Despite living in a ghetto, the elves here appear to be pretty happy. If anything it's nicer and more spacious than the rest of Gate Pass. None of you are aware of any laws requiring elves to live here, so their isolation must be by choice.
Shealis leads the party to a two-story building. Initially you think it's a door- or gate-makers shop. When you get closer, you see that the windows are just wooden frames painted to look like curtains have been pulled. The door also isn't a real door, it's just part of the building's exterior with the framing and molding that would normally surround a door. The chimney is exhaling smoke, a sign that someone is there, but there seems to be no entrance to the building.
Shealis takes you around to the narrow alley between the building and teh ghetto's exterior wall. Everyone but Liiros notices a simple rat rooting around for food in the alley. The building's wall facing the alley is carved with various celestial creatures. Shealis reaches out and rotates first an armored woman with a gleaming greatsword, then a noble and muscular man with a lion’s head, and then a winged woman with a trumpet. Then she depresses a sunbeam carving and a door opens into the building.
"Be careful in here," Shealis says as she leads you inside. "The guard badgers won't attack if you don't give them a reason." The 50-ft. square room is dimly lit by a roaring fire in a fireplace against the left wall, filling the building with modest warmth. Casting shadows throughout the room are nearly a dozen doors, propped up by metal frames, all of them unfinished. Tools hang around the walls, stacks of wood are piled beside the fire place, and sawdust covers the floor. It looks like the workshop of a carpenter obsessed with doors. A staircase leads upward in the back right corner, and one of the doors stands at the foot of the stairs. You see three badgers lying in a corner. One stands up and eyes the group warily.
Shealis walks over to the stairs. "It's Shealis," she shouts up. "Bring the case down." Two elves come down the stairs. They're armed with long- and short-swords and longbows and are protected by bucklers and chainmail. One is carrying a black metal scrollcase.
Actually, make that the scrollcase. Larger than average, it is etched with swirling patterns. It's sealed with no obvious lock mechanism. The elf holding it stops a few steps from the ground floor. He looks at everyone in the room, then Shealis. She nods to him and he and passes the scrollcase to her, reaching over a door propped at the bottom of the steps. "Okay," Shealis says, "how do we open this?"
A silent moment passes before Torrent realizes Shealis is looking at her. "I have no idea how to open it," she says. "I just know it's not trapped." Looking at the party, she asks, "You guys have any ideas?"