Corvayne sloshed his way out of the frigid water, accepting the mapping tool that Lady Blood Claw was holding for him. This entrance to The Source was a knee deep stream coming out of a crack that was about waist-tall, meaning they had to crawl through water and silt to get in and out. He had hoped it wasn't it's own set of tunnels and portals, but it was and now the running tally of Tower entrances in the complex was something like fifty.

It was near dawn, and everyone's breath steamed in the near freezing air. If there was one nice thing about his new 'Adept' power, it was the rotation generated heat if he did it frequently. It made him trail a wispy line of water, but he'd rather that than be cold.

Lady Blood Claw touched something on the jumpsuit she wore under her armor, and the water fell off her as she leaned past Corvayne to bark at everyone else. “Hurry it up! The sooner you go in the water, the sooner you're out and the sooner you can get in line for a hot shower.”

He stepped around her to help Gary up from the water and saw his disciple was shivering. Corvayne popped a discolored but clean towel out of his storage ring and tossed it to Gary, who caught it and rubbed his hands dry. The cloth armor he was wearing was probably twenty pounds heavier wet, but Gary looked cold rather than tired. His disciple, for all he complained on the training grounds, had been sticking to the same workout that Corvayne did. Granted, after any given training session Gary needed mending, but he had stuck with it and was starting to replace his flab with muscles.

The next face out was Shallee, who Gary waded back to as she crawled out from the tunnel. He was surprised at first she came along, but as Hari had pointed out they had met her while going deep into the ruins. With about a week of delving and food, well, she still looked skinny to Corvayne, but the girl had proved to be a steady shot with her sling and was able to fend off monsters with her knife-work. More importantly, her attention was not on Corvayne.

He watched her blush as she accepted Gary's hand.

Shallee had Mister I and Mosh stepping in when the girl sometimes would space out. Never on missions, perhaps because she followed Corvayne's commands with an intensity most people did not. Sometimes after missions she'd just hole herself up in a bunk. He didn't think she was afraid, just dealing with her life changing. They had tried letting her return home as Wick feared that she thought she was a prisoner. Kirae, the guide girl who had shown them The Source in the first place, had taken her to the village. A scant few hours later she stormed back to the truck with a shaken Shallee in tow. Kirae had done a lot of cursing and spitting and a gesture Hari used that must have been the local middle finger, all pointed in her former homes direction. Shallee did some crying until Spears took her for movie time and they watched a computer animated feature with a cuddly magic teddy bear who learned to sew so he could fix his friends at an orphanage.

He had asked Mister I if the very innocent friendship blossoming into romance between her and Gary was healthy given she had some sort of trauma going on and the monk actually raised an eyebrow at him and pointed to Hari. Touche, Mister I.

A sultry voice only a little broken by hypothermia cried out, “Hey, I could use a big strong man to help me up!”

If Gary was becoming a gentleman, Seru had regressed. She seemed irritated most of the time and would start trying to flirt with Corvayne almost as hard as when they first met. That was a conversation he needed to have with Hari as back up. They were friends and Hari had told him Seru was probably just frustrated she wasted time on a dead-end path to a cure when he was dying from his Adept power. Corvayne wasn't so sure, as she didn't seem to bother the other guys like she did him.

That, and it was almost always when Nyx was around. Corvayne helped her up anyway, lest she get flattened underwater by the shield bubble following her.

“Seru, you're better than this.” He said quietly to her, and felt bad when he saw a hint of genuine hurt on her face.

Nyx needed no help, popping up from the barrier and springing into the air as his new levitation anklets kicked in.

“I just need my force bracers and I'll be exactly as I should be. Imposing and untouchable!”

Seru turned. “Spears certainly hasn't yet!”

Nyx rolled his eyes and waved her away. “For someone who just wanted meaningless fun, you are clingy.”

Corvayne stepped in. “Nyx, take Shallee over and find Spears and Mister I. Her mends going to wear off soon.”

Appointed to a task that got him to his goal, Nyx beamed and turned to the villager. Despite his profession of despising peasants, the noble seemed to treat Shallee kindly and stood up straight when tasked with her. “Shallee... Spears, Mend, Movie.”

She nodded at the string of Cascadian words she knew, and he floated near her, scanning the horizon for signs of trouble. Corvayne felt Seru move and put a hand on her shoulder.

She tried to make a... Corvayne supposed what she thought was an alluring face... at him.

“Seru, are you okay?”

It was getting easier to get her to break character. Her face fell. “This sucks.”

Gary picked up her pack and Corvayne nodded for him to jog back to the truck. “Go get warm, eat something. I'll be up for sparring in twenty, barring if the exchange starts.”

Gary nodded. “Yes Sensei!”

Corvayne silently thanked whatever forces were helping him that Gary had stopped calling him master. Lady Blood Claw moved up to Seru's other side and put a hand on her shoulder as well. “You did good this run. You protected Gary and Shally in fights, and you helped us pick what treasure to take with us. Chin up.”

“So what?” Seru wiggled away from them and spun. “I got dumped. I never get dumped!”

Corvayne thought about that. “You took it better with me.”

“I never sat on your face.” Seru countered.

Lady Blood Claw covered her face, turning dark blue in embarrassment. Corvayne gave Seru a sideways look. “Did you really sit on anyone's face? You got skewered right away.”

Seru looked mortified. “That was just that ONE time. Who do you think I was screwing until... until SPEARS showed up.”

Lady Blood Claw wiggled a finger. “Don't get mad at Spears...”

Seru fumed. “I wasn't! She's clueless.” Corvayne was on the fence about that statement but let it slide. “And he follows her like a little kid, trying to get her attention and make her laugh and it pisses me off, where's MY guy to do that?”

Lady Blood Claw shrugged. “You can't change who Nyx is.”

Corvayne saw a puff of dust on the horizon and tapped LBC's shoulder to point it out to her. “Seru, Lady... Let's double time it. I think they are coming for our guests.”

Both Seru and Lady Blood Claw for a moment looking longingly at the Truck and it's supply of fusion heated water, then both sighed and fell into step next to Corvayne.

For the exchange, Hari and Growl-Whine had rode out on a hover cycle to a flat spot, with the prisoners standing tied up near a pair of campfires. There was only a few stone blocks in the spot chosen, otherwise a large slab of empty ground. One stone was currently acting as a table for Hari, and two other stones Grunt had moved to act as the drop off points. The huge man made the slab of black rock look dainty with the ease he was able to move them, but Corvayne knew he'd struggle to lift it unless he was using his strength form and even then it was a challenge.

A bit of near freezing wind reminded Corvayne he had wet clothes on and he cycled a few times to push back the discomfort. Seru tried to glomp onto him, so he started a fire for her and Lady Blood Claw, then stepped past them to watch the exchange. He knew he wasn't needed as Growl-Whine was there and Grunt was by the prisoners, but more eyes were better, and he was watching their flanks and the sky for any tricks.

The head of the lines of dust resolved into three covered wooden wagons, manned by what looked like a wizard and driver on the first, with another two drivers on the wagons behind them. The animals pulling them looked like large lizards with egg-shell armor. The carvan pulled up to the furthest stone and a silver armored figure floated from inside the middle wagon to the ground, then waved. Hari waved back, and strode forward, Growl-Whine following. Corvayne noted she was shifting forms again, having not done so for almost a week.

Corvayne lost sight of the exchange for a few moments as he moved down into a ditch and back, cresting as Hari and the armored figure had reached eachother and started speaking. Hari was gesturing and the figure waved her away and walked around her to the stone and put down a few large stacks of gold, then motioned for the wagons to head over to the part of the field with the prisoners.

Corvayne was waiting for some sort of complication: The gold to be fake, them arming the prisoners to steal it back, a wizard starting a long incantation to blow them up with a meteor... instead Hari returned to their allies with a bag of gold slung over her shoulder, grunting as it was, in fact, very heavy.

Corvayne met her and kept his eyes on the Adventuer's guild. “No tricks? No traps?” Maybe they coated the gold in poison or tracking spells.

“[Identify] tells me the amount and no, no tricks. That's Plantina... who's likely a very old silver dragon. She's who they send to look respectable.” Hari took the sack and handed it to Corvayne, who put it in his ring to be split later.

“I thought they were thugs?” He said while watching the adventurers being freed. Hmm. They'd need to buy more rope, since a lot of it had been used to tie the prisoners up, but he had a feeling that had they asked for the rope back too it would see... petty? Pedantic?

“There's a sort of division between local branches who generally are mercenaries and thugs, then the old guard who are respectable.” Hari was looking all about. “We'll watch and make sure they leave... we should be okay.”

“We do have most of their stuff.” Corvayne noted. Which probably included rope, which made him feel a little better about dipping into their supply.

Lady Blood Claw nodded, her skin turning teal for a moment suggesting relief or being content with something. Most often seen when she sat down after training with a cup of tea. “We will need more. The artifacts we have and the magical weapons are great but pushing up we need to be careful when we enter new floors.”

They passed Grunt and Seru, who had stopped with her arms folded. “Okay, so what are we going to do about Nyx?”

“Talk to him? I can't change his mind.” Corvayne said, scratching his face and cycling to remove a shard.

Hari tugged Seru's arm before they started across a set of stones that provided a footpath across the icy creek. “You can do better Seru!”

Corvayne saw Hari start to look over at him in a look like a child taking in a puppy. He looked away. No deal. Seru was not his type. He took another look behind him but could see the dust of the caravan leaving. Grunt was following Growl-Whine and neither of them seemed worried, so Corvayne hopped his way across the rocks and took a big breath of cool clean air. After he sorted Seru's problem out, they'd have some solid time to sort through the massive amount of material they had pulled from the ruins, test some powers, train, all without some crisis hanging over their heads. Maybe even figure out some of the mechanics of the systems and classes, which Seru HAD been working on with Wick, but they needed more runs where they hit the inn, and the money to pay all the greedy info sellers. Basic class books were ten thousand gold.

He kept running through his list of things to do, and was thinking about asking Mister I if the good doctor had found a place to go fishing yet when he saw Growl-Whine stop and turn around, the spider-like creature not seeming agitated but very focused behind them. Corvayne gripped his spear and spun to try to track what she saw. He could see a speck of the wagon's dust but Growl-Whine wasn't looking that way but rather a little lower.

He frowned. “Hari... you didn't ask for too much, right?”

Hari was still walking, and looked back a little confused. “Honestly? Don't get upset, but... I didn't press very hard to negotiate, we could have taken a much higher sum if we played games and dragged it out. Better to not have them call our bluff and be forced to drag a bunch of captives around an-”

She stopped as she saw it too. “Why?!?”

Corvayne just sighed.

Out from the dust, he could see red head was running after the wake of the caravan, hands still tied and stumbling to try to keep up, with a note stuck to the back of her shirt with a pin.