She glanced at the body Jodon was examining. She answered, "No, I think we got distracted by all of this. I might have something here..." 

She rummaged through her things. Sometimes she had been known to carry around a few odds and ends for medical supplies, and a few times, she had some things for quick surgeries, a small knife, strong thread, and such. There had been a handful of times where she had been needed to remove the odd arrow out of a person's flesh. She shivered though. The mere thought of having to cut someone open, even if it was for good reason, stirred up memories that she had tried to bury for nearly twenty years. Thankfully for her, though maybe not for her companions, she didn't find what she was looking for. "Or, not," she muttered. "Holg, an extra set of hands would be useful. You're right that this is going to be more than just a missing person search, but I'd like to perhaps know what we're up against."

"To that end," Jodon begins, "it might be worth looking at the cart, any anything they might have on the landing.  These ropes will lower something into this pit; perhaps seeing what they were lowering will give us an idea of what is down there, before we have to make a jump."

Holg sensed that Dathyra was uneasy with carving open the zombie corpse and provided her some aid with his dagger.

Sewed up inside this corpse is an identical triangular symbol with three teardrops on it. It appears to be made of silver and is stuffed into the empty cavity where the heart would be.

Dathyra gingerly picked up the artifact and began to inspect it. There was a feeling gnawing at her that this somehow looked familiar.

The symbol definitely rings a bell in Dathyra's memory, although she cannot recall it at the moment. Perhaps some research into the matter, or a consult at the temple could shed some light on the matter.

A loud thump sounds out from upstairs. The sound came from the side opposite to the kitchen. Two doors line that side of the balcony, both of which are closed.

Dathyra's ears flicked and she stood up quickly, startled by the noise from above. It seemed they could rarely get a moment to examine their surroundings. She hastily pocketed the artifact. Either they would find the answer to what it meant here and now, or if they, by some miracle, survived this ordeal, she would be able to inquire about it at a local temple back in the city. She quietly gestured to her companions, pointing at the upstairs. "Do we go?" she whispered.

At Dathyra's whipser, Jodon tears his eyes away from the pulley and its cargo, and looks down at the stricken, but now breathing, Wendel.  He sets his jaw and grips his crossbow a bit more tightly.  "Most definitely."  He makes his way over to the ladder.  "But I want to know what they are lowering into the pit when we return."

A couple muffled shouts come from upstairs, "Hhuuhnn, hhuuhnn."

At what he thinks is the sound of somebody in distress, Jodon darts up the ladders as fast as his halfling-sized legs can take him.

Holg chases up the ladder behind Jodon and draws he rapier again when he reaches the top.

On reaching the top of the ladder, more thuds and now grunts can be heard, although they are softer, coming from the door nearest to the ladder.

If she could say one thing about her companions, it was that their boundless energy made them an eager bunch. She hardly had time to catch up just behind Holg. She reached the top of the ladder just as they heard what sounded like more movement, just behind the door. One hand was already clutching again at the mace, pulling it out for another round. The other held fast to the amulet around her neck. Lathander had protected her thus far, and she hoped her good fortune would continue long enough for another round.

Jodon winces at each thud, but, remembering how his previous rushing in resulted in the death one one man and the (near) death of Wendel, he pulls himself up short of the door, looking back and forth between his companions for guidance on what to do next.

Holg tapped the halfling on the shoulder, "Wait a minute Jodon. I may have an idea..." As he looks at the drum at the top of the ladder.