Corvayne expected to be falling when everything went black. That was typically what happened after a five floor guardian. Instead, Corvayne saw a moment of everything flipping, caves and tidal pools from the dungeon playing like a flip book, then there was a moment of pressure before he stumbled through the dark into a dim space, back into the real from what he felt. He got a sense that he was in a bar or restaurant. Dark slabs of wood with crude stools were arrayed in the space he could see, with a lot of disreputable looking men clustered around them. Corvayne did his best not to meet any eyes as he looked around.

He felt, rather then saw, that Spears-Like-Water was stuck to his back, and saw Brines and Bearer stagger a little as they came out of the fold. Princess Bell and her daughter Hylal were looking about, the Princess glaring at any men looking at her. Nyx had his chin pointed up instead, pointedly ignoring them. Lady Blood Claw was in the rear, hand resting on the hilt of her red-hot magic blade as her skin turned to a short of beige cameo pattern to match the walls.

Her voice came out as a low growl. "Watch yourself, the bouncer down here is... much more permissive."

Corvayne nodded, checking to make sure there wasn't anyone already marking them as prey. At least in the tables near them, it looked like everyone had gone back to drinking or muttering. Aside from rough customers, the place looked like it had been hewn out of a ocean cove, with driftwood tables under a low ceiling connected by arching stone walls to a floor that looked like it had been smoothed by running water. Smoke hung in the air matched with distant coughing and hacking sounds that carried across the stuffy space. Corvayne could see hints of the same space bending, but aside from that it was as far from the inviting space the other inn had been. The smell of cheap booze, unwashed bodies, and a hint of blood. Moving to the plank of stained driftwood that served as a bar, Corvayne grabbed a wobbly stool and sat by what looked like a skull candlestick spilling wax onto the table.

Bell looked around, still carrying her daughter on her back. "What is the point of this place?" She sounded annoyed.

Nyxion gestured. "It's a place to find scoundrels. Though, what I want to know is where our chest is."

A barkeep that looked like a human crossed with a bear then painted in scars put his thick hands on the bar. "It's out the door when your done. One way or another."

Corvayne reached for his money but Bearer grabbed his hand. He saw Bell stiffen, but he put his own hand on Bearers wrist before his own party drew weapons. He met her gaze, saying nothing.

Bearer schooled her face into a steely look of her own. "Anything you eat here, anything you drink... will trap you in the underworld."

Corvayne looked around. "Like that one flower girl who loved fruits?"

Lady Blood Claw chimed in. “Pursephone.”

Bearer pointed over at a wall, and Corvayne saw she was gesturing to a pair of doors. Bathrooms. She spoke again. "You put anything in your mouth, and it will be a month in there."

This caused the Barkeep to glare at her, but Corvayne caught his attention as he stood. "The way out?"

He followed the pointed sausage to a door lit with a standard glowing red exit sign that did not fit the grungy bar at all.

"Thanks."

The gruff voice called to him. "Wait." There was some shuffling of things in a drawer, and the man slapped a letter on the bar. "Someone left you a note."

“You sure it's for me?”

“I aint one for chit chat. Take it or leave it.”

Corvayne took from the barkeeper a surprisingly clean white envelope, only marred by black finger prints from it's keeper's grubby hands. It was so out of place in the setting that it practically glowed. Opening the crisp paper, Corvayne pulled out a letter with a single line written on it, in nearly perfect penmanship.

Spears trickled up his back, growing an pretty eye from her pseudopod to look over his shoulder. She read from a mouth she grew.

"Corvayne. Come to Infinitus. - Half Claimed Crown."

Corvayne felt his hand crush the letter before he knew it was happening. Concern pressed through his back.

Nyx also looked over his shoulder. "Someone taunting you?"

Corvayne shouldered past him. "Lets go. There's a treasure chest to open."

Brines hurried to join him. "Corvayne, you know, you can talk to us..."

He stopped and sighed, getting a whole bunch of concern through [[Unity]], and one blot of amusement which was certainly Bearer-of-Burdens.

"Letter from my dear old dad, bossing me around." Corvayne explained, giving them what he hoped was a stormy look to quell any other questions.

Bell gave him a confused look. "I can't imagine someone bossing you around."

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Corvayne laughed a little at that, even though he was still angry. "Trust me. I had enough for a few lifetimes."

He turned and for a moment thought he had run into Grunt, as there was a sort of bulky torso in front of him. He looked up at a bull-faced man, glaring down at him.

"New to the bar. You pay our welcome Fee."

Corvayne blinked. A bandit? It had been a while!

He could see a few of them, crowding around their group. Lady Blood Claw looked at them, and Corvayne felt excitement trickling in from her. "You made a mistake. This aint a normal party. Sit down, go back to your booze."

Brines was looking between everyone. "We should just give them a little gold, there's no reason to fight."

“Not just gold.” A few were leering at the women, a few were leering at Brines, which he picked up on and started to pale.

Bearer laughed. Corvayne's ear caught her whispering to Brines, "We can take some of their stuff if they lose." Then she raised her voice. "Corvayne, your not going to let them take Bell and Hylal from us, are you?"

Bell puffed her chest out and put a hand on her blade. "The curs have their eyes on my girl?!"

Nyx rolled his eyes. "We should slay them and move on..."

LBC interjected. “Try to not kill, if possible. Bouncer.”

Corvayne was half listening, really watching one bandit to his side drawing his fist back. Corvayne moved first, scooping a mug up and using [Cross Skill: One-Two] to slam it into the would-be attacker's jaw as he might a mace, flinging the man into the bar. The murmur stopped as there was a clatter of bottles and the sound of broken wood.

Then the would-be thug roared and grabbed Corvayne. He had a moment to be impressed at the speed the second man moved to actually grab him before he was fling across a table, knocking glass over and rolling on the floor. He ended up getting some of the vile sawdust on the floor in his mouth and spat it out, rubbing his face. If that's how they want to play...

Corvayne waded into the rapidly developing barfight, cold clocking the original Minotaur after dodging two punches. A chair came flying and Corvayne caught it and sent it back with [Expert Toss]. He saw Bearer laughing as she kneed a thug in the groin. Nyx took up a boxing stance and did some surprisingly solid work on a man who was thwarted from shanking him by his shield.

Bell was just using her sword, keeping thugs away from her and Hylal, who was hiding under a table with Brines. Corvayne saw a big man head for the table and pull Brines out, who rolled out of the way of the fellows ugly hair foot coming down. "Help!"

Hylal cast an ice spell and the thug threw a leg up and fell on the back of his head. That didn't save Brines from getting slugged in the face by a thug. He responded by snapping a fist out and knocking the man over a table, then staring at his hands before someone hit him with a thrown bottle and got him running for cover again.

Spears jumped in by swiping a plate and throwing it into a thug like a discus, breaking the plate and possible the man's nose, sending him sprawling on the ground. Her watery limb also jabbed another man in the groin. She had his back again, so he kept an eye on the rest of the fight.

Corvayne saw one of the thugs moving up to Lady Blood Claw with a broken bottle, and so he grabbed a table and hurled it at the man, perhaps with a little too much heft as it created a line that knocked another table over, and suddenly more men were streaming over, grabbing whatever improvised weapons they could find. [[Unity]] generally didn't just pick up on emotions, but there was a weird mix of anger and joy in the room as they gleefully started hitting people over the head with pool cues, including Bell. A moment later, Corvayne was over the princess and using [Cross-Skill: Reap] with Argyle's staff to knock men over.

"Exit!" He called, using the link from [[Unity]] to get everyone on the same page. A moment later they formed the dungeon wedge they had used when exploring, Corvayne driving them out of the bar fight. They got to an alleyway that looked like Cascadia. Corvayne flipped to cover the door, but after a few minutes it seemed no-one cared they had left the melee, and once the party was accounted for, he looked around.

Not a tough choice: There was a chest lit by a street light. Otherwise there were only two ways out: A red neon sign with [EXIT] hung on an arch with a stairway up to what looked like street level. The other way was a smoking staircase, with [MORE] on it. No thanks.

He walked over to the chest, and that was when his mindscape triggered, ripping the colors from everything back to black.

The next moment he was falling to the familiar place that he was now sure was in his mind, though the storm felt slightly more real now, with bits of rain splashing his face before he broke through the charged clouds and landed on the now rain slick island.

"Huh, that's different..." He held his hand out and caught some of the water. It was

He spun then and saw the lightning wraith towering over him. It's blue and white energy reminded him a little of the golem he had fought.

"Ready yet?" He asked it, a small smile on his face. At this point having it blast off felt like an old friend.

It looked down at him. Usually, it answered right away. Instead, it was silent for a good ten seconds. It's blue mask gave nothing away as Corvayne stared back. There was a low rumble from the storm above, then it spoke. It's voice was a bolt of lightning, crafted from lead.

"SOON."

There was a pop then a deafening boom as it blasted up through the clouds. Corvayne tried not to worry. This was his head. He was in charge here, more or less. It was just some figment of his imagination. Besides, he had choices again.

He didn't think he wanted any sort of throne sitting ability, and so far aside from maybe boosting his shadows, it felt like the pacts were by far the best investment of whatever the Tower was tracking.

In the stony circle in his mindscape, he stepped up to the pact making pillar. The fragment or projection of Growl-Whine was there, hood cloaking glowing red clusters of eyes.

"The pacts have been useful." He said, thinking about what to do. He wanted to keep bumping Understanding and Unity for sure. Growth may have had a hand in defeating the golem. Yet, other concepts beckoned too.

"I think I want to keep diversifying..."

"You have the essence to boost the three you have one each then add two new pacts." He thought she sounded a lot more clear then last time.

"That's what I'll do then. I decided on the words I want... [[Tower]]. We depend on the Tower to give us an edge on everyone outside of it. I want anything that will help with that."

The figure mused, a clawed hand touching the cape. "Intent matters, or I'd advise you to beware of picking tarot cards."

Corvayne nodded. "I also thought about my own goals. So I'd like to see what [[Love]] does."

The figure stilled, and her voice was a tad colder then before. "That is what I would consider a dangerous pact. [[Unity]] builds on inclinations people already have. [[Love]] is a pact that, even given that it moves people to a 'positive' emotion..."

Corvayne held a hand up. "It's because I need more of it myself, and... I got dumped because of a supernatural power, I'm going to start looking at supernatural solutions."

"Maybe it will help you figure out why some pacts are dangerous. Hmm. I cannot stop you. Perhaps its better you take a few levels now, so later you don't put your weight into something that badly damages the world. Like throwing your weight into [[Chaos]]."

"How else would I make friends of my enemies?"

The figure started laughing, and Corvayne felt his power flowing into the words before he was pushed back into reality, where the group had finished looting the chest. He saw that Hylal was wearing a likely enchanted black baseball cap on her feathered head, a purple eye on it glowing faintly. There were piles of materials already set out: Green shimmering fish scales, rolls of fabric embroidered with waves, and more ingots of red metal.

"We tried to stop her, but she wanted to wear the hat before we ID'd it. We can take it off so it's probably not cursed."

Hylal chirped. "You fell asleep! Mom got worried and Nyx laughed at her!"

Bell went red faced. "He worked really hard to get us out!"

Lady Blood Claw folded her arms. "Nyx also passed out, Just he woke up right away."

Corvayne took a deep breath then collected all the loot off the pavement. Nyx tapped his shoulder and showed off a ring made of brass shaped like sea serpents. "I think it's another ring of holding. We'll do lots for it once we get it ID'd."

Corvayne tapped his chin. He wasn't ready to go back to the truck yet, not even close. "That and see if anything new happens with my powers, but First things first... We still gotta climb back out of this dungeon." He was not looking forward to trying to Shepard them through the electric deathtrap once again.

Bearer gave them a thumbs up. "How hard could that be?"