The elemental seems suddenly to tire of the pointless contest, and without warning moves directly upward into the sand-riven firmament. Wen and Helmut aid Josiane's retreat from battle, while Olaf, Highbough, and Dieter all press their luck looking to genuinely drive the creature off, but none of them can reach it quickly enough even with extra-scalar leaps into the thrashing wind.
The elemental rockets skyward, and soon vanishes from squinting eyes completely! Those who combated it are left panting and sweating from their efforts, but immediately note the wind is dulled to a mere natural ROAR with the unheralded departure of the air-spirit.
It is a fortunate turn of events.
Meanwhile, in the sheltered environment of the skif's hull, Desmond attempts to retract any of the dagger-like spikes from within the split iron-maiden/echo-chamber capsule... but has no luck. The dull grey metal spines are fused tightly to the inside surface of the ovoid... perhaps with some smith's tools it could be managed, but not with bare Hobbit's hands.
Armando recalls to mind Ulric's magic ring, while Ashtad casts a searching eye about the dim, stooped chamber. It is too low for Men to stand properly upright (although Desmond has no such concern), and riddled with struts and beams--much like a cramped attic. The dull grey, ovoid, iron-maiden occupies much of the space--a 20ft long, 10ft wide, 6ft high balloon filling the narrow hull of the skiff that must be crawled over, under, or around to move about. There is perhaps 10ft of free space aft and fore of the lead balloon, but even this is low. There are several arm-width pipes running upward from the fore end of the balloon thru the ceiling. Presumably these must emerge on the top deck... there might be something like a pressure valve among the pipes...
Turn six.
The elemental has suffered enough hurt to warrant a morale check (despite these monsters normally being compelled to fight to the finish by a conjurer, in this case there is no conjurer) 2d6=4; a flee result!
It has superior mobility, so a good initiative result will cause it to escape without harm; 1d6=4. Initiative for possible attackers: Olaf=6, Highbough=4, Dieter=3+1, so all three can attack in time.
Attack rolls 1d20:
Olaf=9-2 (would hit AC 9) miss.
Highbough=8-1 (would hit AC 9) miss.
Dieter=5 (wouldn't hit AC 9) miss.
Dieter (F5) hp 22 12
Josiane (C5) hp 16 12 7
The combat is over, so we switch back to exploration time scale. Those involved in the combat spend the remainder of the current exploration-turn recovering from their exertions.
What next?
[f=32]
Golgildir the Elf Medium (MV 12", AC 9, HD 1, hp 1/1, AL N) great cloak,
lantern; spells: color spray; scrolls: sleep, sleep, charm person
Hirelings: Georges;
torch[/f]