“I'll give you the worth of your lives in exchange for the three”
Without the use of her eyes, Linnix could easily assume that this was the same person that had met with Aelistae the previous night. Well, at least he's not late. Linnix thinks, Wait, the worth of their lives? That's really not that much... Although I suppose they would value it more. She adds vindictively.

“All transactions are final. Thank you for coming, and I’ll see you in hell!”
Serves them right... Linnix sourly thinks, then she thinks about how they got into this mess, Ugh, never accept anything at face value... and that's something my parents said, of all people.
Linnix continues to lie on the floor, not because she is keeping up her act (although she is doing that too), but because she isn't bothering to get up.

Immediately the atmosphere in the room changed from one of excited fervor to shock and defensive violence, for there were many, if not all within the room who could not afford to be known affiliates of such an illegal and uncouth thing as slave trading.

Swords, daggers, maces and clubs were drawn and Nash’s visage as he raised his head and the cloak, --Aelistae’s by possession-- fell from his shoulders to the floor, revealing a familiar looking court blade and pair of daggers strapped in a bundle at his hip. A swarm of patrons moved on him, and with all his might he hurled the package towards the cell, it landing and skidding to a stop about a foot outside the cell door. “Here!” Attached to the package was a small metal tube tied to a string, and as the package hit the ground, the chime rang off the steel of the blades it was affixed to, and as Nash was buried beneath a mass of weapon strikes with a grunt of pain, a faint click could be heard as the cell door unlocked and slowly swung open about two inches.

The Calims***e by the entrance seemed to pay little mind to Nash however, his focus remained purely on his commodities. Pulling from his sash a large falchion which trailed a sickly green wisp behind it he turned and pointed to the women. “Stay where you are my pets, one way or another you will fetch me my price, whether it be alive and whole, or as corpses or in pieces. With his declaration, a pair of orcs, both with wooden cudgels and a strange looking creature with almost no facial features, simply a long stretched face with two deep sunk eyes and holes where a nose should be turned to regard the newfound access to their hopeful acquisitions.

At the sound of the chime, Linnix jumped to her feet.

“Stay where you are my pets, one way or another you will fetch me my price, whether it be alive and whole, or as corpses or in pieces."
"A pathetic imbecile who merely plays with poison." Linnix mutters angrily, "I will kill you."

Linnix's dress in this bizarre light seems to glow an eerie red as she runs to grab her equipment. Her eyes gleam with rage and malevolence. If by sheer will one could harm another, Linnix's rage would've been enough to kill.

The flames grew higher and higher, claiming more and more of the building. The heat was extreme, even more so for Kas, who had lost the cloak which she had soaked for protection, and she coughed as the smoke stung her lungs and the heat assaulted her flesh (Kas 29/30 w/ 4 subdual) Not wanting to try her luck with the encroaching elementals, Kas gave a prayer for protection –and good fortune—and began to follow Loriel and Artanis up even higher into the attic. Kas barely made it into the attic, when the floor behind her crackled and part of it collapsed, flaming remnants falling to the second floor, were the elementals gathered around the ladder like lemmings trapped with no where to go, circling it and bumping into each other.

“Good, you’re all here.” Jethro said with a wicked smile. Artanis and Loriel had weapons drawn, each wanting to put the enemy down but not wanting to jeopardize the child’s life. Jethro cackled again as he pointed at Loriel and fired a scorching ray at her.
The scorching Ray struck her square in the chest, burning a gaping charred hole into her bosom. Loriel could not contain the scream of pain which escaped her lips as the wave of searing pain washed over her. It was amazing she could even muster the strength to stand after the assault her body had suffered. (Loriel 22/39)

“Mwa haha ! Oh, something smells like it’s burning, Wait it’s you!” Jethro cocked his head back and laughed a bone chilling laughter of insanity loud enough to drown out the baby’s increased coughing fits as thick smoke fills the attic making it hard to breathe and see. (-1 penalty on all sight based rolls).

The Fire was behind them now, exit cut off without diving through a fiery hole, and spreading fast. The man before them clearly had the advantage. What would they do?

(The flames behind you are consuming the floor / roof/ walls at a rate of 5’ /round. Kas has 5’ behind her, Loriel and Kas are 5’ in front of her, with Jethro 10’ beyond them.)

Down below, the ‘fire brigade has begun waving his wand around, trying to calm the flames with the ‘Create Water’ spells held within, but it did little to quell the rising fury of the fire, and only served to gather the attention of some of the elementals at the top of the stairs, who began to form small golf ball /tennis ball projectiles in their hands.

The man turned on Xaris anger evident in his voice. "Paying for that cloak ost me two of my finest cows! Not to mention the loss of perpetual income they could have returned from their dairy production. After fourty years I finally invested in something I wanted, instead of something I needed, and now it's run off to become kindling for a fire!"

The man almost seems heartbroken behind his outburst of anger, as though all his many years of manual toil, evident by his dark tanned and sun spotted skin and wrinkled under eyes had just been literally stolen from him along with the cloak.

A kindly woman, also of the farmers persuasion saddled up near Xaris and smiled speaking softly. A good cow now adays fetches between ten and thirty crowns on the condition of the beast, and old Mr. Winters there did have some fairly respectable heads of cattle on his ranch if that helps at all sonny."

Xaris felt pity for the man and his lost prize. He could imagine the years of hard work having to go towards what was needed to pay, and then finally something that made you happy being torn away right from underneath your nose. He frowned and then looked up towards the man.

" I will try an get thirty five crowns per cow that was lost, and then fivety crowns for the potential income that was lost along with it. I hope one hundred and twenty crowns are worth it. If my friends do not comply to this price, I will give you that amount in goods to sell that should fetch you even more than that. I do hope this is good enough. My apologies for what has griefed you this night."

Artanis gasped as she watched the fireball hit Loriel square in the chest. She looked up and saw that Kas was now also in the room, then turned back to the deranged man. The image of the room behind her being engulfed in flames, which were moving ever closer, could not be erased from her mind. Something had to be done, and it had to be done now.

It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, and hoping against hope that this worked, Artanis suddenly, and without warning, rushed the man at a slight angle. Her intent was to either knock him down or slam him against the wall, and grab the child out of his arms. IF she succeeds she will immediately jump through the window and onto the roof, at which point she will look for a way down. She knows there’s no going back the way they came.

“Nash,” Aelistae whispered, her voice tinged with both relief and fear. She had longed to see him again after he had slipped away in her sleep, and there was no better time for him to make his appearance. But, as he disappeared beneath a hail of blows, she knew that his bravery would cost him his life she did nothing.

“Olath Jallil, jous mina l'roesor nind inbal thryarus nindyn inbal enrothe,”* the priestess intoned, as she clenched her fist around the tears she brushed off Linnix’s cheek and lightly touched the broach she wore upon her dress - depicting a naked drow female dancing before a full moon.

With the spell cast she quickly moved to the door of the cell, picked up her sheathed courtblade, and drew it all in one effortless motion.

The slaver responded by trying to cow his captives back into the cell, and summoned a few of his acolytes to do just that. But Aelistae’s course was set. She would rather die in battle than be a slave. And, she realized, she would rather die than live on without Nash in her life.

OOC: * “Dark Lady, show them the sorrow they have caused all those they have enslaved”.

The spell Aelistae is casting is ‘Wave of Grief’. According to the spell description it is a 30’ cone, so Linnix will be exempt from it. Aelistae will try and direct it to affect the 4 adversaries she and Linnix are facing, and as many of Nash’s opponents as possible.

Casting the spell is a standard action, so she’ll use a move action and 5’ step to get to the door and pick up her sword. Finally she’ll draw her weapon as a free action thanks to the crystal in it. I figure that picking up her sword may trigger an attack of opportunity, but she’s happy to risk that.

Kas seeing Artanis tensing even before the mage scorches Loriel, Kas makes a snap decision as to what spell would be best to use to aid Artanis and confound this crazed man. She can not believe what has transpired and is horrified by the brazen act of setting fire to the house to draw them there with a wanton disregard of the lose of innocent life.

"In my Place I do Dare, in that Face I cast Flare."

Kas points to her intended victim and release the spell even as Artanis's muscles release her and she charges the man. She then readies Bless.

"Loriel, get behind me."

If it seems that Loriel is sunned by the attack, and Thje man is not taken down by Artanis, Kas will attempt to pull the sword from the plaque. If it does not come free she will quickly draw her dagger and also attack the man. There is little time before they are overcome by the fire.

"Tyr!" Kas cries out aloud, her voice raising to the heavens even in the roar of the fire. "Justice must be served!"

The pain of the fire attack was excruciatingly. Loriel couldn't scream simply because she was sucking in air to scream. before she did she bit down on her lips to stifle it. It came out ad muffled scream of pain. Her vision burred and darkened. For a moment she thought she was going to fall but she didn't. Strangely she had her anger at this man to thank for it. That anger was like a cold fury at the perpetrator of this horror. The child in his arms kept her attention enough so that she did not black out. Under the circumstances ithat loss of consciousness most likely would have cost her her life. But instead her cold ferocity of her emotions kept her mind clear and focused on what was going on.

"Loriel, get behind me."

Loriel heard Kas call out. But that was not the answer to the problems they face. That man was he was one there were three. The babe had to be rescued and the man take down. That thought was simple and clear.

Loriel somehow had separated the sensations of her body from her mind for the moment. Clarity of purpose, possible strategies to attack the man, all held sway for the moment. She knew if they could take him down and break his concentration that

“Corellon guide me,” Loriel prayed.

Artanis suddenly made a move on the man and at the same instance so did Loriel. Artanis charged straight in as Loriel, whose mind was sharply aware as it ever had been in her life., launched herself forward straight at the man still holding baby . Loriel lunged for the man a fraction of a second behind Artanis’s first move for him. With the same clarity o mind she knew what she was going to do to help Artanis take the man down. Once down they could take the baby and then, If she had to beat him senseless with her hands, she would do that.

“No Kas, ATTACK, all of us.”

Loriel’s target was the man’s legs . Artanis would hit him high she would hit him low, hopefully simultaneously, or at least as close as possible as she could. Add Kas into that mix and surely they would prevail. They had to.
All of their lives literally hung in the balance on their ability to work together. If they could force him to lose concentration then the fire elementals would be freed from the summoning.

The heat, the flames, they were everywhere. The deranged man held all their lives, plus that of the babe in the balance, and the scales were not in favor of the companions when one took the mage’s apparent mental capacity into mind. Artanis, Loriel, and Kas all knew something had to be done, and thusly all three sprang into action. Kas fired off her flare spell, and once more, the simple cantrip had surprisingly good effect on the intended target. Jethro squealed as the sparks assaulted his eyes and he clutched at them, releasing the child in his arm’s upward swing without even thinking about it.

As Loriel dashed low, and Artanis high, time seemed to slow as the screaming, terrorized child drifted higher into the air, and its tiny fragile head flopped at an awkward angel enough for all three women watching to cringe as natural maternal instincts took hold.
Loriel however kept going, her feet having already sprung her forward towards Jethro’s legs. She collided with the mage, his blue-green flame shield seared her already pain-ridden flesh, even as she knocked him over and loomed over him on hands and knees. (Loriel 11/39)

Artanis, beyond all expectations, shifted her rush, springing her step upward as she dropped her sword and reached for the babe. Her fingers miraculously caught the child gently by the blanket in which it was wrapped, bringing it down and into her chest as easily as she could. Without stopping her charge, she rushed past Loriel with a nod and dove out the small window.

Onto the rooftop she went, and then, right off the side tumbling to the street below. She stiflied a shriek as the support of the roof ended beneath her and she fell, but she tucked into a protective ball as best she could to protect the fragile life within her grasp. She hit the ground, and hard, her shoulder smashing the cobblestone and her collarbone shattering upon impact as she collided with the unyielding stone. She yelped in pain, unable to move her shield arm at all, and barely able to move anything else for that matter. The only consolation was that as she strained through tear filled eyes to the package clutched to her chest lay crying, loud and clear into the night even as the house behind her burned with increased vigor. (Artanis 17/42)

Back inside, Jethro screamed at the loss of his prize, his eyes burning from a combination of Kas’ Flare spell and vengeful anger directed at the two remaining targets around him. “I’ll see you all burn!” He called in anger.

Beneath Kas and Loriel, a timber split, and the floor beneath them shuddered as the fires raged around them. The ladder leading to the second floor was overtaken, the floorboards and roof-rafters and thatch were ablaze, and Loriel and Kas would have to make an important decision really soon. Even now, in the thick billowing smoke, It was growing harder to see, and harder to breathe. (-2 on all sight based checks,)

Down below, the fire elementals gathered had all released their flaming projectiles at the elven member of the fire brigade, the small flaming pellets harmlessly diffusing along the protective barrier the elf had smartly erected before entering. His resistance bolstering spell however would no protect him from the beam which split and shuddered, dropping a portion of the second floor almost on his head. Backpeddling and falling to his rump as he did so, the elf barely managed to make it out the front door as beams, rafters and flooring collapsed to seal off the entrance in a flaming barrier.

In Elven, “Loriel, out the window,” and as Loriel goes to the window Kas grabs up Artanis's sword moves forward. She had thought to take the man alive at first and turn him over to the civil authority for justice, but now she was out to serve Tyr’s justice to him in by herself. She knew he was Evil, every act committed here was ample evidence of his crime against humanity. He had wantonly destroyed property to serve his own ends, he had taking part in orchestrating this fire and was magically perpetrating the fire that was consuming this building and threatened to end their lives as well as that of the child and the cat.

Yet a couple of things the man had intimated caused her to use the hilt of the sword and apply it forceablely to his thick skull enough to stagger him and make him more manageable, then grab him instead, and push him out the window with all the might she could muster.

“Tyr lend me the strength to see that this man will meet the fate of your justice,” she cries out, setting her body to manhandle the mad mage out the window.

Loriel felt the pin a fire race through her as she grabbed the man's leg she punched him solidly in the face once twice. in a frenzy of blows until she heard Kas call out to get out of here.

Kas then came forward and cold cocked the mage with the hilt of her sword. Kas then grabbed him and headed for the window. That widow was the only way out she could see, though only barely. Loriel tried to stand and move after her, if she can't, she will crawl. However her instinct to survive was strong within her, and that gave her strength, not physical but mental. Loriel commanded her body to move and keep moving.

The best Loriel could do to survive this was get to the edge of the roof and hang over it before she dropped to the ground. She had jumped out of plenty of trees before and knew how to use her knees and ankles to absorb the force of landing. She kept those thoughts in her mind and made every effort to do exactly that.

"Corellon let me live through this, that man has question to answer." Her chest ached her, her eyes and lungs were burning with acrid smoke and heat. Her whole body feel crispy after she had grabbed the mad mage. but she made her way theough the window Artanis had gone through with the baby in her arms, through the smoke and fire to the rooftop.

Outside was not much better than inside the raging inferno behind them. Flames licked at the sides of the house and the roof. Kas was before her with the mage firmly gripped n her hands. Personally she thought Kas should just throw the man down and jump on top of him that or plunge over the edge and use him a s a cushion.

At the edge of the roof she dropped to her hands and kneww and lowered herself over the edge until she hung down as far as she could reach ((unless there is a tre of something near the house that she could climb down) Then she dropped preparing herself for the landing at which time she would flex ehr kness deeply.

Well that was her plan.

The sound of battle wasn’t nearly as epic as one might think. Only a handful of people could move to engage the three would be combatants. Nash was lost under a hail of weapons as a third of the gathering moved o engage him, and the echo of steel of steel, filtered into the air. Nash grunted again as another strike apparently got through, but twin arcs of blue, causing a human male to stumble back a spell with dual gashes of crimson across his flesh showed Aelistae that her man was still putting up one hell of a fight.

Aelistae and Linnix had decided to spring into action as well, with their weapons so close at hand it seemed this was their best chance at escape. Aelistae moved over to by her weapons and with Linnix’ tear’s in hand muttered the incantation of her spell, as a wave of grief passed over many in the crowd. A handful of those gathered visibly sagged their shoulders, their will to fight lessened as pangs of guilt washed over them. Of the twelve gathered, not including the Auctioneer who seemed unaffected, four appeared disheartened. Two of which were attacking Nash, one who was still in the middle of the room, and one of the Orcs who was approaching the cage. Whether or not the spell had affected Nash, who was unfortunately aught in the conical spell was unknown, she could barely see him through the mass of people.

Linnix too had jumped to her feet, moving to pick up her equipment, bending down to try and pull her knives from the bound bundle even as the orcish, pair, and the genderless creature approached. “You’ll fetch quite the coin up north” one of them said in broken common as they advanced.

Linnix had just managed to untie the package when the first of the orcs swung at the nimble woman with his club, catching her on the side of the shoulder, and sending a wave of pain through Linnix, knocking her back on her haunches, daggers thankfully in hand. (Linnix 24/30) Aelistae responded, with a quick mental call to her weapon, and as she bent down to reach for it, it seemed to jump the final inches to her waiting grasp, much to the surprise of the enemy. The thought of gold and notoriety however spurned them on, and the grief-stricken orc took a swing at Aelistae half heartedly, missing her by a long shot. It was the featureless creature that struck the most worry into the drow priestess. It did not approach within striking distance of Aelistae’s beautiful blade, instead, he began chanting, and Aelistae felt her muscles tighten, as a restricting force fell over her. She combated it with an indomitable will, and broke the Hold Person spell. Whether her success however pained the strange being at all could not be known.

The Calims***e man waved his falchion around in a deadly dance, and laughed heartily as the Orc’s advanced. “You break em, you buy em, he said wickedly.”
Round 2:

Linnix’s shoulder throbbed, but pain was replaced with fury, and taking a position next to Aelistae, she lashed out at one of the orcs, the one who had wounded her, vengeance in her eyes. Her dagger flashed taking a piece of leathery hide from the orc before her, the tip of her knife stained with the dark red-black ichor of the orcish race. Her opponent however only laughed, which caused Linnix only to seethe even more.

The Orc’s responded, both once more attempting to strike the women with their wooden clubs, and once more it was Linnix who suffered the painful blow of the club, while Aelistae’s opponent once more lackadaisically swung at her. (Linnix 17/30)

Aelistae responded to the attacks on her friend with a counter of her own, bringing her courtblade up in a diagonal slash which caught the orc by surprise, and though he moved to dodge, it scraped along his forearm drawing a deep line of blood. (-10) Once more the strange caster in the middle of the room turned, and this time he fired a trio of magic missiles at Aelistae, the darts of force striking unerringly, and singeing the priestess. (Aeistae 23/30)

Nash meanwhile in the rear of the room managed a great blow against the already wounded assailant, and as he fell away the mighty cross-blade kept going to sink into another drawing a gasp from the man who sought to kill him. Stepping behind the body of the fallen slaver however, was a human woman, who uncoiled a length of whip and looked for an opening to strike. The three other men on the warrior however would find little luck in striking him this round; drawing only a small cut as a dagger slipped passed his defenses.

The Calims***e man ushered those remaining in the room into action with his glib tongue. “100 crowns off the winning buyer’s price if they capture their quarry!” This seemed to snap some of the occupants out of their lethargy, and a flamboyantly dressed half elf of an unknown gender turned to face the women, while the remainder of the group sought to end Nash’s disturbance of their auction.

As the half-elf turned however, he pointed at Aelistae and muttered something. At first she thought it was another spell incant, but as Tessa shrieked behind her she realized she was right, and wrong on that account. A flash of light had deposited a stranger into the midst of things, the 5’1 woman with flame red hair took a quick look around, before the chaos around her assaulted her senses and she realized this was definitely not where she had intended to travel, cursing herself for reading that teleportation scroll that was beyond her capabilities.

(Welcome Solvy to the Forgotten Realms, may your stay be long and fruitful.)

The flames no longer licked at the heels of the adventurers, they were now surrounding them. Still, Loriel was intent on knocking the mage out moved to punch him, but her wounds were too severe, and though she struck against the fiery protection the man had erected, she served only to send herself into an early grave as her punches claimed more and more of her life. (Both punches hit, dealing minimal damage to the mage, (who incidentally did not take any attacks of opportunity) while costing her damage from the Fire shield both times, for 10 and 9 damage apiece.) (Loriel -8/39) As Loriel slumped over the mage moved to stand, but found Kas looming over him, not only filled with the worry of her companions, but the strength to single handedly deal justice in the name of her newfound god.

With Loriel having fallen, and the flames going to envelop them all in a matter of seconds, Kas knew she had to try and get her friend out of there past the dangerous mage before he had them all killed. What’s worse, an explosion below caused the entire building to shudder, and Kas nearly lost her balance.

~*~*~
Outside, the gathering crowd gasped as more support for the building burned and collapsed, and the entire building shifted visibly to those watching. A portion of the roof collapsed, and the right side of the house exploded in a torrent of escaping heat and flame as the floors creaked and buckled. Artanis shielded herself and the baby as best she could, and was relieved as villagers came to her aid, pulling the baby from her grasp and painfully dragging her away from the burning building which would surely collapse any minute. Even the fire brigade member couldn’t help stop the blazing inferno now, and only looked on in wonder, praying those inside would get out. His prayer was replied to by the entire top half of the house exploding in a violent fireball.

~*~*~
Kas raised her sword to strike the mage, but would find nowhere to strike as he rolled to the side, cackling maniacally. “You’re going to die in here!” he said as he defensively cast what would ultimately be the first of his two final spells. A small bead of fire appeared in his hands, and he launched it directly at Kas, who loomed over him. Tyr’s newest warrior’s eyes grew wide as she understood just what it was that was hurling towards her. She barely moved in time to dodge a direct impact of the bead with her face, but that did little to prevent it from smashing into the roof above her head and enveloping the entire attic in flame. The heat was so intense that no one could even see Loriel’s body as it involuntarily lurched for the final time. The heat washed over Kas and Jethro like a tidal wave. And throughout the entire burning as Kas felt her skin and flesh char and peel she could hear Jethro’s insane laughter, though it was evident he too was in pain.

The fireball may have subsided but no one could have known, for the entire building was now a fiery deathtrap, and as the heat washed over the already weakened structure, Loriel, Kas, and Jethro fell from the attic through the flooring, with the building crashing down all around them. Embers, flames, burning timbers and roofing, flooring and more tumbled down through the floor, as did the elementals that were caught underneath them as they fell, tearing a hole through the second story. Pain wracked Kas as unconsciousness moved to claim her, and her eyes fought to strain to locate Jethro, praying he had suffered a fate equal to her own if not worse. All her senses could manage to find however as a flash of blue light amongst the flames, and her own screams of anguished pain before passing out, likely never to reawaken. (Fireball damage + falling/bludgeoning damage + burn damage = way too much to handle)

~*~*~

Outside, Artanis could only look on as the house collapsed in on itself, and the flames burned high into the night sky.