[Hookbill the Goomba]

"Wow," said The Barrow Wight as he removed his duck costume, "that was a daring escape!" Tollin and Smilog sat down in the shadow of Small Jim and peered at Mount Zoom, still standing still. For a stupid and really worn out joke, it seemed to have evaded destruction so far.

"Well," mused Smilog as he rose once again, stroking his beard, "burning the Golden Fleece and finding the purple piper were the hard parts, after that, the rest was easy!" Their daring escape from the police and their many other adventures had quite left them worn out.

Smilog had quite forgotten about any negotiations that may or may not have been going on inside the Mountain. The Ice-cream parlour had made his memory a bit of a blur, not to mention being chased by a Balrug* down a corridor of fossilised shoes. Yet now they were about a mile away from Mount Zoom and under the strange building that contained Small Jim; the great Bell of Mordor that had once rung in Cirath Ungol as a warning and now sat atop this magnificent tower to tone the hour.

Tollin opened the door leading into the building and said, "Do you think we should investigate this?" Smilog shrugged and sat down again.

"If you wish," he grunted, "I doubt you will find anything interesting, though. As I said, I commissioned this thing, if there were any plot hidden here by the blue wizards, I'd know about it."

"You didn't know about the Balrug," said The Barrow Wight, "when you clamed to know those tunnels like the back of your hand."

"Oh very well," sighed the Dwarf, "let us see what is in this tower."


*A strange creature of carpet and dust. It seemed to be man sized, but slightly bigger. The Carpeted skin seemed to be shrouded in dust. The one detail he was not sure of was when the dust about it had stretched forth like two vast wings...