Oric and Naethra argued!
Naethra: Naethra stared at Oric for a moment. She had so much respect for the dwarf, just a couple days ago. "This... this is ridiculous. I'm not shaming you for liking asses, I'm observing that you've developed an unhealthy fixation with becoming something inanimate, that you've actively sought out that experience even knowing the dangers it brings, and that you're talking the party into a risky, idiotic plan of assault that just so happens to align with your personal fetish. This has nothing to do with 'little pleasures', Oric, this is surrendering total agency and voluntarily stepping into a fight to hold onto your very concept of self. And..." Naethra stopped for a moment and observed that the gnoll was out of hearing distance. She seemed to be talking to Lou. "And you trust Eve. This plan puts all our lives under her control, and you're willing to look me in the eye and tell me that you don't have misgivings about her loyalty or her competence? The person who accidentally turned Gwyn into a squirrel?"
Oric: I sigh "I'm not fixating on becoming an object, I'll admit I got a bit to into it earlier but I've calmed down. You need to remember that I haven't had the same kind of experience the rest of you apparently have had. But that has nothing to do with this. You say it's risky and idiotic, and I would like to point out we're fighting an army in the domain of a perverted near deity. Whatever we do will be risky. I've thought this through, and it's our best chance at success." I glare at her when she comments about Eve "You think I trust her? Are you an idiot? Why do you think I'm suggesting we have two people not under her power holding onto antidotes? But we need her if we're going to sneak in, and if we don't sneak in we don't stand a chance. You haven't interacted with Gnolls before, so I'm asking you to trust my experience with them."
N: Naethra's glare softened a bit. She sighed. "We're not going to find her, you know. And we're not staying here, either. Even if we win, we're not going to be making this place any better. This is a terrible risk, and we're idiots for even entertaining it, and I'm worried that if one of the many disastrous pitfalls in this plan comes to pass then there will be no god or curse I could lay on you for compelling me to such a terrible course of action." She took a breath and lifted her eyes from the dwarf, looking out into the forest. "You're a veteran, right? You carry yourself like someone's who's lived through hell or the Wilds. Tell me, honestly, how much longer do you think we'll last? A day? A week? When the end comes to us, will we even be aware of it?"
O: I groan, putting a hand to my forehead "How old are you? You were a tiefling to begin with, and you seemed to be at a pretty good age, maybe a bit under 30? I'm around 100 years old. I stopped keeping track a while ago. I left my hometown when I was 38. I've spent more than twice your age out in the wilds. So let me explain something: it doesn't matter how awful or safe a place you're in. You might last 100 years, or you might keel over any second now. Do you know how many times I've somehow survived after thinking "there's no chance of getting out of this!"? I gave you at least three examples earlier, and those certainly aren't all of them. You just gotta trust your gut and keep moving forward. For example my gut told me not to blast you for lying to us, so I think it's earned at least a bit of faith from you. Right now my gut is telling me we need to do this if we want to get out of here."
N: She raised an eyebrow. "Lying?"
O: I roll my eyes "I'm not sure what exactly you were lying about, but you were lying about something. If you think back I'm sure you can figure out what you were lying about."
N: "Hmmph." One of the only useful lessons Naethra had ever received from her mother was 'never admit to something they don't know about yet', and that philosophy had served her well. "I... don't trust easily." She added, a heartbeat later, "or at all, really. If you want honesty, I'm only following the rest of you because it seemed marginally safer than staying in the dungeon, or in the village. I agreed to this quest against the gnoll queen because I realized I couldn't talk you all out of it. And my gut is telling me this whole damned thing is doomed. We're at the whims of some mercurial daemon-god-_thing, and she's both perverted and capricious. Every time we play in to her desires, every time we use this lust-cursed magic, every time we let her_ workings change us, we lost a little more. Slivers. You've heard the old story, Faust and Mephistopholes? It was a fairly common morality fable back home, about a clever and ambitious man who sold his soul to an devil for knowledge and power, and how things played out when the devil came to collect his due. But it's rubbish. No one's dumb enough to sell their soul like that. No, you lose it by inches, in a slow give-and-take, until you're not you anymore, and something terrifying owns you."
O: I sigh "You're right, staying with us is your best bet. Now you can come with us and do this thing, losing slivers of yourself along the way, or you can stay behind and lose all of yourself in one fell swoop when the person in charge sees you being 'boring'. You seem to have this impression that there's a good option here. All you've been doing is explaining how terrible an idea this is. So tell me: what's your bright idea? what's your perfect solution to fixing all of this that doesn't have any risk and doesn't cost any of us anything? It's easy to say no no no. Try to actually think of a way forward for once."
N: "Well, you were the one that pitched the good idea. We set up snares, traps, and lurk outside the keep for a while. We whittle away at the queen's forces. Strikes of opportunity. If we're very lucky, we get her with a small guard. If we're unlucky, then we pick a series of fights at advantageous positions, reducing the forces at her disposal and eroding their trust in her. Possibly nabbing some more magical items along the way. It's more than just sensible, its' good, solid tactics. It's how small forces defeat foes their numeric superior. There are risks, of course, but we can take intelligent steps to minimize them. Like, for instance, if we're expecting the queen and two gnolls, and we instead see an armored column of a hundred warg riders, then we'd have the sensible option of not engaging and just walking away, instead of being smack-dab in the middle of the whole benighted castle, utterly surrounded, and possibly inanimate."
O: I let out a slow, annoyed groan "So, I suggested an idea, then realized it wouldn't work, and you're still clinging to it? Better yet, you acknowledge my ability to think up an effective plan, but think my new one is completely idiotic and without any actual thought put in?"
N: Naethra sharpened her glare. "I thought your first plan was sensible. I think you're second one reeks of corruption. I think you've let your own desires weaken your thinking and now you're actively risking all of us for something that is utterly ridiculous. Right now, you seem to be suggesting that its principal virtue is that it's 'not boring'. Unless your visits with our lovely hostess have been notably different than mine, we don't know what the bleeding fuck that means! We're ignoring the sensible plan, risking everything on a tremendously unstable idea, because we think it might appease the whims of some perverted goddess!"
O: I stare at her, blinking for a moment, then motioning to my holly symbol "You do realize I'm a cleric right? Conveying the desires of deities is kind of my job."
N: She took a breath. She'd raised her voice with those last sentences, and that was seldom a good sign. "I didn't realize the worship of absent Violet had such generalizable skills. Can you also divine the intents and intentions of the Outsiders, Daemonlords, and Archfae?" Sarcasm dripped from her lips, but she thought it was a better choice than her last outburst.
O: I shrug "If I'm in their domain and their inclined to talk, yes. You haven't spent much time with clerics, have you?" I stare at her, as if looking at an idiot.
N: "No. I spent my time with more sensible company. But please, oh-wise heirophant, what is our hostess' bidding? What does she consider boring? Because she didn't seem to like Red's last clever idea. And she didn't like you playing around with Eve's pills. And I sincerely doubt she'll be broken up by our failure and subjugation. So please, enlighten me, how does playing to her whims by jumping face-first into an overly elaborate poorly conceived trap placate her desire to not be bored? From my, admittedly non-clerical, point of view, it looks like courting a quick doom rather than a slow one."
O: a scoff escapes my lips before I can stop it "I don't need my abilities as a cleric to figure out what happened to Red. Anything used to harm others is pearled, she bit the gnoll. So her mouth was considered a weapon. But you have it backwards. Deciding not to play her game is a quick doom, not a slow one. We don't do what she wants and she finishes us off here and now. Our choices are a guarantied instant loss, or a potential loss. I choose the potential loss, because at least it has a chance to succeed."
N: "This... this might be a productive topic. Red's horns were pearled when she head-butted Aeric. Her mouth was rendered round, lewd, and functionally inoperable when she bit down on the gnoll's cunt. I didn't see any pearly streaks on her lips. To me, at least, that suggests a different element in the works. Her horns are pearl, but they could still be used as weapons, in a pinch. Our weapons were tainted, but they're still usable as weapons. Red's lips were made so that she absolutely could not use them to bite someone she was eating out, specifically so they couldn't be used as weapons. It was a bold, clever, and slightly perverse decision, and it looks to me like our delightful hostess actively punished her for it. Tell me, why do you think her doom would be sudden? She seems content to overlook the villagers, and I can't imagine their lives pass her muster for 'interesting'.”
O: I sigh "You think I understand her? No, my job is to listen to her and tell people what she's saying. It's not about what I think, it's about what I'm told. You have two options: join us in our stupid plan that has a chance of working, or fuck off and go die alone. I'm not going to let your hand wringing kill us all."
N: "So... you don't understand her, but you know what she'll find interesting well enough to discard sensible strategy for her whims? Just what god do you worship, again?"
O: grab her collar and pull her in close, our faces nearly touching "Insult me all you want, but if you insult my devotion again it will be the last thing you ever do. Do you think I like having her telling me what she wants? Of course not. But I have this information so I'm going to fucking use it."
N: Naethra stared at her. She was taken aback by Oric's response, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. "Absent gods," she softly blashphemed, "would you kindly unhand me? I believe you have a date with someone's ass to attend to shortly. And I... need to weigh my chances of getting back to town alone."
O: I scoff, all but throwing her back "I guess that's all you amount to. So paralyzed by fear you can't even take the one risk that will save your life."
N: Naethra stammered to her feet. She looked around, and then returned her gaze to Oric. "I used to respect, you know. I thought you were the most sensible of all of us."
O: "And somehow doing whatever I can to help us survive has ruined that for you. What a shame. I'm heartbroken."I make sure every bit of that is dripping with sarcasm, just to be especially clear.
