Deciding that you don't really want to release the trickster god, Kubazan, you decide to open the double door instead. Javlin leads the way. Javelin pushes the doors, the outside of which is carved with leering and laughing skulls, and reveals ten feet from the doors, a thick tapestry curtain hangs from wall to wall. Its embroidery shows a scene of merriment: nobles feasting around a banquet table, a roast boar on a platter, and servants pouring wine. The skeleton from before is standing in the room. As it sees Javlin it throws it's hands in the air and tries to duck behind the tapestry. Javelin is too quick though. He bashes the skeleton, destroying it easily. You now have one oddly shaped skull from each level you have explored. Javlin decides to look behind the tapestry. Another curtain hangs behind the first, showing the same scene but descended into depravity. The nobles fight with each other, partake in carnal encounters on the table, or sprawl on the floor in puddles of vomit. The tapestries are hanging on rails, so Javelin pushes the first one aside and then looks behind the second, with Rutgar following close behind. On the third tapestry a scene of horror confronts you: nobles feasting on servants, eating each other alive, and setting fire to the hall. The roast boar is alive and laughing on its platter. Javelin pushes the second tapestry aside and then ducks behind the third tapestry for a look. The rotting head of a giant boar is mounted to the wall behind the final curtain. Fresh blood and gore spatters its tusks, dribbling down the wall beneath it. Javelin is overwhelmed by the urge to kneel down and put his head in the boars mouth. He does so, and the boar starts chewing on his head, making some very worrying crunching sounds. Rutgar hears this and ducks behind the tapestry himself. He feels the same urge as Javelin but is able to overcome it, and then drags Javlin away from the boar and out from behind the tapestry to the rest of the group. Javelin fights to return to the boar, so you all take turns slapping him, kicking him and punching him until he finds his senses. Javlin and Rutgar describe what they saw and Grizz decides that such an unnatural abomination cannot be abided. He ducks behind the tapestry to destroy the boar, only to be overwhelmed by the same urge as Javlin. He places his head in the boars mouth and the boar bites down. However this time the extreme pain breaks the spell and Grizz pulls away. He then clinically dismantles the boars head finding some glasses, an eyepatch and a hairpin stuck in the teeth of this horrible beast. You decide that now you have a skeleton head from each level that it might be time to brave the aboleth again and head back down to the level with the giant cogs. You find yourself back in the cog filled with rotting plants and compost (and the corpse of Thazma). This time you head over to the next cog, at the northwest. An acidic stench fills this pentagonal chamber, which has two exits. The walls are covered with riveted sheets of iron, and the pockmarked stone floor has a large puddle of gray slime in the middle of it. Friezes along each wall just beneath the ceiling depict five black dragons. You pass through without incident and off the cogs and down a passage. A four-foot-high, seven-foot-wide iron lectern in the middle of the next rusty, iron-plated room is topped by a slanted control panel. Set into the control panel are a gold lever with a star-shaped handle, two dials in red and blue, and two buttons of the same colors. Wall engravings behind the control panel show five groups of circles, with a small crystal embedded in the wall under each one. The crystal under the configuration labeled "3" glows bright green. Three six-inch-diameter rusty iron pipes jut from the wall above the engravings. You take some time to figure out the controls, with the help of Papazotl in Javlins head insisting that the red dial and button are bad but the blue ones are good. You decide that the symbols on the wall are the cogs and that if everyone except bÚrp returns to the compost cog then he will be able to turn the cogs to allow access to the cog that has not been explored yet. You decide that once everyone is in the new cog you will yell and upon hearing you bÜrp will return the cogs to their orginal settings. Then making use of his tiny size and froggy body he will squeeze through gaps and join you. You do this. Everyone except bÚrp returns to the compost cog. Before you do anything, you strip off the corpse of Thazma and use the red robes to block up the pipes in the control room. Then bÚrp plays with the blue dial until the light moves to setting one and pulls the lever. Nothing happens except that the robes bulge. Obviously the lever was meant to release some liquid from the pipes. bÚrp tries to move it back, but it is stuck in place. He presses the blue button and the cogs slowly grind until they match the picture on setting one. This reveals a room to the north and another cog to the northeast. However the room to the north is filled with thick green gas which billows out of skull-shaped nozzles set into the walls of this cramped room. A rotting corpse clad in studded leather armor lies on the floor, mouth open and hands grasping its throat. Wrapped around one of its arms is a yellow band. The gas quickly flows into the cog choking you. As it does so, the vegetation starts to move and plant creatures rise from the compost, attacking you. A mighty battle ensues, but these creatures are tough. You find that many of your spells do little harm and Tlad finds that his lighting spells actually heal the creatures. Rutgar goes into a rage and starts dealing a lot of damage, but meanwhile the gas is still flowing into the room, choking you. Javlin decides to get out of there and goes into the new cog, with everyone else following soon after. You yell at Rutgar to join you, but he is in a rage and does not register your cries. bÚrp hears you yelling though, and recognising the signal, turns the cogs back to setting three, cutting you off from Rutgar but revealing new passages. bÚrp heads back through the cogs to find Rutgar in pitched battle with three shambling mounds. He joins in and one is destroyed but another completely engulfs Rutgar. Unable to use his war axe, Rutgar starts ripping with his bare hands, tearing one of the mounds apart. He scoops up his axe as it falls and swings around, chopping the other in two. All three mounds have been defeated. bÚrp then returns to the control room and moves the cogs twice more so Rutgar can join you, then he squeezes through the gaps between cogs, climbs around them and squeezes through again to join you. While this has been happening you have been exploring this cog. Five teak wardrobes stand against the ironclad walls of this chamber, each with a door bearing a carved image or scene. Puddles of gray slime cover parts of the floor. The room has two new exits, including an adamantine portcullis blocking a passage to the north and a passage to the south-east. Set into a metal plate above the portcullis is a row of five red crystals shaped like drops of blood. You examine the wardrobes and the scenes are as follows: an army of orcs clashing with an army of hobgoblins a grinning night hag with a swaddled human infant in her arms the face of an ornate clock twisted, screaming humanoid faces wrapped in chains ghouls gnawing on bones Javelin decides to examine the clock wardrobe. He opens the door a tiny crack and peeks inside. Instead of the inside of a wardrobe he sees an endless plane of enormous interlocking gears and cogs, stretching as far as he can see. Suddenly something bangs against the door. Javelin pushes it hard and it clicks shut. By this time Rutgar and bÚrp have joined you. You decide to reconnoit the northern passage, so first Grizz's pet lizard and then bÚrp squeeze through the portcullis bars to have a look. The passage turns a corner and then stairs lead downwards. At the bottom of the stairs the hallway leads onwards, but graven images of rotting corpses decorate this hall, and the floor is littered with tarnished coins, pieces of armor, broken shields, axe heads, and other bits of scrap metal. A yawning archway at the end of the passage has a keystone adorned with an iron bull's skull, which bites down on an ivory ring. You do not proceed far enough to see through the archway. You decide to head the other way instead, so the lizard and bÚrp return to the group. With Javlin leading the way you head down the southeast passage which leads to a large chamber. A life-size golden statue of a mastodon stands atop a one-foot-high stone cog at the center of this room. Jeweled tusks sweep from its jowls, and its trunk is raised in a roar. Inscriptions coil around the statue's body, and murals on the walls show a Chultan warrior riding a living mastodon through a series of hellish landscapes. In each scene, a different breed of devil assails them.
