Corvayne's groggy brain catapulted to instantly alert. He had to resist the urge to rocket off the bed. He started with a few possible explanations for what he was seeing on his left arm. Wick laying his right side, spooning him? Totally fine, okay, great, cool. Hari on his left? No. Bad. Not good. Problem. Maybe she got into the wrong bed after he and Wick... had he crossed a line while drunk? How had no one fallen out of the bed?

He felt warmth up and down his side, telling him she wasn't wearing anything. Hari stirred a little and put her arm across his chest. One of her legs slung across his shin and rubbed it. She was snoring a little, which was fine if extremely not elf-like, but Wick was waking up. He shut his eyes. Time to die. Let it wash over him.

She pushed her leg up to start to straddle him then lifted her head off him when the space was taken. He felt her pull the warm covers back from his chest to let in the cold air and cold light of day. Then he heard her say “Oh shit.” This was it. Screaming match? Or would he be treated to silent cold regard the rest of the trip then never hear from her again?

“Hari...” Wick whispered, and he felt her shake Hari. “Wake the fuck up Hari!” She hissed.

He felt Hari stir then she yipped. Okay, that was a cute sound. He felt her tense and whisper, “Oh no... I'm sorry!”

“Just get out of bed before he wakes up.” She hissed. Now, even while pretending to sleep and trying to recall more of last night, Corvayne could have told Wick that Hari only understood about 10 words of whatever they spoke on Cascadia.

Hari sounded like she was appologizing. “I don't know what happened! It's my fault though, I got drunk. Please don't hate him.”

“I can't understand you, just go! To! Your! Bed!” Wick must have been poking her because he felt Hari tip a little with each word.

Corvayne pretended to stir and put his face against Wick's chest since it was right there. Waves-Within had said: 'It is when a warrior is about to die that he is most alive.' which for a long time Corvayne had considered bullshit but he totally understood now.

“Out. Out of bed!” she hissed.

“Okay! I understand!” She extracted herself from him and then fell out of bed and hit the floor with a thump. He lolled his head that direction. He was starting to piece together the previous night. Hari had joined them for drinking. But when he tried to pull Wick up to go to bed, Wick told him that they had to get Hari to stop drinking too.

“Oww.” He opened an eye and saw Hari with her face on the ground. He was both thankful and regretful her butt was pointed away. He turned his head to look at Wick. She had her face turned away from him, a half crooked smile on her face.

“Good morning Corvayne!” her voice was extra scratchy and Corvayne could only describe her as guilty.

“Morning Wick.” Corvayne used his head to indicate Hari. “Why is she on the floor naked?”

“Must have rolled out of her bed.”

“Wick the covers are made... did she sleep on top of her bed?” Saying bed jogged Corvayne's memory a little. They had got to the room and Hari had started to sit on her bed then Wick pulled her over to their bed... wait a minute.

“Yep!” Wick nodded.

“Oh... it must have been cold.” He muttered as he thought. Oh yeah, Wick had one arm around Hari and one arm around him had been laughing about it. 'Look at me! An elf and a hunk!' She just stole that from Mister I.

“Did you have sex with Hari... then me? Or wait... what exactly happened last night?” He was getting more and more sure that this was entirely her fault.

“I... can't lie. I love elves. I told you... uh... open relationship.”

He put his face in his hands then wiped them down. “Hari.” He said. He saw her on all fours looking up at the bed.

She looked like she was about to cry. Corvayne asked, “Did I have sex with you last night?”

“I'm very sorry! I was lonely and you told Miss Wick and she said I was pretty and you told me she did then you did too and you tried to stop me from coming into bed but Wick is a really good kisser and...”

You didn't answer the question Hari! Though, given how red her face is, the answer was fairly clear.

Slow down Corvayne. Stay in control. “Ok. We did some things last night that perhaps we didn't mean to do, but-”

“Wait, so you don't love me?” Hari asked, ears drooping.

Corvayne was not in control at all here. “That was you who was taking my pants off?”

Hari's face went from upset to neutral a little too fast. Ah. That was why Grunt had compared him an open hand of cards. Throwing up your poker face was as obvious as announcing aloud you were guilty.

“You two... my head hurts.” He let his head fall back to the pillow.

Hari stood up and went to her bag and brought back a canteen for him. Corvayne's head hurt so much he hardly enjoyed the view. Hari realized as he was mid-swig that she was giving him a full view and she used her arms to try to cover up. Corvayne had to admit her reactions were cute. He turned to Wick after drinking some water then gave her a stern look.

“So Wick... what's your story about last night.”

She laid back down next to him and pulled the covers over her before telling her side of the story. “I felt bad about having a panic attack with you in striking range. But then I had a few drinks and I thought it'd be funny to get you drunk. Then I got drunk. Then Hari started getting drunk, and was leaning on you, so I sat between you two and she started leaning on me and I might have told her she's beautiful while looking into her eyes. Then I told you to say it to her for me. Then I told you that you could do all that cute shit I won't let you do to me to Hari and you started pulling me upstairs, but Hari looked lonely...” He thought Wick looked very pleased with herself at that moment. “... and she was pretty willing to come to bed too, then all I had to do was pat the bed and she sat there and we started kissing and you were watching so we kissed you then I took her clothes off and things get hazy after that.”

Her story jogged his memory. He should have hit the brakes on the whole thing but part of him DID want to take someone out for ice cream, maybe having some on her nose then he takes his finger and licks it... Corvayne clamped down on the thought. No. A spear man was a weapon. The big spear was in charge, not the little one.

“Ok. So we are all in some way to blame for this?” Corvayne asked, getting nods all around. He went on, “And we are going to not get drunk around each-other in the future, as with all three of us it's a bad mix, right? Right?”

Hari's sad puppy voice demolished him. “So you wouldn't want to... see me again?”

“Please don't put words in my mouth Hari.” He pinched his nose. “I'm somewhat... annoyed... that I did something I was, respectfully, trying not to do with you because you depend on me. I told Wick that I didn't want to take advantage of you because, uh, we can't tell how young you are, and I didn't want to start something that's going to be cut off after a few days.”

Hari looked hurt. “I told you my age last night! You've only been around half as long!”

Corvayne winced at her shouting.

“Ok. I'm also annoyed that I had... that I slept with the girl I love and an beautiful elf and I don't remember more then a few moments of it.”

Hari looked confused. “Wait, you think I'm beautiful?”

Wick elbowed him. “Just say two beautiful women next time dumbass!”

Corvayne didn't inform her that it didn't hurt that much, instead nodding at both. “But it still stands that-”

He didn't get further as Hari hopped back onto the bed, her knee hitting Wick and knocking her off the bed with most of the blankets. Hari however was glowering at Corvayne. “You cannot change the subject after calling one of your party members beautiful! Then follow it up with 'we made love and I don't remember'. Do you know how embarrassing that is?”

“Wick... I think she's about to...” Corvayne got slapped on his chest, playfully. Or Hari was really weak in the raw strength department. Actually, her grip on his arm felt pretty real. “Wait wait...”

“Tell Wick also that if someone does something for her, especially after you and her were together, to not respond in kind is rude. You really don't remember? Hff. Wick can wait though. Look at me! I may be the only elf you ever meet. If you were the only human I ever sleep with, how embarrassing would it be to say 'He doesn't remember it'! I don't care if you are lying, I want you to tell me you love me again then do what you did last night.” She folded her arms. “If you do not, I shall not move from my perch.”

He shook his head. “I refuse to say 'I love you' under duress to anyone. With honest regret, I must reject your deal.” She looked a little cold.

Hari huffed. “Corvayne, I don't need you to mean it! Just whisper it into my ear while you put your big hands on me. Those are my terms.”

“I don't want to upset Wick.” Corvayne looked for help.

Wick stood up, blanket wrapped around her, and leaned against the wall and smirked. “I am perfectly happy to watch you squirm under her.”

Corvayne sighed and turned his eyes back to Hari, who was looking at him expectantly. Even the sternest, hardest warriors of the Watchers sometimes had a bowl of ice cream. “I accept your terms.”

“Wick as well. She should return my favor.” Hari added then leaned into him, stealing a kiss with a little tongue.

Corvayne admitted he was warming up to her, both figuratively and literally with her sitting on him. When she gave him a moment to speak he looked at Wick. “Also I think she wants you to do something to her that she did to you last night.”

Wick made an interesting contrite face she had never shown Corvayne. “Could we do that before... you two get started?”

Corvayne asked on her behalf and the elf turned to Wick, smiled a beautiful smile, and shook her head.

Wick groaned. “Oh. Your elf? She's a freak.”

That was all very well sorted out by the time they walked downstairs to catch a late breakfast. Hari had demanded all three of them properly cuddle and expressed she loved Wick after bothering Corvayne to ask her how it was said in Cascadian. What Corvayne picked up on was that he was emotionally on the hook with regards to Hari in a way that perhaps saving her from ravenous goblins then helping her home would not engender. He put his frustration into slaying a painted-lion breakfest ham with knife and fork.

Speaking of goblins who were a menace to woman-folk: Mosh was doing something under the table. He stood up and dusted himself off, then gestured for Banner and May, who were watching, to test the table he had just crawled out from under. Banner put his weight onto his hand and nodded.

“You do fine work indeed...” Corvayne saw the flash of silver in the innkeepers handshake. “Though if you keep it up your going to be the miller's son rather then Mr. Mosh.”

“No problem chief. Look, here's the MAN himself. Boss, I knew it! Grunt, Mister I, they said 'no way, he's too shy...'”

“I think you would be better off congratulating Wick.”

He bowed to her “Wick, your highness, they say that to get two-”

She snapped before he could finish, “Call me that again and I'll blast an ear off.”

“Ok you got it Boss-lady. As I was saying though, nice work bagging a little two for one! Let me know if you girls need to give the Boss-man a break and do some management training. Or you two drop the elf and we do a performance review on the green machine...”

“I don't really like sleezeball Mosh. Turn it down a few notches.” Wick said pointedly.

Mosh's voice leveled off and he sounded less like a hot-shot merchant and more like a person. “Ok Wick. Sorry, the attitude helps me deal with a few social disorders-” The goblin wilted a little.

Corvayne cut him off. He had enough moping for one tower run. “Helps you seal the deal, you mean?” He held his hand up and Mosh revived instantly, laughing and gave Corvayne a high five by leaping into the air.

“Yeah BOSS that's what I'm talkin' about!”

Wick signed. “I liked that five seconds where he sounded normal.”

He pointed with his fork at both women. “You two ran me through the wringer. I'm not doing therapy for anyone today.”

Banner looked between Hari and Wick then Corvayne. “Remember these days well. You will miss them when you settle down...”

May smiled politely and swatted her husband on the butt with her drink tray. “So says mister bleeding heart. Come on dear, I want to see what he fixed.”

After breakfeast was done Mister I and Grunt were came back from fishing and then the group was ready to go. The goal was to find another fourth floor stairway. The normally clear sky was overcast with dark looking clouds. They scaled the rocky path that lead up to the river fourth floor as there were no stairways near town, as far as Banner knew. The trip to the stairway was slow due to Mosh having to pull himself up each steep step. They took a break at the top of the pass.

Corvayne gestured to the cave that lead to the river. “We are going to skip the entrance down there.. it leads to the river floor and the jelly floor. I hope we can go to any 5th floor and exit from there.”

“Boss, you getting me outta this joint?” Mosh looked happy even though he was panting from essentially climbing the entire time.

“We might camp out one more night if we find a suitable fourth floor. I was hoping to get another chest or two.”

“Heh, Boss I'd say you had two chests...” Mosh wiggled his eyebrows.

Corvanye rolled his eyes and just spoke over Mosh. “When we get to a new floor, we're going to need to be on our toes. I'm hoping we find a place easier to navigate then the river.”

Wick added something they had discussed about going through the river again, “Yeah, we don't want to fight the unidentified floating object.”

The lake valley on the other side of the mountain had a few packs of slugs and a trio of painted dogs. Corvayne used [Flow-like-Water] to defeat the dogs in a single attack as they were lined up nicely. If not for the tinge of a headache behind his eyes he felt like the group had started to figure out the groove of fighting, moving, and exploring. The dark blue path through the woods forked again, with Corvayne following the side path which would guide them up between another set of light blue mountains. The path here wound between two cliffs and placed them next to a lake with a few dark blue and red logs floating in the otherwise calm water. The sky was now full of distinct clouds that looked sickly with the yellow light of the floor. There was a light rain as they reached another fork and Corvayne picked one that cut through the woods to another set of hills. His hunch about looking for places that went up was right again: Off the path was another cave with stairs.

Corvayne lead the way up and arrived at a floor that was far less natural looking then the last one: cliffs of blue rock were all around them, each topped with teal grass and many held waterfalls careening off them to splash between land masses. Something in the water upstream made the water look a little purple. The cave in a cliff wall they left was very close to a path that he could follow switch-backing over wooden bridges and up to higher clifftops. The arrangement reminded him of seeing the room where the Watchers kept their money for making change with traders: there had been a table with stacks of coin with no rhyme or reasons to how tall the stacks were. That was what he thought of seeing the blue rock cliffs towering over them as well as diping down to churning wine-purple and white rivers.

Of course, given they were on a new floor, it only made sense that they'd find new monsters. Corvayne had lead them to the high point of the cliff top they were on when he spotted what looked like four blue and pink salamanders climbing up the cliff face. They looked big, perhaps twelve feet long.

“Back from the cliff. Four monsters incoming.”

He had his spear out and joined Grunt as the front line. The big man looked a little sad there wasn't a tree to open with, but you took what you could get. Hari meanwhile took his other flank, then cast her initial spell to blur herself out into a faint outline. He wasn't sure if it would help them with the salamanders as they didn't look like they had eyes, but he focused on darting out, opening with [Thrust]. His spear dove into the lead salamander's stubby legs, scoring a sizable cut that immediately started oozing blood. He didn't try to drive it home, instead darting back to Grunt's side as the creatures rushed them. Grunt brought both of the bats he was holding down in an overhead strike, but the salamander rammed into his legs. It should have bowed the large man over, but Grunt simply picked up the slimy creature and with a grunt for emphasis threw it into the back two. Hari used the confusion this caused to hit one of the flailing creatures with an overhead quarterstaff attack. There was a solid crack but the creature was not dead, even though one of it's legs was dragging. It turned and Hari moved to dodge faster then Corvayne had expected, the frustrated monster lunging after her as she ran through the grass.

Corvayne's monster was near enough that he dodged around the creature again and applied [Cross-Skill: Thresh], his spear slashing grass and leaving a trail of shadows as he tangled two limbs for just a moment, causing the whole beast to tumble. The two after Grunt made a good target: Grunt was slamming clubs down on both in a sort of work-man like tempo, but the creatures were big and seemed to weather blunt damage with their rubbery hides. One of the pair bit his leg with it's huge mouth. It clearly didn't understand the threat Grunt provided: The huge man grabbed the mouth, forced the jaws open, then with a roar dislocated the monster's jaw. The other suddenly was down for the count when Corvayne used [Flow-like-Water] to slide by it and jab it once, then use [Cross-skill: Backstab] to finish it off.

The monster chasing Hari sank into a patch of muddy ground and when it did, the Elf turned with her staff and started battering the monster with overhead strikes. Mister I hit the one Corvayne had tripped with arrow after arrow, mechanically aiming and firing until the beast stopped. The salamanders were dead, but the the commotion fighting them drew more creatures in: a huge bird with a person sized wingspan swooped in, one of them drawing a gash on Wick's arm as she fended them off.

“Fuckers!” Wick responded with a point blank blast, the orb not only blowing a leg off the bird but also causing it's movement to become sluggish as it dropped to the ground. It looked like a much sleeker version of the birds on the previous floor, with tentacles looking like black squid limbs coming out of it's back. A moment later an arrow slammed into the grounded monster.

Grunt gestured and Corvayne saw three more. What was odd was they seemed to distort in his vision, their fluttering shapes wavering as if he was looking at something under water. He used [Cross-Skill: Whirling Axe] and threw a spinning spear at one, and missed.

Hari called out “They are like displacer beasts! Try to use different senses or hit them with something wide!”

She then cast a spell, and as the bird dove at her pink flames erupted around a flapping shape next to where the black monster was. The glowing figure came in for another run at the Elf and there was a wonderful crack as she sidestepped it and nailed it in the head with both hands from her quarterstaff.

Grunt had put one of his bats away, took a batter's stance, then took one step over as a bird lined up to swoop at him. Corvanye's eyes widened as he saw what Grunt was doing: the image had to match the bird somewhat, so how it adjusted it's neck would tell him where the real one was.

He swung at nothing and the bird shifted as it's body went flying back, broken by a direct hit.

Corvayne moved to help Mosh, as the goblin was running for him, bird ripping at his arms covering his head.

“BOSS! HELP!”

“Just keep running!” He ran to where the goblin was running down hill and activated [Juxtapose], taking his spot and swinging his spear. He managed to clip the bird with it, but not enough to kill it. The thing suddenly blurred, then Corvayne felt it coming from the side. He rolled away, feeling a razor sharp line drawn across his ear. The bird flew up then blurred again, the image moving suddenly five feet. But Corvayne knew that the monster HAD to attack him, even as the image was lining up to dive.

He with a thought activated [Cross-skill: Crescent Blade], suddenly sweating as the strain of using skills brought his headache back. He swung his spear across empty air three times in a fan shape then stepped behind them. The one on the left popped even as the bird was ramming through the one on the right. He used [Flows-Like-Water] as soon as the image vanished, jabbing where the bird had to have passed to aim for his head. As he followed the flow of the skill he jabbed out, and felt with satisfaction the spear peirce the bird. He didn't pull it out as he put his foot down, instead angling the back up then leaning into it. He caught a bone as he had hoped and suddenly the invisible bird and it's now flailing image were pinned to the ground by his spear. He stomped the monster with his boot three times and then it appeared, it's bloody form twitching before going still.

He ran over to where Mosh was and helped the goblin up. He was bleeding pretty badly from his head.

“Mosh, are you okay? Can you mend yourself?”

The little goblin stood up. “Boss... what the hell was that?”

He looked Mosh up and down to make sure he only had that scratch. “Bird version of a displacer beast. Good footwork.”

The goblin sat down and made hand gestures. “Lythandies, Fix my shit.” With that, the gashes in his head and across his hands started to seal.

“She accepted that?”

“She understands injured clergy might not want to have to say every little word.” Mosh stood up. “Any scarring?”

Corvayne looked. “Probably not. You'll be fine for your wedding with June.”

Mosh laughed at that. “Yeah sure, Boss.”

They walked back to the others. Mister I was disinfecting cuts on Grunt's leg. Wick had a bandage on her arm and was looking at her robe sleeve, the tears in it already starting to stitch together. Mister I and Hari were uninjured.

Corvayne felt it was obvious but wanted to make sure they were all on the same page. “The way these monsters move means we also need to keep an eye on the sky, as well as under us.”

Wick groaned. “Great. Monsters above and below.”

Grunt mimed rolling dice then pointed up: I'd rather we take our chances with the birds.

Mosh snorted and folded his arms. “Counter-point: the birds can get past you guys and tear us up.”

Mister I held a hand up. “We can decide which one we'd rather face once we've enjoyed the fruits of our fight.”

Grunt pointed at the salamander, mimed lifting a box, and shook his head: I'm not carrying an entire one of those.

The monk chuckled and pulled out his knife. A few minutes later Mosh had the bird that hurt him tied to his pack, and Grunt was carrying four salamander tails on the sticky belt they had pulled from a chest on the previous floor. Corvayne took another bird, and Mister I took a third. They started moving across the rope bridge only after Corvayne took time to survey for more birds: Either enemy would be a problem fifty or sixty feet above raging waters, but the birds were far faster swooping down to attack versus dealing with the salamanders coming up. There was an overwhelming amount of blues with just the yellow sky breaking up the hues of sky blue rock, teal grass, purple water, and dark blue pathways. That the bridges were brown wood was a little odd to Corvayne: shouldn't they have been the same color as the trees? The second and third bridges both lead to paths that were mainly between two cliffs, and Corvayne kept his eyes peeled for signs of the birds or salamanders laying in wait. Some of the side branches would lead them up to the top or down to where the water was. Going up to the higher cliff tops gave Corvayne a perspective on the sky where he could faintly make out ghostly ridges and waterfalls in the yellow to one direction, and see a few waterfalls splattering down from the sky in a different one.

There was a chest on the second cliff they ascended, but it also had a trio of birds circling above it. Hari managed to hit two of them with the spell that coated the real birds in shimmering purple flames. He wouldn't assume it was called fairy fire just as [Investigate] wasn't called identify, but he knew the score. Mister I laughed and shot two arrows right after each other, the birds falling to the ground. Mosh clearly had some unworked anger as he beat Corvayne to one of them and was skewering it with his spear. Grunt bashed the other, So Corvayne set himself in front of Wick as she lobbed spells at the monster. One connected and suddenly the image faded, the real bird popping into view a few feet away. Corvayne didn't hesitate, using [Cross-Skill: Whirling Axe] and flinging a spinning ghostly spear of wind out. One hit and the thing exploded in blood, falling to the ground.

Mosh laughed. “See, now that wasn't so bad!”

Corvayne got a tingle on his back. “Mosh no! Never say that!”

He heard squawking and turned to see at least more ten of the birds shimmering as they flew around a cliff an island away. They were headed directly for the party.