The Clawsplitter Plot, the Day the Earth Exploded

Vilance didn't return to Blackflame Pass with the warriors through the Skaven tunnels.

She had more important things to do, so she returned directly to Scarlet Castle in Transia through a teleportation ritual personally conducted by Triss. As she handed over the Abyssal Diamond for Triss to use in preparing an antidote, Vilance also told her what the players had discovered.

When Triss heard that the mysterious Skaven were very likely joining forces with the gnolls, her head started to ache too.

The Skaven weren't gnolls or kobolds. They were a new species!

The various powers across the continent knew very little about them. There wasn't much they could say for certain so far. They only knew that Skaven bred quickly, were skilled diggers, and had a strange ability that let them evade earth priests' detection.

But even knowing that much was enough to make people shudder and find it unbelievable.

In theory, after all, all the lands and mountains belonged to Gaia. Nothing that happened beneath the earth could escape the Mother Goddess's notice. Yet now a species had appeared that could bypass Gaia's divine power. That truth alone was enough to make every earth priest spit up three mouthfuls of blood.

But despite her headache, Triss also felt a little relieved.

From the very beginning, Murphy had never believed Blackflame Pass could hold off the gnolls. He'd said it was just a gut feeling, but the preparations he'd been making in advance had finally come in handy.

The defenses at Shadowvale weren't as secure as those at Blackflame Pass, but at least they could provide the people evacuating there with a refuge and prevent a repeat of the disaster from a hundred years ago, when the entire garrison at Blackflame Pass was wiped out.

Kudell had died in