You find yet another entry written by Kharsi.
The stones of Waterworks are ever damp. No matter how high they stand, or how many fires are lit, the water never recedes. Similarly, the air hangs heavy and threatens to drown any who overstay their welcome. But through the sunless waters rise up many spires and keeps of beauty. They are the proof that it wasn't always this way, and that one day, perhaps, it may be restored. In any case, I have long decided that it will not be me who shoulders this burden, for I look around and see nothing but Moria still.
Today, at the very least, our hearts were filled with light once again. A task better than the last, the final key to the door, awaited us and our small company was eager to finally enjoy a good old fashioned adventure again. The path, which I had spent the better part of the previous day scouting, was only occupied by beasts. They are without a doubt dangerous enough to devour a dwarf whole, but we have faced many things worse and they posed little risk to us today. And at the end of the path lies the Great Wheel, now rotten and surrounded by fell lights.
Armed with knowledge and courage, we arrived at the gates of the Great Wheel without difficulty. The gates were, as promised by the Captain of the Rotten Cellar, unlocked. Though as we soon saw, the keepers of it were not too keen to let us in. We had seen many abominations through our time in this darkness, but yet we were still surprised by these.. 'Mushroom Monsters', as we called them. Despite their sickly appearance, they possessed great strength and otherworldly determination. While we tried to determine the nature of these monsters, Rompli had the idea of eating some of them. The lad spends too much time with Bog, it seems. Knowing it's impossible to stop him, I told him that we'd come back in a few hundred years to dine on them, and he gleefully cheered, "We will eat their offspring!" We managed to make it inside without any of us getting eaten or eating anything unsightly, but the questions about the nature of the monsters remained unanswered, most burning of them being the reason why they infested here out of all else. My uncle remarked the similarity of the mushrooms and the smell with the ones we found outside the gates of Emberdeep.
Despite their ferocity, the monsters had not made it inside yet. The croaks and shrill screams ahead explained to us why; the Great Wheel was now occupied with gigantic toads and lizards, viciously defending their home. As the others reminded them that it was our home they invaded, I consulted the directions given to me by the Captain. Though I don't doubt he would have given this aid to us for free, he did ask us to retrieve a large gear that might be found within. While they could not yet fix the Great Wheel itself, many other wheels existed across the Waterworks that could be repaired. He took great pleasure in telling me at length the specifics of what such a repair would entail and accomplish, but I must admit barely any of it made sense to me. He must have known, as he had a sly smile the whole time. Perhaps he only wanted to the opportunity to talk about the work he enjoyed, for which I can not fault him.
In any case, he was truthful from the beginning to the end and we found ourselves in the wettest maze to ever exist. The beasts did not slow us down much, though one might have tried to taste my uncle. He shook it off rather quickly, for there is little damage vermin can inflict upon stone. Left, right, up. Right, down, left. The paths twisted and turned, brought us a floor up and down and back up. At each turn, I remarked that without these directions it would take us a whole season to explore this place, and another to escape it!
At last we reached a room further away from the running water. The beasts that made their lair here defended it viciously, but were forced to retreat at last. The walls were covered in moss and the curved ceiling dripped on us constantly, but even here the beauty of the work of our forefathers endured. Seven statues of dwarves stood strong ahead of us, looking down expectantly. At the base of one we found the gear, nearly as large as Rompli and nearly as heavy as well. It did not take much convincing for him to bear this 'honourable' burden with happiness. With the task of our promise accomplished, we began to search the room for the key. I looked behind the statues, though I did not expect to find anything. No dwarf would hide anything of import in simple places. Elewaru noted that three of the statues stood headless now, but that brought us no closer to our key. Rompli suggested the hammer held by the statue could be the key, to which Ronhus replied that the keyholes were key-shaped, not giant stone hammer.
We set out once more, this time crossing the rushing water that threatened to drag away and drown even the sturdiest of dwarves. Up, left, up, left, we climbed against the current until we were soaked from head to toe. When we reached what appeared to be the highest level, I saw that my notes were now smudged and partly ineligible. My uncle took a look and determined that I had written 'black smudge'. 'Black smudge' hardly helped us find the correct path, but he suggested that underneath I had perhaps written 'right'. Rompli grew impatient and yelled that he had enough with 'boring map reading'. My uncle said that he would be missed as I growled and grumbled, grabbing him by collar and explaining to him that map reading was, in fact, not boring. It took some loud convincing with hints of being thrown into the water, but he finally relented and agreed that it wasn't boring. While we were having this calm discussion, Ronhus had ventured ahead and found the end of the path; a sheer drop right back into the dark pool by the entrance! We saw a dwarf standing by what appeared to be a very large wheel, who looked up at us surprised. Rompli thought the wheel was a vault door. An understandable confusion, as us dwarves clearly took no care to build easily navigable halls or distinguishable vaults! We exchanged a few words with the dwarf below, but the deafening sound of the water made it impossible to hold a conversation.
Then, to the surprise of no one, everyone started talking about jumping down into the pool. I must admit that I also wanted to try that, but it would not bring us closer to our key. As if jumping wasn't enough, my uncle started to climb along the edge of the wall! After pulling him back, we retraced our steps back to a room full of worms we passed by on the same tunnel. It had a lower ceiling than most and a lonely statue standing at the far end. Once made safe, we started our search among the filth. Ronhus focused on the decorated walls, while I lifted Rompli on top of my shield to look above the pillars. I do not think he put down the gear first. He found only dust, but spoke at great length about it while I wobbled under the weight of his great honour. Once he came back down and everyone else returned empty handed, we began to think that perhaps the key wasn't here. I sat down to rest, thinking that the room could be made cosy enough to live out the rest of my days as a hermit, with the frogs to keep me company and fed. That is when my uncle remarked the great condition of the statue and caught a glimpse of something shining. He asked Rompli to lift him and reached for the hand of the statue, which was grasping the key! He grabbed it and held it high for us to see. It was damp and cold to the touch, but the blue gems at the handle gleamed still like the cloudless summer skies. I displayed the fiery key alongside it; we now had everything needed to enter Emberdeep.
With pride and joy, we began to retrace our steps back through the endless corridors of rushing water. When we returned to the first turn, I reached for notes to consult but the ever-present gust of the tunnels ripped them out of my hands and the water carried to depths unseen. We had to rely on our memory and the trail of dead beasts we left behind us now. That did not prove to be a challenge, as the half of our journey was a straightforward climb. With the water now at our backs, we took down the 'slides of honour' as Rompli called them and I even heard my uncle giggling like a child which put the widest smile on my face. We managed to return to the first floor without getting turned around and discovered that a door to the outside was unlocked. Thus we left the Great Wheel behind in victory and joy.
Back at camp, Narali was waiting for us. We recounted our adventure to her as we dried and warmed up and she in turn rewarded us with a beautiful song. Elewaru once again filled in the role of our much needed cook. Grilled meat, warm fire and soft songs marked the end of our day, much needed comforts for adventurers of the deep. As we began to yawn and look for comfy corners to sleep, we noticed Elewaru having difficulty staying on her feet. It was not the exhaustion of the long day nor the venom of a beast, as we soon realised. If anything, she was more resistant to those things now. A shadow laid in her eyes, something we did not yet fully understand. She said she was still cold, shivering even as she sat by the fire, under the cloak I lent her. She soon excused herself to get some rest and we did not press her further, hoping for it pass by the next day. We followed her lead, each of us wrapping ourselves in thick blankets and settling around the fire. As I listened to the crackling of the fire, I thought about our house back at the Blue Mountains. A fire always roared in the hearth, casting soft light across the stillness. My uncle sat in his chair, reading a book he had already finished many times while Nara was at the table, writing new songs on her parchments. Soon, I promised myself. Soon, we would return home.
