Travelling to the prison castle, or at least what was left of the prison castle, was a rather uneventful trip. Something Laurena was perfectly fine with, the excitement would come when they entered the dungeon. They had even passed by a small stream, although none of the others had shared her enthusiasm about finding it, making the party keep moving without a proper analyses. Laurena's perturbation vanished as the ruins came into view. The tower was no longer standing proud, as some had claimed. Crumbling stones and creeping vegetation was the only hint that a proud structure once stood here.

An excited look in her eyes, Laurena hurried to the fallen stones, running her hands above the rock and whispering words of detection. The stone responded with a faint glow in some places, but quickly faded. There had been some magical attempts to reinforce the stones, yet they had obviously failed. Still, magic used here likely meant more used below. All the more reason to delve deeper then.

Laurena's companions put forth their opinions of how best to enter the castle. Although she wasn't fond of the idea of breaking through the ruins, nature did seem to have done most of the work already. The wall, or what was left of it, was riddled with holes and it would be trivial to pass through one of them. "That gap to the left looks fairly passable." Laurena said, gesturing towards where a tree had helped displace stone in its death. "Though I am loath to miss whatever architecture may be left of the entrance. As far as going down, I can detect any remaining magic, though I'm not sure about more...conventional traps. I'd prefer to stay somewhere up front so none of you trip anything nasty."

Tanya considered the suggestions for a moment. Stock was fairly simple, Tanya herself carried what she would need(her armor and weaponry was incredibly light in spite of appearances, allowing her to easily carry small supplies without much hassle), and she was sure everyone else had done the same. Of course, she was not completely used to travelling with bigger parties, the few times she had was for raids on slave-trading camps or destroying mass amounts of undead. Those times were short, and her companions were entirely Reon-aligned paladins or priestesses. Other times she had a travelling companion, but it was not quite like this. As for a formation...

"If you desire to line yourselves up in some asinine and rigid position, I'll hardly stop you," she remarked, shrugging her shoulders as she advanced towards the ruined tower. "I rather prefer the freedom to take whichever position a situation warrants. The only formation I'd ever suggest is those less suited to direct combat staying in back. Anything else is going to be unsatisfactory to someone."

That was the small paladin's opinion on that, at least. The words on the tower itself being full of entrances, well... it wasn't untrue. Tanya had naturally been inclined to look for a more direct entrance, but it would perhaps be more advisable to find a spot that may not be trapped... when the water mage mentioned the gap to the left, the small girl's purple eyes traveled to the spot she had indicated. Indeed, the hole seemed large enough to occupy any one of them.

Approaching it and peering inside, Tanya quickly found that it was so dark she could barely see. What she could see was that the entrance was further up, brighter then the darkness she was staring down into... and that the steps were quite steep, as it appeared that entering from this spot would lead to quite a drop. The air was musty and thick, and she could smell hints of a much fouler scent wafting from deeper in the prison-castle.

"Well, we could get in from here," began the purple-haired paladin as she leaned back out of the hole, "But unless we have some rope or, Reon's blessing, a ladder, you'd have to be an idiot to attempt the jump."

"Well, You're the boss." Jon shrugged.
He was used to going into formation. Maybe it was a bad habit from his knight days... Regardless, being able to change the formation at a moment's notice would be useful, probably. The paladin inspected a hole in the tower and asked for rope, which Jon actually had. Rope was useful for a variety of things, and he was glad he had some.

"I have some good rope here." He said, taking it out of his pack.
He looked around for a minute and found a stable-looking rock in the ground. He tied the rope to it and unravelled it to its full length.
"Right, any volunteers? Otherwise, I'll go in first." He said to the group.

Teri answered the call for volunteers by grasping hold of the end of the rope and looking over into what, to a human, was barely-visible darkness. Tanya's summation of what she could see was correct, though missing that the staircase was cracked in places and had holes. It wasn't enough on its own to be a dangerous drop, but if you lost your footing or landed in one of the holes... well, a twisted ankle would probably be the least of your possible concerns as you went tumbling down.

The Nem descended down to stair-level, then stepped away from the rope. "It's just a steep staircase, but be careful where you step!"

Someone else would probably have said 'bring a torch', but being able to see in the dark made that a less obvious concern.

Glanced down the hole after Teri the brave - or foolhardy - Nem went disappeared down into the darkness. Laurena could see her shape moving faintly in the shadows, however it was hard to make out any details. "I guess I'll head down next, before the rest of you muck up any interesting residues." She paused for a moment, fondling the rope and looking down. "I would say to get a light, but I'm not a huge fan of heights. might be better if I don't think I'm going to fall to my death.

Then gathering her nerves, she lowered herself over the side, imitating the maintenance workers who would hang from the walls back at Meridan. Hand over hand, walking down the wall. Of course, it had seemed a lot easier in theory than it was in practice. And the workers were attached to the rope by some kind of harness, so they didn't have to support their entire weight. They were a lot higher up though, with a lot more room to fall, and how am I not at the bottom yet? As if responding to her thoughts, the ground soon met her feet. Lacking good nightvision, she couldn't make out much at all.

"Give me a second and I'll get some light!" she called back to the rest of the party, then summoned a glowing blue ball. The light was distorted, casting rippling patterns on the wall which made it seem as though they were underwater. While light magic certainly wasn't her specialty, Laurena could make do. As much as it pained her to admit it, she would prefer some light from a torch as well, as the prospect of lighting the entire trip seemed rather exhausting.

"Well, alright. I guess it's my turn." Jon said, stretching his arms.
Once that was done, he took his torch in his right hand and snapped the fingers of his left hand above it, lighting the torch with the built-in flint and steel he had on his gauntlet. The flame ate the torch head and grew to a steady, bright flame. He then switched it to his left hand and grabbed the rope.
"See you down below." He said to the remaining party members as he climbed down the rope.

As he descended into the dark tower, he took a moment to appreciate the brickwork. It was stable enough to not collapse in the decades it'd gone unattended. That said, it might've been the work the dark forces located within... Jon reached the bottom quickly and jumped down, joining the other 2 members of the party who were already in. He drew his broadsword and lifted his torch to see where they were. They were apparently at the bottom of some kind of staircase, near a doorway that led to who-knows-where.
"Well, I can't say I'm disappointed." Jon remarked.
The place had an old and eerie atmosphere, accentuating a sense of danger lurking somewhere beyond the door. He was sure that there were some dead adventurers ahead somewhere...

"You can come down and join us any time!" Jon called out above.

Ever thoughtful and deliberate, Kaghad was happy to let the others' precede his own descent. No dwarf favored heights, and the crack in the ground appeared less inviting than most, but the blacksmith consoled himself by affirming that without his aid, this party of younglings wouldn't make it past the first spike trap.

One by one the other adventurers descended. First went the most diminutive member of the party, displaying clearly a courage that defied her size. Next went the magician who, after a comment that Kaghad interpreted as both joking and snarky, proved herself a kindred spirit to the dwarf by declaring her dislike of heights. Kaghad watched, leaning upon his hammer, as she disappeared into the grasping darkness. Jon followed her only after lighting his torch with a set of flint and steel in his gauntlet, which, though certainly a neat trick for more mundane craftsmen, failed to impress the master dwarf. With three members of the squad down, and no gut-wrenching screams issued forth, Kaghad decided that his turn to make the climb had arrived.

Though small, he was stocky, heavily geared, and not very agile, so the trip down for him turned out to be the longest. By and by, however, his boots touched solid ground again. "Noice," he remarked to Jon, gesturing to the man's torch. The trace of a ghastly pong assaulted his nostrils, causing him to wrinkle his nose in distaste. Why must subterranean places always exhibit some sort of stink? Did they always need dwarves to make it habitable? Still, Kaghad felt closer to the earth in his natural habitat, and he swept his gaze around the staircase and door. Without hesitation, he strolled over to it, inspecting its mechanism for locks with rheumy eyes.

Alrik watched the others descend into the crack, one by one. Kaghad was the last to go, and Alrik decided that it was his turn next. He took a quick glance behind him at the surrounding area, as one could never be too sure about an ambush in places such as these, but saw no danger. He grasped the rope and slid.

His boots hit the stone floor with a soft thud. The musty smell assaulted him immediately, though thankfully the room was already lit thanks to Laurena's magic and Jon's torch. Alrik searched the walls of the room for a moment before he spotted a sconce. He walked over to it, pulled the torch out, and then went over to Jon and held out the end.

"Can I get a light, friend?"

As each of the party members proceeded through the hole, using the rope to climb down, Tanya swiftly followed. She was not about to waste any time, only waiting until there would not be two people climbing down the rope at once. She didn't want to risk the rope snapping. Tanya herself was rather light, and her armor was enchanted to be the same way, but two people on a rope at once was not exactly ideal. The moment she heard the final of them land below, she too climbed into the darkness. Well, at least until she finished crawling down the rope. The light the mage had generated illuminated the staircase. While it was somewhat worn and had several damaged steps and cratered patches of stone, it was otherwise quite stable, if stupidly steep. The purple-haired paladin glanced down it, as distantly as she could see until everything faded into darkness.

As the foul air wafted up from the inky blackness, the small girl waved her hand. "It's certainly foul in here. I can tell there's undead deeper, I can't mistake that scent for anything else."

Naturally, the rank stench of mindless undead was immediately identifiable to the paladin, as she had previously slain so many. Flesh-craving, shambling corpses had fallen to her blade by the dozens. They were only a threat in particular numbers, and a bite from one of them was bound to carry with it unpleasant infections. It was for such a reason that Reonite apothecaries were often deployed on missions to locations known to be inhabited by the revolting creatures. Tanya felt you had to be quite a fool to allow one to bite you, and had never suffered a bite herself. Oh, certainly, they had slapped and punched at her, but that was hardly enough to harm a Paladin of Reon. "Can any of you determine if this staircase is trapped? I would prefer not to proceed down like a rambling pack of loons without determining if it is."

Kaghad's inspection would not yield information on where the door lead, though given it was higher up it was likely that it lead to the surface. However, the lock contained a strange mechanism of gears. It seemed as if anyone who attempted to pick it or tamper with it would promptly have an incredibly sharp spike ejected from the lock and into any number of sensitive areas. The spike could be ejected from both sides. Determining if the door itself was trapped was another matter.

"Here you go." Jon said, sharing his torch flame with the large man.
The flame leapt up to the other torch, and soon, it burned as brightly as Jon's own.
"Well, the more the merrier." Jon remarked, before turning to the door that lead deeper into the dungeon.

Boy did it smell; it smelled like rotting corpses. Clear evidence that there were undead, among the other things. He was glad he had some fire (compliments of a torch), and he had some oil in his backpack. That said, they'd have to rely on the paladin to purify the more obstinate zombies, but that didn't mean that the rest of the party couldn't do anything...

Jon drew his broadsword and walked ahead of the others.
"Well, I'm sure none of you are quite too fond of that smell, so I'll be going first." He said, stepping boldly out. "I'd appreciate it if you walked behind me, paladin."
Jon stepped up to the doorway and stared into the looming darkness, holding up his torch to see better. Even then, he couldn't see much. No bodies, however, which meant that there wouldn't be any traps, or the traps ahead would be obvious. Without hesitation, he took a step forward into the darkness beyond.