The shades once more swirled outside the light perimeter, the soundless creatures only daring a moment to step into lit spots before they slipped back. In the gloom outside the light Corvayne could faintly see movement that suggested thousands but, it might have just been his own mind playing tricks on him. Lady Blood Claw and Curtis had agreed to take watch, so he waved at the unlikely pair and pushed a chair by the fire, falling asleep faster than he realized.

It was early morning when he woke with a blanket over him. He looked over and saw Lady Blood Claw had fallen asleep with her back to the chair and a pillow wedged under her silver hair. Her skin was gently flowing in colors that reminded him of the cuttlefishes he had seen on the previous floor. Perhaps if she had a birthday, he'd go into the tower and drag one out as a pet?

The mood in the morning still seemed confrontational, so Corvayne explained over breakfast what had happened with his compass power. “I think I can get us another collar, but I don't know how long it will take, just the direction my power wants us to go.”

Corvayne could see a bunch of furrowed brows and tight shoulders loosen at the long table. He explained what he wanted to do at the large dock as well, since he didn't want to get into a fight out in the field about it. He was a little surprised that Horton was fully on board for this extra detour until he remembered that the man liked historical facts about Cascadia, and this was a rare case to look at a 'what-if' that might actually be real.

They suited up, with Lady Blood Claw putting on the static band they had found. The headband caused her silver hair to puff into a sort of cloud around her head, which she rubbed back into submission with her hands. She had traded the spiked club to Curtis in exchange for the humming sword. She had given Ayame the boots, which made the noodle vendor look sturdier. He noticed that Curtis had lost some of his wrinkles, and Ayame also had a spring to her step. Earlier they had performed the little hand shaking motions and calls to Gygax, and announced they had reached level 5 for Curtis, and level 10 for Ayame.

Corvayne tried the invocation again and noted he had moved from Arms Master level 30 to level 31, and picked up Compass. Probably the extra level was from beating Argyle? He wasn't confused at all that the ability that looked like a Compass was called Compass.

Out the door the line the power had compelled him to draw on the map cut through several key-ring islands in Ripple Sound, so Corvayne lead them over the bridge, Lady Blood Claw using the opportunity of being in a wide open area to practice shooting her bow. The daytime monster count was low, with encounters no more than once every ten to fifteen minutes. He wasn't sure where all the shades that swarmed at night went, and decided after a few seconds of thought that he was not really interested in finding out. Some of the shades on the bridge were nearly as big as Grunt and needed two arrows from Lady Blood Claw to drop. Her shooting was good enough that Corvayne didn't have to lift a finger to catch stragglers.

Down on Mere island, there was a marina that he had marked that wasn't too far off the line. His power was adjusting the direction as he moved, and he guessed from the changes in bearing the target it wanted him to reach was at least ten miles away. The dockside had boats lined up at it, but they looked dusty and old, and Corvayne didn't trust his sailing skills nor that the water didn't have monsters. So he instead killed a few shades in the main office and looted a nautical map. He cleared off a desk by a window for light and laid the map out.

Nap Bay and Nap Bay resort, part of what was named Crater island back in Cascadia. It had a different name on this map but was south of the key ring, though the island in question had no crater hole marking the north part of the island. Corvayne made little marks to the map to form a triangle and found the spot where to look for the devil band, moving the group across another bridge. It was past noon when they arrived at the mainland. Instead of a vibrant city center, there were lumber yards and a few homes along a country road. There were groups of shades that Corvayne used as instruction on flanking and fighting as a group. No treasure chests, but the roads seemed to be letting them go in the directions they needed to go. The businesses fell away to sporadic houses surrounded by trees.

Larger shades were roaming out in the woods, beasts on four legs and hunters armed with rifles. Corvayne got hit once at the front of the line before they slowed their pace and had Corvayne move further out front. It was a little like the drones where the holes a bullet punched through his skin and bled, but the bullets the shades had couldn't drill deep enough to be more than just painful stings. Lady Blood Claw's aim wasn't always good enough to hit a monster in partial cover, so Corvayne would step up and use [Flow-Like-Water] to skewer hunters she missed. The big ones were soft targets and he used them as confidence boosters, pushing Ayame, Horton, and Curtis to fight more than the others who seemed more motivated. He didn't offer as many pointers as Lady Blood Claw, as he had the eagle eye ring and was using it to try to keep them out of trouble.

Corvayne was so busy with trying to spot ambushes that they were nearly to the spot before he had noticed that nobody had been complaining.

Sure, he had heard some murmuring, but nobody had been calling for extra stops nor saying their boots hurt their feet, so when he turned around and really looked, he saw that there was a sort of... energy? Or perhaps a better word would be a feeling building in the group. Little details like Ayame checking her knives while humming. June's normally passive face looking focused. Horton smiling a little. Varia giving Reaper a fist bump. Bearer slapping her frozen knuckles together in a rhythm while she walked. Mars turning back and looking at Mosh, tapping her horns, then pointing at him. Mosh looking game and walking a little faster. Something was going on, and before Corvayne could get a grip on it they turned a bend in the road and Corvayne could see their destination at last. Over the tops of the trees he spotted cooling towers, and the woods thinned as the paved part of the road veered off from a gravel path to the entrance to the power plant and it's huge swaths of pavement and support buildings.

Over the chain link gate was floating glowing orange pictograms, this time suggesting what was beyond was for groups of at least six, which prompted Corvayne to wonder if the Tower expected people to just walk in alone.

He turned back to the group. “This sign means the building is going to be a harder-”

Mosh stepped forward, face determined. “I want that choker.”

Curtis nodded. “It's an age where a man, or even a little goblin's impossible dreams can come true. Isn't that worth fighting for?”

Lady Blood Claw looked confused, even turning dark yellow. “Isn't this all just for a sex thing?”

Ayame ignored her or didn't hear LBC, and nodded at everyone who was gathering into a huddle. “I also want to try it on, then after that, you can have it Mosh.”

The Goblin's green cheeks turned a little red. “Oh miss Ayame, you know I love your noodles! No hard feelings about this morning.”

“Same kiddo.” She smiled and scratched his head.

Ears-of-Steel gestured. “Let's show these bastards what happens when they get in our way!”

Corvayne pushed the gate open with a rattle, and somebody shouted. It was like a dam was opened: Everyone else besides LBC started hollering and they charged in with Mosh, MOSH leading the charge! Clumps of shades reacted to the noise and started running over, and the group used the techniques Lady Blood Claw and Corvayne had taught them during practice fights to surround and attack the Shades in tandem. It felt like an entirely different group of people from just two days ago.

Varia took as much attention from the monsters as Corvayne did, her hatchets whipping out to down shades before they could clobber her with shovels and wrenches, pivoting after clearing the space around her to toss out [Whirling Axes] everywhere she wasn't, popping shades both near and far. Horton used a sword he had found to impale shades, a smile plastered on his face as he efficiently moved, stopped, braced, impaled, moved again. June was moving back and forth, using her spear to shore up when someone else had two enemies to fight. Brines was jogging around the battle, dagger out and burning any clumps of approaching shades, while the three renamed members were their own unit with Ears at the front laughing as she bashed faces in, even using her horns to gore a shadow when she batted it's weapon out of it's hand, and laughing the entire time. Bearer-of-Burdens punched the ground, creating ice patches that tripped whole waves of shades. There were tons of them pouring from a hole in the wall of the plant. Reaper-of-Fish somehow already was able to use [Flow-Like-Water] with his spear, covering gaps between ice patches and the no-mans-land in front of where Ears was swinging. His version of Spears-Like-Water's signature movelooked different, like he was wiggling through the air to dart at enemies. Corvayne swore he saw a ghostly swordfish jab with Reaper. Maybe his variant was [Flow-Like-Fishes]?

Even Mosh, who did not relish fighting, was throwing out waves of salt that popped the shades like they were shotgun pellets, laughing and just shouting “Horns! Horns! Horns!”

Corvanye tried to stay ahead of the enthusiastic newbies, running back and forth to keep the line they had formed moving across the yard. Normally it would be no problem to take the point but knowing that an object they had fought over for a whole day was near... it pushed them into some sort of shared mania. In searching for a bedroom accessory for Mosh the group had become a fellowship. The team tore through countless ghostly forms, Mosh using glass bubbles and salt to destroy a group of shades with rifles before anyone was shot... Corvayne had to sprint to keep up as they reached the plant itself.

The groups converged on the hole in the wall then stormed the hallway it lead to, yelling as they ran down shades, cut apart robot sentries armed with hammers, ripped apart offices and bashed open chests to arm themselves with whatever they found, tripping traps with desks and rolling chairs they were pushing down the hallway as a group. Corvayne was just bewildered the entire time as they cheered and high-fived after getting to another treasure chest and just dumped everything in their bags before charging to the next hall.

There were big monsters, which Corvayne did his best to run ahead and engage rather than let someone else discover that, despite their momentum and morale, they were not invincible. The first huge monster was a nine foot tall ape in a rad suit, holding a half melted steel beam with concrete attached as a weapon. Corvayne rapidly disarmed both it's makeshift club and a sneaky SMG it whipped out of a pocket, and then punched a bunch of holes in the monster, it's huge fists swishing by as Corvayne ducked and weaved until the ape gave a grunt and flopped to the ground, bleeding glowing blood.

Next was a giant spider, legs as long as a bus, living over a pool of boiling water. Corvayne took a look at the complicated web, with globs of boiling water issuing from pipes in the back that rolled down the web in changing patterns, the steam vents covering as much as half the web with boiling hot air, in set patterns shifting every ten seconds, and the numerous sacks that probably would contain spiders ready to pop out and assist their mother if he dared step wrong.

Corvayne took it all in then just used [Sundering Strike] to cut the webs apart and drop the spider and most of the web into scalding water. He didn't care to challenge himself on anything that could liquify then drink his organs. The web blocking the path beside the open chamber dissolved when the spider died, allowing the group to get to the final floor, where they fought to the control room overlooking the reactor where a double sized shade stood between them and the chest which Corvayne knew had the choker. It was armored in swat gear, and held one handed a claymore sized blade that glowed red and started to vibrate.

Corvayne started the fight but after thirty seconds of jabbing and baiting swings to start bleeding the shade, the group caught up to him and did a screaming bum-rush on the monster, Curtis dragging the monster's arm down while Ayame hacked away with her cleaver and took it's hand clean off with [Butchery], which was the opening that let the rest pile on, stabbing and punching and kicking until the monster deflated in a stream of gray gunk. As it dropped the ran to the brass chest sitting on a table. Lady Blood Claw managed to hold them back while she checked for traps but as soon as they opened the lid Mosh dove his hands into the chest like he was doing a high dive and came out with TWO of those collars and the entire group went berserk, screaming and high-fiving and hugging and lifting Mosh up into the air...

Corvayne met Lady Blood Claw's eyes and he shrugged at her. She shrugged back, not getting why they were yelling as-

Her eyes widened and she turned and sprinted for the boss's body and vaulted over the shadowy form then grabbed his huge red-hot vibrating weapon, her skin turning so happy-pink it nearly glowed as she hefted the weapon over her head and roared herself drowning out the rest of the group.

Damn, he lost her.

Corvayne let everyone else bubble happily as he looted some more of the glow stones and they wound their way out of the plant, clearing more of it as they chatted and showed off and gradually corralled them and lead them through the afternoon woods to a two story house. It was just past the plant off the gravel road, which was good because the noise they were making probably woke up undead as far away as the Tel-Star mine. Corvayne stayed outside as they entered and cleared the building, tromping through thick green brush while surrounded the building with light stones. It was a nice contrast to see the orange-red light from above contrast with their dim blue glow. He wished he could paint it, even.

As it turned out, the time he had spent creating a perimeter wasn't nearly as important as where they stopped for the night, as the shadows didn't swarm as the sky turned red. Perhaps there were no swirling shadows because they had killed at least a thousand of them when walking across the parking lot? Aside from the eerie color, with the stars out and crickets and frogs and other sounds of the woods it was pleasant and Corvayne spent some of the evening on the house's porch, drinking a potion of lemonade he had saved from the first dungeon run and watching purplish clouds roll across the red starry sky.

When it came time for bed the house didn't have as much room as the ranch home did, so Corvayne ended up sharing the kitchen floor with Lady Blood Claw, who placed her bedroll next to his to also be as far away from Mosh and June's enthusiastic testing of the collar as she could manage. He had to scoot his own bedroll a few feet over after he discovered she flailed her arms in her sleep. It would be a poor way to die bleeding out from getting stabbed by her bone spurs on accident.

The group had breakfast a little late and took their time hiking up a trail leading into the foot hills, enjoying that the floor had given them a bright and warm day, even if the blue sky didn't have a visible sun. There were still shades that sometimes would run over to attack them, but Corvayne was more and more confident that they could handle the monsters even without him in the front. It wasn't more than an hour and a half of walking before they stumbled on a stairway up, moving on to the next floor with Ayame, June, and Ears all swishing tails behind them as they climbed.