(sorry my baby was sick and woke up, it was messy.)

Khessa and Aster walk into the dwarven building. Inside, was incredibly dark. The room was only illuminated by Khessa's torch. Looking around, this first room was a lobby area. There are a few points of interest here.

A reception desk.

A job board. (For adventurers or mercenaries)

Two doors. It will be a roll of the die to see which room you choose since I don't have a map for this area.

While you can't read dwarven, Aster can. He is ready to assist you.

(Oh, sorry for the both of you. I hope the situation will get better!)

Khessa checks the reception desk first, asking Aster to read if they find documents.

If nothing of intetest is found, the job board gets their attention next. 

Khessa finds something that looks something like a map, but it doesn't seem like a map of the area here at first glance. Most documents that look interesting are quickly dismissed by Aster as being useless, however, over by the job board Aster immediately grabs a piece of paper from the board and his eyes go wide.

"Lady Khessa, I am happy to say that I have found a way out of our predicament... but there is a downside." Aster's eyes scan over the document several times as he speaks. "My dear, the dwarves packed up and left because no one could deal with a particular creature and I believe we can use signs of this creature to find the way out... however," he turns the paper over to you and you see a fearsome beast depicted on it. It looks like a bug with large mandibles with ichor spilling from its mouth. "We would need to make it past an ankheg, I would suspect..."

Khessa chooses to keep the map: "Well Aster, let's take this with us anyway. No matter if it doesn't seem like a map of the area here; maybe it is an area that will be encountered later".

Then, by the job board, at the first two words of the drow, she sighs: "Aster, I already told you I'm not a noble. I'm no 'lady'. I'm just Khessa, a runaway prisoner like you! And a friend of you, I hope. So... spare me all those unlikely nobiliary titles, 'Khessa' will suffice, will you?"

But as soon as she hears of the possible way to the surface: "Aster! That's great!" she embraces him enthusiastically and, letting herself be carried away, blows him a kiss on the cheek "You did us a lot of good, by finding a way out! So we only have to face this..." the blonde warrior takes the  picture of the fearsome beast and looks carefully "...this... icor-drooling oversized insect! 'Ankheg', did you call it? What else do you know about it?" while waiting for a reply, she starts reflecting a little by herself "As an insect, it should have a strong carapace, not easy to pierce or slash... And those mandibles, big as they are, seem to be its primary weapons. At least, no evidence of ranged attacks... The refugees might safely help throwing rocks or torches from distance. Also, if it is as bright as an insect, it should not be too smart. It might  have an efficient hunting routine, thanks to its instinct or something like it, but not much imagination in unfamiliar situations. I'm right? What else? Some weakness that we could possibly exploit? Is it slow? Is it partuicularly afraid of something?"

"Ankhegs are large creatures which burrow through the ground. They spew acid and can cut several men down in the blink of an eye... Weaknesses? I am not aware of any." Aster smiles faintly. "I would suggest we... sneak past it?"

"Sneaking would be great" conceeds Khessa "but if the ankheg notices us, many will die. No way all refugees can escape from it! I'd prefer to set up an ambush for the monster, if possible. Like preparing a big deadfall, with the help of all. Then luring the ankheg under it and crushing it once and for all. We'd need ropes or chains to suspend a great quantity of debris or heavy things over one of the tunnels leading to the settlement... We will see what we can find. If trap will not be possible, we will try to sneak".

Then, Khessa will try one of the doors (the nearest to her), still looking for anything useful. 

Through that door you find a very stately office, probably an important official or some such other person. The walls are all adorned with the same picture of a duergar dwarven man with a fairly epic beard. However, what catches your eye is one of the pictures is not of a man, but of a map. A preliminary glance shows it is a crude map of this section of the Underdark. It shows this abandoned city as well as what you think might be the drow city Aster is from. More helpfully it shows you a way to the surface... you think.

"You mean you'd like to cave it into one of the tunnels? That could work... or simply buy us time. In either case, it would be worth a shot."

"Indeed!" Khessa smiles to Aster "I want all of you... you, Song, Clara, the refugees... to be as safe as possible. I don't know if you can understand this, but I'd feel bad, I'd feel... guilty, should I lose even only one of you. You are here because I freed you. And I freed you to lead you to a better life... not to a quicker death! Makes this sense to you?" uncertain blue eyes stare into the ones of the drow "So, yes, I'd prefer to find a way to ambush the monster".

"But, wow!" she finally realizes what the map pitture is "Look at this!" she takes the picture, removing it from its frame and folding it for easier keeping "With this, we will finally be able to reach the surface! Just the ankheg to take care for, and we can go!"

"Let's just look to see if we can find more resources..." and she goes for the other door.

Luck Check

16

You find a records room here. This seems to make up most of the building as it is thrice as big as the rest of the other rooms you visited. Looking around, you don't immediately find anything useful, until Aster taps you on the shoulder and points out one of these administrative chest of drawers and reads a label out loud to you. "Adventurer Confiscation. I suppose this is like a lost and found, which in other words means, finders keepers." He grins.

You find:

4 potions of some kind. 3 of them look similar to one another, but the 4th seems quite different. The 3 similar ones are honey in color and faintly glow. The 4th is a black, round bottle. Aster reads the tags for you. "Ah, healing potions and... hmm, this just says POWER in ancient dwarven. Curious."

3 scrolls. All of them different. Aster pours over them for a moment and reports, "This one lets you speak with animals, apparently. This one will bless us. And this one... hmm, well, it seems it will cause a blast to erupt from the user's hand." (Speak with Animals, Bless, and Thunder Wave.)

You then find two longswords, a shortsword, a longbow, and a hand crossbow. They do not seem special in anyway.

"You're really great, Aster!" Khessa pats the drow on the shoulder "No ropes, chains or items that will help us setup our ankheg trap, but still a lot of useful things".

She passes a healing potion to the drow: "You keep this one, in case of need. I'll keep another one and I'll give the last one to Song. So we'll all have a few more chances in case of unanticipated problems. I'll also keep the power potion, we might try to use it when needed".

Examining the scrolls: "I cann't use them for now... You see, I've got this book from Zer'lan, the drow slaver's wizard..." the blonde warrior fetches a black heavy tome from her backpack; bizzare web-like decoration and arcane runes are on the cover "...I knew he had to neutralize Zer'lan for our escape to be successful and managed to kill him with a trick. Now, he had always  taken so much care for this book, that I took it with me, guessing that it might be the key to his magic and hoping to start learning magic as well... maybe, one day, become able to cast real spells, like he was. But at the moment what is written here is completely incomprehensible to me. I keep studying it at every free moment, but I seem to be still far from proper comprehension. Even if maybe someday I'll be able to do magic, I'm sure I'm not for now. I'll show the magic scrolls to Clara. She can keep the scrolls she can use. I'll keep the ones she cann't - hoping that a day they'll be of some use to me".

The blonde warrior is also interested in the weapons: "You might need a ranged weapon, Aster... What do you prefer? The bow or the crossbow? You choose, I'll take the other one. And we'll give the other weapons to Song (she definitely needs to replace the one she is using now!) and some of the refugees. I hope they will not need to fight, but in that case they'll be at least be better equipped than they currently are".

So, Khessa brings the news and the equipment to Song, Clara and the refugees.

(OOC: If Clara can not use some of the scrolls, tell me so that I add them to Khessa's inventory. Clara can keep every scroll she can actually use. Song gets a healing potion and a longsword - unless she prefers a shortsword. Aster gest a healing potion and either the bow or the crossbow. Khessa will keep a healing potion, the ranged weapon Aster does not choose and every scroll Clara cann't use)

"We still have two buildings to search for eventual useful items" Khessa announces finally, barely holding back her excitement. "I'll keep Aster with me, since he not only can see quite well in the dark, but also can read dwarven. We will be back soon! You regain your strength and take courage! Now we can follow the way to reach the surface on the map we found! Only a stupid insectoid monster stands between us and ultimate freedom! And one way or another, I'm not going to let it stop us! I'll get you out of here!"

If nothing prevents it, the next construction Khessa and Aster explore is the church!

You make it to the church without much trouble.  However, you notice strange markings on the floor near a wall of the building. It looks like a rabbit burrow... if the rabbit were the size of a small dog.

"Hey Aster!" jokes Khessa, pointing at the hole "The Duergar farm pretty big rabbits here in the Underdark, don't they?"

"Anyway," she looks for a big boulder, one that would be hard even for her to move, and makes it roll over the hole - so that creature less strong than her would not be able to move it and come out "let's make it harder to exit for whatever is inside. If they did not dig another exit, maybe we can explore the church undisturbed".

Then she goes for the church's door.

There aren't really boulders around, but I'll say you find a heavy barrel of water or something you could put there. Sound good?

Ok for the barrel then! At least, should something want to come out, it will be not able to do it too easily or too quickly. If the barrel is not completely full yet, when it is in position Khessa will also quickly put some debris or rocks into it to add some weight, for good measure.

Then, time to explore the church!

Understood. Imagine the church looks like this picture, but obviously without all the greenery -- think of it as having small gardens of luminescent mushrooms instead of trees. 

Inside is dark, lacking the illumination of the mushrooms outside. By torchlight, you see the inside of the church in a state of disarray. The pews are overturned and some are destroyed. Across the room is a raised platform with a stand meant for the priests to read scripture from, you imagine. There are 5 total closed doors, four in the hallway and one near the pews. (Ignore the contents inside the picture, what I describe may be different.)

Khessa, out of sheer curiosity, tries to understand (looking at eventual symbols or pictures or whatever visual clue) which god was worshipped here. For this purpose, she also checks the stand, reasoning that the most part of the religious material should be there... if there is still any.

Whether she gets her curiosity satisfacted or not, she then goes to the door near the pews and tries to open it.

She thinks yo herself, in the meantime: 'We must take that luminescent mushrooms with us, when we come back to the refugees... They can provide illumination just like torches and we could really use some more light...'

Religion (in case is needed to understand which god is worshipped): 18

You see a symbol that this is an evil dwarven god, you've seen it before when you were young. Back when your parents were trying to teach you about the dangers of the world, they drew a picture in the dirt of a broken arrow. They explained if you ever saw gray skinned dwarves that they were to be regarded as a violent enemy, and if you ever saw this symbol, the broken arrow, on them that you needed to avoid capture at all costs. They never explained to you why, but based on the lecture it seemed grim.

"Curious about the god? I'm a bit learned. That's the holy symbol of Laduguer, if you could call it such," Aster cuts into your thoughts. He sounds absolutely disgusted when he says the name 'Laduguer.' "Vile creature. You can hardly call duergar people. Of course, they trade nicely with my kith and kin, so they have their uses I suppose."

The door near the pews swings open easily. Inside you find religious items, cleaning supplies, and things of that nature. It seems like a general storage closet for the church.