The Keystone Room

The party arranged themselves in single file. Astra, holding the map, led the way. Checkers, having reassembled her spear, held the weapon in her right hand and an unlit torch in her left, anticipating a fading of the light. Sir Fred followed, his sword ready. Belboz was in the rear, with carrying a pack containing things that nobody else knew about.

As the group left Belboz's chamber, the light dimmed, but everyone could still see. This room appeared to have been hewn out of the rock. The wall opposite Belboz's chamber appeared to be somewhat longer than the wall nearest to it. The two walls connecting them met the opposite wall at an acute angle, and met the wall nearest Belboz's chamber at an obtuse angle. The shape of the room matched that on the map, like that of a four- sided keystone. There appeared to be some piles of rocks and debris in this room, but the group was able to navigate these easily.

As Astra approached the wall, she could see her first problem. There was no door, nor obvious way out. A pile of small boulders, each about the size of her head, lay in the center of the wall. There was also a long, rusted rod of iron jutting out of the wall.

Astra looked at Belboz, as if waiting for an answer, and Belboz shrugged his shoulders. He was going to let them struggle.

Fred tried lifting one of the boulders from the pile, and managed to shift it a little, but could do no more. Apparently they had adhered to each other in some way. Checkers was examining the thin, cylindrical, iron rod and the adjoining wall, looking for some clue as to how to get it out, or if it were attached to anything, suspecting that it might open a path to the Arsenel. "The iron bar appears to more promising than that pile of boulders," thought Astra, as she joined Checkers. Astra kept one eye on Belboz, though, anticipating that he was going to perform some underhanded action.

1. Astra and Checkers discover something important about the iron bar.
2. Belboz withdraws something from his pack.

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