Holg looks back at Jodon with a big grin on his face, "Errr, actually, maybe my idea won't work here. I say we just go on in and address whatever is behind that door"

Relieved that somebody else has taken the burden of responsibility, Jodon flashes a grin at the big man.  “Gladly.  Your experience will prove invaluable - just tell me what to do.  Actually, one moment.”

Jodon casts Guidance on Holg.

“Now I’m ready”

The door makes a cracking sound that is immediately evident as it opens. The room beyond is frozen over in many places. There are bodies on top of bodies in frozen piles stacked all around the room. There isn't anything outstandingly horrific other than the corpses though. The cold seems to be suppressing the stench of death, which anyone would be grateful for. On the floor squirms a large humanoid with thick, blue scales for skin. The creature is bound with chains and wrist and ankle shackles. There is also a wooden bit strapped into its mouth around its head, as a horse would be done. Seeing the party, the creature's eyes go wide and it tries speaking around the bit - none of which makes sense with the bit in place.

Dathyra had been known to be a bit impulsive at times, but there was always a good reason behind it, at least in her mind. She took a few tentative steps into the room, the chill washing over her. She gazed around the room, looking for other signs of danger. All the while, she held up her empty hand in a gesture of peace. If the creature was bound, chances were it wasn’t entirely on the side of there as yet unseen adversary. “I won’t hurt you. Hold still, and I might be able to release the bonds preventing you from speaking.”

Ready to pounce on whatever evil might lurk in this room, Dathya moves in only to find what appears like a prisoner. This doesn't really surprise her given the rest of the manor. With soothing words, she pats the air in an attempt to convey peace and ease of mind. It seems to have great effect, as the creature, a dragonborn, nods. Still alert for dangers in this terrible place, Dathyra looks around the rest of the room before entering. She spots an unmoving man lying of the floor with a dagger in his hand. He isn't frozen like the rest of the bodies in this room and he seems to have random pock mark type burns on his face and chest. His shirt is peeled away from the burns in weird ways. No other threats are immediately evident.

His recent lesson in restraint quite forgotten at the sight of a sentient creature suffering, Jodon pushes past Dathyra to the side of the bound humanoid and checks the bonds and the bit for a means of unfastening or loosening them.

Jodon find the chains end in large steel loops, which are are tied together with a rope knot. It would not be a hard task to for anyone untie the bonds. The leather straps from the bit are a simple pin and clasp connection.

"Hold still a moment, we are here to help," says Jodon as he immediately undoes the clasp holding the bit.  "Quietly now, but what is this terrible place?"

"You are a godsend. My name is Mijira and this place is hell on Toril. I have been here two days on that hook there." Mijira nods to a hook on a wall near the dead man. "I was able to kill one of my tormentors, but then they put a muzzle on me. Please let me out of these chains." Mijira flexes her jaw to loosen up the soreness due to the muzzle.

Holg is not so quick to render assistance to this unknown dragonborn like the rest of the group. "Why should we let you out of these chain? How can you be trusted? And what were you doing that got you into this in the first place?"

Mijira looks at Holg with both understanding and aggravation. These chains were painful, but it was worse hanging from the hook. She would almost never trust some random stranger shackled and chained. For all he knew, she could be another henchman sided with these terrible men. "I was hunting in the forest for a butcher here in the city. I killed a deer and was field dressing it when some men happened upon me, but I wasn't ready for them. Most of my equipment is probably still in my inn room if they haven't sold it. I gave them a good fight, but ended up unconscious. I was here when I woke up and I let the first man to touch me have it." Mijira's mouth lights up with small, electrical sparks for a moment, but then it fades. It was meant to be an explanation not an intimidation. "They beat me unconscious again and put the muzzle on me after that."

Jodon looks back and forth between Holg and this Mijira.  He begins to work on the chains, with care but also deliberate slowness.  "We heard thuds from this room.  What caused that?  Who else is here?"

"I freed myself from the hook finally. When I fell I hit hard. That is probably what you heard. I was trying to escape." Mijira is wise enough to keep her movements slow and nonthreatening as the chains come loose. Her size alone has gotten her into more trouble than she prefers.

Dathyra could understand both of her companion's arguments. Holg had every right to be suspicious. After all, they still weren't entirely sure what sort of a situation they had gotten themselves into, or just who exactly was or was not involved in the mayhem. At the same time, she also knew there was going to be no stopping Jodon from helping someone who appeared to be in danger. Honestly, she had worried when he had gone on ahead to free the dragonborn from the muzzle. Dathyra had tried to make her movements slow and intentional, so as not to frighten the prisoner by mistake. He's lucky he didn't lose a finger or two doing that, she thought.

Still, once Jodon had set to work loosening her bonds, it didn't seem like they would have much of a choice. Either they'd free her and she could be of assistance, or they had all doomed themselves. She chose to set to work loosening the chains on her other arm. I've lived a good life. What's another risk of life and death? she thought to herself sarcastically.

"And you didn't know these men, or why they assaulted you?" she asked. "We seem to have stumbled upon this whole mess, and we really haven't learned much of anything as to what exactly all of this is."

Jodon looks gratefully at Dathyra for the assistance, and pauses. This Mijira has clearly suffered, but her danger is past, and Holg has proven himself to Jodon at least twice over.  Behind Mijira, he uses Message to ask Holg "I jumped in too quickly again, didn't I?  If you have questions that need answers before we finish freeing her, ask them - I can reorder our help."

Jodon pauses with the chain, and says, "after such an ordeal, you must be drained.  Please, have some of my water." He walks around to her front, fumbling with his waterskin.

Mijira was slowly getting the sense that these three beings had some good in them, but neither was she about to blindly trust any of them. She was grateful for the elf and halfing's generosity, but she felt more akin to the half-orc for some reason. She liked his pragmatism. 

She shook her head at the elf and replied, "No, I do not know them. At first I thought they were going to just rob me, but then I was here. I did overhear one thing that caught my attention. A man came to study me one day and he said the ringmaster was going to have fun with me. Who the ringmaster is I do not know, or why he would want me. Maybe this one has some clues?"