I would bet on those being the scouts and possibly the forward clearing team. If things got easier from there I would be surprised.
"It never gets easier. That's just the way things are. But that's fine, because maybe it means the next ones will have more interesting materials and technology to appropriate! At least we should get a good haul out of this."
Making progress up the stairway, the party gets a surprise when out the the wall ahead of them, a being steps out I the stone. It seems to have wings, sharp clawed hands, a horned demon's face, and is made up completley of stone.
"I have not seen any further trace of the fleshbags in my carefully vigilant meanderings. Although that paladin was suspiciously light on the flesh, in my humble-yet-learned opinion. Is that the last of this batch, do you think?"
"Huh? Who are you and what do you know about all these adventurers!?" Tikkik drove the W.M.D. around, getting a good look at this sudden newcomer who was acting so friendly. "Hmmm... I guess you don't look like one of them... but that doesn't mean you're not involved somehow! So explain already!"
Roderick's stone jaw open and closes a few times in confusion. After a few moments, his rocky mind catches up to the unexpected question.
"Well, let's see. There's a number of questions to take out of your... whatever ...outburst, I guess." Roderick ticks off the questions on his talons.
"First, who are any of us, really? Tikkik, while I'm delighted that you're willing to open up about such profound thoughts that aren't about your machines, I must insist that now is not the time for that discussion. But when we return to the lounge, remind me, and I'll recommend a number of books on abstract identity!
"Second, I don't know anything more than the rest of you about these adventurers. I haven't encountered any since we dispatched that hollow paladin.
"Finally, your last statement is rather confusing. My involvement in them is the same as yours. They have defiled my level -- the same as all of yours', I suppose -- and now we must flay the skin from their flesh, rend the flesh from their bones, and break the bones from... whatever's left, I guess. All the while bathing in their entrails and savoring the sound of their dying screams! Oh, glorious!"
The Matriarch sighs. TikTik. Don't tell me you forgot about Rodrick Again Look under your left armrest. I left you a note about him there last Thursday. He's the only reason we, or actually our land I guess, haven't been bought up by some legally minded dreary consortium like the Aspis or Pathfinders yet.
Vladimir takes out his pocket notebook and flips it open to a page filled with numbers. "You vere closed in your lab for that month, Tikkik, but ve had an unpleasant visit from some people claiming this land by hereditary right or somesuch. I had to run them through the ledgers, then ve hired Roderick before the matters escalated into a legal battle. A real nightmare, but in the end they renounced their claims. And several vital organs."
"Huh? Oh, that's what went on then? Sorry about that, then. I would have thought I would notice adding a whole new floor, with how I build all the plumbing in this place, but whatever. Anyway, then, let's keep going!"
We would have contacted you, but you were doing that crazed cackling thing again and he didn't need much in the way of plumbing so we decided it best to leave you to... whatever it was you were up to.
"'Last Thursday?' I have no idea what any of you are talking about. And this isn't the time for pranks, unless they're the especially violent kind against intelligent creatures made of flesh and bones. I would make time for that. Oh, yes, I would!
*ahem"
"We need to proceed to the next level, I believe. I want to see how my level is doing, and even if the rest of you don't care, we are all under contract, after all."
Yes, yes, lets go. We have lives to end.
Tikkik shrugged and continued onward, still watching for further strangeness, and concluded he'd have to pay more attention later. Or possibly do some research into ways to sense if the world had been fundamentally altered lately, in such a fashion as to retroactively introduce new entities. Whatever.
Tikkik fumes in rage at how it seems as though the world has forgotten him. Will he ever actually reach his lab again?