Quote from Ereshion >>

Talion looks at the dog, smiling. "Lucky Bear usually runs when there's danger. Show me, darkness doesn't bother me..."  He will follow Ervan back down to the southwest, checking out each nook and cranny as he proceeds behind the elf.

Perception: 9 (if Ervan counts as help, 12) [Passive 14]

 As all three of you walk down the corridor, every so often your foot crunches a long dried out bone, making cracking noises.  You look in each cell.  There is a bit of rotting straw or cloth blanket in each room you pass, along with a set of rusted manacles on the back wall.  It smells of piss and animal feces and small insects scurry out of your way as you pass.  Every so often, the manacles are seen to hold an arm bone, or else parts of skeletons are on the floor.

About halfway down the corridor, far away from your friends, Lucky Bear begins to growl again, looking to her right.  A couple of things here:
- Lucky Bear moves into the cell to your right.  Some clattering of chains against the wall can be heard, along with a dry plaintive moan, "Kill me..." it intones...The sound echoes on the walls...
- Lucky comes back out of the cell with a leg bone in her mouth.  Her ears perk up once more and she sniffs.  She moves to the left to the wall and sniffs at it.  She begins pawing at the wall and then sits there, chewing on the bone....

Glancing cautiously around the corner of the door, what does Talion see?

Quote from Ereshion >>

Glancing cautiously through the door, what does Talion see?

 A dessicated skeleton hangs at the back of the cell, its eyes fully formed and normal looking blue colour.  It notices you looking and starts moving again, creating quite a lot of noise.  It speaks to you in Draconic and Common:   "Kill me!  Kill me, please!  End this torment!  I beg you!"  

Erven moves to look and see what said “Kill me”, shield and rapier up, ready to fight.  

Erven speaks to it in common, “What were you?  Tell us what we face here and we will put you out of your misery.  What is about to happen here?”

Talion stares wide-eyed at the creature, his head shaking slowly. At Erven's words, he turns slowly to the elf, and his jaw drops. This place is finally beginning to get to me, and he's calm as a drugged dowager. His earlier distrust of Lucky resurfaces, and he glances quickly at the dog to see what she's doing before turning back to the skeleton in morbid fascination, waiting to hear if it will answer, and trying to understand how it's even speaking. He involuntarily takes a step backwards.

This is the look that Erven is giving the skeleton.  

Bertolt will move forward to keep up with the rest, keeping his latern held up high in order to continue shining light ahead of himself. As they get to the cells he slows to let his more hardy companions go ahead.

Okay, if Bert has come with you with his lantern, then Erven, YOU see thin creases on the wall that would suggest a doorway...looking at the map, this is on the right side of the hallway that you’re in, about halfway down it. You’d guess this could lead into the “water room.”

”I’m damned to rot here for my betrayal and my questioning of the supreme lord,” the skeleton begins, its raspy voice reminding you of sand on rock...it chuckles (you think).....”What you face here?  You face death Or subservience, which do you prefer?! Please, kill me!  End this unlife - I can feel everything, the bugs, the maggots, the rats...and the drumming and chanting and screaming...please, please!  You’re the first in countless years, I’ve paid for my blasphemy ten times over!  Please!”

Sho moves down the corridor towards the group, glancing into the dilapidated cells along each side. Stopping, he sighs, and puts a hand on Talion’s shoulder and steps in front of him. With the light, he carefully studies the predicament that the skeleton is currently in and the bony prisoner’s mental state. ”Why in a cell?" Sho asks slowly, ”Wouldn't they want to put your body to use for the supreme lord?"

Insight: 12 

Erven turns and points out the secret door to the others.  “What is in the water room?  Who is Ancient?  Who is the land?”  He pauses, considering what to do with this miserable skeleton.  

Quote from WhiteByakko >>

Sho moves down the corridor towards the group, glancing into the dilapidated cells along each side. Stopping, he sighs, and puts a hand on Talion’s shoulder and steps in front of him. With the light, he carefully studies the predicament that the skeleton is currently in and the bony prisoner’s mental state. ”Why in a cell?" Sho asks slowly, ”Wouldn't they want to put your body to use for the supreme lord?"

Insight: 12 

 It doesn’t seem to be deceitful, though who can be sure?  What would being hung up to rot away, incapable of death and feeling every second of it, do to a person?  You’re left to contemplate such a reality without a really good answer...

Quote from Twombley >>

Erven turns and points out the secret door to the others.  “What is in the water room?  Who is Ancient?  Who is the land?”  He pauses, considering what to do with this miserable skeleton.  

 The undead creature looks off to the side. “Your deaths, or your servitude, not likely.  That is the ritual chamber.  That is where my brethren sacrifice to the so-called lord of the realm. But they made a mistake! Oh yes yes!  A big mistake!  Something quite different answered back - o ho! -something quite different indeed!  Hee hee hee! Ooh, ha ha ha!”  Dust and bits of tooth fly from it’s mouth and it lies still for a moment....before gasping once more, it’s normal looking eyes plead for release....

Sho stares serenely into the skeleton's frantic eyes, blue orbs glowing eerily in the darkness, full of desperate pain and endless madness, waiting for a non-existent hope in a forgotten, dilapidated cell. "What's your name?" Sho asks.

“We can help you, if you will help us. Tell us what happened in there - Who did they summon? What happened to the house? What happened to the Dursts?” He points to the door that leads to the water chamber, “Help us fight. They locked you in here, didn’t they? How many dark years have you spent with rats and maggots, forgotten, and left to suffer? How many more desperate years will you have to wait for another chance like this? Fight with us. And maybe - you will be able to walk out of this house a free man. If not, you will still find the death you’ve been looking for.”

Erven looks over at Sho and nods, continues to prompt the skeleton for answers.  "I would like to know who you are and what your story has been as well.  What blasphemy did you commit?  How did you betray the "supreme lord"?  Tell us more if you wish us to help you."  Erven keeps up his defensive posture.  

The skeleton groans and seems to fight to speak.  "I was Erland, a misguided youth.  I will never leave this place, it's as the master of the house promised.  Nothing in this house dies! And nothing leaving it will last either! It will come back, over and over and over!  Or it will turn to dust outside this cursed place!   I will never be free until you end whatever is going on in there.  You have been lucky to make it here, but...but...no!  No please, I wasn't going to say...agghhhhhhh!"  before your very eyes, the skeleton begins to change: its empty mouth makes a sound as if it is choking, its eyes bulge out of their blackened sockets, the very bone begins to melt, it's bones liquefying into dark black goop.  Clearly, "Erland" has helped you more than he should have.   A metallic "cling" on the floor catches your eye - a gold ring shines dully in the lantern light...

Talion, who moved aside to allow the priest through, listens to the conversation, then just watches as the creature -- Erland -- dissolves into a pool of goo. He shudders briefly then glances around at his companions, "Well, that's different" he says with a grin. "Wish they'd all do that."

He pauses, eying the ring speculatively, but can't bring himself to touch the black goo, so instead moves to investigate whatever it was that Lucky Bear was pawing it.

Investigation: 16

At this point Erven heads back to get Onyx and bring him into the room.  On the way back he stops briefly to look through the portcullis and examine the water room to see if there is any movement, any sign of activity.  Also look to see if there is any mechanism for opening the portcullis.  We walk back into the room with the cells, he bends down and examines (with Talion's help) the secret door further, checking for any traps.  After examining, he will turn to the others and say "Should we go in?  I wonder about looking at that portcullis on the other side, seeing if there is any way to get it open, getting it stuck/locked in the open position.  What do you think?"

Erven perception, with help : 19 

Passive perception : 15

Erven notices the creases in the the wall, mossy seams that suggest a doorway is hidden there.  After a bit of rooting around, Talion, you see it as well....no traps are noticed on this secret door...

Erven, there isn't a mechanism to lift the portcullis that you can see.  Perhaps it's on the other side?  Though the teeth of the portcullis is in the water, it's only a couple of feet deep and you could probably get a good handhold to try to open it, if you wish...

Erven walks with Onyx back to the southwest hall, rejoining the others.  "What do you think of trying to lift up and prop open that portcullis?  I wonder what awaits us in the murky water.  I would rather fight it out in that main room, whatever it may be.  How should we proceed?"  He looks from face to face, considering options.

A little bit more before you head forward.  Anyone who looks through the portcullis with dark vision more or less notices the following:

You’d guess the dimensions to be about 40 or 50 feet wide and the same width the other way. When you look in through the bars, there is a light mist and all chanting and sounds stop. The smooth masonry walls provide excellent acoustics. Featureless stone pillars support the ceiling, and a breach in the south wall leads to a dark cave heaped with refuse. Murky water covers most of the floor. Stairs lead up to dry stone ledges that hug the walls. In the middle of the room, more stairs rise to form an octagonal dais that also rises above the water. Rusty chains with shackles dangle from the ceiling directly above a stone altar mounted on the dais. The altar is carved with hideous depictions of grasping ghouls and is stained with dry blood.
The water looks to be about 2 feet deep throughout. The ledges and central dais are 5 feet high (3 feet higher than the water’s surface), and the chamber’s ceiling is 16 feet high (11 feet above the dais and ledges). The chains dangling from the ceiling are 8 feet long; it looks like the cultists would shackle prisoners to the chains, dangle them above the altar, cut them open with knives, and allow the altar to be bathed in blood.  Judging by the discoloration of the altar, it must have seen many victims indeed.