KHAZUUL

A big smile spreads across Freki's face as the creatures relax and let him stand and observe so closely. He tries to take in as much from the experience as he can and is thrilled when one of the Lorries even eats from the branch he's holding.

Once the creatures move on, Freki rejoins the others, the big smile still lingering on his face. He was so mesmerized by the herd he had completely missed the doorway that Sow had discovered until now.

"Do you still have that lantern with you Flint?" he asks the marchguard when Sow reports how dark it is inside.

"Yes, we need light," Sow calls to the others as she continues to peer into the darkness, trying to get her eyes to adjust. When Freki arrives, she smiles briefly at him. "You made friends. Do you think you can tame one?"

With an optimistic look Freki says, "Well, based on that response, it's not out of the question! But I'll need more experiences with them before I know for sure. If we can get our hands on one of the tamed ones from the Cut, it'll help me understand them better too. See what they are like once tamed, so I know which ways to nudge the wild ones to shape their behavior."

Flint pulls out his lantern and oil and fires it up. "As a matter of fact, I do, Freki." He leads the way, holding it up high, knowing that his arm will tire in short order.

"Follow along, everyone."

"That was impressive what you did with the herd," he says to Freki. "You have a gift."

Flint leads the way, lantern in hand. He tests the boards carefully, and decides the catwalk will support his weight, if barely. The wood has succumbed to dry rot, and creaks alarmingly with every step, sending plumes of dust into the darkness below. Each creak echoes in the darkness.



Ahead, he sees a stair, but the landing at its base appears to have collapsed. On the other side of the gap you see another platform that snakes around a natural stone pillar, which appears to house the rickety remains of a rope elevator.

If this hole has a bottom, you cannot yet see it from the light of the lantern.

"Wow, wow ... easy folks," Freki holds up the party when he hears the creaks of Flint's steps on the rotten wood and sees the dark plummet beyond.

"That is a long, dark drop!" He says as he pulls out rope from his pack. It was really proving to be a useful piece of gear. "And that wooden walkway sounds like it could give way any moment. Let's tie ourselves together so if any one falls, we can catch them."

Once secured, he cautiously steps out onto the walkway to join Flint.

As they are wrapping the rope around themselves, Cutwell is suddenly measuring himself against the others, to see who is the biggest… and the heaviest.

"Sow, you’re good at climbing, ain’t ya? Fancy going down there to see how far it goes?" he offers, but knowing that it was big ask!

"M-me?" Sow says with surprise after watching Flint, and then Freki, venture forth. The men are crazy! The platform looks ready to collapse at any time!

"I’m no expert climber, Cutwell. Far from it! I want to explore this place, but I think we might need more than Freki’s rope to do it!"

As Freki steps out onto the catwalk, the wooden structure creaks and groans, but it seems stable. As he follows the fair-haired Flint, though, he hears a loud crack as a support beam beneath him gives way, and the section of the platform he is standing on collapses!

Flint was never a lover of heights, especially those whose bottom was a dark unknown. With each creak of the boards, more beads of sweat would break out on his brow. He stops dead in his tracks when Freki steps onto the platform.

"Wait, Freki!"

Cutwell keeps his feet firmly on the earth outside, but leans his body in as far as it will go, while holding to the stone archway that forms the entrance to the place.

His grip tightens on instinct, as he feels himself being yanked forwards suddenly.

"No!" Sow shouts as the rope goes taut and Cutwell is yanked towards the pit violently. Grabbing onto the man, she tries to keep him -- and everyone! -- from being pulled in!

The snapping beam takes everyone by surprise, but Sow and Saffron react quickly. As Freki begins to freefall, they manage to brace Cutwell, who might otherwise have taken the plunge, and the three anchor the rope. Flint is further down when the beam snaps and the catwalk collapses, but he manages to hold onto the top of the flight of stairs. When the rope breaks Freki's fall, it nearly yanks him off the stair, but the team outside take enough of the force that the Marchguard manages to hang on. He even manages to mind the lantern and not spill the oil.

You can hear the broken catwalk's boards clatter against stone in no time at all. Although it is hard to make out the distance through the darkness, it isn't terribly far - definitely under 50 feet.

Freki feels a sudden weightlessness after the loud crack and realizes what's happening. He tries to grab onto whatever he can but everything around him is falling as well, so he can't do anything but tumble forward. Darkness swells around him and he yells out, "Noooo, ahhhh, HELP!!!!"

The rope around his waist jerks tight, forcing out his wind (in both directions). Gasping and coughing in an effort to gets his breath back in the rising dust cloud, the noises eventually turn into laughs of relief and joy.

"Ha ha, Woo!!!! I'm alive! You caught me! I thought I was a goner for a second there."

Cutwell lands hard on his arse, as he topples backwards with the sudden change in trajectory.

He rubs his arse bone and wonders why they hadn’t tied themselves off to one of those heavy beasts nearby! They’d have held the weight.

"Don’t sound too far down, does it? If we still feel like climbing it…"

Sow -- and perhaps Saffron -- also ends up on the ground, jumbled with Cutwell as they all scramble to hold the line. Raw palms sting and muscles strain, but eventually it's clear the line will hold.

"We need to tie this off!" the one-time fieldwarden says as she strains...

"Don't count your chickens just yet, Freki!" Flint says, voice straining as he falls back onto his ass and tries to gain some sort of purchase with his boots.

"That would be ideal, Sow! Flint shouts as he too looks for a place to jam or tie off the rope, like a crevice our small outcropping of rock.

"We could tie it off to one of them!" Cutwell says, pointing to the dinosaur Freki has sidled up on. "If they’d let us! They won’t, will they?" he says; figuring they were headstrong beasts!!

With much struggle, Cutwell, Sow, and Saffron pull hard on the rope to get Freki back on solid ground.

They hold the line long enough to Freki to scramble back to safety, but Flint is still inside as Sow looks and doesn't find some means of easily tying the rope off outside. Instead, she loops the line around her spear and positions it across the outside of the bottom of the door; it should hold until they can gather or fashion something sturdier.

"It safe in there, Flint?" she calls hoarsely into the darkness inside the hillside, "or should we come back here better equipped to explore the place?"