Kettenrad Workshop
Zahnrad's personal workshop. It's located near the Mint dam where Zahnrad spends a good deal of time working on the gearing that links the waterwheels to the various machines that are used in the Wingnut workshops and the Miller's paper mills. It's an unusual shop, even for a Wingnut. The door is, in fact, not really a door. It's a rather large wooden gear that's attached to a stabilizer bar. The bar has handles on it that allow visitors to pull and simply roll the gear out of the way on some makeshift wooden teeth that line the floor. Over the 'doorway' a plaque is mounted that reads "Kettenrad Workshop. If it's broken, we can fix it. If it's not broken, we can still fix it!"

"You are three minutes and forty-three seconds late," Zahnrad complains as Olivia comes into view of the Kadie. He's leaning against the door of his workshop with a pack of supplies sitting by his feet.

Olivia drops her own puffy backpack of provisions near the workshop's door and glares at Zahn. "And it is only 6 hours, three minutes, and forty-three seconds into the morning and already you're annoying," she shoots back, taking a few moments to stretch herself. It wasn't all that long ago that she got out of bed, after all.

"Really? I must be slipping. I'll be extra-annoying today to make up for it. Well, on second thought, I had better not or you'll mistake me for the rat," Zahn quips and grins. He hefts his pack, adding, "I made arrangements to go through the canal when I visited the castle last night. So we don't need to bother the Doctor and ask this morning."

Olivia finishes stretching and idly scratches behind one ear now. "That's good. She's probably still in bed getting her 'beauty sleep,' anyway… or doing, um, unspeakable things with Liliana's cousin," the Skeek comments.

"It's best to not think about such things. I saw him chasing her through the hallways last night. She was in some sort of weird leather bikini and he was, well, anyway," Zahnrad comments with a shudder. "So, shall we get going? You're still sure you want to see compressed corpses in boxes?"

Olivia picks up her own pack again. "Not exactly – but if they get me any closer to solving this riddle about bleeding stones, I'll bear it."

"Well, I don't know if it will solve anything, but I imagine it's related. I also brought gear to go deeper into the shaft to seek the real answers. And without Amelia here … I can go. Mwahaha," the Kadie quips as he starts walking up the road.

The Skeek jogs to keep up with Zahn. "Couldn't you have gone with Amelia, though, if you'd just been prepared for a longer expedition?" she asks.

"She thought it was too dangerous last time. Just because it might lead right into a troll lair. Feh," Zahn comments.

"Well, if it does, are you prepared to help me fight them off?" Olivia asks, smiling a little. "I have my throwing knives with me but I can only do so much!"

"I'm prepared for anything," Zahnrad claims. "Plus with all the stuff there, I could build a weapon, I'm sure!"

"Of course, you might not know what it would do, since you'd have to use all those strange parts," Olivia teases. "You could just end up with the world's biggest water-squirter, or something. Not very intimidating!"

"Bah! I know what all those parts are," Zahnrad claims. "And remember, the parts are mine. No touchy!"

"Don't be silly, Zahn – of course I can touch them. I just won't take any, that's all! Unless you say I may, that is," the Skeek clarifies.

---

True to Zahn's word, they were able to enter the castle without having to ask permission or explain why. Of course, there was the brief moment where Rey, dressed in a frilly pink robe, proceeded to chase Olivia around the library and making kissing sounds … right up to the point Igor came in and injected him with something, then carted him off. All Zahnrad could really do was shrug and lead Olivia down into the cellar. The walk is short and then they're in the water canal and heading off into the darkness with only the light of their lamps to cut through.

The trip down the waterway is uneventful and much like what Olivia remembered. An hour later they're pulling up to the docks before the great metal doors. After securing the boat, Zahnrad uses the odd flat key to unlock the lab. The doors slide open just as before, revealing the marvels beyond.

Ancient Workshop
Light comes not from filtered crystals, but from brightly glowing tubes that line the walls and ceiling. Worktables and racks are scattered around, and in the center of the room, held up on leg-like supports, is a partially disassembled cylindrical object of considerable size. The exposed regions are full of tubes and other objects, and some kind of dangerous looking series of metallic-glass pinwheels. The chunks of machinery on display further on are in much worse shape cylindrical object. Some are completely bare of any kind of outer skin, showing skeleton-like structures filled with crumbled tubing or strange shapes, including wires that look like they're made of glass. At the very end though, the chamber opens up into a large vertical shaft, circled by ramps that lead further down, where more workshop layers can be glimpsed. A hot breeze flows up from the bottom, which is shrouded in darkness (apparently the lighting isn't intact further down).

"I missed this place," Zahnrad says with a sniff and even wipes away a tear. "I want to move in here."

"Then Amy would have to move in with you, because she'd never let you out of her sight down here," the Skeek quips. "Too dangerous, remember?"

"Oh it is not," Zahn asserts as he walks between the rows of machines. "It's perfectly safe in here. She worries too much."

"If we play around in here for long enough, we may find out the definitive answer to that question," Olivia replies. "Anyway… where are these crates you saw?"

"One of the far rooms. Can't remember quite which side," Zahn notes as he heads further down the long room. When they reach the series of chambers that surround the shaft at the far end, Zahn turns right and goes to the first one. "Oh, right, this is the weird fabric room," he comments. "They used glass to make flexible fabric, can you believe that?"

"Glass?" the Skeek says, scratching her head. "I wonder how… and why. Wouldn't a fabric of glass fibers not be very durable?"

"Very durable, actually. It doesn't break, it flexes somehow. They used a resin with it to shape it into hard shells. Kind of like pottery, only, not," Zahn tries to explain and then shakes his head. "Go on and see if you want."

A rattling sound echoes briefly down deeper in the central shaft behind the pair.

Olivia ignores the strange sound for the moment in favor of seeing what's beyond Zahn in this room. She steps past him and goes inside, looking around.

Then room coming off of the shaft to the right is the same size and shape as the first one, with a few exceptions. There's no sign of a door at the far end, for one. For another, it's filled to the brim with stuff. The center is taken up by a row of tables, all covered with parts or pieces of mechanical things. The walls are lined with storage bins and racks holding spools of cable or fabric. Breaks between the tables divide the area into sections, and there are a few large complicated machines further back as well.

"See, glass fabric," Zahnrad says and points towards the large spools. "It is used with the goo machine in the back to make hard stuff."

Olivia walks over to one of the walls on which she can see the spools of fabric hanging. She reaches out to touch one end of the stuff, gingerly, just to feel what it's like.

Oddly smooth and cool. The fabric itself feels like it's probably as touch as canvas on its own. The precision at which the thread was cross-weaved is quite amazing. Far more uniform and exact than even the best Weaver machine can manage.

"Wow," Olivia marvels, letting the fabric slide through her fingers. "If the Weavers could figure out how to make this, we'd corner the market on tent and sail material all across Sylvania!"

"Mine," Zahnrad reminds Olivia. "I think it's mainly intended to be the structure for making a lightweight hull. Imagine how strong and thin you could make something if that was hardened."

"Like an airship hull?" Olivia says with meaning, as she lets the end of the spool of fabric drop again.

"Maybe," Zahnrad agrees. He grabs a pair of nearby snips and actually cuts off several yards worth of the fabric from the spoof. A quick-fold later and he hands it to Olivia. "Anyway, I'm permitting you to figure out how to make this. It would be, uh, beneficial to me … I mean, to the TOWN!"

Olivia accepts the fabric gratefully but there's a mischievous sparkle in her eye as she echoes, "Good for the town… yes, of course. Thanks, Zahn!"

"Right! The town," Zahn says, nodding rapidly. "So … want to see the squished Skeeks?"

Olivia quickly stuffs the yards of strange cloth into her backpack and nods. "Lead the way!"

"To the left! Left, left, left," Zahnrad echos as he heads out of the room. The Kadie can't help but trace his fingers over various machine parts as he goes. Wingnuts around machines are unusual at the least.

The fourth spoke is some sort of storage room. Lighting only comes from the ceiling, as the walls are covered in closed bins – several rows of them. There are wheeled ladders and larger platforms with stairs, and a few other rolling structures that might be used for raising, lowering and moving the bins themselves. All of the bins have a patch on the front that is heavily scratched to obscure whatever markings where once there. The only markings now are crude drawings of what might be a fist holding a dripping rock (or possibly a potato). The drawings are rusty-brown, as if done in blood.

"And there are the boxes. Inside are, well, crushed corpses. Like food or spare parts storage," Zahn notes a bit grimly.

Olivia cranes her neck to look around at all the bins on the walls, which seem to go on forever. "So, uh, how did you get up to some to look inside?" she asks. "The ladders? Or did you figure out how these machines work in here?"

"You can reach the lowest bins without ladders," Zahnrad points out as he heads over to the bin he remembers opening and the gruesome surprise that waited. "Are you sure you want to look?"

"No, but I'm going to look, anyway. Just catch me if I faint, okay?" Olivia says, with obvious trepidation in her voice.

"Er, okay," Zahnrad says and grabs the front door to the bin. Carefully, he pulls it back to open it. All the while his eyes remain on Olivia…

The lid lifts up without a sound, to reveal the dark interior of the bin. Despite some suspicious scratches and dark stains, though, the bin is completely empty.

Olivia blinks a few times, looking back and forth between Zahn and the bin. "Are you sure a crushed corpse was in here?" she asks. "Because it seems kinda… you know… empty now."

Zahnrad blinks and peers in. "There was last time," he claims. Grumbling, he goes to the next bin and tries to open it.

That bin has been emptied out too, although the signs of former occupation haven't been completely wiped out.

Now glowering, Zahn marches to the next one. He continues this until he finds bodies or runs out of reachable bins!

All of the bins have been emptied! There are still scratches and bloodstains and the occasional bit of fur… but no actual bodies.

While Zahn starts looking in other bins, Olivia peers into the second one to see exactly what's left.

The scratches that Olivia finds are still fairly telling: the alleged Skeeks were not entirely dead when dumped into the bin.

"Why those thieving little jerks!" Zahnrad growls and shakes his fists towards the ceilings! "They took … oh, wait. I don't really want corpses so … I guess that's okay." The Kadie then scratches at his ear sheepishly.

Olivia briefly touches her fingertips to the scratches on the side of the second bin. "I don't think the poor creatures who were shoved into these containers were completely dead when they were put here," she says quietly. "And to add indignity to the outrage, it looks like the trolls have found this place, too." She eyes the nearest ladder on wheels and says, "I'm going to try opening a few boxes on one of the next levels. You want to come?"

"Yes, let's see if they're still occupied or not," Zahnrad agrees and follows Olivia.

Olivia nods and goes over to that ladder, then looks back at Zahn. "Should I try to hand a box down to you from the ladder, or should we roll the ladder over to a platform so we can rest any boxes we take out on that?"

"Let's just try to look in them. I don't want to consider trying to move them," Zahnrad says as he peers up at the bins. "They are likely far too heavy to move by hand."

Using the rolling ladders, it's possible to look into the bins that aren't locked, which seem to repeat the findings below: empty but with signs of gruesome occupation. The locked ones sound empty when tapped on, as well.

"Dear gods, how many corpse-eating trolls do we have around here, anyway?" Olivia grumbles, as she finds the last bin she looks into be empty, too.

"No idea. But … let's go deeper into the shaft and see what we can find. Maybe there will be clues to numbers further down," Zahn suggests.

Olivia nods and shimmies back down the ladder to the ground.

On the way back out to the main corridor, Zahn suggests, "Let's grab the biggest wrenches we can find here for weapons before we go down. I'm not going down without at least clubbing a few trolls that try to nibble me."

The ramp around the central shaft is broken into several levels connected by stairways. The steam rising from the center obscures things deeper down, but at least there is clearly a level below the current one that is visible. From the distance, it may be just as tall, too.

"Fine by me," Olivia says, "although I think they'd wait until you were dead before they nibbled you. Not good, though, either way!"

After a bit of digging back in the main room, Zahn returns with two wrenches resting on his shoulders. They're each a good two feet long! He hands one of them to Olivia, then waves his around, grinning in a disturbingly Gunther-like way. "Any troll that messes with me will get brained!" he declares. "Now, stairs," he says, pulling out the lantern from his pack should he need it.

Olivia nearly drops her wrench because it's so long and heavy, but at last she rests it securely on one shoulder. "I think all I'd have to do is just heave this thing on a troll's foot," she mutters. "It'd cripple the monster for sure!"

"That would sure throw a wrench in their Skeek eating plans," Zahn quips as he starts down the stairs now.

Olivia groans as she follows behind the Kadie. "I don't need any of your punishment, Zahn!"

The stars spiral around the shaft a full turn before opening onto a landing. This puts the pair directly under their starting point at the end of the main hall. Another long hall stretches before them, and three more circle the shaft just as they do on the first level. The lighting here is more sporadic, and the hall before them is mostly dark. There is enough light to make out large, hulking forms within however.

Zahn takes a moment to light his lantern and adjust the focus lens forward into the gloom. "Shall we see what that is?" the Kadie asks.

"Sure… let's see if it has any nasty teeth it can eat us with." Olivia tries to speak bravely, but there is still a little tremor running through her words.

So … onward Zahn now walks towards those hulking shapes. He tries to hold his lantern as far ahead as possible, hoping to see them in enough time to run if they need to.

The first hulking machine has nasty teeth – or at least a formidable looking comb. Wired frames on armatures and lots of pipes make it clear that it is a steam-powered loom of some kind, with an impressively confusing control panel as well.

"Hey, it's Loom #4's great grandfather," Zahnrad claims as he peers at the huge mechanical loom. "And I thought #4 was scary… "

Tellingly, there are a few strands of glass fiber stuck in the maw of the mechanical monster.

Olivia points excitedly at the fibers still within the machine and says, "Look! This is how that glass fabric is made – on this loom! If we could get this working again, half of our problem would be solved!" Then she sobers. "But you're right… it looks even more frightening than Loom #4 does. Not sure if you'd even want to try tinkering with this thing!"

"We would also have to move it," Zahnrad points out, "Which is the harder part. I'm sure I could get it working again… "

"Well, that's an adventure for another time, I guess," Olivia says. "Shall we keep moving?"

"Yes," Zahnrad agrees and continues past the huge steam-loom for now. Though he does spare a glance back towards it.

Beyond the loom are piles of apparent debris: chunks of ceramic with odd shapes. A bit of study reveals them to be complicated molds, although almost hopelessly smashed now.

"Darn. If they were in better shape I could have glued them back together," Zahnrad complains. He even kicks one of the piles.

Olivia pats the Kadie's shoulder comfortingly. "Maybe we'll find one or two up ahead that aren't in such bad shape?" she offers in a hopeful voice.

"It is more likely I would find a working airship," Zahnrad grumbles. He looks further past the the piles, trying to see if anything more may remain."

Past the broken molds are the overturned storage racks that probably once held them, and past those are a row of large, complicated machines with large drums and lots of pipework. Various nozzles protrude from their ends, and there are adjustable frames that might have been for holding the molds with. The control panels on these have clearly been destroyed, and show the tell-tale slash-grooves of troll talons.

"Ooo. If I meet one of those trolls I'm going to plant my foot up its behind," Zahnrad growls as he practically caresses the damaged control panel. "They have no respect at all."

"Remember, the trolls have much sharper and stronger claws than you do," Olivia says, trying to keep her tone calm. "I know you probably don't agree, but I'd rather see this equipment all smashed up than you."

"Bah, this stuff is more important than I am," Zahn argues … and then his ears perk up. "I wonder!" he says and scurries back to the broken molds. He tries to find one not so damaged that he could at least partially hold together to see what it may have been a mold of.

"People are more important than stuff!" Olivia calls back to the Kadie, but she does look interested in what he's doing.

There are a few big pieces that aren't too difficult to fit back together. Zahn is able to reconstruct one enough to recognize part of a pneumatic motor housing, in reverse.

"Huh, not what I was expecting. I half-thought these might be molds of trolls," the Kadie admits, sounding moderately disappointed. So … true to Kadie attention span, he goes back to the damaged control panel and pokes at it. "I wonder if I can fix this."

Olivia just shakes her head while looking at the mess. "It'd take you forever without help," she comments.

"Ye of little faith," Zahnrad mutters.

It looks like the control panel was more or less 'dug' out of the side of the molding machine. There are plenty of exposed cogs, gears and rods, but no sign of the original panel that connected to them.

Olivia looks sidelong at Zahn. "Well, okay, maybe only half of forever if you worked on it alone," she amends lightly. "But you have to admit, it'd go quicker with Gunther or someone else around to help. Then you'd be able to find out what this machine does that much faster!"

Zahnrad dusts off his hands. "My best bet is to just build a new control panel. Which means I'll need to just figure out how it works," Zahn explains. "And I might need a troll disguise if I work down here in case they come back."

Olivia suddenly looks belligerent and folds her arm across her chest. "No way. You can NOT work down here alone. If you don't want the technical help, fine, but you'll need an armed lookout."

"Since when can I not work down here alone? And since when did you become my mom?" Zahnrad reports and even pokes Olivia's nose.

"I don't have to be your mom to know that people are still more important than stuff," the Skeek repeats, rubbing at her nose. "Besides, do you really want your mother to go through the loss of another child? Because I didn't think you were that heartless, Zahn."

"That's not fair," Zahnrad grumbles and crosses his own arms. "I can take care of myself!"

Something makes a clattering sound further down in the shaft, and the sound echoes oddly.

Surprisingly, Olivia nods in agreement. "In most situations, you certainly can. But working on a machine that you don't know the purpose of in a place that could be filled with things that want to kill you is not your normal, everyday situation. You could always bring Amy, you know. You'd at least have some time alone together if you-" At the clattering noise, Olivia's eyes stare off into the distance and a small furrow appears in the center of her forehead. "Well, assuming you didn't get attacked," she finishes weakly. "Um… what was that noise?"

"Probably metal fatigue. Some old rod gave out," Zahnrad comments with an unconcerned shrug. "Want to go see?" he asks as he already heads back in the direction of the shaft.

"We probably should, yeah," the Skeek says nervously, but she follows after Zahn, all the same.

It's impossible to tell exactly where the sound came from, since the bottom of the shaft is hidden by mist and darkness. As with with the level above, this one has three more 'spokes' that circle the central shaft.

"Well, looks like we need to go down further. I don't see anything obvious up here," Zahnrad says after a few minutes of exploration. So … he looks for the path down.

The stairs pick up again at the same landing they arrived on, although the level below is noticeably darker than the current one, with only a few light sources remaining.

"It be brighter lantern time, har, har," Zahnrad declares in a ridiculous accent as he fiddles with the adjustment knob on his lamp to increase the brightness. The Kadie then heads down the stairs.

Olivia simply rolls her eyes heavenward as she creeps along behind the Kadie boy.

The stairs creak slightly from a few broken fasteners, and by the time the pair of explorers reach the next landing they can feel a rhythmic vibration through their feet. A few ceramic chains litter the walkway around this level of the shaft, along with what could be the remains of a crane that ran on the tracks in the shaft's ceiling. All four spokes on this level are dark, save for one that has a flickering light in it.

"Right, well, rather dark down here. Maybe we should examine the upper level a bit more before going deeper. There were at least two ways above still somewhat lit," Zahnrad admits as he climbs back up. "We'll save the ones here for last."

Olivia nods and backtracks her way up to the previous level.

When they reach the upper level, Zahn pirouettes and sticks his tail straight out. "Clockwise," he declares when he comes to a stop, tail pointing counter-clockwise. "Onward! To … more stuff!" he announces with a triumphant flair … and marches clockwise.

The next chamber is right under the one where the corpses were previously stored. It is full of more machinery, and some of it is the biggest seen so far. The lights at the very top of the long chamber still work, although they are dimmer than those at the top level.

"Ooooooooooo. This must be paradise," Zahnrad says as he scurries over to the large machines, completely leaving Olivia behind. Once there, he pokes and prods at things, muttering, "I wonder what this is… "

Olivia hurries to keep up with the enthralled Kadie, muttering, "Don't get too far ahead of me, Zahn – you're the only one carrying a bright light, remember? If you lose me in some dim area, I may not find my way out again!"

The first big machine is half as long as the room itself, and has a collection of large spools at one end and giant crucibles and heating elements at the other.

"By the tail of the great Kadie, it's a smelter!" Zahnrad announces. "Wow. Roy would love this place. But … I can't show him because it's mine."

Olivia's brow furrows again as she tries to parse this. "You mean, a big machine that melts down metals?" she asks slowly.

"Or glass," Zahnrad answers as he tries to climb into one of the crucibles to look for residue.

It's tricky, given the size of the cauldron-like crucible, but there does seem to be traces of some sort of glittery black powder still inside.

Olivia snaps her fingers. "Oh, right!" she exclaims. "For making that weird cloth, for instance."

"Hold this," Zahnrad says and sticks out the lantern to Olivia. "I want to try and get a sample… "

Olivia takes the lantern from Zahn carefully. "You still have enough light to see by in there?" she asks.

Zahnrad grips the rim of the crucible with his feet and tries to lean/lower in and get a small sample of that black powder inside. "I see well in low light," he notes. "Family trait."

Olivia ahs and falls silent so Zahn can concentrate on getting his sample.

The crucible is pretty big and deep. As it turns out, too deep for even a tall Kadie, dangling from his toes, to reach the bottom (and the bits of what might be burned glass) with his hands.

"Drat," Zahnrad complains from where he hangs. "Too far down. But … it does look like glass from here." A few more failed attempts to get some and the Kadie pulls himself back out. "Curse you ancient pot of heat," he tells the old crucible and hakes his fist at it. And in the following few seconds, he's hopped down and retrieved his lantern from Olivia. "Let's keep looking. This thing is boring."

"Only because you couldn't get what you wanted out of it," Olivia says under her breath while she grins.

"And oh! Look for an annealing oven. I expect there is one in here somewhere. There has to be if they were making glass," Zahnrad comments as he scurries around to check the rest of the large room out.

There are lots of big levers and gears around the crucible, and of course supports so it can pivot to pour out its load into the rest of the machine. Behind the machine is another long device with various stages to it. It involves hoppers, bins and big, nasty looking crushers and rollers. There are bins for slag and other debris, and swinging tube that can be positioned over the crucibles of the first machine.

"Oo, those would hurt if you fell in them," Zahnrad points out as he points towards the rollers.

Olivia cringes. "I'll bet," is all she can answer.

"Bin check!" Zahnrad then announces and tries to stick his head in the debris and slag bins.

The bins are half-full of… dust. Or powder. It could even be very fine dirt.

"By the way," Olivia continues, "just what does an annealing oven look like, anyhow?"

Zahn tries to grab some of the dirt, just to not be defeated totally. "Big oven made of clay, usually. Used to let stuff cool slowly. If glass cools too fast it practically explodes! Which can be fun too, but."

"Only if you're an Oggton, I suppose." Olivia says, smiling.

There might be something like that between the spindles and the crucibles on the big machine – but then, there is lots of stuff in between the two ends. Zahnrad stirs up a cloud of fine dust as he collects some grit from the bin.

"Haha! I have returned from the land of the fused sand," Zahnrad declares as he pulls his now dusty head out of the old bin. "So … what's next? Ooo, spools!" Zip! Away goes the Kadie towards the huge spools.

Olivia sighs loudly and declares, "I think I have just enough light around here to look for an annealing oven. You have fun with your spools." And off the Skeek marches in the opposite direction – but slowly, so she can still keep the Kadie (somewhat) in sight.

Aside from the two big machines, the opposite side of the room seems to be taken up by one very long one or a series of connected ones. A crushing and mixing machine is at the far end, and there are several vats and boilers and other strange machines that lead up to one that dumps out the result into bins. The big spindles on the glass-working machine are still in good shape, but are devoid of any of the glass thread found elsewhere.

Zahnrad actually tries to turn the empty spool.

Once Olivia has a better look around, she calls to Zahn, "Nothing that looks like the oven you're describing over here! I can't even see if there are any samples to take… well, unless I climbed into one of these things, maybe. But I'm not offering to do that! Just so you know!"

"Do it anyway! It's not dangerous, sheesh!" Zahnrad calls back from the land of the spool. "This stuff has long since quit working."

Olivia presses one hand to her forehead and grumbles, "How do I get myself into these things? Okay, I'll try – but I'm not promising anything!" Then she looks waaaaay up at the vat intended for the results of the glass-making process and wonders how to climb inside it.

Like most of the glass-making machinery, the vats are on spindles that let them be poured out. It's just a matter of figuring out how the levers and gears and counterweights work.

Either the spools are locked in place, or the lubrication has worn out, because they don't want to turn.

Zahnrad wags a finger at the spool. "You defy me now … but just wait! I'll make you spin yet!" he tells it. The Kadie then loses interest and heads back towards Olivia.

"You see, this is why I hate complicated machinery," Olivia says to herself as she reaches for the first lever to hand. "None of it ever seems to come with instructions. Hey Zahn! Watch out – I'm gonna try to see if I can get this last bit vat to tip over on its side so I can look in it!"

Hearing no reply to the contrary, Olivia slowly pulls down on the lever – first, to see if it will move, and second, to see what will happen!

There's a CLUNK sound, and a grinding of gears. Dust rises up and the machine shudders, but the vat eventually tips over onto its side.

A shiny skull rolls out, bounces off of a gear, and lands at Olivia's feet.

"Just watch it be full of bodies," Zahnrad quips as he reaches Olivia and her triumphant defeat of the ornery vat. "Like … that," he adds, pointing at the skull.

Olivia releases the lever and puts her pack down on the ground. After rooting around in it for a few moments, she comes up with what looks like a folded picnic cloth. She uses this to pick up the skull gingerly and examine it in the light of Zahn's lantern.

It's a Skeek skull, for certain. It also has a very thin layer of glass coating it all over. The jaw is missing.

"Anyone you know?" Zahn asks as he peers at it foe a moment, then walks around the vat to try and look in it.

Olivia appears oddly fascinated by the terrible thing. It's probably because of the shiny glass coating. "I certainly hope not," she replies. Then she glances over to where Zahn has disappeared around the vat. "Finding anything over there?"

"Aaaah! Aaah!" Zahn yells.

Still holding the Skeek's skull, Olivia comes running around to the other side of the vat. "What? What?!" she cries in alarm.

"Just practicing in case I find a monster," Zahnrad says with a huge grin. Wisely, he keeps his lantern between himself and Olivia.

"Gah – don't do that!" Olivia yells at the Kadie boy, looking as if she is about to hit him, probably with the skull! "It's creepy enough in here without you making it worse!"

"Skeeks are too high strung," Zahnrad complains as he finally shines his lantern into the toppled vat.

"Then explain your brother to me," Olivia shoots back.

"He was hatched," Zahnrad deadpans.

"Yeah, nice try," Olivia grumbles, turning her eyes to the vat.

The rest of the vat is empty.

"Ah well. Shall we try the last wing on this floor. You should hold onto that head. Amelia might want to see it. She likes heads," Zahnrad comments.

"So much for that bright idea," Olivia sighs. "Nothing else here, either. Yeah, let's try the other wings. And I'll carry the skull… but I dunno, I might want to keep it. It's sorta interesting, from an artistic point of view. Never seen one covered in glass before."

"You can always tell the rat it was the head of a boyfriend that cheated on you," Zahnrad comments with a grin. Soon enough they're out of the glass wing and heading to the next one.

The next wing is dark, with no lights at all working within it.

Zahnrad opens the shutters completely to get the most light he can and marches right into the darkness. "Onward to certain … uncertainty!" he announces, "Let's see what we have in here."

The light flashes across the silent expressions of a dozen Skeeks, their glazed eyes staring blindly out at the pair.

Olivia hurriedly backs up a step and takes hold of Zahn's arm. "Um… are they mummified, or something?" she whispers.

Zahnrad draws to a stop. "Uh," he says slowly. "Now those have to just be statues… " Slowly now the Kadie reorients the light back on where he just saw those faces. And unfortunately… the Kadie somehow manages to accidentally close the shutter, leaving the two in the darkness. "Uhm, oops?" Olivia can hear Zahn mutter.

"That better not have been another one of your jokes… " the Skeek girl can be heard to growl.

The eyes of the frozen Skeeks are shining red now, but not from any inner glow. They're just reflecting the light from the now glowing skull that Olivia still holds…