Chapter Summaries

Schiller used Spiritual Vision and suffered severe eye pain without identifying the possessed person. After the group waited for the house to burn down, Schiller and Main Universe Batman uncovered a cellar door and Schiller questioned why the diary’s owner had summoned the detective to his distant home instead of meeting him in the village.

• Schiller gained Level One Spiritual Vision and activated it, causing his eyes to bleed, but he told the others he had noticed nothing unusual.
• The group waited by the burning house without preparing to cross the snowy plains, while Owlman grew impatient and Bruce remained unfocused.
• After the snow stopped and the house collapsed, Schiller and Main Universe Batman searched the ruins and uncovered a cellar door beneath the former carpet.
• Schiller suggested the diary’s owner might be suspicious because he had arranged for the detective to travel to his remote home rather than meet him in the village.
• Schiller considered that the diary’s owner might have changed their plans or failed to appear at the village meeting, leaving the reason unresolved.

Schiller and the others discovered a natural cave beneath the Wooden House and found an underground river teeming with the same fish found in the dead man's stomach. They realized the fish might help villagers deal with monsters, then chose to follow the riverbank into the darkness.

• Schiller suspected the Wooden House held clues and discovered a hidden opening beneath its floor.
• Greed climbed into the opening, and the group found a vast natural cave with an underground river.
• The group saw that the river was full of the same fish found in the corpse's stomach.
• Schiller and the others reasoned that the fish were useful against monsters and that the monster had forced the corpse to swallow them to keep them from the villagers.
• Main Universe Batman suggested following the riverbank, and the group agreed.

As the group walked downstream, Bruce questioned Greed about his secrets and a monstrous incident at a graduation dance. Greed admitted he had brought a monster to the dance and taken it away, but denied intending or preparing to kill anyone.

• Main Universe Batman and Schiller discussed Schiller’s church work and shared stories about wilderness survival.
• Bruce and Greed talked about their journeys and Greed recounted a graduation dance where a worm entered Fatty’s body and people later vomited up their organs.
• Bruce challenged Greed’s account and suggested Greed had caused the incident, while Greed denied killing anyone and questioned Bruce’s own secrets.
• Greed admitted the monster at the dance was real and that he had both brought it there and taken it away, but said he could not control it and had not intended to use it to kill people.

Bruce questioned Greed about the deaths at the ball, and the group shared accounts of bizarre incidents they had encountered. At the underground river, Greed failed to catch a fish, and Schiller realized they needed fishing gear before asking whether anyone considered themselves lucky.

• Bruce asked Greed whether he had caused the deaths at the ball, and Greed said they were a separate incident that had combined with another event.
• Bruce described a patient assaulted by a monster, while Main Universe Batman recounted a suspicious murder in an Albanian village and Schiller told of a deadly funeral.
• Pale Rider described clients connected to a monster-possessed killer, and Joker told a story about people turning into paint after touching a painting.
• Greed stopped beside the underground river and tried to catch a fish, but his Dexterity check failed.
• Schiller concluded that the group needed fishing gear to catch the fish and asked whether anyone considered themselves lucky.

Schiller and the others reached a lake where a living mass of reeds attacked them, forcing them to flee through an opening above the water. They escaped into a supply room, but Main Universe Batman was critically wounded, and he silently questioned Schiller’s identity.

• Schiller spotted brain-shaped roots beneath the reeds and had Main Universe Batman shoot at them, triggering a violent attack that drove the group back and scattered fish onto the shore.
• The group returned to the lake and forced a path through the reeds with Schiller’s kitchen knife, then raced for the opening above the water.
• Joker, Pale Rider, and Greed climbed out successfully, but Bruce and Owlman were injured and Main Universe Batman suffered a critical chest wound when their escape checks failed.
• Schiller and the others pulled the injured Batmen up and entered a curved storage room stocked with food, household supplies, and gasoline.
• As Schiller examined Main Universe Batman’s wound, Batman silently asked who he was, and Schiller replied that he was an ordinary Agent.

Schiller and Greed searched the lighthouse for supplies, triggering a fight with a hunting dog while discussing Greed’s deleted memories and the danger of Batman investigating their past. They killed the dog, but more creatures appeared behind the door.

• Schiller left the injured Batman with Bruce and led Greed into the lighthouse to search for medical supplies.
• Opening a door triggered a battle with a hunting dog, and Schiller paused time to talk with Greed about their deleted memories and their history as law enforcement agents.
• Schiller warned that Batman could investigate their past and uncover the lost memories, while Greed worried that the investigation could expose what he had hidden.
• Schiller returned to the fight, tossed Greed a knife, and evaded the hunting dog as it chased him.
• Greed stabbed the dog and Schiller struck it with the shotgun; they pinned it down and killed it, but several more pairs of scarlet eyes appeared behind the door.

Schiller and Greed fought their way through the lighthouse and found the injured caretaker, Jeff. Jeff revealed that monsters had overrun the village and warned that Schiller’s group had made a dangerous mistake by burning the bodies in the Wooden House.

• Schiller killed all five dogs attacking him in the lighthouse hall, and he and Greed went upstairs.
• They found Jeff, whose leg had been bitten, and offered to take him along if he could provide medical supplies.
• Jeff said a strange incident had brought wandering monsters into the village and warned that the Court of Arbitration would execute anyone who left before confirming the incident could not spread.
• Greed told Jeff they had come from an underground cave, and Jeff asked whether Harold was dead before insulting Harold, the detective, and Madeline.
• Schiller confirmed that the others had died in the Wooden House and that they had burned it, prompting Jeff to panic and warn that fire could not kill monsters.
• Jeff refused to explain his fear of the monsters and said the medical supplies might be on the third floor.

Schiller and Greed explored the third floor, where traps and illusions made the search increasingly dangerous. They escaped the storeroom’s hallucinations, but worried that the same trick could give the others an excuse to attack the badly injured Hunter.

• Schiller and Greed found a door plaque marked “1913” beneath a window, then discovered a bear trap in an empty room.
• Greed entered a storeroom stocked with supplies and collected First Aid Kits and other goods while Schiller spotted a hidden fishing-line trap.
• A crow attacked Greed, and Schiller killed it; the bird and other objects then appeared to change as the storeroom’s illusions took hold.
• Schiller realized the illusions demanded a price and stabbed his own palm before Greed returned to normal.
• Greed said his hallucination had shown a monster on Schiller, and he and Schiller worried that the illusions could provoke attacks on Hunter.

Schiller and the others discovered that Jeff had killed the lighthouse guardian and confronted him after he tried to seize their supplies. As Bruce began seeing the same hallucinations tied to Schiller’s talent, Batman remained near death and the group’s cursed dice continued to cause critical failures.

• Bruce’s attempt to treat Batman ended in a critical failure that cut Bruce’s palm, and Owlman warned Batman probably would not survive the night.
• Batman warned Schiller that Jeff was not the lighthouse guardian, and Schiller and Pale Rider found the guardian’s corpse with a blood-written warning about Jeff.
• Schiller deduced Jeff had killed the guardian and was desperate to escape, then found him demanding the group’s supplies at gunpoint.
• Pale Rider’s persuasion and Schiller’s attempt to seize Jeff both failed, but Owlman helped Schiller restrain Jeff after a ricochet wounded Schiller’s shoulder.
• Schiller prepared to use Bruce’s psychoanalysis skill on Jeff, but Bruce screamed and stood with his hand over his eyes, unable to see.

After Bruce suddenly went blind and Jeff was killed by an unseen wind blade that also severed Owlman’s forearm, Schiller tended the survivors and reconsidered the game’s rules. He suspected that the backstories players created shaped the world and that Greed, rather than the Wanderer, might be behind some of the dangers.

• Bruce said he could no longer see people or objects clearly, only disordered lines and blocks of color, and Greed suggested he rest.
• An unseen wind blade killed Jeff and cut off half of Owlman’s arm; Schiller bandaged Owlman and dragged Jeff’s body outside.
• The group made hot food while Schiller considered how players’ invented backstories might alter the world and give each person different objectives.
• Schiller suspected Greed’s vague identity and behavior concealed a hidden agenda, and wondered whether the group’s misfortunes were caused by other players rather than the Wanderer.

Schiller examined the clues surrounding the Wooden House deaths and deduced that the diary and Madeline’s research notes might be character backstories rather than evidence left by the Beyonder. He suspected Main Universe Batman was the diary’s Hunter and wondered whether Batman’s current condition came from human malice, while the motives of Greed and the others remained uncertain.

• Schiller questioned whether the victims had arrived at the Wooden House at different times, giving someone a chance to prepare their deaths.
• Schiller reasoned that the diary and Madeline’s notes could be additions to players’ Character Designs, created to make their identities and motives internally consistent.
• Schiller inferred that Main Universe Batman’s Hunter might be the diary’s owner, based on the tough local persona and the hunting hides in the cabin.
• Schiller considered whether Bruce or Pale Rider had come to find Madeline, and suspected Greed’s motives involved commercial or political maneuvering.
• Schiller realized Jeff might not have recognized Batman because Batman was lying face-down, then wondered whether human malice had left Batman half-dead.

After recovering somewhat, Schiller suspected that Joker had switched the die to force Critical Failures and that Greed had planted the 1913 doorplate to frame Nyarlathotep and mislead Pride. He organized another expedition to the lighthouse, but growing suspicions about who might be conspiring with whom left the group’s alliances uncertain.

• Schiller concluded that the black-and-gold die was likely a replacement that guaranteed Critical Failures, and suspected Joker had tampered with it while Greed had written the doorplate into the backstory to frame Nyarlathotep.
• Schiller proposed exploring the lighthouse again, and Owlman, Pale Rider, and Joker offered to go while Greed chose to stay and guard the wounded.
• Bruce insisted on joining Schiller despite his injuries, and Schiller suspected Bruce might be working with Greed after recalling how the Batmen had fallen behind near the reeds.
• Schiller reconsidered his suspicions about Pale Rider and decided that the heroic lawyer could be won over to their side.

Schiller took charge of the group’s investigation despite the danger posed by Owlman and the injured Batman, and uncovered clues suggesting that the game’s rules and the hotel’s anomalies might share a common origin. He left the group poised to explore the lighthouse while considering whether the 1913 plaque could lead back to Room 1913.

• Schiller proposed that everyone able to stand leave the room, but Owlman stayed behind with the near-dead Main Universe Batman, and the others accepted the arrangement.
• Schiller set a bear trap at the bottom of the stairs as a warning in case the Wanderer possessed Batman’s corpse, then threatened Greed with a shotgun to stop him from splitting up the group.
• Schiller concluded that Madeline’s claim that guns cursed their users was an invented rule designed to weaken gun holders, and he used his authority as clergy to dismiss it.
• Schiller spotted glue on the ceiling near the fallen room plaque and reasoned that someone had placed it there rather than a supernatural force.
• Schiller wondered whether the game’s world had copied the hotel’s anomalous rules and whether the 1913 plaque could let him reenter Room 1913.

Schiller and the others discovered two corpses in a room on the fourth floor, triggering a battle and a confrontation over his use of the gun. Schiller recognized that Joker had engineered Batman’s decline to torment him and tried to persuade Joker to keep Batman alive.

• Schiller led the group to the fourth floor, where they found a woman and a man dead amid scattered fish and signs of a struggle.
• After Schiller searched the man’s pockets, the black dice rolled a Critical Failure and the corpse moved, starting a battle.
• Schiller shot the corpse, then threatened Greed and Bruce until Pale Rider intervened and helped calm him down.
• Pale Rider, Joker, and Owlman traded insults with Bruce, while Schiller realized Joker was the person he needed to influence.
• Schiller told Joker that Batman’s death would end his chance to prove Batman helpless, and Joker’s expression darkened.

Schiller and Pale Rider fought off a corpse while Schiller considered how to save Main Universe Batman if Joker restored the dice. On the fifth floor, they found more victims who appeared to belong to one family, leaving Schiller to wonder whether the tall, thin man on the first floor was the true Guardian of the Lighthouse.

• Schiller reasoned that Joker had rigged the dice to cause Batman’s Critical Failure and that saving Batman depended on Joker ending his control over them.
• Schiller and Pale Rider knocked down the corpse, and Schiller decapitated it with a kitchen knife.
• Schiller upgraded Emergency Medicine, then found frozen fish matching the fish from the underground river and considered how they might relate to the woman’s death.
• Schiller and the others searched the fourth floor, found nothing else unusual, and followed Greed up to the fifth floor.
• Schiller and Pale Rider found four more bodies and concluded that the victims on the fourth and fifth floors likely belonged to one family.
• Schiller wondered whether the tall, thin middle-aged man with the dog on the first floor was the true Guardian of the Lighthouse.

Schiller investigated the lighthouse deaths and found letters revealing that Madeline had come to the village before the Wanderer appeared, after an insurance company refused to compensate her for her family’s deaths. He suspected she might have brought the Wanderer to the village to take revenge on the company.

• Schiller found a family photograph identifying the dead man as Huff and linking his family to six-year-old Jenny from the diary.
• Schiller searched the upper lighthouse floors and discovered letters addressed to Andersy, the Lighthouse Guardian.
• Schiller read Jeff’s letter and learned that he was a sailor who resented the fleet owner for hiring Bruce to treat his wife.
• Harold’s letter said the village Sheriff had died and a replacement would arrive, suggesting how Owlman might have come to the village.
• Madeline’s letters revealed that she had come at Andersy’s invitation and that an insurance company had denied her claims after her family killed one another under supernatural control.
• Schiller concluded that Madeline might have brought the Wanderer to the village to punish the insurance company that had refused to pay.

Schiller pieced together Siltek’s scheme involving the Underground River’s strange fish and discovered that the wounded Harold had been pretending to be helpless. When Schiller found Harold gone, he shot at Greed, triggering the start of a battle.

• Schiller read Jeff’s letters and deduced that Connecticut fleet boss Siltek was connected to Madeline and the missing goats.
• Schiller inferred that Siltek’s fleet was catching unusual sea fish from an artificial Underground River to exploit their effects against anomalies.
• Schiller read Harold’s letter revealing that Siltek’s vaccine research was a sham and that he planned to sell the fish to wealthy buyers after anomalies spread.
• Schiller realized Main Universe Batman, playing Harold, had likely faked his weakness and hurried back to find him gone.
• Schiller shot at Greed, who split the bullet with a wind blade as the battle began.

Schiller deduced that the Battle Start prompt marked fights involving Players and used a confrontation with Greed to uncover several Players’ innate skills. The chapter left Schiller attacking Bruce, with Owlman poised to intervene and reveal more.

• Schiller concluded that Main Universe Batman might be raising corpses to trigger battles and farm skill points, possibly as part of a plan targeting Siltek Medical Insurance Company and the church.
• Schiller demanded that Greed explain what was happening, then attacked him when Greed chose to fight instead.
• Joker’s dice caused Greed to fail his dodges, and Bruce revealed a healing ability when he saved Greed from his wounds.
• Greed explained that Schiller’s attack had been a way to expose their abilities, and Bruce realized Schiller had inferred several Players’ innate skills.
• After Greed reminded Schiller that Pride might return, Schiller punched Bruce over the sleepless nights Pride’s broadcast had caused him.

Schiller forced Greed to explain the first two corpses and pieced together how the killings might connect to Batman’s plan to expose Siltec. The chapter ended with Schiller suspecting Madeline had killed the second man.

• Bruce stopped Schiller from attacking again, while Owlman aimed a pistol at him and Pale Rider threatened to protect him.
• Greed admitted that he had killed Dougert in the woods before the detective’s body could be found at the original crime scene.
• Schiller inferred that Dougert may have brought information to Batman’s Hunter about Siltec, and that Greed killed him to prevent the information from being used against him.
• Greed said he had not killed the second corpse, which had been hung up in the cabin after losing all four limbs and eating fish.
• Owlman pointed out that the second man had eaten fish, leading Schiller to suspect he had ties to Siltec and that Madeline might have killed him.

Schiller investigated Madeline’s death and Jeff’s body, concluding that Siltec may have been conducting human experiments on the villagers. The group chose to cross the underground river toward the laboratory, and Schiller realized Batman had used Jeff’s body to get past the reeds.

• Schiller questioned whether Madeline had meant someone other than the Wanderer when she cried, “He’s here,” and Bruce and Greed denied killing the family in the lighthouse.
• Schiller noticed Jeff’s wound was shallower than the Detective’s and opened his stomach, finding raw fish flesh and bones.
• Schiller deduced that the victims had likely been force-fed raw fish and suspected Siltec was experimenting on the villagers.
• Schiller and the others agreed to investigate the laboratory together rather than split up, and they began planning to bridge the underground river.
• Greed and Bruce discussed pulling the reeds out of the way, and Schiller noticed Jeff’s body had been moved and realized Batman had used it to evade the reeds.