Over the course of the next day or two, you approach each of the Silver Ravens' supporters to have Bacon sniff them and compare with the scrap of cloth. The process is long, and a bit awkward, but with delicate care (please elect someone to make a Diplomacy check) you can smooth things over with everyone and convey how important this is to group security.
Near the end of the second day, Bacon squeals accusingly at a young man named Morgar Manthai. He chuckles and pats the pig on the head.
"Hahaha, he must smell my lunch on my hands. Everyone loves my mom's garlic sauce!"
If you intend to interrogat Morgar, please make a separate diplomacy or intimidate check.
Valleria leaves the talking with those better suited for it but when the man is recognized by bacon, she makes sure to show they are not joking.
Wilhelm does his best to keep things smoothed with their gaggle of followers, explaining once the process has been finished that they're just taking precautions as a result of some shifty activity that's been discovered. Most of the people check out, but when Bacon connects the scrap of cloth with Morgar, Wilhelm's face goes dark for a moment and he grips his spear in a readied position.
"Mister Manthai, the reason for the excitement is not your mother's sauce. We've recently been the victims of sabotage, and one of our friends was killed by that sabotage. The clues have led us straight here to you." He pauses for breath, and to choose his words carefully. "While two of us are trained as guards, we are not like those who work for the Thrunes. I would give you a chance to explain yourself, and perhaps through this mercy come to realize that you've made a poor choice with your loyalties by siding against us. This mercy is not infinite however, and should you attempt to flee you will not escape."
Ignati sits back quietly as they use Bacon to investigate their small group of followers. When Morgar shrugs off the pigs squeals he looks the man over and attempts to discern if he's telling the truth even as Wilhelm begins interrogating.
Never was any good at reading people, let's see if Wilhelm gets anything out of him.
Morgar shrinks away from Wilhelm's withering gaze, his mouth trembling as he stumbles for a reply. Bacon bares his teeth at the man menacingly.
"Someone was killed? Oh no, I never wanted for...look, there's this voice, I know it sounds crazy, but there's a voice down here that speaks to me sometimes, last time it was a rat, and it won't leave me alone until I do what it says..."
"I knew I wasn't just being paranoid about the rats! What is it telling you to do?"
Voreni sighs with disappointment. Assuming he is in fact being used by some other force, what do we do with the young man after we root out the saboteur?
"Morgar, just sit down and speak with us. We want to find out what's going on."
Corian listens and watches for his reply carefully, also noting if there are any evil auras about the lad.
That... is not at all the response Wilhelm was expecting. He tries to get a sense of whether or not their saboteur is trying to hide something, or if the claim is legitimate.
Presuming for the moment that it's true, he quickly thinks if he can come up with some sort of creature that matches the M.O. being described and which might also match the clues they've found.
Not coming up with anything, and not sure how to proceed anymore, he glances at the others with a raised eyebrow and slightly confused expression.
Morgar shrugs nervously. "It-it just told me to weaken that part of the wall. I didn't know what was going to happen, I swear! I wasn't even...honestly, I didn't really think about it. I barely remember doing it."
Wilhelm finally crystallizes his confusion into its purest form. "If we presume, for the time being, that Mister Manthai was being controlled by a voice in his head -- and he seems sincere to me in that regard -- then it must boil down to one of two options. Either the voice is within his own head, in which case he is mentally ill, or the voice comes from outside his head, in which case he may have been magically controlled." He pauses. "I admit I cannot tell which is the case. While I hope, for Morgar's sake, that it is the latter, it's the latter which is the more disturbing possibility from a security perspective. And if it's true that he was being controlled, whether by outside force or by mental illness, how to properly mete justice becomes a murky prospect indeed, made all the more difficult by of the weight of the death which cannot go unanswered. My training has been in apprehension of culprits, not in the sentencing, but we have no authority to appeal to but our own. What do the rest of you make of this? Is there a means at our disposal to prove his story true or false?"
"Perhaps if we could locate a spellcaster with enough skill. Otherwise," Voreni pulls Wilhelm aside and whispers, trying to keep Morgar from being able to hear him, "Otherwise, our best bet would be to use poor Morgar as bait for the possible supernatural being manipulating his psyche. If we can catch it in the act, or observe his behaviors and affect, his visible emotional state that is, then we would have more evidence to support or disprove his statements."
"I believe him. It's got to be some kind of devil or fey. We just need to catch it."
Valleria nods. "Perhaps it is the same creature that we found on that stable... remember that we found proof about something invisible? Perhaps it followed us here."
"Yes, I think those vomiting opossum-like creatures were able to turn invisible. Gods, I hope its not another one of those. But I don't think those things were able to affect a person's mind. Whatever affected Morgar seems to have some kind of mind-controlling ability. It doesn't sound like he was dominated but perhaps charmed or suggested."
"Oh no, I was not referring to those disgusting things... on the ground floor, we heard giggles, right? From an invisible source?"
"A speaking rat reeks of magic, but Morrigan detected no magic in the Wasp's Nest that wasn't our own."
Ignati continues thinking. "That would have provided some evidence, but until we can prove him wrong we must at least keep Morgar in custody of some kind. Be he guilty or just susceptible to whatever the source of this trap was, he's a liability that we can not afford so early in our mission."
When Valleria mentions the giggling he just shrugs. "To be honest, I'd assumed the giggling was from those little vomit rats, but this certainly seems beyond their capabilities. You may be on to something."
"I concur with Ignati, we must keep him in custody until we discover some sort of proof. I also think using him as bait with which to draw out his tormentor a mostly sound idea, but I fear that the entity may be scared off if it sees him with us aggressively around , and then it may lie in wait for a while before choosing another victim. Similarly, if we're not close by, it may just continue to use him as he's already demonstrated a susceptibility" Wilhelm pauses for a moment in thought. "Morrigan is skilled with illusion, and I believe Ignati and Voreni used an alchemical means with which to disguise one's self. Could one of us capable of detecting magic or evil be disguised as Morgar to be a more capable bait while we keep the man himself safely out of this entity's reach?"
"I have no problem disguising myself as Morgar to try to draw this enemy out as long as you are nearby in case I fall under the same effects. A protection from evil spell may also ward of the mental-control if that is what it is."
"But will a physical deception fool a psychic opponent? Maybe we should keep him guarded and see if we can catch him when he falls under the spell of the 'voice'."
"We don't know what this opponent is to know if it will be fooled, unfortunately. It would certainly be less resource intensive to attempt to just watch him, but I worry the controller will see us watching him and either just not try anything or, worse, change to a new target for its insidious whispering.
"Another option is to put some of our funds toward a scroll of a spell that allows one to see invisibility. If this thing is hiding in plain sight by being invisible, and is canny enough to avoid the cone of a detect spell, that should flush it out."
"Unless it is bewitching him from a distance. A witch scrying on him, for instance."
There's too many options! Wilhelm thinks to himself, frustrated. He considers stepping into the greater Wasp's Nest and just shouting out to intimidate their nemesis into showing itself.
"Morgar said it spoke to him directly, so I think this is probably a closer range thing than that." He sighs, deeply. "I don't like things I can't fight directly.
"Αν σας πιάσει εγώ θα μετατρέψει εσωτερικό σας έξω," he adds in Infernal because the sound more accurately reflects the deep frustration he feels.
Voreni raises an eyebrow at Wilhelm's outburst.
"We better make a decision on how to proceed. I tend to believe a creature such as this has great command over magic, and I do not believe it will be easily fooled, but we can still try. At the very least, we might be able to identify the assailant by the abilities it employs."
"Only one way to find out--we will watch Morgar in shifts, and get some rest," says Corian. "If only there was a way to lure it. In the meantime, we should go find more answers to other questions, like missing opera singers and discontented people to recruit," concludes the false Asmodean with a grin.
Wilhelm nods. "That seems like the best plan for now, though it seems yet another circumstance distracting us from the salt works. It's uncanny, but this problem can't be ignored." He rummages through his stuff and pulls out his silver raven figurine. "I'll volunteer to take the first shift. Perhaps if it shows up I can use my talent of speech-giving to interfere with its influence."
"I can take any shift you need."
The night's watches pass largely without incident; Morgar is initially reluctant to being sequestered in the Wasp's Nest, but remains cowed by Wilhelm's intimidating presence.
Faint pipe music is heard during the night, but searches for the culprit are unsuccessful. In the morning, Rexus looks in on your group, looking a bit perplexed.
"So, it's a little weird, but I've found an odd discrepancy in these papers that I've been trying to decode. This paper here..." he says, holding up a sheet of richly textured vellum that appears completely blank, "...doesn't match any of the rest of the papers, and I can't find anything written on it either. It makes no sense; everything in that coffer had a purpose, but this...it just doesn't match. How did it get in there?"
"Are you sure that there is nothing written upon it? There are means, both magical and mundane, for concealing print."
"It's completely blank, but you think it serves a purpose. Could there be invisible writing? What have you tried so far? I can think of a number of methods to try: detect magic, read magic, dispel magic, or more mundane methods, like heat or lemon juice."
Valleria sighs at the 'lack' of activity. She was always more to the hands of the job type of person and this whole situation was more like chasing their own tails than actually doing something but she also had nothing to add.
Corian squints at the paper after muttering to himself. .
"If we can't figure this out, we should go follow that other lead, and have someone keep an eye on Morgar," says the priest, looking for all the world as if he has an invisible monocle before one eye.
Morrigan's Detect Magic spell, after a period of reflection, reveals a dim magical aura surrounding the paper.
Corian's Sift reveals no additional details (Sift is used to closely examine things that are far away; it's not much help when you're close enough to examine normally, I'm afraid).
Rexus frowns. "Well, I guess that leaves us with heat and lemon juice."
Wilhelm tries read magic, but doesn't expect much. "I'd guess it's an expended scroll, or perhaps it was scribed with some sort of warding magic. Do you detect any unusual magic on Rexus himself, Morrigan?
"I definitely heard piping music last night, which I think serves as effective proof that Morgar is not fully to blame for his unfortunate actions. The fact that I couldn't find the source leads me to believe that the musician was invisible. Rexus, since you're here, do you have any means of purging invisibility at your disposal?"
Rexus shrugs with a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid that purging invisibility is beyond my abilities."
"It seems like discovering this spy and solving the mystery of this page are beyond our current abilities. We should revisit them later. We should head to the Salt Works now. We've already lost enough time. There's no telling what those mercenaries plan to do with their prisoners."
Ignati nods his agreement with Morrigan.
"Yes, it seems we've a number of mysteries to uncover. I knew building a rebellion would be exciting but I did not expect we'd be burdened with so many strange things right from the beginning. In either case, Lady Winters is correct, Let's be off to the Salt Works."
"Just give me a moment to ensure my equipment and reagents are ready," Voreni says as he begins to do just that.
"I concur as well," Wilhelm says, nodding, and readying his spear and banner.
Rexus rolls up the paper and places it in his jacket pocket. "Just in case, let's keep this separate for later examination...by the way, is there anything I can do to help with the Salt Works situation? Will you be heading over there now, or after dark?"
"I don't know that you should come with us, but if you have any insight on the place or the mercenaries inside that might be help enough," answers Wilhelm. "If you're up for it, we need someone to keep an eye on Morgar while we're gone. As for the timing, I would function best if we went during the day, and we've been needfully putting this off for so long I would prefer we went right away. While I understand the tactical advantage of night, I'm not sure we'll manage the element of surprise if the humans among us require we bring lights."
"Not to mention we risk confrontation by breaking the curfew. We've enough problems as it is, we shold travel by day."
Valleria jumps at the mention of some action. She ponders about the advantages of going during the night or during the day and agrees with her companions.
"Right, so lets get moving and put an end to this... And I agree with you, Wilhelm, if Rexus could stay behind and keep an eye on Morgar it might be the better choice."
Arriving at the Salt Works by day, you find an aging, salt-stained building just outside the "Salt Gate" in Old Kintargo. As it is still daytime, workers are present, transporting wet salt from the brine springs to the South into the salt works for processing. If the workers notice your group (and your weapons), they appear to be keeping it to themselves, averting their eyes from your gaze and keeping a respectful distance.
Morrigan speaks quietly to the group, "Since there are so many workers still around, perhaps we could do a little reconnaissance? Did someone else say they were able to disguise self? We could try impersonating some workers to get access to the inside and get a better idea of what we're up against."
"Or we could just knock on the door and pretend to be potential customers," Wilhelm suggests as a counter proposal. "It might be less complicated. The workers have let us pass so far, and Ignati is of noble blood. He could probably be convincing enough to get us through the door, and once we're inside we can improvise as the situation demands. Don't forget that we're here on a rumor. Sometimes things get exaggerated.
"Although if one of us who is very stealthy or disguised wants to slip away and scout first, or concurrently, we can never have too much information. I just know that sort of operation is outside my own skill set. Maybe Voreni?"
Since he has no idea what to expect, he casts feather step on himself so he can still move tactically regardless of how cluttered the building might be with debris or people.