Round 82

As Sister Hale finished her words, a sudden gust of wind whipped up the ash around them, casting a fine powder into a frenzy. The air grew colder, and Jeane could feel the wrongness signatures intensifying beneath their feet, like a living thing stirring beneath the earth. The lantern in the party's inventory flickered to life, casting eerie shadows on the ground as the light danced across the faces of her companions. Gravedigger Renn, still cowering nearby, stammered out a warning: "The chasm! Whatever's down there, it's getting closer! We gotta—" His words were cut off by a loud rumbling noise, like thunder in the distance, but Jeane knew better - this was no storm. The scuttling sound beneath their feet had grown louder, its deliberate tracking responding to Silra's movement with an unnerving precision.

Jeane's hand tightened around the rusted key as she fed more rope through her hands, maintaining tension on the line that led down into the darkness below. Seventeen patterns - a coordinated tactical response according to her analysis of Silra's movements and the scuttling sound beneath them. The musty air carried wrongness signatures confirming ancient corruption patient and deliberate operating in three dimensions. Her arcane sight probed deeper now, seeking answers beyond what mundane eyes could see.