Bart replies, "No way, that's my job."  He climbs up to peer into the opening (shooing the ferret out of the way).  He looks over the spill of sand and gravel, then slips in head first using his hands to control his descent and check for spikes or other dangers.  The rope is still tied around his waist. Geoff is handed a lantern and he climbs up to watch the halfling.

Bart reaches the stone floor and gets back on his feet. He calls up, "Solid stone floor here, but the tunnel is dark ahead. Come on down with the light Geoff." Geoff slides in feet first with the lantern.

The first section of the tunnel is hewn from solid rock.  About twenty feet ahead, the solid rock is replaced by flat slabs on the floor, blocks on the walls and ceiling. "Lots of places for traps," Bart mentions.  The tunnel is twenty feet side to side and ten feet tall. It goes straight back into the hill and ends in sixty feet at a faintly visible double door. No other side passages are visible.

Bart looks up at Geoff and says, "Tell you what, swamp boy, let's move in on that door real slow like.  I'll check for traps, and you be ready to swing your weapon at anybody's ass that comes through that door."  Geoff nods and pulls his bastard sword from its sheath. He holds the lantern in his left and illuminates the floor ahead of the halfling.

A thick layer of dust coats everything; every footfall disperses a small cloud. Bart moves to the edge of the solid rock floor.  He choses a stone near the left wall, probes around it with his dagger, then pries it up to look underneath.  The floor slabs were laid several layers atop each other. They are three to four inches thick and are from one to four square feet.  He starts talking softly while inspecting, "I think I'll stay by the wall here so I can check along it too. I don't like these stones, they could hide anything..."  He keeps talking after replacing the slab and moving to check out the wall.  The wall blocks are stacked without mortar but only a few have cracks large enough for a dagger to probe. "Don't like that either, I can't possibly catch everything that that could hide..."  He looks up; Geoff focuses the lantern on the ceiling.  The ceiling blocks are mortared; no cracks are visible.  "Well at least thats one good thing. Solid is better, can't hide much in a solid wall...."

Geoff can tell the little figure is nervous.  "Here goes," he says as he steps onto the first slab. "Did I ever tell you I can cook, swamper?  Man, I cook when we get outta this, we'll go back in the swamp and hunt up some dinner.  We'll take on some of the big ol frogs and eat their legs.  And the crayfish, man, think of those crayfish.  We'll can boil em, fry em, suck their heads.  We can boiled crawfish, crawfish ettufe, fried tails, ..." As this goes on he starts checking the next slab, wall, and ceiling...

After awhile Bart starts putting his dagger in his mouth to stop his tongue. Geoff wonders what was worse, the chattering hobbit or the silence. Just under an hour later, the pair have made it close enough to the door to get a good look.  Not a pretty sight. The wall above the gruesome stone frame and wood planked doors is mortared stone bricks.

Bart continues the ritual, floor, wall, ceiling, toward the door.  Geoff stays a few slabs behind. "Huh oh," Bart sighs. "The floor shifted," he whispers excitedly. Then from behind, a rumbling.

From outside, the others wait patiently.  Lars keeps feeding Bart's rope into the hole.  Father Durrant watches from the corner of the tunnel entrance as Bart makes slow but careful progress down the tunnel.  All goes well as the pair approach the door until Bart spins around suddenly.    The 100' rope is about half paid out.

Bart pulls the rope three times, lets it tighten, and holds the rope so the slack will fall behind him so as not to trip him, and shouts "run Geoff!" As soon as the three tugs are felt, Father Durant leaps out of the way and gestures to Lars and Sarg who immediately start pulling in the rope. Before Bart can start sprinting, Geoff has dropped the lantern, sheathed his blade, grabs Bart off his feet, and starts hauling ass toward the exit. "I hate being little! You better pull this off, cause I could make it!" The stone moving to block the wall is huge; ten feet thick and floor to ceiling.  It gains momentum as Geoff closes the distance.  As Geoff runs by, the block just passes mid-way.  Strangely aware, Bart watches the block approach as Geoff runs in front of it and marvels at the way its face has been carved to resemble stacked blocks.

Then Geoff is beyond the stone and slows as he approaches the triangle of light from the entrance.  He sets Bart down and they call up an "all clear" to the sillouetted heads peering down at them.  Then the stone slams against the wall with a loud crash, followed a few seconds later with a cloud of choking dust.  The two scramble up the sand and Lars gives them a hand out of the dust cloud.