Having taken shelter temporarily outside the library (not that "taking shelter" means much, considering the unlikelihood that it will, say, rain down here or anything like that) to peruse the volume they took from the library, Kia has succeeded in more or less translating the volume and paraphrasing a great deal of it for the benefit of her companions, though such is the content of the book that the more technical aspects could occupy a great deal more time in order to fully decipher them.

"The Wild Realms described in the book sound like Bosch to me," Envoy says after Kia finishes translating. "It doesn't really explain the creatures we saw in the library though, unless its influence has extended even closer now."

After translating the basics of the tome, Kia closes it up, yawning with a squeak at the end. "Mph." She gets to her feet, dusting off her skirt. "That was interesting! I had no idea Moltpaa had such a long history." She nods to Envoy. "Yes … I was keeping an eye out to see if there's anything that would explain that … er … phenomenon. But maybe it was just in one of the sections that were just too technical for me." She wrinkles her nose. "Shall we go find that access stairway now?" She gives a longing glance back into the library. "I'm glad whatever it was hasn't resurged, but staying around here probably isn't wise."

The Aeolun stands up and looks to Whonkahonk, to see if the Hooka is ready to move on. "I'd like to know if the access is still unblocked, yes."

Whonkahonk is just sitting, stationary, not reacting at all to Envoy's movements.

"Whonkahonk?" Kia takes a few steps to close the distance between her and the Hooka, then taps one of his appendages lightly.

The Hooka lets out an alarmed hoot, spins his head around, then lurches and stands abruptly upright on all four legs. "Whonk?!"

The mouse scuttles backwards with a squeak. "I'm sorry! Were you asleep, Whonkahonk? It's okay; we were just talking about what we should do next."

Whonkahonk swivels his head around a bit, then settles down again. His head weaves a bit unsteadily from side to side, and then he focuses on Kia. "Hokay," he hoots.

"We wanted to see if the access stairwell is still open. What do you think?" the mouse asks.

Whonkahonk nods his head up and down. "Hokay!" he hoots again. "Hankenank Akkess!"

Kia takes a few minutes to re-pack her by now rather over-stuffed tinker's pack, making room for the resin book, then hefts it onto her shoulders with an "oof." "All right, then. Let's go!"

Envoy nods, and comments, "I hope it's easier to get into than the museum was."

Whonkahonk nods several times, then tilts his head sideways as he sees the mouse struggling (however slightly, since the burden isn't too great just yet) with her pack. "Wanka rike?" he asks, squatting down a bit.

The mouse turns her head to look at Whonkahonk, her eyes briefly lighting up at the idea. "Oh – could you – well – no," she aborts, looking sheepish. "I don't want to be a bother, Whonkahonk. I can manage," she adds, stoutly, rather like a child determined to carry her own weight.

Whonkahonk just nods, for a moment seeming somewhat absent, as he swivels around and stares off in the distance, but then he shakes his head around, as if trying to shake free whatever cobwebs might be growing inside, and clambers down to the street. "I ko!" he hoots, and starts striding westward.

The tinker mouse slips down after him, following with many, rather smaller, strides.

"We should all probably rest up after we find the access tunnel," Envoy says as she follows along. "I'd like to fly up and get some glow crystals to take along as well, since there could be trapped volcanic gasses that don't react well to the flames of our lamps."

"Getting some crystals sounds like a good idea," Kia agrees, her tail tip twitching. "I'm not so sure about resting. I mean, I'm kinda tired … but I don't like the thought of sleeping down here." She shifts her pack against her shoulders, glancing around.

Whonkahonk breaks away from his own nervous glancing around at the mention of his favorite topic. "Klowy kewels!" he chirps, perking up noticeably.

"We could return to the Museum to sleep," Envoy suggests. "The door can be closed after all."

No ghosts or goblins or nasty things leap out to attack them – at least, not just yet – but the state of disrepair seems to be more pronounced here. Fortunately, Envoy's own Earth Magic training has afforded her some understanding of recognizing faults and structural instability in stonework, and Kia's own engineering background serves a similar role. Whonkahonk is the one the others find themselves having to look after the most, as he gleefully trots on, blissfully ignorant to impending peril – but between the two of them, they manage to keep him intact.

"I guess." The mouse yawns again, covering her mouth politely with one hand. She forces herself to perk up, keeping an eye out for dangers in the old architecture of the city. "Wandering through a lake of fire half-asleep probably isn't a good idea, either," she admits.

"So, you really didn't see a horde of furless mutant zombie Skreeks in the library, Kia?" Envoy asks, somewhat distractedly as she notices a few things … like disturbances in the dust that could be tracks – tracks her party didn't make.

"No," Kia says. She blinks her eyes a few times. "I definitely didn't. I thought I heard something else, like someone "shushing" me for talking in a library, but all things considered, I think I imagined it. Did you really think you saw a whole horde of them?"

At this, Whonkahonk swivels his head around, watching Envoy rather than where he's going.

Envoy nods, and holds up a hand to motion the others to stop, shining her lantern on one of the tracks she noticed. "Something isn't right here. In the library the dust had been disturbed on one of the reading tables, like a book had been removed, but there weren't any tracks on the floor. Now I'm seeing tracks in the dust where we haven't been yet."

As Envoy calls attention to them – and Whonkahonk stops before inadvertently tromping right through the midst of them – they all can now clearly see that there are tracks in the dust. One might suppose that whomever made them was about Kia's size, though since they drag about here and there, it's hard to make out the exact shape of the foot that formed them.

"They certainly look like Skreek prints to me," Envoy says. "I don't think I'm imagining them, either."

Kia reaches out to take one of Whonkahonk's hands, as much to keep him from straying as anything else. She wrinkles her nose at the tracks, squatting to examine them. "No," she agrees. "They look real."

"And fresh too," the Exile notes. "Someone could have come this way while we were in the library, or reading the book outside."

Whonkahonk stoops over to investigate, too, making curious hooting noises, but his noise-making is accompanied by gusts of air, and he just succeeds in stirring up the dust wherever he stays for too long. "Ahhh … ahhh … " And then he sneezes. "Kuse me," he apologizes.

"Can Skreeks see in the dark?" Envoy asks Kia.

"Why don't you keep an eye out for any other people, Whonkahonk, while we look at the tracks?" Kia suggests, kindly. She tries to figure out which way the tracks are going. "Not that I know of, Yovne. I certainly can't. But Moltpaa Skreeks might be more accustomed to the dark than I am."

"If they've been living in the city all this time, cut off from other Skreeks, they could have mutated into cave-dwelling cannibalistic troglodytes," Envoy suggests. "Should we follow the tracks?"

Alas, the marks are unclear enough, and meander about here and there (and Whonkahonk messed up a few) that Kia isn't quite able to figure them out. Although there's quite a bit of dust, there's a lot of water in this area, and patches of moss, that make it a little harder to follow the trail for her untrained eyes.

Whonkahonk lets out a wail at Envoy's dire suggestion.

The mouse stands again, brushing off her skirt and shaking her head. "I can't make any sense of them, or even what way they're going. Can you?" She looks up and down the area that's been disturbed. "And maybe we shouldn't get quite so imaginative about their possible current appearance. Or attitudes."

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Envoy admits, and tries to figure out which way the tracks are going herself. "We still have to find the access shaft."

Tail tip twitching again, the tinker adds, "Or we ought to be positive about it. Maybe they're friendly and just shy."

"We could look like monsters to them," admits the Aeolun. "At least, Whonkahonk and I could look like monsters to them."

"Whonkahonk nok a moksker!" the Hooka indignantly insists.

"Of course you're not. There aren't any monsters here," the mouse says, reassuringly, perhaps trying to convince herself.

Envoy shines her lantern along the perceived path the tracks take, eventually aiming it towards a dark side street that heads north, full of puddles and fallen debris. "It looks like the track-maker came from or went into that passage. I can't tell if the tracks have been doubled-back on or not. They were certainly near the library though, possibly spying on us."

Whonkahonk looks down the passage to the north, visibly shudders … then hoots, "Mainkenank Akkess!" and starts striding off to the west again.

"Wait for us, Whonkahonk!" Envoy calls, hurrying to keep up with the Hooka.

Kia scurries after the pair. "I guess you don't like the side street north, Whonkahonk?" she says to him.

Whonkahonk shakes his head vigorously, clearly making a negative response to Kia's query, as he wails mournfully.

"What's bothering you, Whonkahonk?" the mouse asks as she catches up. "Is it just a feeling you have, or is there something in particular?"

"I hear mokskers," Whonkahonk laments.

Envoy comes up short and asks, "Why didn't you say so before? How many monsters?"

"Loks!" Whonkahonk hoots. "Loks ank loks. Key say 'Kroz Kroz Kroz.'"

"I think we should hurry then," the Aeolun suggests.

The mouse's whiskers wiggle, and she glances around, "We seem to be all right now, any road. Let's just get on to the maintenance access," she says, hurrying forward with the others.

After some hasty scooting along, the explorers come near the end of the street – or, at least, where it turns 45 degrees to the right, since otherwise it would run into the outer wall of the city. True to the model of the city, off to the left – or, that is, the south – there is a ruined building, and Kia can translate the title, "Maintenance Access," for the benefit of all. It doesn't look to be in any great shape – and worst of all, the flooding is pretty extensive in this part, such that by now, they are having to wade through deep puddles as a matter of course.

Holding her skirts high to keep them from getting soaked by the puddles, Kia squelches in her boots as she turns the corner onto the side alley. She twitches her whiskers, then pitter-patters toward the door leading off of it.

Shining her light into the ruins, Envoy notes, "It doesn't look it could keep out a horde of fanatic Skreeks. How does the door look, Kia?"

The door, quite helpfully, it labeled, "Entrance," and furthermore has a plaque that reads, "For members of the Rose Guard and the Royal Engineers only." The warning below it roughly translates to, "Danger lies beyond," though it breaks from the usual grammar, and is abbreviated in the way that a very common sign might be, in order to get the point across quickly to those already familiar with the warning.

Although the building itself is broken here and there, with evidence that there are probably plenty of alternate ways to get in and encounter whatever danger lies beyond, the door is largely intact.

"Cautionary," Kia says, scrutinizing the labels on it. "But I think more in the 'It's not our fault if you get killed going down here where you don't belong' manner than the 'Our booby traps are going to destroy you even if our guards don't get you' way that the gate out front had." She tries the knob.

The knob turns with some effort, and Kia can hear a grinding noise, as some dirt escapes from some gaps in the stonework. A latch is released. There is a keyhole, but it doesn't appear that anyone bothered to lock the door after last using it.

"Do you hear any monsters in there, Whonkahonk?" Envoy asks as Kia works the door.

Bracing her feet against the street, Kia prepares to wrench the door open, waiting first to see if Whonkahonk hears anything. And then she checks the door hinges to see whether it opens inwards or out.

Whonkahonk plants his mouth up against the door, stays that way for a moment, then pulls back, shaking his head. "No, no mokskers!" As for the door, it is affixed on very solid, thick hinges (appropriate for a very solid, thick door) in such a way that it can swivel either in or out, since the "hinge" is actually an axis running through the left side of the door, and the door edge itself is rounded, to give it room to swivel to or fro.

The mouse tries to pull it open, first.

"Maybe we should oil the hinges first?" Envoy asks, wondering how noisy the door will be after years of neglect.

The door proves harder to open than to unlock. Kia could definitely use a little extra muscle here, though the knob doesn't give all that much room for others to grab onto.

Releasing the handle with a squeak, Kia nods to Envoy. "That might help." She unslings her pack to dig out some oil.

Noting the problem with a lack of pulling surfaces, Envoy suggests they both push instead once Kia finishes oiling the hinges.

Applying the oil is a little tricky, since the only means by which to reach the axis would be to apply some oil at the top of the door frame and hope it seeps into the proper place. Fortunately, the door is made with proportions of users of Kia's general frame in mind, so it's not an impossible task.

Whonkahonk positions himself up next to the door, bracing himself to help push, too.

The mouse stands on tip-toes to finish the job, then re-seals the flask and stows it again. "All right," she tells Envoy. "all together now!" She braces her shoulder against the door, leaving room for the others to join her, and starts to push – going easy at first, in case oiling it helped a lot.

Envoy pushes alongside Kia.

There's a grinding, gravelly noise … then a loud crack … and the door starts moving all right … but it's falling! (Fortunately, it's falling in, not out!)

"Oops," Envoy says, pulling back from the door. "I guess the frame was damaged."

Kia squeaks and jumps back from the door. "I didn't mean to do that!"

The door falls over, and sends out a small spray as it slaps against a thin layer of water just inside. There's a sound of trickling, draining water, as it seems that the flow is running toward the west.

Toward the west, incidentally, is a staircase leading down. From here, by the glinting of light off of the water, it would look like the water may pose more of a problem to one attempting to go down the stairs.

The chamber has another opening branching off to the north, leading into a smaller cubby where much more debris is piled, as it seems some shelves have collapsed long ago.

Frowning at the flooding, Envoy steps onto the fallen door to shine her light down the stairway.

"Maybe I didn't look at the map correctly, or my memory's off," Kia says, stepping around the fallen door to look inside, "But this flooding seems really strange. Where is the water coming from? If this staircase leads down to the lake of fire, does that mean the lava has been swamped by water?"

"There could be another door down there or the passage could be blocked," Envoy says, then laments, "and I left my rebreather mask in Abu Dhabi."

The floor is not perfectly flat, as the water puddles here and there, and meanders its way toward the stairs, where it trickles down the steps, and accumulates at the first landing. Given that the water has not reached all the way up to this level, there must be somewhere that the water is draining out to, though evidently there's enough blockage to make a reservoir.

Thinking of the train car running through the flooded tunnel, Envoy turns and asks Whonkahonk, "Can Hookas hold their breath for long periods? For that matter, do you even need to breath?"

Kia wrinkles her nose, picking her way toward the stairs. "How are you at holding your – " She stops as she realizes Envoy is asking the same question.

Whonkahonk hoots, "I haf ko breake, buk I can holk my break."

The Hooka then makes a loud and drawn-out sucking noise.

"Could you see what is blocking the stairwell for us?" Envoy asks, smiling hopefully to the Hooka and wagging her tail.

The mouse squats down by the water, shining her light on it and trying to see if anything is moving in the standing water. She takes an experimental sniff, wondering how stagnant the pool has become.

It smells pretty bad. The water has a thin greenish film accumulated on the surface. Little darter bugs shoot this way and that across the surface, disturbing the film.

The Hooka nods, and strides over to the stairs. He looks down, then looks back to Envoy, and reports, "Ik's waker!"

Envoy blinks at this, and takes a moment to respond. "What is keeping the water from just draining away though?"

Regretting the sniff almost immediately, Kia covers her nose with one hand and breathes through it, stifling a giggle at the Hooka.

"Ohhhhh," the Hooka hoots, then starts splashing down the steps … then lets out an alarmed hoot, as one of his legs slips and then another. "Uh oh!" he bellows.

Alarmed, Kia grasps the railing of the stairs and reaches out a hand to the Hooka. "Whonkahonk!"

Envoy tries to grab onto the taur-shaped Hooka's rear legs. "The steps must be covered in slime or something!"

Kia and Envoy both quite nearly slip themselves in the sludge, narrowly missing a catastrophe of Goliath proportions … but they manage to brace themselves, turning what could have been a disastrous fall into … well … Envoy falling on her tail in the sludge, and Whonkahonk, held by the both of them, leaning precariously forward, his free limbs pinwheeling as he tries to maintain his balance. "Whoooo!" he sirens.

Kia tightens her grip on the rail with her free hand. "Steady there, Whonkahonk, we've got you! Go easy now." She glances to Envoy, thinking that too much pulling from the Hooka and they'll all be sliding down the stairs.

"I think it would be easier if Whonkahonk could just make his neck really long so he can stick his head under and get a look," Envoy suggests as she tries to get back onto her feet.

The mouse nods in emphatic agreement.

Whonkahonk starts back-tracking, which unfortunately serves to knock Envoy back down in the sludge. It's just one of those days. At least the Hooka seems to have regained his footing now. He lets out a relieved hoot.

Once the Hooka looks stable, Envoy crawls towards firmer ground.

"So, could you make a long limb to feel around under the water, or a long neck to take a look with?" the slimed Aeolun asks Whonkahonk.

The tinker mouse wipes some of the sludge from the Hooka's side, reflexively trying to be helpful.

Whonkahonk nods, and starts rearranging parts. Soon, the centauroid Hooka is replaced with the Naga-Hooka (sort of), and he makes a loud sucking in-rush of breath, then dips his bottle-nosed mouth into the sludge. Little bubbles rise, tracking his position as he weaves through the water and around the landing to go down the stairs.

"I wonder which part has his lungs," Envoy muses as she tries to clean herself up a bit. "Maybe each module has one, or some sort of gas storage system."

The mouse hangs onto his tail – just in case – and is prepared to let it go if he needs the whole length of his new body to explore.

When the bubbles rise, there's a momentary bluish glow faintly visible underneath the water – until he simply gets too deep for the dim crystal-glow to get through the murk. By the time Envoy has herself about as cleaned off as she can hope at this time, Kia can feel the Hooka-body begin to coil back again. The head pops up out of the sludge-covered water, at first bearing an unsettling resemblance to some sort of cadaverous sea monster as gunk drips out of his recessed "eye" sockets. He makes a loud blort as he expels the foul contents of his mouth.

"I hope he was able to see through all that junk," Envoy says, chewing on her lower lip.

Kia resists the urge to cover her nose again. Her hands are all sludgy themselves by now, in any case, and she wants to keep a good grip on Whonkahonk in the event that he slips again.

Whonkahonk shakes his head about, and gingerly makes his way back up to relatively "dry land," then starts reassembling himself to a more versatile form (occasionally slipping and dropping a piece now and then, but at least they're not dropping off in sludge-covered water, so they're easily enough recovered.) "Klosek koor!"

"How far underwater is it?" Kia asks. "Do you think we'll be able to get it open?"

Envoy hmms, and looks to the rubble of the northern room. "Maybe there's a control to open it from up here?"

The mouse squeaks! "That's a good idea. The Krozites had controls for opening the main gates … " She gets to her feet and starts to shine her lantern around their surroundings, looking for any protrusions like the ones they've seen elsewhere in the city.

Whonkahonk ponders this, then picks up a few pieces of broken rubble, and starts arranging them on the floor. The representation may not be quite perfect, but it looks like he might be spelling out a hallway, and he has a little snaky trail of pebbles trailed out that might represent "Naga-Whonkahonk" coming up to it. He points to a flattish stone, and hoots, "Koor." He then leans another stone up against it. "Skone klock koor. I no ha hanks ko ket skone away." He then traces a shape in the sludge that looks like an outline of a hand with little pointy claws at the ends of the fingers. "Saw khis on wall."

Kia, meanwhile, finds a few protrusions. One of them has a plaque on it that reads, "Light." Another reads, "Alarm." Yet another reads, "Emergency Lock."

Envoy examines the Hooka's diagrams. "I wonder if a hand print is the key to the door then?"

"There're some controls," Kia says, excitedly, then dims her enthusiasm as Whonkahonk shows what he found. She studies the clawed hand, trying to match the picture to any similar images she's seen in her time so far in Stalto.

"Any controls that look like they have to do with drains?" Envoy asks.

The mouse translates them. "The emergency lock might have some bearing – but, then again, it might be to lock that door, too." She points to the fallen door. "That sign Whonkahonk made – that's probably a switch, too. The Moltpaans thought that if a switch looks like a Skreek hand, only Skreeks can use it. I think that's just a superstition they had, though."

"Unless there's magic involved," Envoy says, and sits down to focus on searching for any magic coming from the stairwell.

"It might have been magic," the mouse hypothesizes, "but I think it was just a simple mechanism. If you push evenly down on the panel that's marked that way, it trips the switch. If you apply pressure unevenly, it'd jam. So the unintelligent monsters wouldn't be able to work it. But that's not to say you or Whonkahonk – or I – couldn't."

"Okay, nothing but background magic here," the Aeolun finally declares. "The door is either purely mechanical or any magic in it has long since faded."

Whonkahonk nods sagely at all this.

"So we just need to drain enough water so we have breathing space," Envoy suggests. "If we only had some buckets. And rope to tie us to an anchor so we don't get washed away if the door opens."

Envoy studies Whonkahonk's diagram to get an idea of distance, based on the number of pebbles used to represent the Hooka's links.

The mouse sets down her pack and rummages through it. "I've got some rope," she says. "I'm thinking, if it's not too far in, I could swim down, tie the rope around the rock, press the panel, and then swim out again, if the rock and the panel are both keeping it closed."

"I'd feel better having a rope tied to you as well, Kia," Envoy says. "If the stone isn't holding the door closed, and it opens while you're down there unsecured, you could be washed out."

"All right. I'll tie the rope to me, first. If hitting the panel doesn't work, I can always switch it to the stone. Even if I have to come back up for air." She gets the coil of rope into her hands, then looks into the nasty, muck-riddled water. She tries to gather up her resolve.

A dead vermite floats in the water, bobbing slightly.

The mouse's will power falters. "Uh … unless one of you wants to do it?" She looks faintly green at the sight of the dead vermite.

Whonkahonk looks to Envoy.

Envoy holds her hand out for the rope, and starts the process of folding her wings into their most compact shape. "I'll give it a try, but you'll need to watch my pets. I don't want them drinking any of that water."

Whonkahonk seems greatly engrossed by the sight of Envoy contorting her wings, and watches closely.

The Exile strokes Knick and Knack before uncoiling them from her arms and putting them into their traveling pouch in her pack, which she sets on dry bit of stone. Tying the rope around her waist, she says, "I can only hold my breath for about three minutes, so if I'm down longer than that you should probably start to pull me back."

The tinker silently passes the rope over. "All right. I'll keep an eye on Knick and Knack, too."

Whonkahonk nods, and starts bracing his legs against a wall for a firm anchor. "Ke careful!" he hoots.

Envoy takes several deep breaths to build up her oxygen supply as she carefully wades down the slimy stairs, before finally diving under the surface to swim to the door.

Kia starts counting, by thousands, as soon as the Aeolun dives. She holds onto the rope, ready to reel Envoy in if she reaches 180,000 before the other resurfaces.

Although the footing is tricky, Envoy manages to find her way along, down the steps, and finds that at the bottom, the landing shoots off to one side around a corner … and, sure enough, there is some fallen stonework, as the passage would have continued on, but is blocked off. A large stone lies in front of a door, not necessarily holding the door in place per se, but ensuring that if the door were open, it would be a tight squeeze to get through. Right next to the door, Envoy is able to find an indentation shaped much like Whonkahonk's outline – shaped like a Skreek's hand.

Pressing her matching hand against the outline, Envoy feels for any loose or pressure-sensitive areas.

Sure enough, it feels like the whole hand itself is a separate piece, perhaps made to be pushed inward.

Bracing herself against one of the fallen stones, the Aeolun pushes against the hand-shaped panel.

Envoy can tell that if she'd just tried to push with only the sludgy footing of the floor to brace herself against, it would have been a pointless proposition. However, the fallen stone seems almost perfectly placed for her to brace her feet against, and she manages to shove her hand inward – evenly, as Kia had warned – and the panel accordingly goes in. There is a grinding of stone, as the door slides open a bit … then cracks, as part of it breaks away and falls the other direction. The water immediately rushes toward the created gap, and Envoy feels herself being swept toward the opening.

Accordingly, the rope being held by Kia and Whonkahonk abruptly goes taut.

Above, Kia braces herself against floor and railing with her feet, hanging on tightly.

"Whoooooot!" Whonkahonk hoots, as he watches the water quickly drain, revealing several vermite bones and more sludge.

Turning her head up, Envoy keeps her feet braced against the stone and tries to keep in place until the current lessens.

The water soon drains enough that Envoy's head is above water … and then is largely drained, aside from puddles and sludge. Envoy can feel a noticeable heat coming from the now-open doorway, and a distant hiss, as she feels steam blasting back at her.

"My head's clear," Envoy calls back, and wades closer to the door to see if it can open further. "The door is partially open, but part has broken off. The water is turning to steam on the other side."

"You'd better get back!" Kia calls out, worried. "The steam'll scald you!"

Envoy wades back along the rope-line, taking up the slack as she goes. "It should die down once the flow stops."

The steam continues to pour in, and Envoy can feel the uncomfortable warmth coming in with it, but now she's away from the immediate blast point. She can see now that the door failed to open completely, and the rock will have to be moved in order to reach it, but, really, that shouldn't be too difficult a task of engineering.

"Yes," the mouse agrees, as the Aeolun comes back into view. "But still … if we're going to get some rest tonight – or today, whatever it is – this might be a good to do it."

Whonkahonk makes a cheery hoot and waves as he sees Envoy coming back, intact.

Envoy makes her way to the steps, and tries to climb the slippery surfaces again. "At least drying off won't be a problem once the water drains. Do you hear any monsters outside, Whonkahonk?"

Whonkahonk wanders over to the entrance, swivels his head around, then comes back. "No mokskers," he declares.

Sitting down with a squelching sound, Envoy leans back against a wall and says, "Then I'm all for taking a nap. Who wants the first watch?"

Whonkahonk looks expectantly between Kia and Envoy.

Kia looks at the vermite corpses and the sludge stinking on the staircase. "I will. But I vote for going back to the museum to camp."

Whonkahonk nods vigorously.

"I suppose it's still safe to head back," Envoy says. "We haven't been overwhelmed by monsters yet after all."

The explorers are not ambushed on the way back to the museum, though Envoy notices a few tracks in the dust that she didn't notice before. None of them, at the very least, are in the vicinity of the museum, and the doors can at least be closed. (There aren't any other entrances to the museum that they can discern.) As planned, Kia takes the first watch, and it is an uneventful one, free of any Skreeks visible out of the corner of her eye, any whispers of "Kroz" or "Snic snic snic" from the shadows, or any other creepiness.

Envoy blinks as she wakes up, uncertain of how long she was actually asleep. She's never sure of such things when she dreams.

The mouse tinker has been wandering the museum, poking at things, while her companions slept. She's kept an eye on the door, however, and her ears perked for any unusual sounds. When the Aeolun wakes, Kia leaves the exhibit to check on her. "Did you sleep all right? You seemed restless."

"I dreamt about this place when the city was still alive," Envoy says, standing up. "How long was I asleep? Did you have any … unusual experiences as well?"

Kia shakes her head. "No, unless you count looking at their contraptions." She sighs wistfully. "They had all kinds of neat things."

Whonkahonk makes a hooting noise that sounds like the Hooka equivalent of a snore.

"Steam powered Dromodons," Envoy mutters. "Neat, if not practical. I saw one of the hairless Skreeks in my dream, too; it asked for help. The others called it a 'Servant of Kroz.'"

The Skeek nods, yawning. "If you're going to stay awake, now, I should probably get some rest," she mumbles, semi-coherently.

"Yes, I'll stay awake now," Envoy says, and begins her own patrol of the museum, comparing its present to what she dreamt of its past.

Kia gets out her cloak, and uses her pack for a pillow as she curls up on the hard floor.

As Envoy makes her rounds, she finds that her dream was surprisingly accurate – for as she ventures into areas she had not visited during their previous visit, she finds that they are well matched by her wanderings in the dream. Alas, but her dream did not go so far as to show her a more expansive tour of the city. When she eventually checks back on Kia, however, she can hear the mouse whimpering, tossing frequently in her sleep. Whonkahonk, meanwhile, just snores away.

The mouse sleeps restlessly, fidgeting and squirming, and finally wakes not too long after she went to sleep, throwing off the cloak and shrieking, "I'm not a Skreek!"

Envoy runs over to the tinker. "Are you okay, Kia? Do you know where you are?" she asks, not getting too close, in case the Skeek is violent.

Whonkahonk manages to sleep through this. He keeps on snoring.

Kia blinks quickly several times, getting her breathing under control, then nods. "Ugh! Just bad dreams. I don't think mine were as interesting as yours, even. I just got endlessly chased around by your mutant furless eyeless Skreeks. They called me a 'Child of Kroz.'"

"That's odd," Envoy says, thinking. "What did you look like in your dream?" she asks.

"Like me, I think," Kia answers. "I don't know. I didn't really look at myself. There were vermites all over, too. But the strangest bit was part of what they were chanting. They were calling me a 'Child of Kroz' and saying, 'Die die die.' But they also said this: 'Snicjer! Snicjer, he said!' Just like that."

"Like the chanting we heard before we went into the library?" Envoy asks. "You should know that I almost never dream unless there is some kind of magic involved, so I doubt these were simply stress-related dreams."

"Like it, yes. But it's that 'He said' part that really got me. Who said 'snicjer?' And why is that important?" Kia shakes her head bemusedly, then blinks at Envoy. "Oh."

Envoy shrugs, and suggests, "Maybe they meant their Kroz-deity said 'snicjer?'"

Whonkahonk makes some hooting noises, thrashing about … and then rolls over, standing up, his head wobbling slightly. "Whoot?"

"Whonkahonk?" Kia says, looking at him and wondering if he's awake. "Say, do you know what 'snicjer' means?"

Envoy's brow furrows for a moment. "Snicjer. Snicjers. Lady Dack said they were all dead."

"What was all dead?" Kia asks.

Whonkahonk looks at Kia. "Skikers? Skikers are khosks. Only hurk Krozikes. But I scared of Skikers anyway."

"Thankfully the snicjers have all gone to rest, or Kroz would be a lot more dangerous," Envoy says, using a different voice – a more Skreekish sounding one. "That's what she said, a friend who had been down to Moltpaa and fought with the monsters before."

Whonkahonk blats in alarm when Envoy seems momentarily "possessed" by a Skreek voice.

"Snicjers are ghosts," Kia repeats. She wraps her arms around her torso, hugging herself. "I sure hope they know I'm not a Skreek."

"Dangerous ghosts, or just restless ones?" Envoy asks the other two. "What do they need help with?"

"Did your friend ever say why she'd fought them, or why she was sure they had gone to rest?" the mouse asks Envoy.

Envoy shakes her head. "She mentioned some of the other monsters, like the gorts and grooks, and said she wanted to take another expedition down here to try and clean them out too. But I don't know exactly why she came down the first time. I assume it had to do with family matters."

"She did say that bright light is a very useful weapon though," the Aeolun adds.

"I wish she had." Kia wraps her cloak around her shoulders. "Cleaned the place out, that is. I could do without these nightmares. Are you going to be sleeping anymore, Whonkahonk?"

Whonkahonk shakes his head in the negative. "Hak nikemares."

"Did they involve khosks chasing you or asking for help?" Envoy asks.

Whonkahonk shakes his head. "No, klowy kewels … ank I CAN'K KET KHEM!" He wails mournfully.

Envoy raises her eyebrows, and says, "I'll try to get us some from the ceiling before we go down the access shaft."

"Were the ones in your dreams asking you for help, Yovne?" the mouse asks, after clucking sympathetically at Whonkahonk. "We'll be sure to get some of the jewels for you first," she echoes. "Especially if snicjers don't like bright light."

"Yes, the one that appeared in my dream asked me for help," Envoy says, and starts to unfold her wings. "Do you have a small hammer or digging tool I can borrow, Kia? I'm not sure that I could just pull the gems from the rock."

"I've got both," Kia answers, smiling as she digs into her pack.

The process of obtaining some "glowy gems" proves to be fairly easy to one with wings and the proper tools, and Whonkahonk is overjoyed at the samples Envoy brings back to add to his collection – and more than happy to share them to provide alternate light sources. Some time later, as they're cleaned up as much as they can manage and have prepared themselves to press on, they make their way back to the bottom of the staircase, and deal with the trouble of the fallen stone by pulling it away. Through the broken door, they can see a passage leading on toward a downward staircase … except that part of the floor has broken away here and there, revealing a bright light coming from below, accompanied by the rumble of shifting magma. Envoy's horn glows faintly, and she can feel the tingle of wild magic in the air.

Kia draws in a deep breath, looking down into the passage with its fractured floor. "Are you sure," she says to Envoy, "that you have to look at this crystal?"

Envoy eyes the cracked floor, and says, "I'm the only one that really needs to see it, so if you want to stay here, I'll understand. There's a lot of wild magic down there, enough to keep ghosts and other creatures going for a long time."

Whonkahonk nods vigorously. "Kik klowy kem! We ha ko see ik!" And he pats Envoy and Kia on their backs. "Kook luck! Lek's nok kek killek!" he offers by way of a stirring, inspiring speech (by Hooka standards).

The Aeolun turns to face the others, the glow of her horn casting odd shadows across her face. She smiles, and explains, "That's the living essence of stone down there, and the crystal is a source of equilibrium. It's something I've lost, you see, and I have to go down there to get it back."