Ashley grouses, "Anyway, why didn't we just take the elevator? It's locked you know. Is it some kind of self-flagellation thing?"
Yulya smirksYou heard Sir Mormesk! Our sins are grave and we need to atone. Besides true strength comes from hard work not taking shortcuts...
But seriously if we had taken the elevator whoever is down here could have taken the stairs and evade or even ambush us or destroy our loot. I do not like to have the enemy behind or above us. And we need to explore everything in order to clear this mine and it is better to take the stairs down than up. We (you) will get the elevator after we cleared this level.

The small room at the bottom has three ancient crates and two oddly shaped metallic busts on the walls reminiscent of a goat and a pony, revered animals often used by dwarves in mines.
Yulya casts LIGHT on a small rock. She tosses it into the middle of the room and searches the area for traps. We should explore this first! Alice poke them with your pole! If the room is safe we will store our belongings here!