You all enter the room and start examining. Besh is able to tell from the murals that this is the tale of Ch'gakari that Princess Mwaxanaré had told you on the plateau of the Aarakocra. Ch'gakari was a chultan warrior who stole his king's prized steed: a mastodon named Ghom. As punishment, the king's sorcerers banished Ch'gakare and Ghom to the Nine Hells, but the two fought their way back home. On his return, Ch'gakare chopped off the king's head and turned his skull into a jeweled chalice. The murals show Ch'gakare and Ghom fighting spined devils, bearded devils, barbed devils, horned devils, and erinyes. The inscriptions on the statue are written in Old Omuan. Besh translates: Let your bones watch over my treasure, brave Ghom. As you carried me from the inferno, so shall I rise from death to defend my riches. Rutgar feels an urge from I'jin to climb on the golden mastodon and ride it, and Rutgar decides to follow this urge. At the same time b'Urp pulls out his wand to detect any nearby secret doors or traps. It detects a trap in the passage behind you - a block of stone obviously designed to drop and trap you in this room. B'urp leaps back into the passage and you all follow swiftly except for Rutgar who finds himself on top of the mastodon. He finds a star shaped indentation on the back of the head which he reports back to the group. B'urp remembers that there had been a star shaped lever in the control panel on the other side of this level. He decides to go and get it and makes his way back through the gears and cogs to the control room. In the meantime you find pitons and firmly anchor the stone block in the ceiling before returning into the room. Scratches on the floor beneath the stone cog underneath the mastodon indicate that it can rotate. Javelin pushes, but to no avail so Rutgar decides to add his goliath strength to the effort. He pushes with an inhuman strength and there is the sound of a straining of metal, followed by a tearing sound and then a snap. Suddenly the cog is able to rotate freely. Maybe that was not such a good idea. Meanwhile B'urp has made his way back to the control room. He pulls the lever. Nothing appears to happen although the slime dripping from the pipes seems to increase slightly. When he checks the pipes he sees that the cloth that he blocked the pipes is sodden and seeping slime. It is easy to imagine that if he had not blocked the pipes slime would now be freely flowing into the room. He decides to press the red button, and suddenly a six inch thick sheet of steel slides down, blocking the entrance. He is trapped in this room. Next he turns the red dial and feels an evil presence in his head. "What now, Gorra?", the presence says, "Why do you disturb my meditation again?" "I am sorry", replies B'Urp, "my name is B'Urp. I do not know this Gorra. Who might you be?" b'Urp and the creature converse for some time. The creature is the aboleth they encountered before, named G'lyh'rul. It is a difficult conversation as the creature appears to switch between personalities, one moment being a dark and evil entity, the next being a curious child. The conversation reveals that the aboleth made a deal some time ago with Acererak, trading some of his knowledge and power to build the tomb in exchange for power from the soulmonger when it is sated. b'Urp explains that they have come to destroy Acererak. G'lyh'rul reads through b'Urp's memories and sees the rest of the group, understanding their task. He explains that he will not stop the group from defeating Acererak, but he also will not help them. He has grown bored of only conversing with Gorra (the name Withers had before death) and would have his power returned. He suggests that those of the group who have not allowed trickster gods to inhabit them consider doing it. "Having a god inhabit you when fighting Acererak will greatly enhance your chances of success". b'Urp asks him how he can leave this room and is told that he just needs to wait an hour and the door will reset. b'Urp patiently waits. Meanwhile, back in the hall of the golden mastodon, you are getting bored. You wait a little longer and then decide that b'Urp may be in trouble. You start heading back to find him. Suddenly you all feel a presence in your head. "Do not concern yourself with your friend. He is trapped for now but will return to you within the hour. He is quite safe now that we have reached an agreement". Trayzeal recognises the presence of the aboleth, but something about his words rings true, so you wait, patch up your wounds and ready yourselves. Sure enough, after less than an hour b'Urp has returned with the lever that he dismantled from the control panel. You all return to the hall and b'Urp leaps up and inserts the lever. A thunderous trumpeting sound erupts from the mastodon's trunk. You hear a scraping of stone on metal as the block trap you found before settles on the pitons you inserted and machinery under the cog starts clattering in a disconnected way. You feel the cog jerking slightly underneath you. As you consider what to do, the floor of the chamber suddenly starts spouting flame and a plethora of devils start emerging from the walls. The same devils that were on the murals. Four spined devils, three bearded devils, two barbed devils, one horned devil and one erinyes emerge. Recognising that this is not a good place to be, you flee back, Tlad stopping some of the devils with a well placed wall of force. You return into the cog with the wardrobes and establish a defensive position. As you flee, the erinyes calls out. "You cannot defeat this foe, puny mortals, if one of you will bargain with me then I can make these devils disappear. All it will cost is your immortal soul". "I'll bargain with you when you are dead, vile creature", shouts Javlin. The erinyes gives a wry smile, "I agree to your proposal. You are now bound to me. I am obliged to attempt to kill you, but if you survive and I do not, then our bargaining can begin". The battle begins in earnest, but since the devils are forced to go down a narrow passage one-by-one, you are able to defeat them, each exploding in a spray of black ichor. It is a very close thing though, and you realise that if you had not disabled the block trap it is unlikely that you would have survived". As you rest and get your breath back Javelin hears a voice in his head, "and now our bargaining can commence. Tell me what you desire mortal and I can make it happen".
