As Uthal moves in the tunnel, followed by Austin, and Virgil in tow, the light around the corner brightens, and out steps Ander, seemingly making his way, back to the room, looking rather disgruntled. "Blast, Uthal.  The dead are already awake, they dont need your help, yelling down the halls."

Nik watched as the few trailed out of the room, off into the corridor tunnel, then turned back to Herrpees. "Fair 'nough. Since me n Nack...soon as he wake up, are back on tha payroll. What's the plan?"

Herrpees also turning away from the doorway which Uthal, Austin, and Virgil just went through. "To get out of here of course. It's not exactly projectile science. There's a stairwell that goes up and leads to the front door. From there we find my tent and belongings, which I assume you failed to bring from the camp site. And then follow the safe southern road back to Midgar. If I make it there unharmed, you'll still get paid." He turned to Viilgahan, "And will you still be accepting employment?"

Ura, agreeing tacitly with Virgil, simply pockets all of the coin, telling the others "We sort it when we're somewhere safe enough to sort it."  On further conversation, she adds, "I am not going to rest by a couple of dead bodies with black blood all over the floor.  I've seen what that stuff does.  I wouldn't be able to sleep lying next to it anyhow.  For all we know, the corpses could reanimate at any moment."  She pauses, then considers hacking off the heads of each of the corpses, then figures it would be too gruesome and take too much time, particularly when what she can only assume is Ander begins screaming down the hallway.

"Ander!" she yells, racing out after the others.  As soon as she sees the unmoving light in the hallway she casts message as she runs, whisper-yelling  

Where did you go, you fool?  Whenever we split up, someone nearly dies!  Get back here and stay with us!  I don't want you to end up like Kel!

Breathlessly, she waits for a response, her stomach dropping as she approaches the others quietly and listening for any signs of movement.  

Stealth: 12
Perception for hearing: 6

All of that becomes unnecessary when Ander appears and scolds them, and Ura sags, letting out a breath of both relief and frustration.

Virgil calls back to the room, "Everyone is in one piece, but I'd take the screaming as a sign that we should make haste."

Ander stops short of coming back to the room, when he responds to Virgil. “There’s always an opportunity to try something new. Rather than wasting our time debating which tunnel to go down, when there’s only one to take, or dividing up everything we find the second we find it.”

Looking back towards the rest of them, though consciously ensuring to keep his voice at a lower volume. “For something that we constantly say ‘time is of the essence’ we sure waste quite a bit.”

Virgil just kinda looks around confused. "I must have been speaking Orcish this whole time without realizing. I could've sworn I was rather consistent about how we should quicken our departure from this place. You heard the man everyone! Ander has become impatient, so lets get moving before he kills himself out of sheer boredom." Virgil, draws his rapier and begins moving down the hall towards the northward passage.

"Very well."  Austin says with a shrug.  "I am not one of the ones looking ready to fall down any moment." She says with a glance to those of the group who are clearly exhausted.  "Hate to run into something truly deadly down here, when half of the group can barely pick up their weapons, but let's go, move on..." She taps her quarterstaff against the ground with a sharp rap.  "Ready when you are."

Ura makes a face at Austin's back when she casts some shade on her ability to fight.  It's not much of a face because she is, actually, pretty tired. 

But that doesn't matter, she thinks muzzily.  Focus on the dragonborn!  "I don't want to rest right now.  Tired or not, I want to find D'Armes, or what's left of him, and then get the hell out of here."  She moves down the tunnel, still trying to look for potential traps, or dangers in the corridors.

Perception or Investigation, trap check: 18 

"To an extent..." Viilgahan responds to the elven scholars question. "If you made some sense of the scrolls I should very much like to know what you do. Further..." he paused glancing around the room and heading to the barrels in the corner, with the intent to investigate the contents. "At this juncture there is little reason to put up a front. My business here is my own. I will scour these ruins to gain an understanding of the power here and the history that has been lost." he gestured toward the now empty doorway. "They are at odds with themselves about what it is they are really here for. Looting, rescue, running ramshod over any barrier. They are headlong off a small plank to a short drop and a sudden stop..." the dragonborn glances to the right of both Nik and Herrpees and pauses a moment. He blinks before resuming. "Regardless if you want to leave I will escort you and the dwarves to the exit and see that you all are on your way. I will accept a token of payment in knowledge and a smaller amount of coin than what they should receive when they get you there safely." Viilgahan checks the barrels for anything out of the ordinary, using a knife to gingerly etch around the tops. "I will not be leaving, nor will I get swept up in some idiotic, fruitless and directionless crusade. I have cause here, even more so with what you may provide and for once a potential for answers." ...and power... He let a low grumble escape his throat as he waited for Herrpees to respond.

Investigation (If/as needed): 3

Uthal looks back at them all. "I have mearly been trying to rest so that I may be more useful in our next fight. Since you all seem to be so intent on rushing into places then so be it, we will rush. Just do not be surprised when I can not provide the help you need because I am dead myself. Rushing is how we lost Kel, this group rushes too much." 

“Most of what I told about this place was what I learned from one of your scrolls. I don’t think it was specifically about this exact location, but general about several locations, of which this is one. Your scroll is a map. Not one of physical landmarks, but I believe a map of a more ethereal nature, but between our own plane, and that of the plane of madness. I did not get a chance to go over the other one properly. But that’s all I was really able to glean in the limited time I had.”

While Herrpees and Viilgahan swapped intellectual pleasantries, Nack went over to his unconscious brother, and lightly kicked him in the ribs. “I know you’re awake now. Free ride’s over. We got work.” The figure didn’t move, but uttered the word “Nuts!”

Ander walked next to Ura as the party moved to continue forward. “Austin already showed her worth, when we were fighting above. What does you make of the ‘noble’? The only thing he seems to bring to the party is his mouth.” 
While Ander continued in a low tone and volume, it was no different than before; making no effort to contain his words to just Ura’s ears. Either because he intended to be overheard, or simply didn’t care what anyone else may have had to say about it.

"A map...interesting. I'd very much like to see what other sites could be discovered when overlaid with a map of the continent..." he scratched the base of one of his horns as he thought, the interest in the barrels forgotten. "Very well, if you will permit some time to look over the other scroll once you are out of possible harms way I will then leave you to your own devices once you head down the road. There is too much here for me to abandon it at this juncture, not with a band of adventurers clearing it at no cost." Viilgahan gave a glance over to the dwarves. "It will make it more difficult to explore without additional able hands and eyes but I will make do as I have in the past."

Perception to hear Ander 13

Hearing his companion arguing in the hallway, Anearis was perpelexed by Ander’s words. The knight hadn’t said a lot since Anearis had met him. But he never seemed to be the kind to loose his temper. Anearis went and tried to ease up the growing tension in the group.

"That is enough. Everyone needs to stay calm. There are enough things hostile to us here. We do not need to fight amongst ourselves. We have been lucky enough to have avoided some encounters, even with all the noise we have been making."

Once that’s said, he looks at everyone in the group. They were a large group for people that were trying to remain unnoticed. Some of them were in bad condition, Anearis himself included. But he doubted there was any "right" place to rest in this castle.

"I believe we should keep moving. We are bound to find Ser D’armes at some point. And when we find him, we will have time to formulate a better plan."

“I am ready to move on when you are.” Austin says with a shrug.  She grips her rune-carved quarterstaff, the new one back attached to her pack once again.  “Going North then?” She asks, nodding to the tunnel they had not checked yet.

"videre til døden." Uthal says as he hefts his hammer and shield. 

"Ander, if that's what you truly think, then I'd suggest you leave the talking to the professionals before you make a fool of yourself." Virgil says over his shoulder as a continues forward.

Ignoring Virgil’s quip, and paying credit to the earlier possibility, that he simply assigned no value to what may have been said in response to his own words.
“That is, if he hasn’t perished already during all the time we spent sidetracked.” With Ander’s morbid statement as a response to Anearis’s motivating words to the party, the knight strides out, taking lead with his lantern held in front. Ignoring Virgil’s quip, and paying credit to the earlier possibility, that he simply assigned no value to what may have been said in response to his own words.

As Ander finally reached the end of the northern tunnel, he took only a few moments looking left and right, before sternly saying “Right.” And turned to head that direction.

The end of the tunnel opened westward to a large room approximately 60 feet by 30 feet. At the far end was a large statue on a stone platform, flanked by two large basins containing lit fires, illuminating a large majority of the area. The room floor is covered in rubble, not from above, but likely the remnants of stone structures that were once free standing within the room. Additionally, but just a minor detail, at the base of the still standing statue were two robed figures ((likely more cultists)) laying on the floor.

To the east however, the tunnel immediately became a wide straight descending staircase. Ander now stood around the top.

“Perhaps. If you find me in Midgar, I would be more than willing to take another look.” Herrpees replied, as a fair we’ll to Viilgahan, before the dragonborn went to catch up with the rest of the party.