Frazzled, probably from the sudden appearance of another guard, Saffi decides to stick to the shadows, keeping well out of the way of both her companions and any potential enemies. As she flattens herself against walls, curves around doorframes and walls, and dodges between people, it's clear that she possesses the dexterous grace of the elves, even though she's no true elf. Pulling her red hair back, her eyes glint and she smiles as she sees a familiar pack in the armory. She rushes to the backpack with reckless abandon, crossing her fingers that they've not touched her tools. 

Please, please, please, uh . . . some God or Goddess, she thinks to herself. She begins to rifle through the bag as she hears the Arakocra trying to escape. Not sparing a glance toward the fleeing guard, she blows a raspberry. "Who cares? We're out of here soon anyway!"

The changeling pulls a small leather pouch from the backpack, and appears to be visibly comforted by holding it in her hands. She pauses and twitches her eyes around the room, replacing the pouch quickly. She seems satisfied and begins to sling the bag over her shoulder. "Wai--!"

Throwing the backpack on the ground, Saffron squats and starts throwing things out of it. When it's completely empty, she stamps her foot. "Where the hell is my gods-forsaken money! Those bastards stole all my gold! Where did that damned Arakocra go!? What, does she think she can just leave without explaining where in the Nine Hells my coin is?!"

"It's ok", Hemlock says to the others regarding the no longer needed rope, which he loops over his backpack like his other rope.

"If there is a to be conflict on our way out of here, best we prepare", he adds, as he puts on his studded leather armour (with studs of stone) and grabs his wooden shield.

He then loops the leather cord of his amulet around his wrist so it is secure, spends a moment staring at it in his open palm, before releasing it and looking to the others.

He watches as Saffi starts to become irate, using strange words that he is not sure about. He almost starts to ask what they mean, but sees her irritation and decides not to.

"I am ready, and would very much like to leave now", he says instead, looking at the four walls around him uncomfortably.

Saoirse is trying to decipher the papers Tesfaye had been previously reading, but when the rest insist on leaving she realizes there's no time time for that. So she shoves whatever papers she manages to grab into her backpack, hoping that later they'll be able to read through them more thoroughly.

- You're right. Let's go - and she begins to exit the office, following the rest to the yard. As she passes next to Saffi she tries to calm her - Don't be mad, Saffi. It's just money. I'm sure more will come your way. Come on, at least we'll be making it out of here, which is more than we could have hoped for a few hours ago...

Sha-gravis is trying to finish the last of his armor straps and gets his arm buckled into his shield, a round black wood shield trimmed with purple (an emblem of Shar) lastly he grips his warhammer 'Alptraum', as he finishes he notices Saffi with her pointy ears getting upset about her missing money, "Here Saffron for you." he tosses his coin purse. (15 gp)." Let's get out of here."

cast thaumaturgy to produce the sounds of us moving furniture in the room as we leave...

Saffi nods at Saoirse, though her face looks no less angry. She begins shoving things back into her backpack, taking a few moments to examine some of the larger items to ensure she didn't miss the money pouch. After tying the drawstring to close the pack, she stands and catches Sha's coin purse. For a moment she looks as though she might protest, but shrugs instead. "Thanks, I'll use it for something good."

Stepping toward the Tabaxi, she grits her teeth. She doesn't want Sha's money. She wants her own money. It was, after all, money that she had earned. Not money she'd pickpocketed, stolen, or swindled, but money she'd made playing her viol. Muttering a few curse words under her breath, she bumps into Sha, apologizes, and heads to the exit.

The fire genasi's eyebrows rise in surprise to see Sha giving his money to Saffi. What a nice gesture coming from the Tabaxi! She's about to turn back to the changeling to say "Look at that! More money came your way, and quicker than expected!", but she finds Saffi to still look angry with the situation and even bump into the cleric on her way out. Not the reaction Saoirse expected, but who could blame her. Discovering someone has messed with one's belongings, specially after being sent to prison for gods knew what reason that may as well not have been a fair one, isn't anyone's cup of tea.

She sighs and tells Sha: 

- That ... was a very nice gesture, Sha-gravis. Not one many people would choose to do, I think - Not adding much else, she nods and smiles to him on their way out. But as she's walking hastily to the yard she realizes that she feels grateful for coming across this curious bunch of people, whose fate had looked so grim just a while back. Would they stick together for long? That didn't seem probable, right? These people would have lives to return to, as she did herself. It's not as she wanted to return to the chloister right away, though. It was more a "had to" than a "wanted to", really. There were surely many things she could do on the outside before returning with her fellow blood hunters, weren't there?

Saoirse also realizes that, in her haste, she has checked her weapons and armour but has completely forgotten about doing the same with her amulet. She suddenly feels a pinch of guilt for not checking on that either and hopes that it is in her backpack with the rest of her belongings. It's not that she needs it for using her abilities, but it's a piece of her - quite literally - that signifies not only her origin but also her belonging to her order. She'll check on it as soon as she has a quiet moment, after leaving Coldwater for good.

Saffi successfully sneaks Sha's coin purse back into Sha's bag, which nobody else will notice until Sha next has time to look through his pack. That won't be right now though, as things are staying quite intense! You all begin heading back towards the Yard, but as soon as you step out of the northwest door of the Armory, you can hear boots and a familiar voice coming from the hall just to west, the hall you remember as being the main entrance/exit.

"Alright keep yourself together! I know that was a gruelling battle just now, and that those crafty forest-dwellers made us fight every moment, but you're alive, back on oyur turf, and Markus shouted down to us that the enemy is already inside these walls. So, be ready for everything, and don't hesitate. You remember what they did to Anton!..." Grommit continues talking to himself as he approaches your location.

Just as Saoirse rounds the corner heading back towards the yard, an arrow narrowly misses her, and the Aarokocra swoops down and rakes her with her talons, doing 5 damage. She can see that the arrow came from the human who had retreated from Lam, now standing in the corner with his Longbow drawn.

We are in Initiative order, and I went ahead and rolled for you all. Order is: Human HMC; Aarokocra; Sha-Gravis; Saffi; Hemlock; Saoirse; Lam; Grommit; Tesfaye

It is Sha-Gravis' Turn

Sha-gravis

Free action. "I warned you birdman!"

Movement.  (can't access map so...) get up next to Saoirse, into melee range of Aerar.

Action.  Attack with warhammer 13 damage 7

Reaction. If an opponent tries to rush past AoO.

End of turn

Sha-Gravis charges at Aerar, who deftly sways to the side and avoids his Warhammer. "Bring it on, Kitty," she retorts.

This fight has our party hemmed in on two sides. To the east, a wall goes up 10 feet from the door they just exited, and then gives way at the corner to a long hallway reaching east. At that corner, Saoirse and Sha stand facimg Aerar. At the end of that roughly 30 foot hallway, the human with the bow stands ready.

25 feet to the west of the Office door, a large open door leads to a wide hall to the main entrance and exit, through which Grommit is approaching.

15 feet to the north of the Offices door, a hallway heading north and then winding back to the Yard.

Saffi instinctively grabs her shortbow and crouches against the wall, before rolling out and aiming her bow at the Arakocra. Leveling her sight on the avian guard, she whispers something nearly inaudibly in a strange language. After whispering the prayer or, perhaps, a wish for luck, she releases the arrow at the Arakocra and shouts, "Where's my gold, %$&#*@!?"

"We've talked about this, Aerar! This is a multicultural workspace, and theres no need for speciesist insults!" The human shouts from the end of the hall.

"Ok," responds Aerar while facing down Sha and Saoirse. "I'm going to tear you open, but its not because.youre a kitty-ca-----AARGH." She seems shocked by the arrow suddenly sticking out from her ribcage. White feathers turn red in an area that must be just above vital organs, but she remains upright. 

"We would never steal your money, dishonorable sneak," she manages to say through gritted beak.

Hemlock steps out of the room to sounds of fighting, although he can't see where.

He also hears the threat aimed at Sha-gravis, just as Saffi fires an arrow down the corridor to the north.

He shakes his head, indecision plaguing him. He has already taken one life, he didn't want to do that again, but if he didn't fight he and his companions would likely die.

His decision made, he moves north until he can see what is happening, and then speaks in druidic, "Fflachio a bywiogi". Once again a flickering flame appears in his palm.

"Forgive me, we just want to leave", he says and then launches it towards the Aarokocra.

He then ducks back behind the wall, not waiting to see if it hit it's target or not.

Aerar's stance falters and she holds her head a little less high. Lucky for her, it turns out. A ball of flame passes through the air where her head had been a moment ago, though the reluctant druid does not see that it missed. Aerar's confidence is gone, as she sees how vastly outnumbered she is. She expects to die this day.

it is Saoirse's turn.

Aerar's attack comes as a surprise to Saoirse, who was deep in thought instead of paying attention to what could happen on their way to the yard. She screams in pain as the aaracokra's talons scratches deeply into her thigh and flame-colored blood begins to pour from the wound. 

Wounded as she is, hearing Grommit's group approaching makes her worry even more. If they don't manage to defeat their present two foes before Grommit reaches them, they might as well count themselves as dead. With this in mind, she doubts for a split second what to do. If she could just block the door behind them so Grommit could be delayed... But if the fire genasi does this, she will be exposed to more attacks from Aerar, and she's too wounded to risk that. 

Saffi's arrow comes in at this precise moment, hurting the aaracocokra and helping Saoirse make a decission. Commending herself to the one True King, she draws her scimitar to strike the aaracokra:

- You should have just let us go. You could have survived this! - she says, as she swings the scmitar at Aerar. 

"No more dead." - the fire genasi thinks, sadly - "...we were going to leave causing no more deaths..."

Aerar falls, bleeding from her chest and now from a deep scimitar gash that stretches from navel to throat. The human cries out in horror almost at the same time as Tisfaye, who mutters "we just want to get free" quietly. 

Aerar is dead.

It is Lams turn

In just a few seconds, the situation goes from calm to perilous. As Lam tries to process everything happening- the aaracokra and human attacking, more guards coming from the other side, his friends in danger- something in him appears to snap and he appears to lose some sense of control. He bounds over to the fray just in time to see Aerar fall. Saoirse is injured. The human still has a crossbow aimed at all of them. Lam glares at the human and roars, “DON’T HURT THEM!”

Markus (the HMC human) sees his feathered friend fall, and a moment later the ferocious mountain of fur who he had just run from in the armory is bellowing at him again. Markus' next arrow clatters to the ground as he turns tail and runs back through the outer hallway.

The large door to the west bursts open, and Grommit rolls gracefully through, one hand in his jacket. As Grommit finishes the roll, his hand flings outwards in a lightning-fast blur, and he throws two darts. One hits Hemlock for 6 damage, and the other is blocked by Tisfaye, who just manages to turn their shield into position in time!

Tisfaye shuffles up towards Saoirse. They reach out to Saoirse with their multi-tool, and it sprays a light green liquid at her wounds, which close up and stitch themselves together. Cure Wounds for 6 hp   Then they walk back down to stand in front of Hemlock, bravely trying to place themself between Hemlock and Grommit. "No More!" They shout at Grommit. 

Grommit answers "I'm sorry. I thought we were going to be friends, but now this only ends one way: you all either dead or locked up in cells while we sort this out."

Through the door behind him, you can just barely hear multiple sets of boots.

Sha-gravis 

movement. Diagonally 15’ SW out in the open in front of Grommit.

Action. Dodge

free action. “Go now my friends, you know I can catch up!   Run!”

Reaction. AoO if possible.  Grapple 12

"Oh Gods you've killed Aerar! I'm quickly losing sympathy for you misfits.  To think i liked you, polite bugbear... Good luck trying to stop me, preacher." -Grommit

it is Saffi's turn.