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.