Pulling out his ioun torch, Ryoken tosses it up to let it slowly rotate around his head. He then takes up a position in the back knowing that he's especially un-sneaky with the floating torch.
You decide to try the right side first. It is a slow shuffle as you make your way through. So far no sign of the occupants. You come to a junction after about 40ft. To the left the passage heads back towards the main tunnel. To the right it opens up into a wider room. It is completely dark and seems to be empty.
Mwenye quietly points at the room, then makes his way towards it, watching warily for any signs of something unusual.
Ryoken nods, preparing himself to dash in and slash at thing should Mwenye give any sign that there are hostiles inside the room ahead.
Erianna follows Mwenye toward the room.
Mwenye and Erianna move into the room first and walk directly over one of the undisturbed pit traps. Both manage to jump or roll out of the way as the floor falls away. Another 10ft. deep hole is revealed. This room is about 60ft. long and has 3 more smaller passages leading away from it. One on the lefts side in the middle and two at the furthest end. The room is mostly empty save for a few crates which turn out to be simple food stores.
Side room
"Let's stick to the right" - Erianna whispers, moving off after they nimbly evade the pit.
Mwenye leaps aside as the floor gives way below him, landing on his feet on the opposite side from Erianna.
Once he's had a moment to process what happens, he looks around carefully. He nods at Erianna's suggestion. "Yes, that is as good as any other choice, it seems."
"Perhaps poke ground in future? They seem to be fond of holes." Ryoken whispered as he started to keep an eye out for a staff or stick that could be used to test the ground.
"Those traps were well hidden, I'll give them that." Jaska peers into the next corridor, trying to find any hint of more traps.
Jaska finds another trap before anyone can step on it, saving someone from an unpleasant fall into a pit. The room is transversed safely now and you continue down the right passage. In the outside corner of part of the passage there is a little carved out alcove. In it is 2 dead bandits, chained to the wall, rotting away. Past that the passage exits onto a much larger room. You have come back around to the main chamber. There is much smoke and smell of burnt flesh. You could hear the pain of those still alive as you got closer to the room.
Mwenye growls softly, deep in his chest. "They were as cruel to each other as the dragon," he comments.
He quietly makes his way back towards the main chamber and peeks out.
"They probably deserved their fate" - Erianna nods and follows Mwenye.
Ryoken ignores the unclean, rotting bodies, sparing them only enough of a glance to assure himself they would not be a threat if they were less dead than they appeared. At the new room, as before, he hangs back in his clinking armor, waiting for a signal to dash forward and in to battle. Or move forward into relative safety.
In the main room there is a lot of smoke and several fires that you see are the remains of a few of the bandits smoldering on the cave floor. There is a blackened path down the middle of the room showing the direct path of the dragon's exit. It has come from deeper in the cave than here. Scattered around the room are several bandits still alive, 7 in total. Holding wounds or trying to help the wounded. On the right there is a large depression in the floor filled with rubble as if a passage deeper caved in.
main cavern
Erianna utters a divine prayer of protection, and moves up to the cave entrance - "Listen to me! You have but one chance to surrender! You will be healed and taken to the authorities! If you refuse, your life is forfeit!"
Those that are still alive look at you in surprise, wondering how you got in here but they don't seem to care to fight or resist. "How did the Dragon not burn you too?"
One of them is standing and near the back of the room, looks ready to run off at any moment.
Figuring he probably couldn't catch the guy even if he did run away, Ryoken settles himself for carefully watching the bandit should his exit include thrown weapons before it left.
"We were not so foolish as to anger it."
Mwenye suddenly sprints towards the man in back, running faster than he has any right to. "You had best not be so foolish as to run!" he shouts.
Walking in with the rest of the group, Jaska takes quick notes on the situation. Seeing the one that is about to run, her focus her attention toward him. "I would listen to him. Not only does he run faster than you, but my arrows are even faster. Stand down and you may live. Any other actions will result with your death and the swift judgment of the Gray Lady."
As soon as he sees Mwenye moving towards him he bolts, disappearing into another side passage just behind him before he can be intercepted. Perhaps he can be chased down, if you can follow him. The rest of them stay where they are, not feeling like fighting. Prison sounds quite nice right now, compared to the dragon that almost killed them. "You might have caught us unprepared. But if the boss is still alive, she won't go without a fight. If that dragon can't kill her, what hope do you have?"
Mwenye gives chase, trusting his darkvision and super-catfolk speed will let him catch up to the fleeing bandit before he can get too far.
While Jaska isn't as fast, she tries to keep up with Mwenye. When she enters the corridor the bandits escape with, she looks briefly over her shoulder. "I'll let you to mop up here, we can't let Mwenye rush deeper in there alone."
Erianna moves in the cave and proceeds in removing weapons and valuables, and tying up the ones who remained - "Hope is all we have. Do you not see that?"
The swift catfolk plunges into the narrow passage. Unfortunately this forces him to slow down as in the previous ones. By the time he makes it to a more open space the man has gone from sight. You see 3 ways he may have gone, though climbing up the 15ft. cliff in front of you that quickly is unlikely.
Erianna begins restraining the first man. They all seem to have minor to serious burns on their arms and face where their clothes didn't cover them. One man is coughing hard. He seems to be sensitive to the smoke in the air.
Ryoken helps Erianna with disarming the bandits. He then tears off a spare piece of cloth and sheathes one of his dual blades. "水" With a wave of Tamashi, water appears out of no where to wet the cloth. He hands it to the coughing man. "Stay low. Put over mouth and nose to breath."
Convinced that they were likely of little threat, he looks over those they have in front of them while the nekojin ran after its nezumi.
Not wanting to get separated from the group and run into a trap, Mwenye turns back and shakes his head.
"I do not know which way he went," he tells the rest of his group. "We must be wary."
"It does not matter Mwenye" - Erianna offers - "We shall address it later" - then turns to the tied, wounded bandits - "This is a one time offer" - the woman comments grimly.
"Sarenrae's kindness is akin to a soft touch, but her wrath is not something you wish to confront" - she warns - "We are not murderers, and we do not let men simply die from their wounds, but do not mistake us for naive fools"
After a brief pause, the woman presses on - "How many of you are left, and where is your leader?"
The men seem grateful for the easing of their pain. At least they might now have minimal scars when it heals. "We have no idea. And even for this that you have done for us, we would not help you capture our friends."
"I understand" - Erianna nods - "Your options are your own, and they will be communicated to the authorities as such" - the woman is beautiful, but her tone is dead serious - "We will uncover the rest on our own, as you forfeit your chances at redemption"
"We leave them here. They will stay until we are ready to leave," Mwenye growls. "The one who ran is likely off to see this feared leader of theirs, which means we may not have much time."
The room you are in is the first main cavern in this cave system. The main passage, which is the only route wide enough for the dragon to escape from is to the left of where you came into this room from. Other smaller passages lead off the side such as where Mwenye chased. Directly north are two larger passages, the left one where the dragon came from. The side passages you went through seem to have skirted around the main passage but led to the same destination.
The dead ones have their armour and bows and arrows destroyed by the fire, their weapons warped also. The living each wear studded leather, buckler, rapier or short sword, a dagger and 20 arrows. Between them all they have 11 silver and 30 copper pieces.
"We could put them down a pit, assuming there are no spikes at the bottom. Harder to get out while tied. Though also, perhaps, difficult for us to get them safely down and up again. As for our next path, I would think a side passage not traveled by the dragon would be most likely to have surviving bandits."
"I would say we go the way the fleeing man went, or at least our best guess of it," Mwenye opines. "As for these bandits, if they wish to run into the wilds without weapons or other gear, I think they would no longer be a threat to trade."
"It would be better to bring them to justice. But I guess there are more important matters to attend to first." Ryoken redraws his blade, ready to once again clank along at the rear.
"Agreed on both matters."
You force the captured bandits into the hollow pit to the right of where you came in. "We're not going out there while there's a dragon around..." The bandits promise to stay.
You go down the passage that the bandit fled and come to another small open area. A passage leads south and another north. Opposite from where you came in there is a 15ft. high cliff just like Mwenye said.
Ryoken moves to hold is ioun torch in a way to illuminate the ground for their tracker, but it winds up not being very useful.
Mwenye keeps watch while the others search for tracks.