Whoever opens the trapdoor, Servayn still drags a crate over to keep it from being swung shut on them.
In line with Lukasz suggestion, he'll take fourth place, after Kalsgim, Kriger and Janku.
Leading the way, Kalsgrim goes down a ladder, slowly, shield on his back, sword in one hand. Kriger is right behind.
The ladder is only eight or nine feet long and Kalsgrim is quickly on the floor of what appears to be a somewhat large, if low, cellar with a few rooms. Some shelves on the wall are stacked with food, water and other looted items.
In the middle of the room, a few steps from Kalsgrim, kneels an old man. He's wearing rags and his hair is scarce, greasy and dishevelled. The man keeps his face on the cold earth floor as he mutters with a raw voice, while the rest of the group makes it down the ladder: "P-Please ha-have mercy on my soul..."
Once down the ladder, Servayn will switch the lantern to his off-hand, and draw his morningstar.
Curious as to why the old man has his face on the floor, as if moving would mean death. "We're not here to hurt you, just as what's been said to you. We've eliminated your captors. You can get up now. Your free." He says as he continues to scan the area.
"Huh, maybe Kriger was right for once."
Ember gracefully jumps down on the earthen floor and stands beside his master.
Janku goes down third in line as stated above.
"Stand man". "And, tell us who you are, and how you came to be here".
Diplomacy
The last one down, Lukasz lets the others do the talking while he takes a look around the area. Meanwhile, Swiftbreeze lands at the trapdoor's opening and attempts to peek down into the darker area. However, the bird's position above makes it difficult for the curious bird to look down into the room.
Lukasz' Perception:
The kneeling old man keeps his face down. As he hears Kriger talk of the bandits death, he sobs: "D-death? D-death!? By Gozreh, c-could it be?" He starts trembling. You notice on the sides of his face and on his scalp clear signs of recent abuse. His rags are dirty with earth, sweat and blood, old and recent.
Janku's admonishment seems to stop his trembling. Hands on the ground, he raises his frail head and looks at you with blood shot eyes filled with tears: "T-thank you. T-thank you!"
The man's aura shines with clear evil. His heart is dark.
Kriger hears a faint sobbing coming from one of the cellar room (the eastern one). The voice is high pitch, perhaps a young girl.
Lukasz notices, in the southern room, the absence of shelves. The walls seem adorned with tribal paintings. As Lukasz doesn't control the light source, it's hard for him to see more clearly.
Kriger, a look of sorrow upon his face, just imagining what this man might have suffered at the hands of the evil bandits. He goes to help the man up, "Here, let me help you up." He says to him as he helps him stand. "Don't worry, you are gonna be alright." He tells him as he turns to the others, "Take care of him fellas, I'm gonna go check out what's through that door." He nods at the eastern door. "I'll be back." He says as he heads that way.
Spotting something in the southern room, Lukasz draws a copper coin from his pocket and, mumbling a short cantrip, passes his hand over it as light begins to emit from it. Holding it out in front of him, he starts to search the place, heading into the southern section to get a good look at the wall there.
Seeing how it's darker over there, he catches Lukasz bringing light to a coin. "Hey Lukasz, any chance you can light one for me?" He holds out a coin of his own.
Inside the room, Kriger sees, thanks to a lit copper coin, huddled in a corner on an old mattress and obviously shackled to the wall, what appears to be a young lady. She is small and with blond hair, wearing a torn and stained lavander and white dress. She sobs and cries and cringes under the light.
Lukasz, standing on the edge of the room, notices a small shrine at the other end. Beside it, an old and simple mattress and some bowls and cups. The walls are adorned with simple pictures drawn crudely but with obvious passion. It would take a bit of time to figure their meaning. Still, you spot a figure of a man with stag horns...
Main room:
The old man stands as he is picked up by Kriger, but can barely stand and is about to collapse as Kriger leaves him to move to the other room.
Kriger listening to Kalsgrim's warning, stops a moment to ponder that, but continues on.
Angered by what the bandits have done to these people, Kriger has visions of killing them all again. "It's okay, we're here to rescue you. Those that did this to you are now gone." He grabs some rations out of his pack and moves closer to offer it to her. "Here. Take this." He holds it out to where she can reach it. "Now, I'm gonna see if I can get you out of these chains. I'm not going to touch you. Just gonna see how sturdy these chains are." He carefully moves toward the wall to see how sturdy the chains really are.
Kriger borrowed Servayn's lantern instead.
Main room: Kriger steps out, borrowing the lantern from Servayn, moving in the eastern room. A few seonds later, you clearly hear him, as if he's only a few feet away: "It's okay, we're here to rescue you. Those that did this to you are now gone." A little later, you hear him whisper, but can't make out his words.
The old man is about to collapse.
Kriger steps closer to the young woman. She shies away further from him, ever trembling and sobbing. He can see clearly that the chains are meant for someone much bigger than her and would require proper tool to break. He would probably break his axe edge on them.
The picture could certainly be of the Stag Lord. He seems depicted as he brings all bandits together in front of the fort. You notice that he appears at other places in the drawings.
Stepping back in a non-threatening manner, "Hold on, I'll be right back. I'm gonna try and find some keys or something to get you out of those."
Returning back to the others, "There is a young girl in there. She is chained to the wall." He then speaks aloud his thoughts about the oddity of the chain, "The strangest thing about her chains, though. They look like they are made for a larger person. She's just a small girl. Hm." Getting back on track, "Anyway, we got anything to bust these chains? Maybe one of you found some keys or something? I never did."
Sense Motive:
Intelligence Check:
Servayn casts a spell, looking for the glow of magic on the old man, first, and then the chained woman, specifically, before peering at the rest of the chamber.
If he sees the glow of magic in the air about the old man, he will warn Kalsgrim, "Do not touch him! There is some spell about him!"
Ditto the woman, although nobody seems to be moving to make contact with her at this moment.
Note that, unless he spends three rounds carefully examining the area, he won't be able to tell exactly where the magic is centered, or tell how powerful it is, and, lacking Knowledge - arcane, would have no idea what school of magic he's seeing.
Kriger comes back and asks around.
At the same time, Servayn casts a spell as the old man is about to crumble and Kalsgrim is about to catch him. Quickly, he warns: "Do not touch him! There is some spell about him!"
"What are you on about Servayn?" Kriger asks curious as to what he means. "I helped him up just a minute ago. I feel fine." He shrugs as if it's no big deal.
Janku follows Kriger into the room to see what he is going after.
When he see's the young girl he will gently approach talking kindly to her, and kneeling as he gets closer.
"It's OK child". "We are hear to help you". "Put aside your fears".
Diplomacy.
Janku follows Kriger into the room to see what he is going after.
The girl seems to regain a little bit of composure, yet she still avoids eye contact. "Please help me. Just let me get back to my family. They've kidnapped me!"
You notice her dress is of a fine quality. It's embroidered in a very fine way.
Hearing something about magic surrounding the pleading old man, Lukasz places the lit coin against the wall before turning his attention to the pleading, frail man. Mumbling the words to a spell, his eyes glow with an arcane light as he moves out of the southern room and starts to pick apart the spells that surround the mysterious man. Concentrating, Lukas will spent the following twenty-two seconds examining the magic aura around the man to identify the school of magic of the aura.
Knowledge arcane
The old man crumbles to the ground. With a broken voice, he wails, but in a low voice, as if talking to himself: "Aaaaah! You're just here to torment me... Raise me than drop me like an old rag. You're no better than my boy."
heal check
"Let's be careful, Janku. Looks like they have been abusing her." He says with a look of concern.
She's definitely been abused, but more importantly, the young lady is with child, no more than two months it seems.
"Oh man." Kriger runs his hands through his hair and turns to Janku, "We've got to get her out of here and get her cleaned up. This is no place for her." Kriger keeps it vague, so as not to alert the girl, in case she doesn't know. "I'm gonna go speak to the others. Look for some keys. Maybe the old man knows of some."
"Be careful guys. Something about the man is not as he seems, Servayn was right, I am sensing three faint transmutation auras about that man."Then, walking around the man, he comes to where the man can see him and says, "It's okay. We won't do that anymore. But you need to tell us what is going on here. What is the magic that has been laid about you?"
Kriger walks back toward the others, intending on letting them know what they have found, when he walks upon Lukasz talking to the man who's back on the ground. "Transmutation magic? What are you fellas talking about? He's just an old man. Why did you fellas let him fall again?!" He asks exasperated. "I'm at least gonna find a more comfortable place for him." Looking around for a place to sit him down. "Okay, old man, let's find you a better place to sit or lie down. This floor is not for you." He bends down to help him up again, "Let's see if we can make you more comfortable and get you something to drink and eat, okay?" He says to him as he begins to help him to a somewhat more comfortable place that offers him support other than the pathetic floor.
As he's assisting the old man, "You wouldn't happen to know if there are a set of keys for the chains in here, would you?"
The old man looks at Lukasz. You can see the marks left from numerous blows. Some of his teeth are missing. "M-magic? Why just some protection offered by Gozreh! See how they treat me? See how YOU treat me?"
When Kriger steps in, he smiles a wicked smile at him and says: "Why t-thank you sir." He lets himself be guided to a low stool that was used as a step to reach the higher shelves. "K-keys? My boy has them. Probably upstairs." His face changes somewhat then.
"Your boy? Who would that be?" He asks with a confused look, not sure as to why his own son would have him locked down here.
When the man mentioned his boy, his face changed as if he caught himself talking too much. He feels in trouble.
The man looks at Kriger, his voice frail and complaining, his hands pleading and shaking: "It's just an expression. I've seen them with the keys before. They've often used them on ME!"
Janku's eyes narrow as he listens to the stumbling speech, taking his attention away from the girl, in the hopes of finding the keys to release her.
Sense Motive
Sense Motive
You can read the DC 15 spoiler. He's lying about the "boy" thing.
"That makes no sense. You're not even chained up. What are you talking about?!" Kriger asks, seemingly more confused with every question.
Servayn sets down the lantern against one of the walls, and readies his crossbow, not knowing which, if either, of these 'captives' to trust.
Ember, with no concept of subtlety, grumbles, Are we freeing people or killing people?
Watching and listening as Kriger makes the man comfortable, Lukasz tries to deduce what has happened to the man. Something was definitely not right here and the man seemed as crazy as the bandits had described.
Sense Motive:
"That makes no sense. You're not even chained up. What are you talking about?!" Kriger asks, seemingly more confused with every question.
The old man looks at Kriger with pleading eyes: "B-before SHE got here, they often tied ME to the wall! I didn't deserve THAT treatment. They just cared about my healing gifts... Bastards!"
"Oh man." Kriger says as he scratches his head and looks at the others and sighs. Drawing his hands down his face, Kriger continues, "Okay. Hold on, one second." He says turning to the others. "Alright, fellas. One of you want to go check for some keys? The girl he speaks of is chained up. I'm guessing that's who he's speaking of." Then losing his train of thought, "Has anyone checked that room over there?" He points. "We're gonna have to do that." He says out loud, but mostly to himself. Then pausing a moment to remember what he was talking about, "Oh yeah, anyway, um, she, is also not, not," Trying to think of a way to be vague so as not to let the old man pick up on anything, "in any condition to be chained up. She has been pretty beat up. We need to get here out of here. Trust me."
Turning back to the old man, "Alright. Now when you say 'before she got here', what do you mean by that? Also, why do you speak of her like that? And when you say 'THAT treatment', what is it they did to you? You make it sound like, what they did to you, they did to her. Is this correct?"
Janku leaves questioning the old man to the others, and turns his attention to the girl.
"Now don't worry we'll find the keys and get you out of here". "Do you know who had the keys"?
"I am Janku, servant of Milani". "Whom might I have the pleasure of meeting, and how did you come to this predicament"?