Silence fell in the tower, broken only by the lungfuls of air gasped by Tradden. The young fighter and the dwarf looked at each other after the spider had been hewn in two and a mixture of relief and concern passed their faces.

A thorough poke with a sword revealed no further surprises amongst the stones, cobwebs, and smashed barrels at the foot of the stairs.

A small dwarven oath issued from under Khalin’s breath and then the dwarf hefted his shield and hammer once more and concentrated upon the stairway. Tradden followed into step behind, cleaning his sword casually on his thigh.

Cracks in the walls allowed enough light to illuminate the first floor in an eerie shade and Khalin found it fairly easy to see. Tradden struggled somewhat in the gloom and started fishing in his pack for a torch. When the young fighter finally held aloft his illumination he found a scene of what appeared to be devastation. It was hard to tell what the floor had been used for, but rubble and timber lay strewn around the floor. Nothing of any note remained.

‘Hmm, still warm here,’ stated the dwarf, somewhat to himself.

‘The whole tower — can’t you feel it?’ replied Khalin, already moving to the bottom of the next stairwell and peering up. ‘A bit less so here, but warm nonetheless.’

Khalin started to climb the stone staircase gingerly.

As the dwarf moved slowly up the staircase there were a couple of ominous cracks and then the step that Khalin was on gave way!

Khalin’s foot went through the crumbling masonry and he slipped down the stairs in an ungainly fashion.

From the bottom of the staircase Khalin looked up at Tradden, now standing above him, concerned. ‘Erm, careful up there,’ said the dwarf with a blush. ‘It’s not entirely safe!’

The warlord rubbed his ankle wistfully.

Tradden negotiated the staircase and raised his head above the floor level as he ascended. Larger cracks in the walls allowed shafts of light to illuminate the floor quite well and Tradden extinguished his torch.

There were more solid remains on this level that gave some indication as to its previous use. Warped planks of wood belied the remains of old bookcases, although any books seemed to have disintegrated long ago.

A good look around the floor revealed nothing of interest to the pair.

‘I’m not sure,’ replied Khalin, continuing to munch on his rations. ‘I’ve been trying to work that one out for a wee while. Pass me that ale, would you?’

Tradden grabbed the skin of ale that Skillet had provided and tossed it across to the dwarf. Khalin fumbled the catch and it bounced on the wooden floor, the stopper coming loose. Golden ale flowed out of the flask and over the wooden boards. Khalin cursed and quickly tried to recover the skin before all of the ale escaped.

‘Just not my day today, I guess,’ muttered the dwarf, watching the ale seep away through the cracks in the boards.

‘Wait a minute,’ gasped Tradden, and started to push Khalin to one side.

‘What do you think you’re doing, lad?’ muttered the dwarf with a scowl.

‘Look!’ offered Tradden, sweeping debris and dust away from the wooden boards revealing a square trapdoor. ‘Why didn’t we see this before? Where’s Zero when you need him, eh?’

The wooden boards formed a perfectly square door, complete with an iron handle in the southern end.

‘Shall we?’ beamed the young fighter.

The trapdoor looked like a perfectly normal wooden trapdoor to Tradden.

Tradden gingerly opened his eyes as the trapdoor opened without any incident. Waves of warm air flooded up from below.

A thin cloud of soot rose from the underside of the trapdoor and dispersed into the air above the pair’s heads. As Tradden pulled the trapdoor all the way back past the vertical there was an ominous “click”, almost causing the youth to drop the handle, but nothing untoward seemed to happen and the trapdoor locked into place.

As Tradden waved the soot away from his face, Khalin peered down into the darkness below. A simple stone spiral staircase led downwards and away into the dark where even the torch couldn’t penetrate.

Judging by the release of soot perhaps they hadn’t.

Khalin wondered whether the venom he’d ingested earlier was still dulling his senses, or perhaps he just needed a good night’s sleep. Still, there was some dim light below from somewhere, and no nasties immediately apparent. The dwarf raised his shield cautiously and carefully descended into the gloom.

The stone staircase led down at quite a tight angle, the pair’s view obscured by the walls at either side and lit only by the torch held aloft in Tradden’s hand at the rear and by a faint glow from what appeared to be the bottom of the stairs.

After a few cautious moments, with both heroes trying to be as quiet as possible, Khalin held up his hand, motioning for Tradden to stop. The youth could hear the dwarf sniffing and then grumbling to himself.

Khalin started forwards again and Tradden sniffed for himself.

‘Wait!’ the young fighter hissed and quickly started to extinguish his torch. There was something in the air that Tradden didn’t like the smell of.

Khalin reached the bottom of the stairs, facing west, ten or so feet from the tower wall, and giving no indication of the room beyond. The last few steps had revealed a soft light from below with a reddish tint and the dwarf had noticed the amount of soot covering the stone steps and clinging to the walls of the staircase.

At the bottom of the stairs it was simple to see the source of the light — alcoves cut some six or seven feet into the walls contained what appeared to be a flickering red flame, illuminating the area with that soft tint.

Khalin crossed to the wall and placed his back against it, motioning for Tradden to follow suit. They shuffled around to the north and surveyed the area.

The room appeared to be larger than the tower above, some fifty or more feet across, although remained circular. Soot covered most of the area, hiding forms and shapes in the dim light, but the pair could make out what appeared to be a heap of garbage directly in front of them, a large table to the southwest covered with implements, and a large cabinet or bookcase to the southest. Directly to the south was a strange contraption, built into the far wall, that looked like a giant gate.

Beads of sweat ran down Tradden’s forehead and he absent mindedly wiped them away with his sleeve.

Most of the garbage appeared to be bits of old leather, fairly well preserved, perhaps by the thick layer of soot.

‘Looks chewed!’ joked Tradden as Khalin held a long strip aloft, then nervously looked about.

The furniture was indeed a bookcase and was covered with a number of texts. There didn’t appear to be any soot covering the spines of the tomes, much to Khalin’s relief.

As the pair started to examine them, they both heard a scuttling sound from the other side of the room, and whirled about quickly.

At the far side of the room, beyond the great table and near the strange gate there was an evil looking shape. It was the size of a pack animal and yet seemed neither mammal or insect, a cross between the two. Four insectoid legs attached to a main body with a long spiny tail and mean, fang-laden mouth. Two great feelers extended from its maw and waved about in the air in anticipation, as though weighing up these two new intruders.

The feelers waved around in the air for a moment and then snapped back along the beasts body. It then moved with unnatural speed, barrelling straight for the dwarf in a charge!