They can see a pair of giant (*) centipedes in the distance! And the centipedes see them, and rush towards them with a patter of tiny feet and an eager clacking of mandibles.

(*) Technically these are merely large centipedes, but 'large centipedes' don't sound nearly scary enough to describe horse-sized venomous arthropods.

Yeah, no, she and Seelah together are not going to have any trouble swording the centipedes. 

Camellia can help sword things!

"I wonder what else lives down here? What do these things eat when people don't fall down from the sky?"

"Mushrooms? Things that eat mushrooms?"

"They ought to stick to mushrooms and not attack people!" This is maybe not a very reasonable complaint. "They don't seem very dangerous, as long as we don't get ambushed."

The caverns go on for a long time, twisting and turning and branching; they might not be strictly underneath the city anymore. There are more centipedes, as well as giant spiders and lizards, but nothing that presents a real danger to a prepared party.

Eventually they can see torchlight ahead, and hear faint voices.

("You could say the same of wolves and bears," she points out to Seelah.)

Voices! More people who fell through the crack?

(Wolves don't eat mushrooms all year and then attack the first people they've seen in their lives! Maybe bears do that?)

"...leave until we find it! It has to be here somewhere!"

"Even if you find it you can't wield it!" Both voices sound frustrated.

"I don't need to wield it, just get it back to the tribe! I'll carry it in my teeth if I have to!"

"Yes, that is fitting for your mad adventure! To rally people who can't fight, bring them a sword they can't use!" 

What the--

Lucette steps forward. "Hello?"

It's relatively rare to meet people from other tribes in the tunnels, because each tribe keeps to their own territory, but the hall of relics is owned in common by all of of them. 

And - are those wings? If this mongrel can actually fly Lann will be so jealous. She has a glowing sword instead of a torch, too; he hadn't heard of anything like that going around.

"Hello! We're Lann and Wenduag, of Sull's tribe. The hall partly collapsed; we're looking for the angel Lariel's sword." Taking anything away from the hall of relics to one tribe is normally forbidden, and only justified in this case because it'll be used to rally and unite all mongrels. Lann hoped not to have to defend this decision before getting Sull's backing but it would, in fact, be completely fair for the stranger to disagree at first... ugh.

"I'm Lucette Wex, of...Kenabres. Do you live down here?"

"You're a surfacer? How'd you get down here - what's happening in the city? There was an earthquake..." 

"Yes, we live here," the other person says, stepping more fully into the light. She looks like a blue cat-woman with spider legs growing out of her back, and possibly even more cool and exciting body parts hidden by her hooded cloak. "For many generations, since our ancestors in the first crusade were driven down here. Surfacers don't like to remember us 'neathers, but we remember you."

"- Lann, there's more of them." She grips her bow warily.

"There have always been stories about weird-looking people who live under Kenabres... but every time we investigated we found demons, or tieflings, or someone else who came from above. Not an actual underground city!"

"An underground city? You do us too much credit; I saw Kenabres as a child, and we have only tiny villages to compare. But yes, that's us" - he bows - "the underground crusaders, at your service. The people up above call us mongrels."

"We call ourselves neathers. Have some self-respect, Lann!" This has the sound of an old argument.

"...I'm half-dragon," she says, since, okay, she can see how these people would categorize her with them and not, uh, the people she's with. "And," flinch, "what's happened to the city was Deskari." To the city and also to Terendelev. 

"You mean Deskari himself? That means we have to hurry, to rally the tribes to go up!"

"You idiot! Deskari himself means we have to hurry to find a deeper hole to hide in! If you want to be personally killed by a demon lord, leave the tribe out of it!" 

"I mean, one, yes, please do not attempt to fight Deskari," deep breath, "my mother, Terendelev, tried to fight him and died in one round. But on the other hand I don't know how long Deskari can stay on this plane but it can't be too long. by the time we," she gestures to the group of surfacers in general, "get back to the surface I expect him to be gone."