"Well, piss."

Jan init: 20

K init: Jan init: 18

Ethel, seeing neither of them flinch at the burning of the bedroom, decides to herself that - whomever else they may be - neither of these men is likely to be the owner of this tower in disguise.

"Ula," she asks with respect as the moves back toward the growing quarrel, "... might Istishia be so kind as to aid you in putting out my little mess back there before I burn the tower down?"  She points a thumb back at the smoldering furniture.

Then she looks upon the combatants and wonders how to end this without more corpses.

Initiative:  10

For DM:

Marrin's look of concern resolves in to full on annoyance.

Initiative: 14

K', Avaria, and Marrin can act/ready actions first, then Mak'ral and Soren will be up, then the rest of the group.

@Ethel

DM:

Seeing that Ula is helping with the fire dampening, Avaria turns towards the two that are obviously getting ready to attack one another.  She places herself inbetween them and asks, "Please, can we figure this out without a fight?  We have a real threat outside of this tower and we promised the trees to solve this issue.  Speaking of, we have a Rotting Man to find and get rid of, so we don't have time for this!  So please.. let's talk this out."

Persuasion: 18

Avaria notes that Soren looks slightly more amenable to not fighting but doesn't sense any change in Mak'ral.

"We can't trust this guy," Soren says. "Clearly he's unhinged."

------------------------------------------

K' and Marrin are up.

K just bides their time.

"Whats in the book, Mak? You do anything and I'm going to have to get involved."

Marrin's tone gets threatening.

If Mak makes an attack Marrin with club him with her rapier.

Mak'ral gets close to finishing his hand motion to cast a spell, but Ethel, anticipating such an action uses her own power to strong effect and nothing comes of Mak'ral's action.

-------------------------------

Would need perception check from Marrin to have noticed that exchange to swap out the held action to use on Mak'ral. No indication of what the spell was or if it was an attack or not. DC15 to have seen there was a spell being cast and countered. If pass, Marrin's choice on whether to use her held action or not.

((Jan able to make a check to clock that Mak tried to cast and Ethel negated it?))

Perception: 20

"Gods Mak! I warned you!"

To hit: 11

Damage: 5

She gives Mak a half hearted bop.

Marrin isn't even sure if she made contact with Mak'ral, the contact was so minor.

Soren looks like several options run through his head, but when he sees Marrin try to hit Mak'ral he seems to discard them all and merely tries another set of insults.

"I'm no cultist, but if I had a face as ugly as yours, I’d join a cult just to get a free mask." Soren says. Marrin detects the rhythmic, magical ripples interlaced within the words.

Mak'ral merely raises an eyebrow. Giving no indication the words had any affect.

------------------------------

Yes, Jan can make the check.

Ethel and Jan are up. Then Ula.

Marrin gives Soren an appreciative nod at a solid insult.

"Soren, stand down,"  Ethel says.

Then she taps her walking stick hard on the stone floor.  "You," she says to the half-orc scholar with a pointed look in her eyes, "I didn't catch your name.  Stop this fighting now, and I promise no one will be locking you back up.  Otherwise, if you persist in this pugnacious behavior, so help me I will park you inside of that mirror until I figure out what to do with you."

Intimidation:  15

Mak'ral looks seriously at Ethel as she speaks, but gives no indication that he's going to listen to her. He appears to be more interested in her appearance than her words.

"Are you on his side?" Mak'ral asks, indicating Soren. "What has this cultist promised you?"

----------------------------------------------------------

Jan's up.

Jan perception: 15

"If either of you tries casting a spell on the other and I'm going to start blasting and we'll sort it out later. Mak, can you at least accept the possibility that magic exists that could have given someone else Soren's face?"

As Jan speaks, she passes a hand over her face and takes on the half orc's appearance and voice, appearing as a near perfect replica.

Mak'ral gives Jan a half-smile.

"Of course," Mak'ral says. "But why would someone impersonate a minor minstrel unless they were more than they appeared?"

Soren groans loudly.

"He just chose one of us at random to cause confusion and buy time," Soren says. "He's the one we came to stop."

Ula looks from Soren to Mak'ral then to Jan and Marrin and shrugs. But she senses at least a few second lull in hostilities and, in preparation for what is likely to come, she casts a spell on herself. Several of the wounds she suffered from the zombies knit themselves together.

------------------------------------------------

K', Avaria, and Marrin are up (and Jan can have an actual action if she likes).

There is still a palpable hostility between Soren and Mak'ral and there's no indication that they're going to stop trying to get at each other.

((Jan will hold an eldritch blast primed to pop off if they get frisky with magic.))