[Incidentally, I'm considering the conversation time a short rest.  So Pepper is back in the game, and anyone who wanted to spend surges during that time (and had them available to spend!) is welcome to have done so.]

At the first hint of smouldering up in the rafters, I stop my fruitless attempts to try and pick the lock on my manacles with an armour buckle, and stare up at it.  "Oh, fuck me," I breathe, then throw my chair backwards as hard as I can with so little leverage, trying to knock over the table behind me and hopefully both jar Pepper awake and knock her down to the floor, out of the smoke.  Not to mention myself, once the chair goes over.

[Athletics: 7+11=18]

[Additional goal: get the journal out with us]

[Additional goal: get the journal out with us]

[   you noticed!]

At the first hint of smouldering up in the rafters, I stop my fruitless attempts to try and pick the lock on my manacles with an armour buckle, and stare up at it.  "Oh, fuck me," I breathe, then throw my chair backwards as hard as I can with so little leverage, trying to knock over the table behind me and hopefully both jar Pepper awake and knock her down to the floor, out of the smoke.  Not to mention myself, once the chair goes over.

[Athletics: 7+11=18]

Success.  Astra and Pepper fall to the floor, Pepper awakening, both of them breathing more easily.  Astra's chair breaks, so she can at least worm or hop around despite her manacles.

[1 moderate success - 0 failures
Astra:  Athletics]

I pop my head through the storeroom wall to check on the innkeeper.

[How is he bound? Manacles too, or something simpler?]

Trussed up with rope.  Poor guy's eyes bug out at the sight of a ghost head poking through the wall.

[Would acrobatics finally be useful in standing up and hopping around, bound as I am?]

[Would acrobatics finally be useful in standing up and hopping around, bound as I am?]

[sure.]

[Pepper will expend 3 healing surges to return to 42 HP]

[SO the serving girl they took with then has the keys. Convenient.]

[SO the serving girl they took with then has the keys. Convenient.]

[*innocent whistling*]

The floor welcomes me with a hard indifference and I am jolted back into reality.  I blink to focus.  I can see a ceiling.  I can see thick, milky gray billows of smoke gathering in the eaves.  I can smell the rich and acrid pine oils burning.  I can hear the pop and sizzle of the upper timbers and thatch as the smoldering fire readies to build into itself into a proper conflagration.

Huh.  Makes sense.  Why leave prisoners or evidence.  We really should have done the same thing from the start here.

I make a mental note that even though I will murder these people, whoever they are, they have earned a level of professional admiration.

The muffled screams for help from an unknown voice distract me from my revelry and force me to focus on the present.

There's also grunting coming from nearby.  I turn my head to look, but my view is blocked by table on its side.  The grunts are familiar.  Latrine duty.  I crane my neck to look around but I only have a read on the ceiling from this vantage.   

It occurs to me that I shouldn't even be alive to be having this conversation with myself.  That's when the pain begins to edge its way into to the periphery of my conscience.  And that's when a horrible thought interjects itself.  The smoke may be just enough to kill me, but if the fire just smolders, my body may still be intact enough to be ... useful.

No.

Pain.  Fear.  Panic.  Those will have to wait.  Now there is only survival and drive to live.

Guide me, Otto.

[Standard Action: Acrobatics to escape at least the manacles: 19+13 = 32 vs whatever godsaweful DC is in store for me.]

Well, this is great. My ability to interact with the physical world is limited at best. Still, first priority; get this poor bugger out of here. Then the others. Then the journal. Then whatever else we have time for. Alright.

I look quickly over the ropes to find a good place to start, then focus my mind and concentrate on pulling the knots free.

[Ghost Hand + Thievery check to free the innkeeper; I'll use my Guidance of the Past encounter power to roll twice on the check. Thievery: 14, 12 + 5 = 19, 17]

[Standard Action: Acrobatics to escape at least the manacles: 19+13 = 32 vs whatever godsaweful DC is in store for me.]

You're free of the manacles!  You're still bound in ropes, but hey, progress is progress!

I look quickly over the ropes to find a good place to start, then focus my mind and concentrate on pulling the knots free.

[Ghost Hand + Thievery check to free the innkeeper; I'll use my Guidance of the Past encounter power to roll twice on the check. Thievery: 14, 12 + 5 = 19, 17]

The innkeeper scrambles to his feet as the ropes drop free, and bolts out of the storage room and into the main hall, calling "Ebba!  Ebba!"  Not seeing her, even through the haze of the smoke, he throws open the front door and runs through it, still shouting out for his daughter.

The smoke and heat in the roadhouse are becoming oppressive.  You hear a wumph of flames catching and spreading as the innkeeper opens the door, unknowingly feeding the fire.

[2 moderate successes, 1 hard success - 0 failures
Astra:  Athletics
Pepper:  Acrobatics
Mari:  Thievery]

Hells.

[Escaping intensifies: Acrobatics to escape ropes: 20*+13 = 33]

Pepper wriggles free of the the ropes.

[Do I need to crawl in order to avoid some sort of Constitution check against the smoke?]

"Stay low!" I shout to everyone. "Or the smoke will kill you before the fire!"

[Heal: Roll(1d20)+12: 7,+12, Total:19]

Oh Bugger this for a game of soldiers.

"Anyone with delicate sensibilities needs to look away now."

I don't bother waiting for them.

I draw my essence into my core. I'm still bound but I can feel my arms shrinking. The ropes loosen...no, they're staying with me. The shackles too. Not the chair though, thank Whatever for that. There, I'm a bat.

I fly out the open door and head straight to the barn where the commander said he left our weapons. A tight spiral before I land affords me a glimpse of a lone figure riding south. I strain to see who it is.

I land near the pile of weapons and concentrate. Within two seconds I have filled out perfectly and am looking down at Bloodclaw. I squat next to and grasp it in my manacled hands. Carefully I work at the ropes holding me. It doesn't take long to slice through enough rope to to free myself. I'm still bound at the wrists but I have enough freedom to work with. I grab handfuls of hay and dunk them in the water trough.  Horse blankets follow. I make sure they are drenched before I dunk myself too, then I run back to the inn, trailing water.

I smear water all over my head and yell through the flaming doorway.

"I'm coming in! Stay out of the way!"

And then I run back in.

Stupid idiot. You're going to get yourself killed.

[Checks: acrobatics to fly through the door without burning myself 19 + 6 = 25

Perception to see who was riding away 12 + 6 = 18

While being stealthy 10 + 12 = 22

Athletics to make it back in while carrying heavy hay and blankets 14 + 3 = 17]

I kick the captain's chair over as well, trying to break it too.  "Hey!" I roar after the fleeing innkeeper.  "Get your godsdamned useless arse back in here and help us, or you'll be answering to me!"

[Athletics: 8+11=19
Intimidate: 11+2=13

eta: Aden, don't forget that each time you end your turn in direct sunlight, you take 10 radiant damage, and if this drops you below 1hp, you are dead permanently!]

[Do I need to crawl in order to avoid some sort of Constitution check against the smoke?]

You can if you'd like!

"Stay low!" I shout to everyone. "Or the smoke will kill you before the fire!"

[Heal: Roll(1d20)+12: 7,+12, Total:19]

Oleg's good advice about obtaining oxygen is helpful to those of you who still need to breathe.  Success.

[Checks: acrobatics to fly through the door without burning myself 19 + 6 = 25

Perception to see who was riding away 12 + 6 = 18

While being stealthy 10 + 12 = 22

Athletics to make it back in while carrying heavy hay and blankets 14 + 3 = 17]

The figure had a long braid and was dressed in the same manner as the people you just fought, so you think it was Atrelioth.  You didn't get a good enough look to be 100% certain, though.

Val successfully returns (I shall refrain from making any "wet blanket" based jokes), more cooked by the sun than he was by the fire.  He's down to 7 HP.

I kick the captain's chair over as well, trying to break it too.  "Hey!" I roar after the fleeing innkeeper.  "Get your godsdamned useless arse back in here and help us, or you'll be answering to me!"

[Athletics: 8+11=19
Intimidate: 11+2=13]

Astra manages to helpfully knock Oleg to the floor and bust up his chair.  She does not manage to impress the innkeeper, who is goggling now at the vampire with the horse blankets and the head on fire.

[6 successes (5 moderate, 1 hard) - 1 failure
Astra:  Athletics
Pepper:  Acrobatics
Mari:  Thievery
Oleg:  Heal
Val:  Acrobatics, Athletics]

Oleg's good advice about obtaining oxygen is helpful to those of you who still need to breathe.

[]

[You only need two more successes, but at least one of them must be a hard DC.  If you roll a moderate DC when a hard one is needed, I'll count it as neither a failure nor a success.]

I take a deep breath, my head close to the floor, and wriggle my way over to the door.  Done what I could for the other two when I'm still chained up like this, and I gotta get out before I pass out.

[Endurance: 11+10=21!]