After having ascended to the roof of the architect building and enjoyed the view for a moment, dAnkan shepherds you down the stairs again. You get the impulse to ask dAnkan why you are walking down more steps than you took up; why the stairs transition from concrete to brick to natural stone; why the electrical lights disappear and give way to burning torches; but you assume that this duck probably knows what they are doing. However, after having descended two hundred meters and passed countless forgotten architectural projects you hear dAnkan clear their throat a bit embarrassed.
“It appears that we may have gone too far… But fret not! We will just turn around and walk back up the stairs.”
You see dAnkan turn around and manage to take a single step before a pair of ornamental tunnel-supports collapse a bit further up the staircase. When the dust has settled it is evident that that way is no longer passable.
“Who the quack let students design such vital infrastructure?”, dAnkan grumbles crankily. “So, does anyone have a plan for how we are getting out?”
“Shouldn’t you as a guide have that?”, asks the Know-it-All.
dAnkan is just about to give a clever, witty, and well-written reply when another person in the group points out a mineshaft which is decorated with the sign “Library basement.”
“We could go in there. It should have a way up into the library proper!”
“Hmm, yes, that should work. But librarians are cunning creatures. Whatever they have locked into the basement they have probably locked up for a good reason. We will therefore have to find both the exitdoor and the code they use to unlock it. It may be anywhere, so we should split up.”
“I don’t know dAnkan, it looks pretty s-scary in there”, asks a wimp.
“If you want to stick around this tunnel and become raw material in some architect student’s master’s thesis then be my guest, but this will be fine. Just remember: librarians cannot hurt you unless you first hurt one of their books. It’s an oath they take, or something.”
[This challenge is a MUD(Multi-User Dungeon)! Follow the instructions below to play the MUD.]