"Yes! And then I tried to catch myself, which is how I found myself in the predicament you most kindly extracted me from."

"The fuck kind of spell did that?"

"It was an improvisational one, I'm afraid, on account of the fact I was in free fall at the time without feather fall prepared, when I saw a glimmer in the weave. I caught it, and, well, it caught me to."

Can wizards do improvisational spells? He talked to a wizard once and there was kind of a lot of math involved in making a spell. Maybe this is some weird kind of sorcerer. 

"Still pretty impressive!"

"I'm glad you think so! Though we do have more pressing problems than my arcane talents. If you were on that ship, I take it you also had an unwelcome intrusion in your ocular region?"

"Yep. Apparently it's going to turn me into a mind flayer, which I don't much fancy."

"Neither do I. You don't happen to be a cleric, by any chance? A doctor? Surgeon? Uncannily adroit with a knitting needle?"

"Shadowheart's our cleric, she said that there might be help... somewhere?" He turns to her. 

"It's beyond the skills of most clerics, and we'd best start looking soon."

"A lot of people seem to have fallen off that ship, so my plan is to go everywhere around here where something weird is happening, collect the people who fell off, and then try to figure out what to do about the mind flayer situation." (This hadn't been his plan until he said it.) "You guys can come if you want, or do your own thing."

"That sounds like an excellent idea."

She needs to get to Baldur's Gate in on piece, and without a squid for a face. Cayden has proven himself to be willing to help her, as a helpfully ignorant. "You'll need someone to keep you on your feet."

If he leaves, he's going to have to find his own way to get rid of the tadpole and not die in the woods. "I'll stick around, if it's all the same to you."

To the traps!

There is a whole row of them, and they all look like someone has broken them. With a sword. From the inside.

Concerning!

He pokes his head in a trap. Carefully.

There's nothing in there at the moment. 

Any signs of the thing out here?

There's a lot of foot prints around. It looks like whatever was in there ran away and was pursued by a group.

"Do we want to follow the footprints?"

"Ugh, it's probably someone who got into trouble, and then they'll want us to help them.  Or it's a goblin and then we'll have to deal with that."

"I mean, yeah, that's the idea. The helping, not the goblin."

Why are the people who don't want to murder him helpful?! "Well, if that's your idea of a good time."

He looks around at the other members of his proto-party.

"In either case, either we help someone, or we help some people deal with goblins, and either would be a good use of our time."