Collapse beneath the ice

The next day, we went into the tunnels.

The party consisted of Gimlitin and a team of dwarves, Eomar and several elves, and myself.

All told, 11 of us.

The main tunnels below the main buildings were fine. But as we pushed out into some of the side tunnels, Gimlitin pointed to some problems.

“Look at those cracks,” he said.

Some were so large I could stick my hand in them.

“It get’s worse,” he said.

We ventured into one of the deeper tunnels.

Sure enough, there was a crack so large I could fit through it. I saw in the distance another tunnel through the opening.

“I don’t know that tunnel,” I said.

“There’s lots more like that,” Gimlitin said. “Tunnels that are not on the main maps. Eomar found some older maps, and some of those tunnels are listed there. But they’ve been sealed for years.”

“Some of them were sealed during the goblin fights in the 1930s,” Eomar said. “Some were shut off by collapses even earlier.”

“Speaking of collapses,” Gimlitin said.

Before us we saw a pile of ice where a wall had partly given way.

“This is bad,” I said.

“Aye,” Gimlitin said. “We may even have to abandon the tunnels altogether and fill them in. For safety sake.”

Just at that moment, we heard a rumbling.

Then the floor beneath us gave way!

I started to slip through!