He waits for the other three to catch up, then tries the door.

Locked. Might be barred, too, seems like that sort of door. Very sturdy.

Isn't it convenient that they brought someone along who is very good at dealing with recalcitrant doors?

And now the door is capable of being opened.

So she opens it. Gently. Nothing that's going on here is the door's fault.

Howe and a mage stand to either side of a table, a young man strapped onto it. Two guards between that and the door.

They might want to recount the number of guards.

And:

"Afternoon, Rendon," says Elissa, stepping into the room. "Remember me?"

"Well, if it isn't Bryce Cousland's little spitfire, all grown up and still playing at dressing in a man's clothes."

"Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you kidnapped the Queen?"

"She was poking her nose where it didn't belong. The same as you. You should have died with your parents."

"Short-sighted and petty as ever. All right, we're done here."

She draws her sword and goes for the mage.

She bounces off an invisible barrier in midair. Howe smirks.

The selection of loose objects in the room is... messier than Metella would like, but that doesn't prevent her from summoning a swarm of them to surround and assault that mage's barrier.

This is Metella's show. Everyone else stands well out of the way.

Clare takes a moment to heal and free the young man on the table.

The mage grits her teeth with the effort of sustaining the barrier under Metella's assault. Howe flicks his eyes around the room, keeping track of everyone.

They move to surround the barrier, although not nearly as effectively as Metella's circle of sharp objects. Stalas takes the position closest to Howe.

The mage grunts, and pushes her hands up and out. The barrier glows with blinding light for a few seconds, then collapses.

The circle of sharp objects closes rapidly.

The mage cries out in pain.

No such cries from Howe.

There are only so many places he could be. Stalas guesses 'under the table' rather than 'abruptly invisible', and pursues.

Clare can fix her teammates' vision almost instantly - except for Stalas, who is a dwarf and therefore spell-resistant, Stalas what are you doing.

Blocking a dagger with his face might be a good guess?

Come on, would he have done this if that's how he expected it to go?

...okay he might have, but in this particular case, he can see well enough to duck.