Corvayne had a pretty good view of Last Bastion from where he was sitting next to Wick, a little away from where they had set up a fire pit. He was close enough that he could smell the cooked porcupine on a spit that mister I had set up. Lady Blood Claw, Seru, and Nyxion had drifted over to sit on stones arranged in the short grass around another pit of blue dirt mixed with gray ashes. Corvayne guessed this place was used frequently for camping for the goblin army.

Near the fire, Grunt was using his hands to finish telling the goblins a story that caused the soldiers to burst out laughing. Swapping war stories and making some friends was a nice change of pace from fighting non stop. If the council didn't approve letting them pass through or threw down a bunch of errands, he would have to consider a different way off the floor. The goblins had told him that aside from the buildings, stairs were not common.

“If they stonewall us, I say we look for another building.” Wick said, eyes glued to the tower.

Corvayne looked past the tower in question to where he could just make out mountains in the blue mist that formed the sky. “I'd walk around town and make my way to the hills in that case.”

He greeted Grunt, who was strolling up. He mimed shoveling food into his mouth then tapped his wrist, then made a pinching gesture with his fingers: Food will be ready soon.

Nyxion gave him a thumbs up. “My fellow meat-shield, we were discussing if the goblins ask us for some sort of further concession or send us on a silly quest.”

Seru folded her arms. “What's wrong with helping the goblins?”

Nyxion rolled his eyes, impatience seeping into his voice. “Every day we spend in here is two hours outside that someone could blab there's a magic portal, and be giving Corvayne and Wick's description to everyone on the planet who has a good reason to come and hunt us.”

Lady Blood Claw shook her head. “I think we'll still have time even giving them what, a half a day head start?”

Grunt nodded but then got a concerned look, and held his arm out in the 'objection' pose, then mimed a bunch of commando style 'soldiers getting ready to fight' and 'I'm holding a rifle and clearing rooms' poses. He then put two fingers by his ears making crude elf ears. He then made a waving motion, and then mimed getting shot. Corvayne felt his stress levels instantly spike when he figured out what Grunt as worried about: Hari and Mosh were not human. Hari was traveling with a group of non-humans. If there were a bunch of people like Gary wandering around armed with pistols and rifles, they were going to be in the mindset that the entire area was monsters.

Mister I and Wick clearly understood what Grunt was saying, even if Nyxion and LBC just looked confused. The monk nodded. “This will delay our stated plan of leaving everything behind...”

Wick groaned. “See, this also means this won't be a good way OUT of the damn city. We need to find a third tower.”

Nyxion broke in. “What's wrong with this one?”

Corvayne looked over at the goblins and their city. “The three guys who left after floor five, they are potential leaks. If any of them starts talking to the news or cops, sooner or later you'll have a groups of people armed with automatic rifles running around the first floor, killing monsters. Hari had a party who died in the first timeline. I suspect there will be a gun fight if she tries to come back. Mosh certainly will be in danger if he just lands on a cube alone with a bunch of guys who are trigger happy and have been shooting goblins for days.”

Wick clenched her fists. “Also, if we use this set of towers... even if there's a billion paths through it... we'll always be watching our back since our enemies could figure it out. How lame would it be if five years down the line we're laughing and eating lobster in some fantasy inn and the murder-monk busts it up by killing us all?”

Lady Blood Claw was thinking about something. “The real problem is your names. If they know your name, there's a way to find people when they are inside the tower.”

Nyxion nods. “Well, you all see now this is the cost for not being ruthless. You must have thought about this when saving those people, right?”

“I was thinking from the perspective that we'd be harming our income. I admit, I was a little distracted with trying to herd a group I didn't like.” Corvayne turned back to watching distant goblins working on replacing stone in Last Bastion's central tower.

Seru got it a few seconds late. “Hey!”

He heard Wick talking over his shoulder. “Why act hurt? You got what you wanted anyway you pain in the ass!”

He looked over at Seru and saw the woman lift up part of her shirt, showing off some of her quill scars and a little bit of bra.

“Hey, Look! I almost died. I think that more then makes me one of you guys!”

The goblin scout, Cat, was walked up next to Seru and looked at the woman. “Are you trying to mate with Corvayne? Foods ready, so maybe eat first?”

Lady Blood Claw sighed and stood up. “That hill has already been crested young one. She's a new member of our squad, and is the FNG.”

Cat looked between the members of the group. “What's FNG stand for?”

Nyxion laughed as he stolled to the main fire. “Fucking new guy!”

“But she is fucking the leader guy.” Cat pointed at Corvayne.

Corvayne rubbed his head, eyes down on the path as he walked into the fire circle. “Mistakes were made.” He muttered.

Groveler was by him. “Did you make a mistake Captain Corvayne?”

“No, we were talking about what FNG means. The new guy in the squad who doesn't fit in yet and screws things up.”

The goblin's ears drooped. “Like me, you mean?”

Icarriii laughed and put an hand on the goblin's shoulder. “Next time you go out with a group, you will see them make the same mistakes and bark at them, and so on until you're leading the whole group. Chin up! If you can appease Lythandies and start healing... why people are willing to overlook a LOT of things when it comes to doctors!”

Grunt folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Mister I: What exactly have people been overlooking?

Corvayne could learn a thing or two from how Mister I's joval expression never gave anything away. “Oh my taciturn friend! I'm the least interesting man in Old Town. I'm referring to other, unnamed doctors, who might create disharmony with bad behavior.”

Wick laughed. “Any examples of these, OTHER and THEORETICAL bad doctors?”

The monk went from joval to looking wistful. “Ahhhh. The minds of us old folks... it gets all hazy when I try to pick from examples so clear a moment before.”

Groveler was laughing along with them. Cat, on the other hand, was looking over at the gate which had opened a sliver. Lady Blood Claw as well. The woman's skin had been hovering at a light orange that slid over to a lemony yellow. Corvayne guessed it was something about waiting to becoming interested? He turned and looked and saw Constantius walking out of the gate to town with two other goblins, both sporting gray hair around their ears.

The Captain had good news. “You've been granted passage up through the stairs.”

The elders looked at them. One spoke. “You fought for Last Bastion. You saved our sons and daughters. You marched with them. Taught them your secrets. And we saw them wait with you. A simple request like yours? The bastion would fall apart if we couldn't do such a thing.”

Corvayne bowed to them. “It was my pleasure.” He meant it.

It was as he was walking through town that he thought how odd it was. Why did he jump in to help these goblins?

She leaned closer to him. “Hey Corvayne, you were in a pretty good mood on the march. I think you enjoyed training them.”

He didn't deny it. “It felt weirdly... right? I felt really welcome. I'm sorry I was marching up at the front or with goblins so often. I like spending time with you but it was like... I don't know.”

She laughed. “I get it. It was your chance to do better than your elders.”

He stopped walking for a moment, which caused Nyxion to walk into his back, which prompted the noble to push him stumbling forward. “Pay attention Corvayne! You're supposed to be the dependable one.”

Corvayne turned and apologized, then hurried to reach where wick was looking back, smirking. They were close to the central building now. “You think it's like, me compensating?”

“If we didn't have so many different things... the nuclear bomb, Hari and Mosh, being hunted... if we had more time I'd say we stay a week and let you drill these guys. I didn't know you could do the knife toss thing.”

“[Backstab] won't really help an army, nor does [Phantom Knife]. They have bows for guarding their walls and hunting.”

Wick rolled her eyes. “You are too... Yeah, you couldn't bust out the big guns. But they have a few goblins you tried to teach [Flows-Like-Water] to. They know it exists. They know it will work eventually. Same with [Bleeder] which you told them helped you kill a dragon.”

“I didn't talk about how big it was. Maybe I was getting caught up in being the expert for once.” Corvayne stepped into the tunnel at the base of the tower and enter the central chamber. The interior was more open then he expected, with a sort of lattice skeleton with windows carved into it to shed light on stone work done to let goblins walk or climb up to wood walkways and rooms. The bottom floor was set up to be defensible, but looking at the types of things that were going on he guessed this was more of an administrative center, with chips of bark marked with gritty runes being used to sort things out. A group of goblins was imprinting clay tablets with records of some sort in one corner. In another two soldiers were holding up swords and pointing to something on them as a third sat in a wood folding chair and nodded.

He spotted the goat-rider leading his mount out. He sort of expected a dirty look or something but the goblin just nodded at them and walked out one of the other doors. Their own path took them up stairs that were a little too small for human feet but had a stone rail built for safety. In all the books he read goblins were always about breeding fast and not caring if a few died. Story goblins found life cheap. The nod to safety on the stairway told Corvayne that this group's mentality wasn't limited to just an oddball captain trying to keep his men alive. The people of Last Bastion worried about one of their own falling. It made him feel better about giving them the start of the weapon techniques.

They climbed past the first chambers ceiling to a broad floor with a black stone pillar at the center of the hall, rising out of the blue stones like a grim island in a stormy sea. A beacon, like the one on the third floor. He wasn't sure what they did, but they passed by it and Corvayne went ahead and placed a hand on it, feeling like a connection formed a moment.

The elder who hadn't spoken before laughed. “It was considered good luck for a goblin to touch that stone before they left Last Bastion for the first time. They say it helps us find our way back.” Her eyes glittered with mischief. “If you do come back, you'll always be welcome.”

The stairway to the next floor was one of the rooms built into the floor of building they were in. Corvayne paused a moment before the path to the next floor, just take in the large stone bridges and walkways above them, then waved at the goblins who had followed them to the stairs up, stepping into the blue light and starting his climb. Fifty steps up and he stepped and out into the tenth floor then stopped, stunned by what he saw.

A long winding road in a moon-lit wound through desert sands, leading to gleaming metal walls. A spire of rock stood behind them and off to the side. The tenth floor of the dungeon was a perfect replica of the watcher's village.