The Game Begins

"We should get going," says Hehtarusco. "Shall I wake Thatcher?"

Aedl tries to perk her ear up at the sound of a door slamming open outside her cage, until she remembers that she is not, in fact, Toka, but Aedl, and cannot, in fact, move her ears with the degree of freedom that Toka can, or at all, really. She wonders if she's going to be let out of this box so that she can exact revenge on her captors for separating her from Toka. She grins at the thought, her eyes glinting dangerously in the... well, she supposes they're probably not actually glinting at all, since it's dark in here, and her eyes don't get nightshine.

Sometimes Aedl wishes she were an animal. But then again, animals can't wield scythes.

Ladiel gives a mischievous smile, and then turns to search the coach more. As she does, she asks "Your, ah ... gratitude aside, I didn't cast a spell, Sir. Why, do you find yourself" She flashes a grin over her shoulder "enchanted with me?" That smile is somehow oddly compelling, but you shrug it off.

Aedl twiddles her thumbs. She isn't actually sure what other people mean when they say "twiddle their thumbs", never having seen anyone actually do it, so she decides to amuse herself by inventing increasingly complex and absurd things to do with her thumbs.

Five minutes later, she contemplates how to get down from the ceiling of her enclosure without breaking anything, or drawing attention to herself. Toka's amusement at her predicament is a dangerous distraction from the problem at hand.

Ladiel turns back to the two of you, and hands you your armors and weapons. "All right, now, shall we free some of our friends, or is our brave warrior going to kill them all himself?" The sarcasm in her voice is teasing rather than antagonizing, but still thick as honey.

About 20 yards to the north is a steel cell like the one in which you were trapped. To the West about 5 yards off starts the grade of a rather steep hill, about twenty feet high at the peek. The area behind the hill is well-hidden from the camp, but while maneuvering behind it would be easy, it would afford little advantage; it is not long enough to provide cover to escape into the woods to the north, and the west is a gently rolling plain as far as you can see in the quickly dimming light. A few tents lie to the East, about thirty yards away, but no soldiers are in view. The low-light around the car that you are standing by affords you the luxury of not being seen, but you occasionally notice a Halfling darting about between tents. There is a great deal of noise coming from the area to the East (obviously an encampment), and it is far enough away that you have a decent chance of encountering nobody. Apparently the guards didn't think anyone would escape the steel cages.

"I don't kill without need!" Shojaux snaps irritably. "Now, how do we open these cells?" He jogs over to the cell and looks for some form of locking mechanism.

(Spot check)(Move Silently check)

Aedl's ear fails to twitch as she hears the soft padding of approaching footsteps on the moist grass outside. Carefully, silently, she pulls herself off the ceiling and affects a ready stance on the ground of her cell, her upper lip pulling back into a rough snarl. Let them come, she thinks, and she feels Toka doing the same in the back of her head, ready to fight with her in spirit, even if Toka can't actually affect the outcome.

Aedl watches the door, every muscle poised and ready to pounce, ready to kill, ready to die.

(Move Silently check)

Hehtarusco follows Shojaux to the box. "You are rather irratable," she notes distractedly, though her mind is obviously not in reality at the moment.

(move silently check)

"You're one to talk!" he whispers.

Aedl is rather irritable. Crouching in a combat-ready pre-pounce position for twenty hours will do that to you. She can hear hushed voices outside, and she lets out a low growl of impatience. Don't talk, she thinks. Just open the door. Just a crack. That's all I need.

Hehtarusco says nothing, not ignoring Shojaux, but simply not paying attention. She starts to search for a lock or an opening hatch of some sort, trying to bring herself back into the real world.

(search check)

As it happens, the car is incredibly easy to open from the outside. You simply unbolt a few bolts, unlatch a latch, and ...

(Aedl has surprise. Do with it what you will. Reminder: you get one standard action.)

Shojaux undoes the bolts and latch and pulls the door open whilst continually standing behind it. Whilst doing this, he mutters to himself as a reflex, "A dragon will take the first chance to strike. Don't make it easy for him."

Aedl growls ferally as she sees the small crack of light open, but she waits until she has a target before she strikes - which proves to be a mistake. The fact that her target is an elf gives her a momentary pause, losing her the element of surprise. Nonetheless, she retains her composure and turns her would-have-been pounce into a glare at her unwitting savior. "Who are you, and why shouldn't I kill you where you stand?"

Hehta just stands there for a moment, confused. "Because we just freed you from your little prison, perhaps?" she suggests calmly. "Yes, I said 'we;' so I hope for your sake that you are not an enemy."

Aedl blinks, then smiles happily. "Oh, okay! Well, that makes sense." She grins and hops gracefully down from her cell. "I'm Aedl. Have you seen my fox? And, um, my weapons, maybe? I have some erstwhile captors to slaughter." She nods matter-of-factly, as if remarking on the weather.

Hehtarusco blinks, even more confused at this change of attitude, but she doesn't dwell on it. "Um, well. . . We'll probably find where they're keeping the weapons soon enough..." Not the most comfortable with speaking for long periods of time, she glances over at Shojaux.

Shojaux comes around the door and looks Aedl up and down. "So, you were captured too?" Turning to Hehtarusco, he says, "Don't look at me Elf. I know next to nothing. Ask the Half-elf over there what we should do." He jerks his thumb towards said Half-elf before turning back to Aedl. "So, how did you end up in this fix?"

Aedl's smile freezes on her face for a moment as she reflects on the chain of events that had brought her to this place. "I... I was in the woods, and I was hunting, and then.... then I was in this cage, and T-Toka was gone..." She trails off, obviously troubled, shaking a little.

"Who is this Toka? Another ally?"

At that moment "the half-elf" makes her way over to the group. "Thatcher is out cold, but as long as we succeed here, and no guards find him before then, and we don't forget to bring him along, and my first aid is as good as I think it is, he should be fine" She says, matter-of-factly. As though she only now realizes the mildly panicked girl in front of her, she smiles sweetly, and says "It's all right, we've got this under control. My name is Ladiel, of the Delacour line. And I'm here to free you." Shifting to look into the cell, she asks "were there any others captured with you?"

Aedl's eyes refocus on the stranger, and she comes back to reality, her demeanor suddenly standoffish. "Yes. Toka, my fox, was captured with me, and held separately from me. I don't know where. He's probably alone and scared, but I know he's alive, because I can hear him in my head. If you wish to utilize my skills in combat - and trust me, you will - then we'll need to rescue him first. And I would like my weapons back, though of course I could murder one or two guards without them."

Hehta steps slowly into the background, relieved that she is no longer speaking one-on-one with the stranger.

"I thought that your name was Arwen," Shojaux says snidely to Ladiel. "Perhaps I misheard the first time. By the way, you aren't very inspiring when you put in all of those conditions for our success."

"Don't worry," interrupts Aedl, a fire momentarily blazing behind her eyes. "You have me now; that's the only condition you need for success. My name's Alycia, by the way."