Chapter 1: Friends in Need

Aazim was as shocked as everyone else to find himself doused with ale. He quickly wipes it from his eyes, expecting an attack to follow.

However, Lauretta then whispers about faking a schism, and walks away. Aazim feels a smirk forming, almost against his will; he had mentioned this plan, and Lauretta initiated it...though she probably would've tossed ale on him anyway, regardless of any plans.

Glancing around at the crowd, he knows everyone expects retaliation. So he concentrates, and his Elemental Affinity begins to come alive, specifically Fire Affinity. Small flames dance around him, and his eyes glow red-orange.

Loudly: "A typical response, stubborn one. You know you can never win an argument using reason and logic, so you resort to intimidation, contempt, and cheap shots like this. Does this religion of yours condone such actions? If so, it's a poor religion indeed...but a fitting one for gutter trash such as yourself."

He draws his dagger and advances, his fire sparking across the blade...but then he powers down his ability before it truly manifests.

"Ah, you're not worth it. You're more like an ill-trained dog than a person. Beating you in physical combat would accomplish nothing; you wouldn't learn anything, and would still snap and snarl at those who try to befriend you. So I'll take my leave of you...and of this group, should they wish to stay and tolerate your sociopathic nature."

He leaves the tavern, using a sleeve to try and dry himself off. How would the rest of the group react to this? This situation was more real than acting; Aazim had to make a great effort not to attack Lauretta. Would his teammates understand what had occurred, or would they consider him the cowardly egghead, someone easily pushed around, "acting" or not? If the latter, he'd be better off traveling with others....

At first Gabalan was a little confused about what have just happened... looking from Lauretta to Aazim and back again. But within few splits of second he understood that it must be the act, that is aimed at making their divide believable to everyone.
"Cleaver. But I'm not an actor. We better divide in half... to have most strength on each subgroup." Gabalan - thought to himself, while Aazim was preparing to leave the inn.

Gabalan rises his hand in gesture of stoping Aazim from leaving the tavern and just - not so loudly to not bring too much attention on himself (contrary to what he should be doing in this situation) - says:
"Aazim... wait... you still owe me..." - to only realize that the words have hit the already closed door and he wasn't able to invent a better reason for him fallowing Aazim.

Then he just awkwardly stands up from his seat and fallows Aazim outside.

Finding the Jann nearby, he approaches him and just says:
"You are a good actor... at one moment I thought you were going to really start throwing fires or daggers at Lauretta." - Gabalan exclaimed with a deeper, but still not very emotional nod of his head that was meant to express appreciation.

Than with the same lack of grace as always, Gabalan immediately changed the subject going straight to the point:
"So do you have any idea where we should hide and wait for the group number 1 departure? Do we have any means of communicating with them through the distance? Like... with magic or little messengers? I mean... my magic won't help with this. I hope they will at least leave a proper traces for us, so we will be able to follow them easily."

Gabalan looks around for good spot they could use to hide, so that they will be able to see Lauretta's group departing. Like second floor in the barn.. or maybe some of them have a room with the window showing the main square in front of the inn? And they could sneak back in?

What happened in the blink of an eye clearly shocked Tzal. He wasn't expecting such an outburst. He never wanted to take on the role of a leader commanding everyone. He forever believed that people should be amicable to each other. Such immature discord among so many adults clearly disgusted him. He then considered the possibility that it was all an act, but still it was pushed too far. He stood at his table, shaking his head and annoyingly looking at Lauretta. After a moment later, he sighed and turned to R3N-L3, "I think you should go with Gabalan and Aazim. I will go with Lauretta and Wolfram, trying to bring sense into this pompous, ill-tempered woman."

He stood up and nodded to R3N-L3 and proceeded to meet with Lauretta and Pyram.

Nodding back in affirmation, R3N-L3 headed over to Gabalan and Azim, unperturbed as usual by the turmoil happening around him, even if he did seem to recognize it.

To Gabalan: "It was more real than acting. I had to restrain myself from retaliating with more than words. This woman...I dislike her more with every passing minute. I fear that if we don't knock her down a peg or two, she's going to lead this group to catastrophe."

"I'm eager to see how they'll handle Pyram, now that Lauretta has discarded the 'dead weight.' I suspect she'll foul everything up, and then blame everyone but herself, but she may surprise me."

"As for our plans now that we're split...I have no clue. When I mentioned this plan, I expected we'd discuss it thoroughly before committing...but of course, that was too cautious for our ornery priest, and I felt I had to play along with her ale-dousing. Like you, my magic won't help with long-distance communication."

To R3N-L3: "What do you think, R3? Should we hide around here and see what happens? Or do you have some other good ideas germinating?"

The words of the jann didn't seem to carry any impact on Lauretta as she walked away. Even while glowing with blazing fury and approaching her with dagger in hand, she refused to turn back to Aazim. It was some combination of emotional detachment and the fact that these barbs felt more petty than the one's from earlier. She had said her piece and was done with the conversation. There were more important things to do than try to decipher why one jann must assume the worst in her.

"Pyram. Half my group have agreed to help you with your tomb scouring, and we've changed our minds about wanting to rest through the night first. That agreeable to you?"

The priest didn't bother sitting down. An itch to get some air would've been there even if she didn't suspect Pyram had lured folk to some awful fate.

Wolfram lays on that insidious sweet smile he can muster at will as he drills Pyram with narrowed eyes.

"Well? We are ready to leave now."

"All of this won't matter... with enough amount of time passing." - Gabalan commented Aazim remarks about Lauretta, with some 'looking into distance' expression on his face. Then continued: "I'm also not a fan of her emotional approach, but get your act together. Probably we have still some possibility of saving people lives. Or at least saving them from something worse than death." - Gabalan looked straight into Aazim eyes, what was very uncommon for him. The Jann had an impression that Gabalan's left eye flashed with a weak yellowish light for a brief split of second, but he quickly assumed that it must have been some kind of reflection of light in Gabalan eye, caused by someone touching the curtain in the inn and letting some light out. As they still weren't too far from the entrance.

Gabalan also looked at R3N-L3 for new ideas, still visibly fascinated by so-different technology or magic that had to be running this metal body and... mind?

"Splitting one's forces against an unknown enemy is never optimal." R3N-L3 intoned after a second of computation, glancing over at Lauretta with a shrug. "However, there are advantages to allowing them their way. It is noted that organics operate closer to optimal efficiency when pursuing something they feel themselves in line with. Thus, while this is a risk, it may pay off in greater unity once the priest's purpose is sated."

"In the interim, however, we know there exist beasts nearby. They are unlikely to be sapient, as sapience usually dictates greater planning and cohesion, although sapience is capable of significant deviation as well. It is the highest risk-reward opportunity we can pursue. Sitting here is of no purpose, as the only advantage to splitting forces is that of multiple objective achievements simultaneously. While I am capable
of optimal night-time operation, you two are not, I believe. I would propose the setting of traps during the night, carried out solely by this unit. In the dawn, we will see if we have caught any traces of the more bestial enemy.......And whether or not they are a Wizard creation." Although there was no discernable emotion in R3N-L3's words, his tone seemed to rise ever-so-slightly on that last sentence.

When Pyram left to get his things, Tzal turned to Lauretta and shook his head in dismay. "That was totally unnecessary. You are a capable person given the holy duty to lead by your order. It is not right for the champion of the High One to lose your temper like that. I don't know if that was entirely an act, but I could sense some personal cord being struck and immature gratification achieved in either of you. I am not familiar with Jann culture, but I have heard they are not originally from Borderlands. You are representing your order, which last I know is trying their best to act in good will and help mitigate the catastrophe that is happening in the Old County. Nobody here judges your capability, but at least you could have taken a mature stance. Come on, I know you could have done that. Instead, you threw your temper in the wind, showed your dominion, and abolished the sembelence of any civility. I know that Aazim is confused, fickle, and temperamental, so he needed firm guidance rather than instigation. A task you were initially doing fine until you just gave into your anger. Uff....I don't know what to say anymore. I guess you will handle things better next time. That is if there is one."

Wolfram, dancing from foot to foot with impatience, felt their group spent more time gabbing and not coming to a decision or taking any concrete action more than any other group he had ever been associated with. He was hoping this wasn't going to be a mistake.

"Yes, Pyram, we want to leave immediately," the rogue said firmly.

Being impervious to most mundane conditions such as cold, poison, or the need to breathe, R3N-L3 would wait patiently, only a faint ticking to be heard from his otherwise immobile form. After waiting a good half hour for them to get quite far, R3N-L3 abruptly rose from the haystack he was sheltering from, scaring off a barnyard cat that hissed balefully at him before racing off. "Now, I believe, we follow."

"Agreed."

While the jann certainly loved a good discussion, even he was weary of the endless arguing (and strange behavior) of his teammates. He and Wolfram had stretched their legs earlier, but accomplished little; it felt good to be on the move now, with at least a semblance of a plan.

He wished he could've washed up before departing, as the ale makes him smell like a drunkard. Looking ahead down the path, he wonders how the other group is faring. He doesn't really care about Lauretta's fate, but Tzal and Wolfram hadn't done anything to directly antagonize him...although Wolfram seemed to enjoy Lauretta's aggressive nature.

Humming a tune he'd learned at the Arcanum Collegium, he wonders what Omar would say about his situation. Probably something like: "Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." But repeating such quotes to oneself was always easier than actually living by them....

Gabalan nodes with his head eagerly in agreement to R3N-L3 decision to depart at that moment, as he would like to say:
"It's about time!" - but says nothing and just follows.

Pyram's lack of hesitation for their suggestion was welcome, but his nonchalance was slightly concerning to Lauretta. Was he so confident in his plans that he was willing to accept whoever would come and at any time? Either that or he wasn't the dastardly manipulator she believed him to be. Time would tell. While wasting no time in getting the group on the trail, she addressed the mage's rant.

"You won't find any disagreement here. I know and accept that my part in that last spat was a failure of myself. It was a moment of weakness that was childish. My actions will require atonement, which I intend to subject myself to. While I intend to apologize proper for the ale, my words weren't untrue. The jann has shown me nothing but disrespect and mistrust since we got here. In earnest, I'm unsure how to deal with him. Learning is going to be a challenge of its own. I'm used to working within organizations with a hierarchy. There was always a chain of command. Differences in rank resolved many conflicts, but those that weren't usually were resolved with violence or separation. This group is something far more loose that would be torn apart by those methods. Regardless of whether we dislike each other, there needs to be a mutual respect. I'm not sure how to establish that when faced with these attacks. Trust that I have no intention of giving up."

Finishing her speech, the priest would operate in silence as they set out with Pyram. It wasn't until some time later while they were on the path to the Green Hills that she would question him.

"So, how many of these excursions have you done so far? And what makes you so sure that this one will be the big one that warrants hiring some guards for a hefty price?"

Wolfram rolls his eyes wondering if the spats will ever end.

"Here's an idea. Let's let bygone be bygones and start with a fresh clean slate and be the team I know we can be, eh?"

While the rogue doesn't necessarily believe in his pep talk nor that request is even possible to fulfill, he'd like to see them devoting all their energies to the task at hand. These arguments were a diversion that could cost someone their life. He didn't trust Pyram at all and had a sneaking suspicion that they would need all their faculties to fight what was coming up next.

Tzal was satisfied with Lauretta's reply and he nodded both to her and Wolfram agreeing to end the chaotic arguments. He followed Pyram with others to their intended destination, wondering what kind of trap he was trying to spring on them. He pointedly listened to what Pyram was saying, as any information or misinformation would indicate something. When he noticed the group coming in their direction, he was alarmed. "Looks like we have company! What's that stench?"