"I walked out with some guidance from a friend I met there in the dark. It was not a long trek from the entrance as I managed to get to it before you manage to open the the front gate," Silas explains

So. Which way do you guys go? 

"We can not proceed forward with just the three of us and only two of us I believe are combat capable. I say we proceed  back and attempt to leave this wretched place," Silas states pointing to the exit with his Warhammer.

Bager sighs and says: Very well, let's go upstairs and see if you can recall where you exited this hell-hole. But I don't expect to find them alive, I'm afraid...

I guess it's back through the misty portal, across the lava lake, through the hag den, along the passage of nakedness, back into the revolving rooms... and then can we somehow get up through the hole in the garden room to get into the stairwell? I think we did that before right?

The three of you trudge your way back the way you know so well, leaving the red path and the skeleton undisturbed. Through the creepy temple, and the mist gate, down the lovely stone stairs Keshma made and across the solid rock floor that used to be lava, up the stairs on the other side.  The gnome, clutching the staff with a skull on top, and with the black sphere apparently obediently following him...you walk through the room past the dead witch bodies and the covered cauldron. The butler is sitting in a chair with a thread and needle and some cloth apparently attempting to sew.  He says nothing, and goes back to his sewing. The little monkey with one wheel squirms about and makes sure he has a good view from Badger's pocket, while his frog, that has somehow survived everything, continues clutching his head. The civilian follows obediently, always ten feet behind as Silas and Badger make their way up to the hallway of nakedness....which is still disabled, and turn left, heading up to the.....adamantine bars, which appear to have closed. Through the bars you see the first of the giant cog rooms, the one with the wardrobes in it.  

"Did not locate a crawlspace that led to the control to for these gears?" Silas questions,"I believe we should take that path,"

Badger sighs loudly in frustration. Ugh, I could have sworn Sickle blocked this open with his stone-shaping magic. Never mind, let's try the crawlspace then. Maybe my crystal airship is still there to cross the swirling vortex of toad-fall. And with that he turns and leads his entourage back along the hallway...

(bits of broken stone little the floor)

You head back. The crystal ship is still there. You cross the chasm above and below the strange interdimensional vortex's of doom and crawl through to the globe room, then crawl through to the control room, then up into the control room.  You configure the rooms, with much grinding and shaking, and walk over through the first cog into the 2nd vegetation cog.  Glancing up you see the passage leading up into the higher parts of the tomb. 

"We have no reason to stop, either we find our comrades or we departs this tomb," Silas states as he moves forward.

The hole is in the ceiling.  You have to fly or teleport or, you know...otherwise get from here to there.

Badger offers to Misty Step up to the stairwell and then drop a rope down for the others. In fact, it would probably be worth taking the time to tie a rope here in case they need to ascend or descend regularly... perhaps tie it to one of those gargoyles or something...

 "I could have sworn I had left a rope anchored on the platforms after jumping," Silas questions to no one before waiting on Badger to act. 

Maybe there are still dungeon-workers going around and resetting things, Badger suggests, before going ahead with his suggested plan.

Badger and Silas find themselves at the bottom of the grand stairwell, with Silas and the Civilian scrambling up the hole into the bottom floor.  Four cylindrical stone pedestals surround the shaft you've just come through, each ten feet tall, five feet wide, and featuring a tiny slot in its side. Squatting atop each pedestal is a large four-armed gargoyle. Each gargoyle is standing upon a square made of metallic tiles embedded in the top of its pedestal. Starting with the northernmost pedestal and going clockwise, the tiles arc copper, silver, gold, and platinum.  You realize you've never really spent much time in this spot before, having always gone down the other stairway.  

"I believe I have encounter something similar to this. Do you have spare coins? It would spare us the ordeal of the fighting these things," Silas question while searching his bag of holding for coinage, inserting platinium into platinium pedestal, gold into gold and so on. 

Badger shrugs and helps out with coins if needed. He wouldn't have thought of feeding coins into holes in pillars in dungeons, but the fact the tiles are coloured the same as coins makes the cost possibly worth the effort...

Otherwise, if nothing else is happening, he will cast Arcane Eye and send the eye up the stairwell to look for anyone descending the stairs or walking the adjoining corridors.

Coins are inserted into slots quickly, clinking into some space within the pedestal.  Badger's Arcane eye goes flying up the grand staircase looking for anyone active.  (we will need to pause here as I resolve something in a private thread....apologies)

It doesn't take you long to begin hearing noises from above, and your eye picks up Grenk, Sickle, and Mal at the top of the stairway. You all head up and meet up.  Keshma, and the mostly naked knight named Zalder seem to be missing. 

"So clairvoyance within the tomb inaccurate," Silas states to Badger before going to greet the party, "Tell us, where did you go up? Did you see the gargoyles? Are you descending back down?"

Badger mumbles something about how the inaccuracy of the clairvoyance isn't his fault, and that divination is sketchy at the best of times, and so on and so on as he climbs the stairs to meet the others.

Urgh, what happened to the genie? And the prisoner? he asks the others. And what do you propose to do from here?