Noting that the party as a whole was moving on Ondoher returned his suspicious regard to the scene of forest and rock before him he shrugged once then backed off from the door till he was fully covered from being seen from outside. He turned sideways, shield facing the entrance, but kept a wary eye on it. Despite his plate armour Ondoher moved silently down the corridor to the rear of the party. Ondoher took a moment to see through the eyes of the hobbit, he whistled quietly to himself as the chasm came into view.

"Seems clear behind. The sight of a dancing dwarf elicited no choked laughter from hidden adversaries, so I'd say there was no-one there."

Thankful for the tasty berries and unsure where this party would want him to march, Hammrin stayed near the rear with Ishtar. He looked behind the party fairly often, mostly fearing some sort of a trap that would either crush them or shut them in.

He looked back in surprise seeing Ondoher had quietly taken position behind him. Hammrin put his finger to his lips and made a "shhhh" sound as he looked at Ondoher, as if he was making too much noise and that Hammrin had heard him the whole time. Then Ondoher's mind window opened up. "Drats!" thought Hammrin, "he knows I couldn't hear him, he read my mind! These gems take some getting used to."
Then he focused on what the scouts could see and hear. Listening to the metallic clinking noise he tried to discern what might be making the noise, perhaps his hobby as a Smith might help or the fact that he lived and worked in a dwarven society.

"Whoa thats a big span for a stone bridge" Rav then looked about some, paying attention to the direction of the rhythmic metal sounds

Hammrin focused on the metallic clinking noise too. The rhythmic tones sounded somewhat familiar he thought. Having been around dwarven engineering he could at least make an educated guess. "Perhaps there is a shaft up ahead, it sounds as if great chains are being pulled, possibly as part of a pulley system." He mentally asked the scouts how far across the bridge they could see and if it looked safe for the group to catch up to them.

Horace mentally whispered, still not used to mental communication, "Its about 160 feet Mr Hammrin....I can see the end of the bridge...."

Then he pulled out of his shirt a little bundle of fur and Elenugeth could make out some words and with responding squeaks from the shrew, "Alright Sally time to earn your pay m'dear. Go across this bridge and find the noise we can hear..."

Then he placed the bundle on the ground and watched it scuttle into the distance and darkness.....

Mentally, "Okay Sally is going forward to see what she can see.....I do hope she will be alright."

"Interesting.." mused Ondoher. "The only person with a useful spy familiar is not a users of magic. Now I can truly say I've seen it all."

He grinned...

"Well done there Master Horace, you 'are' full of pleasant surprises."

Merlothrien mentally yelled "Horace, stop her!! There's something not right about this and I'd rather we were prepared than have a tragedy, give me a moment then I'll be ready"

The party moved down the 300' so that they could join the scouts.

Merlothrien chanted the same words he spoke earlier when he retrieved the gem but this time seemed to be focusing upon Sally with his palm open as if ready to pick her up.

"You may release her now Master Hobbit, if you can kindly tell her to call out if she feels anything out of the ordinary and I'll hopefully be able to pluck her from it"

Elenugeth looked at the shrew then at the bridge.

"While I appreciate your thinking, regardless we're going to have to cross that bridge at some point and even the fair Ishtar weighs more than a shrew." Elenugeth looked to where Ishtar stood, via Hammrin's mind window, and looked down "although not by much" he answered hurriedly.

With that Elenugeth looked around for something to throw. Seeing nothing relevant he fished in his backpack for something. He found some lembas, scrunched it up and carefully threw it out across the bridge watching how they fell.

The crumbs had scattered out across the arched bridge, most of them skidding along until they came to a rest 12' along the bridge.

Sally began nibbling on them.

As the crumbs scattered across the bridge Elenugeth's attention snapped to the side of the bridge.

"Hmm that's strange," once again he rummaged for some rations and broke them up in his hand. With a sweep he threw them forward again, this time not onto the bridge but to where he was looking. As the crumbs fell past the bridge they didn't, as was expected, continue to fall but instead bounced before coming to a rest.

Slowly, as Elenugeth continued to throw crumbs, despite not being able to see anything, something flat and about 10ft wide could be made out. Judging by where
the crumbs bounced and came to rest it appeared that the invisible surface extended at least a further 20' across the chasm. Also there appeared to be invisible sides.

"So, any of you mage types able to help me see invisible, or am I going to have to turn the rest of my rations in to shrew snacks?" Elenugeth smiled at the shrew.

Ishtar's voice came across the link, "I can detect magical objects from the realm of essence. If this object we can see is enchanted with powers from that realm then it will reveal itself to me but to me alone. Perhaps then you could use my mind window to guide your own steps?

There are drawbacks however. I am estimating this chasm is over 120 feet across. I can only see half as far with my ability and only small spots at a time. Once my attention is removed from an area I will see it as you do now. I would need to shuffle forward in steps sweeping ahead of myself to be able to cover the whole span of this void before my will would be spent. Maybe I should have a rope bound about me?"

"If you're sure this would work then I guess we could try it, although I'm not sure I like the idea of the both of us trying this, there is risk enough for one as it is." Elenugeth smiled then frowned ruefully, "I don't mind risking my own skin but not yours, you'll be exposed and we have still to determine what the clinking noise we heard was."

The half elf turned back to the chasm again, "Mind you it's your skin and I hold no power over you, I will accept what aid your spells can give me but I'd rather take just halfway then rely on my own good judgement, if that fails I'll rely on luck instead and if that fails I'll just have to rely on Feral over there."

"Regardless, the way is clear, even if it is not!" Elenugeth dropped all his travel kit till in the end he was just standing with armour and weapons and a few trail rations tucked in his tunic.

"Look after this for me till I get back" he said to no one in particular, then taking a deep breath turned to Ishtar, "ok let's do this."

"Wait here, no point us all risking our necks." He indicated to the others.

Elenugeth quickly tied a line around himself then threw the other to Feral and grinned characteristically. "Hold this and don't let go, I don't bounce!"

Carefully the half elf approached the invisible area, firstly feeling the floor, then trying to feel out the the sides and walls then finally tapping upwards with his bow trying to find a ceiling.

"ok here goes nothing" Slowly the young half elf stepped out amoung the crumbs and moved forward.

Horace tried to stop Elenugeth before he made his way onto the bridge but he was small and the scout was too fast.

He thought to himself "Big people are so hasty! No wonder they get themselves in trouble so often! All I was going to do was have Sally see if we had unwelcome guests. I know dwarves are silly sometimes but I don't think they'd trap there only way in!"

"Sally, sally come back girl...." and he waited for the
little bundle of fur to return to him before he even contemplated follwing Elenugeth.

Hammrin read the inscription, "All that shines is not Mithril." "That's a shame!" he said. Yet an appropriate warning that things may not be what they appear to be he thought. Hammrin watched Sally nibble lembas crumbs on the stone bridge and felt a little rumble in his tummy. I've got to feed the dwarf within he thought. After a quick bite of bread and swig of water he walked over to the stone bridge and held out a few crumbs in his hand for Sally. "Horace, my friend, I wonder if Sally had a safety rope tied about her what would happen if she followed this bridge a while?" Hammrin looked at the stone bridge and where Elenugeth had scattered lembas crumbs in the apparent thin air and judged the distance between them. He wondered if someone could parallel Elenugeth with a safety rope as long as the bridge really was a bridge.
"I'll offer my services as an anchor to your rope my brave companions," he said to
Elenugeth and Ishtar. 'Or is it foolish companions?' he thought watching Elenugeth begin to take his first step into the abyss.

Ishtar considered Elenugeth's words for a moment then, hearing Hammrin's offer to be an anchor too, appeared to come to a decision.

"I can be fleet of foot when I wish so I will accompany you as far as the the other side of the bridge friend Elenugeth. There I will tarry until the way ahead is known. As for safety," She turned to the red haired dwarf, "I would trust such a stout fellow as you in this matter." She bowed and began binding the rope about her slim waist. "If there are amongst us such that would know a good knot to tie then please inspect my handiwork, I would not wish it to unravel dangling above this void!"

Hammrin lowered his grappling hook on the side of the stone bridge opposite Elenugeth. He swung the rope under the bridge until the hook gripped into the rock and tied the opposite end of his rope to theirs hoping that if all else failed and they both fell, the hook would remain in place and give them a chance to climb up. He attempted to keep the hook taut at all times while unstringing coils of his rope to allow the others to advance on their invisible walkway.

Rav looked at the ropes and saw that they would hold well then wedged in a piton.

Feral stayed on solid land watching and waiting for a clear path across. He gripped the rope tightly as Elenugeth edged across.

Ishtar's mind window revealed spots of the bridge as she shuffled out. This bridge was made out of the same kind of white marble but the structure was flat, had straight walls 6' high and no ceiling. The wall had a dirty strip about 6" wide on either side about 2' up.

Elenugeth moved slowly and silently across followed by Ishtar 40' behind. She, too, was stealthy in her movements. Eventually they got to the other side where Ishtar kept to the right of the chamber and waited for Elenugeth to move off. The clinking noise was definitely coming from the passage that led on.

Poking his head around the corner the half-elf's mind window showed a cracked passage leading in about 100' before opening out into a half circular room. The scout crept down the corridor, towards the noise. Mid way down, the corridor had pieces of cracked marble that had lined the walls strewn about the floor. Fissures rent the walls, floor and ceiling. The gradient dropped sharply here. Elenugeth had to get to the entry to the room before the whole shape of the room beyond could be made out. It was granite here, the remnants of the marble stopping at the entrance.

This half circular room had cracks running all over it. There was a rough scarred wall that terminated the circular shape of this room. Where the wall met this room crevices disappeared up into the 10' high ceiling. There was a gaping black hole in the floor with larger cracks zigzagging out from it in the centre of the room. Straddled across this hole was the source of the rhythmic clinking noise, an "A" frame pulley system made from lashed together humanoid sized bones and metal strips that supported a large metal wheel that pulled in a chain through rollers. The chain was held on a massive metal drum that took up most the right hand side of the room. Attached to this drum was a gear system. Driving the gears was a bone and metal composite handle being slowly turned by a naked Dwarf.

The red haired dwarf was just over 5' tall and dressed in undergarments. His back was turned to the passageway. He hadn't noticed Elenugeth.