As Goven surveys the spot where the beetles came from, he finds piles bones, the remains of the beetle's victims. Poking the pile with his axe, he hears the clink of something other than bone. Clearing away the debris, Goven finds an old breastplate, rusted through and falling apart. Lying across it is a bastard sword, well-wrought, with a blade that seems to gleam in the sunlight.
Goven notes that there are very few blood stains in the pile of debris.
In the area where the slain stirges were, behind a pile of rubble, Goven finds a depression filled with a mass of vines. There is something a little odd about the growth pattern of the vines, and after studying it, Goven realizes what it is. The vines are not growing over the rubble. Rather, they are growing up from the ground. Moving carefully into the depression and probing with his axe, he sees that the vines are growing out of a hole in the ground. The hole seems to be about 4 feet in diameter. The vines have filled it completely, and are old and thick, but axes and swords should make quick work of them.
At the stairs, Goven finds clear traces of the two humanoids. They definitely went down those stairs.
At the flat pacth of ground there are no piles of rubble as there are in the rest of the ruins. On a hunch, Dunathar stands in the middle of the clearing and pokes down through the light undergrowth with his sword. He hits stone. Clearing away some vines and earth reveals a flat stone floor, ancient but well-made, and not crumbling like the rest of the stonework here. Dunathar's keen dwarven eyes sees a joint in the stone which seems a little wide considering the quality of the otherwise fine stonework. And what's more, if this were just an exceptionally well-made floor, there should be traces of old mortar here, but there are not. Dunathar thinks some sort of opening will be found here, if the area is cleared away.
