... Crap. Borek is not going to want to investigate Karak Vlag, isn't he.
Not if we give him the option to ignore it and pass it by, by picking the "Act Normal" choice. It does, after all, have
absolutely nothing to do with his main mission. He'll prefer to go on high alert for the rest of the expedition, sure, keeping this new discovery and warning in mind...
but to not poke at and investigate Karak Vlag as that might risk the expedition.
What if the next vote, after picking "Act Normal", is "What do you tell Borek?" We won't be able to tell him that this is directly necessary for his expedition to Karag Dum. We'd be motivated by curiosity and sheer worry over what is going on. But not motivated by the aim of the expedition. So... We'd either have to lie, or try to convince him of the worth of this (hello dice, and hello possible flip-floppyness on our part as we were so worried about Borek not being serious enough about the Karag Dum expedition, and now here we are trying to argue for a detour to explore a mystery) endeavor. ... Or, well, we just leave it be.
Do people want to leave Karak Vlag be -- or risk the chance of not investigating it further, as we have a mission to Karag Dum (and the Ice Witch thing) to fulfill?
See, here's the thing. Mathilde is strongly under the impression that some bad juju is going on, possibly in the form of a portal*, and that it's quite possibly aimed at the expedition. The Stand your Ground option involves calling for Asarnil/the Knights/assorted backup to come racing over - away from the rest of the expedition - to potentially disrupt any working.
I am reasonably sure that the bulk of the expedition is the larger and more important target compared to Mathilde & the assorted Rangers taking a look-see around where Karak Vlag used to be. As such I'd rather have a lack of personal backup than leave the steam-wagons more vulnerable.
The thing is, if we go back to the expedition in order to
concentrate forces... then what? Do we bring the rest of the expedition to the mountain, with those concentrated forces? Except, what if that just puts the rest of the expedition into the range of the trap or explosion range?
Or, as mentioned above... ... what happens if Borek just goes: "... Okay. Thanks for the warning. Now, we keep going."
My problem with leaving is... then what? Seriously, then what?
We go back and tell them, "A portal to hell might be about to open; it's power source is about a mile away. No, we don't know where the portal will open. No, we can't do anything to stop it from here. The power source is about a mile away and I stopped investigating so I don't know where it's going. No, I'm not even sure it's a portal. I stopped investigating. Just try to be alert. Stay frosty."
We act normal and then what?
... Probably elect not to poke it, thinking about it.
Borek: "Is it going to explode?"
Mathilde: "Well no. I don't know what it's going to do, but I think I should try to find out."
Borek: "Then we don't poke it. We bypass it and keep going."
Alternatively, we can stretch the truth and tell Borek that we absolutely
have to investigate Karak Vlag in order to ascertain what is going on with Karag Dum. (And then if we don't find anything, well, that's kind of a problem for us. Because we told the Dwarfs that this needed to be dealt with. And then we were unable to do anything about it.) But then we'd have to be stretching the truth or lying. When the real reason is that we would be curious and concerned with what's going on -- rather than us being convinced that it is utterly key to Karag Dum.
Whereas, "Stand Your Ground" might maybe force the expedition's and/or the mystery's hand.
Of course, if nothing happens -- or worse, something does happen, and the expedition takes losses -- then we are going to be questioned whether this was worth it to do. Mrgh.
I really want to investigate Vlag, rather than leave it for way later, but... ((And I want to see if it has anything to do with the Chaos Wastes advancing further south. Or the time-thingy on Karag Dum as in canon. Or
something.)) But. Hm. Currently more pre-disposed to "Stand Your Ground" because of this. Damn your curiosity.