There is a look of disbelief on all of their faces at the claim that the surface is a few dozen feet away.

Asked where they come from, the leader claims that they are from Cormanthor. Despite not being familiar with the name, Yul can confirm that they are telling the truth. He sees a vision of a sun-mottled, old-growth forest and the faces of beloved and long-missed elven kinsmen.

The leader of the elves takes Joshua's offered dagger and nods resolutely. It is a forced gesture. He is a broken man.

Joshua looks puzzled, "were you kept at bay by the undead wizard?" he asks, "because he is gone, there's a ladder back that way for anyone who wants to run, otherwise stick with us and we'll get you out of here."

"Saving people seems to be our thing"

How long have you been held here against your will?
How long has it been since you've seen your captors and how many are there?
Yul will maintain contact long enough to discern the turthfulness of his answers, and attempt to catch a glimpse of the captors through elves "mind eye".
Unless something provacative is revelaed and Yul is certain they are telling the truth he will break off the contact

Joshua tries to summarise, "tell us about your captors so we can deal with them" he says, "if they are weird spider-elves they might already be dead,"

"have you been trapped here long?"

"Come quickly, then. Let us return you to the surface where you will be free to do as you will," Mel says. "I fear you are a long way from Cormanthyr (in Thay, actually), but you will have your freedom."

If the elves consent, Mel will help them to the surface with whoever wants to go with him. Mel will also give them enough coin and food to buy food, lodging, and (hopefully) passage back to Cormanthyr.

"There are seven of them now, I think," the elf says of his captors. "There were several dozen. We have been prisoners in their city for... I don't know how long. Months? A year? None of us speak their tongue, so I don't know why we were brought here or why they came, but I gather things haven't gone as planned. They are distressed, and I think trapped. We've seen demons in the deeper places."

Yul confirms the truth of all of this, as well as the suspicion that the drow captors are in the chamber to the east.

They are grateful for Mel's help, and all are ready and willing to escape to the surface. They are eager to see sunlight again.

In addition to the dagger, Joshua offers his Wyros shortsword, if the elves are striking off on their own.

"Let us take these elves to the surface and return here as quickly as possible so we do not leave box alone for too long (as box won't fit up the shaft in current form)."

Barring any objections, Mel leads the elves out into the daylight. However, he first disbelieves the illusion that they are elves, being suspicious that they are drow blocked by illusion.

"We need to make sure that spider-thing is not up there before we set them loose. Really, one of us ought to lead them back to our base. We should give them some food and a night's sleep before they...do whatever they need to do next. I can go, though I'm pretty curious to see what else is down here. Or Aster, since she can look them over health-wise, too, if she likes."

(Ninja'd -- can we have Dunn saying this just before Mel goes up?)

Joshua comments, "we are in hostile territory for them, let's try finding a portal out of here first"