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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carlo-One" data-source="post: 8068313" data-attributes="member: 7015827">Once all had reached the cavern floor, it was decided that Rahnee should stay by the ladder and guard it, to protect their only escape route. Dermot then took the lead as the others moved into the cavern complex, advising them to keep a weather eye out. Aerikoth asked to be informed when they wanted his protective spells to be cast. Dermot thought it best to first see if any creatures were down there.The group soon reached the site of the broken-down door and the two gray render corpses, which Aerikoth spent a moment studying. Dermot observed that the portcullis blocking the way to the level below was closed again; Shanni reminded him that she had removed her spike on the way back up. Darrow, who was happy to see that no hostile creatures were slavering at the portcullis, said he would go over to the far pressure plate. Shanni this time deferred to Dermot to jam the portcullis mechanism once it was raised, while she moved onto the nearer plate. The portcullis raised as before and the ranger immediately spiked it open.There was some confusion over what was happening, due to the distance and darkness in between the chamber with the pressure plates and the portcullis area. After some shouting back and forth, Helrud relayed that Dermot seemed to have disappeared past the entrance, so they all descended to the next level, joining the ranger, who had scouted ahead. Helrud stuck close to Aerikoth, deeming it the most sensible place to be, and marveled at the extent of the cavern as they made their way to the edge of the central pit on the lower level. The dwarf asked the wizard if he had seen anything like the place and was surprised when Aerikoth answered in the affirmative, stating that the dwarven clan’s deep delves were similar to these underground warrens. Helrud said that he had not been there himself, of course, and Aerikoth advised against trying to visit them.Darrow, Dermot and Shanni meanwhile were trying to locate the spot along the pit wall with the handholds, which were difficult to see in the gloom. Dermot eventually spotted them and Darrow suggested they wrap a safety rope around a nearby pillar. Aerikoth started down into the dark pit while Helrud wiped his brow, commenting at the hot air coming up out of it. Darrow wondered if it were a volcano, explaining to Shanni that it was where the earth opened up and hot rock from below bubbled to the surface; the dwarf had not seen one himself, but had heard tales.Shanni asked who would be first down, prompting her, Dermot and Darrow to all look at each other. After some hemming and hawing, Dermot asked Aerikoth if he had any spells to see what was down there. The wizard answered in the negative, indicating that most of the ones he had memorized involved protective magic. Cursing, Darrow told the others to rope him up and he would go down first. Shanni pointed out that he might clank in his armor, but Darrow just joked that anything underground should know not to mess with a dwarf.Dermot rigged their two ropes together with a slipknot, at Helrud’s prompting, and one end was secured to the nearby pillar by Shanni while the other was wrapped around Darrow’s waist in case he fell. The dwarf commented that he had always wanted to climb down a bottomless pit into a pool of molten rock, then hoisted himself over the side and began descending using the carved handholds. Before he disappeared from view, he told them that one tug on the rope would signal that he was safe and two would mean to pull him up quick. Dermot acknowledged this, but also advised Darrow to do his best to climb up on his own if needed, since there was no way they could pull him up unaided.</blockquote>

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