Bad news, Your Eminence.

The city is not uninhabited and if we do not move swiftly, I fear we may lose this place.

A liche, Atemorex, styles itself the Lord of Hakarim.  I have managed to open negotiations with it and pretend that we have no reason to quarrel.

It claims that it is a magus of Vesterix and has lain here for millenia.  It destroyed the first squad you sent, it maintains, because of their impertinence.  However I believe it lies.  I have found evidence that it lairs in hidden chambers not far from the gatehead.  The first squad must have woken it when they opened the gatehead.

For the gatehead is open, Eminence -- which is why we must move swiftly.  Hakarim's Vault is  intact and contains an uncountable number of Vessels.  I do not know why the first squad persisted in their mission.  Perhaps they were fools and did not examine the Vault;  perhaps they intended to betray You.  But whatever their plans, they have placed this mission in dire peril.  The Effluvia is spreading more swiftly than I could have imagined.  By my estimates, it will reach the Vault within two weeks' time.

I will stall