The party continues to debate which way to go, arguing among themselves. Cycek suggests several courses of action, which meet with the silence of uncertainty. Eventually, Sartan and Davros decide to forge ahead and cross yet another bridge to another small island, while Mishok and Cycek stay put.

Midway across the bridge, Davros is attacked by another tiny green demon which pops into view and claws him, nearly knocking him from the catwalk. He manages to pull out his rapier and skewer it before it can vanish. It slides off his blade, dead, and plops into the churning lava just below. He continues across the bridge, to land on an island that is an even filthier hunk of rock. It is strewn with metal debris like old bent nails, staples, and spikes. There are skeletons of strange creatures, scales, and teeth. There are coils of wire, hooks, and heavy chucks of metal with eyelets. Most disgustingly, there is the decaying body of a large wormlike creature, at least six feet long, party torn apart, and stinking horribly. Before Davros has but a moment to take this in, he is set upon by another green creature. This one is ineffective, and Davros immediately dispatches it. Sartan joins him on the island, and they inspect some of the debris. Davros takes about 150 ft. of wire, and some assorted spikes and nails. Sartan comes across two long iron rods standing upright, protruding from the ground. They angle slightly out over the river, and wire, secured to their tips, runs out into the flow. Both wire and rod contraptions thrum with the current of the lava flowing past. But one of them begins to quiver and flex. Sartan, curious, hauls on the wire, pulling it in hand-over-hand and piling up coils of the smoking hot wire onto the soiled stone at his feet. There is resistance at the  other end of the wire, a pulsating force, but it is no match for Sartan’s great strength. A shape emerges from the depth. An enlongated, finned body breaks the surface, and then submerges again. Sartan keeps pulling and soon a glowing, thrashing beast is brought once again to the surface. With a heave, he pulls a two-foot long glowing, flaming fish-beast onto the shore. It leaps and flops, splashing gouts of liquid fire as it does so, burning Sartan in the process. He kicks it back into the river, and the wire goes taut again.

While this is happening, Cycek and Mishok are inspecting the ladders, and discussing how they might be repositioned to give them better access to some of the larger islands, so they can continue their search for Wendella. Cycek is mid-sentence when their attention is drawn by flickering light. They turn to see the portal through which they had come flickering through color changes, and spasmodically fluctuating. Before they can even move, there is a ground rattling “BOOM!” and the portal ceases to be. Loose stones rattle and tumble hissing into the lava. Cycek turns to Mishok with a concerned expression, and says “Oh, great.” There is a moment of silence, and then the sound of distant laughter returns with renewed vigor. 

Mishok shouts across to Davros and Sartan, that if they use the last bridge they had crossed, they can cross directly back to the place where they had started rather than backtracking. He figures it is long enough to span that gap, and then also the gap to the larger land mass at the opposite side of that island. It takes some work, but with Sartan’s great strength, they slide the ladder toward them, using a thin sliver of rock mid-stream to keep it from tilting down into the lava. Then they attach a length of wire to it, stand it on end, and bracing the grounded end, lower its far end down onto the opposite shore. This is a difficult task, requiring a great deal of pivoting and repositioning as it hangs up on the overhead wires, but they succeed. Crossing over the the island where they had first landed, they are met by Cycek and Mishok who have retraced their steps.

Reunited on a slab of rock littered with the corpses of their fallen demonic foes, they ready the ladder to make another crossing on the opposite side. Brainstorming ways to better move a 70 foot ladder without catching in the wires or dropping it into the lava, Cycek remembers the strange “immovable” bar he had found in the quarters of the evil wizard, Ekso. He uses it to anchor the foot of the ladder in place, to keep it from shifting as they again stand it on and, and lower it via cable onto the far shore.

They cross this bridge one at a time. Cycek deactivates the immovable bar, takes it in hand and starts across. Halfway there, he loses his balance and topples off the ladder. By amazing reflex, he hits the button on the bar. It stops in mid air, and he holds on tight, dangling precariously, with his toes just inches from the heaving mass of deadly molten rock. He manages to crawl back up onto the ladder and with the utmost caution, cross the rest of the way and get his feet back on solid ground.

The plateau the find themselves on it at a slightly higher elevation, and it slopes upward as it nears a towering spire. The ground is all the more strewn with the huge misshapen globs of solidified lava, and the refuse of long years of demonic occupation. The begin to explore, moving upward toward the spire. Keeping a careful watch, they soon notice that a dangling maw demon is moving into view above their heads, on a wire that intersects their plateau. They take cover among the rocks and debris. A few tense minutes elapse and the creatures passes them by and continues out over the river and adjacent islands. Returning to their exploration, they find a six-foot diameter hole, bored into the rock, leading to a dank tunnel than twists downward at a steep angle into the darkness. A horrible reek rises from the hole. The see the long beaten track of bare, clawed humanoid feet leading into, out of, and all around the hole. Understandably reluctant to go in and blindly explore, Cycek instructs Fuzzidohng to go in, explore, avoid being seen, and return. The weasel wrinkles his nose, but does so. The four adventures stand at the ready outside the hole, keeping a careful watch for any foes that might appear. After five to ten minutes of waiting, the weasel comes running out of the hole in a state of great agitation. They hear horrid, incoherent shouting and scrabbling footsteps running their way. Cycek is frustrated with the poor performance of his animal companion, complaining, “I told you to stay out of sight!” The tiny creature is shaking with fright and it hides among the rocks. They quickly hatch a plan before the purser emerges. Sartan and Mishok position themselves  above the hole with a length of wire, looped into a giant snare. Cycek and Davros station themselves to the sides of the hole, swords at the ready. They are barely ready before the purser emerges bellowing with fury. Sartan and Mishok heave to and tighten the wire noose around the head of the enraged creature. Mishok quickly identifies it. “It’s a ghoul!” They have fought these before. The ensnared creature goes wild trying to escape, but it is no use. Cycek and Davros quickly stab at it, and their companions pull the wire with all their might, nearly severing its wretched head. The creature goes limp and falls to the ground dead.

Having a clearer idea of what they may be dealing with in the cave, they decide to carefully explore. Cycek decides that Fuzzidohng will be the light source for those without night vision. Mishok casts the Light spell on the creature. The glowing weasel carefully proceeds into the cave at Cycek’s bidding. It is a cramped tunnel, six feet in diameter at its maximum. They encounter a couple of forks in the passageway, and they choose the rightmost passage both times. Suddenly, Fuzzidohng’s light illuminates a stone chamber, and the shambling forms of two more ghouls. The wretched creatures immediately react to the light and rush forward to attack. The party turn and run for the entrance, except for Cycek who stealthily steps into one of the side tunnels and hides. The ghouls, drawn by the glowing weasel, run screaming past without seeing him. The other three explorers hastily gather outside the cave entrance and try to reassemble their snare arrangement, but it’s too late to do so effectively. The first creature bursts from the cave. Sartan and Mishok drop the snare around its neck, but it is not secure. The noose tightens around its undead neck, but its flailing arm tears the wire out of Mishok’s grasp. Sartan holds on to his end, barely restraining the creature which pulls like a dog on a leash. Davros is able to use this to his advantage, and he stabs the vile creature with his rapier. The second ghoul emerges and shoves past the first one to get at Davros, who successfully dodges out of reach of the nasty claws. Sartan grabs his trusty battle axe and buries it the head of the first ghoul, bringing its hell-driven state of living death to an abrupt end. 

Mishok attacks the second one before it has a chance to turn and face him, cutting into it with the antique silver sword he had acquired just the day before. The ghoul, howling with fury, whirls around, giving Davros an opportunity for a sneak attack. He jabs the point of the rapier through its unbeating heart. It screams and writhes on his blade, but soon convulses one final time and drops dead at Davros’ feet.

While this battle takes place, Cycek sneaks down the passageway, into the chamber where they had first encountered the ghouls. He finds nothing of value and presses on, through another passage which rises upward. Soon it opens into another roughly 30′ x 30′ chamber. He sees two other tunnels leading from the chamber. But, most disturbingly he sees a huge, amorphous, glistening red mound, across the chamber. It opens up an eye, another eye, then scores of eyes. One by one mouths open, and soon there are dozens upon dozens of mouths of all sizes, all gabbling in a cacophony of voices. It surges toward him, like a massive grotesque slug. Cycek turns and flees back the way he came.

He shouts to his team as he approaches the cave entrance, letting them know it is he, and not another monster to be garroted upon his emergence from the hole. The team, together again, catches their breath and begins to plan their next more.