1 Mordekai: This is no dwarven kingdom... It's a tomb.
2 Kyros: Yeah. Kind of spooky. Where are all the dwarves?
3 Alvissa: Have they been killed by raiding orcs and goblins?
4 GM: Look, it took me two years to paint one dwarf miniature.

For anyone who hasn't read the book or seen the film, this whole sequence regarding the secret dwarven passage is a parody of the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring through the Mines of Moria. In fact, if you haven't seen or read it, it might be a good idea to do so before the next strip in this theme. Not that I have anything particularly relying on knowledge of it planned; it'll just make more sense. :-)

---

2016-01-12 Rerun commentary: It's interesting how it can be so spooky in such an apparently brightly lit underground kingdom.

Dwarves of course are more like their surface dwelling brethren races in their liking for light, as opposed to the dark races of the orcs and goblins, who prefer gloom.

Not that this is a great excuse for the now abandoned kingdom being so well illuminated.