Jig gagged and scrambled to his feet. Riana still hadn’t picked the lock, but Barius’s patience had run out.

Darnak drew his club and moved to stand behind Riana. Ryslind remained where he was, resting against the far wall. His eyes were alert though, Jig noticed. He watched, not the door, but the other adventurers. Jig looked away.

Three bodies peering over Riana’s shoulder did nothing to help her concentration. Her pick slipped, and she turned to glare at the dwarf. “Bad enough that my head pounds from your ale. I don’t need your breath adding to my drunkenness.”

“Your pardon,” Darnak said, taking a step back.

Only Jig heard her mutter to herself, “This would be easier if I wasn’t seeing double. Hard enough to pick one lock, let alone two.”

Something clicked. Riana grabbed a second tool, a thicker, angled rod which she jabbed into the keyhole. Keeping the first pick in place, she turned the larger rod, and the door popped inward.

Riana scrambled back to avoid the door and fell with a loud “Oof.” Darnak stepped over her body, club held high.

“Nothing,” he said.

The others moved toward the doorway as Darnak raised the lantern, shining a beam of light down the corridor.

Where the goblin tunnels had been smooth obsidian, this hall shone with the same black marble as the room behind them. Large panels of marble covered floor, walls, even the ceiling. Only the threads of red in the marble and thin stripes of glittering silver mortar gave the passage any color.

The labor that must have gone into building these tunnels didn’t impress Jig as much as the fact that they were so clean. Not a trace of dust marred the gleaming tiles. After all these years, he would have expected the floor to lose its polish. Either the Necromancer used magic to maintain his domain, or else nobody ever walked these tunnels. Jig decided to believe the first explanation.

“Nice,” Darnak commented.

“Dangerous,” said Barius.

Jig looked up, confused.

“Each panel is wide enough to cover a pit, like the one we encountered above,” the prince explained. “We must be cautious.”

Cautious meant sending the goblin ahead to trigger any traps. As Jig moved to the front of the party, he consoled himself with the fact that Barius kept a firm grip on the rope trailing from his neck. If the floor did fall away, at least the human would be able to haul his choking body back out. Assuming, of course, that Jig didn’t break his neck in the fall.

Once again they made slow progress as a result of Darnak’s compulsiveness. The dwarf had taken it upon himself to draw each individual tile on his map. “If one of these squares hides a trap,” he explained, “we’ll be wanting to know which one.”