"Looks you have to pay for a miracle too!" said Zed, ducking.
"What?" said Stamm. He was trying not to lose himself in the bloodlust calling from his shield. Instead he pushed it through the elemental. It wet his arms as it pulled him in, then pushed a solid fist around his defenses. "Ooph!" he added.
"Give me that damn sword, its probably our only hope!" said Leif
"AAARGH!" agreed Gando.
"You see, it's like pray..." Zed had to almost fall backwards to avoid the golem club, then really fell backwards. "Oh," he said at the cause. "We've lost Gando!" he cried, snatching up the jet black curved blade and tossing it to Leif. A tumble to the other side of the doorframe avoided a skullcrunching.
Leif caught the flying object deftly by the handle and sliced the elemental stuff binding the creature infront of him. It reared back, and Stamm caught a watery rebuke on his shield, slicing ineffectual retribution with his waraxe.
"We're trapped...", he growled darkly. 
Leif span the sword again one handed and watched it slice the thing in two. It was as if it pulled itself apart rather than touch the blade, and it splashed to nothing.
"Now, run!" he called to the rest.
The party moved forward a step, gauging the growing flood. They looked back at their comrade. 
"We need another miracle!" said Zed, but he noticed the golem not only not pursuing, but also apparently moving aside, satisfied at what it had done.
"Run!" pointed Leif and charged headlong through the doorway again, picking up their immobile friend. Zed and Stamm looked over at the baleful gaze as the golem shuddered slowly to life, hefted its stone club...
"Hello again!" said Zed to the beautific face in this hellish place, "While I don't want to rush your or presume on you again, any help will be gratefully appreciated, even though we have already asked, and..."
The footfalls of the golem thumped ominously, Stamm and Leif turned to face the thing as it lifted his club up high. Zed turned his gaze between impassioned pleas, his fallen comrade and the looming wall of stone. The golems eye's flashed as...

Serenity.
The three breathed a sign of relief as they found themselves transported on the wings of a prayer back in the chamber of the blade. Zed seemed to be happy and moved Gando to the large alter.
"We'll just end up in the same situation," said Stamm darkly, shuffling with impatience. 
Leif shook his head. "No, this time we rest, get as much protection and magic as possible, then charge." He hefted the blade, "this should help...we definitely don't want to face that golem again..." He shuddered.
The three sat silently with their thoughts. A groggy Gando climbed out of the altar, Zed moving quickly to his side from revelry. Even the stern Stamm cracked a smile of relief at their companion being up and around. Few trusted magic, few still believed in its all-conquering powers.
"How do you feel?" asked Leif and Zed almost at once. 
"Weak...arm's not fully healed..." said Gando in a daze. He looked back at the altar and back at his companions. "Oh..."
"Rest. Everyone," said Leif, looking over at Stamm for silent approval. The old dwarf nodded and sat back, eyes closed and shield balanced as a ward against the world from him.
"Mopey bugger," mumbled Zed, but at least had the decency to look ashamed when Leif caught his gaze. Under Leif's stare he whistled at the dwarf and tossed a potion to him. It was caught without any apparently reaction, but downed appreciatively and tossed over to Leif. Zed had already created a second for himself, them with embarrassment created one for Gando and threw it not unkindly at his head.
"You need to speak up for yourself more!" he said. Gando waved away the comment, glad to be distracted from thought. He created a few potions but still felt weak...the price of powerful magic. He threw a filled flask back to Zed who caught it as he threw one to Stamm again. Leif was rolling his eyes.
"You're surrounded by children," said Stamm to the redheaded giant, smiling.
Leif shook his head with a bemused smile in return. "It's not like those things have been easy to come by!" He looked at the others. "Rest!" he said again, without rancour. He then realised his own pacing around and picked an area of wall to relax near. He tried to sit in a cross-legged pose of meditation, sword balanced across his knees. A subtle tap made him look over at Stamm. The dwarf moved his shield aside for a second, and was sitting in a subtly different way to Leif. He restored his shield's position without further comment, but Leif nodded gratefully. Stamm was a legend, but was also a self-exiled member of the guild because of the burden he carried. Leif could learn much, but both knew that Stamm didn't feel comfortable as the leader as things stood. Would the council even approve of him being released from the bonds of death?
Leif felt the ease with which his breathing and energy now flowed, it had been a small and simple shift of weight, but he...
"Wake up, we're ready!" Leif flinched in surprise. Zed moved back to his pack, retrieving a staff tied there. Gando was perfecting a spell in his mind, one he was teaching them all...something about elemental disruption. Leif tried to listen as the serenity left him. 
"Are we all ready?" he asked at length. The party nodded. Stamm and Leif took point. Watching their backs Gando and Zed braced themselves Gando nervous but muttering his spell to himself for reassurance. He didn't seem his 130-year-old self after the golem attack...
"Three. 
"Two. 
"One..."
"Do we go on one or...?"
"GO!"

Shift.
Leif struck out at air. The golem struck out at air too, thanks to Gando's height, or lack thereof.
"Run!" yelled Stamm, and they darted out. The door crashed behind them.
"That's one thing...that's going..." Leif stopped. "Hmm. Right."
The sewers were flooded, and the water was angry.
"RUN!" he yelled and charged forward. The party followed, throwing spells left and right. 
"Ooph!" said Gando, without breaking stride throwing a retaliatory spell then creating and chugging a potion. He was then torn, finally casting another potion with his last magic. "That was close," he said to Zed.
"ARGH!" agreed Stamm.
The party darted, slashed and spelled their way out of the dead end, Leif's last few sword strokes taking an elemental before it took the last of his life. Zed balanced Leif while Gando forced a potion down his neck. Wounds lessened and he stood tall again. 
"Quickly," said Gando, tugging at Leif as an elemental broke away. Leif shook his head.
"The grate," he said, nodding downwards just beyond his feet.
"Are you mad! Elementals aren't just puddles you know! They're not going to..."
But then it was too late, the thing was upon them, the mist-like quality of the air as it came forward and reared up in hate against the small looking point of Leif's blade.
Pause.
"Well, you don't see that every day." said Zed
"No." agreed Gando.
"You know, grates splitting in half and semi-opening when a water elemental stands on it, and the elemental disappearing through the floor, then the grate snapping shut again. That sort of thing."
"No," agreed Gando.
Leif smiled. "Elementals aren't puddles you know...they are a mass of water...they have weight. Quite a lot of weight."
He gestured at the grating. "I wouldn't like to walk over those things in full plate, but then again, its probably safe. Stamm can tell you more, after all it was his people that build...those defenses...oh..."
The other two realised a lack of dwarf closing back in to the group after the fight. The three looked at each other. They looked back at the movement of water not quiet far enough away. 
"Let's go," said Leif, walking the other way.
"But Stamm!" said Zed, "he must have..." but it fell on deaf ears as Leif was already walking. As it turned out, walking to just round the corner to a small room guarded by a grate.
"Rest. Then we get wet." Nods of assent. In no time they were ready again. Without need of words they rushed out and back. The flood seemed to have stemmed for the moment, enough for them to dart around the grates and creatures.
"He was here!" yelled Zed darting around a grate.
"I know, he blocked a hit for me right there," said Gando, jumping over the grate and pointing backwards. Everyone paused. Everyone looked down.
"No."
"No..."
"No?"
They all looked at each other.
"Yup"
"Uhuh."
"Of course." Zed slapped his head with his hand. Gando reached into his pack.
"Well, don't look at me," said Leif, frustrated. "How are we..." he looked at Zed's expression, which wasn't focused on Leif. He turned to Gando. Gando was dangling a rope.
"What's that for?" asked Leif. "We can't trigger...I mean...you can't..." Pause. "What exactly are you proposing?" he asked, though a feeling of certainty was creeping up on him dreadfully.
"Ever had to rope a stray horse?"
"No! I mean, yes, I have. No!"
"What's wrong with...?"
Zed look confused. Leif ignored him. "I am not...not...NOT...standing in the council chambers," said Leif, "and telling them the majestic tale of how I ROPED A WATER ELEMENTAL TO DRAG ME DOWN INTO THE FILTHY SEWERS TO SCAVENGE FOR A LEGENDARY CHAMPION I MANAGED TO MISPLACE!"
Pause. The others looked at him. He looked at the others. 
"Oh, alright." he pointed to Gando. "But you are holding the rope."

"Why do I have to stand here and wave a water elemental over?" asked Zed.
"He's got the rope, I have the sword, and you are loud and annoying." Zed gave a baleful glare, then took a look over his shoulder and ran backwards.
"Ready?" Zed asked.
"Umm...actually," said Gando, "this really replies on the elemental pulling the thing rather than just ignoring it..."
"What!" yelled Leif, but the water elemental was squelching forward with purpose now, and Gando was already throwing the rope. It absorbed the tip, and pulled.
"Help!" said Gando, yanking with all the weight his small frame allowed. Leif and Zed grabbed too, Leif obviously swinging the balance. The water elemental pulled itself towards them easily.
"Here we GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...................." 

There was the feeling of falling and wetness and a splash of finality and a jarring thump and many curses. But though they existed, they weren't registered in the swift blur of perceived time.

"Everyone ok?"
"Ooph"
"Ouch"
"Is that your hand?
"No?
"Leif?"
"No"
"One...two...nope, it's not mine, I think we've found Stamm then...hmm, he's not breathing..."
Leif stood up, and almost toppled forward if Zed hadn't grabbed him. They were standing on a small ledge over great drop.
"Well, isn't this nice." said Leif, adjusting himself.
They seemed to be in the fabled dwarf mines. Or, on the ledge of a collapsed tunnel that lead to one of the various pits that dwarves used to put excess dirt in. They were also, apparently, an attraction.
"Smile, we're on show," said Leif, unsheathing his weapon. 
A creature regarded them across the chasm. It blinked. Gando blinked and turned his head in mirror with the creature. 
Zed dusted himself off and looked over. "Interesting...it's as if someone got annoyed with an owl and decided to shove a crocodile up it."
"What...is...it..." asked Leif, through clenched teeth in a prepared crouch...or as much of one as he dared on the narrow ledge.
"Oh, it's a...umm, well, that is too say..." Zed wilted at the glare. "Look, people are too busy describing the damn things to ever name them. But don't worry, we are safe."
Leif looked at Zed. He looked at the pit. He looked at the creature. He looked at Zed. Gando, who caught part of the glare over Zed's shoulder, took as step back, and suddenly became very interested in collecting Stamm and his loose possessions.
"Look, what? It's not got any projectile abilities...that tail is just a close quarters flicker thing"
"It is poisonous?"
"Isn't everything?"
"Is it intelligent?"
"It's not going to find a rock to throw at us or go get some friends if that's what you mean, no."
Leif looked down. Leif looked at Gando. Gando looked at Leif.
"Well...?" asked Leif.
"Well? Oh, sorry..." Gando closed his eyes. "Zed's right, we don't feel like we are in danger...I don't think the creature is hostile...and I don't think the chasm is deep..."
Leif sighed. Leif looked at Zed. "Got Stamm?" A nod. Leif looked at Gando. "Got all his things?" A nod. He looked down. "Still got that rope?"

	***

A tale of daring do followed as three heroes embarked upon a simple quest, a quest for passage from the depths back to the higher levels, a quest to restore their newly found fallen friend. Spiders and the undead and twists and turns of the maze of tunnels, and worms and more spiders and poisonous things and rock monsters and more getting lost and treasure and finally getting back to the beginning.

	***

"Well, that was fun," said Zed
"Yes," agreed Stamm
"You know, if I knew then what I knew now...you know, about the spiders and the worms and the undead and the rest of it..."
"Yes"
"No offence or anything"
"Yes?"
"But I might not have bothered."
"Interesting."
"Still, I don't imagine many have seen the black crypt, or met a real live ...umm...really dead...umm...well a real lich, or been through the untouched dwarf fortress, and the drwaf mines, or found the dwarf treaure, or found that hilariously closed door barring our way back throug the dwarf mines, or indeed be one of the few to be able to say I'd done the mines backwards." Zed reflected on life and challenged.
"Indeed. So you wouldn't, for instance, say that if you had known then what you know, you might not have, rather than fight all the way up to cellars to resurrect me, you might not have, I don't know, USED THE DAMN ALTAR RIGHT BESIDE WHERE YOU FELL SO I COULD SEE ALL THOSE THINGS TOO!"
"Umm," said Zed guiltily, "perhaps..."
"But Zed and Stamm were too distracted, and Stamm waved away an apology. He looked at the thing before them again."
"Moria..." he said, his whisper like a caress, his eyes hungry and shining oddly.
"Moria..." agreed Zed wistfully, the waft of old books almost crystallising in the air for him.
Leif and Gando exchanged looks and rolled their eyes. 
"So this..." gestured Leif, "is...?"
"The last way to that great mine..." said Stamm. He sighed into silence, still looking longingly at the way, rather than the party.
Leif looked at Gando, but Gando shrugged. "I sense nothing..."
"Moria..." said Stamm.
"Moria..." agreed Zed.
Leif sighed. "Well, we owe for everything you missed..."
Stamm finally looked round and shook his head. "No, I owe you for bringing me back...the way is too dangerous..." but then his eyes were drawn back again. Leif put his hand on the dwarf's shoulder. There was a flinch, but he settled back from deep thoughts.
"Moria," said Leif simply. Gando nodded, the other two were back to staring
Leif stared too. Regarded the way to the legend, to the making of a new legend. And smiled...