Round 13

Merrin's quick fingers find purchase on the crumbling stone edge of the inner doorway, and she hauls herself up with a grunt of effort. The passage beyond is narrow—barely wide enough for her halfling frame—and descends at a steep angle into darkness. She pauses halfway up, one hand still gripping the stone lip as she turns back to face the group. "There's another way down," she reports, voice tight with both excitement and anxiety. "But it's tight. And dark." Her eyes flick to Jeane, then to Halie. "And I can't see the bottom from here."

The tower groans around them like a beast waking from slumber, dust sifting down from the ceiling in a fine rain. The rumble of collapsing stone echoes somewhere above, and Varrika instinctively ducks, one hand reaching for her mace hilt. "Move," she growls, shoving past Merrin toward the opening. "Before this whole cursed place comes down on our heads." Her massive frame barely fits through the gap, and she has to twist sideways to squeeze into the narrow passage, her armor scraping against stone.

Seraphine steps forward, staff raised as she begins a low chant. Arcane energy flares around her hands, casting flickering shadows that dance across the ancient carvings lining the walls. "I can provide light," she calls out, voice strained with concentration. "But this kind of magic... it's fighting against something here. I'm not sure how long I can maintain it." The spell flickers, dimming briefly before she grits her teeth and forces it back to full strength.

Halie moves to the edge of the new passage, one hand extended as if testing for magical traps or hidden dangers. Her fingers brush stone that feels unnaturally cold to the touch, and she snatches them back with a sharp intake of breath. "Freezing," she mutters. "And there's... something wrong about it. Like the stone itself is sick." She looks over her shoulder at Jeane, still holding the barrier against the skeletons. "You coming?"

Jeane watches as Merrin disappears into the darkness, then feels a jolt of anxiety when Varrika follows without hesitation. She can't see them anymore, can only hear the scrape of armor and muttered curses echoing back up the passage. The gate shudders again—louder this time—and something gives way behind them with a sound like distant thunder. A section of the fucking wall just... lets go. Rubble crashes down where Halie was standing moments before, and Jeane sees her dive sideways in a spray of stone dust.

"Move!" she screams, already running for the new passage herself. The barrier flickers violently as she focuses on staying alive instead of maintaining it perfectly, but it holds long enough for them all to squeeze through the gap just as the outer corridor collapses completely behind them. She lands hard at the bottom of the steep descent, rolling to a stop against Merrin's feet. "Well," she pants, looking up at the dwarf looming over her. "That was... exciting."