Arma doesn't pay him much mind, chalking it up to frustration at being stuck.
"I'm positive he's under a domination spell. Tessa you said it would clear up in a while. Are you sure that's how it works? Is there anything we can do to clear it up more quickly?"
Tessa knots her lip, "Yeah. It'll go away eventually. Ummm... If he were issued a command that would be completely against his core nature, he might be able to break it. Other than that, you'd need to Dispel or Break the enchantment, neither of which I'm skilled enough to actually do myself. However, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the Domination might last... two weeks? From whenever it was last placed, that is. So.... who knows. It could be tomorrow, it might not be for a fortnight."
You head back across the island, escorting Rayland with you. He proves an unruly Ward, maintaining his stony silence, but he is unable to pose much threat to you. Relia periodically douses his skin with water to keep him from drying out, and after a hard day's march, you make it back to Talmandor's Bounty.
The other colonists murmur in shock in concern when you return, goggling at the bizarre appearance of your prisoner. Ramona Avandth emerges to try to calm them down, helping you usher Rayland into one of the offices in the government building to keep him out of the public eye.
"Is that Rayland?" she asks once you have some privacy. "I hardly recognize him! What happened? What did you find at the tower?"
Arma presses Rayland into a seat. It's been wild. We found the tower, occupied by skum, mostly. We found Arkley, as well as Eliza Haniver, another colonist. They claimed they were being held prisoner, but then attached us when we let our guard down, almost killed Abigail and Tessa's. We had to defend ourselves, they could have killed us. We were able to capture Rayland, but Eliza is dead."
She pushes hair out of her eyes and gestures at Rayland. "Relia believes he's been Dominated, magically. If so it should wear off, eventually, but for right now he's staying quiet about what happened both at the tower and before we arrived. As for his, uh, skin. It's not, uh, contagious, probably. It's more like a curse than a disease. Needs to stay moist or he'll dry out. It's something caused by contact with aboleth slime. Again, he might be able to say more when the enchantment wears off."
Ramona listens to your story with concern. "I'll send for Fathers Eamon and Kurvis. Perhaps they have some magic that can help him."
When the priests arrive, Eamon looks at your prisoner with wide eyes.
"Ah! Another ghost? We have our hands full with our incorporeal inconvenience in the chapel!"
"Don't be daft!" Kurvis grumbles. "Just his skin's see-through! What manner of curse is this?"
After Ramona explains the situation, the Abadarran grunts. "I don't think we have magic powerful enough to reverse their affliction, but we can try to suppress the domination temporarily."
Both clerics intone similar-sounding prayers and lay their hands on Rayland.
Rayland groans with relief. "Thank the gods! My mind is free--at least for now. This won't last long, right?" Kurvis nods, and Rayland grunts. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about what happened. There are large gaps in my memory. I know Eliza found that tower and came back to the colony...changed. Even beyond being mentally controlled. When our captor found out about your arrival on the island, it was Eliza's idea to lure some of you to the tower.
"I don't know what the thing that did to us even looks like, but it can control us from a great distance and it knows everything that we know. I don't know what it wants. I don't know what happened to the other colonists, or if they're even alive. But I don't want to be used to hurt anybody again. Please, make sure it doesn't make me hurt anybody!"
"We found some things that suggested that there was a schism in the colony before we came," Arma says. "Was all of that because of this person that captured you? They, what, wanted to destroy the colony?"
Rayland shakes his head. "All I remember is that Eliza came back acting strangely. I went to confront her about what she found in the tower, and the next thing I recall is being forced to follow her to the tower to enact her scheme."
Arma doesn't sense any deception from the man.
"Right. We'll keep you away from the others until we're sure you are free from outside control. I'm sorry this happened to you, and we will do our best to find out whose behind this." Relia looks at everyone else in the room. "This is beyond what we thought might have happened. We'll need to discuss this outside of Arkay's hearing of course."
Arma frowns and pinches between her eyebrows. "Alright. Alright. Obviously, the final decision is up to you, Ramona, you're in charge. But I feel like the right thing to do is to keep Rayland isolated for his safety and ours, and to investigate this threat to the colony."
"I agree with Arma," Ramona says. "If the domination is of limited duration, we'd do best to keep him isolated. We're not equipped to hold prisoners long-term, but we can hold him for a few weeks at least. We'll have to have guards posted constantly to keep an eye on him and to make sure his skin doesn't dry out.
"The townsfolk will be wondering the meaning of all this. We should talk to them tonight to try to put their anxieties to rest."
"On that we agree Abigail. We can't let him know anything we don't want him to know. What would you like us to say to the colonists Ramona?" Relia doesn't look convinced they should be the ones to speak to the colonists about Arkay.
"Don't worry, I'll do most of the talking. Feel free to add to it if you wish."
---
That night, Ramona gathers the colonists by the central fire pit in the palisade. She stands on the wooden platform to address the crowd.
"There's been a lot of rumors going around about the person we brought back today. I'd like to take some time to explain what's going on.
"Following an attack by aquatic humanoids, our colony's troubleshooters tracked them to a tower north of here. They eliminated the menacing creatures, and in the process discovered one of the missing colonists from the first wave of settlers: Rayland Arkley. Unfortunately, he is suffering from a malady that affects his body and mind. We have kept him locked up for both his safety and ours. We believe in a few days' time, his mental state will return to normal, but his physical ailment will require powerful magic to treat. We are still determining the best course of action to take with him.
"We still don't know the fate of the other colonists. But all fifty of us are safe here. Thanks to the efforts of Abigail, Arma, Relia, and Tessa, there is no immediate danger to Talmandor's Bounty. Can I guarantee that danger will not arise in the future? No. But we all knew that forging a settlement in the ruins of Azlant wasn't going to be easy. If we wanted to avoid danger and risk, we all would have stayed in Almas.
"These four women have proven themselves strong, resourceful, and brave. I am confident that they can assist us in defeating any dangers that might arise. With all of us working together towards our common purpose, Talmandor's Bounty will survive. It will thrive. Have faith, be good to each other, and let's make this place our home."
Ramona steps down to scattered cheers and applause. A few of the colonists still look uneasy, though. It's going to be hard to completely assuage everybody's fears.
Arma tries to make note of the people who look uneasy. She isn't much of a people-person, but depending on the people in question she might be able to say something, after it's all calmed down.
Tessa makes a shy appearance, giving the crowd a nervous wave and fighting the urge to turn invisible. Anyone who approaches her later individually finds her somewhat more friendly and agreeable then.
Relia also makes note of who doesn't look happy. She smiles at the others. "We can do this. We'll make this successful."
Most of the uneasy colonists are carpenters, farmers, and other simple folk. But you notice Perrell Beys is uneasy again, as she was on the Peregrine.
Relia will spend her week checking on her maternity patients, and working in her still room making poultices and such.
She'll head out into the close surrounding area to search for medicinal herbs.
Tessa returns to the abandoned temple, learning as much as she can about ancient Azlant.
On the first day, Arma finds a workspace where she will not be disturbed, and sets on a table her journal with notes on the constructs from the temple, the toolset she put together at the tower, and the Clockwork Spy.
She looks over her notes, turns the Clockwork Spy, and picks up her tools. Almost immediately she puts the tools back down, and takes out her formula book. She opens it to the pages she dedicated to recopying the spells from Una Hendrake's spellbook. Over an hour of experimentation, she mixes a few duds, then she has a breakthrough.
Arma mixes and drinks an extract of Cat's Grace, picks up her tools, and works slowly and carefully to remove the Clockwork Spy's key.
With expert precision, Arma is able to remove the clockwork's key. She can use it to wind and unwind it, as well as change its programming. Its current orders are to maintain position, keep itself wound, await the arrival of humanoids other than monkey goblins, record any conversation, and return to a predetermined location for further instructions.
"Arma can you tell where the location is? Maybe we should let it go and follow it." Relia suggests. She has been sticking her head in to Arma's work space quietly for the last few hours trying really hard to not ask if she was done yet.
As soon as Arma finished, she picked up the clockwork spy and came running out to show somebody, anybody, and she's all too happy to show Relia. She's holding the construct with both hands, much like how a child would carry a frog.
"Hm, sorry, you say something? Ya know that was just what I was thinking, but I don't want it to end up being a real long ways away. I'd really like to try to listen to whatever it has recorded, if there's anything still there."
Ordering the spy to play back its recording gem results in you hearing the conversation you had when you first explored the government house.
"Well, that certainly looks worth investigating! Oh, wait, fool me once!" says Arma.
"Hello there. Can you understand me? My name's Tessa, I came on the Peregrine. Are you with the colonists? I'm trying to find them." says Tessa. Then, "Azil! Get the window!"
"What is that?" asks Relia.
"Clockwork spy! A tiny construct that can record sounds. Catch it, but try not to damage it! It might still be useful," Tessa replies.
"You can try as well, Tessa..." grumbles Abigail. Then, "Good catch! Don't break it though!"
"Oooh, now what have we here? What a creature!" Arma says. The recording ends.
"A leash is really good idea. I can't get too far ahead of us if we've got it attached to us." Relia is very excited that Arama was able to get the clockwork to work again. "That's amazing. What a find. Maybe there will be more when we find where it came from."
"Ugh. Is that really what my voice sounds like? Anyway, yes, a leash. Or we could reprogram it to work for us. It could be a useful reconnaissance tool." Tessa muses, "Maybe have it patrol the island until it finds something, then return to us and lead us there?"
"Sounds like a plan. Who is good with knots around here?" Relia pulls out a rope.
Arma is briefly distracted looking over the construct. "Uh, yeah, sure, let me just figure out how to--" She reaches into the mechanisms and curses as she pinches her finger between two gears.
Once the construct is leashed, Arma sets it to return to the programmed location, winds the key, and releases it.
The clockwork spy whirs to life, skittering at the end of its rope as it leads you away from Talmandor's Bounty. You head northwest through the island's interior, traversing familiar ground. After a couple of hours, you emerge into the clearing where the pink marble dais stands.
The construct stops at the base of the dais, and the illusion of the Azlanti man in the towering helm appears again to repeat its message of calm in the face of adversity.
Arma picks up the construct again. "What if it's like a meeting place? It was set to come here if it records anything, and its master--former master," she amends, as she pets the mindless construct, "Comes by every so often to check and see if it returned?"
She takes a closer look at the dais this time to make sure there's no hidden mechanisms on it.
Arma does not discover anything new about the dais.
Relia looks around. "Here? Really who would have sent it here?"
"I want to say yeah, cause the thing was hanging around the colony," Arma says. "But, what's say we use it against them? I think I can program it to stick around here, start recording when a humanoid comes in range, then return to us."
Arma takes a few minutes to do just that, programming the clockwork spy to maintain position, keep itself wound, wait for any humanoids to come into range, record any conversation, then return to the colony.
The clockwork spy accepts its new programming. It scuttles behind a piece of rubble and settles into its hiding spot.
"Should we look for anything else interesting before we head back?" She looks around for any other interesting directions.
"I don't think there's anything waiting for us at the colony at the moment."
Even Abigail's sharp eyes don't find anything else unusual about the area around the dais.
"Good luck, Amaznen," Arma says softly to the construct. I'm saying that right, ain't I? The Azlanti's God of Invention? Anyways. Should head back before it gets too dark, yeah?"
During the return trip Arma asks Tessa to quiz her Azlanti. Her pronunciation is very bad.
"You're almost there, but you're overemphasizing a lot of the consonants," Tessa coaches Arma on their trip back, "Remember, the 'v' actually is more of a 'w' sound. It's a much softer language than how you're saying it. To say it in Azlanti, it would be 'A-massnen es As-lan-tei de-us a af-en-go' "