Muttering half to himself, "....be simple if we had some rope," as he paced around the cell and examined the sparse furnishings, he suddenly came to a stop in front of a pile of used bandages. "Ahh," he smiled and then glancing around, he found the princess and sidled up to her.

The look on his face was one of barely contained mirth but he managed to flash his characteristically smooth smile at her. "Say, princess, I think I know how to get us all out of here." There was a disparaging groan from one of the group but he ignored it and continued on, "These bandages here - is there more of that where it came from? What we really need is some sturdy rope but I think we could make do with this...if we had more."

Princess Vertilline blinked at Ranger and stammered, "I...er. I tore that off from my petticoat. It was the only thing I could think to use to tend to Letty." And it was true, her skirts did look pretty ragged and ripped up.

Ranger nodded. "I thought that might be the case. Terribly sorry about this Princess, but we need your skirts. It's the only way." He smiled and spread his hands apologetically.

Princess Vertilline flushed, cheeks burning bright with a mixture of embarassment and anger. Definitely some of the latter as she raised her hand to slap the impudent drow. He ducked quickly but Vertilline had already lowered her hand. It did appear to be the only way, after all. "Very well," she relented with a sigh, "if it gets us out of this infernal prison." She quickly stepped out of her petticoats and began ripping into long strips of silk.

"Ranger," called out Josune. "I get your plan but I think you've overlooked a few major problems. For one, we can't all just scramble up a rope quick as you please. I know I certainly can't and Letty...well it's obvious she's in no shape to do anything so taxing. Besides, what are we going about that guard?"

Yasha butted in, "leave that to me. I'll smash him."

Josune chuckled. "But you have no weapons. What if he's armed?"

Yasha scowled but was undeterred. Looking around, she spied a metal dish in Zoila's hands. No telling what that mage was doing with it. Yasha pointed at the dish and said, "I'll use that. Whap him good." She nodded confidently.

Zoila furrowed her brows. "I...think I might be able to help," she said with a timid smile. "I've just been examining this metal and there's some curious property to it. I think I can electrify it. That oughta take care of our guard problem!"

Yasha scowled and muttered, "Magic..." She gave a grunt that wasn't quite refusal, though not assent either.

Josune crossed her arms over her chest but seemed satisfied. "Well that solves one problem." She turned to Ranger again and continued, "And how do you propose to get us topside?"

Ranger raked his hand through his hair and smiled sheepishly. "Climb?"

Josune huffed and threw her hands up, shaking her head. "Of course. Well, you're lucky I've got an idea or two. Those pallets there just might save us again. If we could manage to roll one of them up, it should support the weight of someone standing on it and that would certainly narrow the distance to climb. We'll have to tie it off with some of our...rope," she cast a sympathetic eye to Princess Vertilline who was still tearing her skirts into strips," but it looks like we'll have some to spare. One of you will still have to get up there first to help the rest of us."

Carys chimed in, "If someone can just boost me a little, I could make it! I've climbed out of worse situations before. There was this one time I got into a duke's cellar...er," she paused at an impatient glance from Josune. "Maybe I'll tell that story later."

Ranger chuckled. "I want to hear it for sure. Anyhow, I can give you a leg up. No problem."

"Now we're making progress." Josune smiled. "As for assisting Letty - and my dear, you have our deepest apologies for getting you into so much trouble - I think if we got enough of us out first, we could fashion a lift of sorts to pull her out. If we strapped some of our...rope to the ends of another one of these pallets, that should suffice."

"Well see there," Ranger smiled, "now we've got a proper plan. I knew you'd come through." He turned to the OneTwos still peering down from the ceiling and called out to them, "We're just about ready! As soon as everything and everyone is in position, we'll give you the signal to start digging."

On Ranger's queue, everyone in the room quickly gathered themselves into their positions. Yasha and Zoila flanked the door, while the rest anxiously hovered around the princess and Letty. Ranger began wordlessly demonstrating how best to knot together the rags into a strong rope, while Josune gave the signal to the Onetwo's to start digging.

Time passed. A minute. Two minutes.....

This guard is about as useless as nipples on a breast plate, what gives? Ranger gave the door a speculative look, then shot a glance at Josune and motioned towards the palettes. They crossed the room and began to stack them up into a platform they all could use to boost up to the widening hole in the ceiling.

"Well this is interesting," Ranger whispered a little too loudly. Yasha shot a warning glare straight at him, but he paid no mind to it. "I'm beginning to wonder if the guard is blind and deaf." He shot Josune a crooked smile as he placed a palette on top of the pile.

Catching Yasha's cold, angry stare, Josune quickly changed her chuckle into a cough. "You seemed eager to rip up her skirts," she whispered quietly, giving a curt jerk of her head in the princess' direction.

Ranger shrugged, "We needed the material and there's plenty of it there. I wouldn't say I was eager." He paused and watched Josune's reaction, "but it was a nice show, wasn't it? At least it wasn't Yasha's clothes." Yasha continued to glower in their direction.

Josune stiffened but made no reply and continued to stack methodically. Too methodically.

Is she jealous? Ranger cocked his head, working to hold back a smile. "You know...I quite enjoy this."

Josune worked not to meet Ranger's eyes, "waiting for a guard to burst through the door and catch us making our escape?" She ducked down behind the pile of palettes and watched the door.

This time Ranger couldn't help but smile. He slinkered over in one smooth motion beside her behind the palettes. "Are you jealous?"

Josune's eyes tightened, "Of course not - don't be ridiculous."

Defensive much? Ranger playfully poked her arm quite pleased with himself. "When you're angry you're very-" he started to say but was cut off by Yasha's loud spitting hiss.

"SHHHH," Yasha's temper boiled over. "I hear foots."

The room grew quiet and everyone stopped moving. Yasha hastily removed her cheek from the door and backed away.

"What's goin' on in there?" a voice called from the other side.

"What's going on over there?" Ranger called. "We thought you got lost!"

"Now you little..." the guard let out a line of incoherent profanities as he wrestled with the keys in the lock. He suddenly burst into the room, not noticing Zoila and Yasha as he stormed towards the opposite wall.

CRACK. The metal dish smacked into his back and his knees buckled from the tremendous jolt of electricity that shot through him. A big grin spread on Zoila's face as she watched him fall, but then the metal dish rolled away. The guard barked out another curse and whipped his head in her direction. He was recovering much too quickly.

Well that didn't work right. Panic gripped her as he slowly began to clamber onto his feet. Before he had a chance to stand up, Yasha jumped onto his back, wrapping her thick arms and legs around his neck and torso, giving a swift kick to his groin with her heel. The guard staggered down to his knees, straining against the weight on his neck, clawing at her arms wildly. His head slowly turned red, then purple, and his eyes were bulging out of his face. After a tense minute, he finally went limp and slunk to the floor.

"Magic." Yasha spat it as a curse and stood up to her full height, glaring at Zoila.

"Let's get moving!" Josune motioned to Carys to bring the completed rope over and climb onto Ranger's shoulders. He hoisted Carys up and the onetwo's heaved them up. They quickly secured the rope to a post, tying it into a strong triple knot, and called down to the others. "We're ready!"

Ranger held out his hand to assist Yasha up the rope but she swatted it away with bone crushing force. With a look of serious determination on her face, she began to climb unassisted. The others crowded the ground below her and when she reached the top, she helped hold the rope while the others climbed one by one up behind her.

Josune and Ranger waited behind and helped everyone climb up the rope - some needed more assisting than others. Ranger took a special amount of care with the princess, getting a bit too touchy feely than needed as he helped hoist her up, then ogling at her behind as she made the climb. He wasn't particularly attracted to the princess, but he enjoyed the scowling Josune was giving him far too much.

"It's your turn, my lady," Ranger made a show with a low bow, holding out his hand for Josune to take.

Whatever he was carrying on about, now was not the place and she was in no mood for his antics. With a grimace, she took his hand, then gasped when he lifted her up in a smooth motion into his arms.

"Put. Me. Down," she angrily ordered.

He gave a grin, but complied, hoisting her up as she quickly grabbed the rope and began to climb up as fast as she could away from him and his stares. When she was safely above, he pulled the rope under the top palette, fastened it above the palette in a knot, then went under the palette in the opposite direction to form a sturdy "x" and knotted it again in place above. He gave it a few hard jerks, testing it to make sure it was secure, then crossed the room to Letty. As gingerly as he could manage, he lifted her up against his chest and carried her slowly to the palette. Once he placed her down on it, he moved her hands to the sturdy rope. "Hold on tight, and don't let go," he instructed. She nodded once then looked up as Ranger signaled them to pull.

Everyone grabbed part of the rope above and began to heave slowly, trying their best not to jostle Letty around. Once the palette ascended close to the top, Yasha held it steady while the others assisted Letty off of the palette as carefully as possible. Once everything was clear, Yasha released the rope completely, letting the palette fall swiftly to the ground. Hopefully on Ranger's head.

"Hey!" Ranger called up to them. Yasha cracked her first smile that day.

Ranger quickly and easily scaled the rope, trying his best to look as effortless as possible. He gave Josune a wink as he pulled himself up and gave a curt smile at Yasha, who was now scowling again.