Just inside, we found ourselves in a dark, short vestibule. Just a few feet ahead, a Falmer stood, encased in a shell of pure white ice. It was facing toward the exit, one hand clutching a bottle, mouth open in a silent howl. It looked as if it had been trying to flee, and failed.
Farther in, more frozen Falmer and chaurus stood in a large room, surrounding a Shrine of Auriel. Some of the statues were individual Falmer and chaurus. Some were in combinations, as though they had been side by side when they had been blasted with intense cold.
The place was a wreck. Some of the pillars that supported the roof were severely cracked. Others were broken entirely. Parts of the ceiling had crashed down in chunks sometime in the past, leaving piles of rubble on the floor and large divots in the ceiling above.
I crept forward and inspected the bottle clutched in the nearest Falmer's hand. "Philter of Resist Cold," was written on the label.
"Wow… That didn't do you much good, did it?" I murmured, gently slipping the valuable bottle from the icy fingers.
A few feet further in I found a skeleton, long since reduced to bare bones by the years, partially buried in the rubble from the ceiling. This would have been a regular snow elf, having died of their injuries from the battle that had raged here so long ago. It seemed a bit strange to me that Falmer and snow elves had fought one another. I supposed the centuries and generations of twisted slavery could have warped the Falmer beyond any recognition or memory. There was probably nothing left but bitterness and jealousy for their remaining kindred at the time of their attack.
"These Falmer are… They're frozen in the ice." Serana said, her voice quiet in the darkened, icy tomb. "I wonder how long they've been like this." She shivered behind me then murmured, half to herself, "And I thought the Soul Cairn was creepy."
She eased up to one of the frozen figures, inspecting it minutely, then frowned at me. "This isn't natural. Look at how localized the freezing effect is; it doesn't extend more than a foot or so beyond their own feet. If a weather storm had hit this place, it would be an ice cave in here. Instead… bare walls, unmarked by ice or snow. Just them."
I realized she was right. Someone, either the past snow elves or Gelebor's brother, had been very skilled in some long-lost ice spells that far exceeded the magic known today.
I walked up to another Falmer and pulled a shield from its grasp, inspecting the elven craftsmanship. There was a sudden, deafening crashing sound and I leaped back in shock as the ice that encased the creature's legs shattered. The figure came to a very hostile life.
"Cursed Darvak," I half yelled, drawing the arrow as it turned toward me. I fired, and struck the thing in the chest.
The dragon-bone-reinforced arrow struck home… and the creature shattered into bloodless chunks.
"What in…" Silence fell and after the pieces stopped rolling, I eased up to inspect the thing I had hit.
This Falmer might have been flesh and blood before, but it certainly wasn't now. I warily picked up a body part. It was an arm, a shoulder, and part of a torso, all in one piece. I realized that the flesh and blood had been transformed to solid, and of all things, living, ice.
"What in Oblivion am I even supposed to make of this?" I asked Serana, handing her the shattered body part to inspect.
She peered at it, then carefully inspected the rest of the creature's shattered body.
"Combination of two spells at once," Serana explained after a few minutes. "Very advanced magic. A transmute spell was combined with an extremely powerful Frost magic spell. It would have taken several precious minutes to combine the two, and then hit multiple targets. I would say it was a spell of last resort... cast upon these Falmer and Chaurus while the other snow elves fought to hold them back long enough. The Falmer's soul would have been trapped as well… made dormant until it was disturbed."
"So you're telling me that these beings were... transformed into living ice to serve as a trap for the next being to make its way in here?" I said. "Just… stuck until I woke it up? You're right, this is as creepy as the Soul Cairn."
Serana nodded, "Cruel as it sounds, we should probably assume they'll all wake up at one point or another and come after us. We should… well… get smashing."
I didn't have any blunt-force weapons on me; both my bow and my sword were piercing weapons. We quickly sorted out a system; if the frozen Falmer were going to come to life, we just had to take a random item out of their hands. Serana obtained a nice magical staff and several potions as she plucked them from frozen hands, while I fired an arrow as soon as the beings came to life.
The frozen Chaurus, we soon learned, could still spit their venom, and I had to spend some time wiping off my armor at the end of clearing out the room. Thankfully, the stuff wasn't corrosive, just a bad idea to get into open wounds.
Exploring other rooms revealed more frozen Falmer, and more skeletons. Most were lost in positions that indicated that they were attempting to flee when they died. One sad body was clutching at the artistic filigree in a window in what had been a vain attempt to escape that way. Gelebor had said that the chantry had been a place of peaceful worship... I gave the skeletons a pitying look; today, no one walked without a weapon and everyone was trained from childhood to be able to defend themselves. In this isolated place, they must have been incredibly naïve and sheltered to have never wielded a weapon or a spell in self-defense... and the result had been a complete slaughter of their people.
The further in we went, the more icicles made their appearance and the colder the building got. Soon the icicles were appearing more and more commonly. The back of the building went from shattered and blasted masonry to something more suited to an ice cave. The walls were engulfed in sheets upon sheets of ice.
Finally, the only way forward was through a hole that had once been a doorway, now looking more like a hole bored through a glacier. A frigid wind blew through the opening, and I muttered unhappily before stepping through. I was balancing right on the edge of needing another Potion of Resist Cold and holding a mental argument with myself on whether I should down one or not.
The other side was a looming tunnel through the ice, with a positively glacial wind blowing from some unknown source. I broke down and downed the potion, leaving the Philter I had gotten from the Falmer for Serana to check later. You don't just drink ancient potions without knowing whether time has made it do... things... that you would rather not experience firsthand.
Through the icy tunnels and out the other side, parts of the temple began to make their appearance once again through the ice. The air began to warm up a smidgen. We were now standing on a ledge, with a drop of at least a full human height and no visible way down. If there were stairs, they were buried under one of the sheets of ice that cradled this part of the temple. Only small sections of the wall peeped through.
We discussed again and ultimately realized that we were going to have to hop down the hard way. There was nothing here to attach a rope to; the ice was thick, hard, and perfectly smooth. Nothing that would support a tied rope was present, and I wouldn't trust my weight to a smooth tent stake hammered into equally smooth ice.
Reluctantly, I let myself hang over the edge, then drop the last few inches, Serana offering me a supporting hand and an anchoring grip. I silently blessed her affinity with ice as she hopped down to join me with ease.
We were soon through another hallway, with the ice retreating to bare the temple walls, before it opened up into a large room. More frozen Falmer and Chaurus were scattered throughout the space. Massive spikes of ice stabbed toward the center of the room from the walls, making the area look prickly and a dangerous place to slip in. Sliding out of control into a wall of ice spears was definitely a bad idea.
At the far end, a pale figure sat on a white stone throne, the picture of boredom with his chin plopped in the palm of his hand. A glowing barrier formed a transparent wall between him and us.
We had found him; Arch-Curate Vyrthur. Gelebor's brother.