The combination of Tessai and Ting find that one of the bookshelves in the north wall is cleverly built to swing out from the wall, revealing a staircase that descends into the dark.
Wyran follows Ting. Seeing the luxurious room he nods. "Very pious I see.... We can search this for valuables later. Unless the place collapses and we have to beat feet out!"
Seeing the staircase he summons a human shaped form of light and sends it down the stairs, at a human climbing pace.
@Wyran: The stairs spiral down for some distance.
Wyran follows Ting. Seeing the luxurious room he nods. "Very pious I see.... We can search this for valuables later. Unless the place collapses and we have to beat feet out!"
"Agreed - we have more pressing matters to attend to"
He looks to Tessai, "I's dont' t'ink we's should bloody well split up, wroight?"
"Yes Ting. Let's meet with Lothorian and the others, then investigate the stairs he has been watching" - Tessai agreed - "As for the room, I guess sometimes so called 'high priests' will confuse higher wisdom with higher luxury" - she adds with a look around, then goes with his companions to meet the others.
Wtran shrugs at the others words. "We'll not split the team. I just wanted to see if there was a reaction from light heading down." He closes the door and follows Tessai.
You hear nothing but silence and see nothing but darkness down either stairwell.
"If you think it safe to risk scouting, it would be useful to be forewarned about whatever may be down there" - Tessai replied.
As you wish.
Lefty casts Dancing Lights again, sending it down ahead.
The dancing lights form into a vaguely human shape. He then casts Message, including the entire party in it. They can hear him when he whispers (60 minutes). Lothorian then casts Invisibility (6 minutes) on himself, and follows it down the stairs.
He moves silently, looking for potential traps or ambushes. He'll go all the way down following the lights at a 30 ft. distance.
The staircase is steep and you quickly realize that this is deeper underground than a simple basement for the church.
At the bottom of the stairs you pause and see a T-junction with passages leading north and south.
To the north it seems dark, but flickering dim light comes from the south.
Tessai keeps watch over the lights - once/if they move out of sight, she follows Lothorian.
Is that you, Ting? Good. I'm at a T. This is a deeper stair than it looked from the top. There is some light from the south. I'll need some cover before I pop a light either way, Lothorian whispers through the spell. Everyone can hear him.
The rest of you come close after we check, quiet ones first. Bring a light.
The elf listens for sounds to either side, but won't poke his head out until Ting Ting is right behind him.
Then he looks, too, casting the light north.
Garados hangs back, ready to commit mayhem, but knowing he's not particularly stealthy.
Wyran considers.... "quiet ones first. And bring a light." and moves down the stairs. He quietly keeps Dancing Lights as far ahead of himself as he can see while moving to catch up with Lefty.
Tessai follows a ways after Wyran.
The elf grumbles to himself that he hadn't prepared a Darkvision spell, but such is the life of a wizard...
I'm going to light up and go north first, just in case there's something ugly waiting to ambush us. I think you guys should head to the south. That's where the light is. I'll catch up once I've had a look around.
Lefty uses the dancing light to illuminate well down the hall, and moves silently after it.
http://legacy.aonprd.com/coreRuleBook/spells/dancingLights.html#_dancing-li ghts
The hallway goes north for 75 feet, then turns to the east. Two openings are located in either side of the corridor.
Looking south you can see an opening to what looks like a massive room illuminated by dim flickering firelight. You can see massive pillars that appear to support the ceiling.
There are bodies on the floor, but nothing moving. I'll check it later. Ting, what's happening on your end?
Lefty watches the tengu's silhouette in the dim light.
We've got some people to the south. Time to crash the party, people! Let's go.
With that, Lefty catches up to Ting and takes a look for himself.
Crap! That's a lot of them!
”If they have not noticed us yet, please stand back” - Tessai voices through the magical spell - ”Unless the child is there, they are not our priority. Every moment we delay, she can be in danger”
Tessai says we should stand back. I agree, Lefty whispers so everyone hears.
Let me take a look while I'm still invisible. If she's in here, we'll have to be careful. If she's not, it will be a lot easier to deal with them.
Lothorian takes a few tentative steps into the room, hoping no one there has the magic to spot him.
He tries to see what the priest is doing.
Wyran had started to follow Lefty. With his light he lets his expire. When the decision is made to check out the active undead and priests, then pause, he stays back and waits for instruction.
No sign of the kid, The elf whispers.
As long as they're busy here, we've got time to look for her in all the other places she could be, if she's not already one of the corpses I saw to the north. Let's go that way. If they come after us, they'll have no advantage in this narrow hallway.
Lefty goes back to the hallway, but stays invisible.
"Agreed," Garados replies and backs away with Lefty.
Lothorian arrives at the cells, pulls out his toolkit, and starts picking the lock on the one to his left.
He might need some help. Ting! Can you come try your hand at this lock? he whispers.
Ting opens the door (assuming the one on the right side of the hall).
Inside there are three humans (two men and one woman).
One of the men looks to be dead. Probably of sickness & starvation.
The other two appear to be sick, but alive and sleeping fitfully.
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And you don't!
Let's get them some food and water, Lefty says, grabbing some provisions from his haversack.
Let's check that other door, too.