Round 33

The central rune pulsed again, its red light casting stark shadows across Seraphine's face as she stared into the darkness below. The air in the chamber seemed to thicken with each beat, growing colder despite the stifling heat radiating from the stone walls themselves. She gripped her staff tighter, knuckles whitening as she watched Merrin descend into the pit.

"You feel that?" Seraphine called down softly, her voice barely carrying over the groaning of ancient wood and shifting stone. "The tower isn't just decaying—it's breathing. Inhaling something old and hungry through those channels carved into the walls." She took a step back from the edge, eyes never leaving the swirling patterns on the rune below. "Those aren't defensive runes. They're prison bars cast in stone."

Jeane moved to stand beside her, wings half-spread for balance as the floor trembled beneath their feet. "Prison bars that are rusting away from the inside," she muttered, more to herself than Seraphine. Her crimson eyes narrowed as she watched Merrin's careful descent. "Whatever was buried down there... it's not alone anymore." She turned to Varrika, who was straining against the rope beam supporting their companion. "Get her up fast! This whole chamber is about to come down!"

Varrika snarled something unintelligible at Merrin below, muscles bulging as she fought to control the rope's descent. The beam above her creaked ominously with each tremor that shook the tower, ancient wood groaning in protest. "Move your arse!" she bellowed into the darkness, voice echoing off the crumbling walls. "I'm not dying because some dead architect left a booby trap!"

Halie retreated several paces from the pit's edge, her heavy Mace held ready despite the wrongness of its vibration against her palm. She raised her silver holy symbol with her free hand, but the metal hummed ominously instead of offering comfort—singing a note only the walls could hear. This was no natural decay. Something down there was feeding on death itself, and they were standing in its dining room.