Ran works studiously on the upper lock.  It is marvelously complex and seems highly resistant to your advances.  Meili does her best to hold a loose flap of metal, damaged by newt assaults on the lock, out of your way to help you work.  Eventually, you take a break from the top lock after no success, and try your luck on the bottom.

The bottom lock seems no more likely to open than the top.  As you work, you finally feel something move or turn at your direction... but the lock does not open.  Instead, there is a low rumbling sound, and the ground begins to shake.  

The bridge behind you begins to retract.  It pulls away from the vault side and is pulled back across the chasm, disappearing into a hidden slot below the far side.  The stone corpse of the monster cracks and then tumbles over the side into the magma below with a splash, slowly sinking into the fiery orange depths.  Hew, who had been resting beside the body, startles to his feet.  He first moves toward the vault side of the bridge, but the gap is already too great for him to jump.  The crumbling body of the monster at first blocks his retreat to the other side. As the bridge retracts, Hew is left balancing on the stone column where the middle of the bridge had been, alone above a sea of molten rock.  He gaps and pants.

The activity seems to have agitated the magma or stirred it up.  The heat in the room, already awful, intensifies yet again.

As the last of the bridge disappears below the other side, Nalomanterys returns from his salvage expedition, to find no way back across to the others.

“Bloody hells,” Mica growls as the bridge falls away “that can’t be good. What did you guys do, bring it back, bring it back!”  He takes a quick glance back at Meili “maybe we should have gone back to the dwarves.” Seeing Hew balancing on a stone pillar part way he shouts out “Hang on! We’re coming for you.”

Mica looks across the chasm to consider his options (how wide is the gap now?  Can Mica attempt to shoot an arrow with a rope across to Nalomanterys? Is there any way to climb to the ledge Ran spotted on this side of the magma?”)

Ran sighs when the bridge retreats.

"Seems about bloody right," Ran says. Then he shouts over at Nalomanerys. "Try that lever again, mate."

Meili turned to the grating sound of the moving bridge only to see in horror Hew traped above the lava. "Guess this was a protection against the unlucky thieves," stated she the obvious. "What a horrible place!"

The girl made a few hurried steps toward the edge of the vault-cliff and looked down to get the feeling of the height. "I can fly there with the rope. If it works - Hew will get it. If not - you will have to pull me up. Hopefully still alive."

(Arrow is preferred in this situation, of course, but if it is impossible, Meili will try to fly to Hew's "island" with the rope bound around her waist.)

The gap between the vault-side of the chasm and the pillar where Hew balances is about 30', while the gap between the pillar and the other side, where Nalomanterys waits, is about 25'.

When Meili grips the edges of her cloak and attempts to fly, there is no lift provided.  The agitated and surging magma is too bright... for now, at least.

If Mica wants to try and fire a roped-arrow across the gap, it will require two lengths of 50' rope, tied together.  Mica should then make an Athletics check against DC 10.  The rope creates a lot of drag on the arrow in flight, and though it is only a 60' gap, there is a risk the rope will just pull the arrow down into the fires below.  "Don't try to stick it in the wall... it is unlikely to catch in this hard volcanic rock," Danica suggests.  "Send it down the hall on the other side."  Then she shout across.  "Nalomanterys!  If you can, retrieve this arrow from Mica and tie it off somewhere on your side!"

Nalomanterys returns from his exploration just as the bridge clicks back into "closed" position; he peers around the corner of the archway where the adamantine gate one blocked their path. His eyes scan the chasm for another giant lizard monster before realizing that the retreating bridge was the cause of the rumbling he felt. "Tymora's Tits!" He exclaims upon seeing the predicament. "You HAVE gotten yourselves into a pickle!"

At Ran's request, he immediately tries pulling the lever near him. If that doesn't work, he prepares to collect the roped arrow that Mica shoots over.

If Hew has pitons and a hammer, he will suggest that the Dwarf hammer two pitons into the top of his column of stone and individually tie one end of each rope to each piton, thus making two short rope "bridges" rather than one long one. Two short bridges should handle stress better than one long one ((source: Polybridge, lol)).

((If my plan doesn't make sense, I'll draw it in MS paint when I get home.))

"Actually, before you send that arrow over, give me just a moment. Five minutes is all!" 

Nalomanterys spends the next 5 minutes searching for any sort of "release" button to untrip the trap. he tries to look in every room, but focuses his search on his side of the bridge and the living quarters where the group found the first warlock.

Investigation: 17 (used inspiration for reroll; roll in game log)

Despite the initially grim outlook of the situation, the matter is quickly resolved then Nalomanterys raises the lever near the adamantine gate.  In addition to the usual sound of lowering the nearby gate, there is an audible clunk.  The bridge begins slowly extending back out across the chasm.  Hew, balanced as he was on a pillar of rock, nearly collapses on the bridge when it reaches him, then carries him slowly across to the other side where the rest of the group is waiting.  

"Some may think it a sin for a dwarf to say so..." he sighs, "... but let us be done with these caverns.  I am ready to see the sky again.  And I think I have singed off my eyebrows."

Meili sighed with relief when Hew finally stepped on the solid ground. She even smiled a little. "It's not that bad - your brows. But I think we all agree to leave as fast as we can now. Only we can not open the doors. Is there some secret to the locks?"

She sighed again, now tiredly. "Or maybe it's time to simply leave and let your brethren handle it".

Ran looks around to see if he can make sense of the extra clunk they heard. Just in case the second click of the lever did something, he reaches over and gives the door another try.

Mica breathes a sigh of relief as the bridge slides back into place and begins to coil his rope back up, glad he did not have to test his shot after all.  He glances back at the vault doors and nods to Meili “Maybe it is time to leave. We have cleared out the newts as the dwarves asked, they can claim their gauntlet on their own. We should see if their scouts have any news of our lost city.” He gives Hew a reassuring pat on the back.

[Going to advance the plot a little bit here...]

Continuing to explore the forge and examine the locks for another hour gets you nowhere.  They seem to be too complex to pick, and there is no sign of any keys or secret mechanism to open them.  Meanwhile, the conditions of the two dwarves you rescued from the firenewts continue to deteriorate.  

Giving up on the vault for now, you gather up the two unconscious dwarves bind your own wounds and make for the exit.  

Sithi is still waiting outside.  The sun has already set over the mountain range rising above you and to the west, the sky a deep orange and grey.  As is so often the case, there is the rumble of thunder and the promise of incoming rain.  Now, though, the humid air is a welcome reprieve from the stifling, oven-like air of the forge.  The dwarf chief is exultant at the news you have defeated the remaining firenewts, and concerned at the state of his surviving wounded.  He leads you back down the mountain, to the village below.  

Under the care of the village druids, one of the captives is stabilized.  The other, unfortunately, has suffered too much at the hands of the firenewts, and they are able to do little more than attempt to ease his passing.  Despite their efforts, when the dwarf expires, he has a brief moment of lucidity, rising from his torpor to cry out in dwarven:

 ... before collapsing and wheezing out a final, tormented breath.  The dwarf's death makes a bitter endcap to an otherwise triumphant day.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL FIVE

Three days pass before Sithi's scouts return from the jungle.

On the first day, Sithi, one of the druids, and a handful of the remaining dwarves venture back into the forge.  It storms relentlessly while they are gone, one of the worst weather events since you have come to this hostile land.  The dwarves return at nightfall, as the storm is breaking.  Still unable to open the vault, they confirm that all the firenewts are dead or driven off, and began cataloguing what remained of the supplies and tools left behind then the forge fell.

On the second day, a larger force ventures into the forge with Sithi.  As the sun is setting, they return.  On Sithi's hand, raised high in the last rays of the sun, is the fabled Gaunlet of Moradin.  It is an ostentatious thing, a huge golden fist trimmed with silver and platinum.  The entire colony rejoices, as their holy relic is restored to them at last, along with their ancient home.

That night, and the third day, is one of celebration.  The dwarves break open casks of fermented juices and an old barrel of tej.  A few of the dwarves begin to relocate into the forge, and efforts are made to establish a new, open air village higher up in the mountains nearer the entrance to the forge.  

[You have three days to kill if there is anything you would like to do or accomplish with the dwarves or in this area, before the scouts return.]

The days following the liberation of the Forge were both calming and unsettling. Calming for the body yet very unsettling for the mind. The journey through the jungle was not only dangerous but quite tiresome too, in fact, only on the second day of the true rest did Meili fully realize how tired she was. The body was grateful for the break, the mind, however, screamed about waste of time. Meili physically felt every minute of every day slipping away while they were just sitting and doing nothing.

The words of the dying dwarf did not put those worries at ease either. He definitely saw what was waiting for him - his soul - past the final threshold and the vision was terrifying. One more soul lost, one more spec of fuel added to the flame preparing to devour the world.

The thought was too grand and dramatic to hold for long and Meili tried her best to keep herself distracted. Helping with the relocation of the settlement during the day, and celebrations during the night (tej was not her thing but the light fruit beer was... interesting), meditations and light exercises in between - all of these helped to push back the growing sense of urgency. Yet, she could not help but glance now and again at the grassy borders of the settlement waiting for the scouts to appear. By the end of the third day, she found herself not just glancing but actively staring in the direction of the lost city (as they knew it), and once the darkness became thick enough, Meili was ready to use the wings to search for the obviously lost scouts.

((If it's ok with DM, I'm going to refund the inspiration since the problem was solved before I would have used it. Just let me know if you want me to keep it spent.))

Nalomanterys sighs with relief as the trap disarms and his companions can safely get back across. He tugs his scarf tight around his neck as they make their way back across the stone bridge. "Time to go?" He asks, and is clearly relieved to hear a positive reply. He does not help carry the wounded Dwarves out of the caverns, instead focusing his attention on the flame whip he found earlier. "Wish I had a catalyst..." he murmurs, meaning the material component for the identify spell. "Ah well, I shall discover its secrets in no time..."

The wizard is pleased to see that there is still daylight out, even if it's waning quickly. "Good, we can return to the village tonight, then. Lead on, Sithi." When they arrive at the village Nalomanterys goes to work identifying the flame whip the old-fashioned way - stating random phrases and feeling for the tiniest hums of magical recognition when he guesses a syllable right - something like cracking a combination safe by listening to the tumblers with an ear trumpet... not that Nalomanterys the Great would know anything about such an uncultured skill. That night, he supposed that Imix must have claimed the soul of the dead Dwarf.

Over the next three days, Nalomanterys dodges the storm by spending nearly all his time in a waterproof tent. He works on identifying the flame whip and working out the exact formula to a couple of spells he thinks will be useful in their quest. By the end of the 3 days, Nalomanterys has working formulae for remove curse and fireball. He attempts to remove the curse from Ran's parrot, but it doesn't work. "Must have been a powerful curse. Or perhaps it is no curse at all, but rather a strangely familiar parrot you have discovered." ((In a previous post DM said it would take remove curse upcast to lvl 5)).

On the second day, Nalomanterys congratulates the Dwarves on the recovery of their relic. "Perhaps it would be too much to ask," he starts in Dwarvish to Sithi, "But I could dearly use a gem for one of my spells, and it looks like there was quite some wealth in that vault. A gem was not in our agreement, no, but neither was rescuing prisoners from those newts." He holds up his hands as if to ward off any accusations of greed. "Now, now, we are no mercenaries for hire, we would have done it without compensation... but a small gem for a life. That seems fair, does it not?" Persuasion: 18

Nalomanterys hopes to persuade Sithi into giving him a gem worth 100 gold to use as the material component in his identify.

Unlike Meili, Nalomanterys seems quite calm even on the third day. "They know this jungle better than we do." He says, "Imagine how long it would take us just wandering through gumweed and brambles and poison ivy and creeper vines and undead." He frowns in disgust just thinking about it. "Better that we stay ready for when they make it back." He even joins in the celebrations, imbibing too much of this jungle brew and throwing up in the soggy mud of the festival square. In his state, he is of no use carrying anything, but he does maintain a dancing lights to illuminate the mountain trail while the others do the heavy lifting. As he sips on his fermented fruits, the lights of his spell flicker and sway gently, as if drunk.

Ran takes the downtime as a chance to clean up his armor and weapons, while at the same time practicing with his swords, something he hasn't been able to do while they've been pushing hard through the jungle. The experience he's had in fighting everything they have so far allows him to improve his speed with the blades enough that he thinks it might give him an edge in the future.

He does watch Nalomanerys attempt to lift whatever curse might be on the parrot with interest. 

Nalomanterys:

Almost immediately upon casting remove curse upon the bird, you find yourself wrestling with an ancient and powerful fey magic.  The hex placed upon this poor creature... and despite what you may say about it, you are now certain this is a powerful curse... is like a gordian knot.  Each woven thread of magic you attempt to untie is blocked up by another, tighter knot.   Worse, you can't shake the feeling you are somehow at risk yourself, as though something of this curse could work back upon you, like spiders following a line of magical silk back to find you.  Eventually, you have to bring your efforts to a halt.  You feel as though you may have made some progress... maybe?  But for now, at least, the curse still has its hold on the poor soul.

In his exuberance at the reclamation of the gauntlet, Sithi initially agrees to your request for a gem.  Later that evening, he walks back the promise a bit.  "Ah, ye wher promised a wealth of adamantine ohre, fer yer trouhbles.  Mayhaps, then, ye can take the ghem ye seek in place o' yer shar o' the metahl?"  You receive the gem you need.  

With the component, you are able to properly  identify  the rod. 

[It is a Rod of the Pact Keeper, +1, with a few extra details.  It can only be attuned by a Warlock devoted to Imix, prince of Elemental Fire, and with an action the wielder can activate the rod to extend a whip made of fire.]

It is a curious and possibly valuable item, but unless one of your party intends to take up into the service of an evil fire godling, it isn't something any of you can use.

Ran:

You watch with great interest while the wizard attempts to break the spell on the bird.  From what you can see, the matter seems to be quite an ordeal.  The spellcasting seems to be quite a lot of effort for Nalomanterys, and the experience seems unpleasant for the bird as well.    When it is over, the bird settles onto your shoulder again.  Does it seem... disappointed?  Or is that just your imagination?

Mica spends the first night recovering and tending to his wounds and equipment.  He spends the next few days of relative quiet with the dwarves.  He crafts some of the claws he recovered from the raptors into a necklace, and perhaps a small dagger. He also shares some of the fluids he recovered with the druid in an attempt to learn more about exactly what it is and what it does.  Mica joins any small hunting parties going out in the immediate area.  He talks with the hunters to gain an additional 11 arrows, replacing those he lost in the jungle, and is willing to trade raptor claws or other items if necessary. 

Following the return of the gauntlet, Mica celebrates with the rest of the village, donating the small barrel of Tej they recovered from the campsite they came across before meeting the dwarves.  He pushes the waterskin full of “white gold” dwarven moonshine toward Meili. “Relax, enjoy a small break.  We did a good thing and returned these people to their home.  We will get back to tromping through the jungle soon enough.  Look, even Nalomanterys is enjoying himself.”

Nalomanterys and Mica were right of course and Meili even said as much. "It is not the tromping that I miss nor can I say I look forward to our destination, knowing what we know about it. But... Waiting for the inevitable is hard."

Actually, it did sound like a death wish. She did not mean it this way. Meili tried again. "Time is running out." The phrase did not sound much better. She sighed, smelled the "white gold", shook her head and returned to the light fruit drinks. "Is it me or does Captain truly look paler?"

While they pass the time waiting for the report from the scouts, Ran does strike up talk with the remaining dwarves, asking them if there are any routes to the coast (if the group is still planning on heading to the coast to get a ship) that don't require going through the jungle; a mountain pass would be a nice change of pace.

He tries his best to comfort the bird as well.

"We'll figure this out," Ran says. "Though you might consider staying this way. You're not as mean and you look much prettier."

Mica shrugs and takes a swig of the moonshine as he talks with Meili.  He gives Danica a measuring look “I’m not sure she looks any worse for wear than the rest of us. And she did have to fight off that shivering sickness earlier.  Maybe that is still with her.”  He raises his voice and shakes the waterskin “How about a drink, Cap’n?  Ran? Nalomanterys? Hew?” 

He had looked on with interest as Nalomanterys tried to remove the curse on Ran’s parrot. He still could not make any sense of the birds sing-song phrases, but he did discover that he could establish a connection to see through the creature’s senses, which led to a very disorienting feeling as he looked down on the camp from above the first time.  He wasn’t sure, but he thought it could have been just as uncomfortable for the bird that first time.