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After handing off his torch, Tenser fumbled with a scrollcase tied to his belt. He opened the case and unfurled a sheet of parchment from inside it. He then reached into a pouch in the folds of his robe and produced a piece of charcoal. He began sketching lines to represent the rooms of the dungeon, guessing at random how large to draw them in relation to his sheet of parchment.  He considered using boxes for doors, but it was more time-consuming to get the boxes just right and he settled for single strokes of the charcoal.  

Yrag insisted on skipping the doors and moved to the far right end of the room and the open archway there.  Their eyes must have been adjusting to the dim and smoky light of the torches because they could make out the far end of the room, past the pillars, from the archway.

"What did you mean by separated?" Tenser asked. "There wasn't anything in the plan about separating."

"Not by choice, lad. This dungeon is tricky. Tricky like a maze. Zagyg wanted people to get lost in it."

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Trailing wisps of smoke behind them, the two young magic-users lined up behind Yrag, with Ehlissa at the rear. Yrag's armor jingled malevolently as they marched down the stairs, as if trying to alert whatever menaces awaited them below. Because Yrag seemed not to care, Tenser tried not to care too, though Ehlissa was increasingly unsure about having not hired someone stealthier, or perhaps even having come at all.

The stairs were not in an open stairwell, but closed off on either side with walls of sheer stone. The steps were also hewn from the rock the castle sat on. The stairs were not overly narrow, yet there was a strong sense of confinement. They were descending underground now, and the walls seemed as thick as the world was wide. The torches gave some comfort, but belched up clouds of black smoke that hung overhead and reminded them of a storm brewing. Every step on the stairs seemed to grow louder, as if announcing their presence. And still the staircase continued to spiral ever downward.

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