Recaps

Shade and Miss Benanis waited near Saint Perry Cemetery, drove off the Blood Spirit School’s group, and faced a supernatural fog that brought wandering souls into their camp. After Shade helped one soul pass on, an old nun emerged from the fog and praised his compassion.

• Shade confronted five Blood Spirit School outsiders, and Miss Benanis used a song to pin two of them to the ground with gravity.
• The outsiders turned into stone figures and attacked the camp, but Miss Benanis’s follower shattered them as the group retreated.
• Shade and Miss Benanis stayed awake by the bonfire until thick white fog surrounded the camp and put the other women to sleep.
• Shade touched an adventurer’s soul with Guiding Death and released it into the Mudflat beyond a dark rift.
• An old nun walked through the camp’s defenses and praised Shade for allowing the soul to leave.

Shade and Miss Benanis passed Saint Perry’s trial and discovered that her cemetery was a sealed church contaminated by the power inside her coffin. They prepared to face the dangerous remains, with Miss Benanis planning to contain them while Shade purified the land.

• Saint Perry revealed that she was a remnant of divine arts and tested Shade and Miss Benanis by asking where she had hidden a pebble.
• Shade used the Silver Cube to learn that Saint Perry’s cemetery sealed the Mad Earth, then inferred that the trial tested their ability to resist contamination.
• Shade bathed the area in Silver Moon radiance, found and destroyed the pebble, and passed the trial.
• Saint Perry led Shade and Miss Benanis through the fog to a hidden Sun and Earth Church containing a chained stone coffin.
• Shade sensed severe contamination around the church and identified the coffin as its likely source, while Miss Benanis offered to contain what lay inside.

Shade and Miss Benanis battled the black sludge in the Old Man with the Lantern's church while Shade used a Clay Holy Grail to purify the land. They suppressed the outbreak for now, but the coffin and its chains remained unpurified, and Miss Benanis asked to borrow Shade's desire-inducing relic to recover her strength.

• Miss Benanis boosted Shade with a song, then took Night Watchman and promised to guard him while he purified the church.
• When the coffin burst open and spewed black sludge, Miss Benanis used Storm Sand to hold it back, then trapped it in her Mystic Lock and struck the sludge creature with a golden sword light.
• Shade formed a Clay Holy Grail and sent it underground, using its Healing power to purify the church while the coffin's sludge dwindled to a trickle.
• Shade drank fragrance from the pink bottle to restore his spirit and continued purifying the church, but only the land around the coffin remained tainted.
• Miss Benanis asked Shade to lend her the bottle, and he warned her that its powerful side effect was increasing desire.

Shade and Vanessa Benanis used the Desire perfume to restore her spirit, then purified the coffin’s deadly black sludge with the Clay Holy Grail. After the sludge vanished, Shade recovered the silver flute he had been seeking and found two other extraordinary items in the coffin.

• Vanessa Benanis drank three small sips of Desire perfume, lost control briefly, and clung to Shade until his Silver Moonlight helped calm her.
• Vanessa asked Shade to keep her reaction secret from Galina and the others, then went with him to the coffin.
• Shade and Vanessa found the coffin filled with black sludge that could kill anyone it touched, and identified the Holy Grail as the means to remove it.
• Shade pressed the Clay Holy Grail into the sludge and spent twenty minutes purifying the coffin while Vanessa helped him recover his strength.
• The black sludge vanished, revealing three undissolved items, and Shade retrieved the silver flute he had been looking for.

Shade and Miss Benanis uncovered Sister Nun Perry’s records and relics after purifying the hidden church, learning more about the Mad Earth and the forces protecting Randall River Valley. Nun Perry’s lingering memory vanished after warning them of the Guardians and a dangerous force marked by the Petrified Rose, leaving Shade with powerful relics and a lead on Mr. Lehmann’s family.

• Shade used the Butterfly Summoning Flute to strengthen his illusion and illuminate the church.
• Miss Benanis read a Witch Emperor’s stone slab, which described the Mad Earth and identified the Chosen One of the Earth and the ritual time.
• Nun Perry revealed that her engraved hand bone taught Earth Power - Bountiful Domain, then thanked Shade and Miss Benanis for resolving the church’s problem.
• Nun Perry told Shade that Mr. Lehmann had been buried in the valley and left an item in the graveyard, and she urged them to seek the Guardians of Randall River Valley.
• Nun Perry warned them about a powerful, cunning force symbolized by the Petrified Rose, then vanished and left behind a powerful Sun Holy Emblem.

Shade and Miss Benanis returned from the hidden church and rested with her Followers before setting out from camp. A unicorn led them to a frightened Moon Creek elf, whose unexpected appearance left Shade and the witch wondering why she had returned to Randall River Valley.

• Shade and Miss Benanis left the church with the hand bone, silver flute, and Witch Emperor relic, planning to reveal its location to the Sun Church through the Witch Council.
• Shade tested the Holy Grail of Recovery and told Miss Benanis he had been involved in several major events because of a promise to a young girl.
• As the group prepared to leave camp, a whistle called the unicorn into the forest, and Miss Benanis chased after it with Shade.
• Shade and Miss Benanis found a Moon Creek elf girl greeting the unicorn, and she rode away after thanking Shade for caring for it.
• Shade picked up the elf's golden leaf brooch, while Miss Benanis explained that the elves of Randall River Valley had supposedly moved north and could not be tracked.

Shade and the witch lost track of an elf and a Unicorn in Randall River Valley, then Shade returned to Tobesk to rest. After Iluna found records about Earth Power, Shade offered its inheritance to her, but she suggested giving it to Luvia and sensed Luvia might be tied to Destiny, Time, or the Moon.

• Shade and the witch searched for the elf and Unicorn, but the pair had vanished, and the witch sensed the elf came from the Far North and attended Saint Byron's.
• Shade returned to Tobesk before dawn, visited Dorothy, and rested at home until evening.
• Iluna visited Shade with Church records stating that the Chosen One of the Earth wielded a branch of Earth Power, which had thirty-two recorded branches.
• Shade told Iluna about Saint Perry Cemetery and proposed that she learn Earth Power from the single-use hand bone, but she refused because she did not want more responsibility.
• Iluna suggested giving the Earth Power inheritance to Luvia, and she sensed that Luvia could be the Chosen One of Destiny, Time, or the Moon.

Shade helped Luvia learn Earth Power, then learned that the mysterious spirit who aided him in the Emerald Dream was Thomas Granger, a missing member of the Granger Family. He planned to question Earl Granger at a banquet that evening, while Miss Benanis explained the test she had prepared for Margaret.

• Shade gave Luvia the hand bone, and she learned the Earth Power thaumaturgy Bountiful Domain.
• Miss Benanis told Shade that the Sun Church had found Saint Perry's cemetery and gave him a 2,000 Gold Pound bill of exchange.
• Miss Benanis identified the man in Shade's photograph as Thomas Granger, who had disappeared in 1780, and Shade described his encounters with Thomas in the Emerald Dream.
• Miss Benanis revealed that Earl Granger had concealed information about Thomas, and Shade decided to question him at a banquet hosted for Prince William Anjou and Margaret.
• Miss Benanis said Margaret's test would involve the Anjou Royal Family's debt to the Stone Masons Association over the collapsed Colossus at the Royal Mausoleum.

Shade discussed Margaret Anjou’s test with Miss Benanis and revealed that he suspected the undead Thomas Granger could be the Earth’s Chosen One. He searched Randall River Valley City’s urban legends, found no monsters, but discovered gold ore in the riverbed.

• Shade declined Miss Benanis’s offer to pass Margaret’s test for her, saying he wanted Margaret to resolve the Stone Masons Association matter herself.
• Shade told Miss Benanis that he and Luvia Annette were not the Earth’s Chosen Ones and suggested that the undead Thomas Granger might be one.
• Shade inspected the Randall River Valley City clock tower, found hidden hallucinogenic drugs, and anonymously reported them to the police.
• Shade and Luvia ate at the White Puffer Restaurant, then Shade searched the Ailong River for the rumored aquatic creature but found only discarded valuables.
• As Shade swam toward shore, she pointed out a stone containing gold ore in the riverbed.

Shade returned from searching the Ailong River with a haul of valuable objects, including a ring belonging to Haila Osenfott. At Earl Granger’s banquet, he saw Prince William Anjou lose a Rhodes Cards match to the remarkably skilled Stone Osenfott, who then accepted a series of challenges for a cash prize.

• Shade showed Miss Benanis and Margaret the valuables he had recovered from the Ailong River after searching for aquatic monkeys.
• Miss Benanis identified a ring engraved “For Haila” as belonging to Haila Osenfott, and Shade agreed to return it to Stone Osenfott at the banquet.
• Shade went to the banquet hall to seek information from Earl Granger about Thomas Granger, who had disappeared seventy years earlier.
• Prince William Anjou played Rhodes Cards against Stone Osenfott and lost a Special Rule Card after Osenfott drew several powerful cards.
• William invited guests to challenge Osenfott for a prize that grew to twenty crowns, and Osenfott confidently accepted.

Shade challenged Mr. Olsenford to a Rhodes Cards match and drew three sevens for twenty-one, matching Mr. Olsenford’s total through a chain of special-card effects. Mr. Olsenford’s hidden card forced Shade to draw two more cards, and Shade’s fourth draw stunned the crowd when it turned out to be the Queen.

• Shade joined the card game and rolled a three, setting the initial draw limit for the match.
• Shade drew Stars 7 and Flower Seven, while Mr. Olsenford revealed special cards that adjusted his hand to twenty-one.
• Shade revealed Moon 7, making his three sevens total twenty-one and creating a tie with Mr. Olsenford.
• Mr. Olsenford revealed Shakadi Story Love, whose effect required Shade to draw two additional cards.
• Shade drew a fourth card, and the onlookers erupted when they saw that it was the Queen.

Shade won an extraordinary Rhodes Cards match against Mr. Olsenford, received a weak misfortune curse and a rare card, then privately asked Earl Granger about Thomas Granger’s disappearance. The earl revealed that Thomas had corresponded with the extinct Farmer Family, whose members and a group of soldiers vanished on Lake Heart Island in the Pantanal Great Swamp.

• Shade drew a King to complete his winning hand, and the Seer Association’s arbiter confirmed that the special rule allowed him to draw it.
• Shade heard that winning had afflicted him with a weak misfortune curse, but he declined to use the Dice of Destiny against Mr. Olsenford.
• Mr. Olsenford gave Shade the Southern City River Valley card and his business card before leaving and inviting him to a future match.
• Shade asked Earl Granger what had happened to Thomas Granger, and the earl admitted that he had hidden details about his great-uncle’s past.
• Earl Granger explained that Thomas had corresponded with the Farmer Family, whose members disappeared with soldiers during a visit to Lake Heart Island seventy or eighty years earlier.

At Earl Granger’s banquet, a stonemason tried to assassinate Prince William Anjou, but the prince’s guards stopped him. Shade then arranged with Iluna to explore the manor on Lake Heart Island that night, while spending the day on a cat-finding commission and visiting Cassandra.

• Shade learned from Mr. Granjay that no one knew where Thomas Granger’s letters to the Farmer Family were, though they might have been lost on Lake Heart Island.
• A man in a patched black coat entered Earl Granger’s banquet and fired at Prince William Anjou, but the prince’s attendants subdued him before he could shoot again.
• Shade suspected the gunman was a stonemason whose wages had been withheld and whose right hand had been disabled in an accident twenty years earlier.
• Shade reminded Margaret to be careful, then arranged to explore the manor on Lake Heart Island with Iluna that night.
• Shade found a client’s missing black cat, then visited Cassandra, who said Aurora had not yet obtained materials for the Ritual-Contact Earth-Shaking Worm.

Shade lent the Butterfly Summoning Flute to Grace and Helen to suppress their relic powers, then investigated questions about his past and possible nonhuman bloodline. He set out to visit Stone Osenfott and learned that Osenfott’s criminal business was connected to Prince William Anjou.

• Shade showed Grace and Helen the Butterfly Summoning Flute and left it with them to restrain the return of their relic powers.
• Shade and the twins discussed his earlier encounter with the Butterfly God, his lack of past ties to Kalas Mountain or The Truth Society, and the possibility that the god would demand a story next time.
• Helen recommended using the Sorrowful Nurse Statue to determine whether Shade was a Purebred Human, and arranged for Qi Na to have it retrieved for Sunday.
• Shade asked the twins about Earth Power, then left to return a ring to Stone Osenfott and investigate him.
• Miss Lathers described the Osenfott Family’s decline and Stone’s rise through illegal business, warning Shade that Osenfott’s smuggling was connected to Prince William Anjou.

Shade traveled to the remote Osenfott Manor to return Haila Osenfott’s ring and speak with Mr. Olsenford about Rhodes Cards. While waiting for her husband, Haila told Shade that he was accustomed to winning in business, relationships, and wagers.

• Shade tried using Puppet Manipulation on his horse, causing it to stop abruptly and tumble with him into the snow.
• Shade rode through the countryside to Osenfott Manor and was admitted by the Old Butler, who said Mr. Stone Osenfott was away until later that afternoon.
• Haila Osenfott received Shade in an almost empty manor and explained that her husband had dismissed the former servants.
• Shade returned Haila’s ring, which he had found inside a fish, and she said there was no need to mention it to her husband or reward him.
• Haila told Shade that Mr. Olsenford rarely lost in Rhodes Cards, business, relationships, or wagers.

Shade returned a ring to Haila Osenfott, met her suspicious husband, and won a horse race before deciding to investigate the family’s history. Later, he took Iluna to Old John’s pawnshop, where he sold recovered valuables and left a gold ore deposit for a later buyer.

• Shade spoke with Haila Osenfott and sensed that she was unusually subdued; before leaving, she warned him not to befriend her husband or return to the manor.
• Mr. Olsenford returned with several men, discussed Rhodes Cards with Shade, and challenged him to a horse race that ended in a close finish.
• Mr. Olsenford declared Shade the winner and gave him a shield-shaped medal, while Shade noticed a faint curse of Misfortune and suspected something was wrong at the manor.
• Shade asked Margaret to investigate the Osenfott Family from a distance, returned his borrowed horse, and met Iluna for dinner before taking her to Old John’s pawnshop.
• Old John appraised Shade’s recovered Kasonlik valuables and offered 1,463 pounds, while keeping the gold ore until a buyer could be found.

Shade and Iluna returned to the manor on Lake Heart Island to investigate its ghosts, but discovered that the land beneath it was affected by Mad Earth. The chapter left them aware that the hidden phenomenon had been masked by the Pantanal Evil’s lingering power.

• Old John identified Shade’s horse-race badge as a rare medal from the vanished Stoneville Kingdom and estimated it could sell for a hundred pounds.
• Iluna bought two Empty Bottle Fruits, and she and Shade filled them with sunlight and moonlight before setting out for Lake Heart Island.
• Shade and Iluna crossed through the Space Labyrinth to the island and found the manor’s rear wall intact despite the destruction caused by the battle.
• Iluna recognized the broken fountain as a statue of a Bountiful Angel and identified the Farmer Family as worshippers of the God of Sun and Earth.
• As Shade and Iluna approached the manor’s boarded entrance, Shade tasted the soil and sensed that the land was abnormal.
• Iluna confirmed that the earth beneath the manor was heading toward madness, revealing that Mad Earth had been concealed by the Pantanal Evil’s power.

Shade and Iluna entered the haunted Farmer manor to investigate its connection to Thomas Granger and discovered that the land trapped and fed on the souls of the dead. After the Baron Farmer attacked them, they subdued him and prepared to question the other souls.

• Shade's attempt to purify the manor grounds failed, and Iluna sensed that hundreds of souls waited on the third floor.
• Shade and Iluna exposed the illusory banquet with Iluna's Demonbane decree and met the soul of Baron Farmer.
• The Baron explained that his family had died in an epidemic after coming to the island to search for records for Thomas Granger, and said the land devoured the souls bound to it.
• The Baron ordered the souls to attack Shade and Iluna, but their Sun and Moon powers drove the spirits away.
• Shade restrained the Baron with silver halos and Great Sin Chains, then said they could question someone else in the manor.

Shade and Iluna uncovered the source of Mad Earth beneath the manor and fought the black mud serpent while Shade cast a purification spell. After Iluna destroyed the infant corpse and the earth was cleansed, Shade used Guiding Death on the baron's remaining soul to reveal its memories.

• The baron revealed that Thomas Granjay's letters were hidden in a basement wall, and Shade and Iluna found them alongside a dried infant corpse.
• Black mud seized the infant corpse and the baron, who escaped into the soil after his silver halos shattered.
• Shade began purifying the manor grounds with the Clay Holy Grail while Iluna defended him from a giant serpent formed of black mud and trapped souls.
• Iluna froze the serpent with Decree—Stillness, struck it with Sage's Light and Sunlight Gun, then found and destroyed the infant corpse at the center of the mud.
• The Clay Holy Grail's power dissolved the black mud and exposed the baron's petrified soul, which Shade touched with Guiding Death to access its memories.

Shade and Iluna freed the souls trapped at the Farmer manor and treated Iluna after she touched Mad Earth. Back home, Shade confirmed Thomas Granger had understood the land’s danger and prepared to use the Soul Cemetery to discover where and how he died.

• Shade explained that Baron Farmer’s occult experiments and attempted resurrection had trapped his family and caused a plague, then opened the Gate of Death for the manor’s souls.
• Shade and Iluna sent Baron Farmer and the infant’s corpse through the rift, where the baron’s wife helped him and told them Thomas had left on a greater mission to protect the land.
• Shade noticed Mad Earth on Iluna’s hand and made her drink an elixir that removed the stain and its curse.
• Shade tested the Holy Grail of Sweetness and found it could enhance food and water, restoring some stamina and spirit and providing a slight healing effect.
• Shade and Iluna reviewed Thomas Granger’s letters, then entered the Soul Cemetery so Shade could seek the cause and location of Thomas’s death.

Shade discovered that Thomas Granger had died from the Mad Earth's curse beside the Old Gods Statue at White River Valley Vineyard, and brought his remains to the Forgotten Church for Luvia to divine. The divinations failed to reveal much, leaving Thomas's soul and the secrets surrounding his death unresolved.

• Shade correctly identified Thomas Granger's cause of death and learned that he had died beside the Old God-Original Crack beneath White River Valley Vineyard.
• Shade returned to Huntington City, confirmed that Thomas's skeleton remained beside the Old Gods Statue, and arranged to bring the remains to Randall River Valley City.
• Shade told Luvia about the discovery and suggested that Thomas might have been trying to reach the Pantanal Great Swamp before his curse overwhelmed him.
• Luvia took leave from the Seer Association and joined Shade in bringing Thomas's coffin to the Forgotten Church.
• Luvia tried card, crystal ball, and water divination, but the Miracle Element and Thomas's unusual soul left the results unclear.

Shade and Luvia used a Spirit Board to learn that Thomas Granger would appear where the land went mad, but they could not locate such a place in Randall River Valley. Shade then decided to investigate a lifelike stone statue through the local Stone Masons Association, and bought a camera from the Steam Bird Daily to photograph it.

• Luvia used a Spirit Board with Shade controlling Thomas Granger's skeleton, and learned that he would appear where the land went mad.
• Luvia stopped the questioning before the skeleton became undead, and explained why earlier Mad Earth sites had not brought Granger forth.
• Shade asked Luvia about the lifelike seated statue, and she advised him to investigate it through the Stone Masons Association as a possible sculpture.
• Shade took Mia back to Tobesk and arranged to meet Luvia again at two in the afternoon.
• Shade visited the Steam Bird Daily with Dorothy and bought an old York II Camera, film, and replacement Magnesium Light bulbs.

Shade took Dorothy’s photograph at home, then spent the afternoon on a date with Luvia in Randall River Valley while investigating a statue. Their plans to return to the city were interrupted when the Unicorn appeared, and they camped together in the snowy woods.

• Shade photographed Dorothy holding Mia on the steps of his home, then developed a plan to photograph a stone statue with Luvia.
• Shade and Luvia met at the Forgotten Church, where he photographed the statue against a darkened background.
• Shade invited Luvia to explore Randall River Valley, and they visited the museum and Wilde Opera House before walking through the snowy countryside.
• As they watched the sunset from a tree, Shade and Luvia kissed, but a Unicorn arrived and greeted Shade.
• Shade and Luvia decided to camp in the woods until the Unicorn’s caretaker found it, and Luvia prepared dinner beside the campfire.

Shade and Luvia met Emilia Sinode, the Elf student responsible for the runaway Unicorn, and learned that she secretly visited Randall River Valley from Saint Byron’s Academy. After agreeing to help her obtain smuggled materials, they asked her to search the Academy Library for local history and information about the Mad Earth curse.

• Shade and Luvia shared dinner by the campfire with the Unicorn before Emilia arrived to retrieve it.
• Emilia recognized Shade’s Feliana Medal, and Shade and Luvia introduced themselves as Fifth Ring Arcanists from the Tobesk Correspondence Group.
• Emilia revealed that she was a fourth-year Saint Byron’s student from the Moon Creek Clan and cared for the Unicorn, while Luvia and Shade warned her about the dangers in Randall River Valley.
• Emilia asked Shade about buying New Continent specialties, and Shade agreed to deliver the materials she listed the following Tuesday.
• Luvia asked Emilia to search the Academy Library for Randall River Valley’s history and information about the Mad Earth curse.

Shade asked Emilia Sinode to search Saint Byron’s underground walls for hidden spaces in exchange for Ancient Elf Runes, and she left him a tuft of Unicorn tail hair as a gift. The next morning, Director Anlos told Shade that the Randall River Valley Stone Masons Association’s long-running dispute with House Anjou stemmed from a fatal Colossus collapse and unpaid wages.

• Shade gave Emilia Sinode a book of Ancient Elf poems to copy and asked her to use Spirit Runes to look for hidden spaces beneath Saint Byron’s buildings.
• The Unicorn gave Shade its tail hair as a sign of friendship, and Shade offered the hair to Luvia, who decided to make it into a ribbon.
• Shade saw an incomplete figure of Luvia disappear after kissing him, leaving him confused as he held Luvia beside the campfire.
• Shade met Director Anlos at the Ronaldo Club and asked about the Randall River Valley Stone Masons Association and the collapsed Colossus.
• Director Anlos explained that the Anjou Royal Family had forced the stone masons to work in the rain, causing the Colossus to collapse and kill or disable many workers, while leaving their wages unpaid.