Swamped

Maybe a distraction would be best? Show the kids the note. If that doesn't work, see if you can put the kids to work helping you smash apart the wood well enough to pry one of the cell bars free.

Knock him out

For a moment, you consider showing the kid the note, but the damn thing frightens you too much now. What if the gods think the kid's complicit in whatever the old man was doing, and do the same thing to him? You'd be better off knocking him out in that case.

In fact, you reach for the note just to prevent the kid from accidentally setting eyes on it. But you find your hand going limp as you touch it. What in the hells is this thing?

You pull your hand away, and decide to go for a bluff.

"You did a good job, he's just got very important things to think about right now," you say. It might even be true for all you know. "Now, I need a tool to help me get one of these bars loose. I'm thinking of breaking the wood around it. Can you find me something?"

But the kid is just standing there, looking terrified.

Hmm. Your best guess is that the kid is confused about your authority level, but not about this wizard's. So the kid can't be sure you have the rank to be making assurances.

If you could persuade the kid that you're at least as important in the hierarchy as the old man here, then you might be able to get somewhere. But how could you do that?

Hells, maybe you'd better get Ash in here. Is he still within shouting distance?

Things are getting unpleasant in here, and you'll need all the help you can get. If that help is Ash, well, so be it. You step out and call down the hall.

"Ash! We've got a bit of a situation here. Nothing dangerous, but I need you to have a look."

He starts walking down the hallway.

"Nothing's happening," he muses. "I heard you calling at someone. Did you stop the illusions?"

"Maybe? I'm not sure what I did."

You lead him into the brig, and point directly at the paralyzed wizard.

"He took one look at that weird message and hasn't moved a muscle since. The kid's on the verge of a breakdown, since that guy told him to do something and hasn't acknowledged him yet."

"So what, exactly, are you hoping I can contribute here?" Ash asks. "Do you want me to get this old man moving again? Do you think I can somehow settle the Silent One's nerves? At this point, I'm not even sure what we're trying to accomplish."

Well. You want to calm down this poor kid, and get Marshall and Long out of the cell.

Ash, on the other hand... this was an alliance of convenience, and if the immobilized wizard was the source of the trouble, well, there's not much reason for him to stick to it now. It might have been a bad idea to bring him in. You'll have to convince him that it's in his interest to help. And also figure out just what you want him to do.

(Behold, it is I, the call from the void.)

You know what? Maybe it WAS a bad idea to bring Ash in. You're not really sure what they could really do to help at this point. Your mistake. If they were going to split, now is probably the time, since you have important things to do, and don't need someone holding you back on account of them being incapable of doing anything useful for your situation.

or, if you don't like that incredibly rude option:

I'unno. Maybe Ash would find it inconvenient if the 'Silent One' started freaking out loudly? I haven't been paying attention. I'm not clear why Ash was in on this. But if he was gonna split, probably would have done so already? Maybe they just need a reason to feel useful and stick around. Busy work is still work.

Yeah. that's probably more reasonable for whoever is intercepting this call from the void. Also you really need to do something about the paper. How about throw something over it? Shift the box over it? Shrug.

Honestly, you're more than a little tempted to just cut Ash loose. He's bound to cause trouble sooner or later, especially if you're right that the threat has passed.

But as a practical matter, what would you even do? Tell him to leave? He'd just lead Carma to you. Or maybe you'd get into a fight. Neither seems very useful right now.

Maybe just give him something to keep him busy. He won't like it, but you at least have an excuse or two for why you can't do things yourself.

"I was thinking you might take a look at what's in that box and tell me if you have any idea what it is," you say. "I'll try to do something for the kid."

Ash sighs, then goes over to the box. The kid's eyes suddenly turn to him, then briefly to you, then he goes back to fixating on the wizard.

Ah! He saw you giving Ash an order, and Ash is following it. So he's getting a sense you outrank Ash in the hierarchy. That might not be enough to convince him your authority is on the level of the wizard's, but you can probably work with it.

"Well. At first glance it looks like coins, but I don't think this is money," Ash says after a while. "The style is more like a badge. But I don't think that's it, either; there's no clip for wearing them, for one thing."

"That guy seemed to want them for some reason," you say, pointing at the wizard. "Does that give you any thoughts?"

Ash pulls one of the not-coins out of the box and glances at it for a while.

"Well, the immediate thought it gives me is that it's magical in some way. I couldn't tell you how. But there is one other thing that strikes me about them now."

"And what's that?"

They stick to each other and you can mold them into shapes! Although they seem to be trying to form a particular shape on their own...

Ash holds up two of them, then holds them together and lets go of one. The two coins stay together.

"They stick to each other. Might be magic, might be lodestones. Don't know enough about either to say for sure which it is. Maybe something happens if you stick a bunch together..."

Ash's voice trails off and he looks down at the box.

"They're starting to come together on their own," he says, backing away and dropping the pair in his hand. "This might be a good time to get your weapon out."

You pull out your mudpike and watch. The box bursts open suddenly, and... well, something that looks like a giant metal spider comes out. But it doesn't do much of anything afterwards - it just sits there.

Now what?

Well, the old wizardy dude (is that the Master? Does Ash know him?) was waiting for the spider box. He must have some way of getting it to do stuff.

Could it be as simple as speaking to it? Might explain why he'd only trust a Silent One to retrieve it...

Try verbally ordering the metal spider to smash the lock on the antimagic cage.

If you hadn't stepped in, the wizard would probably have gone off with the coins, or whatever things this beast is created from. He could have formed it at any time.

Maybe given it orders.

Perhaps it's not particularly picky about who it takes orders from? Someone afraid to speak would be the safest delivery agent, in that case. Not likely to wake it up - perhaps something Ash said got it moving.

So before anything else, you try talking to it.

"Smash the lock on the cell door," you tell it.

At first, you think it's not responding. Then, suddenly the spider-thing walks around for a while. You're not sure what it's doing.

Then it seems to stop in front of the cell. Maybe it's just finding its bearings?

All of a sudden, it rears up and jumps at the lock. The force knocks the door over, then the creature stops and separates back into "coins". Maybe the anti-magic effects of the cage are impacting it. Whatever the case, though, you can get Marshall and Long out now, so you step towards the cell.

But you don't get another step in before a slicer flies right past you. You take a step back to avoid the return, and glance at the door.

Carma has arrived, and she doesn't look happy.

You don't trust Ash to side with you over her, the kid probably won't either, Marshall's not in great shape, Long's unconscious, the coin-creature's collapsed in a pile on the floor, and the mystery wizard is paralyzed. So whatever happens now is up to you.

How do you handle this?

Tell her to hold up, you've got a real message from the gods this time, and it's already incapacitated this other dude so she might want to think twice before reading it because you don't want that hurt on you if it konks her out.

Well. You know one thing Carma's worried about - the approval of the gods.

And you're pretty sure they had a hand in the weird message you found. So you can at least try to talk to her now.

"I've gotten word from the gods," you say, and she pauses for a moment.

"I wouldn't put it past you to bluff, but you've got nowhere to run in here," she says. "So I'll give you this chance to talk."

You point at the old man.

"It's this message in his hands. He took a look at it and hasn't moved a muscle since. So, you know. You might not like the answer you get."

She glances at him.

"Shume. I thought this might be his work. And I certainly can imagine he'd go further than the gods are willing to countenance."

She walks over.

"Well. I've made my stand, so if the gods will judge me for it, let them."

With that, she pulls the message out of the old wizard's hands, almost effortlessly. Weird - is she just strong enough to ignore whatever force was affecting you before, or could it be that the letter is meant for her?

Whatever the case, she's reading it now, and being very quiet. At first you wonder if she got hit by the same thing this Shume guy did, but taking another glance, she seems to be... concentrating.

After what seems like an eternity, she finally says something.

"You might want to hold on to something."

"Everybody, hold on to something!"

You weren't expecting that. You do, however, grab onto the bars of the cell before you ask what she means by that.

Except you barely get the word "why" out before you feel the ship shaking again.

"That wasn't Shume's work," Carma explains. "The gods have sent a beast to test me. And it's still out there." She glances over all of you. "Now the question is, what do I do with the lot of you in the meantime. Can't have you running loose while I fight it."

Well. You know what you want, which is mainly to get out of here. Along with Marshall, Long, Rider - wherever he is - and probably the quiet kid, since this doesn't seem like a particularly good place for him.

But Carma's not going to be interested in what you want unless you've got something to offer her in return. So this might be the time to make an offer.

...Money.

A secret?

Your first thought is that, presumably, whatever her wild plan is, Carma's going to need money in the future. But seeing as you've been stuck in a swamp for years with no expectation of seeing the outside world again, well, you don't really have any. And it's not like you're a bandit leader sitting on buried treasure.

The closest thing you have to that is information on the Guild - but your info's outdated, and besides, Ash was better connected. He'd probably know everything you know.

Thinking a bit more broadly, you do know a few things about your fellow Marshguards, but those were shared with you in confidence... and probably of limited interest to Carma, anyhow, so there wouldn't be much point in snitching.

Wait. The sketchbook Marshall showed you. You can't go sharing that freely, but Kandria's been making aggressive moves lately, and that might be related to what the Master's doing. So if you hint that you've got some important info on what they want... Well, it's enough for you to drop some juicy hints about what you know, anyways.

"This Master of yours. He's got plans in Kandria, right?"

Carma looks at you blankly. Trying not to give anything away.

"He's got a lot of plans in a lot of places. Kandria might be one of them. What are you getting at?"

"I can help derail what he's got going on there. But I'd be much less inclined to help someone keeping my friends captive."

She continues staring, until the ship shakes again.

"Fine," she sighs. "Can't get on with anything else until this is dealt with. Just don't leave until I get back. Ash, keep an eye on them."

"Right," Ash mutters. He seems lost at this point.

Well, first things first, you should probably get Long out of that cell, considering it seems to be doing a number on him. You walk in and lift him up, then drag him out into the main part of the room.

Now what?

Check on your friends to see if they're still okay.

Try to figure out if you can somehow get a bar out of the anti-magic cell, it might be useful as a weapon... Or just check if the cell had any valuables

"Marshall, you all right?"

Marshall nods.

"I think I feel better now that I'm out of that cell."

Good. Maybe Long will wake up soon, in that case. Next you look at the quiet kid.

He seems confused more than anything. Probably because Carma ran in and he doesn't know how to reconcile your conversation with the hierarchy he thinks he's supposed to follow.

The wizard - Shume or whatever - still isn't moving a muscle. That leaves Ash. Who probably doesn't even know which side to back right now. Otherwise he'd probably be trying to cozy up to someone.

Well. Unless the wizard wakes up, he's the biggest threat in the room, so you should probably focus your attention on him.

"Hey, Ash," you say. "This cell's apparently got antimagic bars. It'd probably be nice to have one of these along if we run into another wizard. You got any idea what tools are around for removing 'em?"

"I asked Carma about that, actually. She said a single bar doesn't have enough in it to do more than give the Master a slight headache. And removing enough to make a difference would render the cell useless, plus it would be hard to carry that many."

"Don't suppose we could talk her into letting us remove a bunch once this trial-from-the-gods business is concluded?"

"I doubt it, but I won't stop you from trying."

Well. Not much else you can do except get those weird coin-things out of the cell. Maybe the creature can be reassembled - it seemed pretty useful. You grab the box, head in and start gathering them up.

As you're picking them up, though, you think you spot something under one of the bunks. What could that be?

Is it a book?

But you could swear you saw it blink.

You can barely see it from here. You think it might be moving - well, you've got gloves on, and it can't be bigger than a regular old swamp rat. You poke your hand under to see what you find.

Huh. It's not a rat, or anything alive - it's a book. Did it just shift around because the ship's moving?

It's also in a language you don't recognize. You finish putting the coins away, drag the box out, and show the book to Marshall and Ash.

"Either of you know this language?" you ask. Neither seems to.

But the Silent One suddenly breaks out of their panic, snatches it right out of your hands and... puts it in front of Shume? And starts bowing down?

"Ash," you ask, "what's going on? You know anything about this?"

"Not really. Well - I do have a bit of a guess, I suppose. I've been to their temple and it's filled with books. Maybe they're taught that books are holy things to be handed over to the priests, or something."

Well, that sort of makes sense, if he thinks the silent treatment is due to Shume being angry with him. Or maybe he thinks a book can help Shume, because it's holy?

You wonder if you should do anything to intervene.

Nah, leave him be for now. But how did that get in the cell? Leftover from a previous prisoner? Or could there be some kind of hole or gateway under the bunk?

Whatever he's doing, it seems to be calming him, at least for the moment. So you may as well leave him to it for now.

You're more concerned with how that book got there. It's probably not Long's - it was under Marshall's bunk. And Marshall didn't seem to recognize it either.

Maybe this isn't the first time this cell has been used, though. Maybe somebody else was held here and left it behind. In which case - what happened to them?

Of course, you've also been having objects pop up out of nowhere for a while now - but then again, this is supposed to be an anti-magic cell, and you've seen firsthand what it did to a magical construct. So it'd be weird for a magical gateway to turn up in there.

Well. What if it wasn't magic? What if it was an ordinary hole or something? That still raises questions, but it's something you can look into. You head back into the cell and look under the bunk.

It's quite dark here. You can't really see anything. You try poking your hand around the wall and floor, but you don't find anything.

Maybe it slid in from under the other bunk? With the way the ship's been shaking recently, that's not impossible, not to mention it tilts a bit naturally. You suppose it can't hurt look, so you poke around there.

You think you feel something. Not a hole, though... something solid. Another remnant from a past prisoner, maybe? Feels kind of small. At least it's not moving.

Well, you may as well see what it is. You pull it out and look at what you found.

Almost looks like a broken compass.