Ash receives a rock and weighs it in his hand experimentally before tossing it up and down in the air a few times.
"Nice one. Thanks Jin!"
Anyka snickers momentarily.
Tikkle gets a predatory Gleam in his eye. "Ratfolk are rarely loners, and he didn't act right... no twitching or talking... He's still a panya though, and I am a Wawindaji, a hunter... They REAALLLY don't like being called 'Panya' cause that's the Catfolk word for the little mouseys"
Tikkle watches intently at the others as they are freed.
Ash watches incredulously. He smiles without the light reaching his eyes.
"Sure Jin, release the half-orc you don't know first, rather than me, your friend from the village, who, you know, gave you the means to escape."
"Ah, you'd be suprised who I know. I've seen her fight and if they come back before I can finish then we'll need her free. Don't worry your next Ash."
For the first time since they had been captured she allows herself an impish smile as she looks at Ash, "Hey...I'm right here ya know. I gotta name Ash, and we're friends too. It don't mean nuthin." She waits eagerly to be let out, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"If you wanna set us free too, that'd be great."
Gashka looks over at Flynt, "Everyone is gonna be set free. Just hopin enough of us can get out to overtake that jerk and get his keys. Once we have the keys, then everyone gets out. Once everyone is free, we find Narima and then get outta here." She looks across at Anyka, "Try not to worry too much....we'll get her back, I promise. Believe me when I say, if they so much as put a single scratch on her.....we'll make them pay dearly." She has a fierce determined look as she nods at Anyka.
"I've only got two hands Flyn. As I said before, It's going to take me all night to get everybody. Unless there's a key lying around here somewhere."
Pharnox looks at the strange person who is unlocking the cells slowly... He calls out to his fellow speakers of Elven so that they might help him speed up the process...
Libera me, Cellulis potest quodam instrumento reseret auxilium ...
Free me! I can help you unlock these cells with some sort of tool...
Gashka looks at Jin, "What did he say? It sounded kinda urgent."
"Flyn, Toss the strange one the bone he says he can pick it."
Gashka's eyes become hopefull, "With the two of ya working together we could get more of us free to jump on ol' fur face." Even though Gashka knows what her mama said about name calling, she figures that even she would make an exception this time.
Tikkle had his moment to think, so he snaps back to reality and starts calling out to the others, not raising his voice more than he has to in order to be heard.
"Does anyone know anything about this place? Why are the walls so quiet and why does breathing feel funny?"
"Also, everyone make sure you've checked your cell for anything you can use! If we're gonna start swingin, we need to be ready for a lot of them. Me an Gashka can hit really hard with just our fists, can anyone else do well in a fight?"
Tikkle also tries the lock to see if it's simple enough to pick with his claw.
Flynt tosses the bone to the strange sun burned elf.
Pharnox grabs the bone eagerly and sets to work on his lock...
Disable device
"I'm good with a blade, anything light and sharp" Anyka says tersely.
"Just gimme something to throw or shoot."
Gashka nods at Anyka, a look of awe in her eyes. "I wish I knew how to use one....but, papa never thought it was a good idea. The only blade I'm allowed to use at home is our axe, and that's only if I'm chopping the firewood. Everything else is "off limits", pftt."
Tikkle works at the lock and eyes the rest, growing a bit frustrated that he can't tell what's happening with it or other things... 3:
There is another distinctive 'click' as the dark elf manages to unlock his cell. Tikkle on the other hand has no luck trying to work the mechanism. Between Jin and Pharnox, the other cell doors get unlocked in no time. After opening the doors, you notice that three of the other children, including Flynt's brother, don't seem to be able to get up. Looking closer at them, it appears they were weakened by something, but there are no visible wounds. Gashka and Tikkle work together and manage to get the lantern down. To everyone's surprise, it doesn't have a flame, there is instead a small glowing ball of light hovering inside.
Flynt will check on his brother. "Nate! What's wrong? We gotta get 'em outta here. They're not doing so well. We'll get you outta here, little brother."
Pharnox will point at the group and point at various areas around the door that will make good ambush points... His speech is low and rough...
Circumdate latera ad ostium cum hoc lapidibus obruam redit mus. Gaudete in capite, nasum genitalibus pugnis utuntur ... melius tamen si permanet ungues interficere ...
Set yourselves to the sides of the door, when the rat comes back bombard it with rocks. Aim for the head, genitals and the nose... If it survives that use your fists or better yet your claws to kill it...
Jin hands his stone dagger to Anyka, and one rock to anyone left unarmed, keeping the last one for himself.
In elven Jin addresses the dark elf. "We don't know how long that will be, if he even comes back tonight at all. And if he has friends here they will notice his absence soon after."
In common he turns to the group, using his history as a prankster and tactical ability inherited from his parents he devises a plan. "The quietest of us should look for the girl that was taken, the others will stay here for now. Watch after the sick or injured and if he should come back take the rat conscious if you can. He'll have answers."
"I'll stay here. I'm not leavin my little brother."
Pharnox will examine the weak ones...
heal (to diagnose)
Tikkle moves to the door immediately after a curt thanks to whichever unlocked his cell. He sniffs at it to get an idea of how many his captors could be or whether the door is guarded. (conditional mod for scent?)
"Sootface pointed out some good hiding spots. Gashka, you ready?"
At the thought of splittin up in a place with unknown dangers to them, Gashka looks a little concerned, but seeing the other children in need of protection...she won't leave them. She nods at Tikkle and then looks at Jin, "Tikkle and I will stay here with Flynt and whoever else want's to stay to look after the others and take care of that rat thing." Every time she mentions the rat creature she makes a face between a scowl and disgust.
"Some of the ones that can fight well should go to get Narima back as well. There's no way of knowin how many are out there, or what you'll find. We don't even know what's beyond that door, so we'll all hafta be careful." Gashka takes a position to one of the sides of the door and waits to see if one of the others can actually unlock the main door."[/b]
She looks curiously at the lantern she holds in her hands, "I've never seen something like this, but I'm sure it still won't feel good to be hit by it....we can use the chain that was holding it up to tie up rat face, provided we don't kill him first. We still need information from him."
"Let's take care of the Panya first... Then we decide who goes looking..."
Looking at the other children and rethinking things a bit, Gashka decides against using the lantern as a weapon. She looks up at Tikkle and whispers to him, "Hey, take this and hang it on one of those doors. I don't think we want to take a chance on breaking it and make things dark. It might cause the other children that can't see in the dark to become more afraid, and I don't wanna do that." She hands the lantern over to him to hang up quickly.