A dozen horrified expressions glow red on the faces of frozen Skeeks, all of them seeming to be aimed at Olivia. The source of the red light is the glass-coated Skeek skull that Olivia holds in her hands. It makes it seem as if everything is covered in blood.

"Uh, those are just statues, right?" Zahnrad comments a bit meekly as he fiddles with his lantern, trying to get the shutter back open. "Go poke one while I get this working again… "

Olivia stares at Zahn as if he's just grown two other heads. "I will have a closer look at one but I am certainly not going to poke it! Whaddya want me to do, lose a hand if it suddenly jumps out and bites me or something?"

"I could build you a new one!" the Kadie promises. The shutter on his lantern shifts a bit, letting out a little more light. "Stupid thing, needs oil."

"You're talented, but not that talented," the Skeek grumbles, but she inches a little closer to one of the frozen Skeeks and examines it by the light of the skull.

"Are you sure?" Zahnrad counters. There; a bit more light emits from his lantern.

The weird light gives the figures an even ghastlier appearance than they might otherwise already have. The first one is a middle-aged male Skeek, with mostly black fur that looks real enough – except for the eyes, which appear to be glass. He's posed with his mouth open, and looking slightly upwards with one arm held out to point at something.

Now somewhat reassured that the Skeeks aren't going to make a grab for her, Olivia turns to look at the next one while she says to Zahn, "Once you get your lantern open, shine it upwards and see if you can find what this Skeek is pointing at."

"There," Zahnrad declares triumphantly as the shutter finally slides back. He walks closer to Olivia now and shines the lantern upward.

Following the arm, the Skeek appears to be pointing out and up towards the top landing of the shaft. In the better light it's also possible to see a find coating of dust on its pink-skinned hand.

Zahnrad hrms. Carefully, he pokes the stiff Skeek.

The frozen figure wobbles, then tips over towards Olivia…

Olivia sees movement out of the corner of her eye and yeeps! She tries to scuttle out of the way.

Zahn makes a quick grab for the tipping Skeek with his free hand!

WHUMPF! A cloud of dust rises from the black Skeek when it hits the ground where Olivia was just standing, and nearly knocks over a few others that were next to it. It doesn't break, or sound hollow when it hits, and nothing falls off (which is good, since it's not wearing clothes or jewelry or anything else that isn't part of its anatomy).

"Oops," says Zahn.

Olivia now whirls on the Kadie. "You see, this is exactly why I didn't want to touch them!" she says in exasperation. "Try to be a little more careful next time, willya?"

"It didn't try to bite, though," Zahnrad says defensively. "It's not my fault it was unstable. Though I should expect it from you, since you attract unstable guys like the rat!"

Olivia looks suddenly hurt and takes a step back from Zahn. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," she says in a softer voice, "but just so you know, I really am tired of my friends insulting Djivan just because he's not from town." That said, she turns away from the Kadie and goes back to examining the second Skeek in line.

"If it makes you feel any better, I would pick on a guy you dated from the town too," Zahnrad offers with a grin. "So are these statues or petrified Skeeks?"

The next Skeek is a woman, younger than the first but still an adult with fur not too differently colored than Olivia's. This one has a very focused expression, and her hands are raised up as if operating something.

"So you say," Olivia mutters to herself. Then in a louder voice, she answers, "Petrified Skeeks, from the looks of them. Their eyes are glass, though. Hrm, I wonder if this one was in the act of working a machine when she got, um, well… "

Zahnrad moves over to the standing Skeek and tries to look in her mouth if a t all possible. "Maybe it was the machine that did it," he notes.

Like the first, the woman is unclothed and unadorned, with a slight layer of dust. Her mouth is closed and the lips actually pursed a bit in concentration.

Zahn tries at least moving a lip to get a look at the teeth.

The lips are a bit rubbery and cold, but still feel natural. A few teeth are exposed, including one with some sort of artificial patch where it probably had a cavity.

"They do look real. How odd. And I wonder why that skull glows," Zahnrad comments, "Maybe it's really melted rainbow crystal." He steps past the line of Skeeks and shines his lantern, trying to see what is beyond.

While Zahn makes another poke at the second Skeek, Olivia suddenly remembers the glowing skull in her hands and examines it, too. "You know, in all the excitement, I kinda forgot this skull was glowing for no apparent reason! I wonder how it's doing that, too… "

There are rows and rows of Skeeks, all in various poses (and some sitting down) that seem to reflect mundane activities… at least, except for the one couple at the back. At least those are smiling though.

In the process of moving the skull around, it becomes clear that it glows brighter the closer it comes to one of the bodies.

"Maybe they're from some museum. I've heard of wax museums before, where dummies are posed in real life events," Zahnrad suggests.

Olivia sighs and goes back to pointing the skull at the Skeek bodies, unsatisfied as to just how the skull is glowing at all. "Well, d'you want to try going in the direction of the one that's pointing, see what else we find?" she asks.

"That's where we came from. I think there's still a hall here we haven't' examined before we go deeper," Zahnrad comments when he finishes examining the Skeeks (and resisting the urge to try and pose them).

Olivia taps her forehead with her free hand. "Oh, that's right. Then we should look at the other hallway… although it's getting creepier in here the further we go!"

"But at least not dangerous. Twenty-four statues, a glass plant, and an empty room. Nothing too bad," Zahnrad comments as he heads out of this wing and looks for the next.

The lights in the next hall haven't failed completely, and show racks and racks of standing shelves full of very large jars… and very small jars. There are lots of smashed ones as well, littering the floor with sharp bits of glass.

Zahnrad carefully tiptoes around the broken glass, trying to see if there is anything in the jars.

Olivia follows carefully behind Zahn, also not trying to step on any broken glass.

For the most part, the jars are filled with dust, and occasionally with smaller jars. Farther in, though, they come across an entire shelf covered in jars with the 'fist around rock' symbol engraved into them.

The Skeek skull begins glowing when Olivia gets closer.

"Hey, the rock thing," Zahnrad announces. He tries to locate a jar that he could actually pick up and open.

There are a few that could be held by a Kadie, only big enough to hold a few cabbages. The tops are also made of glass, and have the same reverse-threading he's come across before.

Olivia glances quickly between the skull and the jars with the engravings on them. "Um, this thing's glowing again," she announces. "It's reacting to the jars with the fist and stone symbols on them, I think… "

"Well, my guess is it might be, uh, body parts," Zahnrad notes as he continues to look for a jar he could open. Finding one, he starts to carefully unscrew the top.

Olivia creeps up behind Zahn and 'shines' the skull around, trying to see if there is one bottle in particular that it reacts to more strongly than any of the others.

The lid comes off easily, revealing a thin lining of the gooey lubricant from the upper workshop. None of the jars seems to make the skull any dimmer or brighter, though. It could easily fit inside the jar Zahn has gotten open however.

Zahnrad peers directly into the jar, trying to see if there is anything in there other than the lubricant lining.

There might be the faintest trace of red dust clinging to the inside of the jar.

"Some sort of red dust. Have any pouches with you to carry a sample?" Zahnrad asks as he peers inside.

"Well, I don't have any pouches, but would a hanky work? I promise it's clean," Olivia answers. "And when you're done, I want to try something with that jar."

"The hanky is fine," Zahn agrees, "Just let me get a small sample and the jar is all yours."

Olivia reaches into one of her pockets and hands the hanky to Zahn. In true Olivia fashion, it's bright pink and embroidered with little yellow flowers around the edges.

Frowning and taking ahold of the hanky with two fingers, lest he be contaminated by girliness, Zahn takes a small sample of the red dust using it. He then offers the jar to Olivia.

The dust sparkles a bit on the cloth, as it where some kind of powdered glass.

Olivia takes the jar and puts it on the ground. "This might not accomplish anything, but I'm curious… " She then lowers the skull gently into the jar.

The glass-covered skull never touches the bottom of the jar. Instead, it hangs suspended in the center as if floating on an invisible fluid.

And just then, the deep, rhythmic beat that's been coming up through the floor since they arrived abruptly stops.

Olivia jerks back a little at this development. "Er, why is it doing that?" she asks, somewhat unnecessarily.

Zahnrad blinks. "Hm, the sound stopped. That's … concerning. You better take the skull out," he says worriedly and looks back towards the entrance.

The formerly fallen black Skeek is there at the entrance to the hall, pointing accusingly at the ceiling.

Olivia nods and puts her hands back in the jar to take the skull out.

"Uh, that statue moved," Zahnrad says softly and nudges Olivia. "Maybe we need to leave now… "

There's no feeling of resistance, and Olivia is able to lift the skull out easily.

Once she has the skull back in her hands, Olivia asks, "Where do you see-" Then she notices the black-furred Skeek at the entrance and gasps. "Shine your lantern up again, see what he's pointing at?"

Zahnrad dutifully shines his lantern towards the ceiling.

There isn't anything at that particular spot, but extending the line of the Skeek's arm shows that it might be pointing towards the entrance to the whole workshop area.

"Maybe it's suggesting we leave," Zahnrad offers.

"I'm not about to argue," Olivia agrees. She leaves the jar where it is, but takes the skull with her. "I'm going to take this further away from these jars and then just leave it, too," she explains.

Zahnrad tucks the red glass sample into his pocket and follows after Olivia. "I'd like to explore deeper, but … the sound stopped. That's worrying," he comments.

Olivia gets to the entrance to the hallway and tries working her way carefully around the black-furred Skeek.

The dummy twists and grabs onto Olivia's arm with a grip like wood, and blows an age's worth of dust into her ear as it whispers something. Then, it collapses into a heap.

Zahnrad … screams like a little girl when the dummy grabs onto Olivia's arm! And when it collapses into dust, well, he tries to look like it never happened.

Thump. Thump. Thump. The beat starts again, sounding a bit louder after the silence.

Fortunately for Zahn's manly reputation, Olivia doesn't seem to hear his scream over her own panicked cries. When the Skeek tumbles to the ground, Olivia just stares at it with wide eyes, the insides of her ears having gone completely pale. "It s-spoke… " she stammers.

"What did it say?" Zahnrad squeaks.

"'She's waiting f-for you at the b-bleeding stone,'" Olivia repeats, then takes deep breaths to try and calm herself. At last, she adds, "But I still don't even know what that is, or where it is!"

"My guess is … " Zahnrad says, then points down.

"But I thought you wanted to leave?" Olivia asks.

"I do … but, do you want to find the stone?" Zahnrad asks rather bluntly.

Olivia takes another deep breath. "Yes," she says firmly.

Frowning, Zahn nods. "Then we go down," he finally says. "Are there any more rooms on this floor before we head deeper?"

"There's one more, I think," Olivia responds. "So we can look in there before we head below. And… thank you, Zahn. For being willing to come with me."

"Hey, if you can't walk into certain doom with your friends, what is the world coming to? Let's check the last room on this floor. Maybe we'll be lucky and find the stone there. But, if not … down we go," Zahnrad says and pats Olivia reassuringly on the back. "Just, uh, don't tell Amelia if we go deeper… "