### 42

You detect the faint outline of dusty footprints leading across the chamber to the opposite door. You are eager to follow them, but your Kai Sixth Sense is making you feel uncertain that it is safe to do so.

You are fearful of setting off a floor trap, and so you draw upon your advanced mastery of Telegnosis to reduce your body weight to little more than a hundred grams. Then you set off across the chamber, taking care to tread only where there are footprints. You are within a few feet of the door when suddenly the entire floor falls away like a huge hinged trapdoor. You dive forwards and make a grab for the door handle. As you grasp its iron ring, you look down to see a yawning shaft filled with water at its base. Suddenly you hear the sound of giant stone cogs and the rattle of heavy chains. You glance upwards to see that the ceiling is beginning to descend. As it moves closer, you can tell that it is not stained with soot after all. It is dried blood, the blood of countless men who have unwittingly fallen victim to this devilish trap.

You twist the iron handle and, to your relief, the door swings open. Desperately you haul yourself through and slam the door shut, barely seconds before the descending ceiling closes off this portal completely.

To continue, turn to 209.