Grand Stair
(Folly of the dwarves)

The story: In the lands of middle earth, deep within the dwarf mine of khazad-dum (you might know it as moria) there is a great stair case connecting the Redhorn Lodes to Nud-Melek and the 21st Hall. There used to be no stair case because there was no need for one. As the dwarves dug deeper and deeper they had to build a path from the city of 21st hall to the mines. Originally it was a path but they still dug. Soon they dug out from under the path leaving only small pillars to hold up the path. The path became a winding and twisting stair case. Durin the deathless, against great concern from the elves, still dug deeper until there mining efforts at a place called "The Foundations of Stone", a place full of dark creatures called the "nameless".

The source of this evil was unknown and the elves pleaded for Durin to stop his foolish recklessness. Undeterred the dwarves opened up a new area in the foundations of stone...which would be from now on known as the shadowed cave. Under the supervision of some cautious elves and his closest body guards, he opened the cave. Inside was a balrog, a terribly powerful demon of fire and darkness.

He escaped the cave, but soon after he was killed by the balrog he released, thus the balrog was named "Durin's Bane." For quite a long time Moria remained empty as the orcs and goblins cautiously ventured out of their hiding places within the deep dark into the dwarves' structures, defiling the breath-taking architecture. Nearly a millenium later the fellowship encounters this monster in the second hall, near the bridge of khazad-dum, Gandalf the Grey stays behind to fight the Balrog. He shattered the bridge, but the balrog grasped his legs with its whip. Both of them fell into a lake in the foundations of stone. This extinguished the balrog's flames giving Gandalf the advantage. The Balrog then fled through unknown tunnels as Gandalf chased him for 8 days. They met and fought at the peak of the mountain, Zirakzigil, for days and 2 nights until they both were defeated; however Gandalf was sent back to Middle-Earth by Illuvitar with even greater power as Gandalf the White. They fought so hard as Gandalf struck his final blow the Balrog knocked a dent in the mountain

This is where the story of the current battle begins. Dwarfs rejoice in finding that Moria is free of Durin's Bane and start to recolonize. However many creatures of great evil and plently of orcs stand in their way. The Grand Stair, being a cross road in Moria, is essential for the Orc Leader, Mazog, to collect his tribute. A group of soldiers of the free peoples ventures onto this monumental achievment of dwarvish craftmanship to reclaim it...but dangerous creatures make their home in the deep dark.

The Map: The Grand Stair is a large winding stair case built in the crypt of sandbox. I interlocked a couple objects when necessary, but most gave me flickering textures (ewh) so i decided to just use small wedges for transitions between walls and blocks. Please note it is much smoother going up than down. Also everything is held by a column/block or has a keystone the holds it up to keep it true to the story.

Gametypes: I reccomend 2 variants for this map:

Fall of Moria (Team Slayer) (Recommended for 8-16 or if under 8 All on different teams)

Globsnaga (Infection) (The more the merrier.)

In case you are wondering "Globsnaga" is a type of fungus that infects the orcs, goblins, spiders, and trolls in the foundations of stone, almost kind of like the flood. I think they were named that becuase they snag globs of fungus just a guess though lol.

Both of these gametypes are swords only (Im pretty sure dwarves didnt have snipers, but man playing snipes on this would probably be a helluva lot of fun) and have motion trackers off so you must be constantly be on guard.

The gametypes are just starting templates and I encourage you to change it how you like just please let me know if you plan posting it on forgehub or any website like it.

And now...

Pics:

Action shots:

Downloads:

Grand Stair (Map) : http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=74957532

Globsnaga (Infection Gametype):
http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=74957845

Fall Of Moria (Slayer Gametype):
http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=74957796

Film Clip: Long way down...:
http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=74960987

Fan Trivia, whoever can tell me what the rock on the island is gets a cookie :) (hint its in the lake in the foundations of stone)

The pics of the Moria things are from the online game Lord of the Rings Online, Shadows of Angmar. I play this game on the Firefoot server as Celebraphor in case anyone was wondering. In LOTRO the Grand stair is a 6 man fellowship instance, which inspired this map. Ty Turbine ^.^