"We didn't see him much," the father says. "But he has to more reasonable than Kagha."

"Thank you."

He kneels down. "Hey, kiddo, I think you have something behind your ear."

"I already know that trick," she says in the affronted tone of someone who's so grown up because their eleven.

"Oh, well, I suppose I'll just have to make this coin"-- appears out of his entirely empty hands-- "vanish"-- so it does-- and so on for a minute of fairly well-practiced coin trick patter.

(He got so bored guarding caravans.)

She is not immune to magic tricks backed up by Charisma 17. Neither is Gale, he's honestly impressed. 

Lae'zel looks like she is spiritually guarding a caravan.

By the end, the kid looks much more relaxed and distracted from the fact that she nearly got bitten by a snake. 

When she seems like she's in a bit better mood, he declares the coin to be hers since it came from her ear, then stands up and talks to Gale. 

"Looks like we might need to find that Master Halsin person."

"He'll likely be wherever the goblins are most concentrated, which is a bit of a mixed blessing. We'll see what those adventurers have to say for themselves."

"Before you go--" the father presses something round and metallic into Cayden's hands. "Take this. And don't say you don't deserve it."

"Thanks!"

Money. Cool! He likes money. 

"Right! Off to the adventurers. --Anyone want to bet whether I'm going to commit a murder before we leave?"

Technically it's not money, but a lightly magical bell, but lightly magical bells can be exchanged for money!

"--if I bet on you doing that, and you bet against that, is that going to discourage you from murdering any one?"

Astarion returns from the flirtation attempt. "Well, he's categorically mad, but he might be able to help our parasite situation."

To Gale: "catch!" Now Gale has a bell. 

To Astarion: "what's his idea for the parasites?"

To Wyll: "historically whether or not I committed murder has not been very related to, like, the consequences of this for me."

"Thank you? ... thank you!"

"He says he needs to conduct an investigation on the goblins before he knows what to do. Don't worry, I made sure to present ourselves in the most flattering light possible."

Wyll looks so, so pained.

Cayden doesn't care about Wyll's pain because he has a stupid catchphrase.

To Astarion: "is investigation a euphemism for torture?"

He laughs. "I don't think the man has held a knife in his entire life."

"That doesn't stop people."

On the way to talk to the adventurers, Cayden realizes that it will be really inconvenient if anyone recognizes him as the person who killed all those tieflings yesterday. Oops. 

Good news for him: he didn't exactly leave any witnesses.

The adventurers are quite findable by listening for the sound of an intense argument coming out of a makeshift office.

The leader of the adventurers-- Cayden catches that his name is Aradinn as he gets closer to the office-- is pissed in a way that's half refusing to admit he fucked up, and half frustration that the person he's arguing with doesn't get how hard the thing he wanted was.

Cayden has been kicked out if enough armies to recognise Zevlor's tone: you have endangered the mission and your comrades and you don't even have the wit to realise.

He is going to wait quietly outside the office.