Ashes fell thick enough to choke anyone foolish enough to try and take the shortcut through the 'abandoned' necropolis. Sure the dead weren't actively roaming about anymore and sure it halved the journey by cutting through the mountain instead of taking countless winding, collapsing roads across it but the furnaces were hungry and they were still being fed.
It's impossible for people to avoid a danger that leaves no survivors to warn the rest of the world. The necropolis is only abandoned in name and only the dead walk there. If they happened to walk in alive and healthy then their deaths are on their own head.
Few manage to make it past the furnaces not before they choke on the falling remnants of the last few souls who thought they could make it out in one piece. Sometimes they manage to get out into the tombs, covering their faces with shirts, jackets and scarves and darting between the hands that feed the furnaces.
They never make it out alive though. The necropolis is where the dead remain - if anything got out the other side then it might as well let them all out. Let the air fill with ashes and burn down any who aren't fast enough, let them fall into open graves and sink into bottomless catacombs.
Let them drown in bones.
Let them choke on ash.
Just don't let them leave.
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