Valgrim can pretty confidently say that there are no traps and no secret doors.
After some fiddling, Vug gets all the chests open.
Chest 1: 20 leather bags, each containing 1,000 gp.
Chest 2: A leather bag containing 1,000 pp, 9 leather bags each containing 2,000 gp in assorted gems.
Chest 3: Several racks containing potions and other magical elixirs. In all, this chest contains 10 potions of cure moderate wounds, 10 potions of undetectable alignment, 10 potions of nondetection, and 10 elixirs of truth.
Chest 4: A number of magic items: a ring, a rod, two wands, a belt, a cloak, a cloak, a harp, a silk pouch containing four small beads and a large leather-bond ledger with no title. It seems to be an out-of-date list of items in this treasury, but it also radiates magic.
Let's see, we have: a ring of evasion, a rod of flame extinguishing, a wand of lightning bolt (23 charges, caster level 8th), a wand of haste (19 charges), a belt of dwarvenkind, a cloak of arachnida, a harp of charming, and four beads of force.
The book is under the effect of Secret page, so it's hard to tell what it really says.
Hearing that the book is under the effect of Secret Page, Friar prays for guidance and strength and invoking his god's power, tries to dispel the magic hiding the contents of the book:
Friar's magic dispels the illusion and a totally different text emerges, in a different hand. The ledger is an exhaustive list of the members of the Ebon Triad, including its numerous allies and the locations in which these individuals live. You recognize some names that have names drawn through them. "Theldrick," "Loris Raknian," "Faceless One." The ledger gives only one entry for Maskholm: "Ilthane—Traitor’s Graves."
Valgrim pats Friar on the back, "Great job, man! We can put an end to the Cult once and for all. That Raknian fella is still out there, so we must be wary. Let's get out of this dungeon. By the way, Bubba. Any clue as to what the Traitor's Graves are?"
Valgrim packs all the treasure in the bag of holding.
He shakes his head. "I'm afraid I just don't know this town that well, Valgrim. Perhaps our hostess," he points upward, "would be able to shed some light on the question."
Valgrim nods to Bubba and they start "walking" back up the shaft back to the Sinner's Sanctum and the elderly woman to ask her about the Traitor's Graves.
"Yes dear. Did you find anything down that nasty hole? I bet it had better stay down there, whatever it is. Nothing good ever came from underground. Just put the rug back, that's a dear."
"The Traitor's graves? Why, what on earth would you want to do with such a nasty place. That's where Lord Midas used to crucify his enemies. Horrible thing to do to someone, but I am told they deserved it. It's an island, right outside town. You can even walk there at low tide, but as I said, why would anyone want to go there? Such a nasty, nasty place. Probably damp and unhealthy too. May I offer you some herbal tea before you go?
Vug insists on drinking a cup of her highly unusual tea, for scientific purposes. She'd also like to take a sample with her for testing.
After Vug drinks her foul tea, Valgrim speaks to the party out of earshot of the old lady. "We can head to the Graves now or leave that for tomorrow and head back to Manzorian's. I have a feeling he and his allies are going to love this ledger and we also have items to sell. Friar can wind walk us there and we come back to Maskholm in the morning."
"I feel like we have pushed our luck a bit today. You aren't concerned that we will be spotted by the Angels if we try to fly out? That's why we walked through the gate, yeah?"
"Good point. Either way though I agree with the idea of heading back and getting that ledger in the right hands sooner rather than later.
"Good idea, Bubba." We walk then back out of town to where we landed when we came to this city and then we windwalk back to Manzorian to hand in the ledger and sell our treasures. We spend the night there and wind walk back to Maskholm in the morning.
You can easily get out and to Manzorian, and at least Celeste, Eligos and Agath are enthusiastic at the opportunity to put an end to the cult once and for all, while the wizard himself only smiles enigmatically.
You are welcome to buy and sell about anything you like, and then you can return to Maskholm.
Any particular preparations before you enter the Traitor's Graves?
0-level: Create Water, Detect Magic, Guidance, Stabilize
1st level: Divine Favor, Liberating Command, Protection from Evil, Shield of Faith (x3), Shield of Faith (Domain)
2nd level: Bull's Strength, Grace (x2), Remove Paralysis, Resist Energy, Spiritual Weapon, Bless Weapon (Domain)
3rd Level: Dispel Magic, Invisibility Purge, Prayer, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Resist Energy, Communal, Searing Light (Domain)
4th level: Air Walk, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, Order's Wrath, Spell Immunity, Holy Smite (Domain)
5th level: Breath of Life, Life Bubble, Spell Resistance, True Seeing, Flame Strike (Domain)
6th level: Cold Ice Strike, Heal, Heroes' Feast, Wind Walk, Undeath to Death (Domain)
7th level: Heal, Summon Monster VII, Sunbeam (Domain)
Upon landing, Valgrim will look around and start searching for any recent tracks leading to this Ilthane:
Vug prepares Communal Darkvision and Communal Air Walk and shares them around. She'll also drink her mutagen and extracts of Heroism and Spell Resistance when they head to the Graves.
Vulcan casts Overland flight on himself, and upon landing casts Communal Protection From Energy (Fire) on the group
The Traitor's graves is a small swampy island just outside Maskholm. This low, sodden hummock of mud and rocky soil rises only a few feet above the
dark brown waters of the slowly-flowing river. Here and there, tangled patches of wiry undergrowth grow, interspersed with muddy pools of water. Wooden frames in the shape of a Y protrude from the island here and there, and on some of them still hang the rotting bodies of traitors executed for heinous crimes. A startling number of crows perch on these frames or hop along the ground, where they hunt bugs and worms.
Since you are Air Walking or flying, you needn't bother with low tide, so I'll assume the tide is in.
Valgrim notices tracks and droppings from several black dragons, but they seem to be smaller than Ilthane (still large though). As you approach, a dragon (of the size Valgrim foretold) slithers out of the water and addresses you in Draconic.
"Hello mammals. How would you like to make an easy fortune?"
Upon hearing from Valgrim that there were black dragon droppings around, Friar would have immediately cast Communal Resist Energy: Acid on the party.
Upon arriving, Valgrim would have drunk Vug's potions of Barkskin and Heroism (duration: 2 hours 20 mins).
Valgrim grips his blade and is surprised at the dragon's attempt at Diplomacy and will allow Bubba to take lead. He looks around for a trap or ambush.
"Greetings, great one. We are always open to the possibility of gainful employment. We might be able to work in exchange for information, if you prefer."
Valgrim spies three more looming shapes hiding under the water, quite possibly more dragons.
The dragon smirks. "And what information could that possibly be? Our proposition is simpler than that: there is something we need down a shaft nearby, and it's too small for us to fit in comfortably. If you'd just be so kind as to go down there and get it for us, there is an ample finder's fee in it for you."
"The information is easily come by for one such as yourself. We came in pursuit of rumors that someone - not an august draconic person like you - was living here. We were hoping to visit with them."
"But if you would prefer to pay us for a little delve, well, we can certainly do that first. What is the proposed finder's fee?"
Friar touches Bubba's shoulder with Touch of Glory, which gives the bard +14 on roll.
Friar imbues himself with Touch of Glory as well. "Just cut to the chase your draconic eminence. What is it that you want us to do that you cannot do for yourself? Show us the way."
"Well, here's the thing. We've been trying to access our mother's laboratory, but there was a slight... accident and we kind of happened to release a monster of some kind. We'd prefer that you deal with it. You are obviously competent adventurers, so you're not scared of a monster, are you? You can have 20% of what's in there."
Another draconic head rises out of the water. "That's coming out of your share."
"Must be a pretty powerful monster if the four of you can't handle it, right? Where is this laboratory? And what's a dragon doing with a lab anyway?"
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"A little healthy fear is never a bad thing. The more we know about what we are getting into, the better our chances of everybody getting what the want out of this. Are you sure your mother would approve of you claiming parts of her laboratory? More important, tell us everything you know about the monster, please."
Vug examines the dragons for any interesting anatomical features.
The dragons do seem to be the recipients of some sort of mutagen. Hard to tell to what effect, if any.
A third draconic head pops up out of the water. "Don't mind them. Our mother left to deal with some pesky adventurers in some hovel of a village to the east. She's been gone for a long time now and you never know about adventurers. Anyway, it's a rule of dragons that if you can't defend your loot, you shouldn't have it anyway. So all was well until we were about to divvy it up. There were certain...disagreements."
The first dragon snaps back the word. "Well, things got broke and one of them was obviously some kind of magical prison because this nasty creature escaped. It wasn't any bigger than one of you, but my, did its claws hurt. Bilious here still haven't recovered.
Dragon number two (Bilious). "Yeah, it felt like it was made of acid. Normally we don't mind that but this creature was something else. After a short fight, we thought best to leave it alone. Now it's fortunate that you just happened along."
A little staring from Vug later the dragons concede. "OK, OK, you can have the lab - or what's left of it. Just rid us of that creature so that we can have our lair back. Sleeping underwater gets old quickly."
"Okay, dragons. Where's the lair?"
The dragons show you to the centre of the small island and lift up a circular stone slab 10 feet across, revealing a shaft going down. A horrible stench of corrosion and death wafts up.
"Mind the stench. And if you manage to defeat it maybe you could have a look at my wound. It just won't heal properly." Bilious looks almost pleadingly at you.
If you are going to descend, maybe you should roll for initiative while you're at it.
"Friar, you might have a look at that wound. It might give us a clue as to what we face below."
Valgrim drinks his Potion of Shield and casts Lead Blades on himself when the party is ready to head down with Airwalk.
The block weighs about 1000 pounds and the dragon is suffering from Con drain. The monster is fairly unique, so you can't tell more until you see it, but obviously its very presence deals acid damage and its claws deal Con drain.
Hovering quietly, Vulcan floats down ready for battle.
"It appears this creature drains its victims' blood and endurance. Since you're going to go toe to toe with it, this may help you, Valgrim, if it used negative energy." Friar casts Death Ward on the dwarf.
To the dragon, Friar says, "I did not prepare any spells to aid your condition, your draconic eminence."
"Thank you Padre, as always. Just stay behind me." Valgrim looks over the 4 dragons, "I do this because we must first stop any threat greater than you, but know this: If you four betray us, my friends and I have killed dragons in the past and now we are stronger and more powerful. So I'd think twice if you value your hides." With that he turns and heads down the hole, using Airwalk.
Bubba readies his shield and holds the magic coiled in that hand while holding the lightning wand in his other hand. He follows the others down the hole.