A Winter Night

[Altias_Bromn]

A nod at that, excellent idea. The mace blows were immediately aimed then for the lock and handle of the door. Once, tiwce, three times, and the unmistakable sound of metal shattering against metal rang out in the smoke filled hall.

"Good thinking, Agnie!"

He tossed her a smile through the thickening smoke, as he wrenched on the door.

"Come on Jons, let's go home!"

There would be a time, much later if they survived all of this, that he would think of this moment and smile. It may have been that she was simply adressing him as she would any man of ...standing, so to speak, but she had called him 'Guv', a name he sorely missed, and it lightened his heart.

A hand would hold the mace out toward Jons as the door creaked open, the hinges sagging from the heat and the abuse the door had suffered. The other would reach out toward Agnie, motioning down the hall.

"We need to get him out of here, into the clear air, no doubt his lungs are suffering."

[Carnath-Emory]

"Later."

It is the whole of her reply to Athena, who is encouraged towards the mouth of the caverns by a jerk of the swordswoman's chin.

"For now, you're best with Rautha -- if you please, sera." A woman asks this very courteously of Athena, asks very pleasantly, given the circumstances, and hopes not to regret that fact later. But if Athena should imagine that hers is an isolated case, comfort's to follow almost directly after, but Acteon has said 'smoke', and Rautha as well...

""He's the right of it. Ignas, ser," as she turns towards Acteon over again. "All of you: with them, please. We've bodies in there still, and I mean not to complicate them -- "

This is not a woman designed for such leadership, who accepts it only because Rautha will heed her, and because she dreads the consequences of anarchy more than almost anything else. They will find that Quincy accompanies them, should they begin to move from the caverns, but that Ariane is splitting almost immediately from their number, and the reason for this soon becomes clear, for: "You'll do it, Rautha," she's assuring that one. "But not until we've every man out."

To which end she is become motion all over again, an armoured sprint down that winding corridor, with little heed for stealth -- for anything at all but haste.

"Companions!" it cries, so that she's haunted for a time by the echo of her own voice. "We are leaving!"

[Cinnabar]

Sventon, ushered back towards the cells, will soon find the reasoning behind the direction Cinnabar takes. Quieter back here, calmer. Less fighting, and less smoke for that matter. It is only as he passes the one of the barred alcoves that he realises that he has been stupid. Or at least, thoughtless. So likely to Sventon's confusion he once more turns back to the main chamber, his expression that of a man who recalls only after he has left his house that he lacks his hat, or coinpurse, or other such small but necessary item.

For on the way towards that passage out of the caverns that Sventon had been so keen to reach, Cinnabar noticed Magnus' hands still patiently gripping the bars of his cell. Still locked in, having been shoved back there by the swordswoman for his own safety. The swordswoman who had then dashed back towards the fight.

Whatever happens, whatever the reason he's in there, he can't be left to languish in his cell when this band of explorers depart. Left to bake or choke in whatever fire rages further into the caverns, left to whatever the cultists have in store for him should they return, or left to die of hunger and thirst if they do not.

Peering back into the main cavern he glances around briefly before calling out.

"Ariane! I require the key!"

It would almost be comical, were it not so inconvenient.

[channe]

Companions! We are leaving!

"Not wi'out us," she grouses, mostly to herself --

but she's looking back at Jons and Altias, then, with one arm tight around Rhaena's shoulders -- unconsciously; see, Rhaena, the dead body at your feet. And Rhaena has seen that kind of shoved-under anger from her before -- that strange, dangerous sublimation.

"There's a koltist in here," the girl hollers, and there's one last vicious kick to the locked door. "Seen our faces."

[Carnath-Emory]

...seen our faces...

...the key!


So that there comes the groaning slap of a gauntleted palm against one of the walls that she passes, metal grating against rough stone. Let him burn, she would very much like to shout; Let him very conveniently perish, except that she knows the interior of one such cell.

Six men had forced her into the corner of it. Five had survived the attempt.

So that instead, Ariane is twisted back around -- and not without a glance for the direction of Agnieszka's great hollering shout. Is for a moment very torn, is thrusting herself away from the wall to retrace her steps over again, and this time it's towards Cinnabar and his prize that she's run. Hard down those corridors, and with the key gripped between fingers from which the iron has begun to soften, so that what finally pauses before Magnus' cell is a halfmade thing entirely. Like a frustrated predator's, her head jerks towards Calomel, and there are teeth gritted behind the sheen of quicksilver.

"Be right about this," Ariane demands tightly of him. "Be right." Too trusting, it had been. Too naive. Oh really.
"And you," as the head swings back towards Magnus now, and perhaps it wears a snarl, and perhaps it wears a smile, and perhaps there's really little difference between the two. "You'll keep yourself well, and you'll heed his word.

Or I'll have your eyes myself."

[Cinnabar]

A thin smile as Ariane hurries past him towards the cells, the apprentice only stooping to retrieve the slashed remains of Sventon's robe before following after, nudging the cultist ahead of him as he goes. While the swordswoman busies herself with the lock, Cinnabar is cutting free the robe's remaining sleeve.

"Right as I am able."

He nods amiably to Magnus as the cell door swings open once more with a squawk of unoiled metal; the wide strip of silk is twisted in his hands to form a perfectly serviceable rope, similar to that currently worn by Sventon. Ariane's caution, nay, threat to the prisoner has him raising a brow, but he doesn't voice comment upon it. Instead:

"As the lady says, sir."

The makeshift rope is held out in Magnus' direction.

"If you'd turn round and hold your hands behind your back, sir, that would make things a lot easier. I'd rather not have to ask twice." Polite and reasonable as ever. For now.

[Vanidor]

((OOC: Sorry about the Delay. I've been contemplating the response for... quite some time. >.>))

Jons remained where he was for a moment, hearing Altias' cry as if from another room entirely. The next breath he took was hard on the lungs, pain shooting through his system. It reminded him of the time he took a lance to the thigh. The injury had been bad. The healing magics used had been worse. 'At least you didn't gain a limp, you old bastard.' Jons smiled slightly behind his mask, coughed again, and then turned towards Altias and the freedom of the doorway.

One hand rose for the mace, aiming to grip the familiar handle by gloved fingers. His other hand shook, freeing it of the weight of the wooden buckler. It flapped on the ground and would, most assuredly, soon become one with the flames he had started. Another step, and here he was reaching with that now freed arm towards Altias.

As he did his voice rasped out, the throat strained by the smear of smoke that still coiled out of the room, as well as from the horrific threats he had been yelling earlier..."Let's get out of his fuck-pit, Master Bromn. I seem to have lost my fondness for smoke... Anyone left in here can feed the flames for all I care, Agnieszka. Throw a table b'fore that locked door and let us went."

[Rattrap]

Athena's expression slowly soured to a disappointed frown as she succeeded to Ariane's request, replying with only: "Shucks." She swung her coat over her shoulders, though she did not slip her arms through the sleeves again - and her other four hands each rested on one of her blades. The self-employed bartender headed in Rautha's direction, but didn't go further than directed. She'd marched for far too long in dumb curiosity to turn around and leave.

But on the other hand, she didn't have a particular desire to be blown up or impaled in a hail of crossbow bolts.

[Acteon]

Now that the distance had grown between himself and Athena, Acteon was finally willing to sheath his blade. He slid his kukri into the sheath strapped to his thigh. He then moved to the mouth of the cave. He eyed the men of Thessilane and then stuck his head out just slightly to peer outside. Then, feeling safe enough, he quickly snatched up his hankyu, which he had dropped when he was shot by the blunts.

He held the bow in his right hand, rather than his left, indicating that he probably had no intention of using it (or that he couldn’t due to the blunt that struck his left arm). But now that his bow was safe with him again, he felt a bit better.

He would not leave the cave yet--not without everyone else. So, he stayed at the mouth of the cave, awaiting a request for assistance within or for the group to exit. Until one of those happened, he likely would not move.

[channe]

She hovers; she turns, as if to go back to that room for the table, and nearly trips over the dead koltist.

Dead.

It staggers her; it clutches at her throat, and she thinks -- dead, dead, I did that, it's what I'm supposed to do, it was even easy -- and there is mild panic in her chest, and she feels she has to get out, out, out --

"Okay," is her hoarse response, and the hand not holding the dagger will reach for Rhaena's, and if there's contact and the sense of fingers wrapped around fingers, she'll take off for Ariane's voice and for the mouth of the cave.

[Magnus]

Magnus did not step immediately from the cell as the metal groaned his freedom, for he was greeted with clear, sharp suspicion. He raised a brow at Carnath-Emory, and then he smiled as he turned his back to them, holding his wrists close together for Cinnabar to tie them.

"It is the wise thing for you to do. After all, you do not know my purpose here, or if I have a purpose at all."

Once the rope was secured about his wrists and Cinnabar let him from the cell, he stepped out and gave Sventon a small, somewhat pitying smile.

"Ignorance really can lead us astray."

The remains of his heavy boots shuffle-hissed on the stone floor as they started back toward the corridor and the way out, beyond; that was Cinnabar's intention, to get everyone to safety.

[Sventon]

Sventon stood partially in the wake of Cinnabar, almost as though the young man were trying to hide himself without literally cowering; though he didn't voice his feelings, it was clear that he did not like the man inside of the cell. He refused to rise to Magnus' deliberate jabs, biting the inside of his cheek and clenching his sharp jaw. Getting Hans out of the soon to be flaming caves might become far less imperative if he proved himself a troublemaker by engaging in an arguement.

He stepped back as they came out of the cell, glaring at the tall prisoner's brief acknowledgement; his muscles tensed, and he swallowed his mouthful of anger. Now he had two people to stand as far away from as possible - Magnus, and that dark-haired woman who looked and sounded more adept at gouging eyeballs than anyone he'd ever met.

Sventon wore a simple, brown tunic now that Cinnabar had rid him of the robes. Maybe no one would make instinctive target practice out of him because of the change. That was the plan, but he was still afraid.

As they started past the cells and along the narrow corridor, he was sure to stay close to his silver-haired captor.

[Quincy]

The girl's thin shoulders rose and fell sharply with her laboured breaths, and slightly widened eyes watched Athena slowly retreat - Ignas' shouts still ringing in her ears, and the whisper of her sister's retreating bootsteps walking across her heart. She edged to the side of the tunnel, standing near but not right next to Acteon so that they would both have room to draw their weapons again.

"This was bad," was her needless, helm-muffled whisper to the quiet man. Never had she felt a lack of preparation affect anything so acutely, in all her years of adventuring and last-minute gatherings.

She said nothing else for a time, for she was a wispy thing in a dangerous place, and she'd wait until they were safely away to weigh herself down with heavy thoughts. Instead she watched the haste of the group, some of them rushing out of the tunnel past them, and others off, for some reason, in that other tunnel. She had no intentions of walking out of here unless it was directly behind her sister and Cinnabar.

[Acteon]

Acteon, too, watched the comings and goings of the group members. He didn’t join them because he didn’t know where he was needed at this point--if he was needed at all--and he didn’t want to get in the way. As a result, he continued to hover next to Quincy.

When she spoke, the huntsman just nodded silently in reply. He didn’t look at the small woman who tred softly and carried a big sword; he merely continued to look down the tunnel as he nodded. Eventually, he spoke, “But it could have been worse. So much worse. Imagine if the Baie had been home.â€

[Altias_Bromn]

"Let's get out of his fuck-pit, Master Bromn. I seem to have lost my fondness for smoke... Anyone left in here can feed the flames for all I care, Agnieszka. Throw a table b'fore that locked door and let us went."

Altias would come stumbling from the smoke filled tunnel, hopefully with Jons and the girls in tow.

As he emerged he would head toward Acteon and Quincy.

"I would have to concur with Jons here...let's get the...well, I think it is high time we left this place."

A cant of his head toward Aceton as he overhears the tracker's words.

"We should be glad that fire is our only real enemy here. If luck stands with us, we shall escape this pit alive. If not...then perhaps the Baie yet waits for us."

A hand, covered in blood, splinters and soot, would rise to clap the tracker on the shoulder. A smile, calm and lifeless, before he would begin his trek toward the caverns exit.