Left: around the bend

You decide to trust your instincts and turn away from the distant noise. Your colosseum idea might not be far off, maybe they were releasing monsters to chase you. The unpleasant thought spurs your stride till you're practically running around the corner and you almost tumble down the stairway beyond it. Hm. Down. Not ideal but you're not going back now. Steadying yourself on the wall, you tiptoe down the crumbling stairway and peer into the room beyond.

It's comparatively large, the ceiling vaulting high over your head and the far wall stretching out beyond the light of your torch. The sound of running water can be heard from the far side of the room. You hug the wall and edge around the room, who knew how stable this place was. Sure enough, a great chasm stretches across the center of the room almost from wall to wall. Curiously, an old rope bridge crosses the hole in the floor.

You are about to edge around the hole when you realize the stone path on the edge of the pit looks... different somehow. Newer maybe. It looks sturdier than the floor you're standing on. You chuckle in spite of yourself, "gee, I wonder which way I should go? The solid stone path or the rotting rope bridge? Hm..." Even as you say the words your confidence wavers: didn't it seem a little too convenient that someone had come down here and repaired part of the floor? It had to have been recent, the stones don't even look dusty. Of course, even if you were to listen to your paranoia and take the rope bridge it would probably disintegrate under you: the thing was ancient.