The parchment has a rudimentary sketch drawing on it of a man and a child. It reads, "Hav a grat day at work Papa! Luv, Billy."

Ada stares at the parchment in her hands... slowly she looses her grip on it and it falls silently to the floor.  A bit of remorse can be seen across her face.  She struggles a bit and regains her composure.  Slowly she leans down and picks up the scrap of parchment and quietly sticks it in her pouch.  "Have any of you had a chance to search the other bodies?" she looks around at the others.

Seeing the thug thoroughly wrapped up in the vines Kel turns to Barkas "Can you get rid of these vines my friend?"  He asks, holding his glaive off to the side, inspecting his injuries while waiting. 

Barkas turns around “I’m gonna scorch you!  Oh.   Oh....  Welp, that’s that I guess.”  With a flick of his wrist, the vines wither away.  He makes his way across to the remaining thug and sits  on him.  “Everyone ok?  Like your sword Misha.”  He looks at everyone else “What did I tell you guys, she’s great!  She really is.... something.”  He stares at Misha overly long, then turns to the Thug, unconscious on the ground.  “Should we wake him up?  Anyone else hurt?”

“Everyone ok?  Like your sword Misha.”
"Thank you, my new friend." she smiled, leaning down to slap the unconscious thug awake.

Agata steps out from the back of the room, clothes rippling back to her usual beaded coat. She takes in the scene, and frowns at the headless hostage. "That didn't exactly go to plan."

She rubs the back of her head uncomfortably, before sighing and rolling her neck - features morphing rapidly. Bone-white skin; long snowy coloured hair is pinned up and curled over pointed ears, and those odd cat-like eyes peer down at the separated head, glaring pink in the light. She grimaces, features pulling in such a way that is clearly inhuman and she stows away her crossbow, heading instead to retrieve any bolts she used in the fight. She stops next to Misha, and sneers at the unconscious man beneath Barkas, "Well, I don't know about you lot but I'm Very Interested in some answers."

Anyone else hurt?”

"If you have any healing to spare after helping the rest I would be most appreciative, Barkas."  Kel says, holding his glaive towards the thug as Misha attempts to rouse him.

"Time to wake up." Misha says, slapping his cheek again. "No more sleepy sleepy."

Daetris slings her bow back over her shoulder and leans against the far wall, crossing her arms over her chest. Her eyes dart around the room, keeping track of everyone's location as well as marking potential exits. But she does wiggle her fingers in the air a little. "I've got a few healing spells left, too, if anyone still needs it," she says. "So we don't tap Barkas clean so early in the night."

Barkas casts druidcraft under the nose of the thug with a low level of the smell of a skunk, as “smelling salts.”  “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey”.  He looks up at Misha, “That isn’t me by the way, I don’t smell like that....”

He turns to Daetris - “If you can heal Kel that would be good, or if more of you need healing I can cast a healing spirit to help.”

"I am in no dire need.  There are better uses for your spells."  Kel states.  "That smell is most unpleasant Barkas, how long will it last?"  He says, wrinkling his nose.

Agata looks over at the headless hostage, frowning and muttering her remark. Then she frowns more, thinking it's weird there is no blood.

The thug jerks back first from the slaps and then the stench. "Alright, alright....I'm up, I'm up. No need for all that."

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey”.  He looks up at Misha, “That isn’t me by the way, I don’t smell like that....”
"You kinda do?" she admitted, but you knew she was mostly joking, she grabbed the thug and made sure he wasn't going anywhere.

Barkas stands up off the thug, amid the smell of skunk and funk.  A small puff of wind makes it go away.  He heads over to the headless hostage to investigate.  Why was there no blood? He examines the body.

Investigation :  7 

Then he looks for the escape route and any other clues...

Perception :  24 

Barkas looks at his armpits and gives another gust of air to both.  He pulls some rose petals out of his pocket and rubs them on his armpits.  A beetle crawls out of his pocket, then goes back inside.  He looks up at you all and grins.  “Sorry.  I’ll bathe more often.  Really I will.”  

Leaning over the thug, Kel scrapes a little bit of viscera off the blade of his glaive with his talon and flicks it away.  "It would be in your best interest to tell us what is going on here."  His voice calm and almost inviting, at odds with the hard look in his golden eyes.

Intimidation Check 3

As the others are waking our unconscious 'friend', Ada starts moving towards 'thug 4' and then suddenly stops.... "I can't... I just can't" she whispers to herself as she vividly pictures the note that she pulled off the last guy.

Anyone else hurt?”

"I'm OK, thanks for asking - just a few scrapes from the little tumbling through the floor that Misha and I had... Hey, has anyone searched the other three guys yet to see if they had any kind of clue on them about what's going on here?"

Barkas looks at his armpits and gives another gust of air to both.  He pulls some rose petals out of his pocket and rubs them on his armpits.  A beetle crawls out of his pocket, then goes back inside.  He looks up at you all and grins.  “Sorry.  I’ll bathe more often.  Really I will.”  

Misha's eyebrows wrinkle as she smirks at you. You amuse her, and this is good.

"Meesha like thees group." she declared. "Ees a good day. Hef meesed twice - thank you, Bane - and fallen een peet. Yes! I theenk Meesha weel stay a beet longer."

Agata stares at the hostages body searchingly for a moment, then picks up the decapitated head. "Barkas, all things considered, I wouldn't worry too much." Glancing at Ada and her hesitation, she'll angle herself so her back blocks the view of the Thug's body. She will pull the sack cloth off the decapitated head, seemingly unperturbed by the implications, and investigate the 'hostages' body itself with Barkas. (Passive Investigation 18, Rolled 25)

Barkas pokes at the hostage’s body as Ágata picks up the severed head, which is surprisingly light. Both come to the same conclusion rather quickly. It’s made of straw, stuffed into old clothes. A fake. 

The thug cowers under Kel’s gaze. “It’s just a shakedown. A ruse. We just need coin. Most people fall in the pit, we point our crossbows at them, they pay to get out and we blindfold them and dump them in another part of town. No one is supposed to get really hurt!” He gulps, looking around. “Well, until today.”

Hearing the interaction between the thug and Kel, Ada comes over angrily as she pulls the parchment from her pouch "A shakedown?! Really?!  Well, you can go tell Billy that his dad was just killed by the 'work' you are doing here!!" she says in an exasperated voice as she thrusts the note she found at the the and drops it in front of him.  "We are here trying to help and here you are holding others up for a bit of coin!  What do you know of these lizard people attacking people in this area?!" she demands in obvious anger.

Intimidation: 12

"A lot of good this did you all... four dead and only you survive" she huffs.