"It's ok Vark. That stupid thing didn't want to let you down. You ok?" he says when the half-orc jumps down. "Do you think it has teleported away? It seems to have dissolved in shadows what was that thing anyway?" 

"Wait there my friend I think Valen needs my help... " he replies to Vark question, not really looking where he was poiting, going back to the knight and aks the others

"How can I help him? " 

Jex looks over the walkway to where Vark is pointing. 

"We can't carry him with us. If he can't carry his sword we should pick him up on the way out. What are you seeing Vark?" 

“Those-“ he points to the row of dimly lit windows and just now realizes how mundane they actually are. “I uhm... well I thought I saw something. Nevermind.” He turns his attention to their wounded companion. “Is he safe here? What if one of those things comes back.”

Aiden helps Valen to his feet and pats him on the shoulder, steadying the paladin. "He'll be fine to come with us," he says. "Just play it safe, Valen. First sign of trouble, you stay back."

Jex heads back to the giant doors at the end of the platform, pulling out a small leather roll from his pocket he kneels down and begins inspecting for any signs of traps or contingencies. 

Helping Aiden get Valen to his feet, Thurston asks Thor for his help to close some of the wounds of the brave knight. 

" You'll be fine " he says patting him in the shoulder " it's the downside of our armours my friend, huge beasts find us crunchy!" he laughs and returns to Vark. 

"Now my friend, show me that window and we will see how to reach it, oh I see that Jex is already on it... " he says in a confidential tone, as if Jex would need quiet ot do his job. 

The great stone arch that marks the rock face at the far end of the bridge lights up as Jex sets about inspecting it. What was previously a plain stone surface is now revealed to be adorned with a myriad of fine, thread-like carvings, each illuminated in a pale blue-white. Every conceivable act and experience that can be wrought in stone is depicted in intricate detail. Dwarves toil in the mines, bake bread, make love and wage war. A dragon breathes upon a cowering crowd, while next to it a hardy smith works their craft at the bellows. A king overlooks his subjects, while an assassin creeps from behind, their dagger dripping with poison. A pauper begs for coins while academics and alchemists debate at pulpits and experiment in laboratories. Every scene is depicted in minute detail, from the crown of the king to the dirt on the pauper's face. Runic inscriptions in Dwarven run up and around the edges of the arch.

The top of the arch is entitled Ungdrin Ankor and the script up and down the sides reads:
She clamours, shod in boots of iron and on paths of iron only does she tread. She cares nothing for the blazing sun before her, nor for the heat of the road beneath her feet, for she knows she never need fear their fire. Thus continue her resounding footsteps. Who is she?

"Odd. It's almost as though it is depicting my exploits, though I appear as a dwarf."

Jex mutters as he looks for a way to pass. 

"And more handsome..." points Thurston to Jex's words "you had to had paid the artist.... hadnsomly " he chukles.

“I don’t know, I think they got his appearance pretty accurate. Look, that one is identical.” Vark says as he points to a carving of a dwarven lass getting her mine excavated. He snickers at his own dirty joke while he waits for Jex to finish investigating.

Jex smirks, enjoying the moment of light relief as his friends relax. 

"Well, see if you can see some pictures of a mine, a cart, maybe being pulled by a horse. Unless anyone can think of another iron boot on an iron road?" 

 Valaith frowns slightly as Vark walks away from her without a word and starts to say something, but instead narrows her eyes at the young man before turning her attention to the strange pictures and riddle. As the group ponders the words, Thurston points out an image he found and Valaith leans into to look at it. Without hesitation she presses her finger onto the image and waits to see if she feels any reaction from the image or anything...

The image of the mine cart lights up a pale red and the runes around the sides of the arch twist and shift into new sentences.

Who is he that is battered, but never bowed? Who takes wave upon wave of blades and hammers against his crown, and yet is never moved? Who, though the heat of the sun beats on his brow, never breaks sweat?

Thurston smiles when the cart lights up and nods to Valaith. When the words appears he ponders.

"Hmm an anvil?" 

He looks for one in the inscriptions. 

Aiden raises an eyebrow. "Never took you for an intellectual, Thurston," he says with a slight chuckle. "Did you receive more schooling recently?"

"He knows getting battered with a hammer better than any" Jex grins

Aiden's chuckle becomes a full laugh. "Ah, so the same type of schooling he got on Eikthyrnir." 

Finding the anvil, Thurston presses it and the image glow brighter. The Norscan smiles at his success and the words shift again.

With arms widespread, he blows forth a breathless breeze. With every breeze he blows, his lover's heart doth pulse with heat. Who is he?

After the riddle is translated by Jex, Vark seems to have an answer. "Oh! What's that thing that you squeeze and-and-" he gestures excitedly with his arms, miming the opening and closing motion.

"Bellows!" Aiden answers with a smile. Vark nods and then finds the correct image, not too far from the anvil. This image too begins to glow brighter, and once again a new riddle is presented.

Struck from the rock and the metal she wrought, she breathes life into ruined blade. By hosts and bandits alike she is greeted with open palms, though none dare embrace her. Who is she?

There is a quiet moment as the party thinks before Aiden speaks up. "Ah! It's a fire." This time the image is across the door, where a party of dwarven rangers are shown sitting around a campfire in the woods. The blaze glows and affirmative blue, and the group gets yet another riddle.

She is the sun of the first and the second, and she is the lover of the third. The fourth she breathes. Who is she?

"The sun of the first and the second... and she breathes fire? That's... that's gotta just be the whole forge itself, right?" Sure enough, as Vark presses the carved image of the forge, it glows and the surrounding words change. But instead of a new riddle, Jex and Val both find the original words appearing again.

"Hmm, it's the first riddle again. It did glow red while the others glowed blue, Thurston must have guessed wrong." Jex says. Meanwhile Val mutters the dwarven words to herself as she tries to figure out what the right answer could be. 

"It's a hammer!" she exclaims before pressing into the image of a warhammer wielded by a dwarven warrior. The carving glows bright, and there is a moment of tense silence as the party waits to see what the door has in store.

There's a low rumble and then the great stone doors swing inwards with a scrape, revealing a vast area shrouded in darkness beyond. Cold air blows in from the other side and, as the doors finally come to a halt, the light slowly fades from the carvings. A short flight of stairs leads down and away and in the distance two octahedral obelisks can be seen, one blue and one red. Both bear a translucent glow and crackle with energy.

"Perhaps these are for you to absorb also?" Jex looks to Vark.

"I will look around, eyes on the ceiling too this time. Hopefully no more surprises await us, though that hope seems wishful, I suspect much more trouble before we are done."