After a night of half watching movies and acting as a pillow for spears, there was a call for a meeting outside by Wick.

Corvayne gently shook Spears awake. Leaving the truck, he saw they were set up a little closer to the black crystal spires he had made. In the shadow of the big spikes, protected somewhat from the cold wind, the group had set up some picnic tables and Mister I was grilling a huge monster that looked like a cow-shark across two different grills. The monk had a cooking apron that someone had stitched 'Kiss the Cook/Sniper/Healer' onto.

The prisoners watching him looked split between salivating and resentful. Corvayne noted silk binding them to black crystals in clumps of two and three, with a group of four tied up with standard rope and looking more bruised than the other survivors. He guessed there were about twenty adventurers who survived, mostly human men but with a few women and non-humans mixed in.

He was trying to see which prisoners he thought were more likely to try to escape when Lady Blood Claw walked up next to him and handed him a freshly laundered pile of gear and his storage ring. She was wearing what looked like a new jumpsuit covered in tiny scales that hugged her form enough that Corvayne could see the shape of the workout gear she wore under it for modesty's sake.

“Thanks LBC.” He stored his gear after slipping his ring back on.

The alien woman put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile, a shade of gray and pink that suggested satisfaction to Corvayne. “Just glad you're back.”

It wasn't her without the small interaction turning her a bit blue as she was, for some reason, embarrassed by what she said even as she kept her face serious. Corvayne pretended not to notice, instead facing forward as Wick strutted to two large blocks facing the tables where most of the group was sitting. She was wearing a stocking cap that looked like a knitted furry slug and she had fleece under her blue cloud robes. She cheated a little, stepping onto a half stone in front of the speaking spot, but as always she seemed a natural when it came time to talk to a crowd.

“All right! We did it, Corvayne is alive, and we've already won two major battles involving the, Truck proving it's resilience and that we're a team not to be messed with!”

Mosh knocked on the side three times. “Everyone, let's hear it for Juggernaut!”

There was some scattered applause, including one of the prisoners who had his hands close enough to clap until the person next to him stepped on his foot.

“Okay, let's start with the big one, we got a bunch of prisoners. We'll do a quick vote. Hari suggested we ransom them back to the guild. Grunt thought we should try to integrate the better behaved ones into our parties. Spears suggested we toss them into a one-way tower. I think you can all guess Nyx's suggestion.”

The noble smiled and drew his thumb across his throat.

Hari sighed. “The chance of that is slim. The Gold and Silver rank adventurers they sent are realists. They understand completely that a second attempt will result in their deaths. We don't need to antagonize the guild and the money is enough for us to get any basic materials we need, grease palms, and even buy some information and maybe a few magic items if we barter well.”

Nyx stood up from his spot near where Wick was speaking. “You say that but they have human hearts that nurse grudges. We can be certain a few of them hate us. We killed some of their peers, though that was on their own heads for daring to cross Corvayne, Grunt, and Spears.” Nyx turned to Spears and winked at her, which she was ignoring as she looked at the prisoners.

Spears addressed everyone. “Rather than just going kill kill kill... We could toss them into a one-way portal like Hari's group went through. By the time they get back to this world, we'll likely be either long gone or too established to bother.”

Corvayne felt it would be nice if there was one handy but...

Mister I spoke up. “I also advocate mercy, but that seems like it wouldn't be easy to find the exact sort of temporary jail you seek... How would we test it without going in ourselves? And the option of selling them back to the guild seems like it's reasonable.”

Nyx groans. “Have you EVER tried to handle a hostage exchange?”

Mister I laughed. “I've seen you do it, it can't be that hard!”

Lady Blood Claw looked at them rather pointedly. “Doesn't the fact that we keep taking hostages say something about us?”

Corvayne shifted his attention back to Wick who cleared her throat. “I think ransom is the easy way, but I think there's room to get more info out of them, and if any of them are actually important, sponsoring them and maybe winning them over would help shield us from reprisal.”

Nyx shrugged. “Or their family would spend boatloads of money to hire competent bounty hunters.”

Hari shrugged. “Actually, there's almost no platinum or above bounty hunters, so these are the guys they probably would hire.”

Corvayne knew he was out of the loop, but went ahead and asked while raising his hand. “Sorry, I heard they tried to rob us, but why were they up here in the first place?”

Hari started to explain “The Spi-” but was interrupted by a tied up adventurer barking out a laugh. “Rob you? You went into a dungeon and tried to stiff the guild on it's share mate!”

Spears took a rough looking napkin from the table and placed it in his mouth, then walked back over to a set of stone blocks they were sitting on. “Sorry, Hari go on.”

“They were investigating The Spider. The Cult of the Mask put a bounty on it, and so the guild figured it was worth money and sent a group to try to get it either to sell to the cult or keep for themselves.”

She looked at the group tied up, frowning as she scanned the faces either avoiding her gaze or glaring

at her. “Given they got completely dictionaried and we...”

Horton raised a hand. “You mean decimated.”

“Decim- desk mated?”

Horton said it louder and slower. “Decimated. From the Latin root for ten.”

“Lah-tin? I'd sound as smart as I am if you understood fucking elvish you pedantic goat-fucker!” In elvish the insult sounded graceful and ethereal even if she snapped a little at the end. Since he woke up, Corvayne had felt she was getting more assertive outside of bed, instead of just in it.

One of the captives with slightly pointed ears snickered at what she said.

Hari shot him an annoyed look then kept going. “Since we defeated them, captured them live, and did it with few injuries, the guild will probably assess us as...” She paused and Corvayne was fairly sure her eyes were looking at something only she could see before she continued. “... assess us as Platinum or Diamond level, and from what my master had told me, the wisdom for threats like that is to just leave them alone if you can.”

Corvayne looked at the group rounded up. They seemed pretty weak, even as imposing as some of their figures were. He paused from looking them over to pull a moderate sized shard of black crystal out of his neck then flicked it on the ground, cycling through his stances until he was back on vitality and the little cut had closed.

Turning back, he saw the adventurers looked terrified at him. He felt little flicks like something was watching him, clearly a few of them using something like Hari's skills and a few of them looking pale from whatever it told them.

Nyx nodded. “All right, then, Grunt what's your argument?”

Brines stepped up. “I'll repeat it since Grunt only wanted to make it once.... he thinks we could use more muscle, and that we should have a few of mixed in to make it harder for the guild to crack us. I like the idea since a few locals would make us less conspicious.”

Corvayne raised his hand. “Doesn't that mean we're weakening ourselves though? We can't really trust anyone forced to work for us to do a good job. I can't imagine trying to watch more than one.”

Wick folded her arms. “Corvayne! You are thinking too narrowly. Making friends out of your enemies is the best possible outcome! Besides... Hari told me that the adventurer's guild has a nice big fat store of info on UFOs and NMOs.”

Corvayne gave her what he felt like was a flat look. “Wick, your bias is on your sleeve again.”

Ears-Of-Steel devil-tail whipped about and she drove her finger into the fold out table with a thump. “We also would be splitting the treasure shares, again.” She glanced over at Kirae who was mostly just staring at Mister I's smoking grills and the meat on it. “What do you do if they get set up and then just skip town the next world we end up on?”

Hari sighed. “Most of these guys won't know anything about the UFOs as it doesn't involve treasure, and I agree with how Ears is thinking of it. I say we use one of their memostones to call the guild now and arrange a pickup. I think if nobody shows an interest in joining, then...”

Lady Blood Claw interrupted. “Sorry to play devil's advocate... but some of them might be bribed with the items we took from them.”

Grunt and Wick both pointed at the same woman, a red-head glaring at them all.

Corvayne looked between them all. “What? Why her?”

Grunt looked to Wick and made the money sign, and Wick laughed. “She had the fanciest armor!”

Corvayne looked at the woman. She looked to be somewhere in her thirties, if he was going by Cascadia years.

The woman glared at Corvayne. “Come near me and I'll bite it off you bandit scumbag.”

Corvayne folded his arms. “First, why is that where you immediately go? Second, didn't YOU pick a fight with US?”

“Okay, anyone in favor of killing them all?” Wick asked. Nyx raised his hand halfway and wavered his hand back and forth.

“It's easy to suggest but I'd feel bad about actually killing prisoners we could just leave tied up.” He admitted.

“Fine, Hari's pure ransom with NO funny business idea.” Wick continued.

Mister I stepped forward. “I think it's by far the best suggestion.”

Corvayne considered it. “Why would we bother with indenturing them any way? Even for, as Wick said, to get them to buy back their gear? We don't need their help... do we?” That and they were still trying to get everyone as much enchanted defensive gear as they could pull from Towers even after two weeks of intense delving to prepare for the trip. He saw Ears-Of-Steel turn her horned head his way and nod at him.

Brines thought about it. “What if some of the gear is leased? So they don't care about the guy in it, but they want their artifacts returned?”

Hari nodded at Brines, and Corvayne saw Bearer of Burdens nudge him. “Jimmy you're sharper than you look!”

Nyx wiggles his fingers. “Shallow graves rarely name names.”

Wick waved her hand. “No warcrimes! Bad Nyxion Augustus the Third. BAD!”

Mosh shrugged. “So take half the money and give em back the stuff we don't really need, keep the good stuff!”

Hari rolled her eyes. “That's the same as just keeping everything. Give it all back. We dump them at a random guildhall and let the guild punish them for getting caught and living to tell about it. Paying out ransoms or healing costs is part of how they keep their members in debt.”

Corvayne felt a little worried about that last part. “Hari, I'm not going to put some poor bandits-”

The tied up red-head interrupted, “I am NOT a BANDIT! Get me a sword! I'll duel you!”

Corvayne finished “-I'm not going to be a party to slavery in any form.” He thought about the feeling of being trapped in his village.

Bearer of Burdens stepped forward. “Same times a thousand.” She swept her gaze over everyone else and Corvayne had to respect that she looked a hell of a lot tougher than she had before.

Hari waved a hand to calm everyone down. “Anything related to slaves is punishable by death in the empire, including not freeing them on crossing the border. It's why I called them... good, if not the best.”

Ears folded her arms. “Will they pay us for these guys? I mean, they are just thugs right? No offense Grunt.”

Grunt waved and smiled while shaking his head: It's all good Ears.

Hari shrugged. “The Adventurer's guild won't use anyone who's a notorious criminal. They don't look too deep into people's backgrounds though since can't share perfect paintings of people like Cascadians can.” Corvayne supposed she was talking about pictures. Hari continued. “They present a united front with their members though, and that means they'll pay, even if it's coming out of the hostages pocket in the end.”

Reaper of Fish raised a can. “I say we hurry up and vote before I run outta beer.”

Wick agreed. “Ok, who wants to let them go scott free, armed with everything?”

Nobody responded to that.

“Do we want to keep any of them?”

Corvanye looked at the vicious woman glaring at him. “I vote no on that.”

“Okay, what about just plain old ransom them and get rid of them?”

It seemed that most of the group went with that, as Corvayne saw just about everyone raising their hands.

That settled, Wick cleared her throat. “Okay Hari, call their moms to pick em up.” Seru snorted at her comment, but she continued. “So let's talk goals. We can make a lot of money here pound for pound with magic items, but what else are we after? Any thoughts?”

Corvayne thought about it for a little, then started walking around the table up to where Wick was standing, and she nodded at him as he turned to face his friends.

“We are in a spot to hold for a little bit. Any organized search of Cascadia for Wick has to determine how we left, what vehicle we used, where it went under the cover of night, figure out there's a portal, then pick the right direction to find us. We have a lingual advantage they might struggle to meet. Hari is a native, and the only one we've met in the city. We also have a few Tower entrances nearby. I think we slow down and work on getting stronger and filling out our powers by running the dungeon before we go find the next disaster, or it finds us.”

Corvayne noticed that everyone was sort of looking at him, including the adventurers.

“Lots of dungeons?” One of them perked up.

Wick glared at Corvayne. He looked around. “I'm not the one asking for strategy in front of a bunch of bandits.”

The red-head woman snarled and started hopping at him, trying to drag three grown men tied to her along and doing a fair job.

“Fine, respectable adventurers.” Corvayne said before she throttled another prisoner trying to drag them at him.

Hari looked up and called out. “I agree with Corvayne! Let's get strong and explore the Tower!”

Wick swished her hand. “I think the food is ready so... Hari, call their minders, arrange some sort of exchange. Everyone else, we bulk up while we wait for another UFO. Or the next disaster.”

Corvayne went to go get meat while wondering if Hari was on the phone with it, right now.