“Can I tag along on your trip to Seagrass?” Kai asked Grandmother. Grandmother’s party was gathering together at the inn’s outside tables in preparation for the trip.

“Why do you want to go?” Grandmother asked. The young crafter wasn’t an official member of her team, but he’d been around long enough that Grandmother was starting to feel like he was. It was when he asked questions like this that she remembered he wasn’t. If he followed along with the rest, Grandmother probably wouldn’t have thought twice about transporting him.

“Well, I’d like to set up as a glass crafter, but I need to secure a source of raw glass. I read on the Speedwell that on Earth they made glass from silicon sand. I looked all over the green and I didn’t find any sand,” Kai reported. “I was hoping that maybe there was sand in the bottom of the water green. If there is, I want to make a deal with a selkie to buy some for testing.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Grandmother responded. “We are going to the south gallery first. The trip there is free for me because I own that crystal, but the trip over to Seagrass from there has a cost.”

“Ok,” Kai responded, happy to be included. Grandmother was about to tell him if he helped out with sweeping the rooms around the gallery she would pay for his transport to Seagrass. She decided not to mention it. She liked his quick acceptance that the cost of transporting himself was his responsibility. It made it more likely she would pay to send him through, but he didn’t need to know that.

“We’ll head out as soon as everyone turns up,” Grandmother told Kai.

“I’m ready,” he said, shifting his pack on his back. Grandmother nodded her approval.

Alex was the last to turn up. He emerged from his shop carrying a bag that appeared to be overflowing with other bags. Grandmother wondered what his plan was, but decided not to ask. She was sure she would find out soon enough.

Harry was standing outside the transportation room to see them off. He reminded Grandmother to activate the transportation system for Ellen. They system could only be operated by players who where tier four or above. Ellen's recent tier increase meant she could gain access by decrypting the wall inscription in the south gallery. Grandmother knew a way to share the solution to make it faster.

The trip seemed nearly instantaneous, but it was much later in the day when they stepped out on the other side at the southern gallery. While Grandmother and Ellen sat staring at the wall inscription in the center of the room, Todd, Alex, Companion, Sarah and Kai got organized for clearing the surrounding rooms.

“What spell are you working on?” Alex asked Kai. Kai was learning thrown magic. He bought an almost random selection of magic books to start and was working his way through them. Kai thought the books were random, but in actuality Sarah carefully steered him in his selections when he told her what he wanted them for. She put back the higher tier books and sold him all tier zero and one books.

“Chain lightning,” Kai responded.

“Which tier?”

“Tier one,” Kai answered, “Is there more?”

“Oh yeah,” Todd responded. “Chain lightning is one of those spells that just gets bigger and nastier. You should see Grandmother cast the tier five version.”

“Is she likely to do that today?” Kai asked. He went going out scavenging with Alex and Companion since his hand finished regrowing. Actually he’d gone out with them even before that, even though then he mostly just followed along and helped go through the room contents. He was pretty good at picking out furniture components. He never cleared rooms with the full party before, nor in in an area with this high of a tier.

“It’s unlikely. She mostly stands around and lets us do all the work. She says the experience is more important for us,” Sarah responded.

“This is tier four space,” Todd reminded them all. “She’ll help out readily enough if we get into trouble. Seriously Kai, if we stumble into something bad, stay behind Grandmother. At tier two you are the most vulnerable.”

“Ok,” Kai responded.

“For normal entry, take the third to the front position, which is the position on the hinge side of the door. If that works out we will rotate you up to second, when we change the first entry position,” Todd instructed.

“Everyone ready?” Grandmother asked. Everyone replied in the affirmative.

“Let’s go,” Grandmother ordered. Everyone fell into a serious stance. Sarah began casting a series of cloaking and enhancement spells. They exited out of the gallery before she finished. Alex was in the lead, followed by Ellen, Kai, Companion, Grandmother, Sarah and Todd.

They ran the hallways first. The area around the gallery was a cul-de-sac, with only one way out. They came across a group of cats and hall spiders during the sweep. Both sets of animals were cleared up quickly. They were able to get close under the cloaking spells, before all the wizards in the group opened up. Sarah recast their cloak each time. Kai only managed to try to cast his new spell twice in each encounter. It failed both times.

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The entrance to the area was a set of double doors. They set up around them before Alex gently opened one of the doors just a crack and put his eye against it.

“It looks the same,” Alex reported. “All I can see is a platform over a drop.” He stepped back from the doors.

“Everyone wait here,” Grandmother ordered. She cast conceal on everyone, before barely opening the door and stepping through. Grandmother returned moments later.

“Yep,” Grandmother reported. “It’s a platform over a large industrial space occupied by walking bears. I think the room contents have changed.”

“The halls in this area have updated as well,” Todd observed. “The pattern is different, but the overall size and shape of the cul-de-sac is the same.”

“If there’s been a remodel the contents of all the rooms will be different. Lets head back to the gallery and begin the run from there,” Grandmother directed.

From the gallery they circled left. The first door opened to a room full of strange animals that walked on the floors, walls and ceiling. They were nearly as big as a badger. Their teeth and the spines all over their body made up for the lack of claws. Alex backed away from the open door as the animals spilled out into the hallway. The door slowly closed. Ellen threw chained lightning from the left side of the doorway. Kai unsuccessfully tried to throw the tier one version from the left. He took a careful step back along the hall as the animals spread out and came closer to him.

Ice-bolts came from over his shoulder and very nearly froze the animals solid. That was not the tier zero version he learned. Refusing to look over his shoulder he continued to cast. The door clicked closed. Alex was dancing in close to finish off the animals that dropped from the ceiling, under the stun effect of Ellen’s lightning. They were running out of live animals for Kai to aim at. He kept casting.

The last animal died and Kai still hadn’t successfully cast chained lightning. He was disappointed.

“Am I doing this right?” he asked.

“Looks good to me,” Grandmother commented. Now Kai turned to look over his shoulder. The group split when they set up to enter the rooms. Grandmother and Todd were behind him, Companion was a little farther back watching the approach. He wasn’t certain who cast the ice-bolts, but he suspected it was Grandmother. “Here,” she said, “I’ll play teacher. That usually speeds it up.”

She stepped forward and went through the spell symbols with him, skipping the start symbol so she didn’t actually cast. Kai copied her example, sign for sign.

“Ok, Alex, we're good to go,” Grandmother called when they had finished the little exercise. Alex pushed the door open again and another group of the spiky animals rushed out. Alex stepped back out of the way, using his sword to finish off two of the leaders in a single slash. Kai cast at the animals that were crawling up the wall heading to the ceiling. A bolt of lightning formed just past the end of his hand and raced to the animal he was looking out. The animal spasmed and dropped to the ground. The lightning, weaker in appearance, jumped to the next closest animal. It too, spasmed, but managed to hold on. The lightning jumped one last time before grounding out.

Ecstatic at the success, Kai cast again.

They opened the door two more times, before no new ones emerged. After surveying the room carefully through the open door, Alex entered backwards, so he could quickly check the wall around the door which they couldn’t see from the hall.

“What are these things?” Kai asked when the room was certified as secure. Todd, Sarah and Companion remained on watch outside the door.

“Land something!” Companion sang happily. “Very tasty!”

“Porcupines,” Todd responded. Kai frowned. He thought he was starting to understand the selkie.

“That’s not what Companion said,” Kai commented. “He called them land something.”

“The selkie name for them is the land version of some sea animal. Companion picked out a sea urchin as the closest match from photos on the Speedwell,” Alex explained. “Although Earthen sea urchins are tiny things that barely move. They are about the size of a fist. They are covered with spines. We named these suckers after a larger mammal that is also covered with spines. Obviously spines are their defining attribute.”

“Selkie absolutely love them,” Todd commented from the hallway, “but most humans think they taste odd.”

“I promised the butcher I would bring some back,” Sarah commented. “These are so close to the gallery I am going to try putting them in the storage shelving to preserve them.” Sarah put on a set of gloves and started tossing the carcasses in the direction of the gallery.

“Look at this, isn't it beautiful?” Alex said. He was holding up a length of shelving that appeared to be made out of glass.

“Is that glass?” Kai said with excitement.

“Ah… yes, but you can’t have it!” Alex responded, hugging the shelving close to his body.

“Not every glass piece will convert into scrap,” Grandmother warned. “There is an inventory access in the gallery where you can try. If there are complete glass shelves here, it is likely we’ll find broken ones too. They will have a higher chance of being convertible debris.” Kai looked over and saw that Grandmother was digging through a pile of debris of her own.

“What are we looking for exactly?” he asked.

“Anything that looks like a tool, any kind of vellum, furniture components, stone and glass,” Ellen answered from another pile.

“Except for the small connector pieces, don’t worry about any of the standard components in iron or stainless,” Alex commented. “We get plenty of them around Home Square.”

“And planters,” Todd added from his post in the hallway. “I promised Muriel more planters.” Ellen looked up and stepped back to the first pile she’d inspected. She fished out what looked like a tall bowl and carried it over to the door.

“Thanks for the reminder,” she said as she sat it in the hallway. “Pick up anything that looks like a cooking utensil too,” Ellen said as she passed Kai. “Todd gets all ecstatic over spoons.”

“If you find anything that looks like bone, call out,” Grandmother added. Kai decided he wasn’t helping, just standing there and turned to the nearest pile.