Mere Park was a two-block park near the middle of the island. Right from the train station he could see the park he was headed to, a rectangle of green amid rows of tightly packed homes with little yards in front and behind them, all partitioned with fences. The Tower in this instance was obvious, as a set of stairs had grown out of the basketball court. Like the rest of the Towers discovered the last few days, it was doing brisk business with would-be weekend adventurers flocking to try to get super powers. A crowd of them had formed lines by the court, with some people setting up booths for food or weapons bought from a hardware store like axes and machetes. Corvayne read many books where society just broke down when portals came into being, but he had read most people that had dived into Towers were planning to be weekend warriors, and some people were rightly hesitant to go in and 'gain levels' when there was a real risk of death.
He could see the group he was going to go with gathering at the end of the line, this time a few friends and some unfamiliar faces mixed in.
Brines had made a sheath for his fire breathing dagger that matched his padded diving suit. He was sweating, either because he was extremely nervous, or because his outfit was probably too warm for days where the sun was shining. As the organizer of this expedition, Brines had helped supply everyone with some of the things Corvayne wanted anyone going into the Tower to have: A backpack, at least two days supply of water, trail mix and some jerky, a knife, a bedroll, rope and mesh bags, a pair of flashlights, and a fire kit. Corvayne was carrying extra water in his storage ring, guessing that Brines might not have made sure people understood two days was something like two gallons of water.
Lady Blood Claw was behind him. She had knocked on Corvayne's door to request training and his explanation of where he was going shifted to coming along. She held Mister I's old bow, in addition to the two handed sword she usually used, shifting the weapons on her back while looking around. Her skin was a light gray that suggested she was nervous, perhaps because everyone lining up behind her came up to ask her if she was an alien or monster or demon, and then if she was a Drow after the first few curious civilians embarrassed her to the point her skin turned dark blue.
The only other person in line getting as much or more attention was Mosh, whom everyone wanted to snap a picture with, given that he looked like a monster. June was waiting beside him, mostly ignoring everyone to watch cars go back and forth on the nearest street, shifting a well made silver spear. Corvayne and Mosh had spent a little time the night before forging metal spears and sharpening steel knives. Mosh had woven his armadillo armor into a nicer set of clothes, and June had an outfit of thick cloth with leather padding on her torso and legs.
Behind them was a tall athletic girl wearing what looked like a larger version of Mosh's armadillo armor. She had a pair of what looked like slightly rusty hatchets, though they gleamed with a new edge. Corvayne hadn't spoken to Varia yet, but every so often he'd catch her staring at him over her phone. It felt like she was assessing him.
Ayame came up next in line, Hair pulled into a bun and wearing her sauce splattered apron loaded up with old kitchen knives and a large cleaver only put to shame by his own. She was huffing a little, and keep looking at the stairs ahead nervously while shifting a large backpack she had.
An older man with a plumber's wrench was behind Ayame, currently fanning himself with a piece of paper. He had a lot of extra body weight and was sweating and looking impatiently at the people in front of him. Brines had reassured Corvayne that the plumber, Curtis, was nice enough even if he wanted to go go go.
Behind Curtis was a fellow that Corvayne had met in a previous life. Horton was Wick's friend who apparently supplied her with all the high tech toys she had. He was wearing a green T-Shirt with a man shooting at a UFO and the words 'Not Today, Motherfucker!' on it, and was packing a bunch of gear stuffed into a bulging backpack. His weapon looked like a wood carved wizard's staff, complete with a hand grasping a blue glass orb. He spent a lot of time looking at Lady Blood Claw and Mosh, and sometimes shooting Corvayne a look that seemed to also be sizing him up.
The last three he knew by face from the warehouse: The two morning security guards and the parcel girl. Corvayne had forgotten their names but Brines had helpfully pointed out who's who. Lessy was the guard with a ton of peircings, Buck was the skinny guy with the eye-patch, and Kayla worked as a courier, actually bringing them the crate that Nyxion had been looking for. Corvayne had stepped over to talk to them and found that Brines was behind the curve, as they had decided to pick new names.
“Ears-of-Steel!” Lessy had said proudly, dressed in black leather with metal spikes of questionable defensive value.
“Reaper-of-Fish.” Buck nodded. He had brought a fishing rod with him as well as his tackle box, with a fishing spear in addition to a sidearm as his weapons.
Kayla hefted her backpack, and tapped the ground with steel toed boots then cracked her knuckles. “Bearer-of-Burdens.”
A quick check with Lady Blood Claw's phone confirmed that this was probably the result of Hari, who knew about his village and it's weird names, blurting to Seru, who then blurted to what he was starting to fear was all of Cascadia about his business. The three guards definitely knew at least some of his exploits, as 'Reaper-of-Fish' had asked him if Corvayne could help him regrow his eye too, which he redirected to asking Mosh for help.
Corvayne's group was a blob and he felt it was probably too many people to properly protect, but on the other hand this was a non-blind Tower run, for once. He had a copy of the same paper the plumber Curtis was using as a fan, except Corvayne used it for it's intended purpose: a rough outline of what the most likely set of floors were. The floors even had nicknames, Seru picking the ones that she liked the most to throw into a guide.
He was going to review it one more time but it was their turn to step into what was dubbed 'Docks'. Brines undestandibly hesitated when it came to leading the way up so Corvayne simply walked past him to get the sand flowing on this expedition. He climbed his way up the concrete steps to nowhere, each step pushing away the faint traces of exhaust and mowed grass at the park and replacing it with the scent of the ocean until he reached the top and then walked through a dim gray hole in the world into an open area on a concrete pier, surrounded by warehouses and fog.
The air was cooler and somehow drier in the Tower despite the clouds of moisture. The din of the city and crowded park morphed into clanking and lapping noises of the sea battering metal structures. Another group of adventurers were deciding where to go in the large concrete plaza around the gateway he had stepped from, and Corvayne could see a few people had set up a rainbow of tents in the area. Another group was waiting to leave, so Corvayne moved off to the side as his much larger pack gathered.
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It took more then a minute for their entire party to arrive through the portal. Brines was smiling the entire time, waving people over, then turned and gave Corvayne a sharp salute. “Corvayne, why don't you tell us which route we're going to take?”
The athletic man handed Corvayne a laminated page that had a basic map, also curated by Seru. Corvayne scanned it briefly then handed the drawn map to Lady Blood Claw behind him and reviewed Seru's floor report.
1A – Landing Docks, crate mazes. Mostly safe, some weak sea life, and 'fake crates'. Everybody uses the exits on bridges up to ships. Most of entry area cleared out. Water varies from 1-10 ft deep, most of the time you can stand in it unless you're short! Low water is salt, warehouses have fresh water in taps and hoses, slightly rusty taste but no sickness after 2-3 days of drinking it with boiling.
Major injury: urchins punctures hurt! I guess that's why he uses a spear, huh? Also two people lost toes from crabs. Wear boots not flip flops!
Deaths: 1 reported death due to heart attack when box mimic screamed at them.
to do: scuba diver checking for deeper areas?
Report of some pipes in the water with stairs in them go up to a sewer, some pipes go to 'wall'. No extra info on sewer.
2A – Pool tunnel. Poorly lit, enemies blend into plant life on walls, and water. Water elementals can punch twenty feet away. Standard exit stairs up into skylights. Water rarely deeper then 3 ft, suspect it's 'pool water'. Smell of chlorine might irritate your nose. Non standard exit -> waterfall stairway.
Injuries: several concussions from water bolts hitting people in the head. 1 broken nose.
Deaths: sometimes find old bones with odd mideval gear, using resting in corners of the pools. Mineral growth on them.
To do: Try to follow faint flow of water to/from source?
2B – Pipe wall: Not explored much. Tunnel exits lead to paths on side of giant building with huge pipes dumping water, thin walkways along huge wall. Looks like a huge abandoned industrial city. Sky wrong color. Flying monsters and risk of falling into hazy darkness below. Comments from people who checked – Size and scale of area looks incredible.
No known deaths/injuries.
To do: explore with tools to prevent falls.
3A – Water malls. Huge moonlit grids over ocean, trains running between 'malls' on stilts. Filled with picked over stores, shadow teens who spray paint, so use face protection or cover eyes. Also weird horse shoe crabs with fingers instead of crab. Malls each have 1-2 patrols of shadows in guard equipment, stronger then teens no guns but large group, run out of mall to lose them.
Injury: some attempts stalled due to people getting blinded by paint. Wear eye protection! 3 people in critical condition after engaging shadow guards.
Deaths: 2 people in a group were beaten to death by shadow guards when they tried to fight a whole group.
To do: take stairs down to base of stations and malls and see what deal with ocean is. Groups noticed the stairs under platforms but wanted to go up.
3B – Night boats from waterfall stairs on 2A. Very dark, lit boats on an ocean with wood docs and metal gangways between them. Water looks full of sea life, prob hostile. Some sort of sniper monster, parties backed out with injury rather then try to fight.
Injury: 3 groups had 1 or more members with puncture wounds from embedded shells, like literally sharp seashells. 1 Group had eye injury and had to abort climb.
To do: have a big strong hero, possibly with night vision, check this floor out ;-) ?
Corvayne stopped reading a moment to roll his eyes, as he had the first time he saw that little note.
4A – Dock Cube. Big open area. Like floor one but forest growing out of water. No sky, instead faces of cube w/ similar docks with gray mist obscuring most of ceiling, can walk up walls where they meet. Enemies are spiders on land and striders on water. Striders tall recommend bring a gun, legs tough. Watch out for living fork lift will try to run you over in warehouses. Can kill by stabbing engine or bleeding gas tank. Main stairs on side of warehouse to 'office'.
5a – Green Tower. Cramped area. Very vertical. Felt like a dungeons and dragons dungeon, lots of rusted gates and mossy-vine overgrown places, flowing water. Possibly a maze due to tunnels leading between 'shafts'. Heard things moving far away. Only creatures both groups reported didn't attack, look like large bugs covered in flowers, eating moss. Going up a few hundred feet found a stairway into light.
Boss – Rusted machine. About the size of a desk, tries to ram and hammer people with four arms and legs. Dangerous due to mass and difficult to harm but hurts itself ramming walls.
Corvayne switched with Lady Blood Claw, who hummed while reading the dispatch. Corvayne took a moment to look at the hand drawn maps of the floors. They were crude sketches of part of the first floor with 3 standard stairs listed around the entrance. The second floor was a scatter shot of room drawings loosely connected by lines, with directions how to get from landmark to landmark to the stairway. The third had a grid of four by four of the 'malls' with where stairs were inside and which down stairs took you were in floor 2. Floor four had a rough map of two cubes, the drawing mostly showing the shape of land vs forest in one, the other was a series of lines laid out over a cross like a maze. No maps for floor five.
Lady Blood Claw finished reading as he put the map down. She actually smiled at Corvayne “Good info... Seru is full of surprises.” she handed the paper back and turned gray as she thought for a moment. “I think if we are just killing for essence, I suspect that third floor will suit us best. In a big group we won't get as much essence hunting small fry, but if there are big clumps of twenty or thirty enemies you'll get the best results for trying to bolster someone who has not advanced. However, it goes without saying we should check to see how hard it is to dispatch shadows before we commit to trying to kill a whole pack.”
Corvayne nodded at her, then gestured at their surroundings. “Given the number of tents here, and the people I see about... I think we need to do some serious hiking on this floor to get away from the entrance and find some lone monsters to act as practice so nobody is surprised.”
He was pretty sure he heard the old plumber groan, and the three who picked up new names frowned, but he held up a hand.
“The Tower changes time inside at a rate of about 7 to 1. So we got a few days here, and most of it is going to be moving from spot to spot. It's better to do some hiking on the floor with the least threats and the one where we are not wading through water.”
Mosh laughed. “Don't worry your pretty little heads about the walk. I'll make the aches and pains go right away. Donations accepted.”
There were more groans and Corvayne sighed. “Okay, also if people haven't been through there's more treasure for us.”
The entire group perked up and stood a little straighter. He heard Lady Blood Claw chortle as he inwardly shrugged. Whatever works, right?