Berkarak has been mostly ignoring the movement of his newfound friends while trying to focus on the words on the page. Finally, he packs away his book and stands. Color has returned to his face and he's quick to a grin again. "Thank you again, spirit, for your guidance and cheer" he says to Isadore and then turns to Gog, "and to you for not making a meal of me."

To Kalhala's offer to lead, Berkarak says, "Please do, mighty friend," and then to the whole, "I'll hang towards the back with Lehmani. I'll be more useful from a distance with these magic hands."

Then looking at those hands, he thinks a moment. Just as they start through the doors, Berkarak will lay a hand on Kalhala's shoulder and say "Let's try this." He mutters some gibberish. "Hopefully that will help you in taking the lead through these dark tunnels." Berkarak has cast Guidance on Kalhala (which lasts for a minute).

Grymar says “By all means, big feller!  I’ll go right behind ye, or if the passageway is wide enough, right beside ya.  Let’s see what was makin’ that noise earlier…”. He makes a silent final salute to Izzy and Gog, quietly saying “We’ll be back.  I hope.”  He readies himself by carrying his old trusty walking stick, ready to explore.  

Lehmani - One of the two orcs on that side of the room was shoved into the crevasse by Grymar's bees and the other was given to Gog and is webbed high on the wall. The Orog's corpse is still lying behind one of the natural stone columns, but the plate armor it wears is much too large for you to wear.

All - 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.

Map:

Lehmani looks to the others and speaks in a hushed voice, "Good odds the prisoners are past the caged off passage... either that or it's a kennel of some sort. Though perhaps we should clear out the non-combatant orcs first. I imagine the returning party will be more inclined to give us trouble if they think we're a threat to their families."

Zubien will search to the right (South) towards the cage, to see who may be held inside. 

Zubien - A row of rough-hewn sapling trunks forms a crude but serviceable barrier across the mouth of this small cave. A door locked with an iron padlock secures the room. As you near the makeshift cage door, you hear urgent whispering and see movement between the spaces between the slats, "...thing's coming!" Says one voice, and another responds, "Shh! They'll beat us again if they hear you!" Inside, you see two filthy prisoners dressed in tattered rags, what appears to be a human male presses their face up against the door and regards you with a bloodshot eye, “Thank Chauntea!” he cries out. “We’re rescued!” The other prisoner hurries up to the barrier and you see that it is a woman, "Praise be! Please, get us out of here! The orcs captured us and have been keeping us prisoner here." She suddenly turns and points to what at first glance appears to be a pile of dirty blankets, but turns out to be an older human man lying on the ground, "We have wounded! Please... You have to free us!"

The red glow draws Kalhala's attention and he is about to agree with Lehmani when Zubien gets the prisoners to talk.  Changing tactics on the fly, Kalhala puts away his shield and longsword, pulling out his 'new' greataxe.

"Stand back there, Zubien, let me knock that lock off those doors."  and he draws back his greataxe, attempting to knock it off completely.  (attack: 14, damage:13)

Kalhala - The prisoners scurry back from the cage wall and watch as you easily hack off the lock. The woman steps out of the cage, eyes wide, looking out past you all, "Are they gone? Did you get rid of them all?" The male prisoner is kneeling by the elderly man and gives him a little shake, "We're free, wake up." The man doesn't respond, but you can see the rise and fall of his chest in the low light. The male prisoner stands and shakes his head, "He's been like this since they knocked him on the head. He was pretty ornery before that, kept trying to escape. I don't think he's going anywhere like this." He then walks over to you all and says, "You wouldn't happen to have any spare food or water would you? Damned orcs have been feeding us scraps I wouldn't toss to a pig."

Lehmani runs to assist the prisoners, pulls out her rations and turns to Grymar. "Do you have any more of that honey, dear friend? I can use my powers, but it might be far more than is required to bring them to health... and it will certainly be a more welcome flavor than these hardtack rations."

Zubien shares his water and rations, then checks on the injured man, seeing if he can provide some medical care. Medicine: 8

Grymar has 9 of the honey lozenges left, he steps forward to the door and says “Here, here.  Take this.  It’ll fill your stomach and heal you up a bit.  Put one in each of your mouths and two in that fellers, gum it up and get im to swallow it, it’ll fill your belly and heal you up a bit.  Then tell us the tale of how you ended up here.  We need to hurry…”. He gives one each to the two of them and points at the unconscious figure, and gives them two.  (5 remaining)

Zubien - The man and woman eagerly take your proffered rations and water and begin eating. The injured man has a big knot on his head and appears to be unconscious but stable. Taking two of the lozenges and following Grymar's instruction, you watch as the man's eyes flicker open and lazily come to focus on you, "Eh... Wha... Who're you?" The man sits up and gingerly touches his swollen forehead as the female prisoner comes over, "We're freed, they rescued us. Cleared out the orcs they did." The man looks at the woman, then over to you and offers his hand, "Help me up, sonny." The man stands and you see that he his an older human man, stocky and short, with short gray hair and beard. He sways a bit on his feet, but seems stable enough as he takes one of the offered rations and sips some water.

Grymar - The woman looks at the honey lozenge skeptically between mouthfuls of dried meat and hardtack, but the younger man says, "They're good! I feel... Good!" The woman shrugs and nibbles a bit of the lozenge then pops the entire thing in her mouth and you see her eyes widen and some color return to her face.

All - You learn that the three prisoners were captured by orcs from the surrounding settlements either during raids or on the road. The older man identifies himself as Thelmund, "Got me when I was returnin' home from town. They came screamin' outta the woods on all sides and I couldn't get to my crossbow quick enough." The woman is named Reena, she has big brown eyes and shoulder length auburn hair that is quite messy at the moment. "I was hunting for morels when they got me." The younger man has curly black hair and dark eyes and calls himself Jerrid. "Came through our village like a flood, pillaging and whooping and hollering." The three tell you all that the orcs have kept them alive in the hopes to ransom them back to their villages but none of them come from money and so they've languished in the cage while the orcs decided what to do with them.

Lehmani asks the villagers, "Do you have any memory of being led in here? Do you recall going across a bridge or were you led in by some other path?"

She then looks to her companions in a hushed tone. "We should probably scout the other passages a bit to determine a safe escape route before we lead everyone out of here. Would hate for them to be caught in the crossfire if we encounter anything unexpected."

Lehmani - Reena shakes her head and says, "I didn't come in across the bridge. I think they brought me in through that way." She points to the passage across the room leading to the north. The other two assent that they didn't cross a bridge either and came in from the north as well. Renna continues, "I was pretty scared so I don't remember much, and when I saw that rope bridge I really lost it, but they didn't lead me across it, we went in some kind of hidden door in the wall next to it. I remember these really skinny windows looking down on the valley and thinking it was the last time I would see the outside... The passage led to some kind of sleeping area with a bunch of orcs. There were smaller ones, like child-orcs and older ones too. They led me through there and after a few twists and turns we came here."

As the others tend to the prisoners, Kalhala will go through the stuff of the orcs in the area, see if there is anything worth keeping.  Once that is done, he looks again to the tunnel with the red glow and gives it a good sniff, he is starting to get antsy and hopes they don't get ambushed here with prisoners to protect as well.

Perception:  12

As Kalhala heads to the southeast, Grymar steps to the northeastern and then the northern passage, stopping at the opening and holding very still, he listens for any sounds, any movement or other sounds of activity, any sounds that an orc would make.  After listening for a few minutes at each passageway, he turns back to the south and ends up back at the cage to report his findings and discuss next steps from here.  

Perception : 18

“You good people need to get out of here.  Do you think you have the strength to leave here?  We are going further in, I don’t want you to get injured or recaptured, yeah?”  Grymar holds his hand to his stomach for a moment, saying “Whop.  Somethin must be repeatin’ on me.  Pardon kindly.  Those lozenges can make ya gassy!”  He lets out a long, rumbling fart and then starts to chuckle.  No one else who had a honey lozenge feels the least bit bloated or gassy.  Grymar steps back toward where the beds are in the middle and opens up his pouch, seemingly to discuss it with his bee friends.

As his mates are tending the wounded and scouting ahead, Berkarak keeps an eye on their flank for returning orcs or hungry giant spiders (just passive perception as he's also distracted, paying attention to his mates and the captives). When he sees a mate about to do something useful that might require some luck or extra skill, he'll try again to cast Guidance; it didn't appear to work for Kalhala, but he believes he's doing it right and thinks it might help.

Kalhala - The various sacks and crates hold a variety of mundane items likely looted from the surrounding countryside, flour, grain, nails and the like. Sniffing the tunnel, you smell woodsmoke, soot, and cooked food.

Grymar - Reena wrinkles her nose and turns away, "Goodness..." and Jerrid is too busy finishing his rations to notice. Thelmund offers a chuckle and says, "The geese're flying low today, heh heh." Reena replies over her shoulder with pinched nostrils, "My village is a day or so from here. As long as I have some warmer clothes, a bow, and a dagger I'll be fine." Jerrid and Thelmund agree that they too should be fine so long as they have adequate clothing and a weapon to protect themselves.

Berkarak -

Lehmani happily offers her dagger and two of her javelins to the prisoners, then offers a non-magical prayer to Gond for their protection.

"Please get home safe." She says. "We'll ensure this infestation of orcs never preys on your people again."

She then moves into the hall to check on Kalhala and Berkarak. "Well, boys? Any sense of which way we should go?" she asks.

Zubien nods towards the north. "We should escort these good folks back home, nothing is worse we free them, to only have foul beasts or who knows fall upon them again."