"Can you not."

Under his breath. "It's true..."

"I won't complain about being compared to him."

Wow, Cayden hates Wyll's dad immediately. 

Hey, Lae'zel, do you want to play Twenty Questions?

(Other people can also play Twenty Questions if they want.)

This is a transparent attempt to change the topic, but it might get Astarion to shut up, so she will go along with it.

Yeah, he is basically over the amount of persistent hostile tension in this party. They should all face near-certain death together or something and bond. 

In the absence of any near-certain danger, he will attempt to bond over learning which species Toril and Golarion share. (Apparently Toril doesn't have gigas clams! What do their adventurer-sailors even do.)

As they get closer, it looks like the abandoned temple is the goblins base of operations.

And the best way to it is through the abandoned village. The temple is on the opposite bank of a deep stream, and a bridge crosses it on the far side of the village.

This is an abandoned village so absolutely no random encounters will happen in it, right?

So empty! So abandoned!

The goblin guards standing at the entrance saying "Ah, True Souls, you have arrived," are but an illusion of the harried mind.

"What's a True Soul?" he says, bracing himself for one or several of his party members having dramatic and mysterious personal revelations.

All of his party members look equally lost. 

"You're some of the fresh ones, aren't ya?  True souls--" he taps his finger under his eye "--Chosen by the Absolute."

The tadpole squirms. These goblins have been marked. These goblins are theirs. 

He feels a wave of revulsion. No person belongs to him.

It would be trivially easy to control them,  too. He might only be able to do it once before resting, but he could do it.

What the fuck is wrong with you

The goblin squints at him. "You doing alright, True Soul?"

"...can we go past?" he says, like an idiot.

He waves them through. "Certainly."

It's fairly picturesque for an abandoned village, with a windmill still spinning, cobbled streets, the sound of screaming coming from the windmill, half collapsed houses--

UM??????

He turns to investigate the windmill.

There seems to be a gnome tied to one of the blades of a windmill, while some goblins cheer from the ground.

...He climbs the windmill. 

The goblins are confused. "Oi, what are you doing?!"

The party is also confused! "Do you want some help?"

Look, if there's one thing Cayden can do it's climb random objects that no one intended to be climbed. He's been able to do that since he was like six and no amount of energy drain will take this away from him.

"Hello!" he says to the gnome. "Are you tied to the windmill on purpose?"

"No!"