As Angus watched the kobold and the masked man flee, he knew he was too far away be of much assistance on that matter. So instead, Angus decided to get a head start on the looting to make up for that sack of gold he tossed aside in a rage earlier. Angus moves to the nearest door and opens it. Judging by the burnt papers on the table, it appeared that the hooded figure's dislike of loose ends had also claimed the lives of innocent stationery. Seeing a pair of chests next to the table, Angus moved to investigate.

Ulhar took a swipe at the kobold, but alas his blade failed to connect. He couldn't really complain however, as he had other, more important things to do right now. As the others ran to fight Ulhar went into the room and looked at the bodies. Already he could tell who were too late to save; they had died immediately from the blast. But there were others who had a chance to survive, if Ulhar did something now. His eyes went to young man with brown hair and a Sansea woman. They flames wounded them heavily and was causing them to bleed out, but with his magic Ulhar can save their lives. He went over to the woman and reached into one of the pockets in his backpack, taking out a single Goodberry. He always makes at least one batch before he goes to sleep when he travels. Not only does it keep him fed on the road, but it can also heal the dying. So he puts the berry into the woman's mouth, moving her jaw so she could properly consume it.

The effects would be immediate: her wounds would close and the bleeding will stop, though she'll likely awake still very sore and hurt. As for the young boy, Ulhar knew he only had precious few seconds before it would be too late. So for him Ulhar prayer quietly, once more using his Summer Balm to close his wounds and bring him back to strength. Even if they would be too weak to fight, with more bodies active they can at least take a few goodberries and try to save the others, if possible. This group could use all the help they could get.

Nadir, Seeing the lizardman treat the woman and started to heard her beginning coughing, he rushed over to her through the remaining flames. "Layla, come, we must hurry." Quickly picking her up, both left the smoking room. Aron, seeing the boy recover as well, gave a nod of thanks to the blue lizardman and stepped in to help safely carry him out of the burning room.

Angus, now in a simple room. Towards the wall to the north, that room does appear quite bare, but remains of a broken chair and old blood staining the ground. To one corner there can be found a metal collar with chains with the end nailed into the ground, parts of the ground also appears to slightly eroded, almost like some acidic burns. Then there remains a desk which drawers hastily pulled opened as if in a hurry along with some burn paper scattered. Then there are the two chests near the desk that don't appear to have a lock on the front. As Angus approached and investigated the chest exterior and surrounding, nothing appeared to be keeping it locked or protected from outside.

Down the stairs, Orchid was run fast enough to shove the masked man prone on the ground. Seeing he was down, Azzen kept his 60ft distance to be at the bottom of the stairs as he yelled "You coward!" yelling as he cast vicious mockery, but the masked man appeared able to resist the magic effects. Getting up from his prone state and beginning to move away, the kobold still clung to the man with his firebolt pistol aimed not at Orchid, but Azzen. With one shot, the firebolt shot sailed past Orchid and pierced into Azzen who screamed in pain as he almost fell unconscious. The mask man would then began moving away as we ran about 45 ft away from Orchid, beginning their descent from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.

As Angus approached the chests, the sound of Azzen crying out in pain as he was shot by the kobold met the Highlander's ears. The bard was in danger. And seeing as he had provided Angus with a considerable amount of healing earlier, the Highlander was honor bound to come to the tiefling's aid. Moving at speed, Angus left the room he was in and proceeded to the location of Azzen's cry, sheathing his claymore as he went. With Sarfyr's dying screams having soothed the Highlander's anger at his current predicament once and for all, his mind was no longer clouded and he remembered the promise he made to stay out of the melee. A promise he now had every intention of keeping. Angus slowed to a stop as he joined Najila on the stairs. Azzen's cry had come from this direction, and sure enough he was there. Leaning against a wall at the base of the stairs. Looking as if he was a single stiff prod to the forehead from keeling over.

The kobold kept his firebolt pistol trained at the remaining party members as the masked man made his way down the stairs and soon the opening of the large entrance doors could slightly be heard. Seeing the two run away from sight, Azzen leaning position on the wall now slumped onto the ground from the near unconsciousness that he felt. Once Angus arrived, Azzen tried to get himself and waved away any assistance as he simply glared towards Angus. "So now you decided to come back here. Must you always recklessly leap into danger and leave us behind in potential harm?" Not hearing any conflicts, Celeste slowly stuck her head out from the room she was hiding in, hoping everything was okay now.

Meanwhile, Nadir still closely held onto Layla as he told her how things currently are and will be better. Besides having bad scorch marks, Layla looked relatively good enough to start a steady recovery. Layla, also trying to stay close to Nadir with her remaining energy closed her eyes as she can finally rest a bit easy now knowing most of their kidnappers have been dealt with. Once Layla closed her eyes, Nadir looked at the lizardman and gave a soft nod, "Thank you, with all of our gratitude."

Aron, who carried the young boy out, offered the body to Blue as Aron went to check the remaining door that the party has yet to enter into. Inside, there only appeared to be beds, along with a table and chairs, the entire room appearing very minimal and and better kept than the barracks that they found. Stepping out, Aron went into the study room that Angus was once in, took a look inside if there remained any danger, then stepped out into the hall. Looking at everyone asked out load for anyone to answer. "This last remaining room seems safe and the other room of some study has two chests, unsure if anyone here opened those two yet. Everything seem safe for now, but with that said, what are we going to do now?"

Orchid would chase down the man and the kobold for a short while, but once they fled the building she stopped. Truthfully, she wanted to kill the man to plunder his armor, however going to fight him alone, even if he's unarmed, while that kobold still lived was a risky idea. Especially since if she follows him further he may just lead her to a trap. Orchid waited nearby to see if he or the kobold would return, but once it was evident that they were gone, even if only temporarily, Orchid simply set up a crude barricade after closing the door with whatever was available and would meet up with the others.

It would seem that they managed to save a few people, and most everyone that was thrown into the dungeon were alive. Orchid took a deep breath and gave everyone a nod. "First, we should check the bodies. There may be something here that can assist us in knowing where we've been taken and how to escape. Maybe if there's any keys if those chests are locked. I'm fairly certain that Najila is missing a book or some sort? It'll be important for her to get that back." Orchid would go to the bodies of the mage, as well as their other enemies, and bury her blade into their necks just to ensure that they're dead. Seeing the corpses of the other caravaneers however, she did feel a pit in her stomach. "I can't pretend I could've saved them. I'll just have to settle for helping the ones who survived."

Orchid would check the bodies of the defeated enemies for anything of importance, notes, keys, odd trinkets, spellbooks or scrolls. Pretty much anything of value really. She was certain that none of them were going to get hazard pay, so she'll have to make due with plunder they could pawn off if they reach civilization.

Najila moved to join with the others after the kobold escaped their wrath. She looked to Layla and Nadir as they gave their words of gratitude to Blue. She spoke to them, "Nadir...I must offer my apologies. I am sorry. If I hadn't forgotten to set up that Alarm spell, then perhaps none of us would have been in this mess," She then looked to Blue and she thanked him, "Thank you for saving them,"

She then looked to Aron and Orchid when they spoke next. After Orchid mentioned her book, she nodded and reaffirmed, "Yes. The Book of Clouds. It is indeed imperative that I find it," She then continued, "While I can easily ask for it back with a ritual, I'd rather not. I can't imagine that he would be too happy to hear that I had it stolen from me,"

Then a thought comes to her, and she mumbles out loud, "Come to think of it...How long has it been since I've last written in the Book of Clouds? ...He's probably cross by now if it's been a while..."

"So now you decided to come back here." Azzen said. "Must you always recklessly leap into danger and leave us behind in potential harm?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought ye'd be capable o' handlin' yerselves without me around fer a tick." Angus replied. "Apparently I was wrong about you on that front. I'll be sure to keep that in mind from 'ere on out." After saying that, Angus fell silent as the others conversed. When Orchid said that they should first check the corpses, Angus nodded and set about searching the dead for anything useful. While he searched, Angus looked over at Najila as she spoke about a book and someone who she only referred to as 'he'. "You've got me curious now, lass." Angus said. "Who's this he yer talkin' about, eh?"

"Hm?" Najila hummed inquisitively when Angus asked her his question. At first she asked, "Oh, my apologies. I must have been thinking out loud again," She continued, "I am simply speaking of my patron. As much as I would love to say that I learned magic all on my own, that would be a lie. He granted me my magic, and taught me everything I know,"

She then looked around and she commented, "As much as I would like to divulge more details about him, I don't trust these walls, nor anyone else who calls this place their home or hideout. But I will say this: The book he entrusted to me is important, not just for me to be able to cast certain spells, but it allows me to uphold my end of a deal I made with my patron,"

At last it seems like the battle was over. Though Ulhar only managed to save two, those were two people who would escape the deadly clutches of these mad folk. Ulhar then simply spent the next few moments putting out any flames with his Frostbite spell, and then spent another few moments praying over the bodies. As the others returned to either search the bodies or secure the rooms Ulhar stood up to help look around. One of the others mentioned a room with two unopened chest: could be fortune. Could also be a trap. So Ulhar would go over saying a quick blessing as he would determine if either chest was rigged with any secret weapon before trying to open them.

In the room where all the scorched bodies remained, it took some time to safely search the bodies, but would eventually find the following. From the half elf that Angus ended, he carried a satchel under his cloak, oddly enough the cloak appeared relatively unharmed from the fire. Within the satchel was a strange book that looks cloud like, anyone who approaches and reaches for it would find their hand to go through the cloudy book, but the closer it is to Najila, its form becomes more solid. Inside the pockets were also some money. On the body of the spell caster who was presumably attempting to teleport away, did not have much of value on him, but some silver pieces and a necklace with small burned metal head of a dragon hanging. Finally, there appeared to be one other body that seemed to not have been in the crates. Angus and Orchid would easily recognize this to be Tenkern Swiggin, the human merchant that hired them for the journey and currently has a full pouch on him containing nothing but gold pieces.

In the room that Blue inspected for traps and found none, found that within the two chests were various coins and gems in one and the other containing potions. Then in the last remaining room, were various beds that were better kept than the beds in the barracks, which Layla, Azzen, and the young boy were left to rest for the time being while everything appeared calm so far. Celeste, who was hiding on the floor below, stepped out after hearing and seeing everything calm down. Once she saw Layla to be resting, she happily joined beside her in bed.

Now, out in the hall, Aron and Nadir looked to the other party members, with Aron starting the discussion. "So what is our plan? We have some people resting over in that room, but do we all plan to take a short or long rest here? For now, we may be safe here but who knows if they will return with reinforcements." Nadir cleared his throat and tried to bring some attention to himself to speak. "Resting here for now may be good for now, but I do not wish us to stay here for too long after what we all experienced. But my question now is where do we all go from here? Clearly we all came from two different sides of the mountain range that separates the Novus and Sansea territories, but the fact that we appear in the side of a mountain range and not at its base, we must have some how been teleported here onto mountain somewhere on Asembia. If anything, I would like us to move in some direction. So does anyone have some preference?"

When searching for loot Angus first went back to Sarfyr. After taking the dead half-elf's coin as his own, Angus found two other items of interest on the corpse. One was a cloak that, despite being in range of the fireball, hadn't been damaged by the flames. Upon closer inspection, Angus came to realize that this was in fact a Cloak of Protection. After everything that had happened to him up to this point, Angus figured he could do with the extra protection. He took the cloak and draped it over his shoulders. All he needed to do now was find the time to attune to it. It was at that moment that Angus noticed Sarfyr was also carrying a strange book. After his hand went straight through the tome as if it weren't even there, Angus got the feeling that he knew who it belonged to. "Oi lass!" Angus called out to Najila. "I think I might have found yer book."

Angus stood up and moved away from the corpse so that Najila could reclaim her book. As he did so, Angus noticed the body of Tenkern Swiggin on the floor among the other claimed by the fire. Angus sighed ashamedly at the sight. The Highlander was meant to protect the man, and he had failed. As such, his sense of honor stopped him from taking the dead man's gold. Angus walked back out of the room to find people discussing their next move. "I've no preference in which way to go." Angus said. "Though I would like to sit down fer at least an hour to recuperate."

"Oi lass!" Angus called out to Najila. "I think I might have found yer--"

Before Angus could even finish that sentence, let alone step away from the book, Najila swiftly sprinted over and grabbed the book, as if her life depended on that very tome. The veils flew behind her like they were her own version of clouds. Once the tome was in her hands again, she felt a great weight lift itself off of her shoulders. The relief can be seen on her face, as she genuinely smiles at Angus, "You have my gratitude, Ironbane. I shudder to think that elf almost escaped with my tome in hand,"

After saying that, she immediately started to inspect her tome. The thought that the elf might have done something to the Book of Clouds did concern her. She first checked the bookmark to see if she received any new messages during her time apart from the Tome. If the clouds in the bookmark are roiling, she would immediately open the book to the bookmarked page. If not, then she would quickly flip through the pages to make sure that there wasn't any damage or additional marks made by that Sarfyr character.

Once that was done, she would notice that Angus took the Cloak of Protection. As much as she wanted it, she knew now wasn't really the time to discuss it. She wondered if she could persuade the barbarian, and how she could. She started mentally recalling the novels where characters tried to persuade people stronger than them...

She muttered as she recognized one of the corpses, "Tenkern..." Had he been working with these people? Was the reason why she was hired was so that she and the rest of the caravan could be kidnapped?

Regardless of the answer, Najila decided to take his pouch of gold. The group could certainly use that money in the future.

She listened as Aron and Nadir spoke. After Angus gave his answer, Najila answers, "I have no preference either. I suspect that all of us will be staying with each other for quite some time,"

She then cleared her throat and she asks, "Since we'll be resting here, it looks like I have some work. I shall set up an alarm here...unless anyone else has a better idea as to where an alarm should be placed? It would be good to have should any enemies come after us while we rest,"