The group explored the cave further. They found themselves surrounded by the little rat-like creatures and were eventually attacked. The group swung their pipes and leaped into a raised tunnel which the rats could not climb into. The last man through was the sales executive, he had taken the armour and felt the best defended. He was bitten on the ankle.

As the group entered the cavern a strange pillar of stone started to emit an eerie golden light. They skirted around the small lake looking to reach this object and found some ancient urthish, pre first republic, writing. Reading this was beyond the groups skill, so they collected the papers and carefully stowed them in the priests knapsack. Before they were sealed the group saw that they had found an area deep under the surface of kesparate, a natural void space. This area according to the pictures was once a bustling underground mining colony, the plans did not depict the long since abandoned and built over highway which ran above their heads, this caused a little confusion.

As the group approached the stone menhir some of the local wildlife attacked them. A handfull of metre long, ten legged insects. Luckily the pink hatted one had a shotgun and used the handfull of rounds he had found near the entrance to this cavern to dispatch as many as he could.

The young girl discovered that the light was from a room inside the stone column. The technically savvy pilot recognised the item as a stone column from one of the 'gate-builders'. The young girl stumbled a little, when she realised that the area emitting light was in fact a window into a room. A room below the ground. The insects were closing in and so she stood on the top of the column. This alarmed her even more as she started to sink inside it.

Within the column was a room, and a series of invisible elevators.

The group was divided, the first person to try one of the internal lifts was the young pilot. She was taken to a private maze, here she was abused by an old teacher and was nearly killed fighting the animated corpse from the salt cave. At the end of her maze she found a domed cylinder. It did not do very much and the zombie was out side the door so she was stuck.

The next three people tried the next lift over when they realised that the first one was not working any more. They were taken to a lengthy maze which led them eventually to a combat with soldiers from the massacre at the aliensRfree party. These were well armed and very dangerous, but the group evaded them and ran through the door they were guarding.

The final person, the priest was left on his own. He could not join the girl in her maze or the rest of the group in theirs, so he tried the next lift over. This was the one opposite the first lift. In there he encountered a pit of biting insects as long as his foot. He managed to get past this obstacle and found a domed cylinder. This one was lit up with blue lights and had a pair of bars in a T shape. He knew what a capstan was so he turned it. It only moved one way, when it had turned half a circle the lights went out and the handles vanished. He was stuck on the wrong side of the pit so he sat down and prayed.

Over on the first maze the capstan in the young pilots room lit up and some T bars extended. She could have turned it either way, but the way she tried first ended in the capstan locking up and returning to its previous inactive state. She glared at it for a while, then tried to access its internal workings. She was not successful.

Over in the middle maze the trio had become a pair, only the young girl and the sales executive saw the vast chamber in its fully glory.

There was a distant feint hum as the pair entered. The pair walked nervously passed giant inert vats, they had only black inside them. Twelve in total.

At the moment that the young pilot rotated and connected her capstan, the area at the far end of the bone shaped room started to come to life. On a circular platform of around 3m diameter and about 1m high. 9 little blueish grey dots appeared in the air at what appeared to be random places above the circular platform. They began to grow and appear spherical. They were not spaced equally.

After a further 30 seconds:
They had grown to a 1m diameter featureless grey spheroid. The pair were nervous and did not approach these things.

After another 30 seconds:
A 1m hole opened up in the centre of the platform, and as it opened a strange mechanical grip emerged. It was holding an odd shaped object. The object was made of gold, it gleamed brightly. Around this area was a more dense section of air. At the same time a black ooze appeared to coat the planetoids. It looked like a liquid.

This scene had the pair dumbfounded for several minutes. Eventually the young girl, rash as ever, leapt onto the stage, carefully avoiding contact with the black sphereoids, and examined the mechanical grip holding the golden artifact. It was approximately 40cm long and would fit inside a 20cm wide cylinder. It had curved ends, which would make sitting it lying down the only stable position. And she noted that if used as a club the corners would do considerable damage, they are square but the corner looked very sharp. One end sort of looks like a raptor beak from the right angle too. She noted that holding it in a fight would be very hard though, it was too wide at the ends.

She tentatively reached inside and was surprised to find the dense air felt like cold water. The artifact came away easily and did not seem to weigh very much. Until she had it out from the sphere of water that is. Then it's true weight was revealed, 20kg. The sales executive managing the situation from afar was shocked to see lights start to erupt from various places. He quickly grabbed for his advisor and commanded it to record.

At the moment the artifact was free'd; three little balls of light were flung into the air and started to travel to different sphereoids. The black of the sphereoids turned to a feature rich grey for two of the sphere's, but for the third it was clearly a planet. A lush blue and green planet. The pings then bounced to further spheres, the first of the grey ones split into three, these went to two new sphere's which changed to grey planets and back to the clear liquid sphere, the second split into two, the first of those went to the same place as one of the other balls of light the second went back into the centre. From the coloured planet erupted four lights, three of those went to new greyed out plenets and the final one came back into the centre. This sequence was not repeated.

At the same time. Five of the 12 vats reveal themselves to be magic lantern screens. See below for details of the short 3 second movie. It played only once, and then reverted to a still image. The pair figured out that if they simply looked away and looked back it would play again. But this would not work all of the time, in fact the effect seemed to not repeat for at least 15 seconds between plays. There was a red glowing light beneath each of the vats, these were not touched.

The movies were:
1: A black haired man with a neat beard is stood next to a pedestal just like the one in this room. He holds an artifact and has a manic look in his eye. Around him are some companions, they are out of focus although one stands out as he is wearing a red and gold bodysuit which covers his face. This artifact is a large bar with an oval hole in it attached to a pyramid, it looks a bit like an inside out umbrella.
2: A lone bedraggled adventurer with a tan coloured wide brimmed hat, a battered old leather jacket and a satchel. Is lifting an artifact from a pedestal. This artifact is a pyramid with an almost mouth shape to the inside of the trapezoids which are attached to it.
3: no image, black
4: no image, black
5: no image, black
6: An old white haired soldier stands as if from prayer and leans towards a dark skinned man on his death bed who has just died. The man is gripping tightly to an artifact, an 8" cube with a dome at each end.
7: no image, black
8: no image, black
9: A bald man with blue skin dressed for the dessert, picks up a complex star shaped thing with flat parts instead of points. He is stood in a warehouse of some kind, though it could also be the cargo bay of a starship. There is another bald man who is dressed in similar light clothes, though he is not blue.
10: An auctioneer looks pleased at the small diamond ring he is examining, he is waving towards a large burly steward. The steward is in the background, he lifts a large metre wide artifact onto a small push-cart. The artifact looks like two trapezoids pushed together at the point, but it is a hollow frame. The front centre of the shot is a woman, she is watching the steward and talking but her back is to the camera. The auctioneer mouths some words (for lip-readers only). The woman has black hair and is dressed like a respectable business woman or secretary perhaps.
11: A young girl who looks like a dancer lifts an artifact from a pedestal. Apparently directing her is a barely identifiable man in thick grey armour wearing a kettle style miner's helmet. He is out of focus due to the angle of the shot through the fish-eye lens. This artifact is around 40cm long and has a square block at each end, one of the ends also has a beak like shape to it. The artifact is quite thin, such that even the large square block with the beak would fit within a 20cm tube.
12: no image, black

The obstacles vanished from the areas, this allowed Zoe the young pilot to leave her chamber and head back to the entry room. The priest opened his eyes after his prayer to find the pit of beetles had vanished and been filled in. It allowed the barely surviving pink hat wearing Gunther to struggle back to the surface. The young girl and the sales executive were the last to meet up with the others back at the entry room.

Change from game night:
Zoe attempted to travel down one of the invisible lifts, but was not able to access any of them. Zoe surmised that after each person had been allocated a lift at the entry room they were only able to use that lift.