Before anyone delved into the new passageway that Adagio had created, the same one she had an uneasy feeling about, Tolfdir mentioned that he wanted to check on the other apprentices, though his tone indicating that he believed that this would be a good experience for all four of them. When the four of them arrived at where Adagio was standing, beside the passage, they all had smiles on their faces, as they all seemed eager to learn about whatever had been locked away, though she knew that Onmund would likely fuss over the dead bodies they were going to be examining and that J'zargo would be looking for small magical items to take with them.
"Well, this is highly unusual... and very interesting at the same time." Tolfdir commented, leading the way down the passageway, which ended up being very short as the group entered what appeared to be a burial chamber of some kind, "Why in the world would this be sealed off? What is this place?"
Adagio wondered if she even had a decent answer to give the instructor, though before she could open her mouth to say anything she noticed that he and the other apprentices had stopped moving... and that there was some sort of magical haze of some kind filling the entire chamber. She opened her mouth to question what was going on, so she could start to figure out how to undo whatever had happened, but before she said anything she noticed an apparition of some kind, one wearing an unusual robe that reminded her of a high ranking mage, had appeared in front of one of the coffins.
"Hold, mage, and listen well..." the apparition commanded, stopping Adagio in her tracks, while at the same time making her curious as to what the person was going to tell her, "Know that you have set in motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped. Judgment has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing. Judgment will be passed on your actions to come, and how you deal with the dangers ahead of you. This warning is passed to you because the Psijic Order believes in you. You, mage, and you alone, have the potential to prevent disaster. Take great care, and know that the Order is watching."
Before Adagio could say anything, and question what chain of events she had put in motion, the apparition disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her with more questions than answers as the magical haze faded away and everyone resumed walking... only for them to stop and look around in confusion for a few seconds.
"I...I swear I felt something rather strange just then." Tolfdir said, to which the apprentices nodded their heads in agreement with him, before they all turned to Adagio, who wasn't as confused as they were, "What just happened?"
"Some sort of apparition appeared and froze all of you for a few seconds," Adagio explained, not really knowing a better way to explain what had happened, though she could already tell that J'zargo wasn't believing what she was telling them, "All it told me was that there was some sort of danger ahead... and that the Psijic Order is watching me."
"The Psijic Order? Are you quite sure about that?" Tolfdir asked, though when Adagio nodded he raised a hand to his chin for a few seconds, "That's very odd. And danger ahead? Why that doesn't make any sense at all. The Psijics have no connection to these ruins. And no one's seen any of their order in a long time."
"Forgive my ignorance on the topic," Adagio said, knowing that everyone at the College believed that she had amnesia and couldn't remember everything about her life, "but who or what is the Psijic Order? And why would they be contacting me?"
"I have no idea, but it's fascinating. Assuming it's true, of course." Tolfdir replied, though at that point Adagio had the feeling that she was going to have to ask Urag about the Order to figure out who they were, "The Isle of Artaeum disappeared over a hundred years ago, and no one has seen them since. And yet now, suddenly, they have chosen to contact you? Why, it's intriguing! If nothing else, I'd take it as a compliment. The Psijics have only ever dealt with those they feel worthy."
"J'zargo has an idea as to why the Psijic Order contacted Adagio," J'zargo spoke up, causing everyone in the chamber to turn towards him for a moment, "What if Adagio is a lost member of the Order? It is said that the Psijic's could appear out of thin air, which is what happened to Adagio before she was attacked by those wolves. Its possible that they are keeping taps on her, to be sure that she is safe and sound before she recovers her memories and goes back to the Isle of Artaeum with them."
Adagio knew that J'zargo could come up with some crazy ideas when he really set his mind to it, but she was sure that this was one of the weirdest, if not the most ridiculous, ideas she had ever heard him come up with in the two weeks that she had known him.
"Look, we can discuss this back at the College," Brelyna said, to which she gestured to the coffins around them, "For now we should focus on moving forward and seeing what else Saarthal has to offer us."
The moment the words left her mouth the coffins opened up and Adagio had her first encounter with the draugr, which were literally walking corpses that had been reanimated by whatever magic had been used on them after their death. The three ancient warriors pulled themselves from their coffins, lifted their weapons into the air, and advanced towards the group with the intent to kill them, though none of the mages were going to give them a chance to hurt them. For the most part the apprentices chose to use the most basic of destruction spells, the Flames spell, to damage the draugr, but with five of them attacking three undead warriors it was clear where the advantage lay.
In a matter of seconds the trio of draugr had been taken care of, to which the group walked through the passage that had been hiding behind one of the coffins and made their way to another open chamber... one that had six coffins on either side of the circular chamber, which all opened to reveal twelve more draugr for them to fight. Flames danced around Adagio's hands as she upped her game and started using the Firebolt spell, to which she threw several small fireballs at her chosen targets, while at the same time avoiding the arrows that were coming her way. One of her foes dropped an ancient looking blade as it fell to the ground, though when she noticed that her fellow mages were all carrying weapons, ironically daggers, in case they ran out of magicka, so Adagio rolled over to where the weapon was resting, picked it up, and drove it into the heart of the draugr that was standing in front of her.
What followed that was the sound of the battle ending, and the other apprentices letting out a sigh of relief, to which Adagio pulled herself back onto her feet and gently pulled the blade out from the draugr's chest.
"I didn't know that you knew how to use a sword," Onmund commented, staring at the blade for a moment, as if he was surprised that Adagio had done what she had.
"I... I've never used one in my entire life." Adagio admitted, though at the same time she knew that the rest of the group was going to label it as a sign that her memories were slowly 'starting to come back'.
"I've never seen anything like this in Nordic ruins before." Tolfdir spoke up, causing everyone to turn towards him for a moment, and gave Onmund a moment to bring his palm to his face, "Why, just look at all these coffins! This bears closer inspection. I'd like to stay a while and examine this. You, however, should press on. See if you can find whatever this vision of yours mentioned. But if it is truly dangerous, be careful. Go on ahead. I'll be sure and catch up with you before long."
Adagio was about to say that it was a stupid idea to go any further, especially when there was no reason for them to awaken whatever danger the apparition had told her about, but once she saw that her friends were eager to move forward she simply let out a sigh and decided that she might as well humor them. It was almost like she was the leader of the group sometimes, only because everyone treated her like she was some sort of gift to the College from one of the Divines, while other times they voted to see what they wanted to do... or, in cases like this, she was overruled by all three of her friends. Onmund and J'zargo pulled the nearby levers that opened the way forward, allowing them to pass through the door that was in front of them and delve deeper into Saarthal.
As they walked deeper into the ruins Adagio made sure that they were watching out for anything dangerous, though she was referring to the draugr and any traps that might be waiting for them, though J'zargo was the only one not paying too much attention, because he was looting corpses for any treasures they might need further down the line. She was somewhat glad for her caution, as when they entered the next chamber she found something that Brelyna identified as a elemental rune, a fire one by the color she noted, and stopped the group before any of them got close to it. Adagio could hear the sound of the draugr waking from their slumber, so instead of fighting them she had them pull back to a safe distance and waited... to which they watched as the pair of draugr were consumed by the explosion of the rune the moment they stepped on it.
"J'zargo will admit that it was fun to watch the draugr blow up like that," J'zargo commented, somehow finding an intact coin pouch on one of the draugr's chests, "and now J'zargo wishes he knew the Fire Rune spell... if only to replicate what we have witnessed today."
Adagio was sure that learning such a spell would be good for all of them, in the future anyway, as it would provide an excellent manner to get rid of stupid enemies, or the undead if what she had seen was anything to go by.
With the lower area taken care of they walked up to the upper section and found one more draugr that was waiting for something to do, though the moment it noticed them it raised its arms and came at them. The barrage of firebolts easily took the undead warrior down, allowing the group to progress further into the ruins, and giving J'zargo enough time to find a gemstone in one of the urns before he caught up with them. They walked down the ancient hallway as silently as they could, though as they did so Adagio noticed that there was a large number of the dead buried in the walls, but she also discovered that the majority of them were actually dead. Knowing that they didn't have to fight a swarm of ten to twenty draugrs, based on the number of holes that were lining the walls, gave the group an opportunity to restore whatever magicka they had spent so far.
The only draugr that actually woke up were the two at the end of the passage, though the group put them back down moments before the undead could realize that their opponents were ready and waiting for them.
The group eventually came to a hallway that had an iron gate at the end, but as they walked through it Adagio discovered that each side of the tunnel had a set of pillars, ones that appeared to be rotatable. She discovered that, by looking behind each of the pillars, she found the animal that was supposed to be facing the tunnel and immediately pointed it out to the other apprentices, to which they began to turn the pillars. On the hallways left side she turned the pillars until they read eagle, snake, and whale, while the three on the right side read whale, eagle, eagle, before Adagio approached the lever at the end and pulled it back. For a few seconds she wondered if they had done something wrong, which would have made the others annoyed with her, but then the gate opened and allowed the group to progress forward again.
The following chamber they entered only had one enemy for them to fight, though Adagio was amazed to find that the enemy was actually a female draugr, as all the rest of them she had come across had been male. As the draugr noticed the group she was able to get an understanding of the armor and weapon that the draugr was carrying, which was basically the same armor that the other draugr had been wearing. The only other difference that Adagio noticed was that this draugr had a battleaxe in place of the swords or axes that the others had been carrying into battle. The four apprentices loosed another barrage of spells at the draugr, though this time it actually managed to get down the stairs it had to walk down before falling to the ground, where it stopped moving.
"J'zargo had heard that nordic tombs were guarded by fierce guardians that rip all invaders to shreds," J'zargo commented, while at the same time the group walked up to the walkway the draugr had previously been on, "and so far, J'zargo is not impressed."
"And now you just jinxed us," Brelyna replied, shaking her head in annoyance, because while she disliked this being so easy she wasn't going to say anything out of fear of encountering something powerful seconds later, "Let's hope we reach the end soon... before some monster actually tries to kill us."
The next area the group entered had more of the dead lining the walls, but as they walked forward they quickly noticed that none of the draugr were waking up, leading them to assume that they were all lifeless. They eventually came to another puzzle, with four rotatable pillars, though this time Adagio tested it by moving the pillar that was closest to the iron gate on her left, which moved all four of them at the same time. She continued to move the pillar for a few seconds until it showed the whale symbol, where the one before it she spun until it showed the snake symbol, though she then moved to the other side and rotated the pillar near the gate to show the eagle symbol before she moved onto the fourth pillar and had it show the whale symbol. Once all four pillars had the respective animals facing the lever, and she was sure that the combination was correct, she pulled the lever and the gate opened before their eyes, allowing them to move deeper into the ruins.
Before they could get too far, however, they heard Tolfdir call out to them, to which they turned around and spotted their instructor as he ran up to join them, though there was a smile on his face.
"I thought it was time that I caught up with all of you," Tolfdir said, though at the same time he reached into his bag and pulled some items out of it, to which he handed each of them a blue potion, "Here, you all look like you could benefit from using one of these."
Adagio was grateful for both the magicka potion, which would restore her magical energy, and for Tolfdir's timely arrival, because when they opened the door that was at the end of the hallway they found a room that was unlike anything they had seen throughout the entirety of Saarthal. Sitting in the middle of the room was a massive light blue sphere that almost looked like the pieces of it could pull themselves apart at any moment, though even in her current state Adagio could feel its power from where she was standing. Some distance in front of the orb was another draugr, though this one possessed a strange green glow to its body, one that looked like the barrier that was surrounding the sphere behind it.
As the draugr noticed that it had company, and got onto its feet so it could deal with them, Tolfdir raised his hand and threw a bolt of lightning at it... to which they were all surprised to find that nothing happened to the creature. Instead of giving up, and running away, Tolfdir did the same thing with the other two elements of the destruction school, but neither spell had any effect on the draugr.
"Nothing seems to work!" Tolfdir declared, though as everyone else prepared the run it seemed like he had one last idea in mind, one that came from looking at the barrier, "Keep it busy. I'll try to drain some of its power."
Adagio looked at the other apprentices for a moment, wondering if their instructor had gone insane for a moment, but instead of questioning it she grabbed the sword she had been carrying the entire time and charged into the room, to which the draugr stared at her and turned its gaze on her. She eyed the axe that the draugr was carrying and dodged it when the creature tried to hit her, though when she returned the favor she noticed that even a wound from a sword was impossible. Whatever was protecting the draugr was making him impervious to all types of damage, be it with magic or with a blade, though a few seconds later the shimmering aura the draugr had shifted into that of flames.
When Tolfdir called out that they should now be able to damage the creature all four apprentices loosed their frost magic on the draugr, freezing it to the ground until the shield switched to lightning. They followed that up with fire, forcing the creature to one knee as the four of them attacked him from all four directions, though it also switched the shield to ice as well. At that point Adagio knew that they had the draugr beaten, as they all pushed themselves to the limit and caused the draugr to fall over, though when it didn't get back up they knew that they had succeeded.
As the others moved down to where Tolfdir was standing, however, Adagio noticed that the draugr was wearing a unique necklace, which she pocketed for further study when they were back at the College... and she also grabbed the staff on the table for good measure.
"I'm not the only one seeing this, am I?" Tolfdir asked, beckoing to the orb that was resting in front of them, while at the same time all four of the apprentices stared at the orb with awe on their faces, "Why, this is utterly unique."
"What is it?" Adagio asked, because she was sure that one of the other mages would have some idea as to what the item was, especially since she had no idea what magical artifacts existed in this world.
"I have no idea! This is amazing. Absolutely amazing." Tolfdir said, to which he turned to the four apprentices, though they knew that he was looking at Adagio the whole time, "The Arch-Mage needs to be informed immediately. He needs to see this for himself. I don't dare leave this unattended. Can you return to the College and inform Savos Aren of this discovery? Please, hurry."
Adagio looked at her friends for a moment, who all shrugged for a few seconds, before she told their instructor that they would do as he asked immediately, to which she beckoned them towards the door that rested behind the orb. What Adagio found was a room that had some sort of wall, written in some sort of language that she didn't understand, and a chest that J'zargo proceeded to loot. Once J'zargo was finished taking everything of value, and promised to share once they had informed the Arch-Mage of their discovery, the group made their way through the other passage until they found themselves back near the entrance of Saarthal.
As they made their way outside Adagio couldn't help but wonder if the orb they had encountered had been what the apparition had been talking about... and worrying that they had set in motion something that shouldn't have been awoken in the first place.