Its the End of the World (as we know it)

The kobold looks at Zashier, amazed at the elephant in front of him, and stares at your trunk.

He says My name...Tigs. Human? I not know his name. I heard...elder say...Army? Amro? Ramos? He...not here. He come..****y when he need something,...or see Froststorm. Froststorm...further in...he like...cold.

Lem smells the dead bodies before he sees them, and he staggers a bit, throwing his hands out to the side and almost falling over. His vision is swimming, and he's seeing the odd, awful room he's actually in, and he's also staggering back from a sortie through fields of dead, and he's also stuck in a tunnel with the remains of dozens of former soldiers, and he's also sitting in a small copse of trees with the body of one orc who had been trying to kill him as he was attempting to scout out an enemy fort sitting slumped against a tree trunk, fallen against a fallen log, axe fallen to the ground from his lifeless fingers, two feet from where Lem had been sneaking. 

He sits down where he is and looks over to the others. "Radish? Thistle needs you to move a cage I think. Might be some people trapped in there. I am going to sit here for a second. Is anyone else dizzy?"

"Should I try to cross?" Yokini gets down to look at the trap Thistle pointed out to her to see if she can figure out how to break it without setting it off.

vanilla d20: 2 (+5 for investigation, +2 for sleight of hand, +4 for thieves' tools) Um ... nope.

The gnome stands again, shaking her head. "I'm too nervous. What can I do? What can I do?!" She looks at the cages and pushes her hair back out of her face.

Quote from rkmobius >>

He sits down where he is and looks over to the others. "Radish? Thistle needs you to move a cage I think. Might be some people trapped in there."

Raddunth moves to E15 (avoiding F14). He will push the top cage of E14 north to E13.

Athletics: 10

Thistle gives a little "Eww..." and grimaces as the top cage, with its dead body, tumbles to the ground. But then she looks to help who/what ever is in the lower cage, but cautiously.

"Lem!" she calls over, "Can you bring me Zashier's chalk?"

As any bodies (conscious or presumed unconscious) are released from cages, Yokini finally knows what she can do and begins checking them over.

"Nice to meet'cha, Mr. Tigs. As I said, the names Zashier, which I hope isn't the last name you hear, as that would be most unfortunate." Zashier confesses casually while trying and failing desperately not to make the connections with a certain name just spoken of.  It's why his smile was extra pleasant, and Lem's oddly sitting nearby warranted patting the old dwarf on the shoulder. The bodies don't nearly trigger as visceral a response out of the elephantine man.

Perhaps this was a side-effect of the transformation, or possibly even a simple case of being disensitzed to such things after nearly a life time of fighting; be it Orcs in war, or goblins and the like just in the defense of personal farmstead....

"... Anyhow, Mr. Tigs. Sorry for all the trouble brought on your heads. Usually I'm all for the Live and Let leave approach, if that weren't obvious. And if I could, I'd leave with just these folk... Problem is, and you aughta answer me truthfully on this one, but... so long as Frostrom and Amros are around, you and yours.. what remains of'em, anyways... you still would be of a mind to rob people on the road? Kidnap them? Cause if you want, so long as you swear off doing these sorts of things, you could come work on my Sis farm. Sound good? Lot better than all this upsetting your neighbors, and then having them come down on your head eventually."

Lem, overwhelmed by the room as he realizes what is around him, half falls/half sits down on the ground to gain some composure.

Raddunth comes over and pushes the top cage off of the bottom cage near Yokini, and it smashes to the ground, some of the metal joints snapping, and the dead body slamming around in the cage, making aweful sounds of flash slapping against metal.

The bottom cage is still shut and locked, the door opening to the top.

Yokini, as you get down to look at the cage, the writhing humanoid looks up at you with big eyes, and you hear "Yokini? Is that you?"

Yokini

On the other side of the room, Zashier is still conversing with the cowering kobold, who responds to Zashier's offer with a shake of his head "Leave...family? Never. We keep...taking...what need to live and to...worship. If not FrostStorm,...we find another."

Thistle pauses as the cage's inhabitant recognizes Yokini. Well, ain't that a thing? she says to herself as she pulls out her tools and gets to work on the lock.

Thieves' Tools to unlock the cage: 23

"M - Maylene?" Yokini wraps her fingers around (whatever the cage is made of - bars?), leaning in closer. "Is that really you? Oh, Maylene!" She looks at Thistle. "Hurry, hurry! We'll get you out, Maylene!"

OOC: It's a pretty good roll, so I'm going to assume the lock opens.

As the door opens, Yokini waddles around to help Maylene out of the cage and helps her over toward the stairs to sit against the wall. Maylene is a well-proportioned gnome of average height and long, straight, brown hair that looks a mess after being trapped in the cafe for so long. Yokini fusses over her while talking (medicine: 21). "How did you get here? I went home and found out the family headed east to try to find me." She actually smiles, despite the situation. "You found me, Maylene. Are there others here?" she asks, standing up and looking around at the other cages.

Thistle gets to work on the lock, and a few second later hears a "click" and the lock pops open. She opens the cage, and Yokini helps Maylene out of the cage. 

She loooks disheveled and weak. What was once a healthy gnome is now a husk of the former woman Yokini knew. She looks up into Yokini's big eyes, and the look on her face is extreme relief. Her words rush out her like a waterfall "I found you? No, you found me! Thank you Yokini! How did you know we were here? Yes, there are others of us here, though...(she pauses, and looks down, saddened) ...though not as many as there used to be. Some of us (she starts to cry)....some of us....didnt make it. (She glances around the room). But (she brightens) you're here! You found us! You saved us Yokini!...Oh, and please be careful where you step! This floor is riddled with traps! If you step in the wrong place, darts come flying out from those statues. Thats one of the ways those nasty kobolds kept us in our cages. There were some other prisoners, a human and a half-orc, that tried to escape, but when they got out of their cage and tried to run, they were hit with those darts!"

At the mention of the name Yokini, several other voices from around the room get excited "Yokini? Yokinis here! Yokini rescued us!" and so on...

All of these sweet gnome-ish voices are so excited to see Yokini, it would almost make you smile...except for the grim circumstances.

Once the cage is unlocked, and Yokini is handling the captive, Thistle will head over to Zashier and take the piece of chalk, returning and marking the trapped tile (F14) gingerly. "Don't step on that," she calls out to nobody in particular. Then she will climb over the nearby casket (G13,14) and examine the next cage(s) (E12).

E12 contains two cages, both have dead bodies in them. One is dwarf, the other is a human. Both look wiry and undernourished, and definitely dead.

Yokini hugs Maylene as she gets upset, trying to fight her own tears. When the other voices start ringing out, it's all she can do to not rush into the room to check on them all. "Yes! I'm here! We'll get you out!" she calls, her voice a little froggy. She looks at Maylene. "Who's here?" She turn toward the room again in a rush. "Who's here?!" she calls. She's practically vibrating with excitement and hurt and fear.

Yokini, Maylene explains to you that they were searching for you as they traveled  north and east. They joined a caravan coming down from the North, and were ambushed by a hoard of kobolds, and some hooded humans. She also lets you know that there were more of your family there, though some have died, either in the ambush or in the kobolds lair. Of the 16 captives, 11 of them are your kin. Your sister and mom were there, but they were taken further into the lair a few days ago and havent come back.

The second Lem hears "Yokini? Is that you?" Lem is up off his feet and intent on his friend, and slowly approaches her, blinking furiously. "Oh, Ini, how did... what..." He can't really find the words. 

As Maylene talks, Lem's expression darkens and he casts a very unfriendly look back at the kobold. As Maylene speaks more about the rest of Yokini's family, he tells Zashier, "this is unjust, wanton cruelty -- you wouldn't want them on your farm."

He's stopped fidgeting and twitching, seemingly forgotten about the smell of death with a discrete, imperative task before him. He bursts into action, helping Thistle mark or disarm the traps, and trying to see if he can block the statues from being able to shoot darts in the first place. 

Investigation: 22

He will also, under Thistle's guidance, begin to try to free any of the remaining captives from cages by levering doors open, or levering empty cages off of others. He empties his bag of rations and hands over his waterskin to the hungry folk, telling them to eat and drink slowly. "The nightmare's over for now. We'll get you to safety. How many kobolds do you think are back there? Have you seen humans pass through? How often do they come in here? Here, let me try to help Yokini try to patch that cut up, it looks bad. We'll get you healed."

OOC > I am cool with a mark, disarm, unlock, repeat if DM is cool with it, or we can do them one at a time...

Given the urgency, Thistle will first mark all the trapped tiles, so the others can help free the captives. Then she will return to the left side of the room and work her way around clockwise, unlocking cages with Lem’s help. She works silently, and as efficiently as she can, aware this is not her story.

Since Thistle knows about the triggers, and Maylene has just told you about the statues and the darts, and Lem got a 20 on his investigation, i will say that over the course of the next few minutes, Lem and Thistle are able to mark all of the triggers on the map. With your investigation, you can also tell that the visors on the statues move up and down to reveal a small hole that a dart would fly out of.

HOWEVER, you do not get off that easy. The traps are still there, and the statues are still able to shoot darts if step on them. What would you like to do to try and stop the triggers? Are you trying to wedge them up? Are you trying to push them down, and weigh them down so they cant reset? Are you hacking at the statues with your axe? How are you doing that without triggering the dart trap?

Same with the cages. Now that you have marked the triggers, you realize that the cages are surrounded by these triggers. If you step on one, the darts shoot out and might hit you or another captive. What if a cage falls on a trigger? There is more tension here than just walking around unlocking cages.

I will upload another map to the media channel showing you all of the triggers that you and thistle have marked.

Lem, for now, I will say that the last half of your post does not yet apply since they are still caged. At this point, all you have managed to do is find the source of the dart, and mark all of the triggers.

OOC: If the holes where the darts exit are small enough, a dead body could be dropped on a trigger to have some darts released. Then, the released darts could be used the plug the holes. If the triggers are one-time-use kind, then they could all be tripped by dropped dead bodies.

Thistle will direct Lem to examine the first statue (D13) to figure out how to disarm the traps, perhaps a way to prevent the visors on the statues from rising out of the way of the darts.

Then, she will make her way around the periphery of the room, marking the traps along the edge first, and pausing at the stairs down (L3) to listen carefully.

Perception: 17

Then, she will continue down the east side of the room, marking the traps along that side. Finally, if Lem has not discovered a way yet to prevent the traps, she will mark the traps she sees in the center of the room, once again stepping to listen at the stairs when she is marking a trap nearby (J6).

Perception the second time: 26

Finally, she will return to see how Lem is faring. If he has failed, she will make an attempt to disarm the trap at the statue, perhaps there is a lever, or if she carefully lifts the visor (keeping out of the way), she can snip something? She'd rather disarm the statues (8 of them) than the triggers (20 of them).

If she thinks that will work, she will roll (with Lem Helping her) to disarm that first statue (D13).

OOC > Tell me what to roll...