In a while, you find yourselves stumbling through the twisted webway of dark, humid tunnels. It's hard to keep the pace with the three sentinels, who apparently know every step the way already.
Each of them moves in perfect silence, not speaking, not even whispering, not giving out a sigh or a sound of steps. The only things you hear are drops of water falling from the ceiling somewhere in the distance.
Your backs nearly freezing from the tension, you would promise that there's that skittering again, lurking at the treshold of hearing.
Finally, you enter some round, enormous cave stuffed with litter of ruined buildings - apparently a settlement that caved in long ago, now abandoned and wasted. In the distance, behind the site, a few lights flash.
"Password!", you hear a voice like thunder, from the top of one of insecure towers overhead.
"Sickness. Response!", Brom barks out.
"Seeping. You may pass, but make it quick. We've noticed some junk-eaters scoutin' around half a cycle ago. Who's it wif ye?"
"Off-world folks, but dey seem decent. Needin' help or stuff.", the patrol leader explains.
So you proceed forward, leaving the wasted buildings behind you. There's silent humming in the air, growing in power as you walk towards two torches - made of malformed human skulls.
Behind it, a few large tents circle a small place with an ominous statue in the middle. It somehow resembles a black knight from old-timer tales... or a battle-ravaged Space Marine? You can see a round rift in the ground barred with wooden bars at the statue's feet.
There also are two wooden huts, one to the left, the other to the right. The left one seems loud and crowded from the inside. Perhaps a tavern of some kind. The right one is more mysterious - the light in only window sheathed in silk is dim and the walls are covered in ivy.
A few shady people wander around uselessly, regarding you with intrigued stares. They all seem dirty, poor and dangerous.
