Riori nods and sighs and follows after.
The man recoils from Sal, mumbling, "Don't pay them any mind, he says. They aren't real. They can't do anything unless you let them, Ed. Don't pay them any mind."
Riori will try to assess whether the man Sal has cornered is faking it.
The tiefling finds Sal standing over the wounded man. "Who's this guy and what's he muttering about?" Thren asks. She's a bit irritated after whatever has been going on downstairs as she makes her way up the stairs.
Riori thinks he is injured and unstable. He is breathing heavily, eyes wide, hands shaky.
"Who is he, says the devil. Devil has come to take his soul, says Ed. No, no, don't say his name. The devil musn't know his name."
"Devil? DEVIL?" Thren nearly shrieks. Her range is rather impressive as she stalks towards the injured man. "I am a TIEFLING, you half-wit!"
"Poor fella's off his rocker... but if he took a hit from that oversized fishing spear and is only about half-shook, he's not a weakling, that's for sure. Hard to say if he summoned those effects downstairs or not. Can we knock him out?"
Sal reverses the haft of her weapon and tries to whack the man in the head with the blunt end to knock him out.
"I'm no healer, but in his current mental state I doubt he's responsible for our problems below. Though there have been crazed savants capable of great magic down through the Ages." Ekote shrugs easily. "Either way, an unconscious man is no threat."
The man slumps to the ground from Sal's blow. His twitching stills. A soft breathing confirms he is still alive.
"Let's search him and secure him. Maybe dealing with whatever is below is what made him crazy. That doesn't mean we can trust him not to stab us." Thren suggests.
Sal getting closer to him, winces and crinkles her nose. "I don't suppose any of you magic folk got any cleanin' spells? He uh... well, he stinks is what it is. Can't track or spot trouble for the life of me if I'm carryin' him around."
In the meantime, she pulls her spider-silk rope out of her haversack and cuts off 10 feet to use to tie him up.
Once he's tied up, Riori asks to get a good look at him. She will use stablilize to stop any bleeding from the wound Sal gave him, but not use any heavier healing magic just yet as it would wake him up.
She will try to assess two things, immediate and academic:
1) What is his general state of health? By signs of malnutrition, etc. can she guess how long he has been here?
2) Has she heard within whatever timeframe she determines from above of an expedition to this region, apart from or even including preparation for the Regatta? Also, can she tell from clothing, possible ethnicity, etc. where he might be from?
"You have a point Sal. Anything with a nose can track him." Thren begins using prestidigitation to clean up their captive.
Ekote, hearing the order to search the captive, uses detect magic to determine what magic items he possesses and begins removing gear before Sal ties him.
Sandara keeps watch while this happens, in case trouble comes looking for them.
Riori shares the results of her examination. "Poor fellow has scurvy among other things. I reckon he's trying to rough it here at least a year. Taldan, I think. My guess is if we get him enough sleep, followed by some cabbage water and a gentle meal his belly can take, he'll be likely a lot more coherent." She looks at the group. "Maybe we should take him back and get him some treatment."
"Hmm...all right. If we can fix him up, he might be able to tell us a bit about this place if nothing else. I'm game for that." Thren agrees after a few moments.
Sal is fireman carrying him after she is sure he is tied securely. Seeing the spellbook, she will also gag him to ensure he can't cast verbal spells.
Ekote will make sure to remove anything that might be a spell component pouch or component for a common spell during the search.
The man comes awake bound but clean aboard ship. His eyes pop open and he immediately begins speaking, but with his mouth gagged you can't understand what he is saying.
Sal pulls down the gag, ready to take another swing if he causes trouble. His gaze flits about, taking in the cabin, and the faces of his captors. "Don't worry, Ed, they can't hurt you any more, can they."
He looks past all of you to the wall and says, "No! You can't touch me here, if here is even...No! Not on the water back in the castle, aren't you Ed the old let-em-think-they-escaped plan. Let-em-think-they escaped plan. But we didn't escape. We're still there in the castle."
After a couple of hours of observation, Sandara and Riori come to the conclusion that the man's psyche is completely broken from someone or something messing with his ability to discern what is real and what is not.
"If we want to fix this man and learn what he knows, it's going to take time. Which we might not have. On the other hand, there's a whole island to explore and claim. I can stay and keep an eye on him and work with him, if you want to go that route. He still might know something of use." Sandara suggests.
Riori sighs. "It takes a powerful divine conduit to help this man, someone at my strength or greater, and I don't know the invocation necessary to help him. I couldn't in good conscience abandon the man, but I reckon the only thing we can do is take him to a port with a temple that might be willing to take him in... and I'd reckon we'd need to make a hefty donation for them to be willing, given a restoration prayer requires diamond dust, and he'll need a lot of them..."
She sighs. "So right now we've got another mouth to feed who could hurt the rest of our crew if he gets out. And yet it'd be heartless do do anything else but help him."
Riori tries to think of a temple or safe asylum in the archipelago that would take in such a man.
Sal sighs, looking downward. "I probably shoulda just killed him, kneejerk or not. Might've been more merciful. But I ain't gonna look a sick man in the eye and cut his throat, not if he can be saved."
She sighs. "Well, I can't do anything to help about that, so meanwhile I'mma find out if we can get our ship close enough to topple that fortress with our catapult..."
"Sandara, you went on a pilgrimage not that long ago. Riori may have a good idea about putting this guy in the hands of someone who can help him better than us. Where was that shrine or temple at?"
Hearing Sal comment about the catapult, Ekote smiles like a boy with a toy. "Let me help you with that. Siege weaponry is a hobby of mine. I'm sure we can lob rocks at the fortress from the ship. Absolutely sure."
Sandara shakes her head. "That was the Voyage to Besmara's Throne. It's a dangerous island you traverse to get to the Temple of the Black Lady in the town of Queen Bes. It's by design a difficult journey it's not a place to take a delusional man. Also, while there are people once you get to the town, most pilgrims to the Lady aren't inclined to assist a man too weak to resist the challenges of the sea. I'd think you'd want something more like a temple to Sarenrae or even Pharasma or Irori."
"I had to guess. Maybe in Port Peril then, or on Quent." Thren shrugs.
Having made it back to camp, Thren lets Sandara do what she has to with the prisoner before gathering up the rest of the team. "Whatever is in that fort is a pain in my tail," she admits irritably. Said appendage swishes back and forth angrily. "Until we figure out how to deal with it, I suggest we explore the island a bit and discover what resources and problems there are. Last island we did that and I got impaled. I'd like to avoid nasty surprises while we're building a fort. Thoughts?"
"I'm with ya captain," Sal says. "I don't wanna end up like old Ed there. How bout we follow the beach to the south and east and go up and around that way? We might spot some interesting flotsam and other ways deeper into the center of the island."
Riori nods. "One way is good as another. We are going to have to deal with that fortress as sometime though, and unlike Sal I'd rather not raze the whole thing... Just get a better handle on what's going on so we can tackle it proper. Maybe we'll get a better sense elsewhere."
"Seems reasonable. One direction is as good as another." Ekote agrees. "We can work our way around."
Riori tries to think of a temple or safe asylum in the archipelago that would take in such a man. [dice=Knowledge Local]1d20+14
While they're back at the ship, Sal checks in with the crew to see if they've seen or heard anything odd, and checks with Yamtisy to be sure no one is shirking on their duties while they wait.
If time permits she'll go fishing, casting her rod off the ship on the side closest to shore.
She catches a few fish, but they're all sadly small and she tosses them back. "Bet that damn octopus ate all the good ones," she grumbles.
At dinner she'll say to the others, "I reckon that fella 'Ed,' if he wasn't castin' spells at us thinkin' we were monsters himself, must've been subject to some mind bending nonsense as we were. I'm not sure what we can do to protect ourselves from that apart from whatever protective spells you have, and of course the hard part is knowing when to cast those. I mean, if you already have gone crazy, you won't have thought to cast the ward! We'll just have to be careful."
"I wonder if those things fed on him somehow. If so, will they wander off in search of new meals? Try to track him down?" The bard shakes her head. "The idea of tearing the place down continues to have merit."
Ekote sits down with the man's spellbook and begins paging through it, attempting to decipher his spells.
Upon doing so, he spends an hour scribing away, adding the alarm spell to his own books.
"I do note his magical talents are rather limited; he's barely out of apprenticeship, assuming this is his primary spellbook. What other talents does he possess? He's stayed alive this long against those creatures and other potential threats after all."
Once 'Ed' is locked away, Sandara reunites with the other officers and starts fixing up everyone's wounds.
To Threnody's question, Sal digs into her experience as a monster hunter to think of any creature that might consume someone's wits, who also could be found on an island like this.
To Ekote, she nods along and replies, "He was tough enough to take a decent hit from me. Maybe he don't know a lot of magic, but, no offense, most young wizards I've met couldn't have survived that. Wore armor, too, which I don't see most mages do. Magically enhanced too, so he's been a man of enough fortune to equip himself nice. Ain't a bard, as I've never seen a bard with a spellbook, but something like, dabbling in fightin' as well as magic. Makes sense he might have decided to pick up some spellwork while sailing, maybe? I mean, he had to have got here somehow." Sal pauses.
"We should look for the wreckage of his ship while we walk along the shore tomorrow. For other survivors too, but I doubt there's any. But there might be something of value or of information if we find it."
She grows thoughtful. "I know what it's like firsthand, to be the only survivor on a ship, and due to the Eye no less, which as we're not far from the Eye, could be what blew him off course here. Part of me don't like that I got close to killin' him. Part of me worries I was right the first time. Just 'cause he's alone and addled doesn't make him a good man automatically. Could be he got here by his own makin'... or was marooned here out of punishment. Be careful, Quinn, as you tend to him."
Riori offers, "It will only tell us so much, but after dinner I'll draw up another star chart, see if Desna wants to give us any hints as to what we're dealing with. Any questions you want to be sure I ask? I'll ask if Ed is hostile and if there are other survivors here from whereever he comes from."
She shrugs. "Unfortunately I don't have access to a lot of warding magic other than the standard protective prayer I invoked earlier today. I can cast auguries on occasion to check to ask if we're headed into disaster, although such divinations as always are vague."
==
At night, Riori prepares her star charts and sees what further she can divine about their situation at the Isle of Empty Eyes.
She focuses on the following questions as she assembles her chart:
Did or does Ed have nefarious intent toward us or any previous allies?
Will Ed seriously endanger the crew if we keep him on the ship?
Are we going to be able to get anything useful out of Ned by talking to him?
Is Ed's way of getting here, like a ship, still here at the island, even if it is destroyed?
Is Ed the cause of the strange effect that knocked Sandara out?
-- If the answer is no, she will ask, "Is a living creature the cause?"
-- If the answer is no, she will ask, "Is an undead creature the cause?"