Jelani rested against the front of his cage, fingers curled around the bars and his eyes closed as he mentally multitasked, listening to Tiss ramble on while he thought. It was all a bit unbelievable, one moment he had been enjoying a very, very lovely hot bath after a recently completed job and the next thing he knew he was caged up like an animal. Much to his dismay the sole article piece of attire he'd been provided was the silver bracelet around his left wrist. He hadn't realized what it was until he'd attempted to augment his strength to bend the cage bars and nothing came to him. No matter how hard he focused, no matter the technique or level of meditation and concentration, he couldn't utilize his psionics. He'd recognized it then, early in his former career he had been fitted with one until he was deemed trustworthy.<br/><br/>It was entirely frustrating, and though he didn't want to show it, it was rather terrifying, being cut off from the power that he lived and thrived on, that had been with him since as far as he could remember. He really couldn't compensate for the lack of it, not enough to deal with the no-doubt numerous guards between the cave and freedom. They had armor and weapons, he had ...no clothing and his claws.<br/><br/>He'd considered attempting to destroy the bracelet, but it was fitted to him too well to wrap his fingers around the band, and he'd need to augment his strength to have a hope of actually damaging it to begin with, to say nothing of the risk of damage to his wrist in the process. Similarly, he'd considered gnawing his hand off, like an animal caught in a trap, but nude as he was and not being well-versed in medicines, he knew that would be folly. Without cloth for a tourniquet and the know-how to properly apply one to himself (one-handed, no less) he'd simply bleed to death before doing anything of worth. Not enough time to get vengeance on his captors. That simply wouldn't do, it was not a fittingly glorious death. So he scrapped that idea and waited.<br/><br/>He waited and thought and planned and threw out old plans when realized the flaws in them. He had watched the numbers of his new-found companions dwindle, one by one until it just the five of them.<br/><br/>He<span style="font-style: italic">had</span>to come up with something. He now stood a twenty percent chance of being next, and if not, a 25 percent chance, then a 33 percent, then 50, and then he was assured to go to the same fate as all the others...<br/><br/>"Let's start with what we know," he announced as Tiss' tirade finally trailed off, opening his eyes slowly. "Our captors have powerful mages and magics at their disposal, we know that because that's how we all got here, yeah? So these aren't just any assholes. They either have a cause to attract powerful mages, or they have loads of cash to pay 'em."<br/><br/>"They also have these," he left up his left hand to display the bracelet. "This shit isn't somethin' anyone will have, y'know? These guys either are or know slavers willing to sell them some. So, from those two bits of information we know we're dealing with organized, powerful people here."<br/><br/>"What else we know is they've drug off nearly fourty of us in almost four days an' none came back. I thought at first maybe we might be being sold off, but.." he glances down  at his water bowl and shakes his head. "I've been around slaves before. You feed slaves. Especially if there's an auction. You want them in tip-top shape, not hungry enough to be half mad..."<br/><br/>"Whatever the fuck they're doing, I don't think anyone they take out of here lives. They would have fed us otherwise, instead of doing the bare minimum to keep us alive, any slaver would know that..."<br/><br/>"Feh. Doesn't matter. We need a plan to escape, not to figure out what they're doin', without a plan we'll all figure it out, one by one, an' it'll be too late then..."<br/><br/>"So, what's everyone got? We need to pool what resources we can."