It is usually a difficult task to exactly determine the point where everything goes south, but everyone always has their theories. In situations like this, some blame themselves, some their allies, some don't care either way and instead focus on the fact that things simply went wrong. In their waking moments, our heroes undoubtedly had some of these thoughts cross their mind, but would soon realise that there were more important things to think of. Such as where they were and how to get out of there.

While Mistletoe and Kenza found themselves in the same room, Derrick was separated from them by two sets of iron bars and a roughly 45 degree angle. They seemed to be in some old dungeon cell block, at least judging by the aforementioned iron bars, the stone walls that separated the cells and the smell of still and damp air. From the ladies cell, the only door in sight was directly to the right after the cell door, which would make it on left and some distance away from the male party members point of view. Most of the other cells seemed to be dysfunctional with doors missing, bars nearly broken, collapsed walls or other reasons, but further away from the presumed door out stood one more cell that seemed to be in good shape.

It was rather dark here with no natural sources of light, so the (already dying) oil lantern next to the door and some unknown source further down the hallway were their only sources of illumination. With little else to push back the darkness, the atmosphere was quite threatening. This was not helped by the fact Mistletoe found her right shoulder to be dislocated and her left wrist had a chain wrapped around it. Probably payback from the few successful shots she had got in while they were still in the fight. Derrick found his left leg hurting from a few puncture wounds, but nothing too deep. They were roughly as apart as Wolfwing's fingers were, so that was probably the source for that. Kenza found herself with no visible injuries, but her upper back hurt as if she had fallen badly. Perhaps from being tossed? In addition to these, all of them had a splitting headache.

None of the hunters had their equipment and on a quick look neither cell held anything as potent for fighting. No other signs of life were to be seen right now, but judging by how they were here alive and the creature had knocked them out for transport and even left some light in here, it wasn't too far fetched to assume it might come check up on them at some point. The steady sound of dripping water reminded our hunters of time passing by. What would they do?

Derrick awoke slowly, although the what he saw when he opened his eyes made him hope he was asleep. The pain in his leg and head convinced him otherwise, however, and made him open his eyes. The dank cell was dimly lit enough without the headache worsening matters, but he could clearly see that they were in a prison of some sort. As his eyes adjusted he saw that a lot of the cells were in bad repair, and he quietly hoped that their cell was in a similar situation. No such luck, unfortunately.

Derrick shifted and a dull pain shot through his leg. He put his hand to it and felt the holes before bringing his hand up to his face. Flecks of dry blood lined his fingers meaning that the bleeding had stopped a little while ago. But as if a fog had been lifted, Derrick suddenly remembered his companions. People who took the same commission and agreed to working together wasn't exactly the most unbreakable bond, but he was worried about them regardless.

Derrick saw dim shapes in the dark counting 2 others in the cell with him, which matched the numbers. They stirred shortly, indicating that they were at least alive. Derrick looked at the two. Despite the dim lighting he was sure that they didn't come out of the experience unscathed. He spoke up, trying to get their attention.
"Uh..." He began nervously. "...Are we all alright?"

Kenza straightened her back, flexing the muscles there and testing the pain as she tuned out the splitting pain from her head in favor of the probably-forming internal bruise on her upper back. A fall? she thought, turning until the pain suddenly spiked. Definitely not a fall. Either hit by or against something. Reaching a hand back, Kenza felt the painful area as she slowly lifted her head, peering around the cell in which she’d been placed. Nothing broken or out of place. Just bruising, Kenza thought. The cell was empty enough, two sides of bars and the other two of wall. Beside her laid one of the hunters who’d also signed up for the bounty — Mistletoe, the archer, Kenza thought, wincing as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. Moving around wasn’t going to be fun.

Now that she was sitting up, Kenza could make out most of the room. While some of the cells were clearly unusable, her captors had managed to locate the best one for herself and Mistletoe. And Derrick, she thought, spotting the male hunter in a cell a small distance away from hers. Aside from the lantern beside the door, there seemed to be no cracks of light, meaning that the room was either extremely secure or underground. Since the Wolfwing was rumoured to live in a cave — the exact cave Kenza had entered with the other two hunters earlier that day — Kenza believed it to be the second option.

Further down the corridor, Kenza could see the dim glow of lights as well, meaning that her captors probably had it in mind to return and retrieve their prizes — or kill them. Since the room was silent apart from the breaths of three people and some dripping from somewhere in the corridor, Kenza relaxed and turned her attention to Mistletoe who was currently lying down beside her in the cell. One of the woman’s wrists had a chain wrapped around it that Kenza could trace to a sturdy metal attachment to the wall. That was going to be a problem if they were all going get out of here together, but that arrangement was still pending. Sliding herself forwards so that she was right next to the black-haired woman, Kenza reached out a hand to shake the woman’s shoulder only to find that the bone was jutting out.

Dislocated shoulder, Kenza thought, a frown carving itself into her features now. An archer with a dislocated shoulder was pretty much useless seeing how the woman would need at least ten weeks to recover her arm. Pretty much going to deadweight without her arm, but then again, Kenza thought, looking over the cell, none of us have our weapons.

Figuring that it might as well be done and over with as soon as possible, Kenza gently picked up Mistletoe’s arm, fixing the girl so that she was lying on her back before placing her other arm on the girl’s trapezius before giving the girl’s arm a strong, measured pull down. The sound of bone grating on bone echoed through the room, and Mistletoe snapped up. “Don’t move too quickly,” Kenza told her, holding her back and letting her sit back up slowly. “Dislocated shoulder. I popped it back in, but we’ll need some sort of makeshift sling for it.”

Noticing that Derrick was now sitting up in his cell, Kenza tapped the iron bars beside her to get his attention. “Mistletoe has a dislocated shoulder and is chained to the wall. I’m fine — some bruising. You?”

---

@lord of evil@lchris314@hekazu

A shockwave of pain rippled through half-awake Mistletoe's body and made her jerk up screaming.

"Don't move too quickly," a female voice told her. "Dislocated shoulder. I popped it back in, but we’ll need some sort of makeshift sling for it."

She sit back up with the help of the woman with that voice. Kenza, one of her partners in the hunting group for Wolfwing, popped her dislocated shoulder back in.

While Mistletoe was still breathing erratically and trying to comprehend the dark, threatening surroundings, she found her left wrist chained to the wall. She heard Kenza talking to someone, a man, probably Derrick, but couldn't really understand the conversation.

A dislocated shoulder would complicate things. Still, it seemed like his colleagues had it handled, although the scream did little to assure Derrick, nor was the following erratic breathing of his teammate any less worrying. Derrick began confirming his own condition; first, he poked his wounded leg to test if it hurt. He then lifted it and moved it around a little. It hurt a little but he was sure he could put weight on it to walk. The thing that weighed the most on him was in fact the headache, but he could only wait for it to get better.

"I'm ok." He said, calling out to his colleague. "I think the Wolfwing got me with its fingers, but I'm fine."
Fighting his pounding head, Derrick grabbed the wall and rose to his feet, wincing slightly as a light pain shot through his leg. As he gingerly put his weight on it, the pain faded into the background and he stood upright, albeit a little unsteadily.
"So..." Derrick said, surveying the prison block from his better vantage point.

He could see another cell close to the door and a light source further down the hall but couldn't see very much otherwise.
"What do we do now?" He asked the woman.

“Well we need to get out of here,” Kenza said brusquely, stating the obvious, “but to do that we first need to find a way to get Mistletoe’s chain off. We’re not going anywhere with her chained to the wall.”

Looking back down at Mistletoe’s wrist, Kenza frowned. “Stupid question, but could you try slipping out of it? And see if the attachment if firm on the wall — if not, we could keep wearing it away with pulling so that it eventually separates,” Kenza said, moving over to where the chain was attached to the wall. Four screws bolted the steel plating to the stone wall, not budging when Kenza pull on the chain. Well, didn’t expect that to work anyway, Kenza thought, sighing and moving back to where Mistletoe sat.

“Derrick, see if there’s anything in your cell that could help. I don’t see anything around here,” Kenza said, frowning.

---

@lord of evil@lchris314@hekazu

A quick inspection of the chain shows obvious wear on few of the links, the two biggest groups being one around halfway between Mistletoe's arm and the wall, the other being on the wrap itself. While this thing had no lock on it, undoing the mess created by the captor could take some time. It would probably still be quicker than trying the pulling method.

When it came to the contents of the other cell, the best thing Derrick could find (if he chose to search) was an old plate shattered to three big pieces on a mouldy wooden tray, so nothing that could be of help in this situation. While this was going on, heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the door nearest to their cells.

Derrick looked around his cell for anything that could help. A broken plate and a wooden tray were all that he had, and he doubted he could put them to much use. But it was still better than nothing, right?
"Well, I have-" Derrick began, moving towards the rotting tray.
The approaching heavy footsteps made Derrick stiffen. Something was coming, but what? The headache was making it hard to think, so Derrick decided to act instead. He grabbed one of the broken plate shards and tested its point. Not very sharp, but it could do something if he hit hard enough with it.

With a brief worried glance at his colleagues and the hall, he retreated back into his cell and stuffed the shard under his shirt before he lay down and pretended to be unconscious.

Kenza tensed up when Derrick's voice cut off, and she immediately picked up on the approaching footsteps. Judging by the vibrations and the frequency at which the thumps could be felt, Kenza deduced that their enemy was large and heavy -- possibly because of his equipment.

"Lie down and keep still," Kenza whispered to Mistletoe. "If he comes in here, pretend to wake up. I'll ambush him while he's distracted with you," she said before laying down a short distance from the girl, contorting her limbs so that it looked like she'd been thrown into the cell. Angling her head so that her hair flowed over her eyes, Kenza looked out from under the fringes to as the noise drew closer.

---

@lord of evil@lchris314@hekazu

As Mistletoe was sitting almost listlessly and recovering her consciousness slowly, she heard Kenza ask "Stupid question, but could you try slipping out of it? And see if the attachment if firm on the wall -- if not, we could keep wearing it away with pulling so that it eventually separates." Mistletoe wanted to answer, but was unfortunately still under the combined effect of shoulder pain and drowsiness after a long, comatose sleep in the dungeon and unable to speak.

Kenza then went on to inspect the chain that shackled Mistletoe to the wall. At the same time Mistletoe had recovered enough to speak, but before she could open her mouth, heavy footsteps interrupted. Before she could react, Kenza told Mistletoe a certain plan, which she silently followed. She kept her breath soft and listened carefully to find out clues about the footsteps' source. Hmmmm, very bulky. Maybe equipment, or sheer body size perhaps?

The heavy footsteps stopped momentarily at the door. For a few moments, nothing. Once people might already have started to question if they had heard any footsteps at all, the door slowly opened on it's creaking hinges and if anyone had eyes on the door, they saw a familiar face. The bipedal creature covered in jet black fur walked into the room, wings extended behind itself as it walked through the doorway. As soon as it was through, it drew them back against it's back and sniffed the air.

Wolfwing then looked into the women's cell on the left, before marching onward to check up on Derrick's quarters. Now that it was in the light and moving slower, the hunters could finally get a good look at it. It had a particularly muscular build even for a werewolf, the claws were slightly shorter than standard but still more than sharp enough to cause damage through soft armour. The wings on it's back were leathery with much less fur on any parts of them and on the front of his snout a pair of teeth could be seen where a human would presumably have their canines. It was wearing a makeshift red wrap on it's upper body and a pair of presumably burlap pants. This upper body garment was new.

It sniffed the air in front of Derrick's cell, growled in a deep, threatening tone and slammed their right forearm against the cell door. Evidently not happy about something, it stormed out of the room right after, slamming the door shut after itself once it had carefully drawn it's wings out of the doorway.

Derrick opened his eyes as the wolfwing left, watching as it retreated out of the cell. He waited a few moments before rising slowly, taking his plate shard as he did, and walked towards the prison bars. Peeking out into the hall he was relieved at the lack of winged lycanthropes and sank to his knees at the bars. That'd been too close for comfort.

Derrick glanced out at the hall at the prone form of his colleagues and suddenly remembered his place. They'd need to get out before the werewolf did... whatever it wanted to do with them. Not that he knew what it was, but it was likely that it wouldn't be wholesome.
"Hey, he's gone. We can get up now." He said quietly, still rattled by the experience.

Kenza waited until the beast's footsteps disappeared down the hallway before sitting up and looking at the place where the beast had slammed into Derrick's cell. The iron bars there had been bent inwards slightly as a testament to the beast's strength, and Kenza knew this wasn't going to an easy escape if there was going to be an escape at all. The beast seemed to have been irritated at something, which resulted in its outburst on Derrick's cell door. From experience, Kenza knew that canine creatures tended to have a keen sense of smell. The dim lamplight had provided enough light for Kenza to pick out the features of a winged lycanthrope-esque creature that paused multiple times to sniff the air. Although the acuity of smell tended to vary based on the creature, assuming that the "Wolfwing" was among one of the more acute would mean that it picked up something from Derrick's cell. Something that it didn't like.

"Derrick, what's in your cell? Are you hurt?" Kenza asked, running through possibilities in her mind. Perhaps the beast had seen something in the boy's cell or smelled something like blood from an injury. Is it hungry? Kenza thought with a sickening feeling of dread. If the beast came back with the intention of eating the three hunters, they wouldn't last long at all.

---

@lord of evil @lchris314 @hekazu

The door slowly opened and the werewolf walked into the damp dungeon. Pretend to wake up. Kenza will ambush it. Mistletoe, feigning sleep, repeated silently to herself the improvised plan Kenza had told her. Her job as a distraction was easy compared to Kenza's obviously deadly one. She was quite worried about Kenza.

As the monster slowly moved closer to the cells, Mistoetle found her heart pounding uncontrollably hard, while her breath became heavier and heavier. She was terribly frightened of alerting the lycanthrope and killing the party. The fear pushed her to the brink of fainting again, but fortunately Wolfwing simply strolled past her cell and went to check on Derrick.

Something irritated the monster, as its slamming of the cell door and threatening growl clearly indicated. The worst didn't happed, though, and it rushed out, shutting the dungeon door behind.

"Hey, he's gone. We can get up now." Derrick's voice was soft and somewhat trembling. Kenza then inquired, "Derrick, what's in your cell? Are you hurt?" Maybe she noticed something out of place. As Mistletoe stood up she felt dizzy for a moment, but the symptom quickly subsided. She then waited for Derrick's response.

"I'm fine, it didn't touch me." Derrick said.
Derrick briefly wondered what exactly it'd been doing there. It'd clearly been angry for something, maybe it noticed that one of the plate shards were missing. But he wasn't sure why it left without achieving anything, and it made him kind of nervous. Regardless, it had left, and no matter what he thought it'd wanted he couldn't confirm his suspicions.

"What I've got in my cell... Well, I don't think it's very useful, but..." Derrick began.
He picked the pieces of the plate off the tray before sliding the tray through the bars, carefully setting it down. He then took the plate shards through the bars and set them on the tray before carefully sliding the tray forward, toward's the girl's cell. He couldn't do much with his, but perhaps they could make something happen.
"That was all that was in my cell." Derrick said. "Maybe you can use it?"

@Dusksong@LChris314

Kenza looked at the plate shards that Derrick had slid towards her cell, silent as her brain ran through the possibilities. "I can't think of any particular uses for the shards except as weapons," she admitted after a moment's thought.

Moving the three pieces around so that they were off the tray, Kenza motioned towards moldy wood. "This though. If we break it correctly, we can use it to function as a lockpick." Kenza paused. "This is probably a good time to say that I don't have any skills as a lockpick, so if either of you do..."

---

@lord of evil @lchris314 @hekazu

"I've never really thought about picking locks." Derrick said, shaking his head.
It was part of his upbringing. His village was small and such treachery wasn't treated kindly. Considering neighbors shared with each other often it was also rather unnecessary, although it wasn't as if it didn't happen.

"My father always said that career thieves tend to have poor future prospects." Derrick continued. "The nature of an unstable income and disregard for authority tend to lead to..."
Derrick managed to stop his tirade as he realised he was rambling. He coughed awkwardly before summarizing his thoughts.
"Anyway, let's just say that I never picked up lock picking skills." Derrick said.

@Dusksong@lchris314

@Lord of Evil@Dusksong@Hekazu

"I don't know lockpicking either." Mistletoe gave a short negative. "Are those pieces of wood hard? Maybe we can use them to provide leverage and break the chain somehow?" The chain had quite a few weak links that might be exploited. She picked up a piece of thick stick, but her arms were chained and couldn't move freely. "Could you try? My arms couldn't turn." She asked Kenza.

"The wood's moldy and brittle, so I doubt it could withstand the pressure of metal, however rust and weak the chain has become," Kenza said. Still, she approached the chain, feeling it over in her hands and giving it a few tugs at some parts before shaking her head and looking back to the others. "Nope, still pretty sturdy. Mistletoe, the bolt that latches the chain to the wall looks impossible. But, maybe..."

Kenza walked over to the girl, checking the chain on her arm. "Wait, this isn't linked," she said, flipping the girl's arm around. Apologizing briefly for her suddenness, Kenza set about working on the chains until they clacked down on the cell floor. "Well, that's that," she said, dusting her hands off and reaching a hand out to Mistletoe as to help her up. "How's the arm? Think you could still shoot if, hypothetically, we were to be able to snag a bow?"

Picking up two of the shards and gesturing for Derrick to pick up the third, Kenza passed one to Mistletoe. "Dagger buddies," she said with a grin as she held the plate shard as she would a blade, slicing the air experimentally. The edge was a bit dull with rust, but with adequate force even dull knives could pack a cut or three.

"Alright, the door. Wanna break the tray up and try anyway? Unless any of you have a better idea as to what to do with it," Kenza said, nodding towards teh tray.

---

@lord of evil @lchris314 @hekazu

Derrick shrugs, and shakes his head. He isn't sure if Kenza could see it but it didn't really matter. It was the thought that counted.
"I gave to you two because I wasn't going to put it to much use, so go ahead." Derrick said.
He sat back against the stone wall and relaxed. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and he was pretty sure the wolfwing wouldn't be back for a while either, so there wasn't anything much for him to do at the moment.

Derrick began tapping his foot restlessly. He wanted to do something or other, even though he knew that he couldn't. It didn't come naturally to him, to sit there and wait. Perhaps he could liven up the area with some conversation then.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking..." Derrick began.
He paused for a time, trying to think of a conversation topic. This train of thought invariably led him to think of what he talked about with his friends, which reminded him of something he was curious about.
"Why did you two get into monster hunting?" He said. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, I'm just a little curious."

@Dusksong@lChris314