two robed women, mirror images facing each other with their hands stretched forward.

She'll do so - confidently, caution might annoy the Daedric Prince and also nothing about this situation involves one iota of caution anyways.

The beacon comes to rest in midair, between the stone women, and rises, slowly, to take up station between Meridia's upstretched hands.  As it does, the edges of the beacon begin to glow with a white-yellow light, precisely the color of the sun.

Huh. Makes sense, it being called a 'beacon.' Also that is probably highly visible from a ways off now...

"You mentioned a defiled temple, too?"

th̀e̵ te̵m̛pl͝è is be҉ne͟ath͏ the͢ sh͢r̀in̨e

͠th̸e͡r̵e҉ is a hidde͜n͠ ̀ent͜ra̶n͠ce, ͡b́el̢ow

She sees, the same way she saw the temple, a little unobtrusive door built into the left side of the stone platform.  Meridia's left, that is.

"Alright. Any instructions for what to do inside?"

Meridia shows her a vision of the inside of the temple - a complex of gleaming white marble and glass, enormous mirrors set on pedestals being rotated into place to reflect a thin white thread of sunlight through thick glass windows and prisms set above doors.

In the center of the temple, a room lit by gleaming golden bowls of fire as well as that same thread of white light.  A black-cloaked human form, surrounded by more wraiths like the one she already killed, looming over a golden sword.

k̬̬̭͉̤͇il̫̱͙̖̖͝l̟̣ ̠̞͍̺̳͇ͅh̪̦i̡̪̭̻͉m̲̯̰̲

"That's what I'm here for. Do the pedestals need to be rotated by me?"

y̧e҉s

h́e ḩa̶s̶ co͜r̀r͝u͞p̡te̴d th͟e po͜wer͜ ͘o̸f m̷y ͢ḩolỳ swo͘r̷d, Dawn̨br̶eak͢e̸r͘
͜
̶k͢i͢l̛li̶n͠g h̛im wíll ̛remov̷e̷ ͠the ͡corru҉pt̵i͢on ͘a͝nd̢ dis͢pers͡e͏ t̸h̡e ͞w̵rai҉ţh̵s͟

"Good," she says, voice decisive. "Anything else before I set out?"

n̸o̡