Continuing our investigation of the Redbrand's hideout, we locate what appears to be a prison, holding a few villagers and guarded by a pair of thugs. Roric is pleased with his new weapon - he's able to kill both guards in one hit each (after Airick and Forgrim soften them up a bit - but two massive blows in a row is still damn impressive).
[woman Mirna Dendrar, her daughter Nilsa and son Nars, kidnapped when Redbrands raided their home; husband Thel didn't come home the night of the raid - turns out he's probably the body at the bottom of the crevasse; she offers information on the location of a family heirloom]
We rescued Mirna from the Redbrands and though her family has nothing to offer as a reward, Mirna told us that she might know where a valuable heirloom is hidden. When she was a young girl, she and her family fled from the town of Thundertree after undead overran the place. Her family had an herb and alchemy shop, inside which a case containing an emerald necklace was hidden beneath a section of storage shelves. She never dared to return and retrieve it. The shop was in the southeast part of Thundertree.
Escorting Mirna and her children back to their home, we take a short rest, as some of our party need the time to recover from our recent combats under the manor. Returning to the manor hideout, Forgrim and I are able to determine without a doubt that the body in the chasm is, in fact, Thel Dendrar. We're agreed that we need to bring the body back for a proper burial, but not until after we finish clearing out the caverns and whatever else it connects to.
Continuing our explorations, we find a passageway that leads down some stairs to a pair of doors. There are people in both rooms, and Airick ties off both doors, trying to lock the people in or at least delay their emergence. To the north is a similar passage, with the door to the south leading almost certainly to the same room as the southern passage's northern door.
Several worn tables and chairs are scattered around this large room. Wooden benches are drawn up against walls decorated with draperies of brown and red, and several ale kegs are propped up and tapped. Four tough-looking human warriors wearing scarlet cloaks are gathered around one of the tables. A stack of coins and trinkets is heaped upon the tabletop between them.
By the time Rorik, Forgrim, and Wick enter the room, the gamblers are at the south door, trying to get through to investigate the commotion Airick is making as a distraction. The combat goes fairly well, even with bugbears emerging from the southernmost door to harass Airick and myself, although Wick ends up having some major trouble with his magic - somehow every spell he casts today has some unintended and unpredictable effect.