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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2008 All Rights Reserved
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542
 With no time to delay you take the left passage and run into the darkness. Behind you the Druhl hammers away at the edges of the entranceway but the spectral creature can no longer be your concern. Although tired from the rigours of your quest you find the energy to keep a brisk pace and in the half-light of the passageway move further into the stone of the mountain.
The passage proves to be a roughly cut tunnel, following the course of a layer of stone that rises by degrees along a winding path strewn with fallen stone and deep drifts of dust. Only the gleam of a few veins of luminous crystal lights your way but it is enough to illuminate the passage and in its dull glow you keep up a steady run, though struggling against the dust and unstable footing.
After a good hour of travel the need to rest and take food brings you to a halt. Within a small niche in the stone you find a position against one of the walls and relax. The Druhl has been left far behind and in the quiet you consider your position, searching your pack for food before settling down to rest.
(If you have food you may take some at this time. The usual increase in endurance should be recorded if you eat. If you have no food or Nahla bread in your possession at this time deduct one point from your endurance to account for the additional fatigue you must now endure.)
In the silence of the passageway you rest, no sound or sign evident that there is any living thing close. Your diversion through this underworld beneath Stoneholme has left you bruised and beaten but you can sense that the object of your quest is close. You cannot tell if it is the call of the Tellandra itself or just a gut feeling, but as you let your body recover the certainty grows within you that the Deep Vault is somewhere ahead, and that you are indeed going the right way.
When you feel more able to return to your task you stand and check the passage behind you. In the distance you can hear the Druhl, but the sounds are muffled and indistinct, and knowing that the spectral beast is still a threat return to following the passageway.
Before long you find a worn set of stairs and then upon their upper threshold a small square chamber. This chamber is definitely Dwarvendim made and at its end stands a further exit, the remains of an iron portcullis barring any way forward. Quickly you approach the bars and find them rusted to the point of ruin. With one hand you grasp the lower edge of the grill and pull it upwards, the decrepit bars snapping and bending as you force the portcullis out and then back upon itself. In a spray of metal particles and dust you force your way beyond the bars, brushing centuries of grit and rust from your clothing as you look into a long hallway that stretches some distance ahead. In the shadows you feel all the stronger that you are close to your goal, but as you look down the corridor you wonder how much farther you must travel. The collar at your neck is an insistent reminder that time is running short.
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This book, and its associated books and other documents in the Chronicles of Arborell series are the intellectual property of the author, Wayne F Densley, and all rights are reserved by him. Windhammer is best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution. Any questions regarding the Chronicles of Arborell can be answered by emailing the author at densleyw@shoal.net.au
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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2008 All Rights Reserved
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