<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/OeAxEQm.jpg)  </div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">map key</div><div class="spoiler_body">On this crude map, skull and bones represent the crowd, 'A's represent Cris and Mina (Cris is closer to the middle), 'B's represent Ox and Malia (Malia is entangled with 3, Ox next to the fire).  The other skully bits in the middle are the remains of Cris' father, the braziers are torches, and the obelisk thing is the pillory.  1s are guards, the B on the far right facing the C was supposed to be a 2 for the Torturer.  I suck.  He's pursuing the female elf Raven.  The 3 is for the Walker.  The bonfire is burning cinders and stage planks.</div></div><br/>Ox is surprised by the scalding heat of the cauldron and the heat of its surface, but he is easily able to overturn it onto the stage.  Recoiling in sudden horror, the guards back away a half-step-- whether at the defiling of the ritual or the sudden eruption of heat and smoke is unclear.  One of the soldiers places his booted foot directly into the cinders and cries out in shock and pain, sputtering and doing an awkward, pained dance away from the immediate burn to his foot and leg.  Both seem to have taken a breath of the hot air and smoke, and stagger for a moment, sputtering, shielding their faces with their forearm defensively a they moe to ready a more coordinated attack.<div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Reflex Saves 10, 18.  4 Damage.  Fort Saves, 1 and 2.  You can't make this shit up... Chelaxia's keystone cops.</div></div><br/>Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, Malia lunges again with the blade, this time finding home in the sinewy creature's robes, where there is resistance to the keen-edged blade-- a sensation of snapping bone and rent flesh shocking as the beast howls in agony.  [9 damage] It spits more Infernal at her and snatches for her bare shoulders, attempting to deliver a desperate attack to save its own filthy life.  [concentration: 15+4=19][touch attack: 10.  Shocking Grasp: 4 damage to Malia. Ouch.]  She is agonized by the surge of electrical power through her body, but sheer adrenaline keeps her on her feet in the Walker's face.<br/><br/>Mina's spell goes off without a hitch, saving Malia's naked flesh from frying under the intense surge of electricity that flows through her at the beast's freakishly powerful grip.  Cris is in a position to fight back, the clasp of her silvery-gray cloak holding although the flowing garment billows back from her compact, naked form as the fierce, brutish guard bears down on her and swings a wild attack with his longsword.  It leaves a long gash across Cris' bare midsection that immediately stings like cinders, then goes cold in with pain.