(Haha, love it Paradox/Ethan.)

One of the children takes some food but otherwise shies away from the hulking tiefling.  The other, however, smiles upon accepting the food and hesitantly but curiously reaches a hand up, wanting to touch his horns.

Elra laughs a little at the child, "I'm really sorry about everything you must have gone through," she says to the mother, "if you want I can take you all up now while they're still looking through everything. I'm sure you must want to go outside."

The mother nods and says a sincere "thank you", huddling her children together to coax them down the hall away from the cells.  As Elra and others make their way in and out of this area they see the next large, thus far unexplored room that Ethan had gotten a good look at.  It is empty save for tables, chairs, crates, barrels and other cooking and dining related supplies.

“That is an exciting find.” Fae would smile to their Master Artificer. She’d review the spells. “Yes. I believe I may be able too.” As her eyes pan over the items, the wizards brow would furrow. She’d begin to pat her nose and purse her lips.

After some thought, Fae would contemplate whether it would be worth mentioning, especially now that Elra was escorting the captives do well deserved safety. but eventually, Fae would make her way over to Zeke and Harrick. She’d stand quietly for a moment as to not interrupt anything before she’d speak. “The crevace... It was large enough to hide the Behir from us... It was chained below... What else is there?” Her head would tilt as she’d share her thoughts out loud. “Would he escape to or hide there?” She’d tug at her sleeves. The wizard was already calculating methods of inspection should there be some interest.

Tarja takes a look at the rod that Ethan is investigating.

Do you think he made this rod here, or got it from somewhere? I can never tell what all this lab equipment can do. I understand the potions he brewed, though!

Like Fae, she is very concerned about the crevasse.

I think we need to check out what's down there, once we get these folks to safety. The Behir was being kept chained there - what else might there be?

"Well I'm not overly familiar with regular wizard artifice, we don't have very traditional methods on Lantan, but I don't see anything that would suggest this kind of creation."

Ethan smiles at Tarja about the potions.

"Yeah, potions wasn't my favourite subject at the university, but this setup seem pretty straightforward."

Ethan final snaps out of his over-enthusiasm for artifice, at the mention of the crevasse and the behir.

"Oh right, we need to check the other room and the door on the far wall!"

Ethan heads out of the wizards lab and south into the other room, heading over to the south-west door.

Ethan checks the door for traps or locks.

Zeke would smile and bend down so the child could touch the small, nub like horns that protrude from his head.  He'd also make a show of flapping his wings, flaring them out and letting the curious child feel the leathery webbing that stretched between the thin bony protrusions.    The wings were useless for anything other than a bit of theatricality, and if it helped a scared child take its mind off of the horrors it must have witnessed even for a few short moments, well the barbarian was happy to oblige. 

As Elra wrangled the mother, Zeke would herd the children along as well, heading back to get them topside and out of the dank dungeon.  

The more curious child smiles at getting to touch the horn and then moves on to the wings, encouraging his younger sister to be brave and do the same.

Ethan finds a large room that is mostly furnished for dining, followed by a room with not more than 8 crude beds.  The doorway at the far end of that room appears to lead back out into the larger cavern, likely near the more southern bridge over the crevasse, Ethan deduces.

Harick tells Fae and Zeke that he had never seen the behir before, or even heard it.  He hadn't seen the chain, or known of anyone going down there, other than the nothics crawling around all over the cavern walls, etc.  The only other notable thing he can think of is seeing the wizard converse with the nothics in a language he didn't understand.  Maybe they knew of the creature below.

As Ethan moves about the facility, searching the various rooms, he is almost absent-mindedly collecting anything of practical use, filing them away into his gauntlet.

'Oow more rope, that could be useful..."

"Hhmm, these lanterns would be good for the dark..."

"Oh oil, we will need that for the lanterns..."

Ethan finally comes back out to the cavern, and takes another look at the Behir.

"Hhmm, I should check if there is anything useful..."

Ethan examines the corpse of the Behir, looking to see what could be extracted that might be useful for crafting and also taking note of the chain.

Fae would nod in thanks to Harick for sharing that information. So did that mean there were more Nothiks?

With Zeke and Elra ensuring the safety of the captives with any of the others, the wizard would join Ethan's search out by the Behir. She'd peak her head over at the chain he was looking at. "It can't be that ordinary, can it?" Fae would ponder out loud to him. After some consultation, she'd turn around, wandering over to the edge of the crevasse. After some contemplation, she'd gently drop a light pebble or two to watch it drop down into the depths to see if it would reveal anything.

Fae finds that occasionally a pebble will hit the side of the cavern and continue to echo as it bounce back and forth against the walls until the sound fades completely.  The rest of her pebbles drop silently into the darkness, never making a sound at all.  This black void must be very, very deep.

It takes no particular knowledge or skill for Fae and Ethan to note that the chain has a slight glow to it and thus is probably magical in some way.  Ethan ponders if the claws, scales, teeth, etc. of the beast would be valuable simply for their rarity even if lacking any particularly special properties, and the ever curious artificer wonders how such a creature generates a lightning attack.

Fae would pat her nose, accepting further investigation could be had later. She could go herself, but even she knew that wouldn't be a wise idea. Besides, Kriket or Vincent would probably be best suited for a preliminary scout? As she pondered to herself, the wizard would back and then turn away to return to their Master Artificer. Pretty sure that Ethan had expressed some interest earlier in potential scales of the Behir, she'd ask, "Would you like some help to get started on some harvesting?" Fae would absentmindedly push her sleeves up in preparation, baring her scars once again.

In all honesty, the scholar hoped they'd be able to make use of as much of the beast as possible. With Ethan's display of mindful and meticulous material inventorying, it gave her confidence that he would share that hope. And in extension, Fae believed the others would too. Not to mention, the sheer size of the creature would probably require a group effort. Perhaps there would even edible meat to supply hungry bellies of Phandalin, like the mother and young children Elra and Zeke have tended and escorted to safety. There was much potential.

Arvel sets to alleviating the fears of the former captives.

"See? He's not so scary once you get to see him up close. And if he still seems scary, just remember he's here to protect you. So he's supposed to look scary, so he can scare away the people who want to hurt you!"

"Like the scarecrow in farmer Narth's field?" asks the little girl.  "Carp's family has two!" replies the brother.  "Yeah but farmer Narth's is scarier!" replies the sister enthusiastically.  The mother smiles weekly at this return to normal thoughts, but looks like a greater effort is being put towards not bursting into tears.

Tarja collects a few of the potions that Ethan has helped her identify (a potion of healing and an elixir of health), and heads over to spend more time with the Dendrars. The investigation of the chasm would have to wait until they had been taken to safety. She would also discretely ask the mother whether they had seen any other prisoners kept here.

While the children are distracted the mother is able to reply to Tarja, saying with at least some confidence that she doesn't think there were other prisoners.  Reenforcing the idea a bit further is the information that the Glasstaff and his minions kept prodding her for information about the druid Reidoth, insisting she might be related in some way and eager to find the druid.

Zeke smiles as the children begin their good-natured bickering.  'Come little ones, stay close to me and we'll have you back home safe and sound in no time at all.'

Ethan snaps out of his internal musings,

"Oh yes, that would be great. We can try removing the scales, the horns and the teeth, they should all be non-perishable."

Ethan grabs the jaws of the behir and tries to pull its mouth more fully open.

"I wonder how the lightning is created. Perhaps there is a magical organ inside it throat, that generates the necessary magical essence."

"Hmmm...."

Ethan turns and shouts back to where the others are.

"Zeke! Any chance I could borrow your muscles?! Ah...that is, can I get your help?! I don't actually what to extract your muscles!"

While waiting for any reply from Zeke, Ethan starts to extract tools from his gauntlet, including various pliers, small saws and knives.

Ethan waves to Fae,

"Use whatever you think you will need."

Ethan places the tools down on the ground and then takes a saw and starts cutting at the base of one of the behir's horns.

Zeke looks at the artificer and then back at the children he's escorting - marveling at the similarities in their ability to so quickly move on from the horror back into curiosity and joy.  He envied all of them that.  Envied it and was grateful for it and willing to do anything that needs to be done to protect it.

'Of course Master Artificer, just show what needs to be done - if ti's quick of course, otherwise I'm happy to return once we've seen these little ones to safety'

"It's alright Zeke," Elra smiles, "I can take them out myself, you can help Ethan."