Great Question, - and probably one that can have many different answers, dpending on all sorts of circumstances - lets start by looking at yours...
> The situation in question is that of a group of Orlanthi PCs drawn
> into Yelmalio's Hill of Gold quest.
The fact that they have been "drawn in" is the first important distinction. It is not a Heroquest that they have initiated - leaving one of those is "giving up" or "failing" and can have dire consequences for the questor (and his supporters) - I'm pretty sure there are examples of this in the "King of Dragon Pass" Computer game.
If you are drawn in to another's quest then you (at least potentially) have less invested in the quest, so "dropping out" shouldn't invoke the same sort of penalties. (Of course where Myths interact you may be on a different quest that "cuts across" the one you are drawn in to. To give a not particularly good example, You are an Orlanthi questor re-enacting "Orlanth and Yelm" - so you "need" a Solar questor to represent Yelm - if that questor is a Yelmalian re-enacting the Hill of Gold who "needs" an Orlanth... then who is pulled into whose quest becomes more problematic - obviously each questor will be looking to leave on their own path.
> After encountering Yelmalio and Inora,
> can they just "walk off stage" without encountering Zorak Zoran?
>
The nature of the Hill of Gold, with it's 4 competing questors might
make this trickier than it seems. As I understand it there is a
mystical tie between questors, so that you will tend to repeatedly
meet the same questors fulfilling the same ritual roles in different
quests - which is why your "ongoing enemies" always end up in the
villains role... In this case it is certainly possible that the
Hill of Gold will tie up all 4 particpants together, and much as the
Orlanthi might like to skip the Zorak Zoran encounter, there is a
Troll out there (who may also have been drawn in, or may have
actively been looking to grab his Fire powers) who is "expecting" to
encounter a "storm god". They don't have to fight, but how they
interact here may have ramifications for both questors in the future.
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