Session Six
After an uneventful night, they wake to sunlight streaming in through the cave entrance, as the breakfast they can see the valley floor several hundred feet below.
Hefting their packs the return to the junction below & warily Grace leads the way down the rough cut steps, down & down they go, until suddenly the corridor levels out & runs towards an open doorway. Peering through the doorway their lanterns illuminate an eight sided room with a stout door in each of the other seven sides.
Stood in the center of the octagonal room the two look around them in dismay, upto now the choices have been relatively easy, but now, seven ways to go . . . . . . .
Quietly they tip toe between the doors, listening at each in turn, behind door three Thorn swears he can hear scuffling like a pig would make, whilst Grace observes there's some sort of ticking noise behind door seven. Reaching for the latch of door three, it turns of its own accord as Thorns hand closes upon it, the door swings open, Thorn steps back, but to late, a trap door opens beneath his feet & he falls disappearing from view. As he hits the bottom of the pit, the trap door closes above his head,
"Not again"
bellows Thorn.
Struggling to turn, with his arms above his head & still holding his axe, something crunches beneath his feet, but there is so little room to move & no light to see by.
Above Grace can now see a feint line in the dust where the edge of the trap door has closed, placing a few trinkets on its top nothing happens, realising its not heavy enough she adds more weight & pushes but still it doesn't move. From beneath the trap door she can hear banging as Thorn uses his axe to push against the underside of the cover, Grace draws her sword & thumps the floor to let Thorn now she is still here.
As Thorn waits below his feet suddenly feel wet, then his ankles followed by his knees, cold water slowly starts to rise up towards his waist,
"Thorn, Thorn, the pit, it filling with water, please help me, quickly, help me"
Above Grace desperately tries to prise the trap door open but does nothing other than cut her finger, inspired it dawns on Grace that the key to the trap is the door, straddling the pit she closes the door, nothing happens, however when she opens the door again the trap door opens briefly & then snaps shut, but in the seconds it was open Grace saw Thorns upturned face. Repeating the process Grace jambs her sword across the opening when the pit door drops away, it springs shut but her sword holds quivering.
Thorn, blinking, smiles as he realises the the water level has stopped rising, reaching up, & assisted by Grace, Thorn scrabbles out of the pit & lies wet & panting on the floor, Grace gingerly retrieves her sword & with a resounding snap the pit door closes.
After quickly drying off & changing his tunic Thorn nods that he's ready to go on, moving to the seventh door, weapons at the ready, they pull the door open & jump back expecting trap, they are somewhat surprised therefore when nothing happens. Beyond the door is a narrow passage cut into the natural rock, sliding forward they hear footsteps flapping away from them, hurrying they see, well something disappear out of a fissure in the rock. Sticking her head through the crack Grace is startled by bright sunlight as she looks over the valley, leading down,secured by a piton is a rope gently swaying in the breeze, Thorn grins & says to Grace,
"So do you fancy climbing out over a sheer drop after tyhat bugger, because I don't"
Shrugging shoulders they return to the main room.