The rhodin listens to Pyior's conditions and considers them for a moment. He looks briefly at Danwyn and the giant brothers, then seems to come to a decision. (Diplomacy/Intimidation: roll 12-1+5 circumstance = 16)
"Yes, yes," the rhodin say, "I tell you. When the army attacked us, we held out for a little while. Then they started to attack from inside the keep through a secret way we never found. Many of us fled through this cave. The rest went to another cave, somewhere in the forest. I don't know where it is...only the scouts did. They say it was about a day walk to get there."
He looks at Pyior expectantly. "You let me go now? I answer questions. I answer other questions if you have them, but I don't know much. I don't know if they even made it to other cave because they never come back for us."
*******************
The officer listens to Aurial while the small squad gathers up their gear.
"So, there was a secret door back in that mess," he says. "I thought we should have checked that out closer. After a falling cabinet broke Hother's leg, the Colonel forbade anyone else to dig through there. Said he didn't think it possible for the rhodin to have fled that way. He's gonna be pissed when he hears he was wrong."
The soldiers follow Aurial through the store room and come up short at the rickety ladder in the hole. The officer orders rope be tied to some of the heavier furniture and dropped down the hole. With the rope supporting most of their weight, they are able to get to the bottom without breaking any more rungs.
"Lead on, Hawksister," the officer says.
(ooc - you'll be caught back up to the others shortly...give them another minute or two of interrogation time.)