Trimyrai: (to the party) "I recognize this man, we should help him. He might have some valuable information."

Isk says outloud, but to no one in particular, "I think its odd that these chains are buried...I wonder what is on the other end?"

Ana looked back at the chains and noted the wear on the ends. "Looks like someone grabbed those ends only, not the rest of the chains... Maybe to pull on them? They're at about the right width for someone to take both ends and pull. Maybe they're attached to a trap door of some kind, and underground entrance...? Lets take care of these prisoners first, get them to an infirmary maybe, then investigate."

Ana examines the still-shackled prisoners more carefully. (You have no time limit, so will skip a check roll.)

• The city guard had his recent memories erased (by the oblex), and is lightly drugged/sedated. He is in no danger, but will be in a fugue for half a day.
• Trimyrai's villager is also sedated, and in the late stages of the chaos phage infection. He is fine for the moment, but may succumb to the disease in another 24-48 hours.

Brin checks the slime trails that were attached to the ex-guards. They are drying out and withering, but can still be investigated. The trails converge on a 2" hole in the uneven dirt, which wasn't noticeable until you were looking carefully. It is a short distance away from the chains being looked at by the others.

After Ana's comments, Iskander tugs on some of the chains.

• The ones with manacles are firmly anchored into the ground.
• The ones without manacles are (magically) retractable. When he pulls on them, they extend another 3' before it stops. When he lets go, they pull back into the dirt until they are the same length as the other (manacled) chains.
• The dirt shifts around magically, to hide all traces that these 2 chains aren't anchored the same as the other chains.
• Isk felt a tiny bit of give when the chains were fully extended, but a moderate tug isn't strong enough to do anything more.

"I no be thinking we be giving this thing time to be recovering." Brin says as he dusts his hands off after checking out the slime trail. He nods to the chains the others are fiddling with. "Can ye be giving those a harder tug?" He would give the help action in the attempt and cast guideance on whomever is set to do the tugging.

Ana will casr lesser restoration again to cure the villager.

Reverie hums as she looks at the others quietly before she exhales her unnoticeable holding breath. "I shall do the tug. Let me try..."

Strength - 18
Guidance - 2

(Edit: total 13... )

Isk grabs a hold of the chains again with Rev and will help with tug.

The villager gives an unconscious sigh of relief, as Ana drives out the phage. He is still groggy from the drugs and low HP, but he is in no longer in mortal danger.

(If Trim wants to get some information from the man, roll an Intimidation/Persuasion check to see if his words penetrate the grogginess enough to get a response.)

Isk and Rev grab a chain apiece, and pull, with Brin getting them to synchronize their tugs.
5' away from where the chains are buried (away from where Isk and Rev are pulling), a 10' wide crack appears in ground.
As they continue tugging, the crack gets wider, revealing an opening downwards. Brin asks them to widen the gap, as there are roughly cut steps leading downwards.
There is some variant of the "Pass without Trace" spell on this area. Although you figure out that the chains are attached to a 10' by 10' slab covering this opening, the dirt doesn't show the seams, and doesn't spill over the edges.

Ana nodded in satisfaction that her magic was able to save the man. That spell has proven quite useful in this situation, more so than usual, though it was a drain on her. She made a mental note to keep it prepared going forward. 

"We shouldn't just leave them here chained up like this. Even if they're not in danger, I think we should at least set them free. Is there a key?"

 persuasion check:   5

(OOC: When I get a "Dice rolls not yet available", I edit in a few spaces before or after the die roll script, and that sometimes gets it going. Otherwise, use a carriage return to get that script on its own line might work.)

The manacles don't have a lock.
It appears that the hulking Blue Slaad physically pressed the metal around their wrists. The manacle metal can be pried back open, with a little patience and effort.

"Here, try this in opening up the manicles." Brin suggests, pulling a crowbar out of his pack. He hands it over to whomever wishes to use it on the prisoners. Moving to the stairs revealed by the opening he looks down them. "I have a feeling our true enemy here is down there." He looks to the others. "Are we ready to go down and deal with it?"

Quote from EmperorKarino >>

 persuasion check:   15

(OOC: You gave me the roll, but what would you like to ask?
I assume you are shaking him to try to wake him up, but he is in a dream-like daze. You can ask 2 or 3 questions before he goes unconscious, but they would have to be simple to penetrate the mental haze.)

While Trimyrai tries to get a response from his (former) fellow villager, the rest of you are successful in using Brin's crowbar to pry open the manacles.

Isk peers down the stairs and tries to listen for any sounds of movement (perception: 4).  If it sounds all clear, he'll pick up a something near by fro the group, like a stone, or bit of grit, cast light on it and toss it down the stairs to get a better look.

Reverie looks at Brin for a moment before turning her head towards the dream-stated man for a second. Then she shifts her gaze to Trimyrai, wondering if he would ask a question. After a pat on Trimyrai's shoulder, she looks at Ana and asks. "Are you ready to go on as well, Ana?"

(OOC: I didn't have anything in mind for the villager, but I figured this was an opportunity to shed some light, if you were really curious about something.
If any of you can think of something appropriate, feel free to make suggestions.
If you can't think of anything, then I'll have the villager fall back into a drugged sleep.

Some of Trimyrai's backstory, if it will help.)

For the passage going into the ground, this can be seen from the surface:

• The air coming from that hole is rather foul, like the smell of rotting meat and composting swamp muck. Not enough to prevent you from entering, but you all wrinkle your noses in disgust at the initial blast of air.
• Just below the surface, there was an alcove to the side of the stairs down. This was underneath the hole that the slime trails were connected. On the rock slab is a pile of dissolving and rotting slime, the same color as the remnants of the ex-guards at the surface. This is the remains of the main body of the oblex, obviously dead.
• The stairs go down 10' below ground level, then straightens out to a passageway. It is all dark, except for the pebble with the Light spell. It is wide enough for a Large creature (ogre-sized), so there was quite a bit of digging required to make it, but the walls are crude. (More like the work of burrowing creatures, and less like the careful work of dwarves.)
• No sounds are heard from below, other than echoing drips of water, and the faint scuttle of (ordinary) roaches.

Isk is a little beat up from the Oblex fight and says, "I feel like we should explore this tunnel, but we may want to take a quick breather first.  We could post up in here and keep an eye on the passage, i don't think anything would be able to sneak up on us while we're in here."

Trimyrai: (to the villager) "Are you alright? Have you seen anyone from our village? Do you know what they are after?"

Brin moves to the stairs, then heads down them, first checking out the remains of the slime creature, then moving to see if there is anything of interest left in the alcove the remains are in.