The Ventlock Chamber

The chamber opens like a swallowed bell of black iron and wet stone, its walls veined with red ore that catches torchlight like dried blood. Minecart tracks loop across the floor and vanish under a film of pale green haze that clings low and seems to breathe from the stone itself. Around several iron-grated vents lie the bones of miners, their rusted helmets still bent toward the floor as if they died trying to seal something below, while a reinforced door stands at the far end with fresh scrape marks and a dead, airless silence behind it.