Standing around the lifeless and hewn bodies of three ghouls, the party admires their handiwork and contemplates their next move. They have been in this abyssal realm for approximately an hour, and have been hard pressed by foes for much of it. The unclean air polluted by acrid smoke is beginning to take a toll. Sartan and Mishok both begin to feel lightheaded with weariness. Sartan takes the precaution of donning a makeshift mask through which to breathe.
A metallic scraping noise catches their attention. A maw demon, perhaps the same one which had passed overhead not long ago, stands on the far shore attempting to shove the far end of the ladder over which they had come into the burning river of lava. Davros and Sartan run to grab their end and pull it out of the creatures grasp. They succeed beyond their hope, for the evil creature loses its footing and tumbles into the lava where it is destroyed.
They pull the entire ladder over to their side, again bracing the base, and using a length of wire to tip it up and over onto their shore. In doing so, they come to the realization that the length of the ladder should be sufficient to carry them to the top of the spire. They lean the ladder against the steep cliff, and Cycek begins to climb. As a precaution, he uses the immovable rod to lock it into place at increments as he goes. This proves to be a wise choice. At about the halfway point, the ranger looks up to see a strange figure silhouetted against the red sky. The head and shoulders of an antlered humanoid peers over the stone lip of the summit. It grabs the top of the ladder and attempts to tip it over. Frustrated by the immovability of the ladder, it shakes and jerks at the ladder, futilely trying to dislodge it. As Cycek nears the top, the creature withdraws, to hide behind a metal cylinder that stands at the center of a dish-like plateau.
Cycek approaches, questioning this strange creature, “Who are you? Why are you trying to knock over the ladder?”
The rest of the band climb the ladder to join him, just as the creature replies, spitting out the words is a pained strangle of a voice, “Begone! You don’t belong here! My master demands it!”
This creature is a distorted humanoid, perhaps once a man. An enormous, tangled pair of antlers sprouts from a head that is deformed, damaged head. A sizable chunk of one side of his head, including the forehead and right eye is burned away, the flesh replaced by solidified stone. The remaining eye peers out from a monocle, appearing oversized and distorted. The gnarled “man” is wrapped in filthy, torn, grey ropes, and staggers about in a hunched posture. His left forearm is missing from elbow to wrist, and that absent portion of that limb is replaced instead by what appears to be a length of rebar. He leans heavily on 6 foot length of bent, rusty rod of iron.
Cycek responds to this wretched creature with hostility and scorn, as do his compatriots when they arrive on the scene. They question him, while he hisses angry words: “How dare you trespass in the dwelling of my master!” He refuses to answer their questions, and their insolence enrages him. When asked his name he replies, “My name is… Aiaaagh! Aiaaagh!!! My name… my name is of no consequence.” He doubles over in pain, as if even the notion of his name is an agony to him.
The cylindrical structure that looms at the center of this tableau is approximately seven feet tall and three and a half feet wide. It appears to be roughly constructed of unevenly bent sheet metal coarsely welded and riveted together. Five long rods with crank handles stick out of it at strange angles. About five feet from the ground, there is a small, barred opening about three inches wide by three inches in height. A woman’s voice screams from this opening, “Help me! Help me! Oh please, help me get out of here!”
Cycek demands answers as to what the cylinder is, and who is imprisoned in it. The enraged creature refuses to answer and instead issues a threat, “Begone or you shall die!”
Sartan steps up and breaks the standoff by employing his trusty fidget spinner. He holds it aloft and the antlered man locks his monocled eye on it. His hands fall to his sides, and he allows his staff clatter to the ground. He stands, glassy eyed and muttering quietly while Sartan and his colleagues bind and gag the wretch.
That threat nullified, the crew ponders the cylindrical prison, and its occupant. Questioning reveals that the prisoner is none other than Wendella. She is almost breathless with relief, saying, “I remember you. It seems so long ago. Months? A year? I don’t know. I can’t believe you’re here! Oh please, please, you have to get me out of here.”
The team is extremely skeptical. Can she be trusted? Her appeal is met with disdain, and Cycek in particular berates her for her past behavior and poor decisions. She is very contrite in her replies, and in fact want to make things right. She expresses her fear that this horrible demon, her one-time patron whom she looked to for power, is going to get loose in the material world and target her parents. She thinks she can help close the portals, and prevent more demons from getting out into the world.
Closer inspection and communication with Wendella reveals that the five crank handles are part of a contraption by which her jailers can inflict pain. When one handle is cranked out, another one cranks in, piercing her with an auger-shaped blade. The knob of each handle bears a different sculpted icon: skull, heart, eye, hand, and flame. The flame icon corresponds to a blade poised to impale the core of her abdomen, while the others are a more literal representations of the body part that will be “under the knife.” The party grows frustrated trying to puzzle out which combination of crank handles to rotate in which direction to avoid causing injury. They instead slap “Aiaaagh! Aiaaagh!!!” out of his trance and threaten him with bodily harm unless he opens the prison. He gives in to his fear and agrees. But, he needs to be untied, and have his gag removed so that he can perform the spell. They give him his staff and take positions to attack should he do anything untoward. He speaks an incantation, and knocks three times on the metal surface with his staff. The prison splits open along a vertical seam. Wendella tumbles out upon the ground, but she takes a grave wound from an augur blade in the process. Mishok and Cycek go to her aid, providing her healing magic to ensure that she does not die. The evil wizard takes the opportunity of distraction to cast a spell of magical darkness. He disappears into the inky blackness. Sartan and Mishok rush in swinging blindly, trying to bring him down, but they fail to connect. He emerges on the far side of the darkened area, running while performing another incantation on himself. The result is that he appears capable of rapidly running up a steeply pitched stone wall as if he were a spider. He is able to gain the top ridge of the spire, but before he is able to escape down the far slope, the almost equally sure-footed Davros springs into action. He hustles along the ridge and soon catches up to the fleeing wizard. He inflicts a wound with his rapier and the wretched man quickly surrenders.
They group quickly binds and gags him again, none too pleased with his treachery. They leave him on the stone floor and seek a more efficient way down from the spire, to ease the transport of a bound captive. The bound captive in this case is Wendella. The party still does not trust her, and they have no intention of taking the mad wizard with them.
Cycek discovers a set of stairs and a trail along the lip of the dished plateau. He heads down it a short way, and sees that it leads to a cave. Mishok and Sartan stay with Wendella, securely tying her up while Davros takes a lookout position and Cycek heads down the tunnel.