You find yourselves in what can only be described as the "heart" of dungeon level 3. It feels cliche to use the word "cavernous" but there you have it. Not only does this cavern have a high ceiling, but someone has expanded vertically downwards, by digging (this is not a natural formation; you can see the pick marks). Your lantern isn't strong enough to see the bottom of the pit, or the opposite side, but to give you an idea of the pit's scale, you could drop an entire house into it. Near your current location (area 10) you see a ramp, spiraling down into the darkness. There are parallel grooves worn into the stone ramp, like mining carts making thousands of trips up and down from the pit over many decades.
From down in the pit-mine comes a gentle 'sloshing' sound, like ocean waves against the pier on a calm day. There is a rotting 'low tide' smell in the air. Based on your mental map, you estimate that the bottom of the pit-mine would be similar 'low' elevation to Kiplyn's Sump (NE of area 9).
It's obvious from this angle that the giant spider webs are thickest around the oddly shaped stone spire (just NW of the number 3), so that's probably their lair. But there are enough individual strands scattered here and there throughout, to keep you on your toes, that you are still within the spiders' hunting grounds (as a potential wandering monster encounter).
What next? Three obvious choices that come to mind are, move clockwise around the edge of the mining pit, move counter-clockwise, or go down the ramp.
[f=59]
Stern (
Strong Hero, MV 9′′, AC 3, HD 4, hp 20, FC 4 men/hero, SV F4, L)[/f]