Alton Cross leads the file through the west-running hall and into a vast vaulted chamber. Crystal shards line the walls in jagged bands, catching the dim light and scattering it in thin, colored slivers.
Cold air rolls over the squad, sharp with ozone. The old stone here feels less like a corridor and more like a throat opening wider, ready to swallow them deeper.
The Banner-Spear
New room. Hold formation, and watch the walls.
The fighters fan in behind the spear, boots scraping softly on the floor. A faint shimmer passes through the crystals, as if the chamber is breathing.
Alton Cross
The shards are set into the walls, not loose.
At the far end, a narrow archway waits in shadow. Alton’s line halts at the chamber’s center, ready to push on or meet whatever the dungeon is shaping next.
“Alton looks around again and there are no shards, it's just a 40x60 empty chamber with 2 exit hallways on the west wall and 2 exit hallways on the south wall. They set up camp for the night”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled -2)
Alton crosses the chamber again, and the crystal sheen is gone. The vault is plain stone, forty by sixty at a glance, with two hallways breaking off the west wall and two more cutting out of the south.
Alton Cross
No crystal here. Just exits.
He marks the edges with a steady look, and the squad starts measuring space instead of shadows. The room feels larger now that it is known.
The Banner-Spear
Good. We can hold this center and watch all four mouths.
Orders ripple through the fighters. Packs come down, bedrolls unfurl, and a watch line forms with shields turned outward.
A scrape of stone carries farther than it should in the open chamber, and the squad keeps listening after the sound dies. The cost of the look around is small but real, one of the rear torches burns lower than it should from the time spent searching.
The Banner-Spear
If the dark has a way around us, this room will tell us first. Do we take the west halls, or sleep with our backs to the south?
✓ Quest Accepted
Hold the vaulted chamber