They continue onward through a long winding stretch of tunnels. Everything is pitch black. The walk is many thousands of feet long. This section of caves is definitely different, but in many ways it's just the same.

The intersection of four tunnels forms a sizable cave here. The domed ceiling rises to a height of twenty feet, while near the center of this cave stands a monument made of polished black basalt, seven-sided with the same great rune carved on each face. Strange albino insectoid creatures, each the size of a man’s finger, scuttle and scurry along the walls. Their numbers were much reduced by Yanor's fireball. 

Yanor orients himself using the pillar and points at another tunnel. "That one leads to our destination."

Her new Dancing Lights, left a bit over one hundred feet ahead, gives her a good enough view to see anything coming well in advance. It's comforting to have so much information, definitely worth the regular recasting. She lets the lights, humanoid-shaped this time, lead the way down Yanor's corridor.

The corridor extends for thousands more feet. Eventually, it becomes a maze of clearly artificial tunnels. There's still no lighting.

Yanor stops them once they reach the maze. "Everyone, listen up. This place is supposedly under an enchantment that will confuse our sense of direction. I have a path that leads to the entrance. We must follow it. We will feel like we're going the wrong way."

That does explain why Yanor is so confident there will still be valuable things here. Can she see this enchantment under a Detect Magic? She can follow him while doing that, right?

There's a strong enchantment starting a dozen or so feet ahead of her. It stretches far into the tunnels beyond.

The moment she steps inside the area, she ceases being able to visualize the space. She can't visualize any space at all. She can't remember what direction she came from. The walls and floor shift unnaturally as she walks. It's hard to stay upright.

Wow that's terrible. She will not keep the Detect Magic up. She will instead spend as much of her attention as she can spare on not falling over, and the rest on following Yanor. Spending spare focus on anything else at all seems like a good way to fall over and forget how to stand back up.

(Also, another permanent spell of at least seventh circle. Don't spells get more expensive to make permanent as they get to a higher circle? How much money was spent on setting this thing up? Sorshen must have had a lot of diamond dust, unless this spell is naturally permanent. There must be a buyer for the Detect Magic sketch of a new permanent protective spell like this, especially if it's naturally lasting, though finding that buyer might be hard.)

Yanor leads them through the maze. Everyone is holding hands and walking slowly in a line. He's reading and following instructions from his notebook. The enchantment warps the space. It shifts between feeling like they're making no progress, going in circles, and walking backwards. At one point they appear to emerge in the troglodyte caves, but it must have been a trick of the mind. Why can they see the sun? Who conjured the tigers? Is that old man offering her dinner really—

"We're here." They've stopped in the center of a three-way junction. "Let's take a minute."

Julen is clutching his head. "That was horrible..."

She eventually figures out how to put one foot in front of the other. That takes focus. Dealing with the sudden appearance of the sun, the nonsense which is this place's apparent connections, and everything else quickly becomes too much for her. Lhín will say if there's anything actually important. Until then, she will follow and hold hands.

—And she will catch Julen when he almost falls. She almost fell earlier, this spell is just like that.

She too sighs with relief when Yanor says they have reached the exit. Her ability to move in a straight line doesn't feel like it has recovered, but hopefully it will sometime soon. If she's stuck like this for hours, any threats in here will be much harder to deal with.

Lhín, on the other hand, has been having an excellent time watching her elf and the humans stagger and stumble around her. She isn't having any issues! She helps guide them, of course. She can read Yanor's maps, and she's probably better at it than he is in here. Tencednil can still sense the amusement off her the whole time.

Yanor pulls out a page emblazoned with runes. "I will hold this out when we enter. When combined with the command word it should get us through the entrance."

The endless maze gives way to a chamber of worked stone, with walls made of blue-veined white marble. The ceiling is supported by columns masterfully sculpted to depict nude voluptuous warrior women wielding two-headed guisarmes, each column unique and strikingly detailed. They are, however, slightly damaged. At the back of the room is a set of seamless double doors formed from black metal.

He leads them inside—

The heads of the statues turn to gaze at him.

He speaks a few words in a strange language and holds out the page.

They continue to watch him but do not otherwise move.

She follows closely. She remembers the notes on these things. Immune to magic like a golem, harder than most steel so a solid strike is likely to break your weapon as well as the columns, and of course as highly resistant to impact as stone usually is. There is absolutely no reason to risk a fight here.

Yanor walks up to the doors and speaks another command word.

They slide open silently. Beyond them is a void of total darkness.

"This is it. The doors will stay open with that command. Julen, tie down the rope."

Julen unspools his length of rope and hammers a piton into the stone floor. He ties one end off.

"Follow me down!" Yanor grabs the other end and disappears into the void. The rope unspools further on its own and races through the darkness with him.