Pell

The ferry-keeper

An old ferry-keeper who took the hero in. He keeps the raft by the shore and every voyage sets out from it; the first time the hero boards he offers a lesson on a small isle of harmless slimes (the four elements, the dodge and a turnip). Once the gates have been reached he takes vows, which make the next voyage harder for more obols. Pell doesn't get rescued: Pell rescues.

Bramwell

The farmer

A farmer, rescued from a Lost Folk camp. He talks about the turnips and the long grass, and what the hero's been up to.

Odette

The merchant

A merchant, rescued from a camp. She has a sharp eye for coins, and notices things about the islands that others miss.

Fen

The fisher

A fisher, rescued from a camp. He knows the water round the islands, and the old stories his gran told about it.

Hester

The scholar

A scholar, and the first rescued: one warband camp a voyage holds the next villager not yet rescued, bound at its middle. Beat the band, untie her with B, and she'll meet the hero at home.

Tamsin

The wizard

Tamsin isn't a captive: she's met by the rift stone on the first rift isle, where she explains the rifts and tears its rift open herself. From then on she keeps a rift stone at home, and for obols she opens a rift onto any trial already found, at the difficulty chosen. The trials are how combinations are learned, and where the spell capes and fairies come from.

Tamsin opens a rift

Corin

The old captain

Once a warband's captain, rescued from a camp. He knows how the Lost Folk fight: the shield up front, the blades on the flanks, the archers behind.