You find a few ingots of some precious metals, a large opened book, and rolled parchment of some kind and fit them into your bag. You do so blindly, not just because Aeryna suggested it, but because the fire and your watering eyes demand it. You hope you picked up something useful and right now hope has to be enough.
Your cough worsens. You swear your sweat is steaming. Wiping your eyes to see seems only to add more sweat to boil over them. You are reaching your tolerance of how much more you can take. You stop to catch what breath you can when you hear a voice yell out from upstairs.
"I FOUND HIM!"
You jolt mid cough and quickly tie up your bag, leave the library, and head back to the stairwell. Flames drape the banister as you ascend the stairs. You hear a loud *CRACK* of splintering wood nearby. You don't have time to think about it. The heat is even more intense at the top of the stairs where you see, at the end of the hallway, Aeryna coughing and frantically gesturing you over with her cloak covering her mouth. You run down the hall, thick with smoke and something else...floral aromas?
"He's alive, but some-" she coughs, "something's wrong!"
You turn the corner and find yourself within a partially alight alchemist's chamber, seasoning you with delicious sage, fennel, and garlic, but also earthen, bitter, and putrid scents stemming from various plants, now burning, fastened to the walls and ceiling.
Meanwhile, before you lies the strong, early 30's body of a human man you know as Mars Polyphebos, Paladin and First Blade of Ophanheim, writhing and convulsing involuntarily. His eyes move arrhythmically and independently of each other.
"We've gotta get him out of here!” Aeryna calls out. “Get his shoulders! I'll get legs. On 3. One. Two-". As you prepare to lift him, you notice a trickle of blood pouring out of his left ear. "-THREE!"
You and Aeryna lift Mars's squirming body overhead and begin to carry him as best as you can through the flaming home, a task made even more difficult by the heavy smoke and oppressive heat.
“Let’s get out of here!” Aeryna yells as you begin to make your way down the corridor with Mars. “We can leave the way we-”, she coughs, “the way we came or maybe out a window in this hallway to try to get out sooner. What do you think?”
[WHERE DO YOU GO?]
[DOWNSTAIRS] Go to 19
