Dark Thane

Were it not for the scaffolding rising to the ceiling a hundred feet overhead, the piles of stone dust waiting to be carted away, and the discarded tools of the workers littering the floor, one might have mistaken the chamber for a natural amphitheater. Only the stairs were too regular, the seats too evenly shaped, and the dais at its center was too perfectly rounded to be an accident of nature. The dwarves sought to improve upon the perfection of nature whenever they could. This philosophy had been the inspiration behind the wondrous Life Tree of the Hylar, their great city built within a single huge stalactite hanging over the Urkhan Sea. With Tarn's enthusiastic support, Gaul Quarrystone had envisioned re-creating just a little of that former majesty here in the new Council Hall.

Tarn had no doubt that the brilliant young architect would succeed in his aspirations. Though the Council Hall followed the traditional design, this was a place unlike any the dwarves of old had ever imagined. Natural rock blended perfectly with shaped stone to form a fluid whole of surpassing beauty.

But there was one flaw in Gaul Quarrystone's design-apparently, the Council Hall rested over a significant fault in the bedrock. The groundquake had opened it, neatly splitting the central dais almost through its center. Tarn and Ghash now stood at the edge of the gaping black hole, peering down into a seemingly bottomless chasm from which wisps of steam steadily rose.

Even more ominous, dried bloodstains and tatters of burned clothing lay around the crack. Bloody palm prints and streaks on the inside edge of the hole told of the surviving engineer's desperate attempt to escape. The fire from below was intense, and dwarves feared fire more than any other hazard of the deep earth. But whether the engineers had accidentally stumbled upon a pocket of methane gas, igniting it with their lamps, or whether they had encountered molten rock pushing up into the mountain, neither ›Tarn nor Ghash could tell. Either way, this was a great danger.

"Ghash, I want you to go and fetch more engineers. Bring Gaul Quarrystone here at once," Tarn said, adding when he saw the captain begin to protest, "Now, do as I say. Time is of the essence, and we must know what happened here."

"All the more reason that you should come with me, m'lord. It is too dangerous for you to remain here. If the Hylar thane's soldiers were to discover you… "

"They won't find me," Tarn snapped. "I'll be safer here than on the streets. Bring a squadron of my personal guard with you when you return. There is no telling when Jungor might… ." His voice trailed off as a faint sound rose from the crack in the floor. At first he thought it nothing more than the hissing of steam. But then a voice, distant yet clear, cried, "Someone help me! Please!"

"There's someone still alive!" Ghash exclaimed as he knelt at the side of the hole.

"Hello down there!" Tarn shouted. His voice was amplified by the empty chamber.

A faint, inarticulate cry answered. Without even considering the danger, Tarn sat at the edge of the hole and swung his legs over the side. The shattered rock provided plenty of handholds and ledges to place his feet, so that he had little difficulty negotiating his descent. Grumbling into his beard about the risk, Ghash followed even more nimbly than his king. The younger Klar was an accomplished mountaineer and soon was able to pass his king.

After about forty feet, the air became sweltering, the stone under their hands grew uncomfortably warm. "If it gets any worse, we'll have to turn back," Ghash said. Tarn said nothing, continuing his swift descent. But they had not gone much deeper before the rocks grew too hot to touch for very long. Both dwarves felt the pads of their fingers slowly being seared, their faces and chests baked by the heat. Even worse, the air scalded their lungs with each breath. Steam mixed with noxious vapors seeped from the stone around them, even as the crack narrowed and grew more steep.

"We have to go back," Ghash said in a strangled voice.

"There's someone alive down there," Tarn said. "If he can survive this long, we can stand it long enough to try to rescue him."

"And what if he is trapped? What is he can't escape? If we join him, we'll be trapped, too."

"Then we'll be trapped!" Tarn shouted angrily as he continued downward. After a dozen more feet, he felt the close air open around him and knew that they had entered a larger cavern. The smoke and mist prevented him from seeing much with his darkvision. He felt truly blind in the dark. The slope leveled off and soon he found himself standing at the bottom of the chasm. Ghash joined him, coughing and retching from the poisonous fumes.