*The pit*: "I lay powerless and motionless in the middle of a vast pit." The pit is described as being deep, dark, and damp. It is lined with sharp points that slowly approach the narrator who feels as though he is about to be impaled.
*The pendulum*: "A huge pendulum, glowing with pale and lurid fire as he spoke, descended swiftly toward my face." The pendulum is described as being a massive blade hung above the narrator's head. It swings faster and faster and closer as the narrator is trapped motionless, and in agony from all his other tortures.
*The rats*: "Suddenly there broke loose upon this stillness a half-smothered scream-and I saw that an innumerable multitude of rats was squeezing, crawling, scrambling, jumping over my body into the rat-hole!" The rats invade the pit when the narrator is too helpless to fight back. He describes them as vicious and overwhelming while being in a helpless stupor of dread.
