After the mishap with the unpleasant faeries, our heroes regroup and head back to Wu Lung's hut to impose upon his hospitality again and rest up from their injuries. Fireman laments that he just doesn't feel quite as useful anymore when it comes down to a fight, so Voltage gets some inspiration ... and starts building a new and improved "Wand of Hydration" (portable fire hose device), using assorted spare parts at hand. Scars decides that, after all this fighting, surely he's "proven himself", so since Voltage is tied up building things for the day anyway, he heads back to the village - shrugging off the attacks of numerous "wandering monsters" along the way - and goes back to the Temple of the Open Hand to do some more training. After intensive training and some fights to prove his mettle, he receives a Brown Belt to denote his higher status within the fellowship.

Meanwhile, Rose grouses about, but uses the time to familiarize herself some more with her spell book, studying it and practicing spells. She finds that she's starting to get to the point where she hardly has to reference the actual book at all to get its benefits, though she's still limited in the number of spells she can prepare for each day.

The day passes, and Scars heads back. Voltage at last finishes her new upgrades, and Fireman tries it out. The "Wand of Hydration" grants him the ability to knock targets back further, and to inflict a more significant stunning blast when it hits, though its operation is still basically the same as his original "Portable Fire Hose".

So, the next morning, our heroes set out again, this time with Rose in front, vigorously waving the wooden rose wand in the hopes of heading off any "wandering monster" confrontations. This time around, they see the faeries and various other monsters, but they just stand there, waiting to ambush some adventurers, paying no heed to those who are actually walking by.

At last, they reach the gates to the Clockwork Tower again. The tower itself juts out from the edge of the world, connected by a few pipes, rods, and frames that look far too spindly to provide a very sturdy support. The river spills off the edge of the world, turning a gigantic paddlewheel as it does so. The sky above is blue and sunny, but toward the horizon the sky darkens, and then down below the horizon they can see the blue give way to a colorful, starry expanse, full of nebulae and clusters - and the occasional darting infernal creature. (Rose makes sure to keep waving that wand to use Lord Charis's enchantment, so they don't attract undue attention from any of the random wandering beasties.)

Alas, the wand-waving doesn't protect them from triggering the first of the tower's defenses against intruders. There's a pile of debris to one side, suggesting the remnants of some sort of battle ... but there also happens to be a couple of (quite intact) steam-powered "rams" stand at the other end of the bridge, and in a bleating voice, they declare that "None may pa-a-a-a-ss." Scars tests this by stepping forward ... and one of the steam rams responds by rushing forward and to an angle, then turning to hit Scars from the side. Scars isn't the least bit scared; not surprisingly, he takes no damage at all from the attack. However, he is surprised when he realizes that the point of the attack wasn't to inflict damage at all: Rather, since he's standing right on the edge of the bridge, the ram simply bumps him off the side.

Voltage, who had been intent upon investigating the pile of debris, turns away and dives after Scars, using her clockwork wings to slow their descent once she catches him. Scars, intent upon getting back into the battle, springs off of Voltage as soon as she flies back up far enough, and lands atop the bridge again.

Meanwhile, Rose, riding on the back of her Nightsteed Soulrender, casts a spell that was once used against the adventurers by the Three Witches: She summons a rain of thorns that come down from the sky, hailing down on the rams, and jamming in their cog-works. Nonetheless, one of the rams charges toward the only other non-flying entity who happens to be standing on the bridge: Jing-Li's avian mount, Huang Feng. Fortunately for Jing-Li (and her mount), the ram fails to knock them off the edge into oblivion. "You displease me!" Jing-Li declares - and then she smacks the ram, making a rare critical strike, and furthermore inflicting critical damage. The steam-powered ram somehow manages to look surprised when the fox-woman knocks it into little pieces in a single blow, and sends it scattering across the bridge.

"We need to make Vixa angry more often!" Voltage exclaims.

"It's not Vixa. It's Jing-Li!" Jing-Li protests.

"'Jingly', right," Voltage says. "I know the Jingly-Puff song!"

Jing-Li fumes.

Meanwhile, Scars manages to get up to the other steam ram, and smacks it around, until its piston ramming head is bent aside too much to function properly anymore. Jing-Li, thoroughly ticked off now, goads Huang Feng to charge madly into the battle, despite the risk of falling off the edge into oblivion (or into the masses of churning gears just on the other side of the bridge). Fortunately for everyone but the remaining steam ram, Huang Feng manages to score a "knockback" blow, and sends the steam ram skidding backwards. It teeters for a moment on the edge of the walkway above several gigantic churning gears ... then one of its battered horns falls off from Scars's blow, and it loses its balance and falls into the cogworks. There is much grinding and crunching. The battle is over.

Voltage flies over to the pile of debris that she was investigating earlier. She hears a tinny, grinding noise that sounds almost like, "Help me." She lands and finds what looks like the head of a mechanical cat (a very large one) - with no body attached to it. She asks, "If I put you back together again, are you going to attack us like the rams did?"

"No," the cat's head says, so Voltage digs through the pile of debris until she finds more parts that look like they might possibly belong to a mechanical cat. She spends some time assembling it back together, and co-opting a few extra pieces of junk to make some replacement parts. She makes a run over to the river, borrowing a piece of the mechanical cat's shell to serve as a bucket, and then comes back to refill its primary boiler. At last, she puts the rest of the pieces together, and stands back.

The Technocat flicks its ears, tentatively wobbles its head, puts out its paws and flexes its claws. Then, it puts its backside back and stre-e-e-etches ... then walks up to Voltage, bumps its oversized iron head against her, and makes a grinding noise that sounds suspiciously like a loud purr. Voltage can't help herself. She pets the cat.

Voltage notices that on the back of the cat is what looks for all the world like a motorcycle seat - and she's fairly certain that wasn't an inadvertent addition during her scrounging for spare parts. So, she asks the cat if he can be ridden. He claims that it does not hinder any of his primary functions to carry a passenger. So, Voltage proposes that Scars should ride the cat, since he's the only one present and accounted for who doesn't have a "ride" of some sort (Voltage in this instance considering her own wings a "ride").

Scars protests greatly, claiming that he'd look silly riding some big clockwork mousetrap. So, after a bit of back-and-forth, they give up that line of argument, and focus on how to get into the tower proper.

The bridge reaches a large platform (at one end of which was the debris that Voltage salvaged the Technocat from) and then there are two smaller walkways (catwalks?) that precariously work across a mass of grinding gears, to reach two doors. The doors have no visible hinges; their only immediate surface feature would be that each has an indentation of a hand-print. Rose bravely walks up and puts her own hand to the handprint. Technically, it would fit, though her hand fits inside the palm of the handprint. She notices that there is some more debris on the walkway right in front of the door she's standing at. She stoops down to inspect it, and finds that it is arranged roughly in the shape of a skull and crossbones. She heads over to the other one and finds that there is some more debris there, this one arranged in what might be characterized as a smile surrounded by radiating lines. Rose is inclined to declare that the skull and crossbones one is the way to go, since that more suits her aesthetics, but she has the nagging feeling that this is some sort of warning, so she alerts the others. She's inclined to think that the smiley face with the radiating lines might be a warning about electrocution, but the general consensus among the others is that the skull-and-crossbones is probably indicative of a trap, and the smiley-face is probably indicative of "This is the right way."

Voltage checks with the Technocat to see if he might be able to offer any help here - whether he knows which door they should take.

"That depends (whirr, click) upon where you want to go."

After some further goading, the Technocat confesses that he is missing much of his memory. He doesn't even know how he got here to this platform, or why he's supposed to be here. Voltage pops up his head-plate to look at the workings inside, remembering the lessons that Wu Lung gave her about technomancy. She finds that, inside, the technomantic gem that's supposed to cover the Technocat's memories is pulsating weakly, as if it had sustained some sort of drain. She could, perhaps, work on trying to diagnose the problem, if she examined the gem more closely ... but she remembers what happened when she was examining the gems in Wu Lung's hut: She was at a point where, if she had focused upon it, she could have imposed her own creative mind upon the problem, interpreting those strange faults and fissures in the gems as some sort of pathways, like an intricate optical circuit ... or else she could have interpreted them as mere gem imperfections that might be found in an ordinary, functionless rock. The uncertainty in the system - and her peculiar relationship with it - affords her the possibility to shape how the system works on a fundamental level here. She could make the cat work ... or she could make him never work again.

Voltage wrenches herself away from the cat's skull, swooning slightly: This "uncertainty" in the system could potentially be a trump card she could use to cause a paradox in the system, and she's unwilling to toss it aside just yet. So, with some regret, she informs the Technocat that she can't fix him.

So, Scars volunteers to try the "smiley-face" door, since he's convinced that if it is a trap, he can best handle the damage. He steps up and sticks his hand up against the depression, almost filling up the oversized hand-print. He pushes against it, and it moves inward - and then a mechanical iris closes around his hand, locking his wrist. This surprises Scars, but nothing happens to his hand. He finds that he can't push it in any further, but then he tries twisting his hand. He feels his fingers pushing against some dividers ... and with a ratcheting sound, the hand-plate rotates clockwise. He hears several bursts of air, and something cranking, and the iris releases his hand. He pulls his hand out, and the door slides open, revealing a huge chamber beyond, full of a dizzying array of turning gears, pounding pistons, spinning counterweights, bouncing belts, and so forth. There are also mechanical men (and other creatures) marching back and forth - but Rose jumps forward to vigorously wave her wand to prevent any further "random encounters". So far, it seems to work, as the mechanical beings show no particular interest in the intruders.

Scars tentatively looks over to the other doorway, and notices that just inside it, there is a large round depression in the ground, and a dark spot on the floor. Just above the door is a huge pile-driver piston. That would be, he determines, the wrong door to pick. He tentatively checks the inside of this door - but to his relief, there is no sign of a trap here, and certainly no sinister dark splotch or depression on the floor. He gives the all-clear, and he heads on in.

And just about time! Little spidery clockwork robots begin to come out of various pipes and openings, bringing with them parts and pieces, and they start working on assembling a couple of new steam rams. Technocat bats at the spidery robots, pouncing on them, and even chomping on one in his mechanical mouth, but it looks like eventually they may succeed in rebuilding the rams if the heroes don't hurry.

Rose hops onto the back of her Nightsteed, and orders it to fly in. It grins. "An order is an order!" Too late, Rose realizes that, on horseback, she's not going to have enough clearance to ride in without hitting her head! She tries to duck, but - no luck! Bonk! Inside, the Nightsteed looks at Rose sprawled on the ground, and, in a gratingly fake impression of surprise, "Oops! Oh, so sorry!"

Rose just grumbles and gets back up.

The rest come in - Jing-Li learning from Rose's example, and climbing off Huang Feng before entering - and they look about their surroundings.

A network of catwalks crisscross over a sinister grinding mass of gears and machinery, with the occasional gap that opens out into the starry void. There are some more steam rams that look ever ready to push unwary adventurers off into certain doom, but this time it seems that the waving wand is sufficient to keep them from coming to investigate, and nobody dares to approach them closely enough to get their notice.

At last, Scars discovers a door at the end of a narrow walkway. It has no sign of any handle on it, nor any hinges. It is apparently a sliding door, positioned so that there is no gap facing Scars that could be exploited by inserting a blade and trying to lever it. Meanwhile, Voltage discovers a bank of levers - 10 of them - at a control panel. There are pipes and conduits that lead upward from the levers, to some machinery above the room that the door leads to - eight large pistons, all lined up in sequence.

Each of the levers has a number written above it, and all the levers are in the "down" position. There is no apparent rhyme or reason to the progression of the numbers: they go from smaller numbers (the smallest being "10") up to larger numbers (the largest being "235"). The Technocat tries to offer his analytical mind to the task of finding a pattern among the numbers listed, but the initial impression seems to be about right: the numbers appear to be a more or less random ascending assortment, except that they are all divisible by 5. (Lever 1 is "10", Lever 2 is "15", Lever 3 is "25", Lever 4 is "50", Lever 5 is "75", Lever 6 is "100", Lever 7 is "110", Lever 8 is "150", Lever 9 is "180", and Lever 10 is "235".)

Voltage starts pushing up levers. Each time she does so, she hears a bunch of grinding and clanking, and then she hears some pistons moving. Scars watches the door, and sometimes he reports that the door opens - but that there's another door closed behind it. Sometimes Voltage gets lucky, and the next door opens - revealing a door after that.

Everyone gathers around, and they spend some time theorizing about what connection there might be between the levers and the doors. By observation, they find that it appears that the pistons are connected to the doors: Whenever the first door is open, the first piston is up, and when the first two doors are open, the first two pistons are up, and so forth. They can't see all the doors at any given time, because when one is closed, it blocks their view of the subsequent ones - but they take a chance and determine that if a given piston is up, probably that door is open as well.

Voltage tries to figure out if she can "cheat" by just flying up to the pistons and messing with them. However, with all the spinning machinery in the room, she has to dodge gears and counter-weights and all sorts of things to get there. Alas! She's not quick enough: She gets smacked by a counterweight arm, slammed into a wall, and falls, unconscious, to the floor. After a while, while the others are working on the puzzle over her unconscious form, she stirs, and returns to the task.

Scars briefly floats the idea that they could just simply step through an open door, and have someone else fiddle with the levers until some more doors open, and so forth, until someone can work his or her way through ... but that would mean that whoever was working the levers might be left behind. So, our heroes decide to fiddle around with the levers some more until they get it figured out. Technocat comes up with the hypothesis that this might somehow be connected with a binary progression, and that the total values of the numbers above the levers might matter more than the levers themselves or what order they're pulled up in. To demonstrate, he observes that when levers 1, 2 and 3 are pulled (for a total value of 50), the same pistons react as if lever 4 (value 50) is pulled up. Similarly, there are multiple ways of reaching other particular numbers, and for any given number, the same number and order of pistons are raised. They also discover that there are some combinations of levers that cannot be raised: For instance, Fireman tries pushing up some levers to add up to "270", but the last lever won't go up. After some more experimentation, they find that any combination of levers that would add up to a number of 270 or higher won't work. They don't know for sure exactly what number is the maximum possible value, but they figure that it's key to finding the solution. They know for sure that they can get 235 (since they can do that with a flick of a single lever), so they begin to work their way through lever combinations that might give them any number between 235 and 270, to see if they'll work.

Rose proposes 255, but first they try some other combinations, and get some fairly promising results. (Any time they use an odd number, the first door opens. Any time they use an even number, the first door is closed, and they have to look at the pistons to see if any other doors opened at all.)

Eventually, they try a combination of levers with values that add up to 255. All 8 pistons rise - and all 8 doors open. Suddenly, it hits Voltage: 255, in binary, out to 8 positions, is "11111111", whereas 0 in binary, out to 8 positions would be "00000000".

So, our heroes rush through before the puzzle can reset itself, with Scars and the Technocat taking the lead, despite Rose's protests.

They go up a long and winding staircase, and eventually reach a platform elevator that lifts them upward. As they go up, the air becomes oppressively hot. Spinning gears and clockwork are replaced by churning pistons, long pipes, and valves belching steam. At last, the platform stops, and there's a long walkway leading past countless boilers. The catwalks jut out across a great vat churning with what looks like flaming lava, and fire elementals wade through the lava, occasionally clashing with water elementals that are bound atop platforms rising from the flames. Oil and frost elementals perform other functions, powering the strange machinery. Fireman, upon seeing so much fire, tries to douse all the flames ... and he pretty much just succeeds in sending up obscuring clouds of steam and smoke.

Scars and the Technocat rush out onto one of the catwalks just as everything gets obscured by steam ... and then, the fire elementals turn from their work, and begin to wade toward the intruders! A particularly large elemental causes some fireballs to erupt underneath the walkway where the Technocat stands, but his armor protects him - and Scars is just too tough to be easily hurt anyway.

Rose rushes up behind them, riding on the back of Soulrender. She waves her wand - but it's too late: the presence of the heroes has already been noticed, and battle joined.

Fireman, however, finds himself in his element: He begins spraying the fire elementals that try to make it up to the catwalk, dousing them or knocking them back into the "lava". Voltage flies off the catwalk to harass a particularly large elemental. Scars finds himself penned in on a crosswalk by elementals on all sides, but Technocat leaps in to bat at them. Jing-Li casts an enchantment on Technocat to give him an "arcing fire" ability, and then she orders Huang Feng to leap from platform to platform, to get past the bottleneck of heroes on the narrow catwalk - but then it looks like Huang Feng is about to stumble and fall into the lava! Jing-Li swishes her tail, using her "probability control" to avoid what Fireman would term as "fried chicken". She makes it to the other side, and Huang Feng smacks another fire elemental back where it came from.

Rose rides the Nightsteed around to a better position, blasting away at a couple more elementals that are penning Scars in - but she attracts the attention of another fire elemental and its fireball blasts. While this does nothing to the Nightsteed, it rather taxes Rose, so she turns her attentions on this new enemy and focuses a blistering barrage on it. Meanwhile, Voltage manages to defeat the particularly large fire elemental, sending it "melting" back into the lava. She flies over to a platform, and does battle with a steam ram; this time, she uses a spell she picked up, invoking the power of her magical wrench (the one she got from the Thieves' Guild) to cast a "Saboteur's Spell" on the steam ram. She scores a critical, and sends mechanical ram bits scattering over the catwalk and into the lava. (She's grateful at this point for all the obscuring steam so that the Technocat couldn't see that!)

Rose senses that someone is trying to counter her spells, though so far she succeeds in casting them. So, she goads Soulrender to fly further into the obscuring steam to see who might be at the other end. She finds that a magical barrier has been set up, blocking movement and obscuring line of sight - and that, flanking the apparent exit from the room, there are rising platforms with water elementals on them. The water elementals gleefully launch firehose-like blasts at Soulrender, since he's a "fire-type", and quite nearly knock Soulrender out from underneath Rose - which would leave her to contend with the lava - except for the lucky intervention of Jing-Li's "probability-control" tail-swishes. Even with Jing-Li's intervention, Rose and Soulrender take quite a battering, and Rose opts to retreat back into the cover of the obscuring steam, to figure out a better battle plan.

Scars and the others meanwhile work their way along the catwalk, defeating steam rams and fire elementals. Voltage takes on an oil minion, splattering it against a wall, and then flies around a barricade to take on one of the water elementals. Alas! She is blasted by the water elemental, and when she's knocked out - it swallows her up!

Fireman continues to put out fire elementals, but when he's faced with the water elementals, he's at a loss as to how to deal with them. Sure, he can push them around with the fire hose - but they can do the same to him and the others. (And that's exactly what they try to do - unable to actually harm Scars, but certain to leave a mark if they can just get a lucky hit and knock him into the lava.) The magical barricade set up by the unseen spellcaster blocks further progress on the catwalk, so Scars begins pounding on it, ignoring the fire-hose-like drenching of the elementals, as he hopes to get in a lucky critical hit that could break his way through.

The technocat, meanwhile, opens his mouth to shoot blasts of fire - originally useless against the fire elementals, but quite handy against elementals of oil or water. Rose chances another assault on the magical barrier, having her Nightsteed fly around - but then she catches a glimpse of a frost elemental inside the barrier, and he has a spell ready for her: a lightning strike! The lightning strike hits Rose, knocking her out; fortunately, she slumps on Soulrender's back, rather than falling into the lava. The attack arcs to Soulrender, who screams as he takes a terrible blast from the energy. From him, it arcs to Huang Feng and Jing-Li, zapping them both ... but the spell fortunately loses enough energy that it doesn't do anything more to Fireman than to make his hair stand out. (And not that anyone can see this anyway, since he's wearing a helmet!)

Soulrender retreats, chased by several watery blasts from the elementals, carrying Rose on his back. As he reaches the others, Voltage holds out a "reviving balm" that she had picked up in some of the "loot" from earlier. Soulrender rather messily applies it to Rose, reviving her - and she tries to regain her strength by taking some of the magical Dwarven Waybread and Gnomish Cheese they had gotten as provisions from Wu Lung. (Meanwhile, Fireman jokes, "We're fighting fires, and you're having a tea party with your pony?")

After several fruitless tries, Scars finally scores a lucky critical hit, and smashes through the barricade. The frost elemental on the other side tries to blast at Scars, but to no avail. The Technocat uses Jing-Li's enchantment to fire a blast past all his fellows, landing square on the frost elemental - annihilating it instantly! Fireman focuses on hosing down one of the water elementals, pushing it off into the lava, turning it into a big puff of steam.

That just leaves one water elemental stubbornly blasting away at the heroes with gouts of water - and they can't just knock it into the lava, since it has an unconscious Voltage stuck inside! Rose hops onto the back of Soulrender and tries to fly it over to Voltage to her rescue, but neither of them manage to get in a decent hit, and Soulrender flies off again rather than getting blasted by the elemental at close range. So, Scars takes a desperate gambit: It's too far to leap to the other platform without hitting the lava, but he reasons that the lava is denser than he is, so he's not going to sink down too far when he hits. To the horror of everyone else watching, he takes a mighty leap ... and hits the lava hard! He is instantly bathed in flames, but, amazingly, from the flames, a hand comes up on the other side, grabbing onto the edge of the platform, as he finds purchase and begins to pull himself up. The water elemental blasts at him, trying to keep him from getting up, but he manages to force his way through. When he comes up on the other side, sure enough, he's survived and he's slowly regenerating ... but the same can't be said for his inventory. (And he's rather surprised: He had expected that his monk's robes would be just as indestructible as the terrain, but he had forgotten how, earlier on, Voltage and the others were able to tear up cloth into strips. Apparently it's only the terrain that is indestructible - not loose objects - or creatures.)

Fortunately, Scars's chain belt, brass knuckles, watch band (if not the watch itself) and a bit of his shirt are still intact. And - oh yes - his shades. (Amazingly, the coin pouch full of silver coins is still intact. So, modesty is preserved - though Rose still looks away.)

Scars distracts the water elemental as it tries to blast him off the platform and back into the lava again, while Scars takes the time to try to recuperate after his little "swim". At last, the way is clear enough that the Technocat lobs a bolt of fire at the water elemental, vaporizing it - and Voltage falls to the surface of the platform, amidst the escaping vapors.

At last! The battle is over.

Rose flies over with Soulrender to load Voltage onto the flying horse's back, and to ferry her back over to less isolated ground. They spend some time tending to the wounded, and Voltage regains consciousness. Scars, meanwhile, takes what's left of his shirt, and fashions a makeshift loincloth. Determined to press on, Voltage and Scars note that the end of the catwalk ends at a series of giant gears, each of which has a hole in it. All of the gear holes line up to make a passage that leads to a wall ... but it appears that there's a contraption nearby that, if one pulls the right order of levers, will make the gears turn in such a way as to bring the holes down to the level of the catwalk, and presumably form a walkway to the next area.

The Technocat watches with some interest, but then begins wandering around. He finds the remains of the oil elemental, and starts licking up all the oil. In the process, he inadvertently finds a secret door. He also finds what looks like a strange sort of message.

The Technocat shows Voltage the "message" - A small mallet (hammer?) has been laid in a grease stain, with a "+" sign wiped into the grease next to it, then a mechanical hand from a broken golem, then an "=" sign and "1 of them!" At first, Voltage thinks it's a message that says that to solve the gear puzzle, she should hit it ... but then she remembers what Wu Lung had said about the Guildmaster - that his name was Bryce Hammerhand. So ... "Hammer plus Hand" is "Hammerhand" ... and he's "one of them". Voltage growls at this revelation, and says that they'll have to be careful what they say around the Guildmaster if this is true ... but she also worries that she doesn't know who is leaving these messages, and whether or not they can be trusted. So, that in mind, she goes back to work on the puzzle, while the Technocat tries to figure out how to open the side door that he has discovered.

Fireman comes over to assist the Technocat, and together they clear away all the oil and find a lever that opens the side door. Beyond it is a secret room - some sort of workshop! There are several skeletons of dwarves in there, and various tools and gadgets scattered about - as well as several chests that look as if they're rigged with traps. In one corner, there's a bubbling pool of what looks like oil, but smells alcoholic - dwarven spirits, used to lubricate dwarven gullets as often as their machines. Fireman can't resist taking a drink, so he does so. He seems a bit tipsy after doing so.

The Technocat investigates the chests, and reports the presence of traps. So, Fireman calls in Rose, since she seems to be good at dealing with that sort of thing. Unfortunately, when she sees Fireman sampling from the "spirits", she decides to try some as well - and promptly passes out. (Soulrender cackles, claiming that she has "fallen to temptation", and that this will "corrupt her soul", et cetera, et cetera, until his gloating prompts Fireman to tell him to clam it.)

So, the Technocat tries opening the chests the hard way. Several explosions follow, and, in between each one, Voltage has to take a break from her puzzle-solving to patch him up. (After the fourth or fifth time, she has to ask him just what sort of trouble he's getting himself into. Particularly unnerving is that, whenever he's damaged enough, some "defensive systems" kick in, and he becomes semi-invisible - save for a mechanical cat grin.)

Eventually, Voltage gets tired of the gear puzzle: She and Scars figure out that a certain order of levers should do the trick, but there are too many combinations to figure it out anytime soon - so, she finds that the machinery here isn't quite as unchangeable as the terrain outside. She pulls off panels, and starts meddling with the machinery. She bypasses all the complex puzzle-works, and finds the machinery that should just force the gears to move to the desired positions. She succeeds, and the gears lumber into place, the openings forming a walkway leading to a stairwell visible on the other side. That done, she heads into the secret workshop to check on the latest explosions.

Inside, she puts the Technocat back together again, and then goes to investigate a ridiculously complex and obvious trap that seems to just be a device to entice foolish thieves to get their limbs lopped off in vain pursuit of apparent treasure. She wrenches the device around, pops open the back, and starts ripping pieces out and rearranging them. Pieces of the trap start exploding all over the place, and she manages to get its treasure box open. She can tell that this was meant to be an "unsolveable" trap by DungeonWorld terms - but nonetheless she's solved it - and suddenly the treasure box "spawns" treasure after treasure that springs out, much like a bunch of clowns coming out of a "clown car", despite the fact that there's no way that much stuff could have fit in there to start with. Soon, she's buried in treasure, and has to dig her way out.

All in all, our heroes manage to come away with the largest treasure haul from this one room than in their entire journey through DungeonWorld. They begin divvying up their treasures. Jing-Li offers up a pair of magical boots she had, in exchange for some new spells. Scars ends up taking the boots - and he also takes a magical axe that does increased damage against orcs and goblins. (Now, if only they actually had some orcs or goblins to fight!) After a bit, he suddenly comes to the realization that he is now a "barbarian": He's muscular, scarred, wearing a loincloth, carrying a huge axe, and wearing fantasy leather boots.

So, heavy with treasure, our heroes head out and to the stairway. The stairway leads to a platform, and that rises on up, to the top of the tower. The top of the tower includes a huge armillary sphere and mechanical contraptions - spheres and discs whirling about, presumably representing planets and comets and other celestial bodies, with shimmering forms visible inside their frames. It's impossible to see all of the chamber from their vantage point, with all of the intervening machinery, but they can barely make out an echoing voice. Rose and Voltage sneak ahead, to spy: They overhear what sounds like a one-sided conversation.

"... Forrester is in jail, and it's only a matter of time before the rest of your friends are found by the authorities. You think they were trying to help your friend, but the truth is, you're on the wrong side. You obviously can't beat us, so the only reasonable alternative is to join us while you can. It's terrible about that accident - I know how much you'd like to leave - but rather fortunate that your parents have consented to our special treatment program...."

Voltage, incensed, prepares to charge right on in.

What will happen to our heroes? Have they any hope against this mysterious foe? And what is happening to Kathmandu in the meantime? To find out about this and more, check in next time for the next session of ... Superior City!