The spiders lead you down the corridor and out into the room at its end. The sound of birds screeching is now quite loud, and the floor is thick with what you take to be their droppings. The smell is overpowering.
The room itself is enough to give you pause. It is round, and fifty feet in diameter. To your right is the base of a wide ramp which spirals counter-clockwise around the room. This ramp circles the room at least three times--gaining twenty feet in height with each circuit--before it is lost high in the gloom beyond your lantern light. The inner edge of the ramp is lined with columns, and the whole structure is intricately vaulted. The overall effect is one of dizzying magnificence.
Here at ground level, the central part of the floor is flat, but is mounded with obscure filth plastered in bird droppings. Another exit leads out to the south, but Gragor takes you up the ramp. The innermost portion of it, where the turning is tighter and the upward slope is steeper, is carved to form stairs. The outer portion is smooth except for the grooves cut long ago by what you presume were the wheels of ancient wagons.
The spiders swarm up and down the columns and among old webbing strung here and there, impatient with your pedestrian route. After the first full circuit of the room, Gragor rushes in close to hiss over the sound of the birds: “Cover the lantern!”
This seems like a terrible idea, until Elendil sees the reason and points it out. Across the room, another one and a half times around the spiral, a dim glow can be seen.
“Must be goblins in there. You’ll have to sneak past,” explains the spider king.
The group traverses this next loop and a half in near total darkness, feeling the way up the twisting stairs and wondering what the spiders might be doing nearby. This brings you to a place where a cavernous archway leads west out of the spiral. The ramp continues upwards at least one more turn beyond this point, and maybe more.
You are all pressed against the outer wall of the ramp just to the north of this arch, looking at the light spilling out across the floor. It is a steady, whitish glow, not at all like firelight but not daylight either. Over the sound of birds, you can just make out some kind of shouting or other noise coming from within. You’ll have to get past this door if you want to follow the spiders farther upward. There’s really no fear of being heard--the background noise is incredible--but the light is bright enough that you’ll be in plain view of whatever might be inside as soon as you go any further.
Next to the arch where you are hiding, is a stylized statue of a strange, humanoid creature about four feet tall. The figure stands on a pedestal with its back against the wall. It carries an axe and wears a long, braided beard. It has curious sunken eye sockets, in one of which Med notices a polished stone about the size of a marble that appears to be loose.
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