All along the way back to the Zavas, Thea was fighting a new enemy. Well, not 'new' didn't exactly fit. She'd fought this pesky creature before, but never under such circumstances. Now that the fighting was done and all adrenaline had been used up and faded into nothingness, the fatigue was her next opponent, and she was fighting it fiercely by barely covering her mouth in time for each ginormous yawn to be suppressed. She'd been quiet the entire back, busy forcing her eyes to remain open, seemingly happy to be back in the less wild part of the forest now, until her violet eyes spot the commotion arising ahead. She halts, watching the crowed for a moment, frowning, and mumbles, "Oh in the name of all essences, what is this time?"  Clearly emphasizing the last bit with exasperation. Finally, she surrenders to one big yawn she was fighting back until now, before vividly shaking her head to clear it. She turns to the group. "Well, i guess I'll be right back. Just taking a look..."  With that, Thea scurries away, trying to ease through the crowd to draw closer and get within earshot of the soldiers and the elven merchant.

Stealth to try and remain inconspicuous while getting closer: 17

Iver, meanwhile, not even for a second tried to keep his eyes open. Silently walking, he could have been sleepwalking and no one will notice the difference, but he was aware of his surrounding the entire time. When Thea suddenly splits off, he opens his eyes to see what pulled her attention and sees the source of all the noise. "Should we wait for her?" The Halfling asks the others. "After we report back, we can all take a good rest, which I believe we all need."

What an odd group I've ended up with... Herrena thought to herself happily as they made their way through the forest.  That's just how I want it though, it'll make for a better story one day!  she added before a smile crept across her face.  

When they reached the bazar and the site of the disturbance, Herrena looked over with nonchalance.  If it were up to her, she would've left them alone or walked over to tell everyone to "Cut it Out!" if it looked liked things were about to escalate.  She had found that since she had ventured off on her own, most people were just talk and that a sharp word would end the matter before it began.  But with Thea running off on her own, she gave a quick sigh and said the rest of the party, "I'll go make sure she doesn't make things worse."  before following after the elf into the crowd.

Katrin wondered where Thea was going, but didn't give it any more thought. She stood quietly among those who were left and stood eternally vigilant.

Erbert's curiosity is piqued and he finds himself drawing closer to the argument that seems to be erupting.  He is a gnome rubbernecker, slowing down to look at the wagon broken down on the highway, taking it all in.  He can't stop himself.  He finds his little feet padding toward the commotion to see what is going on. 

(Mobile, forgive the formatting.)

As the conversation between the merchant and the two guardsmen continues, it apparently escalates to shouting - from afar, it is clear the dispute is something or other about taxes and wares. Standard merchant babble, though the Imperial soldiers shift uneasily as a small crowd of Zavas tribesmembers surround the cluster and begin chipping in. A piece of rotten fruit strikes one Imperial soldier to the amusement of the crowd. 

While the crowd is thick, Thea manages to sneak in unhindered - and, as far as she can tell, unseen. Peeking through the Zavas members of the forefront, Thea can gather the argument is about the Zavas elf - a middle-aged merchant peddling fermented apple and pumpkin wine - being unable to pay taxes. The Imperial soldiers state they have orders to collect two gold from each merchant for the king and to evict anyone who doesn’t pay up. From the looks on the soldier’s faces, they seem to just be following orders - they clearly don’t want to be at the risk of so many angry Zavas. While Herrena and Erbert wander closer, only Thea - with that roll - can see the Imperium soldiers uneasily reaching for their weapons.

It was at this moment in time that Katrin decided to approach the commotion.

"What is going on here." she asked, kindly.

Erven sees the opportunity is ripe for a distraction, something that he would like to achieve with an illusion.  He casts minor illusion to throw the sound of a voice in the opposite direction, in the manner of a street vendor, selling pumpkin wine.  He casts this in the air, 5-10 feet above the ground, in the opposite direction from the crowd, trying to disperse and defuse the crowd before violence erupts.

"Get your free pumpkin wine here, free pumpkin wine!  So delicious it's not to be believed!  Free pumpkin wine here!!"

(Mobile)

Herrera stayed where she was and waited to see how this whole mess would shake out; ready to be either diplomatic - or less so - should the situation demand it.

Furrowing her brows, Thea carefully takes some steps back. She decides not to intervene yet, but rather to remain within earshot and observe whatever might happen next from a comfortable distance, in case violence ensues.

Thea (perhaps wisely) retreats to a safe distance before conflict erupts. Katrin decides to muscle through the gathering crowd to ask what’s happening - and hears several different, simultaneous replies. The universal agreements are this: the elven merchant apparently avoided paying the standard two-gold-per-month tax to the Imperial soldiers for two months; the guards were ordered to arrest him. The man claims he simply doesn’t make enough to pay the tax on a regular basis and that it’s unfair for the Imperium to enforce such taxes - the guards maintain they’re only following rather strict orders. 

A man stands out from the Zavas crowd unanimously jeering at the unfortunate Imperial soldiers; a male Half-Orc, rather tall and muscled, wearing minimal clothing usually worn by hunters. Piercings in his ears and brow of animal bones give him quite an intimidating look - he steps up and bellows, “Begone, Imperials, or we’ll throw you off the market down to the forest floor where you belong.”

To that, the half-dozen guards nervously share looks and draw their weapons, forming a defensive position around the circle of berating Zavas tribe members. One man - human, olive skin - speaks in a shaky voice, “I don’t make the decisions. Stay out of it.” 

It is clear the tensions between the Zavas members and the Imperium will be taken out on these Imperial soldiers if there are no interferences. 

(Erbert, make me a general check with your casting stat - should be 1d20 + your Intelligence modifier. Rather than making checks for each individual guard/citizen to recognize the illusion, I’d prefer you make a general check to sense how good the illusion is overall.)

Erbert tries his best to make the illusion believable, the right pitch, the right tone as a distraction, to break up the crowd.  

Int check :  22 

Iver sees he was left alone as all the others approached the gathering crowd. What to do? Should he approach as well? All he was good at is fighting, more or less, and it probably isn't a good idea at the moment. So many people around, it'll be hard to fight them on his own. Nevertheless, he approaches. At the very least, if a fight does break out, he can be there to make sure it concludes faster. 
When he hears what's the matter about, he sighs and turns to Thea who just left the crowd. When he speaks, his voice is naturally loud enough that at least some, if not all, could hear him, even though he doesn't really intend for that. "The thing I hate the most about a fight between two groups is that there are always losers on both sides. In a duel, at least you know that if you killed your enemy, he didn't kill you. Well, most of the time. If they fight now, who knows how many will die. And for what? Four golden coins. One of the things I hate the most is seeing people dying for no reason, or the sake of something like this. I've seen so many who died just to make people laugh or to get them excited. I thought that you don't see people killing for things like that here in the free world. If every person here gave away one piece of silver, they will probably cover the tax that the woman owes. Is it not a smaller price to pay than their lives? I think people just forgot how fragile they can be. Anyway, let's go. We need to report to Flinn. Let the fools slaughter each other if that is what they wish for. Unlike many that I met, these people can choose what they do with their lives by themselves."

(Mobile)

Well said... Herrera thought to herself after hearing Iver speak. Deciding to take his lead, Herrena tossed (4) gp towards the guards and merchant and said, "Ah, I am convinced!"  playing the part of a random Zavas townswoman.  "Here I shall start, and let us all help each other from now on!"  She then gave a quick and subtle kick to Erbert next to her to do the same before making her way out of the crowd and back towards the Inn.  She kept her distance slightly from Iver to try and keep that charade going, though she honestly didn't care too much if people realized she knew the halfling.

The hasty illusion Erbert strung up seemed to be quite an effective distraction- certainly believable from a distance. A man claiming to offer free pumpkin wine (strangely enough, one of the Zavas’s primary exports) definitely drew the attention of some members of the crowd - most of the ones invested in it solely for the excitement of a conflict had quickly grown bored with the events and elected to take the tantalizing offer of free pumpkin wine on an already quite warm day. 

Unfortunately for Erbert, such a fantastic illusion also draws the attention of the guards - they seem to check a scroll and frown. Nowhere did it mention a man selling pumpkin wine, and that certainly meant they had to collect the tax from him as well. 

Iver, on the other hand, makes an extremely compelling argument: both the crowd and the imperial soldiers seem to calm down and take their hands off their weapons, even if tension remains in the air. Aside from the intimidating Half-Orc Zavas member who still remains adamant, the crowd relaxes. Combined with the gold Herrena offered, a few other Zavas members grumble and chip in a silver or two to cover the merchant’s debt - and it’s enough to cause the imperial soldiers marching up to Erbert’s illusion to forget the mysterious pumpkin wine vendor entirely. 

You are free to discuss and proceed to your next plan of action. 

(If there are exceptionally well-worded arguments such as that one, Iver, I won’t generally ask for a roll!)

Erbert has a little self satisfied smile on his face (like the look one would have after beating someone in a difficult game of ping pong) as he walks back over to the others and lets the illusion fade away.  “Great job everyone!  Glad we could help a little to keep the peace here.”  his face darkens a little, “But it seems everyone is so wound up.  Like we are sitting on a delayed fireball.” (powder keg)  “How about we head back to the inn, meet up with Flinn?”  Erbert is anxious to move away from the guards and move along.  

"Maybe death is unavoidable." Iver shrugs. "Maybe all which I remembered about life on the surface is wrong." He's rather indifferent about all this, as is his voice. "But here, they have a choice, at least. If they choose to die, who are we to stop them?" He nods towards Erbert. "That sounds like a plan."

Thea watches the crowd dissipate with a big sigh of relief, one that quickly turns into another humongous yawn. She belatedly forces herself to hold a hand in front of her mouth, a sheepish expression indicating slight embarrassment. Although she intends to wait for Katrin and Herrena, she turns around, showing her back to the center of the commotion and nods in response to Erberts proposition. Then, Thea can't help but slightly raise an eyebrow at Iverns comment, once again eyeing him up, a contemplating look on her face. As she turns back to look out for Katrin and Herrena, she adds. "I fear that what we have discovered tonight may perhaps present the cause for incidents such as this one." She frowns for a moment as if remembering something, and then lowers her voice. "Someone was clearly intent on disrupting the already fragile accord between the Zavas and those imps, and it would seem that they do not refrain from paying the price in lifes. We better report this as soon as possible to help the authorities limit the damage that's been already caused..."

Quote from Vyriox >>

Thea watches the crowd dissipate with a big sigh of relief, one that quickly turns into another humongous yawn. She belatedly forces herself to hold a hand in front of her mouth, a sheepish expression indicating slight embarrassment. Although she intends to wait for Katrin and Herrena, she turns around, showing her back to the center of the commotion and nods in response to Erberts proposition. Then, Thea can't help but slightly raise an eyebrow at Iverns comment, once again eyeing him up, a contemplating look on her face. As she turns back to look out for Katrin and Herrena, she adds. "I fear that what we have discovered tonight may perhaps present the cause for incidents such as this one." She frowns for a moment as if remembering something, and then lowers her voice. "Someone was clearly intent on disrupting the already fragile accord between the Zavas and those imps, and it would seem that they do not refrain from paying the price in lifes. We better report this as soon as possible to help the authorities limit the damage that's been already caused..."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much."  Herrena began in reply as she joined the others on the trail back towards the inn.  "There's always a bit of friction between the Imperium and the Wilderness.  I don't think that'll ever change.  Besides those guards were just doing their jobs as unpopular as it may be to the Zavas.  But telling the 'authorities', (she emphaized the last word by miming quotation marks with her hands to make it clear what she thought of them), now that would make things worse.  Much worse."  She seemed to speak with experience on this last point, but whether she actually had any in the area was tough to say.

The party momentarily reconvenes a fair bit away from the recently de-escalated conflict. While tensions remain as clear as day in the air, it is certain any open conflict has been avoided - for now. 

Trailing your way back to the strange, whimsical inn, you are greeted with a wave from the bartender and offered free, cooled pumpkin juice - a refreshing beverage, considering the Zavas tribe can be quite hot during the day. Even the mid-morning air is quite uncomfortably warm. Each raised table protrudes from the side of a massive tree, reminiscent of some sort of fungus - and awaiting, snoring, is Flinn, the man who sent you on this mission. He wakes up, clearly groggy, and blearily locks gaze with the party. 

"Hey. You lot! Have you finished?"