Chapter Summaries

Unas found that Gnolls and an Orc from his former stronghold had been sent to the Black Furnace as slaves, and he claimed them before the Blackrock Orcs could take them. After bringing them to human territory, he learned that the island battle had ended in victory and began hearing what happened after he disappeared.

• Unas inspected Luther's spear training and learned that the passage had opened and new slaves were arriving.
• Unas recognized Huobi and Huote among the arriving Gnolls, claimed them as his captives, and defeated the Orcs who challenged him.
• Unas had Hart's men rescue fifty-six Gnolls and his controlled Orc warrior, Gelasi, while a Blackrock Orc threatened him.
• Unas led the Gnolls, Gelasi, and the two Gnoll leaders back to human territory and asked what had happened at the stronghold.
• The Gnoll leaders and Gelasi reported that Unas's allies had won the island battle, easing his worries about Angela and the Copperhammer Brothers.

After the group traced Unas to the Black Furnace, a small team infiltrated Shadowforge City by posing as slave catchers and sent Glass to deliver a message. Unas established communication with Angela and Erigor, who had found him in the city, and asked about their rescue plan.

• The searchers used Natasha’s connection to the Shadowfiend to locate Unas in the Black Furnace, then planned a small-scale infiltration of Shadowforge City.
• A disguised team led by Dugal Redbrow sold Gnolls and Orcs into the mines, where Glass told Unas about the rescue effort and Firekiss’s location.
• Glass coughed up a communication crystal, and Unas carried it toward the surface until he could reach Angela through the static.
• Unas spoke with Angela and Erigor, joked about his work in the mines, and learned that they were at an inn in Shadowforge City with Darian.
• Unas declined to speak with Darian and asked Angela to explain their rescue plan.

Unas and Erigor discussed a rescue plan involving stolen keys and patrol diversions, while Unas asked Erigor to investigate who had taken his ring. After their call ended, an unseen swimmer stole the communication crystal, then revealed herself as a female Orc who evaded Unas’s attack and disappeared beneath the water.

• Erigor explained that the group planned to obtain keys to the iron doors and draw the Black Iron City Guard patrols away from the shaft gate.
• Unas asked Erigor to investigate who had handled him after he was pulled from the lava river, because his Gordon Family ring was missing.
• Erigor ended the call and promised to contact Unas again after the group had prepared.
• An unseen attacker dragged Unas into the pool and stole his communication crystal.
• A female Orc emerged from the water, dodged Unas’s javelin, and vanished when he tried to coax her back out.

Unas confronted Keira after discovering she had overheard his escape plans and stolen his communication crystal. He tracked her to the South District and forced his way into Tigerfang Clan territory, where he faced a crowd of Orcs while seeking negotiations.

• Keira revealed that she had taken Unas’s communication crystal, admitted she had heard his conversation, and challenged him to find her in the South District.
• Unas suspected Keira was the Orc who had failed to escape, then woke Frank and went with him to seek her out.
• Frank’s Dark Iron Dwarf friend confirmed Keira led the Tigerfang Clan, a growing faction of Orcs that had seized territory in the South District.
• Unas sent Frank and the Dwarf away, approached Keira’s territory alone, and identified himself to two Orc guards.
• When Orcs attacked, Unas fought through the tunnel and used Divine Storm to break into the crowd, then retreated into the tunnel after the Orcs surrounded him with thrown tools and rocks.

Unas met with Keira to propose an alliance in exchange for information about the Dark Iron Dwarves’ defenses, but they postponed their decision until the next day. After returning to human territory, Unas considered war as a backup plan and ordered preparations while worrying that the Black Furnace’s owners might be monitoring them.

• Keira revealed that her ambush had tested whether Unas lived up to the rumors, and she agreed to hear his proposal after her warriors retreated.
• Unas offered Keira and her sisters freedom in exchange for information about the Dark Iron Dwarves’ trade-day defenses, but they argued over the communication crystal and the risk of war.
• Unas set a meeting with Keira in the Central District for the following day and returned to Dark Iron Dwarf territory with Frank.
• Frank warned Unas that the Black Furnace’s mine owners might use spies to monitor the underground territories, and he offered to seek the Dark Iron Dwarves’ support if war became necessary.
• Unas ordered Frank to put Gnolls to work mining and prepare them for Luther’s military training, then returned to his room and fell asleep.

Unas received an invitation from Lincoln the Upright and brought Luther and fifty guards to the southern district, where Isaac helped him reach the Ogre chief. Lincoln revealed that he had received the female Orc’s communication crystal and invited Unas to a banquet, leaving Unas entering Lincoln’s territory with Isaac while his guards waited outside.

• Bas told Unas that Lincoln the Upright had invited him to the southern district.
• Unas took Luther and fifty guards toward Lincoln’s territory, and Isaac joined them, offering to introduce Unas to the Lincoln brothers.
• Isaac fought two Ogre guards who blocked the passage, and they fled to summon reinforcements.
• Lincoln emerged with more than forty Ogres and confirmed that he remembered Isaac, while Link complained when Lincoln mocked Half-Face.
• Lincoln showed Unas the female Orc’s communication crystal and invited him to a banquet, claiming he wanted to thank Unas for killing Smolderthorn Trolls.
• Unas left Luther and the guards on standby and followed Lincoln into the passage with Isaac.

Unas negotiated with Lincoln and Keira for help escaping the underground prison, while learning about the dangers above and the Ogres’ Levitate spell. The chapter ended with Unas newly hopeful that a small group could seize the shaft gate and bring the others out.

• Lincoln hosted Unas and Isaac at an Ogre banquet, and Isaac ate until the Ogres carried him away.
• Keira joined Lincoln, and Unas secured Lincoln’s trust when Lincoln returned the communication crystal to him.
• Unas demonstrated that he could fly and asked Keira to describe the defenses above.
• Keira explained that trading day was heavily guarded and that the shaft gate was nearly impossible to open when slaves were sent down.
• Keira proposed flying up with Unas, but Unas objected that the Ogres would be too slow to climb after them.
• Lincoln revealed that he could cast Levitate on ten people for three minutes, raising Unas’s hopes of escaping with a team of fighters.

Unas tested a plan to use Levitate and rope to carry people through the passage, then coordinated with Lincoln and Angela as they prepared to escape. The operation depended on the Dwarves’ uncertain release schedule, and Unas ended the chapter hoping the group could get out safely.

• Unas, Lincoln, the female Orc, and three Ogres successfully tested flying while linked by a rope under Levitate.
• Unas and Lincoln agreed to take two thinner Ogres at the end of the rope, and Unas chose Gelasi, Hart, and Raymond among those he would bring.
• Lincoln told Unas that three districts planned to attack Torbjorn after trading day, then agreed to pull back his forces and provide weapons and support for the escape.
• Unas returned to Luther, asked him to select two reliable fighters, and then contacted Angela through the communication crystal.
• Angela told Unas that Bri-Cinder, a Dark Iron farmer, had sold him to Blackbeard and might know something about the Ring; Unas asked her to investigate and help clear the route and draw away the guards.
• Unas told Angela about the Levitate plan and prayed that they could escape safely in a few days.

Unas faced Half-Face’s suspicions while preparing a secret operation with Hart, Raymond, and Gelasi. After three days of training, he went with them to Half-Face’s territory on trading day, ready to enter the Central District and observe the trade.

• Moreby Ironmountain joined Unas’s charge squad after Unas offered to look after him.
• Half-Face questioned Unas about the Gnolls and his meeting with Lincoln, but Unas denied the rumors and claimed he had gone to mediate a dispute involving Keira.
• Half-Face’s aides urged him to seize Unas, but Half-Face ordered them to keep watching him instead.
• Unas recruited Hart and Raymond to help with an operation and trained them and Gelasi to defend a small area.
• Three days later, after the central hot spring receded, Unas divided his ore among the bosses and went with the three men to Half-Face’s territory for trading day.

Unas attended the Black Furnace transaction, observed how the minecart trains were hoisted through the shaft, and returned safely with Blackbeard’s supplies. He told Luther his escape plan and left him in command of the humans while preparing to join Half-Face’s coming operation.

• Unas pulled the first minecart train beside Half-Face, then met Torbjorn and saw the leaders of the Black Furnace gather for the transaction.
• Unas watched the minecarts rise through the ceiling shaft on a thick blacksteel cable and noted that the process could provide a route for people to climb out.
• After waiting through the transactions for more than ten hours, Unas delivered Blackbeard’s food and supplies safely back to the Mining District.
• Unas privately told Luther his escape plan and ordered him to prepare the humans, distribute weapons from Riedel’s old warehouse, and gather everyone with three days of rations when the time came.
• Unas made Luther supreme commander in his absence, warned him not to trust the Tigerfang Clan or Lincoln’s Ogres too readily, and hurried to Half-Face’s base with the trio.

Unas led Half-Face’s assault team through Torbjorn’s territories and helped turn a costly battle against armored Dwarves into a rout by combining Divine Storm with the power of Reckoning. The chapter ended with the enemy fleeing behind an iron gate, several Dwarves surrendering outside it, and Unas’s experience at ninety-seven percent.

• Unas learned that the Blackrock Orcs and Lincoln’s Ogres had not begun their promised attacks, but Half-Face ordered the assault team to press on toward Torbjorn’s territory.
• Unas led the assault team through the Dwarf brothers’ territory and sent a runner to warn Half-Face that the route remained unprepared.
• Armored Dwarves ambushed the assault team in a mine cavern, and Unas fought alongside Isaac, Gelasi, Hart, and Raymond to drive them back.
• Three Dwarf Warriors struck Unas with their thrown warhammers, but Isaac shielded him while his companions helped him recover.
• Unas absorbed repeated hammer blows to charge Reckoning, then combined it with Divine Storm to slaughter more than a dozen Dwarves and rally the assault team.
• The assault team routed the fleeing Dwarves through several caverns until an iron gate stopped them, and Unas saw that his experience had reached ninety-seven percent.

Unas helped Half-Face’s forces break through the iron gate and led the vanguard deep into the passage before faking a serious injury to withdraw and keep gaining experience. As the battle stalled, Half-Face learned the Blackrock Orcs had taken Torbjorn’s encampment and began to suspect that Blacktooth and Lincoln planned to turn against him.

• Unas reached level 35 and learned Hand of Freedom, while Half-Face arrived with a makeshift battering ram to break the iron gate.
• The Ogres battered down the gate, and Unas led the non-Ogre vanguard through the opening, fighting Dark Iron Dwarves and driving them nearly a hundred meters back.
• Unas deliberately let a Dwarf spear wound his shoulder, then had Gelasi carry him out so he could withdraw without arousing Half-Face’s suspicion.
• Raymond stitched and bandaged Unas’s wound, and Unas refused to rest farther back so he could continue gaining experience from the ongoing battle.
• Half-Face learned that the Blackrock Orcs had seized Torbjorn’s empty encampment and worried that Blacktooth and Lincoln might join forces against him, leaving him unsure whether to attack or retreat.

Half-Face forced his army through Torbjorn’s defenses and overcame a lava barrier to capture the furnace room. Unas stayed behind to leech experience while Half-Face discovered Torbjorn was missing and ordered his troops to search for a hidden passage.

• Half-Face drove his troops forward despite the casualties, and Unas followed him to keep leeching experience.
• Half-Face found that Torbjorn had flooded the route to the furnace with lava, so he halted his army and agreed with Blacktooth and Lincoln to besiege Torbjorn together.
• After the lava began to recede, Half-Face’s engineers made floating stone slabs, and his troops crossed the workshops to reach the furnace shaft.
• Half-Face’s soldiers smashed the lava pipes and fought their way down into the furnace room, where they defeated Torbjorn’s defenders.
• Unas stayed above the furnace room and raised his experience past 70%, while Half-Face found no sign of Torbjorn and ordered a search for a hidden passage.

Half-Face and Blacktooth searched the furnace room for Torbjorn’s supposed escape passage, unaware that he and his elite soldiers were hiding in the Granary under Lincoln’s protection. Their search unleashed five Lava Elementals, giving Unas an opening to leave and meet his allies as their escape operation began.

• Half-Face refused to share the furnace room with the Orcs and Ogres without renegotiating their agreement, but eventually allowed Blacktooth and a hundred Orcs to enter and search.
• Torbjorn’s preparations were revealed: after Lincoln warned him of the planned attack, he hid with his elite soldiers in the Granary while the Ogres helped conceal his movements.
• Half-Face and Blacktooth’s forces drained the lava pool and broke through a marked spot, releasing five Lava Elementals that attacked them.
• Blacktooth and Half-Face led their warriors against the Lava Elementals while Unas slipped away from the furnace room.
• Unas told Gelasi to carry him to the Central District and asked him to claim that his injury had flared up; Raymond and Hart realized their operation had begun.

Unas led the escapees through the well gate and fought off the guards while his companions opened it. The gate stood fully open, and the group lowered the cable for the people trapped below as the guards hesitated to attack.

• Unas recruited Tieshan and Isaac, then met Keira and confirmed with Erigor that help was ready when the well gate opened.
• Keira, Lincoln, Torbjorn, and the others gathered at the hot spring pool as slaves began dropping through the gate; Lincoln used Levitate to help Unas lead an assault team up the passage.
• Unas caught a falling slave, burst through the opening, and killed or scattered the guards around the well gate.
• Hart and Raymond began turning the winch while Unas shielded the group from arrows and Shadow Bolts, and Keira’s fighters counterattacked the mages.
• With the Ogres’ help, the group fully opened the gate, lowered the hoisting cable toward the pool, and faced the wavering guards.

Unas and the rescue party freed the captives and fought through Shadowforge City amid a gladiator uprising, choosing the Searing Gorge as their escape route. At the lockup, a powerful purple-robed mage halted the Tigerfang Clan’s advance, and Unas led the humans into the fight.

• Erigor reunited with Unas and returned the Fire Ring, while the freed Tigerfang Clan and other captives gathered in the passage.
• Unas’s group opened the iron gate, and Keira led the Tigerfang Clan against the guards as the rescue party followed.
• Erigor explained that Nightmoon and the other Watchers had helped Carlos unleash an uprising in the arena, drawing the city guards away from the Black Furnace.
• Unas reached level 36, gained Holy Wrath, and joined Erigor in choosing the route through the lockup toward the Searing Gorge.
• The group reached the Twilight’s Hammer lockup, where a purple-robed mage struck down Orc Warriors and cursed others.
• Unas called the human spearmen to charge alongside the Orcs against the mage and her guards.

Unas and the escaped prisoners fought through the Ironrage Army, then pushed on to Blackrock Depths’ Back Gate. After leveling up and recovering, Unas rejoined the group as they faced the final defense and debated how to break through.

• Unas freed the cursed Orcs and more than a hundred prisoners, then led the survivors onward as city forces pursued them.
• The Ironrage Army blocked their passage, and Unas fought through its ranks to kill one Dwarven mage while Angela and Huoye battled the enemy casters.
• Lincoln arrived with reinforcements, helping rout the Ironrage Army; Isaac carried the exhausted Unas until he gained enough experience to level up and collapse.
• The escaped prisoners freed the quarry workers and reached the Back Gate, where Lincoln warned that pursuers were close and Angela doubted their mages could blast it open.
• Unas appeared recovered after leveling up and surprised the group as they considered how to breach the gate.

Unas and his companions used the Crimson Diamond to blast through the Ironrage Army’s gate fortress and escaped the cavern. Outside, they agreed to seize Backdoor Fortress and await reinforcements, but Lincoln and Keira rejected the plan to seek help from the Dwarves.

• Unas used the Crimson Diamond to help Huoye, Angela, and Lincoln destroy the fortress gate and devastate the enemy defenses.
• Unas led the exhausted survivors through the fortress, broke through its far wall, and guided them out into the sunlight.
• Tieshan proposed that the wounded return to Iron Summit while the others held Backdoor Fortress until he brought reinforcements from Lord Rendaen.
• Unas agreed to Tieshan’s plan on the condition that Lord Rendaen provide food and water, then led the able survivors back toward the fortress.
• Unas met Lincoln and Keira on the way back, but they refused to rely on another Dwarf and said they would survive by robbing or eating the dead.

Unas convinced Lincoln and his followers to help seize the fortress, then prepared its defenses while waiting for Hill Lord Rendaen. When Rendaen arrived with a large army, he demanded to know why they were cooking Dark Iron Dwarf flesh, putting his willingness to shelter them in doubt.

• Unas persuaded Lincoln, Keira, and the others to join him and Torbjorn in taking the fortress for Rendaen's protection.
• Unas's group routed the pursuing garrison, extinguished the South Gate fire, and repaired the gate with magic and a boulder.
• The survivors secured the fortress's food and weapons, but the expected pursuers failed to approach.
• Rendaen arrived with at least two thousand soldiers, and Unas asked him for food and drinking water in exchange for the fortress.
• Rendaen threatened that he had taken in Unas's wounded and condemned the group for eating fallen Dark Iron warriors.

Unas helped settle the conflict between Rendaen’s Dwarves and Lincoln’s Ogres at the Back Gate fortress. News that a slave uprising had thrown Blackrock Depths into chaos prompted Rendaen to prepare a counterattack against Thaurissan, while Lincoln sought to leave with supplies.

• Rendaen recognized Torbjorn as a former worker for Ezio and argued with Lincoln over the Ogres eating dead Dwarves, until Unas persuaded them to stand down.
• Rendaen entered the Back Gate fortress, the intact Dwarf dead were buried, and the Dwarf lord replaced the food the Ogres had lost.
• Unas explained to Rendaen that tiny organisms caused corpses to rot, easing some of the Dwarf lord’s anger.
• Torbjorn’s men reported a great slave uprising across Blackrock Depths, leaving the city garrison and Ironrage Army too occupied to pursue them.
• Rendaen ordered Tieshan to bring reinforcements from Iron Summit and announced plans to overthrow Thaurissan and free the Dark Iron Clan.
• Torbjorn pledged to fight for Rendaen, but Lincoln offered only to hold the fortress and then demanded food to take his Ogres and Keira’s Orcs to the Badlands; Rendaen refused.