Chapter 27

Carl's party navigates the glass Sandcastle of the Mad Dune Mage and discovers the boss chamber contains Ghazi, a glass mage who attempted to summon a lust god to animate a fictional character. Instead, he summoned Psamathe, a banished lesser deity now inhabiting an ooze that has become his unwilling "wife." After retrieving the winding box—a crucial artifact—the group learns the dire consequences of their actions.

Carl, Donut, Mongo, and Katia enter the Sandcastle through an electrified door and explore its glass corridors. The castle's glass walls and floors, combined with petrified creatures and objects, suggest the structure was transmuted by magic. They discover a fountain statue depicting Lika, a half-naiad character, with a plaque revealing the statue was created by someone obsessed with her. When Mongo accidentally topples the statue, it shatters, and Carl collects pieces including the head. In the basement, they find a regular wooden door leading to the boss chamber. Peering inside through a hole, Donut spots Ghazi, an unkempt human wearing a bathrobe, watching television in a room filled with books and sand. When Carl attempts to examine the room more closely, Katia pulls him back as sand begins oozing under the door. Carl casts Protective Shell, which triggers the room's defense: the sand is actually a slime/ooze mob. They escape up the stairs with Ghazi, whom Carl punches and takes a leather satchel containing the winding box and a letter from the Larracos College. The letter reveals Ghazi accidentally summoned Psamathe, a banished lesser deity, instead of Yarilo the lust god. Psamathe is now supposedly occupying the ghost of Queen Quetzalcoatlus in the necropolis. The council ordered Ghazi to use the winding box to banish the necropolis into the Nothing. A secondary note from someone named Tish expresses betrayal, as Ghazi apparently abandoned her to pursue Lika. When interrogated, Ghazi confesses that the ooze is his wife—Psamathe transformed into a simulacrum of Lika after he accidentally consummated with her while drunk. The ooze consumes him daily while he is made of sand during the sandstorm. He reveals the real Lika is a personal companion device (a sex doll) trapped in a fountain in the chamber behind them, which only materializes during the sandstorm. Carl realizes they destroyed the Lika doll when the fountain toppled. As the ooze advances up the stairs, Carl demands information on how to temporarily neutralize it so they can access the back chamber.