Recaps

Shade, Miss Galina, and the others confronted the Sage Level event-type relic Friendly Neighbor, which had distorted Angelina’s memories and made a house appear beside Yodel Palace. They drove it away from the palace, but Miss Galina warned that it would remain in the city and target another settlement; Angelina ended the night feeling protected and wishing she had the power to protect her family.

• Leisha recognized that a relic was rewriting and contaminating cognition after Angelina identified the nonexistent Goodman Family house on a map.
• Miss Galina led Shade, Leisha, Angelina, Tifa, and two maids to the apartment building, where the faceless Goodmans invited Angelina and Shade inside.
• Miss Galina named the relic Friendly Neighbor and, with the others, denied that Yodel Palace had any neighbors, forcing the Goodmans to retreat and the house to vanish.
• Angelina’s memories returned to normal, and Leisha comforted her as she realized they had never had neighbors.
• Miss Galina explained that Friendly Neighbor would remain in the city for at least two months and change targets, prompting Shade to call for greater vigilance.
• Angelina followed her family toward Yodel Palace, grateful for their care and silently wishing she had the power to protect them.

Director Anlos briefed Shade on Moon Bay’s powerful families, his intelligence contact, and the controversial Eternal Light organization before Shade began a new Time Key adventure. Shade entered the late Fifth Epoch and received a trial to help the Old God Dream Giver complete four fishing attempts.

• Shade inspected the neighboring house and returned home with Little Mia after the Cavendish girls decided not to stay the night.
• Director Anlos visited Shade and warned him about the tangled power of Moon Bay’s seven families and the region’s political tensions.
• Director Anlos identified the Wood Family as Military Intelligence Section Six’s trusted contact and gave Shade a new identity and the code name Boatman for assistance.
• Shade asked about Eternal Light, and Director Anlos described its rise, increasingly radical doctrines, and ban by the Moon Bay City Police Department.
• Shade used his Time Key and entered the Time Corridor, arriving at the Outer Sea in Fifth Epoch 5180 aboard the Radiance Messenger cruise ship disaster.
• Father of Infinite Tree assigned Shade a trial to help Dream Giver complete four fishing attempts, with Dragon Roar and Corrupt Blood Mist as rewards.

Shade entered the lightless sea in Fifth Epoch 5180, where a hidden monster attacked him before he reached a floating plank with four unconscious women. He recognized one of them as Schultz Theresa, and the other survivors began waking as he tried to revive them.

• Shade identified the Old God as the God of Wishes and entered the Sea of No Light after activating Water Surface Walking.
• Shade plunged beneath the surface when the sea blocked Water Surface Walking, then escaped a rising monster by transforming into Red Butterflies.
• Shade flew toward a distant flame on a floating plank, losing many butterflies to the creature before reaching his companions.
• Shade found four unconscious women beside the fire and used Holy Water No. 3 to revive them.
• Shade recognized the oldest woman as a powerful Twelfth Order witch and another as a Tenth Order witch, who urged him to help the remaining young woman.
• Shade recognized the Eleventh Rank witch as Schultz Theresa, whom he had met three years earlier at Lost Lake.

Shade woke the shipwreck survivors on a floating plank in a lightless sea and learned that an allegedly unsinkable cruise ship had vanished after entering a strange region. The survivors had no way to explain where they were, and Shade realized the fire that had drawn them together had not been lit by any of them.

• Shade revived Miss Teresa and the other survivors with holy water, then gathered with them around a fire to recover from the freezing sea.
• Miss Teresa, Miss Maxim, Professor Sarah Evans, and Maggie Malone introduced themselves and explained that they had survived the Radiance Messenger’s sinking.
• The survivors described how the ship had disappeared within minutes, while the dark water drained their strength and prevented them from using Water Surface Walking.
• Professor Sarah Evans suggested that an unstable spatial storm had swallowed the ship in an abnormal sea region, and reassured Maggie that rescuers might come.
• Shade learned that Sarah had arrived last and asked who had lit the fire.

Shade and four women searched for a way out of a lightless, freezing sea where ordinary fire and magic failed. They discovered an inscription describing how four childhood treasures could summon the Giver of Dreams, and Miss Teresa began by offering the glasses tied to her wish to become a witch.

• Shade and the women confirmed that the fire basin was the only source of warmth and light, while their attempts to create fire and open a Teleportation Gate failed.
• Shade and Miss Teresa found strange writing on the floating board and brought its markings back to Professor Evans.
• Shade translated the Mithril Language inscription as instructions to summon the Giver of Dreams using four childhood treasures.
• Shade asked the women for objects connected to their childhood wishes, and Miss Teresa offered the glasses her aunt had given her when she was a child.

Shade met the Dream Giver at Lost Lake and began fishing with Teresa’s glasses to explore her childhood memories. He recovered a glass ball tied to a childhood game and then caught a piece of chalk, whose memory began to appear.

• Miss Maxim, Professor Sarah Evans, and Miss Maggie Maron offered personal keepsakes or blood and hair as gifts beside the bonfire.
• The Dream Giver appeared on the floating platform, and Shade approached with the four gifts.
• The deity gave Shade its Fishing Rod and told him to fish for the first dream using Teresa’s round-framed glasses as bait.
• Shade caught a glass ball and helped the girl in Teresa’s memory finish an unfinished childhood game.
• The Dream Giver urged Shade to continue fishing, and he caught a piece of white chalk that began to reveal another memory.

Shade corrected Miss Teresa’s ritual matrix in an illusion and learned about a deep-sea creature near the Radiance Messenger’s route. He fished the real Miss Schultz Theresa from the sea, and her false-bodied counterpart attacked her.

• Shade corrected three runes in Miss Teresa’s ritual matrix, gaining more knowledge of ritual studies.
• Shade caught a ribbon showing Miss Teresa speaking with Miss Violet, who warned her about strange music and signs of the Seven-Tailed Player near the Radiance Messenger’s route.
• Shade identified the Seven-Tailed Player and wondered whether it was connected to an accident aboard the Radiance Messenger.
• Shade’s next catch was the nearly drowned Miss Schultz Theresa, whom he carried back to the Fire Basin.
• The false-bodied Miss Teresa lunged at the rescued Miss Schultz Theresa.

Shade helped Miss Schultz Teresa reunite with her soul and learned that she and the other three women had drowned when the Radiance Messenger sank. He left them to seek the truth behind the shipwreck, then glimpsed the countless corpses beneath the Sea of No Light before returning to the Sixth Epoch.

• Shade embraced the frost-covered young woman, and her soul reunited with Miss Schultz Teresa’s body.
• Shade told Professor Evans, Miss Maxim, and Miss Maron that the fishing god would help them if they uncovered the truth behind the Radiance Messenger’s sinking.
• Shade collected the women’s past wishes and asked the god why it was helping them, but the god only smiled.
• Shade left food and supplies for the women, said goodbye to Miss Schultz Teresa, and departed through the White Fog.
• Before Shade vanished, he saw countless corpses and pieces of wreckage beneath the sea, and the corpses surged toward him.

Shade investigated the Lower District of Moon Bay City while searching for a rumored fortune-teller and the Hope Diamond. His visits uncovered a hidden corpse, a suspicious tenant, and a Bloodkin mark on a coroner’s door, leaving him poised to investigate the coroner’s connection to the Bloodkin.

• Shade returned from the Side Bedroom and planned to fulfill the drowned passengers’ wishes and investigate the Radiance Messenger.
• Shade questioned three boys on Herring Street, who told him about an elderly woman, a reclusive tenant, and a coroner living nearby.
• Shade found a week-old corpse in Grandma Martha’s bedroom while investigating her house as a cat.
• Shade searched the tenant’s room above 37 Herring Street Shop and found a disassembled handgun and two sets of identification bearing different names but the same photograph.
• Shade spotted a Bloodkin symbol on the coroner’s door at 13 Elm Street.

Shade went to the Lower District morgue to ask Bloodkin coroner Ptolemy Albert about reclusive diviners and the local black market. He discovered his old friend Viscount Armand Bernhardt was inside, and the three agreed to continue their conversation at the Spider Inn.

• Shade found Ptolemy Albert’s hidden morgue at the end of Spider Alley and politely asked to speak with him.
• Ptolemy said he specialized in alchemy and potions, not divination, and declined to reveal information about local diviners or the black market to a stranger.
• Shade noticed someone behind an iron door react to his mention of Huntington City and guessed that the person was from Middlesburg.
• Viscount Armand Bernhardt opened the door and recognized Shade, and the two old friends greeted each other warmly.
• Armand introduced Shade and Ptolemy, then suggested they talk over a drink at the Spider Inn while Ptolemy locked up the morgue.

Shade met Viscount Bernhardt at Spider Hotel, where they caught up and discussed Shade’s search for a relic and the local Rhodes Cards scene. Coroner Mr. Ptolemy Albert then offered Shade a lead on a powerful diviner called the Amethyst Lady.

• Shade met Viscount Bernhardt at Spider Hotel and told him he had come to Moon Bay to search for a relic.
• Bernhardt learned that Shade had collected seven Founding Series cards and told him that Great City Player 1850 Champion Viscount Bell Gra lived in Moon Bay.
• Shade and Bernhardt discussed Princess Margaret’s new fabric business while waiting for coroner Mr. Ptolemy Albert.
• Mr. Albert told Shade he could not identify the reclusive diviner Shade sought, but described the Amethyst Lady, a formidable diviner who mocked the Seer Association.
• Mr. Albert suggested Shade seek out the Amethyst Lady, whose connections might help him find the person he was looking for.

Shade joined Mr. Bernhardt and coroner Mr. Albert to investigate a dead woman whose blood loss and neck bites appeared designed to implicate the local Bloodkin. After examining her corpse, they found evidence of a strange cause of death and an unusually lavish final meal, but the investigation remained unresolved.

• Mr. Albert told Shade and Mr. Bernhardt about cleanly decapitated corpses appearing in Moon Bay City's Lower District and described the unclaimed woman whose blood had been drained from inside her abdomen.
• Mr. Albert asked Mr. Bernhardt to investigate the woman's death and identify whoever had framed the Bloodkin, and Shade agreed to help.
• Mr. Albert brought Shade and Mr. Bernhardt into the morgue and showed them the woman's corpse, which bore extensive injuries and bite marks that were not the cause of death.
• Mr. Albert opened the corpse's stomach and found no obvious foreign object among its contents, but the remains showed that she had eaten an expensive meal inconsistent with her apparent circumstances.

Shade and Mr. Bernhardt examined a woman whose blood had been drained by an unknown egg-shaped object, then Shade visited Princess Trading Partner on Anne Bonnie’s behalf. The company’s one-eyed representative recognized Shade’s credentials and promised to ship the delayed cargo as soon as possible.

• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt learned that the corpse had traces of a vanished egg-shaped object in her abdomen and unusually hard bones.
• Shade and Mr. Bernhardt discussed the autopsy with Mr. Albert, then drank ale while Mr. Bernhardt described how he had met the coroner.
• Shade told Mr. Bernhardt that he would help investigate the case and gave him Princess Trading Partner as his contact address.
• Shade visited Princess Trading Partner at 45 Golden Harbor Avenue and presented a letter and a knight token from Anne Bonnie.
• The one-eyed representative verified Shade’s code phrase, apologized to Her Highness, and promised to send the delayed shipment out of port soon.

Shade met with Leisha’s three representatives in Moon Bay City to learn why her cargo ships were detained and planned how to resolve the obstacles. He left the customs issue in his hands, assigned other leads to the trading company, and returned home after arranging further inquiries.

• Shade met Anne Bonnie, William Kidd, and George Robert, who agreed to follow his orders and explained that three ships carrying grain and hidden special alloys were detained.
• George Robert said Customs suspected the company of aiding Military Intelligence Section Six, the Eddington Family was delaying safety inspections through the Port Authority, and the Hawthorne Family was influencing the Dock Office.
• Shade said he would contact Military Intelligence Section Six to clear the customs suspicion and asked George Robert to pursue connections with the Eddington Family.
• Anne Bonnie explained that the company’s earlier fight with the Black Hand Gang may have delayed someone working for an important person, prompting the Hawthorne Family’s retaliation.
• Shade said he would investigate the Hawthorne Family and Dock Office, asked Bonnie to search discreetly for someone near Herring Street, and questioned her about unusual corpses.
• Shade heard that no headless or blood-drained bodies had been found around the docks, then left the trading company and returned home.

Shade spent an evening with Miss Galina discussing his investigation into the Radiance Messenger shipwreck and the requests of two women from the Fifth Epoch. The next day, he entered the Black Hand Gang’s underground boxing venue in Moon Bay City and secretly found his way to its third level.

• Shade asked Miss Galina to help investigate the Radiance Messenger, a cruise ship whose wreck had killed more than three thousand people in 5180.
• Shade explained that he planned to find Mirror Fairytale for Miss Maxim and seek Black Flame Ice Wine for Professor Evans, and he contacted Old John and Miss Danist for help.
• Shade visited the Black Hand Gang’s underground boxing ring in the Lower District without an introducer, gaining entry by paying the guard extra.
• Shade used Enhanced Space Perception and Stone Heart to locate a third level above the spectators, then slipped inside and saw six gang members drinking and playing cards.

Shade interrogated Double Blades Mike about the Black Hand Gang’s dealings and learned that Mr. Freeman Hawthorne had once sent the gang to help a stranger search the Lower District for something extraordinary. Shade suspected the search might concern the Hope Diamond and headed to meet his Military Intelligence Section Six contact, Boatman.

• Shade used a steel pipe and a silenced revolver to defeat the Black Hand Gang members and interrogate Double Blades Mike.
• Double Blades Mike revealed that the gang had recently sought three Rhodes Cards, but Shade pressed him about an earlier operation.
• Double Blades Mike said Mr. Freeman Hawthorne oversaw the gang’s business and that three months earlier the gang had helped a stranger search the Lower District for something extraordinary.
• Shade left after shooting Double Blades Mike when he reached for a gun, then wondered whether someone else was searching for the Hope Diamond.
• Shade decided to investigate Freeman Hawthorne and went to find Boatman at the Sunday Review Newspaper.

Shade met reporter Mr. Cooper in Moon Bay City to learn about Freeman Hawthorne and find a way to contact Gray Gloves. At the Parsifal Club, Shade captured Hawthorne and learned that the man’s associates had killed a merchant who possessed three valuable Special Rule Cards, though Hawthorne did not know where the cards were.

• Shade met Mr. Cooper, who described Freeman Hawthorne’s family and criminal connections and said Hawthorne was likely at the Parsifal Club.
• Mr. Cooper told Shade that the club’s proprietress, Mrs. Frey, could help him contact Gray Gloves, and he shared what little he knew about the headless and drained-blood corpses.
• Shade infiltrated the Parsifal Club, found Hawthorne on the fourth floor, and knocked him unconscious.
• Shade bound Hawthorne to a chair and questioned him about three rumored Special Rule Cards.
• Hawthorne said his men had failed to obtain the cards, but they had killed the merchant who held them, and he did not know where the cards were.

Shade learned that the relic sought by the Ring Arcanist may have passed to the Belinder Family, then used Luvia’s divination to find the Arcanist that night. He confronted the Fifth-Ring Arcanist on a rooftop, and their fight began with the man emerging from his hat and aiming at Shade.

• Shade questioned Freeman Hawthorne about the Ring Arcanist, the Belinder Family, and Eternal Light, then knocked Hawthorne unconscious with Mind Blast.
• Shade asked Boatman for Earl Hawthorne’s address and routine, then told Luvia about his search for the relic.
• Luvia divined that night was a favorable chance to act but warned Shade that he might encounter danger.
• Shade followed a red butterfly from Earl Hawthorne’s carriage to a rooftop in the Lower District, where he met the Ring Arcanist.
• The Ring Arcanist emerged from his spinning hat after Shade struck it with a Thunder Spear, then aimed a finger-gun at Shade through the smoke.

Shade learned that the Belinder Family had taken a mysterious destiny-linked stone mirror, then encountered a witch who had tracked him to an alley in Moon Bay. The chapter ended with Shade hidden in the shadows as he asked the unfamiliar witch why she had sought him.

• Shade defeated a Fifth-Ring Arcanist who revealed that the Belinder Family had taken a hexagonal stone mirror said to be connected to Destiny.
• The Arcanist explained that the Moon Bay families secretly hired Ring Arcanists because they feared a prophecy about an ancient dragon returning to purify the city.
• Shade failed to learn how to contact the Belinder Family's Ring Arcanist and let the Hawthorne Family's Arcanist leave.
• As Shade prepared to leave, his badge heated, and he caught a metal tarot card depicting The Empress that had been thrown toward him.
• Shade sensed a witch waiting in a carriage, put on a mask, and hid in the alley before asking why she had come looking for him.

Shade met the Great Witch of Fate, Miss Belinder, and used a false identity to convince her he served Miss Benanis. She revealed the Angel Level Relic The Only Existence and summoned him to meet her at the Councilor Club on Sunday afternoon.

• Miss Belinder confronted Shade after hearing him discuss her through a curse placed on a Hawthorne Family arcanist.
• Shade claimed he was searching for the Hope Diamond on behalf of Miss Benanis, and Miss Belinder mistook him for her follower.
• Miss Belinder explained that the Hawthorne Family had sought The Only Existence, a Stone Mirror that made an engraved name unique by changing or erasing others who shared it.
• Miss Belinder invited Shade to the Councilor Club at one-thirty on Sunday and gave him a metal card to keep.
• Shade gave the name Sherlock, which Miss Belinder misheard as Charlotte, and watched her carriage leave.

Shade visited Miss Galina to discuss his upcoming meeting with Miss Belinder, then learned that the Fifth Epoch ship Radiance Messenger had been found as a remarkably preserved wreck off the West Coast. He planned to inspect its surviving boards at Moon Bay’s museum while Miss Galina and the others worked on locating the wreck.

• Shade told Miss Galina that Miss Belinder had invited him to meet on Sunday, and she advised him about the witch’s reliance on divination and limited combat ability.
• Miss Galina gave Shade records showing that the Radiance Messenger’s wreck had been discovered off the West Coast and identified as a Fifth Epoch ship.
• Shade learned that salvaged boards from the wreck lost their resistance to decay after removal, and two pieces were now displayed at the City Ship Museum in Moon Bay.
• Miss Galina explained that the wreck’s exact location was unknown and that reaching it would require a lengthy sea voyage.
• Shade agreed to focus on Moon Bay and inspect the museum boards while Miss Galina and the other ladies sought a way to locate the wreck.

Shade spent the day with the Red-haired Witch, attended the group meeting about three Academy students arriving for summer practice, and collected a rare book and a bottle of Black Flame Ice Wine. That night, Shade and Dorothy studied mermaid stories and scales together while swimming on Green Island.

• The Red-haired Witch persuaded Shade to spend the morning riding around her farm instead of visiting the black market.
• Doctor Schneider told the group that three Academy students, including the elven noble Emilia Sinode Moon Creek, would arrive in Tobesk next Tuesday to investigate a Document Level Relic.
• Shade recognized Emilia from his adventure in Randall River Valley, and Dorothy agreed to join Doctor Schneider and Shade in meeting the students at the train station.
• Miss Danist delivered the Black Flame Ice Wine, and Shade and Dorothy collected a copy of Mirror Fairytale from Old John.
• Dorothy planned to teach Shade about mermaids using Leisha's scales on Green Island, and Shade and Dorothy swam together beneath the moon while Little Mia watched from the island.

Shade visited a black market in Moon Bay City, bought two healing relics, and learned that the Dragon Devouring Order had joined forces with the Seekers of Light Research Society in the area. The chapter left him uncertain about how long the research society had been active locally.

• Shade asked Dorothy to look after his cat while he went out.
• Shade bought a jar of honey at the Honeycomb Duke Shop and used Mr. Albert’s password to enter the black market beneath it.
• Shade purchased two Feeble Healing relics for four Crowns, bringing his total Special Coins to four.
• Shade asked a masked seller about local factions and learned that Bloodkin clans lived in the area and outside organizations were infiltrating it.
• The masked seller told Shade that the Dragon Devouring Order was cooperating with the Seekers of Light Research Society in the Moon Bay Area.
• Shade questioned whether the research society had operated in the area for a long time, but the masked seller could not confirm it.

Shade investigated the possible return of the Chosen One of Light, then used his Gray-headed Eagle credentials to enlist local Gray Gloves agents in Moon Bay. He left them with four assignments, including speeding up the review of Leisha’s trading fleet.

• Shade reflected on the Dragon Devouring Order, the Chosen One of Light, and the possibility that a Poem Chapter Fragment in Moon Bay concerned dragons.
• Shade visited Mrs. Frey at the Parsifal Club and paid for information about Rhodes Cards, then received a name and address for a Gray Gloves contact.
• Shade presented his Gray-headed Eagle credentials to bookstore owner Mr. Dylan, who welcomed him as a returning high-ranking member of Gray Gloves.
• Shade asked local agents to check his old Safe House, monitor the Black Family, investigate Moon Bay Bridge funds, and review companies suspected of links to Military Intelligence Section Six.
• Shade had Gray Gloves accelerate its review of Princess Trading Partner, hoping to resolve the customs delay affecting Leisha’s fleet.

Shade prepared for his meeting with Bella Belinder while two Ring Arcanists used the relic Lightless Light to reach Belinder Big Ben. Their attempt to start a ritual was interrupted by Dawn Church arcanists and the Amethyst Lady, and the Angel Level Relic Dice Story Collection trapped them in a game.

• Shade decided to conceal his identity from Bella Belinder and spent the afternoon scouting the area around Belinder Big Ben.
• Two Ring Arcanists from the Seekers of Light Research Society flew invisibly to the clock tower and began setting up a ritual.
• York O'Connor and other Dawn Church arcanists confronted the pair, while Bella Belinder revealed herself on the observation deck.
• The woman announced that Light Chaser had ordered them to invite the Church and the Amethyst Lady to play a game before sunset.
• The woman activated the Dice Story Collection, sealing the terrace and forcing Bella, York, and the others to take their places at the table.