Next comes a hall that will likely remind you a lot of the halls with the ring-based doors. This is really cool, though it will probably make you worry about finding a dragon claw talisman- but you’ll need to forget that. Instead of needing such a talisman for a door at the far end, you need speed and agility- this hall is nearly twice as long as either of the others you encountered before, and the wall-carvings are just a distraction from the dozens of traps you need to get past. Generally your best bet is going to be sprinting through so fast that they can’t catch you, or carefully picking your way along the edges- either way, don’t lollygag or Anska will get you killed by running up to join you and either crossing a pressure plate too near you or shoving you onto the one you’re trying to creep around. That girl is practically a living definition of the word ‘liability’. The door at the end, thankfully, is just a door, so open it and move on.
A short sub-hallway follows, with several potions littered about for you to snag.
A draugr lurks in the semicircular room that’s next- this isn’t much to worry about really. The real problem comes when you pull the lever- rather than opening the door, it releases one of the more powerful draugr, which can be a nasty fight if you aren’t ready for the game to spring something on you. This is one of those melee specialist Draugr with the Fus shout- tear it up as much as you can from range, and if/when you face it close in, do what you can to disrupt it- Fus it back and/or smack it with your shield, for instance. Once he’s down, check the alcove he was lurking in and you can find the lever that actually opens the door.
The next, tiny chamber mostly serves to hold the door to the final section of the dungeon- a large throne room centered around a sarcophagus- which contains Vorkun. This powerful draugr is a pain in the butt- he doesn’t so much walk as skim, he moves faster than running speed (even when going backwards) and he, like Anska, is overly fond of Fireball. This makes this, curiously, the fight in which Anska is least aggravating- often the two will grab each other’s attention with their flashy offense spells, and you can hang back and take potshots while Anska and your follower steadily chew away at the nasty thing. Try not to clump up- that -is- a Fireball spell, after all- and don’t try to get in his face- he’s immune to his own fireballs- and you should be able to do fine, as long as you’re patient. If for whatever reason you’re not patient (or you lack a ranged option- a good way to basically set the game into ‘hard mode’) charge him the moment you enter the room, then back off once he’s singed you a bit- there are several convenient pillars you can hide behind while you heal up and your follower helps Anska re-kill him.
With Vokun finally dead, you can collect his head/mask/skull (?!?) and a couple of staves that are worth a good bit of coin or, if you’re the right kind of mage, using. Make sure you toss the room before climbing either stairway in the back. This leads you into a smaller room- the right side balcony holds a chest you want to dig through, and you need to make sure you get all the burial urns and large urns so that you can grab the scroll Anska’s looking for. A brief conversation later and you’re finally rid of the pesky Destruction mage.
.....what chanting? Oh, right. That chanting. Well, that’s the Word Wall lurking in the room back here! This gives you the first word of the Storm Call shout. Probably not the easiest Thu’um to use right now, but it can still come in handy if you figure out how to use it properly- fortunately there are wolves and ice spirits and things nearby to practice on that aren’t immune or super-resistant to the effects of the Shout.
Once you’ve overturned the entire room and gotten everything out of it you can, it’s time to hit the passage in the left balcony, which will take you back near the entrance to the ruins so you can leave- richer, wiser, and with one really annoying NPC dealt with.
