All aboard (spoiler heavy query)

[VonBlade]

Beyond here be spoilers...

Got the all aboard quest. Found the woman. Got her to explain situation. Go to pub, talk to captain, get her to tell me who's hired her boat, go upstairs, convince dwarf to sod off, downstairs, get captain to accept woman and children, go to lift to go and rescue husband, find husband dead, lift gone, need to find a new exit. So far, so fine.

However,
The exit is amongst some smugglers, the choice with the smugglers is go away or slaughter them, I can't go away because I have no other exits. Much bloodshed later and suddenly a quest has failed. Quick googling and that quest is part of a whole line of quests.

Soooo. How was I supposed to exit the Old City? It's impossible not to slaughter them all afaik, but doing so removes an entire set of quests I haven't even started. Should I not have gone down? Done so later? Got back to the lift quicker? What the hay? I don't want to reload hours of lost progress if this is the only solution, but if this IS the only solution how can I have avoided the bloodshed.

[BBB]

Strange that you can't speak to the Dwarf captain. Maybe try and speak to the old Huana guy in the gullet who's starving. He'll trigger a search for food, and the dwarven captain is one of the solutions, so that should open up a dialogue option with her.

Also, maybe talk to Dereo, because he is looking for the twin to the conch down in the ruined city.

[Efesell]

I was able to sneak through the undercroft via the rope bridge and exit into Delvers Row, you can kill the people guarding the entrance to the Undercroft with no penalty if you can get that far.

[SunDrippedDevil]

I killed the first few pirates in the Undercroft. I then shimmied across to the other side and was met with the brawler. I think that I passed a bluff skill check to go meet with their boss. After a conversation with her, all the pirates turned neutral, and I walked straight to the exit on the middle right (to Peddlar's Canal)

[Morgian]

I missed the 6 hour limit for the lift, too, and fought my way out. I have to wait and see if that is a problem or not.
Maybe I could have sneaked out, if I had any firecrackers.

[VonBlade]

Thank you, but BBB you're confused. I've done all the stuff in the spoiler text. It was trying to rescue the man to keep the family together that took me down there. If I had ignored him I wouldn't have gone down, but I do like to complete all the quests.

I'm glad that there is a way. Now, do I reload or accept a path that's dead to me. Decisions decisions. (Thanks everyone, that darn lift is a joke)