Recaps

During the first-round break, Shade met Virgil Cameron in the smoking room and received a concealed message and three commemorative coins. Shade returned to the tournament with the information and coins, while Cameron left relieved.

• Shade defeated Virgil Cameron 10 to 4 in the first round as Cameron was distracted.
• Tifa warned Shade that Cameron was involved with the current Grand Duke of the Sete Duchy, but agreed that Shade should risk trouble to obtain the coin.
• Shade left Mia with Tifa and followed Cameron to the smoking room after finding his note asking whether Shade was the person he sought.
• Shade accepted a brass fountain pen containing information from Cameron and warned him not to reveal his identity.
• Shade bought Cameron's two commemorative coins for two shillings, added them to the genuine commemorative coin, and watched Cameron leave.

Shade decided to pass incomplete intelligence to Military Intelligence Section Six while delivering the sensitive information to Gray Gloves under the mistaken identity of Gray-headed Eagle, hoping to earn two thousand pounds. He resumed the Rhodes Cards final against Virgil Cameron, whose strong play turned the second game into a tense contest.

• Shade learned that the Sete Duchy would store sensitive goods in a warehouse on Punjab Avenue in Middhir Fort City, and decided to report indirectly to Director Anlos while completing Gray Gloves' task.
• Shade returned to the Auditorium, where he and Virgil Cameron resumed their match after Cameron had passed along the intelligence.
• Cameron won the first two rounds of the second game, but Shade used a Sun 3 Founding Silver Moon card to take the next round and then won another with a Founding card.
• Shade won the fourth round after drawing Founding Series cards that let him continue past a bust, putting him ahead six to two in the second game.
• Cameron drew a Moon 1 Great Steam Age Worker Getting Off Work card in the fifth round, but his die roll of six failed to activate its special effect.

Shade won the 1853 Great City Player final after using Royal Decree to make Mr. Cameron bust, then drawing the card he needed to secure victory. He was crowned champion in Tobesk and celebrated with Tifa, Cameron, and Mia.

• Shade led Mr. Cameron 8–2 and entered the sixth round with match point.
• Shade used Royal Decree to exchange Cameron’s hidden Stars 1 for Flowers 2, making Cameron bust.
• Shade drew Flower Four to raise his total to eighteen and win the match.
• Vice President Mark declared Shade Suellen Hamilton the 1853 Great City Player champion, and Shade and Cameron shook hands.
• Shade corrected Cameron’s private remark from “Kingdom Spy” to “Royal Decree” as they congratulated each other.
• Mia jumped onto Shade’s shoulder, briefly turning the celebration into a scramble.

Shade celebrated winning the 1853 Great City Player Rhodes Card championship, then gave Director Anlos information about Virgil Cameron before going home to rest. As Shade fell asleep, Priest Latt Augustus called to him from the World of the Dead with a final message.

• Shade won the Rhodes Card championship, received a trophy, a 3,000-pound Bill of Exchange, and a unique champion card, and attended the awards ceremony and banquet with Tifa.
• Shade met Director Anlos outside his home, reported Virgil Cameron's strange reaction to the name Middhir Fort City, and was told not to get involved further.
• Shade put away his prizes, planned his upcoming tasks, and went to bed with Mia after checking his Rhodes Cards.
• As Shade slept, Latt Augustus's voice called to him from the World of the Dead, saying he had a final message.

Shade received Priest Augustus’s last words in a dream and learned that the Priest had crossed the boundary of death in Middhir Fort City. After waking, Shade resolved to go there and save him.

• Shade used the Destiny Ring and Soul Echo to summon Priest Augustus’s spirit in his dream.
• Priest Augustus said he was dead and gave Shade instructions about his property, buried relic, grave, and promised donation.
• Transparent hands dragged Priest Augustus through a dark opening, and Shade gained insight into death.
• Shade woke to find that the Priest was in a state between death and life, and decided to travel to Middhir Fort City.

After learning from a dream that Priest Augustus was trapped between life and death in Middhir Fort City, Shade gathered Dorothy, Luvia, and Doctor Schneider to plan his rescue. He prepared to use White Stone Crystal for a risky spatial transfer, and the chapter ended as he asked Luvia to divine where in Tobesk they could find the priest’s blood.

• Shade woke Dorothy and Luvia and told them Priest Augustus was dead but could still be saved.
• Shade recounted his dream at Doctor Schneider’s clinic, and the group agreed to ask the Academy to investigate the priest’s disappearance.
• Shade revealed that he planned to travel to Middhir Fort City through a random spatial passage and asked the group for help making the journey land at the right place.
• Doctor Schneider offered to seek help from Alan Madison’s luck-influencing artifact, while Dorothy and Luvia each set out to seek their own assistance.
• Luvia joined Shade to buy White Stone Crystal, and Shade asked her to divine where they could find Priest Augustus’s blood in Tobesk.

Shade and Luvia located Priest Augustus's hidden blood and acquired a White Stone Crystal to help search for him in Middhir Fort City. As the group prepared to enter the Space Labyrinth, Doctor Schneider revealed a dangerous relic that could bring misfortune.

• Luvia used Cost Divination with Liar's Coin and found Priest Augustus's blood hidden beneath an iron chest in his workshop basement.
• Shade bought the Tobesk Mineral Association's White Stone Crystal from Mr. Francis for thirty pounds.
• Shade and Luvia retrieved the priest's partly spoiled blood from his workshop, estimating it would sustain Blood Echo for three to five hours.
• Luvia packed Shade's supplies while they waited for Dorothy and Doctor Schneider to arrive.
• Dorothy gave Shade a pendant bearing the royal coat of arms so he could seek help from the Police Department in Middlesburg.
• Doctor Schneider showed the group Unfortunate One's Hair, a Keeper of Secrets Level relic that caused misfortune and had to be contained in pig blood.

Shade prepared to use the Unfortunate One’s Hair, entered the Space Labyrinth, and traveled through a newly linked marker. He emerged in an abandoned military tower in the forest and learned from a plaque that Middhir Fort City lay about thirty minutes away.

• Doctor Schneider explained how the Unfortunate One’s Hair granted brief good luck and warned Shade about its delayed misfortune and vulnerability to evil spirits.
• Shade accepted the risks, and Luvia attached Tifa’s black hair to the relic before Shade entered the Hidden Wall.
• Shade sacrificed a White Stone Crystal to the Primal Rift, created a third space marker, and entered the space it linked to.
• Shade emerged from a basement into an abandoned tower, climbed to its first floor, and found himself surrounded by forest.
• Shade read an old army notice stating that the tower stood near Sikar Mountain and that Middhir Fort City was about a thirty-minute walk away.

Shade reached Middhir Fort City while following the trail of the missing Priest Augustus. He headed for the local Dawn Church, hoping to rescue the Priest and explore the city together afterward.

• Shade surveyed Middhir Fort City from an abandoned tower and recognized it as Middlesburg, where his friend Captain Rades and Miss Black were stationed or visiting.
• Shade followed directions through the forest, found the road down from Sikar Mountain, and entered the city’s southeast district.
• Shade took a carriage into the city, asked for the post office, and bought a tourist map.
• Shade learned that summoned priests were supposed to stay at local churches, then hurried toward the Dawn Church while worrying that the Church had failed to find Priest Augustus.
• Shade reassured himself that he would rescue Priest Augustus and asked the Priest, in his thoughts, to treat him to a meal at the city’s best restaurant.

Shade followed Priest Augustus’s Blood Echo to a house in Roof Alley, where he learned the Priest had visited the House of the Blind before disappearing. Ms. Michelle welcomed Shade and explained that Augustus had a longstanding connection to the organization through a love affair in his youth.

• Shade tracked Priest Augustus’s latest Blood Echo from Dawn Church to a house at 15 Roof Alley, where the image showed him entering but not leaving.
• Shade knocked on the house’s door and learned from the woman inside that Priest Augustus had visited the previous afternoon and left through the back door.
• The woman identified herself as Ms. Michelle, revealed she was a Ring Arcanist, and invited Shade into the House of the Blind after he said Augustus had disappeared.
• Ms. Michelle explained that Augustus had known the organization for over twenty years and had once fallen in love with Sister Matilda, one of its Nuns.

Shade questioned Ms. Michelle about Priest Augustus’s past and learned that her divination showed only death, while her attempt to read Shade’s spirituality left her in pain. He followed Augustus’s trail to Middhir Fort City’s cemetery, where Sikar Mountain’s unnatural-looking fog surrounded the grounds.

• Ms. Michelle told Shade that Priest Augustus had reunited with Latt Augustus and that she had given him the location of Mother Matilda’s grave.
• Ms. Michelle removed the coverings from her eyes to divine Shade, but cried out in pain after seeing the moonlight upon him.
• Shade warned the House of the Blind that the Church and Academy might investigate Augustus’s disappearance, then left to follow the priest’s trail.
• Shade learned from a florist that Augustus had bought flowers to commemorate a friend and hired a carriage to the Public Cemetery of Middhir Fort City.
• Shade arrived at the cemetery as thick fog covered Sikar Mountain and recalled that he was still attracting evil spirits.

Shade followed Priest Augustus’s trail from Matilda Fox’s grave into the Underground Tomb Area, where he found evidence that the priest had vanished through an unknown means. A Corpse Ghoul attacked Shade in the tomb passage, and the chapter ended as Shade appeared behind the wounded creature and it lunged at him.

• Shade followed Priest Augustus’s crimson trail to Matilda Fox’s grave, then watched it head toward the chapel before the priest fled toward the Underground Tomb Area after being attacked.
• Shade questioned Joel Pon’s soul, which described a rotting, pyramid-headed Corpse Ghoul attacking Priest Augustus in the cemetery.
• Shade entered the Underground Tomb Area and found Priest Augustus’s broken-ring pendant beside the wall where the priest’s trail vanished.
• Shade heard something approaching, saw a Corpse Ghoul, and learned that his Unfortunate One’s Hair was attracting undead creatures.
• Shade wounded the Corpse Ghoul with Silver Moon, used Laguerre’s Leap to appear behind it, and faced its charge.

Shade investigated Priest Latt Augustus’s disappearance and learned that he had fallen into Life and Death Limbo beneath Sikar Mountain, a boundary between the living and the dead. Shade vowed to remain in Middhir Fort City until he rescued the Priest.

• Shade killed a Corpse Ghoul in the Underground Tomb Area, buried its remains, and used Breath of Time to discover that Priest Augustus had fallen into a space of distortion, malice, and death.
• Shade returned to the House of the Blind and told Ms. Michelle what he had found, offering the Corpse Ghoul’s valuable remains to the Order of Spiritual Cultivation.
• Ms. Michelle explained that Sikar Mountain was an extinct volcano above Life and Death Limbo, where the living and dead could overlap when the boundary blurred.
• Ms. Michelle said the Priest would have to escape Life and Death Limbo on his own, and that crossing its door into the World of the Dead would make escape impossible.
• Shade vowed to stay in Middhir Fort City until he rescued the Priest.

Shade told Doctor, Dorothy, and Luvia that Priest Augustus was trapped at the boundary between life and death, and the group planned ways to find help before his time ran out. Miss Galina explained the danger and offered to introduce Shade to Great Witch Zina Cassandra in Middlesburg, where the Order of Spiritual Cultivation also had its headquarters.

• Shade reported his findings about the boundary between life and death, and Doctor, Dorothy, and Luvia agreed to investigate and seek support for rescuing Priest Augustus.
• Shade visited Miss Galina, bringing Little Mia along, and explained Priest Augustus's predicament.
• Miss Galina described the boundary as a supernatural phenomenon sealed across the world, whose seals had become unstable in the Sixth Epoch.
• Miss Galina recommended Great Witch Zina Cassandra as a powerful but risky source of local help and offered to arrange an introduction.
• Miss Galina told Shade that the Order of Spiritual Cultivation's headquarters was in Middlesburg.

Shade sought help investigating Life and Death Limbo, received a recommendation letter to the Order of Spiritual Cultivation, and learned that the Hermit Order connected the Limbo to the instability caused by the Ancient God of Death’s departure. He and his friends gathered troubling reports about Middlesburg and planned to search for Priest Augustus before his estimated survival window ended.

• Miss Galina offered Shade a recommendation letter to the Order of Spiritual Cultivation, and Shade chose to contact the Order before deciding whether to involve Lady Cassandra.
• Mr. Edmund told Shade that the Hermit Order believed Life and Death Limbo was a sign of the world’s destruction caused by the Ancient God of Death’s departure.
• Shade collected his Great City Player winnings, then met Doctor Schneider, Dorothy, and Luvia, who shared reports of disappearances and warnings about Middlesburg.
• Shade decided to spend most of his days in Middlesburg before Wednesday searching for Priest Augustus, while Dorothy agreed to care for Mia and Luvia pursued the Seer Association’s records.
• Luvia, Doctor Schneider, and Dorothy warned Shade not to enter Life and Death Limbo unless absolutely necessary.

Shade sought help from the Order of Spiritual Cultivation to rescue Priest Augustus from the Boundary of Life and Death. Sister Devlin agreed to help without demanding compensation, and Shade left with the Cult's support.

• Luvia arranged to use Shade's empty third-floor room for autumn stargazing, while Dorothy wondered whether the house's anomalies extended beyond the basement.
• Shade traveled to Middlesburg and visited Ms. Michelle at the House of the Blind, asking her to pass Miss Galina's letter to the Order of Spiritual Cultivation.
• Ms. Michelle took Shade to meet Sister Devlin, the Order's Eleventh Ring leader, at the Disciple Club.
• Shade asked Sister Devlin for information about Life and Death Limbo and past rescues of people trapped in the Boundary of Life and Death.
• Sister Devlin agreed to help Shade rescue Priest Augustus without compensation, explaining that the Cult valued bonds of kindness.

Shade agreed to enter the dangerous Life and Death Limbo alone to rescue Priest Augustus, and Sister Devlin explained the Order of Spiritual Cultivation’s plan. He learned that the Church was gathering clergy for a large Divine Ritual, while Sister Devlin revealed that the Silver Moon was also associated with guiding the dead.

• Sister Devlin told Shade that the Order could use the Priest’s holy emblem and a ritual costing 3,000 pounds to send him into Life and Death Limbo and retrieve them both.
• Shade agreed to enter the Limbo despite the danger, and asked Sister Devlin why the Church had summoned Priest Augustus to Middhir Fort City.
• Sister Devlin said the Five Gods Church had brought at least a hundred clergy to the city for a large-scale Divine Ritual.
• Sister Devlin removed her blindfold to observe Shade’s moonlight, then explained that the Silver Moon was known as the Underworld Moon and guided death.
• Shade sensed a Great Witch nearby before a maid announced Grandma Cassandra’s arrival; Sister Devlin left and told Shade to collect the ritual materials after nine the next morning.

Shade traveled to Middlesburg’s railway-station black market to seek coin-type relics and investigate local oddities. He bought a dangerous Poet Level relic called the Standing Coin and returned to 6 Saint Derain Square after learning that disappearances had increased and the Orthodox Church was preparing a major operation.

• Shade followed Ms. Michelle’s directions to Middlesburg Railway Station and entered its hidden black market aboard Steam Train No. B823.
• Shade paid the bartender for information and learned of the Orthodox Church’s preparations and a recent rise in strange disappearances among ordinary people.
• The bartender offered Shade a Standing Coin whose upright-tossing trait came with deadly conditions involving transactions and Purple Juan Flower petals.
• Shade bought the Standing Coin for fifteen pounds and three shillings, then passed the time playing Rhodes Cards with other passengers.
• Shade returned through the Abandoned Tower to 6 Saint Derain Square, where Dorothy and Luvia were still working.

Shade bought precious Rhine Fiend blood from Old John and collected payment for Detective Sparrow’s unfinished intelligence delivery, leaving him with money for his next adventure. A coded message revealed that the Gray-headed Eagle had completed his final mission and would return to concealment.

• Shade learned that Old John had obtained Rhine Fiend blood and bought it for 4,900 pounds.
• Shade left the blood at home, dressed as Detective Sparrow, and went to Wick Street 1 to deliver Mr. Virgil Cameron’s intelligence.
• A suspicious old man accepted Shade’s fountain pen, gave him a suitcase of banknotes, and said it also contained a letter from home.
• Shade found a coded message hidden in the suitcase lining that ended the Gray-headed Eagle’s previous contacts and declared his final mission complete.
• Shade burned the coded cloth, stowed the money, and resolved not to get involved in further trouble.

Shade learned that the Church and Academy were preparing to rescue Priest Augustus, whom they suspected was a Chosen One, but he decided to enter Life and Death Limbo himself that evening. After securing the ritual funds and saying goodbye to his friends, he traveled toward Middlesburg, where mountain fog engulfed him.

• The Order of Spiritual Cultivation found an entrance to the Interstice and planned to prepare its ritual for that night.
• Doctor Schneider reported that more than a hundred people had disappeared around Middlesburg and that the Church and Academy were preparing a major ritual to reinforce the seal beneath Sikar Mountain.
• Shade told Luvia, Dorothy, and Doctor Schneider that he would enter the strange place at sunset to rescue Priest Augustus, despite their objections.
• Doctor Schneider gave Shade three thousand pounds for the rescue materials, and Dorothy kissed Shade goodbye before he left Tobesk.
• Shade traveled through the mountain forest toward Middlesburg, where dense mist suddenly surrounded him.

Shade crossed the fog-shrouded forest on Sikar Mountain, fighting evil spirits that seemed connected to the abnormal fog, then reached the House of the Blind to join the effort to rescue Priest Augustus. He learned that Sister Devlin would preside over the ritual at the haunted Russell Manor.

• Shade encountered several evil spirits in the mountain fog and defeated them with moonlight and Mind Blast, hearing fragments of their final words before they vanished.
• Shade suspected that the abnormal fog and the spirits had drifted from Between Life and Death beneath Sikar Mountain.
• Shade reached the city late and went directly to the House of the Blind, where Ms. Michelle told him Sister Devlin would lead the ritual.
• Ms. Michelle explained that the ritual would take place at Russell Manor, an abandoned estate with a history of three deaths.
• Shade recalled the manor's history during the carriage ride and compared it with the far more infamous 6 Saint Derain Square.

Shade arrived at Russell Manor as the Order of Spiritual Cultivation prepared a ritual to open a passage into the Interstice and help him reach Priest Augustus. While waiting for the ritual, he learned about Sister Devlin’s death-related ability and wondered whether she could be the next Chosen One.

• Shade reached Russell Manor at sunset and saw the Order of Spiritual Cultivation preparing the estate for a large ritual.
• Sister Devlin told Shade the passage would open at ten and accepted Priest Augustus’s pendant to guide him, while Shade offered the Youthful Immortality Leaf for protection.
• Shade gave the Doctor’s three thousand pounds to the Cult and ate with its members while they continued preparing the manor.
• Sister Devlin explained that she had destroyed the manor’s three evil spirits and described how its former Viscount and two servants had died.
• Sister Devlin revealed that her Gaze of Death let her see fragments of a dying soul’s past, leading Shade to consider whether she might be the Chosen One of death.

Shade prepared to enter Life and Death Limbo to find Priest Augustus, while Sister Devlin explained the ritual’s safeguards and warned him about the dangers there. At ten o’clock, the ritual began, and Shade set off with the priest’s emblem and a thread to guide his return.

• Sister Devlin showed Shade a powerful flame she had obtained from a being in the mountains and said it would keep the bonfire burning as his beacon.
• Shade asked about the local Great Witch, and Sister Devlin said her Teacher was not a Witch.
• Sister Devlin warned Shade to avoid malicious spirits, keep his emotions in check, rely on his soul’s strength, and return before dawn at six twenty-three.
• At ten o’clock, thirty-four nuns assembled to perform the ritual, and Sister Devlin gave Shade a red thread and Priest Augustus’s silver holy emblem Pendant.
• Shade placed a Youthful Immortality Leaf in his mouth, and Sister Devlin began the ritual with her flame as Shade prepared to enter Life and Death Limbo.

Shade crossed into Life and Death Limbo, a ruined gray reflection of the world where wandering souls gathered and the living could not remain indefinitely. After defeating an evil spirit on the way to Middhir Fort City, he heard a nearby cry for help and wondered whether another living person was trapped there.

• Sister Devlin’s ritual opened a passage into the World of the Dead, and Shade crossed through it with a crimson thread and a life-preserving leaf.
• Shade learned that he could stay in Life and Death Limbo for up to one thousand days while carrying the leaf, and found that his soul’s strength surpassed his mortal body’s.
• Shade explored the lifeless reflection of Sikar Mountain and Middhir Fort City, where wandering souls and oppressive fog filled the landscape.
• A headless knight’s evil spirit attacked Shade in the woods, but Shade cut it down with silver Moonlight.
• Shade reached Middhir Fort City and heard a nearby cry for help, raising the possibility that another living person had gone missing into Limbo.

Shade fought powerful evil spirits in the Interstice, but discovered that False Immortality could not save a living person there. After promising a dying corporal to deliver his pistol, Shade continued searching for Father Augustus and intervened in another battle.

• Shade killed a towering evil spirit that had impaled a living Delarion corporal, then found that False Immortality had no effect on him in the Interstice.
• Shade tried to treat the corporal's fatal wound, but the man died after asking him to deliver his pistol to the First Legion, Wind Arising Path, for Captain Ronald of Third Company, Red Water Camp.
• Shade turned the corporal's corpse into a toy and followed his holy emblem pendant through the city in search of Father Augustus.
• Shade encountered a vampire protecting a boy from a powerful evil spirit, asked whether the vampire belonged to the Blood Spirit School, and then attacked the spirit when it called for help.
• Shade destroyed the evil spirit by using Silver Moon after it tried to bite his head.