The wayang nods his head side to side, "Oh no, my plan is quite a bit reckless actually. I wouldn't want to involve you all, even as powerful as you are I don't think you could defeat the whole mountain of dwarves. It's just numbers, you see. Anyway, my plan relies quite a bit on stealth and assumptions made by the Duergar. So they don't really seem to care enough to tell all us Wayangs apart, so I figure I can pretend to wear some manacles, slip throughout the mountain and unlock as many slaves as I can with the keys, then just book it and hope for the best!"
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He notices a gleaming, solid, ovoid piece of metal with four cylindrical indentations and strange, fluid engravings resting on top of a long stone table.
The metal object certainly seems to match the description you were given (probably, it's been a while) of the sky key fragment.
The metal item on the table blasts your magical eyesight with such a powerful show of strength that it almost hurts to look at. You know, for sure, that it is such a complicated piece of arcane equipment that you could never figure out how it works unless you spent years studying it or more likely, had incredibly high magical ability yourself.
Arboreal sees no other dangers and Niza confirms the door is trap-free. The barred alcove door easily unlocks with the keys and safely swings open. The room looks safe (using SOP).
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"Oh...that thing? Is that what we're looking for?" Dimple waltzes into the cell and picks up the much sought after Sky Key! "What do you know? I thought it would be heavier or give off heat. You know, like when a puppy falls asleep on you." She gives it a trial hug. With a frown of disappointment, "Nope! No fuzzy cuddles with you. Pfft! Super powerful magic my cheeks. You can't even warm up your hands with it."
And as Dimple lifts it off the table, the relatively simple trap is triggered. Holes that were built into the table to fit perfectly against the bottom of the artifact are now exposed and pouring from those gaps is a noxious gas!
Dimple thinks the fog is nice as it pours out, maybe it's a sauna? She goes to take a big deep breath of the nice moisture and then receives a hard smack in the middle of her back, forcing it out of her lungs. Which is good, it was stinky! She stumbles out of the gas cloud carrying the heavy artifact.
Niza feels her mental faculties dwindling. She starts coughing, trying to get the gas out of her lungs before she passes out.
The druid takes a hit as well, his brain fogging over a bit. But his body quickly purges the poison and he feels okay.
Niza slams back the liquid, but it takes a little bit to kick in before also clearing her system of the gas.
Niza -7 HP, -4 WIS
Arboreal -1 WIS
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1) Straight out through the waterfall. With a bit of rope and smart choices, you all should be able to do this safely.
2) Sneak back through the mountain. This requires another Survival check to avoid running into Duergar.
3) Insist on helping out the Wayang and do so by creating a distraction and then running like heck. This is (BY FAR) the highest risk option.
Tossing the keys to the Wayang Kasvot says, "Good Luck!" He slips off into the shadows with a small salute. Or a middle finger wave. Thought that could be a salute for their race too...
The pathfinders slowly set up their way out of the throne room, using the conveniently placed alter as an anchor point for some knotted rope. They slowly belay down the slick surface at the back of the room and into the waterfall. Even with the water coming down, the rope is quite easy to manage going down the mere sixty feet to a pool below.
From there it takes a little bit to figure out how to get back out, but once back on the path the route to their portals out of this hellscape is quick. But what if the portals closed? Would they be stuck here forever?!?
Fortunately that doesn't happen and the four humanoids and two birds pop out into the map room.
Arram Zey moves over as they pop out, "Alright, you survived. Wait, didn't I send five plus the birds? Anyway, no matter. Tell me what you discovered. Tell me everything please, we get very little intel from inside the tapestry."
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Dimple opens the magical bag and carefully pours out the fallen half-elven warrior. She spins on the Master of Scrolls. With a finger full of audacious spunk, she jabs in Zey's general direction. "NO! First, you fix him. We can tell you all the boring stuff later." She then kneels next to Liet-Gar, placing his head on her lap. She strokes his hair gently as she finally allows herself to feel the full weight of his loss. Heavy sobs are accompanied by the fall of heavy tears flowing uncontrollably.
The master of spells jumps back, "ARODEN'S BEARD WHAT THE HELL?!? Are you that dumb? I'm not a freaking cleric. Go get him to one before he can't be raised! Just... *GAG* just come back when he's alive again."
As you all leave he mutters, "Jeeze, this is what I get for hiring from the lower ranks."
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We found the remains of a dwarven settlement whose sole remaining in habitant was an Eidolon Who told us that the faithless ones had gone into a mountain. Apparently the Aspis consortium agents had been there before robbing the village and had allied with the dwarves who had become duregar. We encountered a xorn and slaving smithy and finally found the head of the clan with whom we conducted some violent negotiations. We retrieved the sky key and freed a wayang one of many beings enslaved by the duregar Arboreal hands over the sky key and the aspis badge from the river