Hadean Lands: Observatory Ladder - Walkthrough by metzomagic.com

Q. How do I lower the ladder in the Observatory to gain access to the ironwork bridge above?
A. If you look carefully at this excerpt from the Observatory location description:

... One level above you, an ironwork bridge crosses the dome, north to south. A
ladder descends at either end, but only one of the two is lowered, and that one
is obstructed by a fracture that cuts off the north side of the dome. The
south-side ladder is folded up under the bridge; its counterweight hangs near
the floor.

> x counterweight
The counterweight is a massive block of lead. It hangs from the bridge, at the end of a steel
cable.

> recall lead weight increase (found in Deck Suite, locked cabinet)
"TROUTMAN'S INSCRIPTION, to INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF LEAD: (This unusual ritual
derives from the Subcontinent, but we translate it into European terms.) Create an anchored
(Saturnine) environment. Place any common bit of stone into the bound, and invoke a simple
sealing. Add a resinous note to the atmosphere; speak a word of essential nature; add a measure
of Gaian precipitate. Conclude with the Binding of the Celestial Sphere, to align the alchemical
axis (Earth-Saturn, low-high) with the mundane axis of gravitation."

For the anchored environment, you can use either the horn coin you find in the Exoscaphe, or one of the lead file seals you've been making. But... let's just say that you might need lead for something else later on. So I'd recommend you use the horn coin, as it doesn't consume any resources.

First though, we need to make some Gaian precipitate, the recipe for which can be found in the Deep Stacks, trapped under an intrusion of alien coral:

> recall gaian precipitate
"THE SYNTHESIS of GAIAN PRECIPITATE: This reagent is of great value in
rituals pertaining to the Earth. Prepare your retort with a measure of vitriolic
acid; place orichalcum therein. Invoke the sealing and raise the heat. When the
metal dissolves, recite a symmetric sequence (the symmetry induces a positive
connection to the Earth). Measure in alum until the solution turns violet; then
add pure elemental earth and reduce to a powder."

And we've done it. Creating the lead weight increase inscription on a piece of rock (any rock will do, like the chip of granite or sandstone) is pretty easy compared to that, but just in case: Click here to show/hide ritual steps

> go to observatory
> touch counterweight with sandstone (or whatever piece of rock you made the inscription on)
> u

If this is your first dragon, it's very likely not what you expected at all (I was expecting to have to fight a powerful creature... or something :-) Anyway, it's very important that you do the following with all the dragons you encounter, because you need the resulting info to figure out what's wrong with the marcher:

> x dragon
Circles of grey-glimmering runes hang on the dome. This is Aistheta, one of the marcher's four
dragons. Aistheta is responsible for awareness of the Retort's location and environment.

Something is wrong, however. You've never seen a dragon before, but by all accounts, the circles
of runes should be rotating, eternally reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Aistheta can't
be dead (or you'd be hopelessly lost), but it clearly isn't working correctly.

You wrack your brains, trying to recall the Sergeant's lecture on the theory of dragons.

> recall lecture on dragons (obviously, you only need to recall this lecture once)
A marcher is built around four incredibly complex alchemical constructs, called dragons.
("Because they'll bite you on the arse if you're careless," runs the joke, but in fact nobody knows
the origin of the name.) Pneuma regulates light and air; Baros regulates stability and gravity;
Aistheta manages navigation; Syndesis binds the rooms of the marcher together and to its
destinations.

The dragons are the Retort's vital organs. Constructing each one took months of work by a crew
of trained rectors. The idea that they've gone wrong is deeply disturbing.

It's also very important to investigate a bit further, to figure out exactly what parts of the marcher aren't functioning correctly because of this dragon's impairment:

> x dragon through oculus
The oculus reveals Aistheta as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't
look good.

The compass-rule lines throughout the marcher are weak. They are mostly aligned with the
architecture, providing your familiar sense of direction. But where the passages twist - the
garden maze, the cracks by the chasm - the compass lines are snarled and useless.

The above implies that if we can get Aistheta functioning correctly again, that we'll be able to navigate the Paper Maze and the Confusing Cracks, perhaps without without alchemical aids. Very handy to know.