Quinn mystically marks the male goon in front before skewering him in his torso with a well-aimed arrow. The man clutches his stomach in pain.

Kimberly blasts the woman in back with a flash of arcane moonlight even as she had begun to sprint forward. The woman collapses in a heap.

Bryony sinks a second arrow into the man in front. He collapses as well, quite dead.

Two down. Only the blue-skinned redbrand with the crossbow remains standing.

...The red ones Ssarnak has a bargain with... Ssarnak will not intervene...

Jurgen may act next.

Jurgen will fire his crossbow at Attack: 11 Damage: 5the redbrand 

The blue skinned man opens his mouth to let the attackers know he is not fighting them, but suddenly feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder. Looking over and seeing the bolt sticking out of his collar bone, he lets out a meager, “Ow.” 

He drops to his knees and lets the crossbow clatter to the ground. He tries to speak, but it takes a try or two before he can focus through the pain to form his thoughts. “Please don’t shoot me again.”

Syzygy may act, as may Quinn, Kimberley, and Bryony.

Two Redbrand goons are dead; the third, the blue-skinned man, has dropped his weapon, and dropped to his knees.

Quinn aims, marks the blue-skinned Redbrand and draws his bow. As the Rebrand sets down his crossbow and drops to his knees, Quinn walks slowly towards them with his bow drawn.

"You make one move, and I'll stick you."

Without taking his eyes off the Redbrand, Quinn calls out to Ssarnak. 

"Ssarnak, dinner is served. Eat up while the meal is hot. If you hurry, those two dead blokes might give you a wriggle or two. Leave the blue-skinned fella. For now."

Casually, Syzygy moves past the one-eyed thing “fare payed…”. He then peaks over Quinns brawny, hirsute shoulders at the blue-skinned captive. 

“Traveller, your name?” Syzygy demands. 

(Combat is paused. Everyone may act.)

Ssarnak hesitates, watching everyone warily.

Syzygy: You feel a presence, rummaging about in your mind. Make a DC21 Deception check to keep it at bay.

The cavern is quiet. Quinn and Syzygy can see that the northern area of the cavern, where the Redbrands had appeared and where the blue-skinned one remains, has been finished with dressed stone block walls and a flagstone floor. Several barrels are stored against the walls there, along with empty crates, straw for packing, hammers, pry bars, and nails. A lit oil lamp, in a wall sconce, illuminates the room.

Kimberley remains where she is regarding the passageway and door warily......for might not more bandits emerge from it.

Her lip curled at the idea of letting the little cyclopean cannibal feed but she held her tongue.

She waved to Bryony and pointed up the stairs behind her.

((I thought that was the stairs where we came from?))

Bryony doesn't like the idea of letting Ssarnak feed on the recently dead Redbrands, but she also can't think of another solution that doesn't involve killing Ssarnak. As wretched and horrifying as he is, she still feels pity for him. While Quinn and Syzygy take over interrogating their new Redbrand prisoner, Bryony joins Kimberley in guarding the stairs.

Deception: 16

“Aros.” He moves his nearly translucent hair and points to the lump on his head. “I woke up in a cell with this. I bluffed my way out a minute or two ago. Didn’t plan much further than that.”

”The cloak is protection for the next room.” Aros nods his head towards the corner behind him. “Wrap yourself in a cloak and take a look if you like. The skeletons won’t attack the cloaks. There is a family locked in the room past the northwest door once you see the skeletons.”

Quote from owlbear89 >>

((I thought that was the stairs where we came from?))

Bryony doesn't like the idea of letting Ssarnak feed on the recently dead Redbrands, but she also can't think of another solution that doesn't involve killing Ssarnak. As wretched and horrifying as he is, she still feels pity for him. While Quinn and Syzygy take over interrogating their new Redbrand prisoner, Bryony joins Kimberley in guarding the stairs.

 ( Passage south was our entry point......at least I'm 90% sure it was.)

(You arrived through the tunnel at the southern end of the cavern; mostly cropped out of my last map. The stairs visible in both of the western hallways both lead downward; Kimberley can see a door at the bottom of one, and can just make out a hallway leading north. The southern bridge collapsed, but two of you have successfully crossed the northern bridge without incident.)

Syzygy cannot keep out the presence in his mind. He feels it rifling through his memories, his secrets. And then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. Syzygy is unharmed.

Ssarnak slinks forward, warily circumnavigating Quinn and Syzygy. It silently grabs the dead male goon by one ankle and begins to drag the body back toward the crevasse. Its massive eye makes eye contact with Syzygy for a moment, but quickly moves on.

Quinn slowly lowers his bow as to not accidentally hit Aros. He turns and watch’s Ssarnak as it drags away its dinner. 

“So, I take it you’re not a Redbrand? How did you find yourself in that cell?

And what do you know of this family that you say is locked away up there?”

He looks at Syzygy and says in a hushed tone “Perhaps it’s Mirna Dendrar, the lady who used to run the alchemist shop in town. Didn’t Garaele Barthen say she’s been missing along with her son and Daughter?”

When the tickling and prying recedes from his mind Syzygy responds to Quinn “Mmm, sounds about right. they’re not far off either by the sounds of it. We might be able to wear the cloaks but how do we get the prisoners out without provoking…skeletons…if I heard this Aros correctly.” Syzygy grimaces at the wounded acquaintance. “What do we do with him? He looks pretty hurt.”

Aros makes his way up to his feet. ”I’m an archaeologist. I was surveying this… place and I woke up in a cell with a nasty headache, across from the Drendar family.”

“I can get them out and bring them out here to you, provided you have a safe route out of here.” He bends over and digs through goon one’s pockets, looking for his keys. “If you don’t, I can at least let them know that we will be coming back once we find one. Either way, I would like to grab my things.”

Kimberley stays quiet where she is, she can see the others talking but figures shouting in this place would be a bad idea...

Quinn considers Syzygy’s point about the wounded archeologist. 

“Do you have any means to patch up that wound? My apologies, by the way, these goons have had it in for us since we arrived. We thought you might be one of ‘em.

Have you seen any other Redbrands lurking about? And what of these skeletons? How many have you seen?

Perhaps we should scout upstairs a bit using these cloaks. One of our friends is quite adept at sneaking about and she’s quite good with a bow.

Let’s see what she has to say”

Quinn looks to Bryony and waves her over. 

Ssarnak quietly vanishes down into the crevasse just south of the northern bridge.

Aros realizes that the male goon's body was just dragged off by the eye monster, and presumably his key with it, somewhere into that broad, dark fissure in the cavern floor. The female Redbrand's body is still here, though, and in her possession (together with a crappy set of leather armor, a dented shortsword, three coppers, and a grocery list) is indeed some sort of key.

Kimberley and Bryony hear the roar of distant laughter from somewhere down the stairs near them.

Quinn, looking around, realizes that they have seen no stairs upwards. Just down. For that matter, he doesn't see how the two Redbrands and Aros appeared in the storeroom they are now standing in. It lacks any sort of visible exit other than the cavern south.

Kimberley catches Bryonys arm before she heads over towards Quinn, " Tell them about the laughter.", she whispered.