What's a paladin to do? (Advice wanted)

[Twoswords]

The Setting: Kingmaker. We have finished book three, but are currently occupied with exploring our new territory hexes. All players are level 10.
My character is a paladin of Iomedae functioning under Oath of vengeance.

The Situation: There has been some loot-whoring by two players; a Neutral rogue and a lawful neutral fighter. With that I mean that magical items have been stolen from the loot without the characters knowledge in-game, but it is well known out-of-game.

I have a very hard time personally when it comes to this kind of situation as it will lead to strife and ultimately more lootwhoring and conflict. As such I tried to come up with a way to address it which would allow the players to work with the group, fess up what they have done, and move on as a unified party.

The players have found evidence of older evil gods once having been worshipped. We have also encountered what we consider to be ancient evil. During several of these encounters various party members have been commanded or paralyzed. This means that the mental will of the players may not be strong enough to keep away evil. Myself as paladin recommended that we should examine if any of this evil has taken root inside our minds.

Under a Zone of truth spell there was a discussion held where the paladin asked about if there was anyone worshiping evil gods, holding to the ideals society deems evil, etc. One question in particular "Are you withholding something from the party?" caused the rogue to chose to be silent, while the fighter said "No" and was countermanded by the DM who said that this was a lie.

The fighter then wanted to discuss the technical and finer details of the spell, and how he did not at all keep something away from the party (despite having in his possession two magical items he is currently withholding as he has not revealed them to the party over the last 7 weeks in-game time. To explain further, the fighter has also purchased a pair of magical glasses that allows him to cast detect magi, and he also thought these would allow him to identify magic items).

At this point a second zone of truth spell was cast (old one wore off) and now there were saves against Will rolled (fairly clear both made the saves).
The rogue chose to confess (acting as if under the influence of the spell) and produced one piece of magical loot specifically asked about, but said that this was all he had (which we all out of game know is false).
The fighter suddenly stopped being evasive (contrary to what he had spent a significant amount of time doing previously) and was now adamant that he had taken nothing and he was very up front. A sense motive check showed that he was definitely hiding something based on body language and tone.

The Issue: While at least two players of the remaining group do not enjoy loot-whoring, I truly despise it as it means that it will turn into a free-for-all brawl over loot instead of cooperation. At this point, as far as I understand, the loot missing can be valued at between 80-150K gold worth, so its a serious amount of money and valuable items.

I do not want to experience this throughout the campaign and I am asking for advice over what to do. My current standpoint would be to not be satisfied with the answers (There are still some big inconsistencies in their answers and their whole story) and put it to a vote; either the rogue and dwarf leaves the adventuring party, or the paladin leaves (I would be ready to roll up a new character in case I was voted out).

I know I can also talk to the players out of game about the situation, but feel that consequences of actions should be played out in game.

So, what advice does the community have to offer?

[Bacon666]

You need the old fashioned OOC talk.

You need to, ad a group, to agree on in character behavior. Do you allow PvP? What counts as PvP for you guys etc.

Ultimately you end up with 2 options:
1: agree on the rules this group uses or
2: quit, and try to find another group in your area (not always easy, I know...)

[scootalol]

Pretty much what Bacon says. This is an OOC problem with a thin in-character veneer. There's nothing your Paladin can do to 'fix" the problem, because ht problem is that the players are being loot-monkeys.

[Bodhizen]

The GM may also attempt to compensate other players with loot that is specifically useful to that character, but not very useful to others. This can be subtracted from whatever loot is doled out to the group so that the GM can maintain a sense of balance. The GM can also offer that loot to the players specifically from NPCs for acts that benefit those NPCs. If the player of the Rogue and the player of the Fighter find that to be problematic, the GM can certainly explain to them that in-game, their characters can act as they please, as can NPCs, but out-of-game, they should not be exploiting other players.

Understanding that you may not be the GM, you have a few of options:

• You can ask the GM to balance out treasure given to each member of the party, either through role-play or artificially.
  
• You can imitate the behaviour of other players and potentially trigger a fall condition; judging by the fact that your GM is allowing this behaviour, you will most certainly fall, so this may not be a viable option for you.
  
• You can express that this is not the manner in which you prefer to play and announce your intention to leave the group.
  

Best wishes!