#Dungeon23 1-7: The Black Room

 It took almost half an hour to move all the furniture away from the door and then the thief spent several minutes examining each portion of the door before decaling it safe to open. So it was disappointing when the revealed passage was discovered to be only five feet long with a door at the far end. 
"They do love their connecting corridors", Marcus, our leader, muttered. The thief took her time again looking for traps before declaring this door safe as well. Surprisingly, this door was not locked and opened with a gentle push. 

Inside was a circular room, some 20' in diameter, crafted out of what seemed to be a giant block of jet black obsidian. A raised circular platform,  a foot high and five feet in diameter and also carved from black obsidian, sat in the room's exact center. Its border was ringed in what appeared to be white marble. 

Two dead ogres lay on the far side of the room, dead. Numerous stab wounds covered their bodies. A single dwarf lay under one of the ogres, crushed and also dead. 

"Over here!" the thief called to the rest of the group, and picked up a thick tome, charred from fire. The thief opened the book. "Buri! Maybe you can translate this?"

The dwarven cleric moved over alongside the thief. "Let me see. Yes. Dwarven script, again, from one of the more distant nations. Most of this is destroyed by fire, but I can pick out some of the phrases. Yes. Here. It says they were abducted - seven in all - and brought here. They explored the place, but found no way out. Some time passed. Then the ogres arrived. There was a battle, in this room - some sort of arrival chamber. The ogres were killed, but the dwarves were wounded badly. Most went to the cold storage chamber to hide. Two stayed behind to barricade the place. That is all."

"How could they not get out? the mage asked. It's right by the main gate. Unless..."

"A Trap!" the thief rushed out of the room, followed by the rest of the party. A few moments later, they were all in the entrance corridor, standing next to the remnants of the amber vine and armor.

"Well, we can still get out", Marcus said. "But what also bothers me is that they said seven..."

"...and we've found six corpses." finished the cleric. "One is still unaccounted for."

Marcus shifted his sworld belt and pointed down the main passage. "That way. It's really the only option left." With the fighter leading the way, the party passed deeper into the dungeon. 

One week down - fifty one left to go. Time to explore the right fork. The theme.. is death.