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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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Tenser and Ehlissa were both invigorated by the sense of lurking danger Yrag imparted on them. They unfastened the torches from inside Yrag's shield and laid the sticks on the ground. Producing flint and steel from her belt pouch faster than Tenser could, Ehlissa handed him pieces before taking some in hand for herself. Ehlissa bent low over the torch, striking steel on flint as fast as she could over the burlap covering the pitch on the torch. Tenser took the time to pull up a handful of weeds and spread them over the end of the torch for tinder. He dawdled as he worked at his torch, glancing up after every other strike to see if an ogre would appear in answer to the noise. Ehlissa quietly scolded the flint for taking so long to spark. As if in answer, a spray of sparks set her torch to smoldering. Tenser gently laid some of his tinder atop it, and the fire was lit. Ehlissa gingerly picked up her torch and held it against Tenser's until the wrappings on his burned as well.

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Tenser and Ehlissa crossed the drawbridge and followed Yrag through the seemingly abandoned gatehouse.  Empty murder holes stared down on them.  There was no sign of any inhabitants, except by smell.

"What made that awful smell?" Ehlissa asked.

"Eigers, most likely," Yrag said. He emerged first into the bailey beyond the gatehouse and his eyes fixed straight on the ramparts above, watching for signs of danger.  "I have seen a few lurking about the upper ruins before."

"Eigers...ogres?" Tenser asked. "Giant shape-shifters?"

"No, lad, only in fairy tales. Ogres are no more magical than most folk, just a lot bigger and uglier."

"I'm not sure if our spells can handle ogres…" Ehlissa said, shrinking towards the gatehouse.

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Yrag surprised them both by turning and walking away from the castle.

"Shouldn't we...go in?" Tenser asked.

"We don't need the mule in there," Yrag said as he walked away.  "We need to backtrack a bit and find a place to leave her."

The area around the castle was a 'clearing' only in the sense that it was mostly treeless. It was a tangled thicket of brambles not unlike what they had crushed their way through a few miles back. They retreated 80 yards to a small grove of dead trees. Yrag pushed his way in, breaking some branches so he could pull in the mule behind him. After lashing the reins to a branch, Yrag emerged with a brace of torches in hand from his saddle bags.

"We can carry more provisions in if you like, or keep our initial foray short just to get a feel for the place," Yrag explained as he strapped the torches to the inside of his shield.

Tenser and Ehlissa looked at each other for guidance from the other, but after a short pause Tenser said, "Shorter is fine."

"Very good," Yrag said. "Then let's head back up to the gatehouse."

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It came slowly into view, stone by stone, from the tower, roofs, and parapets on down. It loomed larger and larger as they drew closer. Tenser and Ehlissa had seen castles before, and some larger than this, but there was still a sense of awe of this place.

That the castle was old was unquestionable. That it had endured the elements of many seasons was attested to by the eroded smoothness of some of the stones. That it had endured sieges was attested to by the cracks, holes, and scorch marks that scarred the rest of the stones.

And it was quiet and lonely. Terrifying in its apparent emptiness, moreso than if a bandit guard had been atop its walls, like back at the fort.

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Tenser won the argument, of which he was immediately quite proud. Yrag, after all, had seemed obsessively worried the whole trip with staying undetected or unnoticed. Even Ehlissa seemed to have been swept up in this strange desire for stealth. Tenser had gone along with it at first, but it had become increasingly tiresome as the long march through the rugged terrain continued. Right now, he did not care who they encountered. If an ogre blocked their path, and offered him a comfy chair and a cushion for his feet in its dungeon, Tenser would be tempted to take it up on its offer.

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