"So this is Yngvild? This looks like a shit hole and smells like one too." Viree was frowning at the entrance of the aptly remarked shit hole. Half the ruins were buried and a tunnel was made digging into them. The tunnel was likely made by some stray troll and was later killed or moved away.
As for the ruins that were exposed they had statues of beautiful women. I shook my head in some disappointment. "Valkyries, though i doubt that's what they were called. This tomb was for warrior women."
Viree looked at me, "And the stench?"
I pointed at the cave, "The whole ruin is frozen, in a glacier. The dead are likely thawing out, and telling that our enemy is a suspected necromancer."
Viree took out a cloth and covered her nose. "Lead the way."
I nodded and snapped my fingers. A circle of golden light surrounded us. With some effort I moved the guardian circle with us. Viree looked at me, "What is this circle?"
"It will stop undead from attacking us. As I said it is a necromancer, we might get a bonus if we recover the missing women bodies." That was mostly an excuse though, as I wanted to just complete this dungeon using the secret method.
I wasn't one for justice, but the necromancer here deserved to be torn apart by the undead he enslaved. The act of defiling a corpse in such a manner left a foul taste. Viree frowned and grabbed my shoulder. "Do you know something about this cave?"
She had spotted a ghost up ahead and I frowned. The ghost backed away from us due to the circle of protection, but we could see the ghost's attire. She was barely dressed with ragged clothes. "I do somewhat, I just didn't expect..."
She nodded, "Seeing it in person is more disgusting than knowing the information."
I nodded, "Can you get me that journal?" Viree collected the book and passed it to me. I flipped through the content, the books was as garbled as Malyn's grimoire. One might be able to create a spell from his notes or decipher some kind of use from them. However most mages would likely treat these as forbidden trash.
"Collect the other notebooks, we will burn them when we reseal this crypt." Viree nodded at my words and we quickly moved through the dungeon with the undead avoiding us.
Arriving at the throne room was easy, but we stopped. We both frowned as we heard sounds coming from behind the doors. We turned around and Viree spoke, "They aren't avoiding us because of the Circle of Protection are they?"
I looked between the undead and counted them. "They are watching us because this is the only time they aren't under command or perhaps given the command to ignore what was happening within the chamber."
Viree frowned, "That's disgusting."
I raised a hand and muffled the door along with cloaking us in invisibility. Entering the throne room I felt my face contort into one of absolute disgust. On the throne the necromancer Arondil had a draugr deathlord bouncing on his member, while a ghost was being fondled to the side.
I looked to the right of him and saw a large soul gem frozen in place on a pedestal. I held up a hand I used telekinesis and yanked the soul gem toward me. The draugr deathlord stopped moving and Arondil spoke, "What are you doing keep mo-Argh! Whaf fhe fucf!"
The Deathlord had bitten into the necromancer's neck and tore a chunk of flesh out. A second later all the undead we saw previously charged past us and straight through the circle of protection. There bodies burned with holy light and yet they charged toward the necromancer.
We watched the undead tear the necromancer apart. His screams were drowned out by the undead. I deactivate the circle and filled the room with restoration magic. The holy flames on the undead washed away and they began to heal from the wounds. While Arondil cried out in horrible screams as his own flesh healed only to be clawed and torn apart once more.
Viree shook her head and stepped away toward the side. I followed her with my eyes, she had seen the corpses frozen from the cold. I turned back to the scene and watched the undead slow down. Each of them slowly lost power and dropped to the ground still. Until only a single ghost and and the draugr deathlord remained.
Not even Arondil survived the onslaught of bloodlust. He was gore smothered across the throne. The ghost and deathlord turned to me. The deathlord couldn't speak, but it moved in a striking pose. She was saluting me and thanking me, she stopped only to take of a ring and place it on the pedestal.
The deathlord sat upon the throne and the light in its eyes that gave it life vanished. I turned to the ghost and she spoke, "Thank you, i have nothing to offer you like Queen Yngvild, but I still want to offer my gratitude. I wish you great fortune brave warrior." I looked down as I received a pop up.
Viree walked back over, "5 fresh victims, and 17 draugr in total. I counted 9 ghosts though."
I pointed toward a different room shut behind a door. Viree looked over and frowned, "That's sick."
I nodded, "Loot it anyway." I picked up the soul gem he was using to enslave the crypt. It was filled with his mana and a tiny piece of his soul. My magic shifted and I shattered the soul gem into dust.
I moved toward the ring the deathlord had taken off. Inspecting it I realized I couldn't wear it, this explained why arondil didn't steal it from the deathlord. "Ring of the Valkyrie, only wearable by women."
I tossed it to Viree, "Catch."
She caught it and looked at it, "Isn't this from the deathlord?"
I nodded, "She took it off when she died? re-died? I think it was a gift for freeing her."
Viree nodded and put on the ring. She blinked, "I feel different."
I nodded, "The ring gives the wearer the power of a Valkyrie. The actually enchantment is incredibly advance and something I can't decipher alone. None the less it is a good item."
Viree nodded and pushed open the door behind the throne. I could see her expression shift again and I joined her to see four naked corpses. The scene was disgusting and it was unfortunately clear what it was. He had been experimenting on the corpses.
My eyes flicked around the room and shook my head. I picked up three books and I flipped through them. One was his notes on his most current experiment, it was sadly informative. I would need to transcribe the parts useful to me. As for the other two they were spell books.
Viree looked at me, "What are those?"
I frowned, "Spell books, one is a restoration based necromancy spell that makes undead feel pleasure. The other is a necromancy spell that separates the soul from its body. This creates a ghost that uses its own emotion and corpse as a refractory. Despite the disgusting person that created them I can see a use for them."
She looked at the corpses and gave a slow shrug, "Learn them, if you can gleam some use from them there is no reason not to."
I laughed, "I don't mean to learn them in their current form. They are half complete in my eyes. The problem is do I take the time to actually alter them and make them worth something or do I just burn them along with the rest."
Viree shrugged again, "I think you fix them. I don't know how all that after-life stuff works, but maybe it will help those effected by those spells."
I laughed, "Fair I suppose."
Viree shook her head, "There isn't much else. Can we go?"
I looked at the note books I collected, "Actually, instead of burning these. Let's take them to the imperial camp and tell them to recover the dead and seal the tomb."
Viree nodded, "Let's get out of here, this place, it was defiled."
I nodded as well, "Yeah..."
I paused, "When we step out I am going to say a prayer. I don't really know any, so I think i will just use some magic and say some ancient words I remember from Atmora."
Viree agreed with me, "That would be for the best."