The Torchlight Text Edition - A part of the Chronicles of Arborell gamebook series - Fantasy gamebooks, gamebook companion novels, web serials, journals, Atlas of Arborell, and other supplementary gamebook materials.

Section 43
room type: a long vaulted hall
exits: ahead
indicators: none

The Pillars of Dissolution

(Draw once then remove from game)
In the darkness you come to a halt and listen. From directly ahead there rumbles a terrible grinding of stone upon stone, and the flicking slash of metal as it slices air. It is difficult to tell what the sounds are, but as you move closer the noise increases in volume, the grinding clatter becoming a tremor that you can feel growing in the floor beneath you. Soon the noise is a deafening cacophony, and as you stand at the entrance to a long hall you see why.

The light of your torch reaches out, illuminating a vast hall, within which you can see two long lines of pillars. It is from these that the raucous melee of sound originates. All are huge, extending to the roof high above, and all are rotating upon stone platforms that spew clouds of stony grit into circles of dust at the base of each. Fastened to each of the revolving columns are a multitude of metal chains, upon the end of each a long metal blade. In the grinding shudder of the hall it is these swinging blades that focus your attention, the light of your torch reflecting off each in a strange glimmering dance that seems to have no purpose.

For a short time you stand transfixed, unsure as to what you should do. The slicing blades make an easy traverse of the hall impossible, but there is enough clearance at the base of the pillars to crawl through to the other side if you can avoid the mounds of grit.

The Torchlight Text Edition is the intellectual property of the author, Wayne F Densley, and all rights are reserved by him. Any questions regarding this title, or any other book in the Chronicles of Arborell series can be answered by emailing the author at densleyw@shoal.net.au