Swamped

The problem, really, is that gag. Ringer's good enough to get out of that hold otherwise.

And even with it - well, the gag's not going to choke on its own, is it. Just distract the prisoner good for a few seconds and Ringer should be able to take care of the rest.

Well. Turns out you're in a room full of distractions, aren't you. The animals have been plenty agitated since Rider disappeared, after all, and this joker ain't helping. They're already making a fair amount of noise... you just need to push that up to a point where it can't be ignored.

Which would probably be easier if you were one of those damn animal experts, but you're not. You only fed them occasionally, and you had notes on what to feed each so you don't remember that too well off the top of your head. Aside from that, about all you know is which ones are particularly messy to clean up after.

And, well. Which ones you have to watch out for in the wild. But releasing one would be hard to do. Your best bet is to provoke one, preferably one behind the prisoner, into making a lot of noise.

...noise. You've still got the bird mask, don't you? Then again, you've got no idea how to use it.

Except... maybe you do. Not conventionally, mind, but animals usually aren't too bright about this sort of thing...

Time for a little gamble. You can see an enclosure with a few greattoads sitting around. You remember how much noise they make when they're upset. A band of 'em nearly gave you away once, when you agitated them while trying to slip past a Bogknight patrol.

Then you hold the mask carefully, in hopes that one of them sees it. It'll just take one; the rest will follow that one's lead. It's well below the prisoner's line of sight, so it shouldn't look odd...

A few seconds later, you hear exactly the kind of noisy croaking that you were expecting - and which the intruder clearly wasn't. They turn their head for just a moment... long enough for Ringer to pull away the gag and knock them to the floor.

"Do we still need that troublemaker here if our other intruder wakes everyone up?" you ask Mantis. "Because I don't think I can tie 'em up any tighter, but they can cause way less trouble in a cell with a good lock."

"It shouldn't be as necessary, no," Mantis replies. "Go right ahead."

"Now hang on," Bigfoot says. "Why should we..."

"I get it now. I knew Ringer could get out of that hold. If I didn't know that, I wouldn't have tried to pull off that little stunt."

"Don't change the subject."

"I ain't. I just realized what I know. If we give her the mask - she's not gonna pull anything because she can't. Not after the promise she gave me. It's not just that she wouldn't want to - she's just plain not capable of it."

Bigfoot glares at you.

"And what makes you so sure of her character?"

You don't want to get into the details. So you go with what's technically true.

"I fought her before. Years ago. It's something I realized after that fight."

Bigfoot's clearly not satisfied - but, as a rule, Marshguards don't pry.

"All right, fine. But if anything goes wrong, you're responsible for this. You understand me?"

"Yeah," you mutter, handing Elmin the mask. You really hope your instincts are right on this.

You'd still like to know how in the hells she survived, but one thing at a time, here.

She puts the mask on, and starts chanting. Kadra - it means "awaken". Nothing weird so far.

Wait... what's with all the shaking all of a sudden?

But... you're pretty sure it's no trick. Elmin seems surprised, too. She looks to you, as if to ask if she should keep going.

Great. Of course you get stuck with another tough decision.

So what's it going to be?