Session Twenty
Gathering themselves together Stunty, Grace & Thorn moved forward along the corridor, Thorn was feeling pretty happy with himself thinking about the elf sword in his pack however Grace was smarting at the fact that he'd kept it for himself, secretly she wondered if she be able to sneak it away from him, that's if they ever managed to escape these caves.
Suddenly Stunty stopped & gestured for them to get down, pointing ahead the corridor opened out into a more spacious cave, in the light from the spluttering torches all three could see the shadow of a large square pit in the middle of the floor, listening carefully they could vaguely hear noises echoing up from what ever was in the pit.
Crawling forward on their bellies Grace & Stunty peered into the darkness below whilst Thorn scoured the remainder of the cave, a few seconds later Thorn joined them at the pits edge,
"Nothing but a few scraps & bones"
Unable to see anything in the gloom below Grace skirted around the pit, on the far side she discovered a rope disappearing through a small hole in the rock running from a hook in the cavern roof above, beside it was a short wooden post on which hung a brass bell, before the others could say a word Grace swiftly cut the rope with her knife, as the rope wriggled from view all three froze, sure this would raise some kind of alarm, only silence followed however.
Grace contemp[lated ringing the bell however Thorn, not known for caution, persuaded her otherwise.
As there eyes became more accustomed to the flickering light they realised that four sets of rope looped out of the pit itself, each set appearing to loop over a pulley anchored in the rock above.
Deciding to risk matters further they carefully lowered a lamp on the end of a rope into the pit, before the lamp had gone far however they realised what they had discovered, it was a lift shaft, in the light of the lamp they could see a wooden platform to which the ropes from the roof were connected.
Thorn opted for climbing down the ropes as quietly as possible however grace still argued for simply ringing the bell, before Stunty could voice his opinion Grace kicked out at the bell which not only rang but tumbled from its hook & fell into the pit, as it hit the platform below the echo of its peeling echoed loudly up the lift shaft.
"Opps" whispered Grace
Slowly voices began to echo from below,
"Now you've gone & done it" said Stunty "Bloody orc's"
As the three bickered over what to do the voices from below grew louder, then the ropes began to creak,
"Shssssh" went Stunty peering into the shaft "There coming up, five of the little bleeders"
Grace, a little worried by the odds backed off into the shadows, Stunty drew his mace & readied himself for the onslaught whilst Thorn leveled his crossbow waiting for the orc's to rise over the edge of the shaft.
As the platform neared neared the orc's leapt forward hoping to catch who ever was above before they could react however Thorn beat them to it & let fly with his crossbow taking one of the orc's cleanly through the eye.
The remaining four orc's laid about them Thorn & Stunty stood their ground & traded blows, Grace unseen crept forward & launched a surprise attack from the rear, quickly one, then a second, orc took damaging, if not fatal, blows, dismayed the two remaining orc's jumped back onto the platform & shouted something in orcish to whoever was below, the platform began to descend.
Before it dropped from view Thorn managed to land a departing blow on one of the fleeing orc's & with some satisfaction saw it crumple onto the platform.
Looking at each other Grace & Thorn shrugged & leapt into the pit onto the descending platform, up above Stunty shrugged & waited to see what would occur.