Northlands Campaign

She thanks you and ushers the others out the door to follow your directions.  As she leaves, she turns back, "thank ye all for getting us outta here and gods' speed in kicking The One's arse."  The four of them head upstairs, then hustle quickly back down.  "How did ye get past dem rats?"  Rachel quickly shows them where the second barrel of bait was at the top of the stairs, and they are off on their way once and for all.

Recap:  right-hand door in the western wall is still unopened; door at the east end of the main hall shows indeterminant traffic; the main hall and south halls have zombie corpses and scattered bones.  

“We can set up the ambush in the courtyard area but, depending on where we set up, we may need to watch two places since we have not cleared the whole area down here. Not saying it can’t be done, just something to consider. If we do setup to execute an ambush in the courtyard I’ll want to see if I can position myself somewhere up in the watch towers to cover the approach over the moat and the courtyard.”

Bart walks in whistling while looking at the "nests" and plops on one of them as if its his own and says " A little rough around the edges but seems comfortable to me.... I have an idea adventurers and it may be outlandish, but I think we can pull it off. Why don't me and our lovely Kina hide since we are a little... different from yall. And have Cade take the halflings place, Barnabus take the dwarves place and have Rachel here and Wil take the other two since they were human." He pauses looking at Wil "Now I know you ain't human, but I venture a guess that they ain't gonna notice in this dark room. Once they come back and are fooled that their prisoners are still in place we attack catching them with their pants down as they say."

"I have some concerns, the foremost of which is that Cade, Rachel, Barnubus, and I will essentially be trapped in that room until you and Kina arrive. If you are discovered or delayed they will have the advantage and if they have a decent caster, one good fireball into that cell and we're toast.... literally. While we might have to watch two fronts in the courtyard I think the space there will allow us to take advantage of the diverse skills of our group and give us room to fight and move." 

"While I like the nest idea I'm inclined to agree with Will. If I didn't think the smashed locks would be a dead give away I'd go for it. Just feel it would be too easy to trap us in there by simply not undoing the bolts then Kina and Bart would have to deal with them alone. Stonefist said we had about two hours before they're due back. We've time to think about it. Lets clear that other room and make sure there aren't any surprises left in this area. By the looks of it they be comin' outta that door yonder anyway." Barnabus goes to the right door ( not the door with the traffic) and waits for the rest to ready themselves. Once satisfied everyone is on board he'll open the door.

Kina pipes up.
"To say nothing of whether they actually go up to check on the ones we silenced earlier first. They were probably look outs of some sort or at least guards, they might seek a report." she says.
"I mean, we ARE in a castle ruin, surely something of the old fortifications is still solid enough we could make use of them, even if it's something as simple and crude as shooting arrows from the wall.... though we have no idea if they actually will be coming back with more hostages. Mmmm." Kina mumbles.
"I wouldn't want to put any possible new hostages in danger. These crazy bastards are pretty cold."

OCC: just to clarify, we're underground right now. Correct? 

Barnabus will open the right door.

OOC: Yes, we are still underground in front of the doors.

Cade would speak into the others minds as they discuss ambushing. "Let's just clear the place out, then we can surprise them by attacking them where they are, instead of waiting for them to come to us." He would follow to the right door then when that is opened.

Behind the right door you find a mirror image of the other room, 10 nests, all empty, and a pair of chests by the door.

Wil looks in the chests.

They appear to be empty.  Roll a Perception or Investigation check.

Kina will examine the nests, check for blood, signs if they've been used recently. She's mostly wondering if maybe the other cultists left to deliver some hostages to another compound, a place more secure and less about to fall over.

Investigation: 15

Kina:  As you search through the nests, you find no blood or any signs of abuse or mistreatment, but they do seem to be a bit stale.  You would guess about 2 weeks since they have seen use.  Taking a peek inside the chests, one seems to be a few inches deeper than the other.

Bart will just make an investigation on the rooms to see if there is something hidden like a passage or anything that we haven't exactly spotted yet. 

Investigate: 7

Bart:  You find no evidence of secret passages or other doors.

Investigation: 18

Wil looks at the rest of the group members, “Seems to me we have two choices before us, explore and clear this and possibly more lower levels or go up to the courtyard and ahem, greet the returning occupants. Personally, I’m not a fan of small spaces since it makes using my bow harder, but that doesn’t mean I’m ineffective in them, so I’m fine with either choice.”

Wil:  You notice that even though the two chests appear to be the same size, one seems to be a few inches deeper than the other.

Wil sees if he can lift or pry up the bottom of the chest that appears to be shallower than the other one.

(Is it that way for both sets of chests or just a single chest?)