The group pursues Gus as he flees, and the techno cleric attempts to locate the vampire spawn using a homing device. They spend minutes circling around, opening doors, and exploring the area before realizing that their quarry might be inside the statue they passed. Breaking the stone reveals an ingeniously designed “coffin” within which the creature re-forms. They force a flaming flail onto the crew as the rest of the party looks on.
As satisfaction wears off, the problem of the missing gnome resurfaces. As they depart on their final march, the sorcerer uses the robe to track the gnome's path of travel. As they passed through some vault doors, the temperature suddenly dropped as an elemental tornado of ice and sleet roared around the corner and attacked the party. The ensuing battle ends with victory and the dwarves frozen by the blast. If you backtrack along the ice path, you'll reach a gnome in the form of ice.
As the group considers retreat while dragging the frozen corpse, they encounter an expedition from the church. Their interests may be aligned for the time being, so they explore further and end up near another vault door. The key hand is used to break the seal, and opening the safe releases a gaseous plague that consumes some, or sometimes all, of your memories. Those who remembered how to escape did so, and the exhausted Alliance attempted to leave the area, encountering a group of cultists who were also exploring the warren.
Another battle ensued, and Saal's lightning bolt fired a stunning opening salvo. Although some were injured, there were no further casualties, and everyone managed to escape back to the church's headquarters. While the Church's motives vary, and the fact that they did not kill the Church's Paladins weeks ago, their claims of seeking the destruction of the Key are true. The Church restores the lives of two of Ptoros's fallen champions and assembles a team to accompany them as they return to the warren.
Meanwhile, the city is terrorized by reports of ice trolls appearing from nowhere and attacking passersby. An old and powerful crime family appears to have been terrorized by the vault dwellers who lived beneath Rosegate House. It appears that at least one member of the hierarchy may have been a vampire. The wizards of the pyramid are also very busy. They use powerful magic to trap the poisonous gas in the vault, but the unsealed door means someone passing by could open it and the horrors could resume. Masu. If time wasn't of the essence yet, it certainly is now. They have also spent time and political capital gathering information about the church's motives. There appears to be a body of evidence indicating that the Church is seeking items to tip the balance of power in Ptolos to their benefit.
In order to maintain the resources invested in the party's success, they also send representatives in the form of battle mages who can detect magical emanations through concentration alone. He is equipped with a divination beacon, so whatever happens there will be a remote witness.
The same goes for when the group re-enters the aisle. There was evidence that other adventurers had entered the interior, and they hurried back to the inner vault. There are new signs of conflict in the hallway, and there is some anxiety as the mixed group advances, but there are no conflicts as they climb the stairs and resume their search.
Large hallways full of statues and prismatic shields take hours to abandon. Investigating the area where the winter storm originated doesn't yield any clear information, so they find a new direction, and some sort of deadly pudding is produced from the sludge-filled fountains, destroying everything. Get into the area that you are doing your best to end. before being killed.
Investigation reveals a secret hatch leading to a hidden ladder leading to a room with a giant winged lion statue and one exit. Exploring the exit leads to more hallways and vault doors, a beautifully painted “chapel” and a swirling smoky glass floor beneath…a dragon? A giant throne floats above the floor, which might be comfortable for a large reptile, but is currently vacant. Wow. Something is happening here. Opening the door further, there is a statue that asks scary questions about morality, and the villain escapes and goes in search of the church people. They come back and answer correctly – and the secret staircase is revealed.
Climb the stairs and a vast cave will block your path. This also seems to be a dead zone, as the party's magic items are suppressed, much to their chagrin. A return to old-fashioned caving techniques seems to be in order. The vertically challenged gnome and dwarf duo set out across the cave floor with a bundle of rope and a grapnel. The rest of the group rests, snacks, and chats until Saar is called out by a pyramid representative.
He appears to be in a state of insanity, speaking urgently about the people of the church being Pact Masters in disguise and the Pyramid's backup plan to seal everyone in a vault if they fail to complete the mission successfully. The masters of the pact believe this group has no idea how this tech-cleric wears a bone ring, which is implanted into his hand and connected to a kind of hive mind that appears to be their communications network. It's not that it's unknown. The ring can also pinpoint the wearer's location, suggesting another group may be involved. Perhaps they are collaborating with a cult, or they may be using the cult as a pawn. The Party's success in removing high-ranking cultists and many of their henchmen left a somewhat chaotic situation.
This news is alarming to Saar, and he begins trying to subtly inform his colleagues about these new internal threats – or are they just the ramblings of a deranged individual? In both cases, paranoia accelerates to new levels as the gnome scales the cliff on the other side of the ditch. Once you reach the top, you are immediately attacked by a horde of strange, beast-like humanoids with gray skin. Fingers throws himself off a cliff and tries to hold on to the rope. He was partially successful and was able to slow down enough for the fall to be nearly fatal.
The dwarf carries the wounded gnome on his shoulders and hooves it back across the cave. He was taken to the top, and the clergy began to restore him to health. When the group changes direction, the pyramid agents' attitude changes completely, returning to their previous asceticism. Did the Pyramid programming revert once the Dead Magic Zone left? Did he try to steer the group away from the area beyond? There's a lot to ponder as they retrace their steps and head in a direction that may lead them around behind the shimmering wall that blocked their original path.
