[samjjones]

JDalla - my friends and I wondered this exact same thing a few years ago!

So we decided to stake out the local NJ Turnpike toll booth to see what happened.

Turns out those dudes work 8 hour shifts, so we ended up staking them out for the better part of 4 hours. Once the shift was over, the attendant looked both ways out of his little window, let out a cackle, and disappeared! WTF? We ran across the highway and looked inside, and saw that there was a trapdoor in the floor.

After checking to see that nobody was around, we crept inside and climbed down the ladder into a tunnel. The tunnel was pretty spooky, lit only with wood torches that look like they had been dipped in some kind of petroleum based product.

Following along the dim corridor, the tunnel finally opened out into what can only be described as an underground chamber. As we walked across the vast floor, we noticed huge columns that looked like they had to have been a hundred feet high supporting the roof.

Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs.

Ai! Ai! A Balrog has come!