Corvayne watched as Hari helped an older woman take a seat at camp, his elf lover fussing over her presumed mentor and asking if she was okay, and the older woman sputtering and trying to gesture at something towards camp.

“Is it danger?” Hari asked. “Undine! Calm down! Corvayne, can you get Mister I?”

The woman was sputtering “The Drow Pilgrim! Hari! What.... tell me everything!”

Hari froze and looked over at Corvayne. “Everything?”

Corvayne waved his hand. “I'm fine with telling her whatever you wish, I'm going to run and get Mister I.”

Bell meanwhile had her arms folded. “Undine the Undying... where have you been hiding from father?”

Corvayne looked around. “Miss Undine, if you come with us to camp, we can make sure you're in tip top shape and we can discuss whatever you wish. We wanted to ask you about Pilgrims ourselves...”

She was up in a flash, faster than Corvayne expected and was waving her hand around. “You piss drinking clown, you have one waltzing around your camp!”

“Oh... Grunt?”

“No, not that Lummox! Lady Blood Claw!” Undine spoke then her eye twitched. “Lady... Lady... Blood Claw. Blood. Claw. Lady Blood C... she is a Pilgrim... why is it so hard to not say her whole name?”

Corvayne felt a small shock pass through him. “She is?” He looked at Hari. “Didn't you scan everyone a few days ago?”

Hari looked confused, her long ears flicking a little as she scrunched her face up to think. “I did, but most of the time I don't pull races...”

Undine snorted. “You can't compare a rank amateur with a master. Well, lead on. I have a host of questions, including why HARI is here and why I had to come to HER... also PRINCESS get off my arm. I am no nag for you tug at.”

Bell straightened and took a step back, giving her a little bow. “I simply wished to ask if you could help our Empire out...”

Corvayne held a hand up. “We'll ask her about it when we're sure she's okay.”

Undine was well enough to walk over to the Truck. Mister I was out on a dungeon run, but Corvayne saw that Mosh and June were working outside. Mosh had almost totally fixed his burns, with only some more yellow rough areas hinting to the burns he had taken protecting the truck.

Corvayne heard Undine mutter a spell then start coughing as Mosh approached.

“You have a... goblin? That's tier 6?!? I mean, he's also wearing clothes...”

Mosh laughed and replied in the same language. “Sorry babe, but if you want to see me without clothes ya gotta go through June first. I kid sweetheart. Corvayne, who's this classy old gal?”

“Hari's Mentor. Can you make sure she's okay? She looked like.... she looks like she's in shock again.”

Undine was sputtering again, which made Corvayne lean over and quietly ask Hari, “Did she always have problems speaking?”

Hari shook her head. “Something's got her spooked...”

The old woman gestured all around. “Tier Six! Classes we've never seen before! A Pilgrim walking through your camp! Her first...”

Mosh held a green hand up in front of her face. “Aunty calm down! Your heart is showing signs of wear and tear, and you're vitals are all going crazy! Sit!”

Hari helped her mentor find a bench and Mosh spent a few moments invoking Lythandies and mending. Corvayne swore Mosh seemed more real as he invoked healing.

“Okay doll, you be careful! It would break my heart to hear you-”

Undine gave him a little pinch on his cheek. “Thank you... goblin... I will be more careful.”

Corvayne expected Mosh to retort with something witty but instead he was blushing. “Thanks toots!” He was sweet on old ladies? Interesting.

At this point, Lady Blood Claw was coming back around with her Squid. Corvayne waved her over, and there was a small flash of pink from her skin, suggesting a little hint of joy, before she turned neutral gray and jogged over to Corvayne.

“Hey Lady, this is Hari's mentor Undine.”

Lady Blood Claw looked at Undine, then looked back at Corvayne looking confused. The tall alien arched an eyebrow. “Is there a reason her mouth is stuck open?”

Hari responded to the question by patting her teacher's back. Corvayne wondered if Hari's reactions to all their treasure back when everything shocked her were a learned reaction rather than just her response.

“Sorry LBC, she's in awe of you... I guess the system thinks you are a Pilgrim.”

Lady Blood Claw blinked. “But I'm not? The Pilgrims were a dead precursor race even when I was growing up. I'm a Kypori. Not a rare thing.”

Corvayne started to translate for Undine's sake, but the woman cast a spell on herself and then started speaking perfect Cascadian.

“I see her denial writ large on her face.” Undine shook her head. “The voice doesn't lie. You can hide things, but you can't change what the voice of everything has named you.”

Lady Blood Claw leaned back. “It might explain why The Magus took me in, but only that he did. Whatever awesome destiny you are hoping for... I am a failure. I am a child from the gutter, I failed as both a ruthless soldier for him and failed as apprentice enchanter, and I was cast into the ground and forgotten for untold ages.”

“Tch, then screw him! These ruins have things that are waiting for an owner! I've seen things others ignored, or were too blind to... answers about WHY things are as they are! For starters, the third moon! There is no art in the Pilgrim ruins of three moons! It means something! That and that there's more likely to be dungeons near certain types of Pilgrim ruins. It's not just magic radiation, as there's plenty of cities that rose on the bones of those long broken cities.”

Stolen story; please report.

Corvayne spotted a group coming around a wall. He waved, and a short figure in blue waved back. A few minutes later of Hari filling Undine in on some of the broad strokes of her story, Wick walked into camp looking very pleased with herself. “My expert came!”

Undine looked for a moment annoyed, but Wick parried any possible complaint with her phone and a video of the hidden chamber in The Source's Nose.

“Oh, a handy device, that is, but-” Then she heard Corvayne speaking. She froze again. “Does... is he translating it?!”

Corvayne met her wide eyes and couldn't help but smile as he nodded. At least, he smiled until Undine turned pale again and started clutching her chest. Mosh had to be called back over from making a meat smoker to fix her second heart attack of the day.

A little later, and with some warm tea, Corvayne sat with Hari and Wick and Bell and LBC as well as Undine in a large heated tent Mosh had crafted out of spare parts from ice cream machines. The faint hum of the warmers was joined with soothing chime music that Mosh had put on to make sure that Undine didn't suffer another heart issue. It was a near thing with The Spider popping into the tent to poke Hari and draw something on the ground, but Undine had calmed down without further cardiac arrest once Growl-Whine left and they were now working through what they knew about the Pilgrims.

Undine sipped her tea and spoke, mostly addressing Wick at this point in the conversation. “It's interesting that you have a name for the wizard who appears in some of the unmolested art from the newest ruins. The story is not too hard to follow, but there was always a schism on if the Pilgrims were located on just this world, or the greater scattering of prime material planes. Your tale makes that less of a question.”

Wick mused. “We are from another series of worlds. We have an egghead... I mean a learned scholar trying to see if any star formations might be shared between worlds or if we hail from another plane or dimension.”

Undine rolled her eyes. “There's divine priests who can tell you if you're extra planar, even from another prime. You have the gold to answer that one yourself. What I find hard to swallow is that you have this Spears woman, someone that a Pilgrim NAMED, in your party and she doesn't remember any of them.”

Wick nodded. “Well, The Magus didn't just raze planets. He seems to be able to completely turn people's emotions inside out, block their memories, possibly change them, and who knows what else. Corvayne here sometimes has killer vines start trying to blast him with lightning from the inside out whenever he gets close to figuring out his dead dog's name.”

Undine nodded. “That's actually something I wanted to ask you about... a long time ago, when I was a girl, I saw a man that looked just like Corvayne, same sort of chameleon cloak with a black spear who came through my village. There were whispers he was The Wanderer, a sort of folk-legend who slew bandits and monsters and the wicked.”

Corvayne felt himself leaning forward. Could he have just stumbled on a clue to his past? “I don't remember it, but we found evidence that I'm older than I had thought I was. Possibly by thousands and thousands of years. So, I won't rule it out, but I'd like to know where I passed through.”

Undine laughed a little. “Your ears are too round for you to say you don't remember thousands of years! As for my village, it was in a place you can no longer safely tread. The hordes of the Black Raven took Embersmote long ago. If you fought through his patrols, and bandits, and monsters, you probably ran also afoul of at least a few adventurers guild members whom are okay living in his territory.”

Hari clapped. “Even if it's dangerous, we might figure out where to go next if we know where you came from!”

Bell snorted. “Everyone has heard a thousand theories of who The Wanderer was. Five men who visited the palace claimed to be him by the time I was a teenager. How many knights have painted their spears black, like Corvayne did, professing to be some sort of master of justice?”

Corvayne had just been thinking Bell had done very well to avoid blurting anything out while Wick and Undine had been talking for the last however long. Perhaps he needed to feed her?

Undine narrowed his eyes. “Your father's stubborn streak combined with your mother's short attention span makes for a dangerous combination, Bell. This man has a class I've never seen before and is higher level than any ruler I've ever seen, your father included. You tempt death toying with the unknown.”

Bell stuck her chin up. “Hmf. He has taken to protecting me with his whole being. All you do is confirm that divine providence is at play, favoring me with such a talented ally!”

Corvayne tapped the table. “If we are speaking of favors, you could start treating me as most allies do and we'd all be sleeping inside. Anyway, I want to look into this 'Wanderer' and might bother the adventurers guild to trade for information. If the way the man fights matched my fighting style, it could lead me to the way home. The pilgrimage is important, but that's my first and foremost goal.”

“Let me ask this. Hari said you were a contemporary with figures in the tablet. They apologized to them. Is it not possible that in finding the rest of the Pilgrims, you will also find your tribe?”

Corvayne knew that it wasn't totally based on solid logic that they worked together in any capacity. She seemed to think they were strong, and Hari said she was shrewd. On the other hand, what she said wasn't totally without merit.

Wick stood up. “We'll eat soon Undine, then if you don't mind keeping that spell up, we can focus on trying to figure out how what LBC told us fits into what we know of the ruins. There's also a set of portals in the basement that Growl-Whine was trying to fix.”

Undine nodded. “It's slightly frustrating that you all have so many clues but no answers. Before anything else... did you know how you attained your stronger classes?”

Wick shrugged. “We've only had the system a few weeks and have been relying on a patchwork of sources to get information. However, Corvayne could show you how he trains and maybe you'll notice something we don't. I have theories about the other high tiers, but Mosh's crafting prowess has something to do with strange materials and changes the 'HAF' made to his 'Smallest patterns and structures'. I was hoping you would know more, at least I suppose how tier 1 goes to 2. As for Pilgrims, I've decided we also are going to try to explore the Tower entrance near the untouched ruins we found.”

Undine paused. “What Tower?”

“Oh Hari didn't explain how the rift worked?”

“I didn't understand what she said about Floors.” Undine admitted. “But I wanted the whole story in my head before pressing for details.”

Wick was all too happy to lecture. She even reached out of a gap in tent fabric and dragged in a dry erase board. Hari shot to her feet from the bench and started clapping. “Wick does the best stories! You are going to love them Undine!”

Wick stopped for a moment. “You know, I should do a Saturday speech... or whatever day you call it here. Anyway, Towers! It's another layer of realities. In places, often near landmarks, there are rifts which are like dream worlds. They are like dungeons. You have those right? Places with lots of monsters and treasure?”

“There's no such place in the source... right?” Undine pulled black gloves tighter. “No... Hari what are they speaking of?”

Hari cleared her throat then tried to sound a little scratchy like Wick. “Well, uh, see, there's... magic rifts in reality that have treasure chests and give us extra powers... like I told you, I think they opened up recently.”

“How big are they?”

Corvayne answered that one. “They are of a size that we put exploring that size on the back burner. From a report Seru made, groups walked a whole week and didn't find obvious ends on some floors.”

“So what you are telling me is there are unexplored, treasure and monster filled demi-planes, and that's why Hari is about to out level me, AND there's one, here, at the source, that was behind a secret door in that Pilgrim's secret hideaway?”

Corvayne looked at the group. “Yes?”

Undine looked over at Wick, then back at Corvayne. “Can I see it?”

Corvayne nodded. “Yes!”

Undine frowned for a moment and stood up. “Then why the hell were we having tea!?” A moment later she broke out into a grin. “Cmon kids! Let's go see what's in there!”