Crimson Sands of Time

(Short rest I believe. Long rest would probably spell disaster)

If he still has it, Randy will equip the +1 Longsword that Ethan previously held before dangling the glyph keys in his hand. "I have one of the keys ready. Rest of you with the other keys, be prepared too for some disruption and carnage. We'll start with the nearest black gate then we'll work our way back from there, leaving the entrance last since it's the furthest from here. Other than that any preferences between the two I didn't mention?" Randy commands, twirling his bat once everyone has prepared themselves. 

Quote from shimshon123 >>

(so short rest or long rest?)

 There is no chance that you will not be disturbed for 8 consecutive hours. The elves might succeed, but it's up to the dice. 

Mechanically. You're over-leveled for a dungeon that was never designed to have long rests. You just moved the threat level down by one, but if you long rest, the threar level goes up by two, just from the passage of time. When it goes uo, random encounter chance goes up and a roll is triggered immediately. So, it could be possible to pull iff a long rest, but it's not likely.

You've got 1 in tbe room immediately north (1) and another in the room immediately west (2). 2

You head back through the door to the north, finding Thuria and Phaia still tied up on the ground and two half-resurrexrwd undead still shuffling about. 

5

3

The room now also hosts an additional wight and 3 zombies.

You enter the room from the south, the black gate sits at the north end of the room.

<You left 5 apprentices knocked out over an hour ago in the room you just rested in. I'm assuming you either tied them up or killed them or something.>

Piccolo goes from apprentice to apprentice, seeing that the party is done questioning them. Brutally, she slices each of their throats, showing no mercy, or emotion at all on her child like face.

Then, when the group rests, she seems to fade away, then disappear completely.

(She will use some hit dice to recover from some injuries)

(Trisk)

Players win initiative over the undead.

They will attack you if you don't dispatch them.

(ooc: did we get the short rest in before we came to this room with the undead?)

(...or is this the room we're taking the short rest in and we have to dispatch the undead first?)

They're here because you rested an hour.

So, I decided i want to get through this faster.

I'm fast forwarding. All the gates you saw: they're disrupted.

The enemies that spawned in this room: defeated.

Let's see where you want to go next 

You have a map. The number of black gates yiu still need to disrupt is 3. You're already able to access the temples of Extraction, where the Chosen of the gods are being held and experimented with. So your choice basically comes down to going there now or later, after you disrupt more black gates.

Here's that map again

(Sounds good…. Where to group?)

(Start with the closest black gate, which is the Temple of Disruption, then work all the way back to the furthest Gate at the Doomvault entrance)

(ooc: I think the DM is crediting us with already having disrupted the gates we encountered so far, so we don't need to backtrack now. We can proceed forward to a new black gate?... or try to free/rescue some of the Chosen that are being held captive and experimented on?... or something else?)

Correct.

You have the following glyph key attunements:

Vermin Halls, the Swine Run, the Hatchery, and the Temples of Turmoil (in the Temples of Extraction sector).the Temples of Despair, Temples of Oppression (in the Temples of Extraction sector).

You can also just walk in some direction.

Actually, make it a long rest. Narratively you can do this at the gatehouse or just seal up somewhere. Doesn't matter, mechanically. 

Since you haven't said where you'd like to go next, should I just pick something? 

Here's my two cents:

 Spoilers but really campaign direction. Especially for those who've been in it the longest

 54 

(I’m for the long rest and stronger baddies.  All the rest sounds cool for the group, and we may need to be more careful)

Following your long rest at the gatehouse, you are teleported ro a portion kf rhe Doomvault known as the far realm cysts. Perhaps here you will gain some knowledge that will help you overcome Szazz Tam's far realm batteries, fueled by energy siphoned from these strange dark stars, not unlike the one seen vanishing in the hall of the lich who raised your floating city, from long-gone Netheril.

You emerge from the portal beside a black gate (you can disrupt it,  it counts) to find rough cavern with an uneven floor, riddled with open holes. In the east, on a spar of rock, is a contact stone (so yoi can attune to this area).

Shuffling amid holes the room you see eight zombies and two ogre zombies.