Corvayne jolted awake as someone pushed him. Ears was standing over where he was sleeping by the lit fireplace.

“Monsters!” She hissed. Corvayne snapped awake and looked around then out the window. The glowing rods were faintly catching the forms of shades moving near the perimeter. It could be as few as six or a hundred with the only concrete sign of the shadows passing were rods on the driveway flickering as something passed in front of them.

“Good move waking me.” He saw that Reaper was up, eyes on the back window where the shades were also warded by the light. He was ready for contact, spear in hand, but as the seconds became a minute he sat back down on the mantle of the fireplace.

Ears looked at Corvayne expectantly. He shrugged. “I'll stay up in case, but it seems they don't want to pass the lights on the ground.”

Eventually they switched to a third watch with Mosh and June and Varia. Mosh wasn't having any of Corvayne's 'three watches in a row nonsense'. “Get some sleep boss, we'll wake you with breaking glass and screaming if they try to rush the place.”

The thought of waking up to the shadows swarming the house didn't make his sleep restful, but he did sleep, waking as the sky shifted from nearly black crimson to red orange to just the orange of morning, falling back asleep after handing Ayame his cooler with cooking supplies and waking up to full sunshine and a reheated breakfast.

Lady Blood Claw had asked they let him sleep in as well as taken the three renamed and Curtis and Horton out to explore nearby houses, and was already back when he was finished eating and had taken a shower in a bathroom that smelled faintly of lime, perhaps suggesting there was nearby door to his slime bike house. Oh, that might be bad: He could be sitting in his house's living room and have wounded adventurers flop out of the door and start screaming and bleeding on his floor.

Mosh looked at him. “Rare to see you frown, boss.”

“Hidden things they don't tell you about home ownership.”

“Ohh very criptic. Ever consider becoming a mystic? They are known for their big balls Boss!” Mosh slapped him on the shoulder and Corvayne laughed a little.

LBC wiped her boots off on the mat inside, where as the others didn't care and strolled right in. Ears had found a spiked choker with a stylized bull-demon clasp and was spinning it on her baseball bat.

The piercing laden woman tossed the clasp to her other hand and held it up for Corvayne to see before saying, “Your other-other girlfriend wanted me to wait until we had an uncurse scroll to pop it on. You didn't read it, did you? Because I want this for fashion reasons.”

Corvayne nodded. “If it was in a chest it's probably magical. I've seen cursed items, and it's very easy to imagine what something that was cursed and put on your neck could do.”

She snapped it on and grew horns, her hand shooting up and feeling them while her face moved from shock to joy. Mosh's hand shot up. “I want to bid too!”

Ears turned and looked at herself in the mirror. “No way, this is badass!”

Corvayne asked the obvious question. “Can you take it off?”

Ears shrugged and snapped it off, set it down, then snatched it back up while keeping her eyes on Mosh.

Varia raised her hand. “I want that. I bid.”

Mosh looked over at her and smiled. “Oh you're getting it for June?”

Corvayne winced inwardly as Varia somehow looked even stormier. “Never.”

What followed was an long argument over an item that didn't have any obvious property besides adding horns and, when one pulled their pants down or up enough to let it out, a little devil tail. The last detail came out after Ears needed a bathroom break while Horton played devils advocate for Ayame, and after the tail detail came out Mosh looked like he was the one who had stayed up all night staring at shadows swarming just outside a ring of light.

“You gotta understand Ears-of-Steel, I'll do anything! ANYTHING! You want a hover-bike? I'll craft you a magic bat! Three of em! Corvayne, Boss, buddy, you GOTTA help me out!”

Corvayne looked up from where he had been reviewing the map Horton had found in the house of Cascade Landing. “Oh, I think Brines is doing loot.” A good leader delegates when needed.

Brines looked terrified as Mosh and Varia were on him in a moment.

“Hahaha, I'd agree to share but I'm the BADDEST girl!” Ears was bobbing up and down, new tail swishing.

Varia escalated the argument. “Fifty Thousand Credits.”

Ayame raised her hand. “Oh, can I bid then too if she's paying money?”

Lady Blood Claw had her hand on her forehead. “I wasted an identify scroll on it! It's just a cosmetic item and a few points of Charisma. Why have we been fighting an hour over this?”

The noodle lady laughed. “Well, both because I'd like to see if I could sway our young leader with it...”

Brines asked “Do you mean me or Corvayne?”

Ayame laughed. “Why not the two of you, one after the other? Or perhaps all at once! If I'm wearing that collar, I'd probably need one of those madame pipes... anyway, both you, and also because Miss Varia is offering a nice lump of money for it.”

Ears looked between them. “It's not about money old lady! It's about STYLE.”

Ayame looked really angry for the first time in the discussion. “Oh, I guess someone so stylish doesn't need to get noodles from an old lady, hmm?”

This is where Ears-of-Steel looked to Reaper-of-Fish and Bearer-of-Burdens for help.

Reaper just shook his head. “All you ladies fighting over this neck thing, I ain't sticking my hand in that catfish no sir.”

Bearer-of-Burden waved her frozen fist weapons around. “Really sorry Les, but I don't have my bid for an item left and, uh, Ayame always gives me extra pine needles.”

Corvayne looked over at her disbelieving. How did people like those? Ears also looked disbelieving, probably expecting solidarity.

Lady Blood Claw sputtered. “How do you LIKE those?”

Brines popped open a bottle of wine and downed a quarter of it in one swig, then stepped in and started soothing Mosh, placating Ayame and assuring her she was very much a MILF to him, telling Ears-of-Steel that he'd work with the group to make sure people didn't leave bitter. Corvayne was watching how he'd listen to each, ask questions and make comments to affirm he understood their perspective, then ask about why they really wanted the item, and if Ears found something more metal if she'd be willing to rescind her bid and finders-keepers rights, and if Ayame wanted it forever or just for a while... It was odd everyone called Brines the 'Fail Son' when he clearly had a talent for dealing with people, especially since he had cooled the room off in a few minutes.

Then Varia said. “A hundred thousand credits for the choker.” and it was like a lit match.

Curtis looked over at Ears-of-Steel. “Hey lady, you wanna trade for my sword?”

Corvayne decided to try something, asking his internal compass to try to point him to another devil choker so he wasn't part of an evolving battle that, once Varia stated her bid was 130, was dragging Horton in as well. He felt the power sort of rev up, like how he charged his gravity and...

He woke up and it was late afternoon. Mosh was sitting by him, looking heart broken while he clipped out scales from a sheet of blue metal.

He winced, having a slight headache that he felt shift when he turned his head. “What... what happened? Is everyone all right?”

“Hey boss, you fell to the ground like a rag! Maybe don't do whatever you did, it gave you a nose bleed! You try to fry your brain?”

He looked around and nearly started crying as doing so moved his headache. Then he sat up and tried turning without moving his head, shoulders rigid, and felt the pain was specific in it's direction.

“Hey Mosh, uh, I have a power that points me to things...” He started saying.

“Well don't use it if it's going to kill you, you double-sized dumbass!” Mosh was upset? Corvayne knelt down and gave his friend a hug, going off the LBC playbook. Mosh squrimed. “Aww man, don't! Sorry, I didn't mean it! Cut it out you sappy goofball!”

Corvayne stood up and pointed in the direction his head hurt. “Look Mosh, instead of having a huge fight over it... I tried to use the power to point me to another choker that did the same thing.”

Mosh hugged him so fast it nearly threw him back onto the couch, latching onto Corvayne's leg like a warm limpet mine. “Corvayne! CORVAYNE! My home boy! You're the best, Boss. Boss, see, I knew someday sticking with you would be BIG, Boss, I mean, I knew it right from the start because I ain't ever had anyone I called Boss as fast as you, you know?”

Corvayne nodded, not entirely sure after the exchange if being called 'Boss' had some connotations that he didn't get, but flattered by the statement anyway.

“And hey, if you can use the power again and not fry your brain, well, you know, I bet you could get Wick to wear it.”

Corvayne's head snapped to Mosh, headache suddenly not important. Wick, swearing at him and pushing him over onto the bed, with devil horns and a tail that emoted with her...

“Mosh, has anyone ever told you that you are a genius?”

The unexpected detour and argument still had split the camp, with Ears-of-Steel's friends wandering back first, having found more loot in the form of scrolls and potions and a magic baseball cap that Reaper was wearing. It seemed it let him see through fog and liquids better, which for the fisherman meant it would have been a bid if anyone else wanted it.

Ayame, Curtis, and Brines had left as well, with Lady Blood Claw going with them given how they were a little less athletic and trained than Ears, Reaper, and Bearer were. Lady Blood Claw proved she was better at sniffing out chests at least, returning with armored boots, a head band that made people's hair reach out like a rubbed balloon, and a spiked wood club that made little flashes of brilliant light when the embedded metal points touched things. She also had found a local library and made them spend an hour checking it for scrolls and to form a pile of readable books, mostly related to herbs and crafting and but also a few clearly magical or unusual tomes. She showed one book to Corvayne while her skin turned a happy pink with little flecks of gold that might be pride. It was a glowing leather grimoire titled: 'The Arte of Enchantism and Enhacemathurgy, (and if in dire need, Hexolchemy).'

“That's great Lady, it might help you be an even better sword wizard than you already are.”

She responded by asking far more questions then even Mosh did to try to make sure he wasn't having a stroke or that he didn't give himself a concussion. He smiled at Lady Blood Claw, once more wishing that he had grown up with her instead of Spears-Like-Water.

He was also happy she had grabbed some of the light rods from the library and propped a few more around the place. He had to fight to take first watch, and ended up with Brines as his watch partner. It was a pleasant evening of sitting by the fire looking at Cascade Landing's map. Brine talked a little about his father and uncle and how they wanted him to be an intellectual and socialite and make enough money to bring culture to Cascadia and how he always seemed to screw up.

“You know, they were nice, but they hoped I'd be successful and I just wasn't, and maybe I should have followed Grandpa who urged me to be a police officer like he was...”

Corvayne nodded. “I think you are in the right spot. If Old Town ever split, you'd make a good mayor.”

The man shook his head. “That's such a nice thought Corvayne, I love the positive energy you have! But no, I don't think my family trusts me to run a town.”

“Well, James, if you don't get people supporting you, it might mean it's time to pack up and move on.”

Brines nodded at that. “Oh yeah, definitely. I hear you.”

A thought occurred to Corvayne in the silence that followed, and he took a red marker on the table and walked here and there, his power pointing him a direction. Looking at the map, he oddly could orient just from the map alone, rather than having to find a static point to get his bearing. Perhaps another perk of the compass power? He drew a line on the map, sure it was the right direction in a way that actually lessened his headache, then went back with his hand and circled a spot on the map not to far from a set of docks. It's likely he'd find a larger map meant for someone sailing, and from that he might be able to pin point where Wick's remembered 'Nap Bay' was. Perhaps this trip would be more productive than he had thought.