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Awful Stair
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Awful Stair topographical map (MERP)
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Juggler's Close and environs topographical map (MERP)
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Type
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Road
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Region
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A path ascended into the White Mountains on the western side of the Juggler's Close, where the great peak of the Heahall (Éo."High Hall") lurked over the edge of the Deeping-coomb. Leaving the Horn Road at the base of the Heaheall, this trail slipped by an Old Dunnish Burial Field and wound its way up toward an Abandoned Coppermine. There the route filtered into the mountain, following the damp, vacant tunnels. Eventually, the circuitous path exited the mine and reached an underground river channel, beside the point where the stream (Heallstrem) disappeared on the final leg of its journey toward the Deeping Stream. Then the trail climbed a narrow granite stair beside the cascading waters. Hundreds of steps above was the Chamber of the Awful Stair. The Awful Stair was the greatest of its carved stairways. It ascended within and around a bluish column, reaching into the ceiling, leveling, and angling away from the Chamber. Two miles long, it exited high on the southern cliffs of the Heahall and served as the sole way to the Awful Path.
The stair climbed through the roof of the Chamber and then ascended to the junction with the Awful Path. The twelve exposed portions of the stairway were very hard to climb. There were three traps along the steps:
- Trap 1: One hundred feet up the stairway, at the sixth exposed section, there were nine 3' wide steps. The even numbered steps (2, 4, 6, & 8) were trapped. Should thirty or more pounds of direct pressure be applied to any one of them, the step would depress one foot, releasing a water-powered counterweight system inside the basalt column. A series of stone-faced rods would spring from the column, aimed along each of the nine stairs. It was an extremely hard maneuver to avoid being cast off into the Chamber, and a medium maneuver in order to avoid falling as a result of the step suddenly depressing.
- Trap 2: Similar to trap 1, this trap was at the 120' point and corresponded to the seventh exposed section. There were six stairs here, the even ones (2, 4, & 6) being trapped. The trap released with forty or more pounds of pressure, causing all six stairs to slide into the column for ten seconds.
- Trap 3: One of these traps occurred within every column. In this case, it was set in an enclosed stair section at the 180' point. Here there were two trapped pairs of stairs separated by a safe pair of steps. With fifty or more pounds of direct pressure, these stairs, the two between them, and twenty stairs below them, tilted to form a smooth slide. Water immediately issued from a newly-opened aperture in the center of the column, lubricating the slide. At the bottom, a series of blade-like spikes protruded from the ceiling, stair, and walls.
References[]
- MERP: Riders of Rohan