Celebdraug and Mordae completed their change from their woodland uniform to their assassin outfits; donning completely black cloaks, daggers, throwing knives, their ever -present broadswords, and their own invention, a collapsing bow, weaker than a normal longbow, but far more easily concealed. The elves painted one another's faces completely black, and their normally shining eyes were dulled, making them totally invisible to prying eyes, whether it be a torch bearing dwarf or night seeing orc.
Switching to their commando-like tactics of their days in the elven military, Mordae and Celebdraug used hand signals to communicate their thoughts to one another, their almost supernatural night vision and reflexes allowing them to see the other nearly indiscernible figure.
Leaving their excess equipment at the rubble of the gate, the two began to advance through the labyrinth of tunnels that was Moria.
After navigating nearly five leagues of passageways, Mordae, who was in the point position, came to a sudden halt, holding up a clenched fist.
Celebdraug removed her bow, which was only about three-quarters of a meter long in its folded position, and flicked the switch on the side, releasing the tension that held it together. Without a sound, the weapon unfurled, and Celebdraug nocked an arrow against the side. She then crouched beside Mordae, who spread out an ancient looking map from his cloak.
With a few hand gestures, he communicated that they had somehow become lost, whether parts of the mine had collapsed or they had taken a wrong turn was unclear, and Mordae would of course never admit being wrong.
Celebdraug leaned in closer, inspected the map, and then sat back on her heels, a small smile beginning to form on her face. She touched Mordae's shoulder and pointed upwards, toward a small shaft leading high up into the ceiling. If she was correct, that shaft led to the well that she had observed Pippin alert the orcs to the Fellowship's presence over a century ago.
Mordae looked up, then nodded and pointed to her bow. Celebdraug nodded, looped a rope around the end of the arrow, and fired it up through the shaft at a nearly vertical angle. After several seconds, Celebdraug gave a slight tug on the end of the rope and found it to be secure.
She signaled to Mordae to begin the ascent, but he held up a hand and pointed to her. She pointed back at him, and the silent argument continued for several more turns, until finally, Celebdraug grabbed the rope and commenced her climb, rising rapidly up through the darkness into the long shaft.
The ascent was uneventful, but as Celebdraug reached the end of the rope, she found it to be several meters short of the top. She held up a hand to Mordae, who hung by one hand below her, swinging back and forth happily, the adrenaline rush of being on a mission causing him to be even sillier than usual.
Celebdraug kicked his hand lightly, and he sighed and took hold of the rope with both hands. Removing her bow again, Celebdraug found herself unable to fire and still hold on; the bow required two hands to use. She made a mental note to try to figure out a way to fix this problem with a new style of bow, but for the moment, she was stuck.
Celebdraug jumped slightly as she felt Mordae set an arrow of his own on the dragon heart-stringed bow and pull down. Celebdraug adjusted the angle of the bow, and Mordae nodded, then released the dart. The arrow slithered silently up and out of the shaft, and without a sound, buried itself in something hard.
Immediately, there was utter chaos as the shrieks of orcs echoed from the room. Mordae hastily pulled on the rope attached to the bolt they had just launched and felt something slide. He and Celebdraug pressed themselves against the side of the shaft as the body of an orc tumbled over the lip of the well, the arrow embedded in its stomach.
Mordae reached out and snatched the dart from the body as it fell, nearly pulling himself along with the falling orc. Celebdraug snatched the tail of the rope and snapped her wrist, causing the 'intelligent' elven rope to wind itself with a hiss. She then let go of the line she was hanging on and planted her feet on either side of the narrow well, and, shifting her weight back and forth, began to scale the remaining distance.
Celebdraug swore as she neared the top of the climb; the orcs had discerned where the attack had originated and had begun hurling random objects down the shaft. Dodging a rusted dwarf helmet, Celebdraug grabbed the lip of the well with both hands and launched herself a few meters above the offending orcs, drawing her sword in midair. The eight orcs chattered excitedly and gathered in a circle around the well, waiting for her to land so they could attack.
Their setup was ruined, however, as Mordae leaped up into the splits across the well and stabbed a dagger into the orcs on his right and left. With a spin of his legs, he rotated ninety degrees and struck down two more. Celebdraug landed on the outside of the well, her flaming sword whirling.
She stepped forward and with amazing ease, lopped off the head of the nearest survivor. With a graceful spin, she sent the two halves of the next creature whirling off into a corner. Mordae rolled off the well as she dove over him, rolling and cutting off the legs of yet another shrieking being. She lunged and ran the final orc through the chest, then dropped to one knee and plunged her blazing blade into the legless victim of her previous attack, effectively ending the skirmish.
As Mordae sheathed his daggers, Celebdraug raced to the pedestal near the side of Balin's Tomb, where the orcs had the record book of Khazad, the very item the elves were searching for, opened to a page with a diagram of a long, mazelike shaft on it. She scanned the entry, then gasped.
"Those idiots!" she screamed, her voice echoing down the many tunnels of Moria.
Mordae jogged to her side, muttering, "So much for stealth."
Celebdraug hurled the book into the wall with an angry cry.
"Frustrated, are we?" Mordae asked innocently.
His cousin retrieved the book, located the page it had been opened to, and thrust it in his face.
"Those damned fools buried the bloody ring! Then, they left instructions for any idiot to find it!" she hissed.
"What?" Mordae took the book from her, scanned the page, and then slammed it down on the pedestal, cracking the base. "No wonder these orcs in here were such bad fighters. We just slaughtered a bunch of engineers!"
Celebdraug shrugged, "Still orcs."
"Yes," Mordae agreed, "But that isn't my point."
He picked the book back up and began reading, translating from the Moria dialect into the Common tongue and then into Quenya nearly instantaneously as he read aloud.
After he had read the dwarven runes, he pointed to several dark, sloppily scribbled marks that looked like a drunken elf writing in the Tengwar.
"The orcs have been trying to translate this. See?" He held out the book to Celebdraug. "Apparently, the dwarves put some traps in the shaft as well, and the orcs have been trying to avoid them."
Celebdraug nodded as she read the page, translating the orcish out loud.
"They're not very good at this, are they?" she asked with a smile, pointing to a terrible misinterpretation.
Mordae shook his head and closed the book. "Come on. Let's go find this shaft."
"How do we know where it is?"
"Now that, my dear, is a question that I haven't an answer to."
Celebdraug sighed, "Obviously the brains of this outfit."
Mordae scratched his clean-shaven chin. "We could track the translators."
"Brilliant!" Celebdraug shouted, and dropping to her knees, she pretended to search for footprints. With a melodramatic gasp, she rose; raced randomly about the room, nose to the ground, then stopped at the blood splashed scene around the well. "Aha!"
Mordae threw a large bone that remained of the cave troll that had attacked the Fellowship at Celebdraug. The story that the nine had told had been one of great heroism and teamwork in taking down the beast, ending with Legolas felling the creature with a well-placed arrow. In actuality, the troll had died from having half a dozen meter-long arrows buried up its spinal cord by the unseen Udunaedos, hired by Elrond to keep watch over the group.
"No, stupid!" Mordae cried, "They came from somewhere, didn't they?"
"Ah," Celebdraug said, casually reaching up and catching the hurled object, "You makes a point."
"Thank you. Now, let's move," he said, drawing his glowing yellow sword. "Stealthily?"
Celebdraug shook her head, "Screw stealth."
Mordae scanned the ground leading out the door for footprints, found them, and bolted down the path, screaming like a vampire. Celebdraug smiled, screamed as well, and followed.
