Chapter Summaries

Xia Nan identified the creature attacking a shepherd’s flock as a phase spider and planned to ambush it while investigating a suspected Underdark entrance. When the spider appeared that night and killed a ram, Xia Nan struck as it tried to shift planes, hitting it with an empowered dagger.

• Xia Nan used the clues at the sheep pen to identify the attacker as a phase spider and agreed to stay with the shepherd for three days to hunt it.
• Xia Nan arranged to watch the flock at night and investigate the suspected Underdark entrance during the day, while the shepherd agreed to follow his instructions.
• Xia Nan and Fanny caught snow hares for dinner, and Xia Nan told the shepherd to rest while he kept watch.
• A phase spider appeared on the shed roof, teleported into the pen, and killed the flock’s ram.
• As the phase spider prepared to use Ethereal Jaunt, Xia Nan threw an empowered dagger that struck its vital point and erupted in an explosion of energy.

Xia Nan crippled and pursued a Phase Spider, then discovered its nest among Goblins and an entrance to the Underdark. When Fanny alerted him to a dangerous cluster of mushrooms, Xia Nan fled with her as the cave began to collapse.

• Xia Nan wounded the Phase Spider with [Gravity Etching] and pursued it as its damaged Ethereal Jaunt forced it to make shorter jumps.
• Xia Nan and Fanny tracked the Phase Spider to a Goblin nest, where Goblins fed animal and Goblinoid corpses to Phase Spider eggs and hatchlings.
• Xia Nan and Fanny killed the nest's Goblins and spiders, and Xia Nan found a fissure he identified as a likely entrance to the Underdark.
• Fanny alerted Xia Nan to a small cluster of mushrooms, and Xia Nan grabbed her and raced for the cave entrance as the rock walls cracked and the cave collapsed.

Ak, Zanfrui, and Wenser faced an attack by ten powerful ghouls and tried to escape, but a violent earthquake swallowed them all. The chapter left their fate unknown as they plunged into darkness.

• Ak recalled how Zanfrui and Wenser had clashed over their reckless and protective fighting styles after battling skeleton soldiers.
• Ak detected a fresh stench of rot and warned Zanfrui and Wenser as ten ghouls closed in around their camp.
• Ak blasted open an escape route with his shield and carried Zanfrui and Wenser away from the ghouls.
• An elite ghoul ordered the others to pursue Ak, while an earthquake shook the ground beneath them.
• Ak threw Zanfrui and Wenser ahead and prepared to face the ghouls, but the ground collapsed and swallowed all of them.

After escaping the rockfall in the Goblin Nest, Xia Nan and Fanny discovered that the mushrooms were traces of the Wasteland Druid Fugan was tracking. Stranded in the Underdark, Xia Nan set out to find a way back to the Blood-Cast Fortress and encountered a Kenku.

• Xia Nan freed himself and Fanny from the rubble, then healed their minor injuries with Lesser Healing.
• Fanny confirmed that the mushrooms in the Goblin Nest were connected to the Wasteland Druid, prompting Xia Nan to decide he needed to report the discovery to Fugan.
• Xia Nan realized he had fallen into the Underdark and chose an upward-sloping tunnel to explore with Fanny.
• Xia Nan killed a charging crowlike monster with Gravity Etching and identified it as a Kenku.

Xia Nan and Fanny discovered a cavern filled with slain Kenku and heard a fight nearby. He arrived just in time to save Zanfrui and Wenser from a Ghoul after Zanfrui used the Returning Tide Shield Stance.

• Xia Nan left the slain Kenku behind and continued through the Underdark with Fanny.
• Xia Nan found more than forty dead Kenku in a cavern, their wounds suggesting they had been killed with weapons.
• Xia Nan heard fighting and recognized the voices of Zanfrui and Wenser battling a Ghoul.
• Wenser stabbed the Ghoul, and Zanfrui shielded him from its counterattack before using the Returning Tide Shield Stance to block another blow.
• Xia Nan arrived with Fanny and killed the Ghoul by driving his flaming wooden sword through its skull.

Xia Nan gained the first inspiration for a combat technique after witnessing Zanfrui’s shield stance, then saved him from a Ghoul’s infection. He agreed to help Zanfrui search for Ak while seeking an exit from the Underdark, and Zanfrui offered to teach him the technique.

• Xia Nan realized the shield’s sudden return to its defensive position had inspired a technique based on [Reset], [Loop], and [Cancel].
• Xia Nan killed the wounded Ghoul with [Green Pine] and used [Spring Never Arrived] to remove the infection spreading through Zanfrui’s wound.
• Zanfrui told Xia Nan that Ak had stayed behind to hold off the Ghouls and was separated from them when the earthquake sent them into the Underdark.
• Xia Nan said he planned to find an exit and offered to look for Ak along the way, as long as doing so did not endanger their escape.
• Zanfrui asked Xia Nan to take Wenser and agreed to teach him the [Returning Tide Shield Stance].

Xia Nan tested a new combat technique while fighting cave gnolls and used it to kill their leader and save Zanfrui from a fatal counterattack. After giving Zanfrui and Wenser advice, the group prepared to continue through the Underdark, but a dangerous chorus of howls approached from a tunnel.

• Xia Nan fought the cave gnoll leader with [Honey Tangerine Dagger] and developed a sudden reset-like strike that let him kill it.
• Zanfrui and Wenser worked together to defeat a cave gnoll, but it launched a final attack at Zanfrui; Xia Nan immobilized it with gravitational control and killed it.
• Xia Nan praised Zanfrui and offered him and Wenser combat advice, then planned for the group to rest before continuing their search for an exit and Ak.
• After barely fifteen minutes of rest, Xia Nan's group heard a dense chorus of howls and felt danger approaching from a tunnel.

Xia Nan and his companions escaped a dangerous Kenku flock with help from the Gnome Langda Yanshao, who explained his connection to the flock. The group had found a temporary refuge, but Langda’s account revealed that the Kenku had begun behaving strangely two months earlier.

• Xia Nan sensed a flock of nearly a hundred Kenku approaching and led Zanfrui, Wenser, and Fanny toward a hidden crack in the rock.
• A Gnome beckoned them into a chamber and muffled the Kenku screeches with his feather cloak until the flock passed.
• The Gnome introduced himself as Langda Yanshao, and Xia Nan and Zanfrui explained that an earthquake had stranded them in the Underdark.
• Langda explained that his party had followed the Kenku flock for nearly three years to profit from its migration route and the remains it left behind.
• Langda said he had noticed a strange change in the Kenku flock two months earlier.