("Yeah, the Redbrands kept hassling me for alchemical components," replied Mirna to Quinn, with no obvious signs of deception. "I never dealt in arcana myself, but we sell a lot of herbs and small arcanic aids. Clearly the Redbrands were interested in brewing potions - alembics, retorts, distillation coils, stuff like that. I think they finally found an apothecary in another settlement to set them up. And they kept wanting eyeballs. I told them to get lost. They got mad.")

The cavern is quiet. As they talk, Kimberley squints over the shoulders of her comrades down the first corridor leading off to the east, across the fallen bridge. She can see that it turns south, but nothing more.

Where to?

"Very well."

Quinn, still decked out in his Redbrand disguise, draws his bow and slowly moves towards the collapsed bridge. He stops and looks around before proceeding.

Perception check: 11

IF he doesn't spot any threats, he points towards the hallway on the opposite of the chasm, due east. 

Kimberley looks confused but follows...

The cavern remains quiet. The dim, 20'-deep crevasse is also quiet and still, the southern bridge dangling from the far side where it collapsed. A skeleton and two old corpses lay at the bottom, together with the Redbrand that Kimberley killed (sans cloak and sword.)

(OOC: My bad! Sorry @damian_may, I dunno what I was thinking. I must have misread something along the way.)

Quinn shakes his head in the negative, realizing it's best to investigate the hallway to the left. He moves towards western corridor, stepping aside and allowing the party to investigate the hallway while he stands watch for any other threats in the area.

As the group moves through the cave, Aros starts to finally notice the smell coming from the red cloak. He sniffs it to make sure and shifts the cloak so it sits primarily on his left side, away from his shoulder wound. “So… why are you people down here? You chase down bandit groups or something?”

“So, left or right?” Jurgen asks

"We do now. We were hired to escort a caravan and looking to meet up with someone in town..."

Quinn stops mid sentence to scan the area for movement.

"...then things...well, things went south. A good friend was killed. And it's lookin' like that Redbrand bastards are involved."

He turns to Kimberly with a question "What door did that Redbrand come from? Right or left?"

Kimberley cocked her head, it had been a very rapid moment of violence....., " Uh, left."

" Doesn't mean theres no one in the righthand side though.."

The group converges on the western hallway that Kimberley had made a previous foray into. The narrow stone stairway down is empty, and you can see the closed wooden door to the south and the northern hallway where Kimberley's goon had emerged from (which, Kimberley attests, ends in another door.) All is quiet.

(Marching order?)

Syzygy, now taking the rear attempts to break away and go the north western passage quietly. 

“I’m heading up there. We can surprise em’ both ends”

stealth: 11

Kimberley takes the lead but looks slightly unsure which door she should be headed for.

Bryony will stay toward the back. She glances at their new companion. She's not sure what to make of him yet. With his blue skin and white hair, he cuts a striking figure, and she's not sure she's ever met anyone of his race before. Not that she even knows what race he is, but she figures it's rude to just ask someone their race. As long as he's a good guy and not helping the Redbrands, she figures it doesn't matter what he is.

"I'm from Phandalin, grew up here," she whispers to Aros. "I can't let these jerks hurt the people of my village. They need to be stopped."

Carefully surveilling the northwest hallway, Syzygy finds two doors leading off from the bottom of that otherwise-empty stairway.

All remains quiet. (How do everyone's positions look?)

(Ooc: put Quinn with Syzygy.)

As Syzygy breaks away to the north, Quinn makes a low whistling sound with his mouth to get the crews attention. He indicates that he’s going with Syzygy.

Quinn exchanges his bow for his battle axe and catches up with Syzygy.

”I got your back. Let’s take the door to the left. Kimberly and the rest are gonna go to the open the other door. Let’s hope we meet in the middle.”

"We need a signal," Syzygy utters an incantation and flames erupt south of the rock formation, in view of the hallways and Byrony, Kimberley, Aros and Jurgen. "When the flames go out, I'm opening the door."

“I suppose that’s as good a reason as you can ask for.” Aros nods in approval.

As they approach the doors, he whispers. The words sound more like the sound of a light breeze than any actual language. His eyes have a slight twinkle for a second before fading back to their normal, pale blue.

Cast Guidance on Kimberly.

Syzygy positions himself by the the door, still envisioning the flames in his mind's eye.

"Get yourself ready Quinn, shoot first ask question later, ay.?"

Syzygy releases his hold on the flames, signalling to the others it's time, and he opens the door. 

"On you word. I'll be right behind you. For Sir Roderick..." Quinn grips his battle axe, takes a deep breath and prepares himself to follow Syzygy. 

Kimberley is scared to death especially as opening the northern door means they have an unknown number of enemies at their back, but it seems to be what the others want to do.

She listens carefully for the sound of the other door being opened then opens the northern door asking Bryony to watch the southern one.....

Perception- 10 + Guidance- 1