Act 1: Let's get out of here

Time unknown, date unknown
Location unknown

Mihai is the first to wake up.

He is laying down on an uncomfortable mattress. Except for a few torches hanging against the walls, it is completely dark in here. His whole body feels numb.

After observing his surroundings, he realizes that he's in a cell. There are four cells on this side of the room, and four others on the opposite side of the hallway. Through the bars of this new prison, Mihai can see the bodies of his companions, laying down on the cottage of their own cell. They're right next to him.

There's only one wooden door that leads out of this room, and no windows.

Mihai gets up, gets his bearings. Then everything from the past day rushes back into his mind. He immediately takes his hand to his head to try and yank out the foreign Orb.

Mihai can't get any of the orbs out of his head, assuming they're still there.

Mihai walks up to the cell door and kicks the lock hard. And keeps kicking it. Over and over.

Strength 21

The loud sound is enough to wake Steve and Konrad. Someone is kicking against something metallic. Repeatedly.

There are no more shackles at anyone's feet, but they are still present around the wrists. At the very least, the party members' hands are not stuck behind their back anymore.

Everyone is wearing a white tunic, trousers and slippers instead of their usual gear.

Steve opens his eyes and sit's up so he can look around for the source of the noise. Having determined that it is Mihai, he quickly checks himself for injury.

Steve is perfectly healthy. In fact, he feels like he's at full mana too.

Mihai keeps kicking.

"Hnngh..." Konrad holds his head in his hands for a second. A glance toward the noise shows who's making it, and he doesn't need a master weaver to tell him why. The Myrzen chooses to let him continue kicking unabated and without protest.

Standing up and wiping the stale drool on the side of his mouth off on his shoulder, he tries to Scan his own cell. And how is Konrad, anyway? Probably doubling over after the beating he got for managing to kill one of their guards, now that he remembers. He smiles arrogantly as he goes about his business.

Scan 2

Mihai's leg is starting to hurt and the cell door seems nowhere closer to breaking.

Meanwhile, Konrad attempts to cast Scan on the room, but he realizes that he's still wearing the woven shackled. No, he's wearing different ones.

They're probably more effective than the last restraints the kidnappers put on him.

He otherwise feels fine, if a little dizzy. He's at full mana too.

Mihai switches legs and keeps kicking.

The kicking continues. It's pretty loud.

"Crap. I don't think we can do anything in here."

Konrad looks over at Mihai and sees the door hasn't budged. "Mihai, Mihai! That's enough."

"Ugh, where are we?" Asks Steve, speaking as loud as he needs to to be heard over Mihai kicking the keyhole of his cell.

Mihai's rage doesn't subside, but a spark of reason seems to fly across him. He kicks the lock once more for good measure, and turns away, searching the cell for anything that might be useful.

"You can't cast?" - he asks in a hoarse voice

Mihai finds his bed sheet, a pillow and a small toilet with some paper on top of it. The arrangement is the same in each cell. The floor is cold stone.

In fact, the party realizes that the temperature in this room is cool.

"No, I'm still shackled. It's different than the ones we were wearing before. They probably put better ones on us so we couldn't do any repeat performances. Why is it so cold in here?" Steve tries to see if he can see anyone else outside of the party in the other cells.

Something flashes across Mihai's mind that makes him sick, but he tries to regain his focus - "Think you can break them?"

In the meantime, he looks at the bed. A couple wooden planks, held fast by chains. And the shackles on his wrists might just be sturdy enough. Not like he has anything better to do.

Mihai starts hammering at the spot where the chain welds into the wall with his shackles.

Strength 22

"I'll try, but they're pretty tough. We'll help you get her back, Mihai. We'll save her, I promise." That oughta keep him from banging on the door, for now. Konrad tries his shackles again...nothing.

"Nope...too tough for me."

Strength 6

Mihai attempts to use his shackles to hammer at the chains, but he does it so forcefully that he hurts his wrists. This action doesn't appear to have produced any conclusive result.

Steve looks into the other cells, and even though it is dark in this room, he knows that there's no one else except the three of them.

Mihai decides to abandon finesse. He places his feet on the wall, grabs at the chain, and pulls with all his strength.

which as of current roll is still 21

The chains don't appear to bend at all under the tension. They appear to be very resistant to this kind of treatment.

But even under such effort, Mihai and everyone else in the room can hear something coming from the other side of the door. It's almost imperceptible, but it's there.

Konrad is pretty sure it's the sound of an animal walking on stone.

Mihai stops. He flattens himself against the wall.

"Oh, please tell me that's who I think it is." Please tell me it's NOT!

He walks over to the door to his cell and tries to look through it.

Steve walks over to the door of the cell and tries to position himself to see the door into the jail as best he can.