With a rest and his strength returned, Grenk munches happily on a piece of jerky.  "With all the back doors we finding and knowing we need dem keys to go forward..  I'm more comfortable back tracking a bit."

Badger replies to Silas: Well, I thought the crystal ship would be a convenient way to ascend through the ceiling of the garden room, but we have the option now to leave the way we came. Then suddenly going a little pale (if a dark gnome can go pale) Badger turns his face from Silas. With an uncomfortable cough he continues: I agree that we should search for more skeleton keys. Let's leave the gate room until later.

From here you can reconfigure the gears to get back and use the back-stair way....or you can backtrack, use the crystal ship, and ascend through the ceiling of the central gear room into the main stairway.  

Sickle has been quiet since the battle at the chains. As they stir now from their rest, he is a bit sullen, but then seems to summon the courage to speak.

”Friends, I owe you an apology, and I seek counsel.  I have hurt more than one of you while using this ring, truthfully, I do not completely have control of it.  It has...a lot of power. I would hate to get rid of it, as it has been a boon to all of use, and to be frank, I’m not sure I can. Not to mention, that if it were removed, it would need to be kept safe or destroyed.  Ham was right, it has much power. But I am afraid I may hurt one of us at a most in opportune time, and there are times when it takes control and exerts its own will. So I ask you, what would you have me do?”

Pausing, he adds, “I feel I have gained some new insight from the Ancients, even in this dark place.  I may be able to help find some of those key creatures, and...” he pauses again...”I may be able to help Badger with the presence in his head as well.”

Grenk says, "seems like the issue is with ya using the ring for cold stuff.  How about you stand in front of us if you do anything but make some of those icy beasts?  Outside that I dunno, but if it can help us get the keys, we gotta risk it right?"

Sickle's words reawaken in Badger the desire to possess the ring for himself. He feels confident he has the mental faculty to master the magic of the ring. But on the other hand (pun!) he is also aware of the danger that Sickle has been under, and isn't sure he wants to assume that kind of risk at the moment. Maybe its the little presence in his mind, but he decides to refrain from making a claim on the ring... for now. Instead he gives his most uplifting smile to the half-orc and tries to offer some words of encouragement:

Urgh, well... weak-willed as you may be, we may still need that ring's power to get through this, so I say... urgh, just do your best and we'll try to compensate as best we can. Now, what's this insight you have?

Mal stays silent for awhile, "Thank you for the kind words, however I will be keeping an eye on you," and she then turns to Badger as well, "and you as well for the foreseeable future. If I see any of your demeanors starting to change, I will take action. I am not very comfortable with a magical artifact potentially taking over your soul and controlling you and I am equally disturbed with your "possession" by some ancient god or gods."

"Having said that, which direction are we heading so I can attempt to see if it is safe." Mal says.

Silas takes Mal aside for a moment, "I believe I may have a solution to at the Badger situation but I will like to wait before we requires rest to keep my options open but should it becomes a problem be ready to restrain him so I can get to him,"

"You got it, just let me know and I will do my best." Mal responds quietly.

Sickle nods, satisfied for now.  “Alright then, well,  however we travel back, let’s get set that way, then I’ll cast my spell and see if we can find a key creature.”

For the first time since they had set out, the group was surprised to find that Sickle did not offer them Goodberries after the rest.  Once they were reset with the rooms the way they were needed to be, however, he cast Locate Creature, thinking of those skeleton key creatures.

Sickle casts his spell, and feels the distinct presence of one of the skeleton creatures....it's "up" and "over that way". 

Mal will start to move in the direction indicated by Sickle, keeping a look out for any traps or anything amiss on the way.

Perception: 20

Based on the fact it's up, and "that way", you still have 2 options.  1) Re-adjust the gear rooms and go up the stairs.  2) Take the crystal ship, back through the passage, and into the central gear room, and float it up through the ceiling into the central stairway. 

"I would be hesitant to take the ship as then we are all one big happy target in something we truly do not fully understand. I suggest we take the stairs, something we are at least familiar with." Mal says.

"Let us take the ship when we move forward but trust our own feet as we move back," Silas states as he cast Death Ward on himself.

Badger sighs heavily as the group moves up into the control room. Even with the control panel slid to the side, the buttons and levers seem to work. You readjust it to it's original setting. Again dust settles from above as the ground shakes and the massive gear rooms move. Then you return back down the passage, through the dragon room, and through the vegetation room, to the hallway. You wait 10 minutes for Badger to summon a floating disk and use it to bypass several puddles, eventually heading up the stairs. Walking up from the gear level (Level 5), you reach the next floor (Level 4). Sickle mutters, "It's on this floor...that way..." (pointing north). 

The stairway here shows a short hallway ending at the back of a secret door. 

Using caution, Mal leads the group forward. She arrives at the end of the hallway and cracks the secret door open to peer through.  Beyond she sees a vaulted chamber that features a ten-foot-deep sunken floor surrounded by ledges without railings. Alcoves along the ledges hold painted wooden statues of hornet-headed humanoid warriors, each wearing a grass skirt and clutching a spear.  A gruesome throne lashed together of bone and strips of skin stands atop the west ledge. A fearsome horned skull surmounts the throne, and small skulls are piled around it. The seat of the throne appears to be made of stretched skin and has a metal scepter resting on it.  Shuffling about the sunken portion of the room are three gaunt humanoid figures in dusty robes draped in cobwebs, their eyes and mouths stitched shut. Armed with brushes and clay pots of pigment, they paint the walls and pillars with grim, poorly rendered illustrations. 

You can't help but notice that one of them seems to be painting a scene with a Tyrannosaurus cowering in a corner, while four other figures battle a demon in amongst several wardrobes. The only exit is a ten foot wide passage on the same wall as the secret door. 

Sickle whispers the key is not in this room, but further north (up) still. 

New portent rolls: 18, 1 (Badger foresees someone having a disastrous day today...)

Badger observes the illustration through the small gap in the doorway. Something about it seems familiar, (probably just deja vu again - common among divination savants), but the four figures, badly rendered as they are, remind him of his companions.

Whispering to Mal, the gnome says: Do you think we can we sneak past them?

"I am pretty sure I could but the rest of the group I doubt it. Especially since it seems they have some sort of magical sight as they are painting depictions of us that just happened not too long ago. It would not surprise me one of them starts to paint us hiding behind this door staring at them right now. They do not seem to be raising any type of alarm though so we might, just might be able to walk right past them and out the exit, but don't hold your breath on that one." Mal whispers back.

"We try to move pass quietly and deal with any hostility as they come. I do not believe these are much of a threat but this place does not always reflect our ideals," Silas states as he casts Gudiance on himself, "If you are cautious, a distraction may be in order,"

Mal shrugs and then starts to move into the room and into the other hallway exit.

Stealth: 31