The boy begins to panic when Elwood suggests leaving him in the cage.  "Wait until later?!  They could come back and kill me before you return.  By all the sapphires in the Islands, you could be killed and never come back at all!  You can't leave me in here!  You let me out of here and I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

"first let's start with is there any consistency to when they come for you  kids. Second how many people do you know of that are here at any point in time, i.e. how many different men have you seen. Third how would you defend yourself against an enemy made entirely of stone for if you leave now you will certainly have yo defend yourself against that."

To the boy, speaking quietly, but in Elwood's deepest, sternest, fire-and-brimstone sermon voice:  "We will be back. Like my friend said, unless you're armored and have a weapon to wield, the lot of you will be safer here until we return.  Plus if you were to try to leave through the door we just entered, you would end up wishing you were back here in that cage, unless you want to deal with living statues hell bent on crushing and drowning you or entering a crypt full of undead looking for a nice bite-sized meal."

In a more gentler and softer tone:  "Now, if you really want to help us get you out of here, what do you know of this place? How many people are here? How often do they come by? Is there anything you can say about the layout?"

Anthony stands back and lets people talk with the children. His solution to the problem beyond the door stood on offer, but more immediate in-the-room matters rather justifiably took their attention.

Cole's brow furrows as he stares at the kid, unease twisting within him.  "I may have been mistaken before...I don't trust this kid now. I am sensing he has the gall to alert Oswald to our presence.  I can't explain why, call it a gut feeling... perhaps a nap is the best remedy for this sort of predicament..." Cole sends a look rife with meaning to his more magically gifted compatriots.  "Whatever is done, let us hurry, the longer we tarry, the sooner Oswald or his goons can happen upon us."

Jack stands beside Elwood and nods his head in agreement. "Yep, you definitely don't want to be wandering around back there with all those flesh-starved zombies and killer statues. Nope, definitely not. Oh yeah, and the poison darts. Those are bad too. Best to stay here kid."

When that conversation is over, Jack listen's to Cole's advice and gives a second thought to the situation. Heading over to Anthony, he whispers "Cole has a very good point. This kid might just get anxious and start yelling out. It wouldn't hurt if he were asleep. Of course if you don't have a spell we could always just gag him."

Having said his peace, Jack moves back over to the doorway and peers again into the darkness beyond. "Okay, someone cast some light in here and let's go", preparing to move into the next chamber.

Feeling a bit safer with the presence of Sir Jack behind her, the fighter ready and poised to bash any oncoming evil in the face, the druid continues to peer out into the darker darkness. Brow creasing as a thought flickers to mind, she peeks up at him over her shoulder. "I can throw some Faerie Fire down there...see if any creatures light up?" Still unwilling to speak loudly, her nervous words nearly run together with her whispered tone.

[OOC - Not certain if this is okay as temp leader, but there seemed to be various decisions made in opposite directions of the chamber based on what has happened so far. So after reviewing all the posts, the groups next course of action will be...

The Ranger, The Cleric, and The Wizard- Walk into a bar...no, just kidding. Sounded like there was a joke there.  As they wait to see if the boy will answer Elwoods questions or start shrieking to alert Oswald, Anthony will be prepared to launch a sleep spell at the kid at the first sign of malicious intent. Cole will be ready to lend aid on a more muscled level if needed.

The Assassin/Thief - Keeps her Elven eyes on those questioning the boy, but poised to speed over to the door if help is needed.

The Fighter and The Druid - Dreya remembers she can do light as well. Finding an object, she will cast light on it, and then open the door long enough to hurl it down the hallway into the dark darkness before scrambling backward to get beind the armored wall that is Sir Jack, peering around him to see what happens to the lighted object.]
This message was last edited by the player at 16:51, Sat 01 July 2017.

[OOC:  Sounds like a plan]

Seline seeing that Elwood has taken over the questioning of the child thinking he may have better luck than her as he seems to have the patients to deal with the child goes and inspects carefully the point on the wall the young man mentioned not trusting him as he seems to not have suffered the same fates as the rest of the youth looking for traps. On her way to investigate she does whisper to Cole "I agree with you while magic would be the nicer means I'm not sure wasting a spell is worth it when we can just knock him out the old fashion way after "letting him" out of his cage"

[OOC Until Seline walks over to the inspect the hidden key she would be doing just as Dreya said watching the boy and the door]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:21, Sat 01 July 2017.

[OOC - CORRECTION...Anthony will not immedietly launch his spell off. But if the need arises, he will keep himself poised should other means not work to subdue the boy. Instead casting anything will remain a last resort

End of leadership thingy.]
This message was last edited by the player at 06:59, Mon 03 July 2017.

[OOC: With that caveat from Dreya, agreed. Let's move forward :-)]

Seline easily finds the false stone in the wall after looking where the boy pointed.  The stone pivots on a hinge, revealing a small shelf carved into the stone wall.  A key is inside.

Dreya casts light on a stone and tosses it down the corridor (I'm going to guess she is throwing it to the right instead of the left).  The stone's glow lights up a space about 5 feet in diameter as it bounces down the corridor.  The light ends abruptly rather than gradually weakening.  You get the impression of artwork or writing on the walls as the stone moves east.  The stone's light reveals a door on the north wall about 20 feet down the corridor, then the light vanishes.

The boy becomes more upset at Elwood's sermon.  "I'll take my chances with the statues and the darts!  I'm not staying here another minute.  Open the door or I'll kill this girl here.  We're all going to die anyway."  The boy points to a sleeping waif in the corner of the boy's cage and bends down to pick up a loose stone.  He stands over her with the stone raised above his head, poised to smash her cute little skull.

"Sir Jack!" Dreya gasps to the warrior behind her, pointing down the hall toward the point where her lit up rock winked out like snuffing a candle. "Did you see that? The drawings? But I didn't see movement, I think...now what I should do? I saw a door..."

Anthony raises his wand, his face cold. "Azkavat radontis," he says grimly. The boy drops unconscious, as do several of the other children.

He turns to the others. "Someone open the cage and tie up that lout. I won't go near him--I can't be trusted not to gut him." A rather atypical rage dances across his face.

Cast Sleep.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:06, Wed 05 July 2017.

"Good work Dreya. Yeah, I saw that, on the wall. Loos like some kind of drawing or weird writing. We'll take a closer look when we head over to the door. We might need another stone for light though. Did you see the way the light stopped? That may be where the darkness spell ends. If you can cast light again, I'll go in first to check things out."

Hearing Anthony's words behind him, Jack turns to the group by the cage and is alarmed at the situation. "Do you have a magic missile handy to deal with that murderous little bastard?" he asks, with a hint of anger in his voice.

Once Seline unlocks the cage door, Elwood ties up and gags the boy.  "We should lock the cage back up just to keep them safe, but we should probably keep the key."


Elwood then joins the others, taking his place in line.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:29, Wed 05 July 2017.

Seline unlocking the cage stands guard while Elwood deals with the small child. Once he finishes dealing with the boy she relocks the cage and puts the key on her person. "I agree Elwood I'll keep the key on my person in case we need it." Before joining back up the group Seline does her best to close the secret hiding place making it look like it wasn't open keeping the key with her.

Anger roils within Cole at the boy's threat toward the sleeping girl. Luckily before his rage unleashed itself on the unsuspecting lad, his companions stepped in to put that little brat in his place. Cole readies himself to catch the boy should he manage to squirm his way out of his companions clutches, placing himself in front of the cage door as a means of blocking the boy from trying to run again.

Dreya finds another rock to cast light on, then holds it out the the fighter, peering up at him. "Her, Sir Jack."

Jack takes the stone from Dreya, and pauses momentarily as his friends approach and ready themselves. When everyone is alert, he holds the stone out in front of him and slowly makes his way through the doorway.

He first heads towards the wall so that everyone can get a look at the drawings, then moves toward the exit.

"Don't spread out too far." he warns.

Anthony clears his throat. "I can still cast a light spell into the room to dispel the darkness. If we have difficulty moving forward, I will do so.."

That being said, he is willing to try it Jack's way, though his face is full of worry...

Dreya is full of worry too, considering she is practically plastered against Jack as they go down the hallway.  This is all whether everything goes as planned from the CK's update with the boy. LOL
This message was last edited by the player at 23:40, Sun 09 July 2017.

The sleep spell drops the boy to the floor.  Elwood rushes into the cage and ties the boy up.  Surprisingly, the boy does not wake up during this process.  He doesn't react at all until Elwood steps back outside the cage and the door is locked once more.

At that point, the boy begins to twitch and thrash violently.  After a moment his torso jerks upright as though he were being pulled up by a string.  His elbows stick up as well, while his head lolls to the side, giving the impression of a marionette.  He dangles with his feet hanging an inch or so off the ground.  His eyes open to reveal completely red eyeballs.  He begins to laugh through his gag and then starts saying something that is too muffled to make out.  His body flies forward to crash into the bars with a clang, then zips back before smashing into the bars again.  Blood streams from his nose as he laughs some more.

With a startled shriek at the sudden clang of cage doors, Dreya drops the large rock she had lit up with natural magic as she practically jumps out of her skin.

"What was that??" She asks in a voice that ends at least two octives higher.

Frantically she spins around, the open door to the dark hallway behind her the furthest from her mind. When her gaze alights on the floating, glowey eyes of the "caged" boy, she scrambles backward even as she is bringing her bow around and fumbling an arrow from the quiver at her waist.

The brave little druid, or trying to be brave anyway, will fire an arrow if she sees her other friends attack.