A New Map East
- Admin
- Jan 8, 2018
- 3 min read
Forvonir emerges from the vault of the Twenty-First Hall. The shiny blue gemstone, the company's prize from their encounter in the mines, is gone from his hand, exchanged, apparently, for a new map promising a way out of Moria. ''I have delivered the stone to our 'good' friend. He told us that there is an exit. To the east, there is a place called the First Hall, which leads us to, as he said, 'The wood of the Witch'.''
As Minnwen takes issue with the Witch epithet, Forvonir dismisses it as yet another racial conflict between Dwarves and Elves, no concern of his. After Harvonir returns from repairing his equipment and armour, the trio depart from the hall.
The passageway connecting from the Northern Arch leads them back to the crossroads of Jazârgund, where Forvonir, wielding more diplomacy than Minnwen, is able to coax a surly dwarf into revealing that their present course eastwards will likely be met by hostile shrewish foes and other untamed creatures of the deep.
Instead, Borgar the dwarf suggests they turn back to the hall and take its Southern Arch. Heeding his advice, the company finds itself in the middle of a long corridor, with little clue as to whether to turn right or left. Minnwen, detecting vibrations on the stone floor towards the west, believes they will find a stairway there. At the western end of the corridor, true enough, stairs plunge downwards into the gloom, and soon the trio is heading east again.
The dim outlines of pillars, sconces and arches catch their eyes from the south as a great hall opens to them, but after marvelling once again at the skilled masonry of the dwarves, the Men and Elf decide to press eastwards along the corridor running alongside the great hall.
They navigate a winding corridor that seems to intersect with caverns. Eventually, they find themselves in another great hall, one whose roof seems held up by vast, treelike pillars, branching out overhead like an intricate canopy.
Minnwen tugs on Forvonir's sleeve and beckons to Harvonir. "First we saw a living, growing garden of trees beneath stone – and now – stone masquerades as a forest of trees!" Forvonir leads the group down several flights of stairs to the floor of the hall, eeriely empty except for harmless slimy creatures that hug the dark.
Presently, however, their path is blocked by a giant fissure in the ground. Forvonir stops and notices the extreme heat radiating from the deep. He sees the lava river far below them and begins to search for a way across the chasm. To the north, a flimsy bridge of rope and wood is suspended precariously, and they cross it eastwards, only to find themselves at the edge of yet another abyss. This time, the archways of a bridge beckon tantalisingly, but to their dismay, something is very wrong!
"The stone bridge is broken off midway!" voices Minnwen. "It is merely a stump pointing the way, not something that can carry us to the other side!" Harvonir turns to his companions. ''But a bridge as massive as this... broken... what manner of force could destroy that?'' Stepping nearer to investigate, Minnwen can only sense the dread still hanging in the air after that terrible event. Gazing into the distance north and south along the chasm from their position on the broken remnant of bridge, Minnwen discerns a narrowing of the northern end. It is Forvonir who points out that someone has traced a hairline on the map, possibly marking out a route around the gap, to the First Hall. With the bridge broken, this remains their only hope for now, and the companions begin their trudge northwards.
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