Once Sean finds the keys, Richard gets to work unshackling the slaves and focuses the rest of his attention on them, getting a count of how many there are, roughly appraising the state of their injuries (mainly how well they can walk and move around, now they're unshackled) and talking to them. He's curious about who they are and what skills they have, as he tries to come up with a plan to deal with them. After all, the exiles can't just set them free and walk away, not when the people were in this bad of a state, but any plan is going to have to involve the freed people taking an active role in things, so getting a good read on their state and abilities is important to Richard. In particular, he's curious if anyone there has any talent with handling animals - he couldn't see the exiles making much use of the stagecoaches in the future, but they were big enough that they could carry a good amount of people out of here, if any of the slaves could get a handle on the horses and drive the coaches. There's also the question of where exactly they'd be going, and Richard works on that in the back of his mind as he works to address the immediate issues.