The harsh cacophony of the fall seemed to Ondoher like a funeral bell marking the failure of their expedition..

"Wonderful!" he said, his tone not what one could call optimistic. Nevertheless there was a rueful somewhat strained grin on his face, as he waved away the dust rising from the wreckage of the chamber.

"Someone tell me that wasn't the only way down."

After the dust had settled, Hammrin surveyed what was left of the chamber. Nodding his head and making an affirmative grunt as if to say, `I told you so' he noticed the chamber was still very unstable. "I suggest we find some solid ground, I don't want to be here when this hole starts to fill up with more rubble," said Hammrin in a low voice; afraid his mere words would bring down the roof.

Horace slipped back into the room, "Nothing like ringing the doorbell when you’re going to rob the place!" He walked over to the right wall and looked at the fissure that he had spotted earlier. He looked around and saw Ondoher, "Mr Ondoher could you give me a turnbuckle boost, up there?" he pointed to the ceiling. "It maybe a back way in...."

Ondoher nodded at Horace's words and fell to one knee cupping his hands before him for a platform. "The creatures are dead, strangely despite this they have more than achieved their goal."

He grinned and added, "Get your balance first Master Hobbit, we wouldn't want you falling to your death from my shoulders."

Ondoher winked, the suggestion of a grin playing around the grim lines of his face. His greying hair made him look older, the wink and the half grin doing a great deal to allay that impression.

Rav said, “I really, really hope we don’t need to go down there now, the lift would have made it so much easier, oh well at least none of us was hurt.”

Feral swore under his breath as he turned to watch the room vanish.

When Horace made the suggestion of the crevice he simply nodded then turned his attention to his blades, cleaning them on a rag. He wasn’t going anywhere until an option was presented to him that didn’t involve a very long drop to his death.

Horace stuck his head up into one of the fissures at the far right end of the room. His mind window winked up for those wishing to see it.

There was an opening in the ceiling. The opening was about 10' up and ran for about 2' being 1' wide at its widest point. The rocks all about it were cracked and didn't look too stable. With Ondoher's help he was able to poke his head through.

This must have been the missing part of the cradle room. A circular room much like where the party were in had the remains of one of the dwarven wards in its centre. The ward looked to have been sheered. The other part of the ward should have been where the original hole in the cradle room was. On the far side of the newly discovered room was a 10' wide and 7' passageway that led on and down into the darkness.

Balanced carefully on Ondoher's broad shoulders, Horace reached into his blouse and pulled out the small bundle of fur, the others had come to know her as Sally. Whispering quietly in its little pink ear he placed the shrew carefully in the fissure and then turned to the rest. "Sally will look for a way in. Without the cradle, it looks to Mrs Winebride's son that this other chamber offers the only way into this mountain. Hopefully Sally can find a way big enough for those of us who aren't hobbit sized! Mr Ondoher are you okay with me staying here a while longer?" The rodent scurried forward into the chamber beyond.

Ondoher exhibiting his usual Dunadan stoicism replied, his voice strangely gentle, the voice of a courtier, or perhaps a physician.

"A while longer? Yes, Master Horace, as long as you need."

Hammrin’s spirit lifted when looking through Horace's mind window he saw a corridor leading down and away. Seeing the remains of the dwarven ward and reading everyone's thoughts who permitted him, he now understood that there was an ancient evil which was once bottled up, but now free. As he pondered this information he doubted that there would be another way down into the pit before them, as the ward was probably placed on the only entrance. The question he asked himself was not if there was another way down, but if there was any need to go down.

"Friends," said Hammrin, "this chamber has shifted while I believe the chamber Sally is heading to has not. I'd suggest we get in there for our own safety."

Hammrin watched his brother dangle and grasp at the air across the chamber as if trying to follow the crank down the shaft. Shaking his head in disapproval he thought, `Stay off the crank my brother, it just leads to a deep dark shaft of despair.' Somehow a headless, mindless, gutless zombie dwarf hooked on crank seemed about right.

The little Shrew returned soon and Horace looked intently at her and then carefully picked her up and placed her in his blouse, "You did well Sally-girl now sleep..."

He looked down at Ondoher, "You can let me down now Mr Ondoher." After regaining his feet on the floor he addressed the rest of the party. "The only way though is that fissure, which is even too small for my svelte frame to fit. Mr Nerdsplitter perhaps you can find a way or I volunteer to be lowered into the shaft where perhaps another way forward can be found? Yes I know Mr Elenugeth, I said my Mum never raised me a hero but
this is not heroic, this is a job for a facilitator and that’s me. Whether I am scared or not." and he stood feet apart hands on hips.

Hammrin grunted in frustration at Horace's words. "Too narrow to climb through you say?" murmured Hammrin. "If there is no other fissure we could climb through then perhaps we could widen the one you sent Sally through. Look, the rocks around it are already cracked and about to fall," he said pointing to the fissure.

Hammrin's uneasiness about treading on unstable ground was readily apparent. "I'd hate to see you climb down and have either the roof or floor fall on top of you," he said. "Grab on to my rope here if you need to search around a bit more, I’ll anchor it to something solid." Hammrin offered his safety rope to anyone who might want to walk on the unstable floor in search of another exit.

Horace slipped out of his pack, he knelt on the floor and rummaged around inside for a few seconds, "Ah there it is!" He pulled out a very small climbing pick. Reorganising his pack he donned it again. Then looking at Hammrin he said, "Alright Mister Nerdsplitter, tell me were to hit this rock, in order to open us a hole. Just please make sure Mother Winebride won't be grieving for her son, after I am done!"

“If I may be so bold there will be no grieving this hour Master Hobbit!“ Merlothrien said “I have another idea, if you could just stand back a moment”
Merlothrien looked to where Horace had put sally only moments earlier and started to concentrate on the area.

Within moments, after a few words from the arcane language that people had heard him use before, there was a shifting in the rock and more cracks started to appear but this time they seemed to stop a certain distance and fill an area. The rock looked significantly weakened.

“Hmmm I think that should do it, Hammrin how do you hold to your namesake sir? I think that will need a bit of work but not half as much as it did previously, if someone will be so kind as to get to work on this, I’m going to see if it’s possible to get down another way at all while you have a look at this”

The room offered no obvious exits as Merly treaded about carefully. When he examined the hole nearest to the damaged ward he spotted twin parallel lines of piton sized holes running down the rock face. They extended past the range of his augmented vision.

Suddenly the section of floor Merly was standing on crumbled away into the hole and Merly tumbled down into the darkness.

Horace leapt with grace and speed to the edge of the hole, spreading himself flat on the unstable floor, throwing his right hand with the climbing pick out he dug it deep into the strongest rock he could find. He peered over the edge and yelled, "Mr Merly, Mr Merly, answer me!" He whirled around to look at the others, "Mr Ondoher, Feral, Elenugeth, Nerdsplitter, anyone, help me!"

A gasp escaped Feral’s mouth as he watched the Elf and floor fall downwards. But there was little he could do to stop it. He hoped the mage could pull something out of the hat before the hat, the elf and the ground came to an abrupt, and messy meeting.

Hammrin watched Merly suddenly drop as the section of floor gave out. He braced himself as he stood holding his safety rope, waiting for it to tighten and bear the weight of the fallen wizard. But the rope never tightened. Hammrin rolled his eyes and sighed as he noticed his rope laying limp on the
floor.

As Merly fell he could hear Hammrin's words trail after him down the pit, "It works better if you hang ooooooooooon!"

Hammrin stared out across the pit as if in a trance. "This is a sad day indeed," mumbled Hammrin, "First my brother, and now my new friends
are...uh...they're...." Hammrin stopped speaking as he thought about the minions turning Merly into a zombie wizard who was gong to fly back up the pit and come after them. Shaking his head as if to dispel his nightmarish thoughts, he turned to Horace who was laying flat on the cracked floor. "Come back my little friend, I couldn’t bear it if you got hurt too, Merly is....gone" he said.

Hammrin put his sense of urgency on hold. He knew they must come together on a decision. Either try to break up the roof so they could climb up, or attempt to scale down the pit. But he would not press them while the situation with Merly was still too fresh in their hearts and minds and hadn’t sunk in quite yet.

Rav followed Merly’s actions via the stones link, suffering some vertigo as he fell, breaking the link at that point as did not want to see what a hard
landing looked like from the inside.

After a few moments Rav tried to see again through the link but Merlothrien’s mind window was shut or unable to be opened.

Rav thought aloud, “I wonder if it is safe to look at the piton holes, if they seem older than the shaft we then know that they are part of the old way down, if that’s the way we want or need to go"

After a few moments of almost deafening silence Merly's mind window popped up to all those who wished to look.

"Fear not master Hobbit I'm ok, just took a little fall that's all, but I'm fine, your mother was not the only one to tell their child not to be a hero you
know" the smile in his voice was apparent even though he could not be seen. "Although this IS interesting" he continued "it seems that someone or something has been down this shaft without the aid of the crank and cage after all take a look at these" he said looking up and down at a parallel row of piton holes. "Although by the look of things we're going to have to be very careful to get to these but it might prove with the right measures to be a safer and a darned sight quieter if we took this route"

"Let me know what you want to do, but make it quick I can't be floating about here indefinitely"

"Oh Mister Merly, I am so glad you’re alright!" replied Horace to the disembodied voice of Merlothrien. He then concentrated on the holes Merly
talked about, "I know I would be able to climb down with them, perhaps I can climb down and then up with a rope attached to the cage perhaps and then the bigger ones of us could use the cage again?"

He looked at the others, awaiting and answer.

Relieved that this was the Merly they all knew and loved and not the zombified version he feared, Hammrin quickly threw a rope out to Horace. "Tie on and throw a few pitons to Merly. See if he can secure them to the wall and run a rope through them before he comes back. Might as well make the most of this opportunity if we decide to climb down."

Hammrin braced for the floor to give way further and hoped Horace's little frame was light enough not to disturb the cracked stone beneath him.

Horace grabbed the rope. He reached behind him and took off his pack, carefully he removed several pitons and piton hammer and then tied them expertly into Hamrin's rope. "Okay Mr Merly you heard Mr Hammrin, bang a few pitons and tie the rope off!" With that Horace lowered the rope into the hole.

Merly flew upwards to grab the dangling items. He then glided over to the topmost holes and inserted the rods. He banged them in gently with the hammer and the fit looked good. Not too loose or too tight. Merlothrien then did his best at knot tying to secure the rope to them.

"Ok that’s ready" his mind window broadcasted as he rose out of the hole and landed back on a safe bit of the floor.