(I rolled one on Brin's sheet, but it came up with a very very low roll, he has a 0 mod for int...)

1

 Ana looked at the numbers counting down and her eyes widened as realization came to her. Perhaps guidance from the stars themselves... "It's going to blow up! We need to move, now!" She demonstrated by running out as fast as her legs could carry her.

Isk is busy looking over the runes when he hears Ana's warning.  He dismisses he glaive and begins running!

Ana, with her insight and intuition, is able to piece together the situation (which the DM didn't explain well enough).

The others were suspicious of the situation, which led Ana to wonder, if these enemies heard the Fireballs exploding earlier, and decided to escape and destroy records, why would they leave multiple functioning magic glyphs? That, combined with seeing Reverie beating out the flames on the papers, makes her think "explosive Glyph of Warding ". This is a leap of thinking, but it felt right.

Ana's shout, and Isk promptly running towards the intersection, encourages the party to move quickly. (Reverie grabs the papers she saved.) You reach the intersection, shouting at the villagers to go south and Get Out! The shackled priest and acolyte try to resist moving, but when the explosions to the west start shaking the underground passage, they are very willing to flee with everyone else.

Dirt and rocks start raining down, as the weakened passages start collapsing. Everyone (party, villagers, priest/acolyte) makes it to the surface, accompanied by a cloud of dust and dirt from the collapsing tunnels. When the air clears, the man you left on the surface earlier (from the fight with the slaad and oblex) looks curiously at what just happened, but then goes to the other former-prisoners to give them a helping hand.

You still have to decide what to do with the villagers, and your new prisoners.

But first Reverie (and others) take a glance at the salvaged notes, now that you have some time and better lighting.
A lot was burned away. But your recent experience and knowledge helps to make informed guesses about the missing parts:

• Some of these notes were to document supplies: food for the bheur hag, slaad, and prisoners (in that order); tools for digging and cloth for making robes
• Financial notes, although the names were burned away. Best guess is bribes to certain city officials.
• Communications with outside groups of slavers, such as the servants of Umberlee, merrow and sahuagin you encountered earlier (when Iskander joined the group). These notes are only about prisoners smuggled into the city, indicating there are probably other slaves still somewhere outside the city. There are not enough records for Trimyrai to find out what happened to the other people from his village who were captured (beyond the handful you just rescued).
• Although there are notes emphasizing this all must be done in Bane's name, you also see another deity mentioned: Cyric. You know that Cyric's church is dedicated to spreading strife and murder, but to figure out more will require a Religion check DC 15.

Although they were clear, Ana took the time to make sure everyone had made it, even the prisoners, and weren't any more hurt than they were before. Why would they leave a countdown? She wondered but didn't say anything. 

"What now? Do we just take them all to the guard? If any of them are corrupt..." She let the others make the obvious conclusion: they'd be delivering these cultists to their comrades. Or deaths. Either way, their knowledge would be wasted.

"I'm wondering if its a cult of Cyric thats really at work here.  Spreading strife in the name of Bane in order to bring some sort of extra scrutiny or malice on the Banites," Isk says.  He turns to Ana and adds,  "I believe we have some trusted sourced within the guild that we could rely on.  We should had the prisoners over to them for interrogation.  As for the people we saved, a good meal and a nights rest would go a long way seeing them back to their lives."

Trimyrai: "the people we rescued we could just let go, or escort them to where they want to go. As for the prisoners..." Trimyrai indicates towards the priest and acolyte. "I say we do a private questioning session with them."

Ana tries to remember what she knows about Cyric and what involvement his forces might have here. She whispers a prayer of guidance as she does.

Religion with guidance: 8 + 3 

"I think escort this people to the safe place would be helping. As I agree with Trimyrai—" She looks at Isk. "They might have something to tell what Trimyrai wants: about his village and his people... Perhaps they have something instead of giving them to the authority. At this moment, I cannot trust any authority in this town." Then she frowns. "Although, I am curious... Do you think Bane and Cyric could work together?"

Ana's guidance helps her to recall that Cyric long ago was a lieutenant in Bane's forces (or the godly equivalent of that), but when Bane had set-backs, Cyric used those past chances to seize power and followers. There is a bitter rivalry between them, which is sometimes overlooked by the forces of Good. Having his forces discredit Bane on one hand, and hire as many Bane followers to his own cause on the other, seems entirely fitting for a god of deception and lies.

The party has raised the major issues. The decision is what you want to do.

• For the freed prisoners and where you could get help, Iskander is probably referring to your Guild contacts with the Iron Gate (inside the city) or the Watchful Guild (if you can get them outside the city without IDs).
• 6 of them belong to Trimyrai's former village, and would like him to lead them, when he is ready. (This probably isn't the best time, but their village was destroyed, and the former chief dead, so Trimyrai is the authority figure they are turning to.)
• You have to figure out what to do with the "priest" and acolyte. Ana makes a good point, that with corrupt officials around, soon they might wind up dead in an "accident".

(OOC: A preemptive reminder, that if you interrogate the bad guys, I don't like torture where it is only pain followed by an Intimidation roll.
Besides the characters acting more like bullies and less like heroes, you are more likely to be told what they think you want to hear, and not the truth.
Think of cop shows or spy movies that you like, where the bad guys are tricked into spilling their information.
It is more cinematic to use psychology, manipulation, and/or the threat of violence, rather than brute force alone.)

"Do what you want with the prisoners." Brin says, having had nothing to do with capturing the priest and having prefered just eliminating them when they were of no further use. "Getting the freed captives somewhere safe is our next step I believe, from there we can figure out what to do then."

Reverie gazes at Brin and then Iskander before shifts towards Trimyrai. Then she looks towards the priest and acolyte for a moment. "Do you think there is a way for us to bring this priest and acolyte to the Iron Gate? If so, we can also request the member of the Iron Gate allowing us to interrogate them."

Brin just shrugs. "We can try that if you have questions for them. Leave me out of it though." He will help the group get the prisoners wherever they wish to take them, but will have nothing to do with questioning them.

Trimyrai: (to the party): "I see no problems with bringing them to the iron gate. I'm just worried about making sure we get them into the proper authorities, and none of their friends try to spring them out or silence them."

(I am so sorry everyone for me being super late and silence due to the rl... but now i am back!)

Reverie looks at Brin and the others. "Then let us bring them to the guild like Isk and Anna have mentioned. Maybe we can ask the guild member to give a chance to Trimyrai to ask few questions. After all, we need to help the prisoners to be treated well..."

(Sorry for the delay on my end. Busy, and writer's block as I was making this situation way more complicated than it needed to be.)

Your party marches out of the slums, and head to the closest Iron Gate building, to turn over your charges (two Bane-imposters, 10 former-prisoner villagers). You also mention the deception of them pretending to be city guards, the underground passage (and path under the western city wall), and the recent events.

After going back to the hotel, everyone gets a bath, and nice meal, and a night's rest.
(Everyone gets a Long Rest. You are still 7th level, but are almost halfway to 8th, with +4000 xp to get to 28K total.)

It is a bit surprising that some Iron Gate representatives arrange for a meeting at the hotel in the morning.
You recognize Murphy (planner / organizer) and Nature's Wrath (elf barbarian). For those in the party that haven't met them yet, introductions are made, and a brief mention of the first meeting. (Link to post 2492.)

Nature's Wrath stays quiet, other than the occasional grunt and clang of his fork as he stabs at breakfast items on a plate he ordered.
Murphy only sips at a cup of water. He looks grim as he relays what happened in the past day.

• For the prisoners, the acolyte really thought he was serving Bane. He did think working with Slaad and demons wasn't right, but was weak-willed enough to go with the flow.
• The "priest" only knew illusion magic. The mage called himself a cleric to boss around the other cult members. The mage denied any allegiance to Cyric, Murphy considers that a lie.
• They were found dead this morning, both found with stolen forks/knives that were sharpened into shivs and used to cut their wrists. Although staged to resemble suicides, Murphy is fairly certain that they were slain to silence them.
• Someone tried to get to the rooms in the safe location where the villagers were staying. The Iron Gate guards managed to chase off the intruders, but Murphy is concerned about the attempt.

"City officials are dragging their feet. With the collapse of those underground passageways, there is a reluctance to dig to find evidence until the weather gets warmer. Some of this is probably sloth, but there are likely others trying to protect the reputation of Bane (since they are being framed), or cause more trouble in the cause of Cyric.

"I don't know if there are spies within the Iron Gate or outsiders, but I don't think those villagers will be safe in the city, even with us. If you have a place for them to go, you should take them there."

Brin listens to the two official's details from the past days. He keeps his own council for now, waiting for others, likely more versed in the situation around here, to speak up first.

"If you have a place for them to go, you should take them there."

The party is silent and giving awkward looks.
After Murphy pauses long enough for any comments, he continues. "You mentioned that you are new to the city and the region. I wanted to check if you had resources that I didn't know about.

"I should also check how much you are willing to help them. Since they are refugees from Trimyrai's village, and them talking about him in glowing terms, I assumed you want to protect them. If you don't want to assume responsibility, and wish to leave them to fend for themselves... I can check if any of the smaller churches in the city are able to give them asylum or not. They wouldn't have much protection, but it is better than nothing.

"My bosses remind me constantly that the Iron Gate is not a charity. We can probably get them to a safe house outside the city, which will provide them with some security for now, while you decide on a long-term solution. If you chose a mission for the Iron Gate, we can get them to that shelter.

1. Travel with them (and a few other refugees), and get them safely out of the city. You would travel south to the Port of Nunkreet, board a vessel, and sail to the coordinates northwest along the coastline. You would be responsible to protect that group between here and the safe house.
2. The bheur hag is too dangerous to let roam freely in the city. After we find where she fled to, you would be the attack team to defeat her and whatever allies she has with her.
3. There is a request from a city noble to make safe one of their properties. Clearing out monsters, disarming traps in a dungeon, something along those lines. It wouldn't help you directly, but the payment from the noble will pay off the expenses of the Iron Gate to protect those villagers.

"Let me know if you want to do any one of those three missions. The Iron Gate will work on the other two."

Trimyrai: (to everyone) "I definitely want to keep my fellow villagers safe, but I dont want to give up the investigation either. the safe house option seems the best to me, but i dont want to put my problems on the iron gate, nor on my friends." Trimyrai looks at the others to see reactions.

Reverie watched Brin and then Trimyrai for a moment, thinking deeply about it. It is indeed difficult to think for the best option for the refugees at the moment. "Sir Brin, Iskander, Anna, what do you all think which could be the best idea? The first option is tempting but the third option might be the best idea as well."