We've spent thousands of man hours in this zone, doing everything we could think of, after every patch, and never discovered anything that worked - until Tuesday, when we did something we had done before, and this time something new happened.  Unfortunately, we lost that key due to an unexpected "feature", that apparently, is working as intended.

On Wednesday we worked around the feature, as we always do, and obtained not one, but two keys.  This is where the the plot changes from what everyone expects, to what everyone fears.  The key does not open the obvious door on the other side of poeartha.  Instead, using the key on that door teleports the key holder's group to poearthb.

There is no flag, just this group key, of which we (thankfully) have two.  But this means in order to get everyone into poearthb, we have to ferry people in, one group at a time.  Why not 14 individual keys to prevent ferrying, and suck up even more time?  Why not open the door, and let everyone in at once?  Why not flag people as they enter poearthb, so they don't need a key in the future?  Why isn't this key on the keyring?

Thus we have two keys, that aren't soulbound, and aren't attached to us in any way except as an item.  Some lessons just can't seem to be learned.  Why were soulbound keys created?  To avoid being stuck outside of zones, with the key inside.  Why were key rings created?  Because there was a limit on soulbound items, plus they take up a lot of space.  Both of these lessons were ignored.  History repeats itself.

Amid Sleeper's Tomb flashbacks, we moved everyone into pearthb and banked one of our keys.  What a hassle.  There's a convenient zone out in poearthb, right where you zone in...but naturally, it doesn't work (warps you back 5 feet).  An omen of things to come.

Poearthb, zone in "city":

While the zone in area is nice, it's just filler to wade through on the way to the real prize: The Rathe Council. 

Yes, with enough effort and time invested, you too can fight twig men surrounded by a quicksand moat.  Unfortunately this event seems as well tuned and finished as the zone out, and so the twig men live on.  I estimate we need to do 20k dps in order to win, as well as survive the nasty AE's and melee damage they pump out.  Even so...there's something irresistable about a good challenge.