While Grymar is busy tenderizing the wolf's skull, Lehmani would like to peer into the open doors and see if she can identify any additional threats headed their way.

To Isadore she asks. "Good spirit. Any chance you'd be willing to make use of your... less than corporial nature to do a quick scouting expedition? It might be nice to find a space where we can hole up and catch our breath for a moment."

She looks at Berkarak and Kalhala... "How are you both doing? I could manage a pair of healing spells, but I'd be tapped out until we can rest for a few hours. I'm thinking it might be safest to hold them in reserve in case one of us finds themselves on death's door. That said... If you ask, I will heal."

Kalhala slinks back to the ground and spits up some more blood.  "I've uh, felt better I'd say but I'm alright.  As long as you turn me upright when I'm down, we're good."  He smiles with his blood stained teeth, and it happy to have a seat and catch his breath as the others check and make sure something bigger isn't coming.

Zubien cleans the blood from his sword, and goes to the doors and peers inside, determining if there are any threats coming their way. Perception: 15; Investigation: 16

Grymar - Gog suddenly appears out of the shadows, dangling silently on a thin strand of web. He lowers himself onto the corpse and begins injecting and webbing it like he did with the orc corpse earlier. He then does the same for the other dire wolf and both are attached to the wall up near the orc.

Lehmani - Peering through the open doors and into the now unobstructed passage, you see that the walls and floor of this natural cave have been carefully smoothed. You can discern at least four routes leading off into darkness. Red coals glow from within the southeastern passageway, and a crude wooden cage door closes off the southern exit. The floor is covered with sleeping furs, crates, sacks, and rubbish. Isadore floats back over to where you all are gathered and you see a ragged tear in his forearm. Motes of twinkling luminescence drift up from it and fade away, "Wish I could young lady, but like I tol' friend Grymar, I can'na leave this place." He indicates the eastern portion of the room and offers an apologetic smirk.

Zubien -

Map:

Lehmani nods in understanding then looks to the others. "No telling what we'll encounter in there. Perhaps we can bar the doors from this side and attempt a brief rest so we can tend to our wounds." She looks up to Isadore. "And perhaps we can get to know our ghostly friend a bit better while we do.  What do you all think?"

"We do have injured members, they need to heal or their conditions could become worse, I agree that we need to rest." Zubien states.

"Ooh yeah.  A rest would be quite good at the moment.  Especially if there are more wolves like that down there!  And oof..Lehmani, if you hadn't gotten that orc to walk off the bridge.. brilliant move!"  Kalhala leans his head against the cave wall, assuming the rest is going to happen.

Grymar looks back at them, at Kalhala and he says “That, my big friend, was no orc.  That was an ogre!  Hah!  And yes Lehmani, you saved us yet again.  Gettin to be a habit, yeah?”  He grins and begins tying up the double doors again with rope, trying to make a place for them to take a short rest…

All - You're able to take a short rest. Please describe what your character does for the duration. We'll take this opportunity to roleplay a bit before I move the narrative along.

Lehmani will start by helping secure the door further with some chain she pulls from her backpack, securing it in place with a grappling hook.

She then drops down to a seated position, resting her back against the wall to catch her breath.

"Well..." She says. "...That was fun. What do you make for our odds of regaining a tactical advantage here? Stealth seems to have gone out the window, but maybe we can get some inside knowledge." She looks to Isadore. "What have you seen about the way these orcs operate? How many more would you say they have in their force." She looks over the ledge. "Also, have you seen a leader among them besides the 'Great Ulfe' down there?"

Berkarak remains against the wall furthest from the giant spider. He slides down to a seated position, holding a hand against the worst of his wounds, exhausted from the fight. "All great questions, Lehmani. As for me, I hope you don't mind me resting a bit here." He pulls a book out from his pack, opens to what seems to be a random page, and starts reading. Occasionally he'll mutter something to himself, sometimes curious, sometimes amused, and once he let's out a mirthful laugh. "Oh sorry. That pun gets me every time."

Edit to add: completed short rest, healed 12 from two hit dice

Grymar sits down, bandaging his arm after the bite from the dire wolf.  He reaches into his pouch at his side and pulls out some of his bug frenz and a little conga line of bees start to dance around the edges of his wound, Grymar chuckles when they start to do so.  He rests and gains 6 h.p. In healing as he leans his head against the wall.  (Used 1 hit die).  He actually falls asleep at the end and then awakens with a start, his hand instinctively going down to his war hammer on the ground, then he relaxes as it all comes back to him and he looks around at everyone resting by the doorway.  The conga line of bees dance their way back into his pouch and he moves his arm more freely, clenching his fist and opening it, testing the muscles in his forearm.  “Righ’ as rain.  Ya did good my little frenz.”  He says to the pouch.  He stands and puts his war hammer in the strap holder over his back on his backpack.  “We best get movin on.  The sooner we know what lies down yon hall, the better.”   He looks around for Izzy, and if he sees him, he says “Thanks to ye for your help, and your company, brother.  I’ll try to bring honor back to this place and avenge you.  I promise.”  He looks around to see Gog if he is still there, cautiously peering down into the chasm, he says “There’s a big juicy morsel lyin down there for ya Gog.  We’ll leave you alone if you leave us alone, deal?”  He readies himself to go.   

Zubien would move and check on his fellow group mates, providing what medical care with herbs and bandaging where he can or needed: Medicine: 6. He will then sit, sip some water and eat some of his rations, then pull out and play his flute to help ease everyone's minds from the last fight. 

Lehmani - Isadore scratches his beard and looks down as he considers your questions, "Hrn... Well, I know they sen' out what lookied like a foragin' party yesterdee. Lookied like 'bout four 'er so. They'll prob'ly be comin' back here some time in the next few days. Won' tha' be a shock! Heh!" Gog silently walks over and sits next to Isadore, eyes unblinking and mouth parts working. Isadore pats his large head even though his hand passes through the spider's corporeal form, "As fer remainin' numbers... I think ye've purdy much cleared 'em out. Oh, 'ceptin' tha lit'le ones and elderly. I think they hole up somewheres thataway." Isadore waves his hand in the direction of the eastern passage, "I'm bettin' tha' big galoot was tha only leader, can'na see one like 'im sharin' tha throne 'n all that." Isadore turns his arm over and peers at the wound he got from the wolf, it looks as though it's already 'healing', "Oh can'na forget 'bout tha prisners. Orcs brought 'em in a few tendays ago now. Haven' seen 'em since. Might be dead, heh. But, if not mebe keep an eye out."

Grymar - Isadore smiles and says, "No, thank YE fer clearin' them orcs outta Khundrukar! An' I know ye will, ye lot're special. I kin tell." Gog seems to regard you, just a slight shift toward your direction and an almost imperceptible dip, akin to a nod. Whether or not he understood or assents to the agreement is a mystery, but for now he doesn't seem to be eyeing Berkarak anymore.

Zubien - When you begin playing your flute, Gog suddenly raises his forelegs high as he rears back, seemingly ready to attack! But instead, he begins stepping side to side, rhythmically in time with your flute. Isadore laughs and says, "Oh, 'e likes it! I didn' know ye were a jitterbug Gog!" Isadore offers a few steps from some stately looking waltz before settling on clapping mostly in time.

Lehmani can't help but smile as she watches the spider enjoying Zubien's music... but then her face grows serious. "Perhaps we'd best clear out the noncombatants and free the prisoners once we're rested. Make sure none of the innocents need urgent care and make it readily apparent to the returning orcs that they've been officially evicted." 

With that, her eyes begin to explore her surroundings in peace for the first time, finally appreciating its majesty.  "Then, to my Lord's work." She looks again to Isadore. "Good spirit, what do you know about Durgeddin and the legend of his secret vaults?"

Grymar starts to move his hands again, the bees fly around him and suddenly he has 10 more honey lozenges in his hands, he pops one in his mouth and saves the rest.  Grymar gives a half bow to Izzy (and nearby, to Gog) and says to the others “Welp, we best be headin on.  I got some more of my special lozenges, if ye want some.  Don’t guzzle em all down, because ifn anyone is seriously hurt, you may see me mashin one up and putting it in yer mouth.  We need to check out those voices, when you are ready.  Let me get my rope here…”. Grymar begins to untie his rope and store it away.

Nodding, Zubien places his flute away, and draws his sword. "I am ready to continue," He waits for the rest of the party to gather themselves. 

Lehmani - Isadore shrugs and says, "Well, iffin' he had any secret vaults, he ne'er tol' me, heh. Must be why they're a secret! I didn'na work too closely with ol' Durgeddin, truth be tol'. I was a cook." Isadore smirks then offers his ghostly hand, "Isadore Ironkettle, best cook north an' south ah tha Spine." Isadore chuckles to himself a bit then continues, "We all knew'd Durgeddin had a hand fer smithin', more so than yer average dwarf. He ne'er hoarded his work far as I knew, was his own masterworks tha' cut down tha orc invaders. Might be ye'll find one er' two layin' 'round somewheres, heh."

All - When you're ready to proceed, just let me know the marching order and we shall.

Lehmani thanks Isadore for his aid. "It's an honor to meet one who fought alongside the great Durgeddin. If there's any parting words of advice you have for us before we venture in to rescue these prisoners, please let us know."

Before we head out... If there's any orcs around with usable armor, it might be good for me to upgrade from my basic leather.

Once we're ready to go, I'm happy to act as a rear guard. Seems like the passage is wide enough for us to go two abreast, right?

(I'm so sorry!  family visited and I didn't realize how swamped I'd be)

Kalhala closes his eyes during the rest, taking some of it to clean off his blood from his new found greataxe.  (21 hp with 2 hit die) and even though he would have rather chatted with his new friends and wanted to get to know them better, he was feeling pretty hurt and the ghost and spider didn't exactly put him in the chatting mood even though the ghost turned out to be friendly.  

He gets up slowly when they talk about moving on, pressing a hand against his back and leaning back till there is an audible 'pop'.  He twists his head back and forth a bit to get loosened back up.  "Well, rescuing prisoners is heroic work in my opinion." he walks over to the doors and as Grymar is removing his rope, he removes Lehmani's chains and hands them back to her.  "That is a mighty fine chain, good to have along I wager." 

Once that is all set, "I'll lead on if that's alright with ya'll.  Feeling back to my healthy self." and with that he hits himself in the chest with a fist to prove it.