The meeting this time was in the hospital room. Nyxion was the reason, as he couldn't get out of bed yet. Corvayne had helped drag chairs in. Gary would listen in, but the man hadn't complained about being included by default.

Wick had called the meeting on short notice, after about 10 minutes at the end of therapy trying to convince Corvayne he didn't have to go back to The Watchers. He had patiently exhausted all their other options and flatly rejected just giving up on her. Mister I looked stunned that Corvayne was holding his ground, but recovered at the end to urge her to make it a normal meeting.

They set up so that Nyxion's bed was part of the circle of metal chairs. Lady Blood Claw sat on one side, while Wick took the other chair. Grunt just leaned up against the wall. Dawn and Nepthia were sitting on the wall next to him, which made Corvayne try to guess who invited them. He might still owe Nepthia at least a meal or something, as he suspected she had picked off the helicopters at the end of his fight with Argyle.

Mosh had left however many girls he was normally with home. He did have a big notebook and a pen tucked behind his ear, clearly planning to take notes.

Hari was there, along with Khorkos. The half elf warrior who had been her party leader had a shopping bag that Corvayne saw was stuffed with pairs of jeans.

Mister I came as well, first checking up to make sure Gary was doing okay, then to ask what everyone wanted him to cook for lunch.

“Don't worry! I'll bother Nyxion for the meeting details!” He happily rapped on Nyx's cast, which made the nobleman bite his teeth and tear up a little as Mister I walked away.

Brines showed up next, pulling in a dry erase board. Seru came into the room with him, carrying a box of coffee she set on a desk and waving at Corvayne with a smile then bounding up to Hari and taking a seat next to her. Khorkos looked over at Seru and gave her a goofy smile, to which Seru made a kissey face and Hari made a finger across the neck gesture that had the same effect as a bucket of cold water on the warrior.

The last person to come into the room Corvayne didn't fully expect. Jake, or he should say, officer Jake since he was in uniform, came in, got a coffee, and sat down.

Wick cleared her throat. “Thanks for the guests who came. We'll do new business first, then recap.”

“Corvayne has laid out a goal to find his village of desert super humans, undo his exile, and then take them over to help us deal with The Collective. On the flip side, we can expect some sort of response from defeating Argyle in as little as two weeks, assuming they don't have agents here and assuming that they can't charge through portals to get here faster.”

Seru added. “The good news though is every world has portals that popped up, and Old Town isn't wired as well as other parts of town, so there isn't a bunch of HD video of say, Corvayne tearing apart a train depot. That is to say, there is video of a few parts of the fight, but it's mostly security footage of Corvayne running from a bunch of guys in robes, in fuzzy IR.

Jake nodded. “We have cameras on the tracks, one of them caught the end of the fight where Corvayne managed to push Argyle in front of a moving train. Considering the monks actions, Corvayne has the backing of the Cascadia PD as justified self defense. The folks who have to clean those trains might have a few words with you, however.”

Mosh laughed really hard at that, amid a few chuckles other party members had.

Wick nodded. “Back to a possible long journey, Dawn's going to help us, namely Mosh, secure what he needs to start working on better transportation. I'm going to finalize a few investigations around town. I know Corvayne accepted a dungeon leading role, we're going to do some scouting while he does that. I hope you're making money off it?”

Brines nodded. “I intend to pay him, but I can divert some of the money to help with whatever you need to get organized.”

Dawn nodded. “Motorized carts, pack animals, or a big truck, it's all expensive.”

“I'm guessing you don't need the full two weeks for those?” Corvayne asked.

Dawn just rubbed her fingers together. Fair enough. Corvayne turned to Wick. “So you're going to be out doing survey work? Does that include the paintings?”

“Stuff we talked about with Mister I tomorrow. Paintings and where you showed up when we get back.”

“Fine. Who's doing what?”

Hari cleared her throat. “I'm going to be off for two days, I'm going to give Caala a crash course in investigation so she can go with the party, as well as a letter of introduction to Master Uphine.”

Dawn shifted a little, raising an eyebrow. Corvayne didn't smell smoke but she had a lit cigarette. “She's MOVING to another world?”

“If she's in their party, it should let her shift with them, but yes. She always wanted to explore dungeons and such.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Dawn shrugged. “Well, you guys got the credit bounty for finding the girls, not my problem after that.”

“So, I'd like to take Grunt, and Mister I if he isn't busy. I guess Lady Blood Claw can back Corvayne up or come with us. Maybe we'll offer to drive around any of Hari's party that want to see the landscape.”

Hari repeated what was said in a language that Corvayne hadn't heard her speak, then turned to respond. “That's fine, they want to go. I'll set it up tonight so Sissl can cast understand languages again.”

Jake cleared his throat. “I wanted to ask if, in the next few weeks, you'd arrange a group to investigate the Tower instance in Cascadia National forest, again, to try to find if there's any of the missing people left in it. That and help hunt goblins, they are spilling into the forest from somewhere.”

Gary shot up. “Oooh man it's just like one of those novels! If you don't do dungeons, they spill monsters!”

Seru winced. “I hope not! There's like a hundred of them around here.”

Everyone in the room was quiet. A hundred portals, even spilling weak monsters, would require massive changes to how the city was laid out, how people went about their lives... either by forcing folks to clear out near the entrance of every dun- Tower, or by accepting they'd spill monsters and building infrastructure for that...

In the quiet Mister I barged into the room with hot dogs and burgers. “They are made from hydra and land Kraken according to the packages! Thank Hari for giving me some of her precious treasure... Why is everyone staring at me?”

Wick folded her arms. “Given your talent for therapy, there's no way you can't read the room.”

Nyx chuckled. “Very smooth transition from monsters possibly tearing civilization apart to lunch. I'd like a hot dog, please!”

Dawn then laughed once. “Maybe this will get city planning to actually pick up their damn phone. Fuckin assholes still won't talk to me or Brines about making Old Town it's own munincipality!”

Brines looked a little wilted. “Don't you think that's a... a little unimportant compared to swarms of monsters?”

Lady Blood Claw shrugged. “James, I don't think it's actually that big of deal, most monsters on the first floor of any Tower are very, very weak. Just carry a small sword and keep an eye on ones that have goblins or large carnivores.”

Corvayne shook his head. “I think it's going to be something that's on people who live near the Tower entrances to deal with. Beyond my scope to do every single Tower if there's over a hundred known ones, on top of the one in my house.”

Wick pointed to Corvayne. “Our house! Wipe that grin off your face! I have a local task for you too-” Wick turned and saw Mister I frowning, then sighed and held her hands up in defeat. “Fine, we'll spend some time in the house after we do a little mission. You know what? Hehehe, consider it a date!”

Corvayne felt mild alarm. “I'm guessing from your smile, it's going to be messy and not actually a date, at all?”

Hari stepped forward. “What about me? Wick, you are a poor Girlfriend!”

Wick held up a hand. “I don't date! Fine, I'll show you all the crappy rom-coms you'll ever need to woo Corvayne.”

Hari clapped. “And you!”

Wick looked miserable. “And if you try that with me, I will hurt you.”

Mister I coughed. “Hari, she's not joking, so please...”

Corvayne tapped his foot. “Do we have any other business to bring up?”

Nyxion stirred a little. “We should locate Corvayne's companion, especially if he's to return to his tribe.”

Corvayne felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. “Not my companion.”

Nyxion looked down at his broken form. “Well then dig up some healing potions so I can go find her, then.”

“It's covered in what Wick was talking about with the paintings. Her own stuff might also lead to finding the ships you are looking for, since we are trying to find where we think the core came from.”

“It came from the mines.” Nyxion sounded a little confused.

“We think there's another Tower instance somewhere that the object was originally pulled from, when it still worked. As of now, it's a brass paperweight. Either way, you'll be in the loop.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you wanna talk about that in front of me, I mean-”

Wick nodded to him. “That you came out to help us take down Argyle at all... I can't thank your officers or the people of Old Town enough. But even if he got caught off guard when everyone rushed him, I don't want to risk it again. I can't ask you to try to come up with cover for us and put more officers lives down to stall some magic fueled monster.”

Jake nodded. “Ideally, by the time that happens our boys will have their own tricks to help do their job. I'm sort of shocked we haven't seen a spike in crime.” He turned and looked directly at Dawn, who just smiled.

“It's because, Officer, all the criminals are also running into magic space-time portals to kill things for treasure. Just, probably not all monsters.”

“That's a whole other problem too... we can't keep people safe if there's no system for where they are, or we can't track someone going in one hole and out another. Some people are forming camps by the entrances and sleeping in the portals so they can get a nights sleep in an hour of real time. That's not a secure spot!”

Seru gave a little wave. “Okay, so lets post some basic safety tips outside these Towers, and maybe get the city planners to help change how things are set up so that Cascadia makes some of the area inside the dungeon public?”

Corvayne rubbed his face. “Or just, open inns inside the gateway. Not like there's a lack of materials in most of them.”

Mister I raised a hand. “Speaking of dungeons! I have my own group who's going to want Corvayne for an expedition.”

Corvayne wiggled his hand as a maybe. “Later this week I might have time, and put the money to whatever we decide by say, Thursday, be it leaving or if we stay and try to weather another storm maybe going with a better defended home.”

Everyone in the room's expressions told Corvayne that was going to be unlikely. No arguments from him, once was enough. For now. A spear holds in place, and lets the moment come to it. He wasn't sure that was one of the things Waves-Within said, but it sounded like a WW original.

Wick put her hands together. “I think that's new business, so have a burger or hotdog and we'll do a quick recap of things to do. I have some locations to scout that might shed light on why folks like Argyle are after me. No comments from the peanut gallery.”

Grunt nodded, then saluted and walked out after grabbing two hamburgers without bothering to take a bun. Wick cupped her mouth. “It won't take THAT long you jackass!”

Mister I held a hand up. “Grunt has the total clarity of someone who doesn't care about what they do not know or cannot remember.”

Corvayne folded his hands. “I cannot tell if that's a compliment or an insult.”

A meaty hand popped in from the hall and gave everyone a thumbs up.