### 290

You leave the chamber and enter the hall beyond, pausing only to close the iron door behind you. There are no other bandits lurking in this hall, and when you scour its walls and furnishings, you realize that it is a mess chamber used by Xaol’s bandit mercenaries and guards. Stale fragments of food litter the tables, and the acrid smell of wine and torch oil hangs in the clammy air.

There is a trapdoor located near a tunnel exit from this hall, and on closer examination you discover that it covers a chute. Judging from the foul stench arising from this opening, you determine that the chute must descend directly to a cesspool located somewhere deep below the fortress blockhouse.

If you wish to search this hall, turn to 333.

If you choose to leave the hall via the tunnel exit, turn to 55.