Azaka nods to Celtra.  "This one, she has no skin in this game, she came for gold, as did I, and we seem to be the only ones focused on your mission?  I am willing to die for what you must do.  She is willing to die.  You are all willing to die to stop this...Soul monger.  Do not throw away your effort for me, as much as I appreciate it."  Her demeanor softens towards Taman and Cimeri.  "You have loyal hearts; you must now be 'disloyal' to survive.  The jungle knows no honor, it knows balance.  We do not belong here, it will seek to kill us all.  This is too important for my life to be a consideration."  

She points to Bryn.  "The panther, she found this spot, she is not of Chult but she is of nature.  She is no stranger to the wild.  She will get you where you must go."  She looks to Fulcra.  "Silvertongue is your guide now; I was here to take you to sites I knew.  I have no idea where this thing you seek is.  Silvertongue does now.  With panther, they will get you where you must go."

She sits crosslegged on the floor, scimitar across her knees, whetstone upon the blade, and listens to your discussion.

"You do not have to go, Celtra," nodded Cimeri's, "jungles are dangerous and the tribe, that wishes to kill us, can easily believe some of us are already dead. It would be harder to convince them, that Azaka could not save even a single one. But if at least one will be present, the rest might feel safe, while Azaka will get her honourable battle instead of being killed on spot as a traitor if she comes alone." Celtra's life must have been full of honourable people for her not to see the obvious and Cimeri tried to elaborate a bit more: "Those who follow us are not an army of righteous warriors, they are bandits. Azaka goaded their leader to the duel, but if there is a semblance of the reason to avoid the duel - they will use it, even if leader would still agree to fight. Without support, witnesses and evidences that she kept her word and have us with her, they will kill Azaka. And after her death - find and kill us. You are right - running for few of us is an option. But it would not be me who is running."   

Cimeri smiled to Azaka: "If you wish to see it this way, then see it at full - we help you to become a leader of that tribe, we will be safer in the jungle and can faster finish our mission. Should be practical enough even for Celtra."

"We have to trust Azaka to know what is best in this land, and that includes in this matter." Taman speaks up after a long pause.  He meets each of the group's eyes.  "She is right that we have a much more important mission, and need to be seeing that through." He pauses as he looks to Azaka again.  "Do you truly feel it best for us to go on without you?  I am not one to leave a companion behind easily, but you are the guide of this land, and you know its ways far better than I do."

 Bryn would cross her arms in thought, almost in meditation. She'd think deeply from the beginning of the conversation. The druid understood Cemeri's heartfelt appeal. As a warrior as well, Bryn understood Celtra's plea for Azaka's honour. She appreciated Taman and Fulcra's logical point of view. Her eyes would open when Azaka would point her and Fulcra out.

Picking herself off the ground, Bryn would stand facing Azaka. "Panther is honoured warrior Azaka. Kind words." She'd bow her head in respect. "Panther more confident when team whole. Means Azaka too." The druid would look up. "Bryn want Azaka to stay. Will fight anything." She would make a fist with her hand and press it to her heart. "But. Understands warrior ways." Looking deeply into Azaka's eyes Bryn would continue. "Most of all. Panther believes in balance. If Azaka truly believes this is way of balance." She will pause. "Bryn will trust."

"I do not want to watch you die," Azaka mutters.  "Perhaps I am being selfish and looking for a way out."  She reaches into her rucksack, pulls out an iron ration, bites it in half, wrinkling her nose at the taste.  "We have been so sober for so long.  This SoulMonger weighs upon us.  Perhaps I have given up hope of living."  She stuffs it back in her sack.  "You all show your heart once again.  I thank you for that.  And I should honor our contract; you bought my services.  I will guide you."

A glimmer of emotion passes over her face; fear perhaps?

"Tomorrow we will turn south; they will know we have broken the agreement.  Expect to be hunted at all times.  They will hunt you like animals, there will be no warning like before."

She looks to each of you.  "My counsel for tomorrow: we move as fast as possible and throw caution to the wind.  Make distance before they realize we are truly running.  We will use Silvertongue's 'compass' three times daily, using landmarks in the distance to guide us.  If you disagree with this strategy, speak now."

“Geez. The idea of being hunted like an animal actually sounds quite bad. You were right at the beginning. You should go.”   He waits a moment for dramatic effect. Then he shows a winning smile. “Just kidding. Yes. Let’s throw some caution at the wind. Stupid wind could use some caution.”  He pauses for a moment in thought. “That saying really makes no sense.”   He nods off to sleep, appreciating it may be his last good sleep in a while. 

"You are the guide."  taman reiterates.  "We will move fast tomorrow if that is what you believe to be the best."  Taman then has Sabastian take one of the watches, and settles down for a long rest himself.

Cimeri sighed - she liked her plan to help Azaka to become a leader of the pack, fighting just few of them at best from the safer position, chosen by the group, and then forgetting about the werebeasts for good (she was the only one besides Azaka here, who actually met them and knew what they were capable of). But that idea was, probably, too idealistic, Master Ziman was right when frowned at her interest in fictional literature. At least they all remained together and will deal with that threat when time comes.

Cimeri hugged Azaka without saying anything and returned to matters at hands.

Taman:

Taman arcana: 22 if guidance applies add: 1

Celtra remained pensive in her thoughts.  An agreement had been struck but Azaka is breaking it.  She is however doing what she believes is if the greatest good for her tribe.  There could be honor in that.  It all depends how this is played out.  If their endeavors fail and she dies, she will forever be branded a coward by her tribe.  If things go well though, she will receive great honor.

"I think you know what you risk Azaka but should we succeed, your tribe will benefit greatly from your courage," she says and holds out her arm to shake.  "Let us show this Soulmonger the strength of our arms, the sharpness of our claws, and why he should fear for his own soul."

Fulcra rests fitfully, his dreams troubling, and the tension of knowing they'll be running for their lives weighs heavily on his thoughts. When he finally awakes, it's still dark, and he's not had the best sleep of his life in this hidden nook at the base of a cliff. Good enough though. He quietly wakes up and prepares for the day, heading out of the cave to relieve himself and take some deep breaths of the cool dark morning air.  A few minutes later he comes back in.  (Perception : 16) 

"We should leave at first light. That'll be soon."  He begins packing up his gear, making sure to secure everything extra well in anticipation of some rough travel ahead.  His worn and never touched crossbow remains strapped to the back of his pack. 

Nodding to himself, he sits and waits for the group to depart. 

Taman's portent rolls:

1... 11

2... 11

Bryn would offer Azaka a strong handshake before settling in for the night. She'd get up along with the others, taking a few minutes to meditate. When Fulcra would return and suggest to head out soon, the druid would make sure she's all packed up and ready to go.

"Everyone, I have some ideas." Taman announces the next morning, his rest having allowed him to clear his mind and do some thinking.  "Azaka, are those who follow you hurt by silvered weapons?  If so, is there a place we can travel to who can help us by adding silver to our weapons?"  Then he glances to the others.  "Also, those who will be coming after us know this land very well I assume, but can we change the land, or find ways to set traps for them that are not normal for these lands.  By this I mean use the land itself against them, by doing things that they would not expect.  These lands are dangerous, even to those who live here, so I would bet we can find ways to make coming after us even more dangerous to those who will be doing so."

Fulcra's eyes widen, "Yes. Taman, genius!  For example, we could dig a really big hole and lure one of those giant undead t-rex's into it, and then cover it in some leaves, and trick them into falling into it!  Every single part of that idea seems completely do'able! I have more ideas, that's just the first off the top of my head, which, I know, pretty damned good, but wait...there's more.  We could lure them to the ship, and then rig the ship to drop on their heads.  I bet they wouldn't expect that.  We could lure them to the witch and have her suck their souls out, and then put all their souls into YOU Azaka, turning you into some sort of group sentience that ascends to god hood.  I feel like we have a lot of options." 

Azaka grins from ear to ear.  "Robes, you have a keen mind; Silvertongue, clever,"  she says, scraping scraps of breakfast off her mess kit.  "You give me hope that I will not watch you be flayed alive."  She stands.  "I have seen the panther push dirt into pits magically.  I have seen the Warrior put sharp stakes in the ground for protection.  We have all seen how perilous the assassin vines are.  So, name what you need and I can try to guide us to it as best we can.  Let us discuss as we travel back to the canoe; we must move quickly.  Give me your ideas, all of you, and we will hone them into weapons." 

"J have training in smithing but not the tools to properly work it nor, do I think we have the time to do so... at least not for larger weapons.  But to dip a club head into hot silver could work." She says.

"As an item of last resort, I can mimic the horn sound used to call the undead." Taman announces as they start out.

Cimeri was not sure calligraphically written signs "Stop!" or "Change your ways!" will stop weretigers, so, did not advertise her "craft", but she did say to Azaka as proud as if she was the one with ideas "I told you they will come up with something!" On the other hand, she saw her fair share of traps to get the basics of it. Not the tyrannosaurs in the pit, of course, but something interesting could be achieved. "Not sure if it is possible, but may be we can make a decoy camp? With some temporal illusions? While we stay away from that spot, covering our tracks with magic. And any kind of alarm system - the simplest one, like a string and the bells or pieces of broken jar, can work as well. We can also camouflage the canoe with our tents and some branches - to look more like a fisher boat."