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So, book 2. The Scarlet Triad gave the Cinderclaws a powerful magic ritual, a clay golem, and a shard of the Orb of Dragonkind*, and possibly other resources as well. In exchange, they get the arsenic-and-maybe-Dahak-tainted gold. What the heck for? There's no reference to the gold in future adventures, and no real indication of a ritual it's being used for, despite references to "draconic resonance" and Hezle testing its "divine purity."
Is the gold just a red herring? Does the Scarlet Triad simply want to help the Cinderclaws free Dahak for their own reasons, and asked for the gold to make their offer more plausible? [edit: I suppose it does say in a sidebar at the very front of Cult of Cinders that they're drawing "motes" of energy out of the gold to reconstruct the Orb. But the Cinderclaw's contact is Laslunn, who is only involved in the slavery side of things? But I suppose the gold can be somewhat explained. It doesn't answer the larger question below, when the nul-acrumi vazghul is specifically intended to help crack open Huntergate and let out the Dahak fragment, and Against the Scarlet Triad specifically has Zandivar trying to release him.]
Which leads to the larger question, why does the Scarlet Triad want to free Dahak's fragment? The books say that the Triad has two plans for getting Mengkare off their back so they can maintain their wealth: the Orb of Dragonkind to control him, and releasing Dahak to distract him. But...really? They're not lunatic cultists, they're rich pragmatists. How is releasing a force that wants to crack open their planet like a walnut compatible with them maintaining lives of comfort and wealth?
Can anyone suggest an alternative motivation for the Triad to help the Cinderclaws that doesn't involving releasing Dahak, but which is compatible with their actions in the other books? It's entirely plausible that they don't even believe the stories of Dahak being trapped in Huntergate, but I get stuck at that point trying to figure out what they are doing there.
* and then we face the issue that giving away the fragment is like Thanos thinking the best way to gather the infinity stones is to give Loki his only infinity stone.
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The Scarlet Triad gets two main things out of their deal with the Cinderclaws: gold and an allied presence near one of the gates.
Regarding the gold, the Triad views taking Mengkare off the board as an obstacle is vital to their main long-term goal of dominating the aiudara network. Their primary plan on how to take care of him is rebuilding the Orb of Dragonkind, but even with years of searching for all the shattered shards they know it is unlikely they'll ever get eevry single shard. Thus, the gold being mined will be used to help 'patch' the shards they can collect together and fill in the rest to restore the artifact to as much of its original potency as possible. This gold specifically, so linked to the essence of a Dragon God himself, has enough draconic energy infused within it that it would be the strongest element to plug the holes in their repaired artifact
Regarding the cult itself, until they're ready to make a move, the Scarlet Triad wants all of the gates being monitored, and to have control of each of their entry/exit points as much as possible. Of all of the settlements that are currently near one of the lost aiudara, the Ekujae' presence is the most dangerous to the Triad other than Mengkare itself. The elves are armed, organized, aware of the gate, and are dedicated to defending it. Thus, by helping the Cinderclaws with resources and their rituals, the Scarlet Triad is hoping that the cultists may be able to crush the Ekujae and take out that potential threat to the gate network. The nul-acrumi vazghul ritual mostly works gangbusters in obscuring their actions: the elves know of the cult's presence but are ignorant of the gold being mined. And it seems to have almost succeeded by the time the PCs arrive - if the white Dragon Pillar had been able to be successfully erected instead of destroyed just before the campaign begins, it seems likely the elves would have been blinded and driven from the gate and their village.
As for wanting to free Dahak...I don't think they do? The Cinderclaws certainly do, but I don't think the Scarlet Triad actually thinks they have any risk of achieving that goal. the nul-acrumi vazghul channels his power, but they may know (or at least belive) that the ritual they provided doesn't have the power to do what Belmazog thinks it can. Remember: Belmazog is not especially bright: they could easily have exaggerated the ritual's possibilities in order to manipulate her to get the cult on their side.
And while the Triad does think they can channel Dahak's power through the ringgates once they control them, I think they don't fully understand what that means. Remember one of the reasons they want to control Mengkare is to use him to master the aiudara network. They know that Dahak's power is infused within, but I read them as dismissing the full ramifications of what that means and only seeing a controllable upside. The Triad knows enough about the aiudara network's nature to covet it, but they're playing dangerously with a lot of forces they don't neccessarily understand.
I think Zoomba's got it right. Add to that the fact that the Triad is only giving up that shard to the Cinderclaws temporarily. They gave Belmazog the Nul-Acrumi Vazghul, so they know it will kill Kyrion. After the ritual is complete, it's only a matter of stealing the shard back once the Scarlet Triad has accumulated enough gold to reconstruct the orb.
As for utilizing the power of Dahak within Alseta's Ring, I think that's only the Triad's goal in the long, long term. An enslaved Gold Dragon is a priceless prize regardless of anything else they can have Mengkare do for them. Once Mengkare is under their control, I figure that's when the Scarlet Triad would start doing the research necessary to figure out what, if anything, they can do with Alseta's Ring (beyond its obvious utility as a portal network, which is also nothing to scoff at).