I stepped into the cavern entrance of Ilunibi and was immediately grateful that among the things I had forgotten to bring with me, my belt of night-eye wasn't among the missing. The cave was nearly pitch-black. I ventured forth a few steps and found myself at the edge of a deep well, and it would have been a nasty fall, had I not seen it.

Lucky for me, the enchanted boots I had brought gave me a constant slow-fall effect. I jumped gently onto another outcropping of rock a few yards below.  

I landed on the outcropping gently, and gazed into the darkness before me.

I wondered how the patrol ever got down this far without injury. I also wondered if I would find any of them alive down here.

I wandered down one cave after another, and as expected, encountered a few dozen rats, as well as a few other of the cavern's inhabitants.  I found I preferred the rats.  

There were a number of cult members in the caves, and ran to attack me as soon as they saw me approach. Bearing only wooden clubs and no armor (and no clothing, either), they ran towards me shouting that 'now I would die.  A simple spell of Medusa's gaze followed by God's Fire made quick work of them. Still, I wished I had remembered to bring my Ring of Weapons with me.

As expected, I came across the bodies of several of the patrol that had come before me. They did not fare so well, and their bodies were left as they fell. The cult members hadn't even raided them for weapons or armor.   

I went deeper into the caverns, encounting several ash ghouls, who tried to do me in with shock spells. Again, Medusa's Gaze followed by God's Fire put an end to their life's pain.

I was amazed that an Imperial Patrol would have had more trouble than a lone mage. Then again, they might not have had the spells at their disposal that I did.  

The water in the caverns was waist-deep now, and I didn't like that. A fight would not go well if I was this deep in the water.

I proceeded slowly, trying not to make any noise in the water.

Suddenly, I could hear the faint sounds of something hissing in the water ahead of me, just around the next bend.

Bow at the ready, I decided to sneak as best as I could around the next corner to see what this new creature was.  

The thing around the next bend making the noise was an ascended sleeper. I had seen some of the ash ghouls in the earlier stages of transformation, with long snouts, like a tentacle, sticking out of their face, but this creature was the final stage of a dark elf that had completely given itself over to the mind of Dagoth Ur.

At sight of me, it turned to attack, blowing forth a huge ball of poison air at me. I dodged it's attack and returned fire with one of my Daedric paralyzing arrows.   

The arrow had only a momentary effect on this ascended sleeper, apparently drawing power directly from Dagoth Ur. The creature shot another blast of poison air at me. I choked as the blast enveloped me, but quickly did a spell that cancelled the effect, and gave the sleeper a blast of God's Fire, followed by God's Frost.

The combination of the two distructive spells caused the creature to fall dead in it's tracks in less than 10 seconds.  

Behind where the ascended sleeper fell I found another door leading to yet a deeper part of the cavern.

Inside, I found a few more minions to fend off, including a furious ash ghoul garding yet another door.

Again, a Daedric paralyzing arrow and God's Fire did the trick.

I was starting to feel better about forgetting my favorite ring of weapons at home.   

Yet another cave, and another couple of crazy cult members attacked me as soon as I had come nore more than 2 feet inside of it. They had a crazed look in their eyes, shouting "Die, n'wah!!" at me. These cult members also bore no more than a club, and again wore no clothing at all.

Daedric arrows did their work, followed by God's Fire finishing them off.   

Again, deeper into the caves I went, and was immediately attacked by a storm antroch.

The Wall of Fire spell saved me from certain death, as arrows just bounced off of it's stony form.

A few feet later, and the Wall of Fire spell saved me again, this time from a revived ledgendary swordsman, who are impossible to defeat with anything other than spells.  

In the deepest part of the cavern, known as "Soul's Rattle", I encountered a lame corprus, an unfortunate victim of this incurable blight disease.

The thing shuffled towards me, it's deformed arm full of muscle and flesh, ready to strike. It would kill me, if I allowed it to approach. I struck it with a spell of Medusa's Gaze, and noticed part of an Imperial uniform it was wearing.

The poor devil was part of the patrol that had come here earlier. Corprus takes weeks to become this advanced, but this solder was in the most advanced stages.  

The trooper was frozen in mid-step by the spell, but suddenly I heard something come from it's deformed mouth, something that froze my very soul.  

"Killlllllll meeeeeee, pleeeease."  

Corprus kills the mind first, in due course, causing massive growth in the flesh later. Somehow, this case had acted so quickly that the trooper's mind was still active; he knew what was happening to body and mind.

I felt so sorry for him. Sorry that there was nothing more that I could do for his condition.

I gave in to his wishes, and blasted him into Oblivion.  

I checked his body carefully for any kind of identification that I might bring back to Ald'ruhn, but could find nothing helpful.

Had I had the time, I would have buried him, decently. He certainly died as a member of the Imperial Legion doing his duty.

Now I was angry. The poor soul had been forced to endure this wreched disease, and I was ticked off at the person who gave it to him, and that was Dagoth Gares.

I believed it was time I had it out with this guy.

Never tick off a wizard.