“ . . . Know ye, O Ever-present Spirit of the Green Jade Door, that your Priests of Vimuhla in Jakalla report that one of their number did penetrate to an unexplored area of the labyrinth beneath that city, where he did come upon a device which appeared like an egg of some size, having an aperture in its side. Entering, he engaged certain magics which caused this device to act: it hurled itself into a tunnel of endless length which then debouched upon scenes never visited by the Tsolyani. A city of red roofs which lay beside a sparkling sea, inhabited by strange monsters not known to our scholars: for example, a great creature like unto two huge wheels with a central axis from which depended horrid tentacles. This being did hurtle about upon its wheels, if these were in truth wheels, and seize with its tentacles all whom it could come upon. Your priest stayed not long in that city, O Lord, but again made the egg-device perform its magic. Then did he pass into a place where many incomprehensible devices of the ancients lay asleep. After brave adventuring, he managed to place one of these devices in an Eye of Retaining All Things and escape. This great device he subsequently placed in a hall in the Temple of Vimuhla in Jakalla. It has wheels and is made of metal. If it is awakened, it extrudes powerful arms of metal which seize things placed within its reach. It might thus function as a machine of war, but it moves but slowly and has no weapons outside of its ability to seize objects of some weight. This priest did also report upon other glimpses of strange places seen beneath the world. A complete report will be forwarded in the Inner Book.” [The glyph “make further observations” follows: Translator.]
