Chapter Summaries

Rorschach visited his parents and the injured Village Chief after returning to the village, bringing money and proposing ways to help the family and local children. He began treating the Village Chief’s injuries but insisted the old man stay in bed until after he left.

• Rorschach confirmed that his parents had received his monthly payments and offered to help them move to town, but Old Merkler preferred farming and agreed that Franz and Angel should study in town.
• Rorschach learned that the Village Chief had broken his leg and ribs while hunting and went to visit him.
• Rorschach gave Melson two bottles of Valuana wine and fifty Imperial Gold Eagles in thanks for his past support.
• Rorschach asked Melson to teach the village children once a week and offered to support clever students in the future.
• Rorschach examined Melson’s open fractures and offered to speed his recovery, making him promise not to get out of bed before Rorschach had left.

Rorschach healed Old Melson and learned from him where the giant tree and the elves’ former stronghold lay in the Black Forest. With the location marked for his mission with the Tower of the Forest, Rorschach said goodbye to the villagers and left for town.

• Rorschach used Deluyats Forest to heal Old Melson’s injuries and warned him that the spell could not cure every condition.
• Old Melson recognized the forest phantom and pointed out a giant tree where his unit had fought elves and their magic.
• Melson described the army’s battle beneath the tree, including a mage who burned the elves’ stronghold before disappearing.
• Melson used his old route through the forest to mark a rough location for the giant tree on Rorschach’s map.
• Rorschach told Melson he would investigate with mages from the Tower of the Forest, then left gifts for the Merklers and departed the village by carriage.

Rorschach reached Peyma City, exchanged messages with the Tower of Stars and the Tower of the Forest, and prepared to join an expedition into the Black Forest. After meeting Archmage Humboldt’s investigation team, he was surprised by the arrival of Cavendish, who said Kano had sent him along.

• Rorschach sent documents to the Tower of the Forest and a letter to Archmage Lionel Kano, then bought Blank Communication Scrolls after receiving Kano’s reply.
• Rorschach used his Tower of Stars ID Card to reveal the hidden Teleportation Array core diagram in Kano’s message.
• Rorschach learned that Alexander von Humboldt would lead the Tower of the Forest investigation team and studied their maps and supply checklist.
• Rorschach met Humboldt and the other Tower of the Forest team members at the Mage Guild.
• Cavendish arrived carrying a large bundle and told Rorschach that Master Kano had ordered him to join the expedition.

Rorschach and the investigators traveled into the Black Forest to investigate changes linked to the god Deluyats, where they found a village beset by unusually aggressive beasts. Master Humboldt healed the injured innkeeper and asked what the villagers meant by the “Tree God.”

• Kano sent Cavendish to earn a credit by accompanying Rorschach, and Cavendish arrived with equipment to map the Star Chart above the Black Forest.
• Rorschach agreed to let Cavendish join the investigation and asked him to make a copy of his completed map.
• Master Humboldt explained that the team was investigating possible changes in the Main Plane connected to Deluyats and cast Elemental Resistance on Cavendish to protect him from the cold.
• Peterson told Rorschach about his former student Anastasia, who had been a gifted learner of natural magic before transferring away.
• The investigators reached a hunting settlement where the innkeeper reported that aggressive beasts had attacked villagers and snatched children during an unusually snowless winter.
• Master Humboldt healed the innkeeper’s wounds and asked what kind of being the villagers called the Tree God.

Rorschach and the investigation team discovered that villagers believed a Tree God inhabited the Black Forest and that a couple’s son had disappeared. Archmage Humboldt decided the team would stay overnight to investigate the anomaly, and they fortified the village as night approached.

• Humboldt questioned the only remaining Tree God worshippers, but the drunk man claimed the god was present in every tree, while the woman remained silent.
• The innkeeper revealed that the couple’s son had disappeared and left the village after Peterson paid him for the inn.
• Cavendish urged the team to leave, but Humboldt decided they would stay overnight, observe the forest, and assess the Beast Tide.
• Humboldt assigned rooms with a view of the couple’s cabin, and the apprentices restored the village defenses while Rorschach raised earthen walls.
• Rorschach returned to his room to recover and prepare a Communication Scroll as the team patrolled and night drew near.

Rorschach and the mages survived two waves of the Beast Tide, captured animals, and discovered that the village couple had stayed in their cabin. As the forest fell quiet, a child’s repeating cries suggested a new danger.

• Master Humboldt and the apprentices repelled charging boars and deer, then drove the animals away from the earthen wall with Grease Spells.
• Wolves and lynxes charged together as the forest’s shrieks overwhelmed everyone; Rorschach ignited the greasy ground, and Master Humboldt extinguished burning wolves with vines.
• Master Humboldt sensed the anomaly retreating into the forest, and the mages secured the captured animals for examination.
• Master Humboldt transformed into the White Wolf King and silenced the animals, then changed back and ordered the apprentices to examine them.
• Ella reported that the detained couple had remained in their hunting cabin during the Beast Tide, but the woman rushed toward the forest after hearing a child cry.
• Rorschach stopped the woman and realized that the child’s sobbing repeated in exactly the same pattern.

After the forest’s crying persisted despite the mages’ attacks, Rorschach’s powerful Fireball drove a huge creature away, and Archmage Humboldt raised a protective barrier. Rorschach linked the forest’s mutations to a Giant Tree and the God’s Corpse incident, while the child’s mother pleaded with the Tree God to return Albert.

• Humboldt used Albert’s clothes and bedding to test for his presence, but the animals found no trace of the child and sensed a dangerous creature in the woods.
• Peterson and the apprentices bombarded the forest with spells, but the crying resumed, so Rorschach unleashed a powerful Fireball that blasted trees apart and revealed a fleeing, long-limbed monster.
• Humboldt transformed his oak staff into a Giant Tree and created a barrier to protect the inn and the hunter’s cabin.
• Cavendish reported that the aetheric environment was distorting, and Humboldt asked Rorschach whether the team should continue deeper into the forest.
• Rorschach connected the local Tree God belief and the mutations to a Giant Tree encountered by an Imperial force, suggesting it was linked to the God's Corpse incident.
• The hunter’s wife pleaded with the Tree God to return Albert, and her husband covered her mouth as she grew more agitated.

Rorschach and the mages set out toward the giant tree after Master Kouber and Humboldt sent clones to protect the hunter couple. The party traveled deeper into the Black Forest, where Kouber kept Rorschach company and gathered mushrooms during a rest.

• Peterson explained that the Tower of the Forest could not spare reinforcements because its mages were studying crop diseases, while Rorschach said the Tower of Stars had few available mages during exam week.
• Rorschach copied the star chart, drew the giant tree, marked the forest map, and sent the materials and a report through his Communication Scroll.
• Master Kouber arrived as a clay clone, and Humboldt created a shaman-like clone to guard the hunter couple while the group traveled with Kouber.
• Humboldt led the party through the misty forest, using nature magic to move trees and clear a path as they rode toward the giant tree.
• During a rest, Kouber teased Rorschach about romance, then used nature magic to locate and gather mushrooms, including a dark fungus.

Rorschach dreamed that the Deer-headed God, Deluyats, spoke to him about the forest’s aberration and the elves nearby. He woke at dusk as Kouber urged the group to prepare to travel.

• Rorschach ate mushroom soup with the group while Kouber’s avatar complained about being unable to taste the food.
• Rorschach sent Archmage Kano a letter and leaves through a Communication Scroll, then tried to sleep during the daytime rest.
• In a dream, Deluyats thanked Rorschach for coming and said they would part when Rorschach reached the forest’s core.
• Deluyats warned that the nearby elves’ presence was troubling and said the forest’s aberration might stem from the divided authorities of Wasteland and Proliferation.
• Rorschach woke at dusk, and Old Master Kouber told him to wake the others and get moving.

Cavendish used the stars to create a map after the forest’s unnatural darkness severed Master Humboldt’s connection to nature. As the group neared the Elf Village Ruins, a monster attacked Ella, and Rorschach struck it down.

• Master Humboldt lost his ability to sense the forest, while Cavendish’s compass behaved erratically.
• Rorschach raised Cavendish above the trees, and Cavendish measured the stars and calculated their location.
• Cavendish used Thoth Alchemical Ink to make a Starlight Map that showed the group where they were and guided their route.
• The group continued through the dark forest, where strange cries repeatedly startled the tired travelers.
• Near the Elf Village Ruins, the group heard a sorrowful singing voice, then Ella screamed as a monster crashed through trees beside her.
• Rorschach slashed the monster and introduced himself as a Graduate of the Imperial Royal Magic Academy, a Researcher of the Tower of Stars, and an instructor.

Rorschach and the others examined a plantlike monster they had defeated and continued toward a ruined Elven Settlement. As Humboldt scouted the ruins through a forest owl, the monsters inside noticed it and began imitating its calls.

• Rorschach’s rays cut a monster in half, and Kober bound its still-twitching remains with vines.
• Peterson dissected the monster, while Rorschach and Kober determined that its body was made of plantlike tissue and mycelium.
• Humboldt urged the group onward, and Cavendish reported that the nearby Elven Settlement had been destroyed.
• The party rested without a fire before continuing through the darkness toward the settlement ruins.
• Humboldt sent a forest owl ahead to scout, and the monsters in the ruins turned toward it and imitated its calls.

The chapter revealed how the elves created the reproducing Artificial Spirits and how the village was destroyed, leaving the nameless beings to survive and later fight the humans who entered the ruins. After the battle, Ella and the others discovered the mummified body of a boy with a missing right arm at the village’s center.

• The elves created plant-and-fungus bodies inhabited by Artificial Spirits, hoping to preserve their people’s legacy and guard the Divine Tree.
• An Artificial Spirit wandered to the forest’s edge, leading imperial soldiers and Spellcasters back to the village, where the elves and their creations were destroyed.
• The surviving Artificial Spirits endured in underground and surrounding mycelium, multiplying and wandering the forest without names or teachers.
• Rorschach, Cavendish, Peterson, Kober, Humboldt, and the others fought the monsters in the ruins, while Kober and Humboldt captured four for study.
• Ella found a mummified boy on a stone platform, and Kober’s duplicate determined that the child had been born without his right arm.

After the party searched the ruined village and rested, Rorschach met Deluyats in a dream and learned that a sealed power was trying to corrupt the Giant Tree. Deluyats suspected someone in the party served that power, and Rorschach grew suspicious of Peterson before proposing they investigate beneath the village.

• The party searched the burned village ruins, found a mound, and decided to leave it undisturbed while they looked elsewhere.
• Rorschach decided the dead child should be returned to his family, and the party rested and ate at their camp.
• Rorschach sent monster tissue samples and messages to Kano, then dreamed of Deluyats in the village.
• Deluyats explained that Eternal Night had spread as the Wasteland mutated and warned that a sealed, malformed power was trying to corrupt the Giant Tree.
• Deluyats said someone in the party served the hidden power, prompting Rorschach to suspect Peterson and consider whether Ella might also be a threat.
• After waking, Rorschach urged Kouber to investigate the conspicuous stone slab beneath the village.

Rorschach and Archmage Kouber explored a hidden basement and uncovered an elf elder’s failed experiments to create monsters from fungus, magic, and souls. Kouber revived the fungal creation to form a new body, then emerged transformed into an old man while Rorschach carried his clay duplicate back to the others.

• Archmage Kouber and Rorschach entered the cellar and found an elven elder’s study and experimental notes linking the monsters to fungus from around the Divine Tree.
• Rorschach read the elder’s diary, which described experiments combining mycelium, artificial spirits, and a wolf’s soul before the village’s protections failed.
• Kouber revived the dried mycelium covering a puppet, and the growth absorbed his clay duplicate to create a new body.
• The puppet transformed into a hunched old man resembling Kouber, while Rorschach used telepathy to tell him he needed to discuss Peterson.
• Rorschach returned to Master Humboldt and Peterson carrying the clay remains, and Kouber followed from the cellar in his new body.

Peterson attempted a ritual beneath the Sky-Piercing Tree to help Mother Earth erode the Divine Tree, but Rorschach and the others stopped him before it began. As they approached the tree, Rorschach sensed that the real danger had already begun.

• Peterson prepared a blood-infused ritual circle among the bones beneath the Giant Tree, hoping to earn Mother Earth's blessing and power.
• The investigation team arrived and discovered two Petersons; the impostor seized Ella and threatened her while the real Peterson spread his arms to welcome his master.
• Alexander killed Peterson with a concentrated line of fire, and Kober's thunder wolves destroyed the corpse while the disguised innkeeper holding Ella also fell.
• Ella escaped back to the group, and Kober explained that Peterson had switched places with the stand-in after their sensing abilities failed.
• Rorschach moved toward the Giant Tree and sensed magic rising through its domain, warning that the real trouble was coming.

Mother Earth’s influence produced evolving monsters and a massive embryo from the Sky-Piercing Giant Tree, while Deluyats reclaimed her strength to oppose it. The chapter ended with the Giant Tree collapsing after its blue radiance was drawn into Deluyats.

• The Newborn monsters emerged from tumors around the Sky-Piercing Giant Tree and adapted to the investigation team’s attacks.
• Rorschach slowed and shattered the monsters with Water Bullets and Ice Ray, while Cavendish and the archmages helped destroy them.
• Mother Earth formed a huge tumor that cried like an infant, temporarily paralyzing everyone and preventing them from casting spells.
• Deluyats broke the group free with her enormous shriek, and the archmages attacked the tumor until a massive embryo fell from it.
• The embryo drained the Sky-Piercing Giant Tree through its umbilical cord, prompting Deluyats to draw the blue fireflies into herself and reclaim her strength.
• The Giant Tree collapsed as its remaining support failed, leaving it divided between Deluyats and Mother Earth.

Rorschach sustained Deluyats Forest as Deluyats, Kouber, and Humboldt fought the Abyssal God embryo, while he arranged to bring Lionel Kano to the battlefield through the Gate of All. Deluyats restrained the embryo’s growth, and a newly arrived Archmage summoned four flaming meteors against it.

• Rorschach poured mana into himself and cast Deluyats Forest, creating a grove that shielded his companions and purified the falling pus.
• Deluyats fought the Abyssal God embryo in her Vidar incarnation, then returned to her usual form after its branches wounded and infected her.
• Kouber and Humboldt joined the battle, and Kouber cast Vengeful Storm to bombard the embryo with lightning, acid rain, wind, and hail.
• Rorschach used Cavendish’s Alchemy Map and a Communication Scroll to send Lionel Kano a battlefield location, hoping he could use the Gate of All to arrive.
• Deluyats balanced the embryo’s uncontrolled proliferation with her powers of Wasteland and reproduction, trapping it within the natural cycle.
• An Archmage arrived from the sky, mocked the embryo, crushed a crystal, and summoned four flaming meteors.

Rorschach and the Archmages destroyed the Abyssal God embryo, ending the Eternal Night in Deluyats Forest, but the battle left Rorschach unconscious. In a dream, Deluyats thanked him and showed him the Supreme Heaven and Symbolic Realm, revealing part of the truth behind magic and the world's powers.

• Rorschach struck the Abyssal God embryo with four meteors, and its remaining power returned to the mother body as its flesh decayed.
• Ella saw daylight return to Deluyats Forest, and Kano, Humboldt, and Kober found Rorschach exhausted and injured.
• Humboldt treated Rorschach while Kano arranged for Cavendish to place him in a Sleeping Bag, then Kano and Humboldt discussed the aftermath and the division of research and remains.
• Rorschach dreamed of Deluyats, who explained her names and forms and thanked him for helping save the forest.
• Deluyats threw Rorschach into a stream, where he saw the world's origin and then the Symbolic Realm, including a branching pattern that resonated with Mana Control.

Rorschach learned from Deluyats about the Symbolic Realm, the Astral Realm, and the barriers created by Transmutation Dust before returning to the elven ruins. There, Kano explained his plans and took Rorschach to search the Tower of the Forest’s books, where they encountered old Mr. Kober.

• Deluyats explained that the Archetype Layer was only one view of magic and described how the Symbolic Realm and the Real Realm intertwined to create miracles.
• Deluyats told Rorschach that Transmutation Dust separated the Main Plane from the Symbolic and Astral Realms, then ended their meeting.
• Rorschach awoke at night in the elven village ruins, and Kano asked him to report on Cavendish’s performance when he returned to the Holy Kingdom.
• Kano explained that teleportation arrays were restricted to Archmages and said he would return to Valuana through the Tower of the Forest.
• Kano brought Rorschach to the elven elder’s study to choose books, where they found old Mr. Kober carrying a dimensional bag and books.

After warning the Tower of the Forest about the Earth Mother Cult’s infiltration, Rorschach returned to Peyma City and reported to Sabins, who arranged a cautious investigation and gave him a cryptic evacuation warning. Rorschach left wondering whether the Empire was preparing to wage war on the Holy Kingdom.

• Rorschach and Master Kano divided the recovered elven books with Kouber, and Rorschach warned him that the Earth Mother Cult had infiltrated the Tower of the Forest.
• Kouber agreed to begin an internal review, while Kano stayed near the elven village ruins and Humboldt took Cavendish and Rorschach back to Peyma City.
• Rorschach submitted his operation report to Sabins and suggested investigating Tower of the Forest members sent into the countryside before spring planting.
• Sabins gave Rorschach gold and a new codebook, told him to stop contacting the Pacharluca Merchant Guild, and warned him to return home immediately if the embassy issued an evacuation notice in Valuana.
• Rorschach bought recent newspapers and old issues of the Business Paper, then wondered whether the Empire was about to wage war on the Holy Kingdom.