We tried freeing it by first shooting off the physical chains holding. Szivem wandered into the magic circle around the altar, unable to then leave. Scratching the circle did nothing, but then I just took Groin's hammer and pounded the stone 'til it cracked, destroying the circle and freeing our would-be benefactor.
The first part of the deal was the resurrection of Groin. The spirit formed a tornado of elemental air, knocking us back to the wall (and Szivem over the altar), but indeed awakening the old dwarf (with a an extra stone in his innards, but that was besides the point).
He then conjured some food and water for us, leaving us to rest while he meditated near the altar. We did note, however, that the exit was closed by stone doors.
Having finished his meditation, the genie then transformed the stone staff on the altar into an actual real staff. As he tried giving it to us, the girls did not let up wasting time, until, in the end, Selene accepted the gift.
Thus we came to the second part of the deal: a riddle for an answer. I hate riddles, but the party solved it at once. A numerical one, even: if 3 -> 4, and 4->5, then why does not 10 -> 11 and what should be the answer to 10? * Anyway, Groin solved the riddle correctly, and the genie promised a truthful answer to any single question. Those of us who had loose ends in their backstory rolled off, and I won with a natural 20, no less - which is obviously ironic, since I'll be the DM after this for a long time. So I made the genie give me the answer in writing, and now it's anyone's guess when Zyn will pop-up with a mysterious quest to give.
As a bonus, the genie then refilled all our resources (i.e. long rest), gave a vague hint about the location of his mausoleum (future quest hint hint), and warned us against the impending doom of this temple. To escape it, he simply shattered the floor, letting us drop into a puddle at the bottom of a chute.
With no way out, we drank our water breathing potions and swam downwards, ending up in a larger cavern. With a sleeping dragon in it.
The cavern was overgrown with vines, but the serpent scepter held by Selene made the vines retreat, enabling us to move about without making too much noise. We kept away from the dragon and his treasure chest, instead moving towards the two humans huddling behind a boat. We coaxed them out of their catatonic state to find out that they were pirates, sent by the ship outside to recover the treasure inside the chest, with no idea of what to expect. While rowing in in the darkness, the sleeping dragon accidentally swept his tail across their boat, capsizing it. They hunkered down and were there since.
We discussed three avenues of action: fight the dragon, talk to it, or slip away in the boat. Of course we couldn't just leave the treasure there - we were adventurers, for Bahamut's sake! So our draconic bloodline sorceress went ahead to talk to it.
The dragon was convinced that we were there to steal his treasure (kind of true, even if we didn't know about it until then) and called us home-invaders. Which we were. To convince him of our good will, I killed the pirates. And then he considered our party weaker, and he attacked.
At this point I wanted to raise them both as zombies (possible thanks to my necromancy specialization), but realized that the spell casts in 1 minute as opposed to 1 action. Sad face.
Suffice to say that it did not go well. The scepter held the dragon back and lessened its powers, but we were still being hit by his breath, and Selene couldn't shake off the fear spell. Groin then decided to take over, taking the staff and backing the dragon into a corner. He then negotiated with the beast, who agreed to let us go. We climbed into the small boat. Literally.
We exited and were hauled up by the pirates. They questioned us, and we explained the situation to the best of our ability, given their numeric advantage, their cannon, as well as Captain White-Face** who was twice as tall as any of us!
Unfortunately, the dragon thought to kill us anyway and flew out. Unfortunately for him, I mean. He got cannonballs to the face. Then he tried to climb aboard, and was swiftly executed by the captain.
The pirate captain then explained his own situation - they only came for the heraldic seal locked inside the chest. He sent us in, backed by his own men, to retrieve it, leaving us whatever else the chest hid. So we got our hands on some loot - gold, gems, supplies and whatnot. On the way back, the adventurers even insisted on going on foot, Pirates of Caribbean-style, and hack whatever trophies they could off the dragon corpse.
All in all, Captain White-Face was thoroughly impressed with us, and promised the party a lift to whatever location they desire.
* Don't even try to guess. It's only numerical on the surface and does not translate into English. You have to count the letters when spelling the numbers.
** Piratii lui Fata-Alba.
I like this "part 3" because, at least this time, the dwarf doesn't die.
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