Quest reward for Molten Vault

I just found a literal ton of gold, probably more than one.... gold is a currency in this game and I got none of it. (Forge master in monkey building, act 3)

I did get a skill gem... that I can't use because all my skills are already that level... I feel like I'm getting screwed here.

After the fight, there is a huge swath of gold that was flowing towards you and has now cooled. You can't loot any of it. Oswald talks about how he's going to get rich off your hard work. This feels bad.

I suggest having lootable "gold chunk" items along the edge of the now cooled river of gold. They should take a 2x2 inventory slot each, and there should be enough to fill an entire inventory (12.) Each one can only be sold to vendors and has no other purpose. Each one might be worth a random amount between 100-1000g.

This won't change much mechanically. That amount of gold is somewhere around the amount you'd get from full clearing a single zone. It doesn't need to be farmable. Only drop the gold chunks when you complete the quest. (Possibly having miners show up through a portal to create it.) But it will feel much better to the player, being able to actually loot the huge amount of gold they can see on screen.

A much easier solution that I don't think would feel as good, (but still not leave a bitter taste in my mouth) would be to simply have 5000g show as a visible reward for the quest in addition to the single level 10 skill gem. This still feels like Oswald is taking advantage of us, but at least the finder's fee he mentions would exist. By having large inventory consuming items represent the gold; I feel like the miner's contribution would be more obvious. This would give a reason the player doesn't keep all the gold for themselves.

I also ended the fight in a dead end with no way out. This works as I can take a town portal then use a waypoint to move on to the next zone... but again it feels bad. Once the gold hardens, it should form a ramp up out of the canal so the player could walk out. (Although a town portal would be quicker. Maybe a voice line to that effect?)

I am confused by a skill gem at lvl x at this point at all. By the time I got around to this quest I already had more skill gem X's I knew what to do with. ( Went ahead untill the gate opening in ziggurat first). Going back, the vault was a pain to find. The quest item was pretty big on inventory space. And it being a hammer I have to a blacksmith really made me figure I could get some form of free weapon upgrade out of it. I would suggest a regal orb as quest reward. I think one would be worth a bit of effort to find.

Agree that this quest was quite disappointing. I was thinking the reward for clearing out a literal temple of treasure would be worth it. Instead, I got a Level X skill gem that I already have 15 spares of in my stash. No mound of gold (I like the idea posted above), no awesome weapon, no regal or exalted orbs, no passive skill points.

I'd suggest a couple of exalted orbs instead of the skill gem. That's something that would feel like a treasure.

Can add to this: still feels bad.

Doesn't this quest unlock the reforger? That's a decent reward.... kinda.