The Raja's Eye

The Raja's Eye March 13th, 1909 Recently, disheartening news has reached the editorial team at the Raja's Eye. Reports are coming in of a 21 year old male, named Jazir Al-Halman becoming stuck in a cave in the area of the greater Tanoor body. An experienced and well renowned caver of the middle Tanoor area, locals say that his skills in spelunking were unmatched. Far past that of even professional level, haven already been hired by geologists as a guide through many a cave as early as 17 he was renowned as an expert spelunker. Coming in around 32 hours ago Jazir reportedly entered The Sandstone Cave with intentions of working on widening a passage, and once a notice of his absence 25 hours into his ordeal was taken inquisitive and worried friends of the spelunker entered the cave in search of him. One of his acquaintances who was providing housing for him at the time, Ra'oulan Kadhema, managed the tight and dirty squeeze through the passageway, reportedly descending 16.76 meters (55 feet) through corkscrewing descents, drop offs, and jagged rocks. He was stopped short of Jazir though reportedly heard the man's voice calling for help. Ra'oulan informed the editors of the Raja's Eye that he was not able to see much of Jazir other than his head, though he was laid on his side and unable to move his arms. Jazir told his acquaintance that, on his return up after his kerosene lantern had been unexpectedly extinguished, something had fallen on his foot and the sand and gravel raining down following the cave in had trapped and completely immobilized him. Local townsfolk have began attempts to reach the man and rescue him, though the narrow and twisting passageway has made it immensely difficult and as of yet none except Ra'oulan has been able to reach Jazir. Our hearts and prayers go out to Jazir's family and the young man himself. Our editors will keep all our readers updated as much as possible with the information coming from The Sandstone Cave and the rescue attempt unfolding at the entrance.

The Raja’s Eye March 16, 1909 The recently reported on spelunker, Jazir Al-Halman’s brother has reportedly become the second person to reach the stranded caver. Able to physically reach Jazir, the sickening reality imposed by the twisted cruelty of fate befall the brother of Jazir. Due to the nature of the drop off Moraha, Jazir’s older brother, came to the conclusion that any rescue attempts would require that the rescuer(s) go head first, as the passage was too narrow over and down the drop off to bend down. With eight hours spent attempting to dig using his fingers, Moraha returned to the surface with skin dangling from his fingers and missing some of his fingernails according to eyewitnesses of his emergence. After his older brother entered the cave, no one else was able to reach Jazir until around 10 hours later when, at midnight, Moraha again descended into the depths with a crowbar in attempts to again dig his younger sibling out, though to no avail. This pattern again carried through this very night, according to our reporters on scene.

A local firefighter later managed to descend the treacherous cavern to assess the situation, reporting that Jazir told him “I don’t care what it takes, rip my foot off if you must. Just get me out of here.” The fireman has now arranged for speciality harnesses to be brought in from another district though unfortunately it is estimated that another 12-15 hours will be used up in waiting for their arrival. More breaking news to come in the daily publishing of The Raja’s Eye.

The Raja’s Eye March 17, 1909 The speciality ropes and harness had arrived, extending around 30.5 meters (100 feet) to be wrapped around the partially excavated man. A six man team was picked to pull on the rope after a signaling tug to attempt to dislodge Jazir. However, things did not go as planned after the signal was given. Jazir began to scream in agony, loud enough that his echoing wails of miasma reached our reporters on the surface in eerie and gut-wrenching echoed and distorted nature. Moraha soon stopped the attempt by personally from inside the cave pulling in the opposite direction and even managed to, though sheer adrenaline, dislodge the six man team from their footing above ground. Moraha afterwards physically had to be carried away from the cave afterwards, with many shaken from the audible ordeal. Unfortunately, a crowd of nearly 200 has begun to form around the cave. A mob of unruly drunks with dreams of being a hero, and of little to no caving experience to offer any legitimate help to the entrapped spelunker. However, a breakthrough was made. A childhood friend of Jazir, Assam Mumar, managed to, after nine hours inside the cave of grueling rock excavation simply to reach the man, and digging him out upon reaching Jazir, managed to expose his shoulders, torso, hips, and even his upper thighs for what is estimated to be the first time in nearly three days. Upon surfacing, Assam echoed this sentiment he claims to have promised to Jazir, “No one except my team are going down there. No one else knows how to get down there, and I’m not going to let him be alone down there in the dark.” After that, reinforcements im began being placed in the slowly widening tunnels beneath the earth to increase stability of the soft rock and earth that makes up the Sandstone Cave. (edited)

This allotment of resources allowed the smallest of the group, Ra’oulan, to finally reach Jazir in full who had since been supplied with blankets as well as food and water. Attempts have been made with a jack braced against the ceiling of the tunnel to shift the rock and free Jazir’s foot thanks to his acquaintance. Time and again however, it proved to be futile as the jack shifted out of place, and at points the rock above the pair began to, “…tremble and shift” according to Ra’oulan. Attempts over the course of another six hours well past midnight local time proved unsuccessful in this so far nearly 100 hour ordeal for Jazir and his loved ones.

The Raja's Eye March 21, 1909 Federal level support has now made its way into the area, with federal rock and geologist inspectors making their way into the maw of the cave. On their way through near the last squeeze though, the pair made a horrifying discovery. The heat and moisture from fires, spectators, and rescuers in the area had raised the moisture levels and temperatures within the cave so much so that cracks had began to form in the ceiling, and at points the ceiling of the tunnels began to bow under their own weight. One of the inspectors quickly became increasingly worried, and reportedly by the time the pair had reached Jazir was begging his partner to turn around and come back to the surface as it seemed that the ceiling was dropping furthermore by the very second. A plan began to form after their eventual surfacing, however. Confidence had began to grow in an idea to use a blowtorch to burn away two large rocks that were prohibiting the rescuers from properly seating the jack to work against the boulder wedges upon Jazir's feet. However, fate again seemed to intervene to her cruel measures when Moraha volunteered to be the one to go down and attempt the plan. Moving down into the cave, he was quickly met with a wall of orangish grey rocks. The cave had collapsed in his and the inspector's absence. Digging at the cave in, rocks and sand began to fall around Jazir's older brother whom was forced out only when the threat of being entombed himself became more and more perilous by the very second.

Over the next eight hours, Assam fearlessly dove into the cave to excavate rocks and reinforce walls. On one occasion, Assam apparently got so close to the pit that Jazir was able to ask for food and water through the cave-in, with Assam relating the news to his childhood friend of the cave in. The result of which, was Jazir, a 21 year old man sobbing while trapped under earth and rock bewilderingly deep underground with his voice echoing back up hauntingly to those on the surface. Assam, fueled by the soul-wrenching crying of his childhood friend worked another six hours to dig more rock out, before spotting light from a lightbulb that had previously been lowered to offer the man light and warmth in the depths of the earth while rescue attempts were underway. After finally clearing out the cave in, an exhausted Assam promised to return to Jazir before once more moving to surface from the cave. Assam, four hours later, entered the Sandstone Cave for the final time. Upon attempting to traverse the passageways once more, he was once again met with another cave in around where Jazir laid and this time there was no light coming through the rock. Assam began to yell again for Jazir, clawing at the surface until rocks began to rain atop Assam and forced him to surface once again.

The Raja's Eye March 29 1909 Officially, the rescue operation has come under federal Tanoor control. Engineers and miners began plans for machine drilling a side-shaft with the help of geologists to then be diagonally dug into the Sandstone Caves, but the plan has been since estimated that fumes would suffocate the hopefully still living Jazir long before rescuers could reach the man. As such, attempts with picks and shovels to began digging were made. 75 total volunteers have began work on digging the shaft and excavating earth, with the hope of dredging up around two feet of soil an hour, meaning they would reach Jazir in 30 hours. Upon excavating a ton of earth, and moving down to 10 feet, the shaft began to narrow as the team encountered boulders and other extremely sizeable rocks but the pace of excavation slowed to around 6 inches every hour. By hour thirty, the shaft had only been dug to seventeen feet despite best efforts. Tarps later had to be placed above the shaft to prevent flooding from rain coming over the mountains in the area. Upon hitting 28 feet deep, the pace of digging again dropped to around 4 inches an hour. At this pace, three days passed as temperatures dropped, and an unusual snow-spell passed over the area freezing mud and water alike much to the chagrin of all. Finally, around the 400 hour mark of the operation, 55 feet in depth was reached and the order was given to burrow sideways into Sandstone Cave.

After nearly 17 days stuck underground, 12 without food or water, and 4 without any heat from the light, a rescuer made their way into the cave for the first time in search of Jazir after they breached through Sandstone Cave. The body of Jazir Al-Halman was pulled from the cave after dislodging rock and sand from around the recently deceased man. The rock that had pinned his feet and cost the area so much grief was found to have weighed only 9.53kg (21 lbs) on its own. Jazir Al-Halman is to be buried in the family graveyard, with a stalactite headstone and federal restrictions are now to be placed upon entrance to the Sandstone Cave and connecting formations until their safety is determined. It was determined that, through autopsy, Jazir had died three days prior presumably not too long after the second collapse with his light winking out from life as well. Our hearts and prayers to Jazir Al-Halman's friends, family, and our eternal gratitude to all those in the community who did their best to help out in the rescue efforts of the young man.