In the center of the unpaved floor is a pit, or shaft, heading straight down into the earth. The shaft is big (about 30 yards in diameter) and surrounded by a chest-high railing punctuated with metal gates.
Above the shaft, a series of enormous pulleys hangs from the ceiling, trailing a taut metal chain down into the depths of the pit. The pulleys seem to be powered by machinery up in the ceiling, for some of them are rotating, sending chain down and bringing chain up. Around the perimeter of the pit lie three large machines on the bare rocky floor. They are shaped like rigid centipedes with legs on four sides instead of just underneath and with a conical drilling device where the insect's head would be. They are about ten yards (30') long and have hatches and windows on the sides.
Near the eastern doorway of the building there is a small corral where many donkeys carrying baskets, and their hu*man handlers, wait patiently.
A grinding and rumbling noise comes from the pit, slowly getting closer and closer; nobody seems to be alarmed by this. Eventually one of those centipede machines clambers its way up out of the pit and rumbles over until it is beside the don*key corral. Hatches open and hot, sweating gnomes spill out, running over to where other workers have cool drinks and food waiting for them on tables. A big hatch on the side of the centipede machine opens up, and rocks and ore come spilling out. Donkeys are brought over and their baskets loaded with the stony rubbish. When a donkey's baskets are full, the donkey is led out of the building. Eventually the entire load is cleared away.
Then something occurs which does cause a stir among the whole crowd. Something comes into view at the end of the chain down in the pit; it looks like a round-ended cylinder with windows. As people hop to and push a drawbridge-like device over the pit's edge, the cylinder reaches the top and halts. A hatch opens in the side and five people, Alphatians by the look of them, emerge and walk along the drawbridge to the pit's edge. They look a little dizzy and stretch their legs as if they've been confined for a long time.
No sooner have the people riding in the cylinder gotten clear than a burly fellow who seems to be a foreman wanders over and confers with Scupper. Then Scupper calls out all your names as well as those of the three who came on the caravan with you. "You lot will be going down to the Site in Car #4, which just came up," he announces, pointing to the cylinder which just arrived. "It leaves in just a few minutes, so you'd better go ahead and get your gear stowed aboard. I'll be going along with you ... and maybe then you'll get answers to some of your questions.
The inside of the cylinder has weighted chairs mounted with*in spherical frameworks; no matter which way the cylinder is ori*ented, the chairs remain upright. Along the walls of the cylinder are rigidly-mounted boxes, one per person, in which the PCs can stow their gear.
As Alzar sees the giant pulley mechanism, there is only one place they could be going that would make need this much infrastructure. The Hollow World.
Descent begins