We collected the loot and moved on through the natural cave stone passageway that the ancient Nords had reinforced but otherwise left as it was. The passageway led into a standard Nordic tomb design with tall ceilings and iron sarcophagi. Aela spotted the trapped pressure plate at the entrance to this area. We stepped over it and I checked the sarcophagi but found them all lidless and empty with cobwebs and dust in them. By now we had at least fifteen wisps bouncing about at our heels.-
"Here we are, the hall of stories. Also the where the thieves who ransacked this place clearly stopped." I said as we walked into a semi-wide hall with carvings all over the walls.
"How do you know?" Aela asked curiously.
I pointed at the thick iron puzzle door at the end.
"If you look closely the wax seal at the edges of that door are intact from when it was sealed originally. Who ever ransacked this place originally was at least smart enough to realize that opening that door was a bad idea. That or they were so stupid they didn't realize the solution to the puzzle was on the bottom of the key." I said casually.
"Why would they put the solution on the key? Doesn't seem very smart does it?" She asked confused.
"Ah but that's the thing, these doors aren't meant to keep the living out. They are meant to keep the dead inside. They only unlock from the outside and the only Draugr you'll find outside it are ones who don't have enough of their minds preserved to figure out how to use the key." I explained with a chuckle.
"Huh? So they left a back up plan in case they ever needed to come back into the tombs without risking the really dangerous dead escaping?" she asked and I nodded.
I walked up to the puzzle door and ignored the wisps going crazy at our feet and took the coral claw from my plane of oblivion. I flipped it over and showed her the symbols on the bottom that coincided with the symbols on the rings of the puzzle door. I then pushed the rings to turn them until the right symbols were on it's face. Snake, wolf, moth, that was the order from top to bottom. Once that was set in place I motioned for Aela to stand ready and put the claws of the key into the holes of the doors mechanism and pushed with a twist of my wrist as well.-
The door shuddered as the sealing magic broke and the rings turned on their own before the door began to descend into the ground. I quickly put away the key and held my blade seriously as the door dropped into the floor and the wisps rushed into the now open chamber. It wasn't a very large chamber but the entire thing had cubbies after cubbies of corpses and a throne with a skeleton sitting on it in the center with a large ornate ancient chest at it's back.-
We watched as the wisps all jumped onto that skeleton and dissolved as a bright glow covered it. Soon all of the wisps were gone and the ethereal glowing blue outline of a person in ancient steel armor with a horned helm and blade black as night in hand stood up from the throne while the skeleton remained there. This shade of Yngol turned it's cold dead gaze towards us and it was clear immediately there was no chance we got out of this without a fight from the lack of any sort of mind in those spectral eyes.-
"Cover me!" I roared as I shot forward far faster than my size would make you think possible.
Even without a mind behind it the shade still had all of Yngol's instincts from life and raised it's ebony blade halting my own blade. The shade took a few steps back as I overpowered it but that was it. This was the shade of someone who had experienced Atmora after all and even if still a Nord Yngol was only two or three generations separate from the ancient Atmoran giants.-
He was far stronger in life than most modern Nords because of this fact and as a result matched my own strength almost. The shade roared a raspy inhuman roar and swung the ebony blade at me fast enough to create a thin disturbance in the air. I swung my blade at the same time to intercept the strike. The air in the chamber violently blew out as the force of our strikes collided. Aela sent an arrow whistling past my neck so close I felt the feathers brush my skin during this clash.-
The arrow sank into the spectral throat of Yngol making the spirit growl in pain and fury but by no means causing it to dissipate. Spirits were just like raised corpses in that you had to do enough over-all damage to their structure in order to bring them down. A single arrow was far from enough. The shade went to pull back it's blade but I twisted my wrist and used the fact it's ebony edge had cleaved halfway through my blade to trap the blade.-
"Can't hold this for long!" I yelled as I wrestled with the shade to keep it's blade trapped.
Three more arrows whistled past me uncomfortably close and sank into the spectral weak points of the shade. It growled like a cornered animal and to my surprise punched me in the face after releasing it's blade. My vision darkened for a split second as I felt my nose break and my head snap back. This caused the ebony blade to come loose from my trapping and allowed the shade to rearm itself and go for a violent stab. I bent my body as fast as I could to avoid this but the blades tip still found my side just above my waist.-
The skin sparked slightly like metal grinding against metal but ebony was a divine metal and went through my skin and into my side with ease. It left my back and cut it's way out sideways leaving me reeling from the white hot pain. My blood was pumping fast and hard with red soaking through and dripping onto the ground from my shirt. I grit my teeth and raised my left hand before unleashing a [fireball] at point blank range on the shade.-
The fiery explosion threw both it and I away from each other. The movement made the wound hurt like a bitch but I was already working on fixing the damage as I struck one of the support pillars with my back and grunted. The shade came off far worse than me however as it's glow dimmed quite a bit. It growled angrily at this and went to charge me as I was about halfway done patching myself up. I didn't go for a clash this time as I had learned my lesson there and dodged to the side as it went to try and cut me down.