### 127

You clear the slab with one bound and press on along the winding tunnel. A warm, damp wind whistles along the rough-walled passage, carrying with it a rancid smell of sulphur and decay. For over an hour you walk down the tunnel, leaping over fissures in the uneven floor and taking care not to tread on glistening blue-black worms that slither away into cracks in the rock when your light invades their damp, dark world.

Eventually the tunnel opens out into an oval-shaped chamber. A staircase, festooned with cobwebs, ascends to an open trap door in the ceiling. The familiar pale green glow of the power-shield filters in through this portal. At the foot of the stairs lies the mouldering remains of a body partially encased in armour. A rusty sword is clenched in its skeletal fist, and a bone-handled dagger protrudes from the base of its skull.

If you wish to climb the stairs to the open trap door, turn to 93.

If you wish to examine the remains of the body more closely, turn to 199.

If you wish to leave the chamber and continue along the tunnel, turn to 318.

Text copyright © 1986 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1986 Gary Chalk.