The wand is of minimum caster level, 7th.
Detect magic from Noku did not detect any unexpected magical effects of a compulsion/charm type magic on Magoun or any of Noku's companions, or so Noku says. (Ditto for anyone else who does detect magic -- so unless all the spellcasters have been dominated or charmed, your party is probably safe from that at the moment...)
Magoun's info applies only to what he saw in the underground chamber. He says that when he was last here, he saw no occupants in the main shrine above ground -- and no apparent occupants in the middle region either, there may have been snakes but he just doesn't pay attention to those unless they are pretty huge...speaking of which, he does recall at least one giant (huge) constrictor amongst the serpents in the pit.
However, he did move through the middle area "at a fairly quick speed", he says -- he didn't go poking around looking for trouble in that area -- so he would guess there might have beenn some undead -- more of the tough gaki, probably, not much worth his while. If that is the case, then perhaps the Mirumoto Clan faction would be appropriate for dealing with such distractions and thus make sure the path of retreat for your party is cleared when you leave the pit. (The Mirumoto would be willing to destroy some more undead -- more than willing, in the case of at least one of them, who has apparently made it his mission in life.)
His guess would be that the witch would have allowed only her own minions to reside in the central area of the main shrine etc. -- perhaps simply serpents in the walls (small vipers might serve that purpose nicely while making fairly useless combatants against anything that might actually threaten the witch herself) ready to slither down and inform their mistress of anyone poking around up above, allowing her time to prepare her defenses as needed. (His own plan last time seemed to have been to move silently and invisibly, having used a potion of invisibility for that purpose, down and snatch his lady back -- except that when he entered the pit, more than one set of eyes seemed to focus upon him and he deemed retreat appropriate.) Again, he wasn't actually concerned with snakes, so would probably not have noticed any vipers along the baseboards.
The entrance to the pit was achieved from the basement -- accessed from the shrine by a stairway at the back, i.e. beneath the elevated floor of the main shrine, is a basement area (he had to duck his head a bit under there, being about a head or so taller than the tallest of your party) that was probably used for storage, and from there, a stone stairway continued into the ground, it wasn't hidden really, there was a wooden trapdoor over the stone stairs that perhaps at one time was better concealed as just part of the basement floor. The pit itself did have some alcoves, ledges, etc. -- he doesn't know if any of them led anywhere else of significance.
Magoun does not seem to have any inclination to Bluff -- any Sense Motive check seems to bear out whatever he is saying at the time. (But he does have like a +20 to Balance -- running in Snow didn't seem to bother him at all!) Hatori and Ashiko would, after conversing with him for a while, rate his diplomatic bonus in the high single digits region -- evidently he is just rubbed the wrong wway by samurai...
With respect to INIT etc., what you can do is this -- we will go into rounds if/when you enter the main shrine, and you can use Delay, Refocus, whatever, to get your initiatives as high as you like and/or in whatever order you wish to be acting in.
Here's a rough look at the pit, from Magoun's brief visit a year ago... (hope this emails well)..let me know if not.
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| h |
---------- ----------
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------ p p -------
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------ p p -------
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--------------- ---------------
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| |__________________
| <------------- x
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Overall dimensions ~45' wide, 45' deep, not counting the 5' wide passageway entrance. So for instance the back section is 15' wide by 10' deep, and was where the witch (h) had her 'throne' at the time. The two back corner areas are 10' x 10', the two side areas are 5' x 15', etc., and there were four stone pillars (p). Not clear at all where all of her minions might be at any given time, there were lots of cushions around, and the alcoves were rough hewn stone, ledges, etc. -- they may have been hewn later, the original chamber may have just been a 35' x 35' square room. Upon reflection, Magoun thinks that the actual chamber is not located directly below the main shrine, but extends further north as shown, since those stairs, marked with the arrow, are the stairs leading down from the basement (ground level) storage area from the trapdoor (x), and the passageway did turn towards the north...
Anyways, that is what he remembers the place looking like. He didn't see any alternate exist, but he didn't go in far enough to look around corners either, so the two side alcoves are assumptions with respect to their closer corners.
All for now -- Ernie III / DrakaraGM