Ruins of Azlant Gameplay I

Ramona frowns at that. "Yes, just when things were starting to feel a bit better for the colony... But we've gotten through past incidences, hopefully with time, things will cool down soon," Ramona says, almost trying to convince herself of it too.

"We'll figure it out," Jax agrees. "What evidence has been found so far?"

"All circumstantial," Ramona says with a frustrated sigh. "The window was open, and Kereda had obviously suffered injuries, but we've found no clue as to the identity of the assailants."

Jax frowns. "I see." He pauses for a moment. "What's your thoughts on it? Everyone seems to have a theory."

"I doubt that it would be something the locathah or strix would do, and it feels too subtle, too planned for it to be sahuagin or skum," Ramona begins. "An attempted kidnapping would fall into line with what we've heard the sea hag has done in the past, but I don't know enough about their capabilities to say for sure whether that's what's behind this incident. And while Kereda may be more in line with the factions that don't believe in my leadership, it wouldn't be like him to make this up," Ramona says, talking through her thoughts.

Jax nods along as Ramona speaks. "The sea hag occurred to us too," Jax volunteers. "At the very least, it could know something about what happened here."

"In any case, I'll trust your group to manage the situation as best as you can with your own judgement," Ramona says. "With tensions so high, I'm trying to avoid taking a direct role and inflaming things further."

Jax frowns. "Why do you think your involvement would make things worse?" Jax probes.

Ramona gives a wry smile at that. "You couldn't tell that half the colony seems to think I'm an inept leader on your way in?" she points out. "With a significant number of the people here taking that position, I think they're more likely to twist whatever I attempt to do as more poor decisions than to have a sudden change of heart. Meanwhile, I can continue to work at improvements through my capable, trusted supporters, such as yourself, without giving the opposition too much ammunition to rally against me."

Jax cracks a sheepish smile. "We'd heard some of that, but I've been out of the colony enough that I'd rather hear it from someone who's been here the entire time to make sure we're not missing something."

Considering different approaches, Kaimana eventually decides against sneaking up on Eamon. "I never quite got the hang of doing that," he comments as he approaches instead.

"Oh, hi Kaimana," Eamon says, broken out of his thoughts by Kaimana's approach. "I'm not too good at it myself, the most I can get is one or two skips," he admits.

”What’s got you out here trying?” Kaimana asks with a small smile.

"Ah, just a bit of a row with Kurvis," Eamon says, his face falling a little. "But I'm glad to see you're back from your travels! How did the exploring go, hmm?"

Concerned, Kaimana decides to go with the subject change for now. ”It went pretty well, I think we’ve checked nearly everything out by now,” he answers, giving a light overview of where they went and what they saw. ”We brought back a big whalebone we found because it seemed like it would be exciting news for the fishers,” he adds, looking pensive again, ”but it seems like there’s never a right time to come back here.”

"We've certainly had more than our fair share of troubles here," Eamon admits. "But things improve when you come back, thanks to your efforts. If only more of us were as capable as you and the others, hmm?"

”That's not really what I was going for, there seem to be a lot of capable people here,” Kaimana answers, tilting his head.

"Hmm, capable in different ways, perhaps." Eamon muses. "Maybe it's just me, but things feel different when you're here. But, I suppose I'm pretty biased there," he says with a chuckle, reaching out to hold Kaimana's hand.

Kaimana gives a small and smile and rubs his thumb against Eamon’s hand. They start to walk. ”How have things been different since we were last here, then?” he asks, not yet mentioning the conversation with Kereda.

"It might just be that everyone's a bit more on edge," Eamon says, thinking. "But it feels like people start to turn against each other more, rather than coming together. I do what I can, of course, but lately, things are getting worse. I can hardly even manage to stay on good terms with my own friends."

”Even Kurvis is acting like there’s sides?” Kaimana asks, squeezing Eamon’s hand softly as Eamon expresses his frustration.

"Mhm," Eamon says with a sigh. "When we've squabbled in the past, we could always find common ground, or it'd be more good natured, but it feels like things have changed now."

”What was the fight about?” Kaimana asks.

"I made some comment, I can hardly remember what it ways anymore," Eamon says. "Kurvis took issue with it, said I was assuming his position on the recent matters, and then before you know it, we're arguing about Kereda and Ramona's leadership." Eamon shakes his head with frustration. "I can't believe Kurvis, of all people is questioning that. But what feels worse is that I don't think I can talk to him about anything anymore. I'm already missing that."

Aisha decides to make her way over to Anya's place, she was level-headed and could be nice to find someone who she was confident wouldn't be caught up in this mass tension and paranoia gripping the rest of the colony. She knocks on the door of the yurt, friendly smile on her face.