"Inside?" Jocasta asked, finishing up her scibbling with a flourish of her pen. Well, she seemed about to finish, before she saw something else that had her furiously writing again. It was at that point Beren picked her up and draped her over his shoulder as he and Buri ran to the stairs that led into the grand mausoleum. Jocasta got the last bit of a rune inscripted onto the page before she dropped the book back in her pack and smoothed her hair out of her eyes. She saw Buri huffing and puffing behind them, the fat dwarf making it up the stairs in good time for one who's legs were so short. 

"Jo, get your helpers to see if there are any other exits around this place." Beren told her, gently setting her on her feet. 

"You heard 'em, get going." She said as she clapped twice, the two little drones hopping off her ears with energetic buzzing and zoomed off in two different directions.

The floor they were on looked incredibly ancient from the dust and the indecipherable inscriptions, yet the magnificent craftsmanship of the dwarves made it seem as if it were made only a day prior to its discovery. Dozens of sarcophagi, topped with immaculate and gilded stone effigies of every dwarf interred, lined the chasmal hall. Every few tombs, there were smaller mausoleums; arched sepulcher tombs for what looked to be resting places of even higher status dwarves. To Buri and Beren's lament, a few of the stones had been undone and some of the doors had been smashed in, but it was only light damage for a room that must have existed for over four thousand years. 

"There looks like there's only two exits, one up and one down." Beren said. 

"Aye, there wasn't much ceremony here like in the great masoleums in the center of the city." Buri remarked, which gave Beren a tight-lipped smile. Not much ceremony to a dwarf meant they only made perfect sculputes of every deceased and the family would still visit and recite their name and deeds and would hum dirges for hours to give proper respect. Still, he took Buri's meaning. 

The drones careened back to Jocasta in unison, buzzing intermittently in what Beren could only guess was either in code or soft voices only she could hear. Either way, she understood them. 

"There's smaller openings upstairs, but nothing but an arrow could fit in them. Other than the broken wall behind us and the stairway, that's all that anyone can use to get in." She said quickly. "I think we should go upstairs where there's only one way at us." 

"And leave this floor for the wretches!?" Buri huffed, but as he looked around, he realized the strategy of it. 

"One entrance also means one exit. So we'll have nowhere to run, either." Beren remarked. "But I guess it's better than being flanked. Jo, head upstairs. Buri, help me get a few of these slabs up there." 

Jocasta nodded. "I'll set up what wards I can. Maybe give them a few surprises?" She said before bounding up the stairs. Buri and Beren grabbed a large slab and began carrying it, the stone even more weighty than it appeared. 

"Have you ever fought Gundarogs before?" Beren asked the dwarf. 

The merchant nodded. "Aye," but added uneasily. "Er, when I was a beardling. Managed to kill one too." 

The two of them took the stairs, Beren walking backwards as Buri pushed. That news didn't bode well. Beren knew the fat dwarf was less combat experienced than all his fellows, save potentially for Varin the youngest, but he wasn't expecting to have killed more Gundarogs than him, considering the disparity of their lifespans.