They search for clues

Teysa nodded toward the riverbed. "Come on, Li. Let's poke around, see what we can find."
Aliara straightened up a bit. "Are you sure? I have the strangest feeling, like we're being watched..."
"Just be on your guard, ok? We're still inside the city. Presumably there's guards or something around."

The two of them picked their way across the plaza. It had mostly been cleared of debris, but there were still scattered heaps of garbage or broken stone. A charred firepit sat in the center. "We're not going to find anything here," complained Aliara. "Looks like scavengers have picked it over pretty thoroughly." She reached down to grab a fragment of wooden crate and wrinkled her nose in disgust when it disintegrated in her hand.

"Let's check the river," said Teysa. "Come on, there's got to be something here. The caravan was here less than a month ago. There's got to be some evidence."

They reached the bank of the river and surveyed the wreckage below. In places, the ditch was thirty feet deep or more, with only a bit of detritus at the bottom. Here the mass was more compacted and reached almost to the lip of the bank. Teysa tested it with one foot.
"Li, it's like a landfill. Come on, it'll support your weight." The garbage shifted treacherously under her feet, but she managed to remain upright. "Be careful! It's slippery."
Aliara scowled. "Ugggghhh, Tey, I really don't want to... this is disgusting! What do you think you're gonna find out there?"
"Oh come on, you baby. You've been through worse than this. Look, there's something interesting." She pointed out onto the mass. About halfway across the river, a disorganized pile of boxes and barrels lay in a jumbled heap. These looked much less corroded than the others sitting in the plaza-- they seemed relatively recent. With a grimace, Aliara stepped out onto the landfill, and yelped in surprise as it shifted under her feet. "Come on, Tey, let's hurry up. This seems dangerous. I wish we had brought rope..."

The two women navigated their way across the pile with great care. At times they had to circle around in wide loops where the shifting garbage had made passage impossible. As they traversed the pile their feet set off miniature avalanches of debris, which cascaded down into the gully. After a half hour or so they stood in front of the pile. Teysa leaned over. "Li, look. There's a symbol..."

Without warning, the garbage under their feet shifted. Teysa tried to maintain her footing, but the round piece of cement she was standing on rolled away and she found herself toppling. To her surprise, she found herself falling through empty air. She barely had time to scream before landing heavily on something hard. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and next to her she could see Aliara in a crumpled heap. Dazed, she looked up, to find herself at the bottom of a circular shaft. She was at the bottom of the riverbed, she realized. Someone had dug out the garbage-- the pit's sides were braced by crude metal poles. "Li, it's-" she began, but froze as tiny faces appeared around the rim of the pit. They belonged to snouted, reptilian creatures with slitted yellow eyes. Kobolds!

She felt a sudden sharp pain in her neck. Reaching up she pulled out a crude-looking dart. Another dart hit her in the hand, and a pair struck Aliara as well. She tried to raise an arm to protect herself, but all of a sudden her muscles felt weak and uncoordinated. Her vision blurred and the darkness swallowed her.