Still under the spell and Dag's speech seemingly increasing the hold on Shavaris, she nods curtly to him and asks, "Anything in particular I should be watching for and how do you want me to report?"

After her answer, she pulls the carpet back out and flies to the sky, and unless she sees anything else, she attacks more pink slime with her arrows.

Attack: 21 Damage: 11

Attack: 24 Damage: 10

Johnathan continues to hold the blue sphere in his hand as he holds concentration on the spell. Thin cracks start appearing around the sphere as time passes by. It won’t hold for much longer. As Dageron shouts speeches and orders to the party Johnathan gives a frown to him. Cut it out. Your fake optimism is annoying. You only bark mad orders with your stick. There is no need to stay here. You are only going to make us fight unnecessarily until we drop dead. Johnathan looks to the party. Let’s move out. This is a fight we can easily avoid and gain nothing from actually winning. 

Ward looks to Dageron and still with rocks in his mouth says “Hsph speh that can mahybe  fexit. Need to rephst.” Ward mumbles before shooting another rock at the slime 

Attack: 15 Damage: 10

Adam flies at speed back to his companions, landing beside ole Ironbritches, and looking around for Ironsides.  

“I didn’t see anyone.  Not a damn soul.  Just freaky ass shit like houses walking, pink gooey slime, no sign of the thing in the church that Delph was talking about.”  He pulls his goggles up on his forehead, like sunglasses.  “I don’t know that there is anything more for us here.  We should head to the Labyrinth.  And the ball handler.  You’ll have quite a time with him, Ironbritches.  There’s a creepy little worm that lives there, you ought to talk to him…..”  He chuckles behind his hand, imagining it.

Adam stands with hands on hips, looking like he’s done here.  He takes off his fancy goggles and stows them away.  

Dageron cocks his head at Johnathan, and then hears Adams update. His voice becomes low, and he speaks slowly, enunciating every word carefully. To both he answers, "So, your solution is for us all to travel - days possibly - with several of us altered like this? Given we know nothing about this slime and its effects, what if they get worse? What if those effected turn against their comrades, or run off during their night watch? What if the myriad of Treants we've encountered were others so afflicted, eventually polymorphed? What if that slime is a beacon to every monstrosity in the accursed woods? How intelligent it would be, I wonder, to just 'wait and see'? Now, I've had about enough of being ignored. Can either of you tell me, how often have I been wrong on this little journey? You may not give a damned about me, but Mithrandir appointed me to the Dawn Guard for this very reason - to give a logical opinion to the anarchy. Your comrades may be minutes from death. In Mithrandir's name, if for no other reason, shut up and help." 

He squarely rounds on Adam, this time his voice and cadence hammer out like a drill sergeant ripping a green cadet a new *******. "You're the mother****er they send on suicide missions. I'm the ******* entrusted to manage ******* armies. The difference is that I don't risk lives unnecessarily - EVER. If you couldn't find a risk worth taking you would ******* make one up!" He gestures towards the direction of the town, as if to illustrate his point. "You had your ******* tantrum and now people - ACTUAL LIVING ******* PEOPLE WHO AREN'T CLEARLY DEAD OR ****ED OFF LIKE YOUR TOWNIES - are in harm's way. My ENTIRE NATION was wiped out, my MATE AND CHILDREN march with the very Empire I have coordinated countless brutal raids against. I have given EVERYTHING to this cause, and you have LOST YOUR SHIT every five ******* minutes because YOU ARE A ******* CHILD! BE USEFUL OR GET ****ED. Either way, let me do my ******* job and safeguard our people, and STOP ACTING LIKE I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT HAVING A PISSING CONTEST WITH YOUR INSECURE ASS! And so help me, if you need to cut me down then ******* DO IT. I left Vader's forces because I refused to be led by a madman that didn't give a shit if any of his people lived or died, and I'll be damned if you get to replace him!" 

He doesn't move a muscle, but maintains his stare - his challenge - at Adam. 

Ward spits out the rocks as Dageron starts yelling. “Shh, I want to sleep once we’re away and you guys are being yelly. It’s not that deep. I am not against giving either of you a sleeping potion, Shavaris is the only reason I haven’t done it yet.” Ward mumble yells.

Adam gives a glare at Dageron for a minute, then reaches in his pack and puts on his cool little crown “Yeah, yeah, yeah.  And what if you decide to take up origami or making lace doilies as a hobby and leave us all to figure this out by our wittle bitty selves?  What we we do without the legendary battle master, Dageron.  You can play “what if” all day long mister, let’s just pull up a seat and have you sit down and think for the next 12 hours about all of the possible what if’s and graph them out for us.  You are so damned important, you are never wrong!  I bet you have never been wrong in your life, have you?  Oh just that once, when you thought you were wrong, but you weren’t really.  Just that time.  Puhhlease.”  He looks down at Ward, pointing.  “He does this shit all the time.  Snorting something he shouldn’t, playing with fire, damn, that’s his raison d’étre!  Throw him in a wagon and drag him with us, this shit will wear off as we travel, he’ll be fine.  I can’t tell you how many times he OD’ed on some shit since I’ve known him.  He’s fine.”  

“But I’m still here.  I’m the kind that survives the suicide missions.  I faced off with Vader, toe to toe, beat his ass down and we killed him.  You would have been plotting graphs and doing your trigonometry (🤣) for months prior to facing him.  Well, punji sticks won’t solve everything.  I didn’t have a ******* tantrum, this is the TOWN I GREW UP IN, and if you can’t understand that, you have no ******* heart in your body.  I had to see whether the people I knew were still alive, if I could SAVE THEM.  So you can take that and shove it!  You just don’t understand me at all.  Delph didn’t used to understand me either, but now we are the best of friends and help each other.  If you are fine with just burning Eternia to the ground, killing everyone in my country, then I relieve you from duty.  Shavaris, Delph, everyone else understood this.  The way I see it is that I am not sure that you fit in with the Dawn Guard.  If you wish to relieve yourself from duty so that you stop having these conniption fits, so that you can go back and hang out with Mithrandir and do your extensive planning, so be it.  Go be a pencil pusher, move the pieces around the chess board, and so forth.  But if there is anyone here sabotaging our team, I think it is you, Ironbritches.  Who else casts a spell on their own group, trying to exert control all the time.  I grow tired of this bickering and arguing, of all of your goddamn criticism.  So why don’t you just shut the **** up and help us to evacuate from here?”  Adam stands up to his full height, glaring at Dageron.  

Travin rocks back and forth even more humming out one low droning note of frustration as he continues trying to cast his spell, but he very much stops and tries to make himself as small as possible, retreating into his pile of junk the second that Adam questions Dageron on what kind of person would try to exert magical control over members of the group.

Involuntarily, and quite by surprise, Dageron lets out a laugh. A harsh, cruel, gutteral laugh. 

"You had to put on a headband of intellect just to say that!? That's all it did for you? Well now that you've got your litteral thinking cap on, how about we think on your statements there. ,Every plan I offered was offered in real time, no half days of contemplation required. I have respected your orders, and the will of this group to this point, only making suggestions - as is my job. Taking over the wills of my comrades was a counter to an already mind affecting influence BY AN ENEMY FORCE, and likely saved lives. 

"And Eternia..  You could have easily assessed, just by looking around, that no natural Human settlement could hope to survive the scale of the corruption here. What would they eat, inside out birds and bleeding trees?! That was a foregone conclusion and everyone knew it - BACK AT THE BEACHHEAD. That town was dead and your fellows - ME INCLUDED - gave you the grace to go figure it out for yourself. You have THREE AERIAL SUPPORT SCOUTS. Delphinium CONFIRMED the town was dead. Don't stand there and pretend you were going in to save ANYONE when you damned well knew no one was alive. You wanted revenge, and to hell with us. I only advised you to leave our main force back, but you ****ed right off. 

"And just how many of the Dawn Guard are actually left, Adam? Can you count with that thing on? You said it right though - YOU'RE still alive. So nothing else matters, right? There are too few of us left, so how do you expect to fill ranks if you care nothing for attrition? I'm trying to keep you morons alive!

Dageron's voice drops, but is still crisp and easily understood. "Relieve me? I don't report to your ass. I'm not a goddamned AURYN bearer either, and I don't report to the Ivory Tower or your long lost parents. This is an Alliance, you dullard. Alliance Command isn't any one person, nation, or army. Command put me on this detail to do what I do because YOU CAN'T. You are constitutionally incapable of effective leadership, and God's help your nation if you all live long enough to see you on the throne. You're too selfish to think of the needs of an entire peoples. You cannot even think clearly now - even with your trinket on. In all you have survived, this is the extent of your wisdom?

"THINK DAMNIT! All of existence hangs in the balance. Did it ever occur to you the Gods have a plan? That each of us has a role to play? Let me play mine... otherwise you're going to have to remove me from the board. I cannot walk away from my duty."

Though Adam is taller than Dageron, and his combat prowess far superior, Dageron's stance is unwavering. Though his tone has emotion, his eyes are cold as ice. He is prepared to kill - or to die - then and there. 

(Adam stands staring at Dageron, in the following manner.)

“Get your facts straight, Sherlock.  I flew off at the same time as Delphinium, we were scouting the area and yes, I wanted revenge on the thing that killed my town.  The thing that was laying in wait for other victims.  So be it.  Ward gave me the materials to do so.  You wanted to try to turn that thing into some sort of weapon, you sick ****?  Like some horrible mouth of a creature that lives in the desert, so that you could shove your victims into it?  Gross.  I’m glad you “gave me the grace” to go have a look.  Get off your goddamn soap box!  Do you hear yourself?  Do you really hear yourself?”

”How many of the Dawn Guard are left?  ALL OF US, except for one, for Ralik, who rushed into the Bog of Eternal Stench (because of that bastard Hoggle) trying to protect Shavaris and he attacked a vicious catelobepas, whatever the hell that thing is.  I killed one of those, too.  Because it was a hunter, a killer.  It was laying in wait for its next victim.  I hate that we lost Ralik, but like any TRUE LEADER would know, sometimes sacrifices must happen, soldiers get killed in battle, it is a thing that happens.  Oh, but no, I’m sure that if we had the Great Dageron around, that wouldn’t have happened, right?  Maybe you should just clone yourself, hey that’s an idea, a bunch of little Dagerons running around doing your bidding, a little “clone army” as it were.  I bet you’d like that, eh?  No one questioning your commands, no one challenging your call to burn down entire forests….”  He pauses for a moment, considering, staying quiet.  

“You have your purposes, I suppose.  You won’t be leading anything here in Eternia if I have anything to do with it.  Maybe Mithrandir can repurpose you somewhere.  Yes, I am an Auryn bearer.  And yes, I have one of these, my glaive, which among other things is how I figured out my true lineage.  You need to stand down … now.  We have no time for this insubordinate shit.  If you are such a great leader yourself, act like one, and get control of yourself.  March forward, head out of here toward the Labyrinth where we will find more answers.  Or get the hell out of my way.”  At this point, Adam walks forward and ignores Dageron, calling to Delph, “Which way to the Labyrinth, what do you think?” 

Dageron waits for Adam to walk away before doing so himself - to the makeshift parapet to make sure nothing else approaches. He will see if his gambit pays off soon enough. 

It isn't until the argument stops abruptly that everyone realizes that the two trees have stopped fighting.  Now they're standing there, facing the Dawn Guard as they prepare to flee, listening intently.  Only Ironsides seems unfazed by what is happening as its head cranes up and the chewed remnants of a Gremlin's leg falls out of its mouth.  The Flail Snail reaches back down for its meal.

The ground around the well surges, bulging up as if there is some sudden increase in pressure beneath the ground, even as the two slimes slip back into its depths.

On the far side of the town, the church continues to burn, and the house next to it is catching...  

Shavaris listens to the two go at one another.  This was hard, this wasn't good.  She fretted about what this was going to do to her group, her family.  As she had been keeping an eye on Travin since she saw how the goop was affecting him and that he was trying to figure out what it was, she silently flies the carpet down to him and urges him to join her on it.

Giving Running Bird a quick pet on the head and giving Dageron daggers with her eyes, once Travin is settled, she takes to the sky again, hoping to give the junkman space to finish his identify spell.  She keeps looking back to the now burning town, but once she feels there is no more danger to them, has the carpet head towards the labyrinth and scouts ahead.

As the arguing stops Travin comes out of his pile, having completed his spell, he is more concerned than before, "the goops is magic but nots like normal, is like corpses, like what's left of peoples when they are gone hmm? But Goop is too much, too concentrated, must have come from thousands of people's many thousands of thousands, too many hmmm. People from time, or another realms maybe? But it cans make monster and affects emotions yeh yeh"

He looks to Adam and to Ward, along with the others covered or still affected by the goop, "I still find it so hard, To say what I need to say, But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me, Just how I should feel today, hmmm? So tell Travin, how does it feel?" 

When the party is out of the danger Johnathan lets go of the sphere and smashes. Nothing else seems to happen around them for the moment. He stares off into the distance for a moment as the rest of the party continues to argue and disagree. Johnathan listens to Adam and Dageron argue for what seems like forever. When there is a moment Johnathan will add. It’s done. Whatever we do is pointless and we will probably end up dead at this rate. He gives an annoyed look at Dageron. Dageron, I’d advise not using magic on us again. You impacted our ability to fight and that will not stand. I don’t care if you have a sad story, I don’t. I already died for this stupid war and I’ll be damned if I let you kill me. 
Johnathan looks to Travin, and though still annoyed seems to be less visibly angry at him. Huh… You did what you thought was right. Can’t fault you for that. He pauses a moment, trying to still keep it together for the moment. We will talk later about what you said before. Later. Johnathan pulls out his magic flask and begins to drink a heavy load of red wine. 

Dageron, still holding the rod, looks perplexed by the tree that had appeared to be under his command but now stands as if released from it. Then at Shavaris and Johnathan. "As it seems the effects of this item are waning prematurely, and the need for it has passed, all so affected companions and pets may do as they would otherwise. All enemies still within my thrall, flee to the North."

One of the trees turns and saunters off to the north, while the well makes an attempt at the same, though unsuccessfully.  The other tree mills about like its confused by what is happening...

Travin let's out a big sigh as Johnathan asks to speak later and also being relived of the last of Dageron's commands. "Is the labyrinth this ways? Hmm?" He asks to no one in particular as he begins walking kinda northward. Burt picks up ward once more and would move off when the group does, he has naturally very high body heat being of fire giant kin, that coupled with his fur make for excellent sleeping conditions for ward. Travin plays a little song as he walks, the melody interwoven with magic that opposes the usual charm and enchantment magic Travin is used to, for the next ten minutes of walking he will continually cast counter harm, to see if it helps Johnathan or Ward.

Safety achieved Delphinium was able to focus on other things.  Like the really entertaining fight between Adama and Dag!  The fairy would go and perch on Shavaris or ward's shoulder and take out a small snack as they listen and munch on stuff.  Quietly making comments to whoever shoulder they are on like "Oh! Good point."  Or "oh! Nice burn!" Or "Hmm, that seems odd to say."  Whatever the case Delph doesn't break up the fight and let's them have at it as barbed words are flung back and forth. 

Once they complete their argument Delph looks to the others and says "I think Adam won the moral reasoning part of that and dag won the cutting insults part of that.  Both good though.  A nice battle of words." 

When delph notices the trees juat standing and hears Travin explain what the slime is the fairy nods and says "Oh, I see.  It's a form of possession.  I wonder... is the afterlife being affected in ways too them?  The dead returning as something happened.  More questions.  Yes, onwards to the labyrinth which should be this way!  Although, Adam, before we go would you like me to put the fires out?"

Delph seems to think of something else and looks to those affected by the slime.  "I can try something to fix them too but... it might hurt.  Up to you all."

"goop contains memories, yeh! Fireflight is right, hmm memories and emotions of those past..." Travin calls over his shoulder to Delph as he walks, "familiar memories somehow, hmmm not good."