Hour 34: More Bloodsuckers

After returning to the Arcane University, I am instructed to speak to the Archmage himself, Hannibal Traven. It appears they forgot to edit his 'rumours' speech, for when I ask him about rumours, he gives me a similar speech to the rest of the Mages, and so references himself in the third person:

It's possible to view this as an eccentricity of his speech, but I think it's far more likely to just be an oversight.
He asks me to find a mage who infiltrated the Necromancer cult and is now believed to be in peril. I head to an Ayelid ruin to find him. So far, despite the limited number of types and designs of cave, I haven't really minded the caves/ruins much. There's certainly too much focus on delving underground into caves, as most missions seem to require this, but on the whole, I think I actually prefer these caves to Skyrim's. Sure, Skyrim's are better designed, mostly all unique, and graphically far superior, but a lot of them were a bit too long. The one thing they did better, though, was including a shortcut at the end of the cave so you can get out quickly. Oblivion offers few of those and you must usually, therefore, traipse back through the cave (stepping over the mutilated bodies of your enemies) to get out.

Whilst on my way to the ruin, a wild Flame Atronach attacks me in the woods. I summon mine to engage it, then continue onwards, thinking that even if mine does (can they even hurt each other though?) by that time I'll be so far away that I will have escaped. Surprisingly, once I'm inside the ruin the Atronach enters a short time after too - it must have followed me for quite a way. After I kill it I realise I haven't seen a dead one before, since mine disappears when it dies. Their bodies still glow even after death:

The ruin is fairly easily navigated and I eventually find the Mage, who has now been turned into a zombie. He looks exactly like every other zombie so it's anyone's guess as to how I know it's him, but the game tells me it is, so there you are.

I report my finding to Traven, who is most upset. He advises me that the Count of Skingrad (my secret vampire friend, unbeknownst to the guild) has more information about the necromancers. I go to see him, but he won't tell me anything until I've destroyed a nearby cave of vampires (they're attracting vampire hunters, which could compromise his identity) and slain the vampire hunters as well.

It's a hard slog to clear the vampire cave (Bloodcrust Cavern. Eww.), as these vampires just love to heal themselves up all the time, and are also adept at dodging my fireballs, meaning I often have to wade in closer to use my Cold Touch spell, exposing myself to their brutal close combat attacks. Plus, they summon a lot, and at times I have to fight two or three vampires as well as two summons (usually ghosts or skeletons). I manage to slay them all eventually without dying, though. Next to feel my wrath will be the vampire hunters...