so the ghoul that was pickman advised carter either to leave the abyss at sarkomand , that deserted city in the valley below leng where black nitrous stairways guarded by winged diarote lions lead down from dreamland to the lower gulfs , or to return through a churchyard to the waking world and begin the quest anew down the seventy steps of light slumber to the cavern of flame and the seven hundred steps to the gate of deeper slumber and the enchanted wood .