Recaps

Murphy prepared a supernal rift to destroy the Rending Claw gnolls at Blackflame Pass, knowing it would also kill any soldiers still trapped there. Triss reached the survivors through a mental link, and after they agreed to the sacrifice, Murphy began the counterattack.

• Murphy and the goatman sorcerers prepared three Nocturne barrier crystals to fuel a supernal rift, while Astrologer Bohr warned that the most destructive ritual would kill everyone still in Blackflame Pass.
• Mannis found a chaotic current in the Astral Realm near Silver Wolf Hellsong's territory, and Murphy chose it as the rift's destination.
• Triss used a mental link with Heru's help to warn the trapped survivors that Murphy's counterattack would destroy their position and asked for their response.
• Patton and other survivors requested that Murphy begin the counterattack immediately, accepting their deaths to inflict greater losses on the gnolls.
• Triss rescued Major Ron, Captain Ironhand, and several Plantagenet soldiers, then told Murphy that the doomed survivors had made their choice.
• Murphy received their last wish to kill as many gnolls as possible and began the supernal rift ritual.

Murphy opened an enormous astral rift over Blackflame Pass, annihilating the Rending Claw Clan’s vanguard and main base while leaving the Dark Mountains vulnerable to further rifts. He promised Bole’s goatfolk fifteen more rifts in exchange for helping save Vidia, then spotted Matriarch Botana fleeing.

• Murphy charged the Myriad Forms Device with psionic energy and opened a vast astral rift above Blackflame Pass.
• The astral currents destroyed Blackflame Pass, wiped out tens of thousands of Rending Claw troops, and swallowed the Lord of Darkness and the clan’s main base.
• Murphy explained that the lingering damage to the planar boundary would let Transian psionicists create more rifts across the Dark Mountains.
• Murphy promised Bole ten astral rifts in Rending Claw territory, and Bole offered fifteen in return for help saving Vidia, King of All Curses.
• Murphy spotted Matriarch Botana escaping in her war wagon and called on Mannis to act.

After the Transians opened an Astral rift at Blackflame Pass, Mannis crossed into the material world and helped Murphy capture and kill Potana, extracting her Voodoo transcendent law. Before returning to the Astral Realm, Mannis warned Murphy that the gods of the Warp were preparing something dangerous and that the true battlefield lay beyond the Black Calamity.

• Potana watched the Astral rift’s currents sweep away the Rending Claw army and believed Blackflame Pass had been destroyed.
• Murphy summoned Mannis through the rift, and the Serpent of Time attacked Potana with temporal powers as Murphy’s forces approached.
• Mannis reversed Potana’s escape, aged her, and extracted her Voodoo transcendent law despite her offer to serve it.
• Murphy killed Potana and declared that Transia had answered the Black Calamity and those who sought to harm it.
• Mannis told Murphy that the Warp gods’ war was intensifying and urged him to prepare for the greater conflict.

Murphy received a powerful time-based ancestral power from Mannis after the Fangclaw Chieftain Potana died at Blackflame Pass. As Murphy prepared to return to Shadow Valley, Manson persuaded Hyugson to accept the Lord of the Hunt’s holy emblem and lead the Fangclaw Clan’s revenge against Transia.

• Mannis warned Murphy about coming dangers, struck him with a bolt of lightning as a reward, and granted him Time’s Chosen, including a fatal-damage-triggered Time Reversal.
• Murphy thanked Mannis, collected Potana’s head, staff, and other drops, and told the players to return to Shadow Valley with news of the Fangclaw Chieftain’s death.
• Manson sheltered fewer than ten thousand gnolls underground from the Astral Rift’s tainted energy and told Hyugson that Potana had likely died.
• Hyugson threatened Manson with the Wolfblood Sacred Sword, but Manson urged it to claim leadership of the Fangclaw Clan and become the Lord of the Hunt’s Chosen.
• Hyugson accepted the holy emblem and demanded that the Bloodscar Clan provide an army for its revenge against Transia, while refusing to join Manson’s feud with German Bonebiter.

Murphy returned to Couragehold after defeating the Ripperclaw Matriarch, and the fallen Gnoll chief’s head and throne became memorials to the Battle of Blackflame Pass. As Couragehold prepared for the war ahead, Murphy pursued alliances and recorded a new vengeance in his Book of Hatred.

• Murphy brought Potana’s head and jeweled skull throne to Couragehold, where the faithful and warriors celebrated the Ripperclaw Matriarch’s death.
• Murphy, Old Eugene, Master Yuri, and Flod Goddonus recognized that keeping the trophies would make Couragehold a target, and Flod demanded to test Murphy’s Vam-walkers.
• Murphy agreed to send the Vam-walkers to Flod for training, while Master Yuri offered help to warriors who wished to follow the path of winter.
• Murphy and Old Eugene discussed recovering Avalon’s Sacred Blades and Holy Grail, and Murphy proposed cooperation with the Helms Rangers against the cult of Dusk.
• Old Eugene recommended Mother Marianne as a contact among Helms Island’s people, then left Murphy alone in Couragehold’s hall.
• Murphy placed Lord Heather’s life candle before Potana’s head, recorded the Battle of Blackflame Pass in his notebook, and vowed that their enemies would answer for their blood debts.

After Blackflame Pass was destroyed by the Astral Rift, Transian commanders warned their allies that the ruined pass had become a dangerous, indefensible route toward the Maginot Line and Fort Krim. Murphy and the players arrived with proof that they had killed the Rending Claw High Chieftain Potana, while Maxim challenged the Plantagenet and Winter Wolves to earn their share of the victory in the next war.

• At dawn, the evacuated defenders left for Shadowvale and the Maginot Line, while Triss, Fraser, Baldwin, Maxim, Ilyich, and others returned to inspect Blackflame Pass.
• Triss warned the inspection party that tainted psionic energy and creatures from the Astral Plane made the ruins too dangerous to enter.
• Maxim and Ilyich explained that the rift had flattened the pass, contaminated its ley lines, and left Shadowvale and the northern defenses exposed to gnoll and ratman attacks.
• Ilyich rebuked Baldwin and Duke for failing to help defend Blackflame Pass, and Maxim urged them and Fraser to prepare their forces for the coming danger.
• Murphy arrived with the players, and Lord Qin reported that they had killed High Chieftain Potana Rending Claw and presented his armor as proof.
• Maxim gave Potana's helmet and armor to Fraser and Baldwin, challenging them to take part in the next victory; Baldwin promised the Winter Wolves would be there.

After Blackflame Pass fell, Murphy rebuked the human kingdoms for failing to support the vampires and demanded reinforcements and prisoners for the coming war. At Shadow Valley, Old Qin proposed tunnel and guerrilla tactics to delay the gnolls while the Maginot Line was prepared, and Murphy offered twenty more outsiders to help.

• Murphy reminded the human kingdoms of the vampires’ heavy losses, declared that Transia would keep fighting, and demanded that the Plantagenets send Old Church druids and the Nordmen send Wam priests and Blood Eagle blood thralls to the front.
• The survivors of the Blood Covenant retainer army returned to Blackflame Pass to mourn their dead before riding off to continue the war.
• At Shadow Valley, Kudel and Maxim proposed leaving only elite defenders behind and harassing the gnolls’ supply routes as they advanced.
• Happy Stick argued that abandoning the region would waste valuable time, and Old Qin proposed using local knowledge, the Baphomet Underground Palace, tunnels, and guerrilla tactics to delay the gnolls.
• Old Qin requested command of the Barren Mountain defenses and estimated he could hold the gnolls for at least a month; Murphy offered twenty more outsiders to support the plan.

Old Qin organized a tunnel-warfare plan to defend Transia and recruited military staff specialists to help carry it out. The chapter ended with Loyal Brother and his team welcoming the exhausted Sister Cement home.

• Qin Ye asked Old Chen to design a phased tunnel network from Shadow Valley to the Filthy Swamp, with Silver Dwarf Earth Priests helping excavate it.
• Old Chen agreed to adapt real-world combat tunnel plans within three days, while Qin Ye arranged for fifteen command and staff specialists to join the operation.
• Qin Ye received a coded message that an important person was returning from overseas and learned that he would need to head out again.
• Loyal Brother gathered his trusted men and went to the nearly empty airport to meet Sister Cement.
• Sister Cement woke under her breathing mask, recognized Loyal Brother's greeting, and cried as he welcomed her home.

Sister Cement returned to her people after contacting an alien Observer, and she warned Qin that her experiment might have exposed their world to subspace. As she attempted to contact the Observer again, Triss answered in the Observer’s place, preparing to speak with Qin and Brother Loyalty.

• Mrs. Shui learned Sister Cement had returned home in critical condition and planned to visit her soon.
• Sister Cement told Brother Loyalty that she had met the Observer and that the prototype’s failure had sent her voice into subspace, possibly revealing their world’s location.
• Sister Cement explained to Qin that the game connected their world to another and might be preparing players to resist a future subspace threat.
• Qin asked Sister Cement to contact the Observer, but Murphy could not hear her call from Shadowvale.
• Triss detected Sister Cement’s signal, consulted Murphy, and agreed to pose as the Observer while he made his way to her.
• Sister Cement told Qin that the Observer’s representative would temporarily use her body to project consciousness, and Qin ordered the room’s recording devices turned on.

Triss posed as an Observer to answer Grandpa Qin’s questions about warp corruption and warn Blue Star about its agents and the whispers in people’s minds. After the conversation, Sister Cement revealed the danger of a prototype, while officials on the island considered rebuilding it and learned that a test subject had heard a divine voice.

• Triss used Sister Cement’s body to tell Grandpa Qin and Loyal Brother that warp corruption could alter worlds and that Blue Star was one of several observation experiments.
• Triss warned that warp shadows used agents to breach worlds and told Grandpa Qin to eliminate them and never answer whispers in his mind.
• Sister Cement regained control and warned Grandpa Qin and Loyal Brother not to let anyone use the prototype, then apologized for what she had done.
• Murphy praised Triss’s performance, and Triss demanded that he pay his dues in advance before pulling him toward the bedroom.
• The project director and his superior argued over rebuilding the prototype and using test subjects, then learned that a paralyzed subject had awakened raving about a whispering divine voice.

After receiving the delayed report of Blackflame Pass’s fall, Lord Paving prepared to travel to Transia and warned Chardo Port to ready its defenses. He left Sherron behind because the mysterious being Eden had taken an interest in her, and he believed her connection to Murphy made her important.

• Professor Malcolm delivered Lady Shani’s report to Lord Paving, who learned that Lord Heather had broken the Dark Lord’s seal and been banished to the astral realm.
• Lord Paving decided to go to Transia, send warnings to the Steam Lords, Sylph Garland Nord, and the Sanghai Empire, and urge Chardo Port’s allies to prepare for trouble near the Brass Fortress.
• Professor Malcolm arranged for Lord Paving to escort a shipment of contraband aboard an airship bound for Transia.
• Sherron asked to return to Transia, but Lord Paving told her to stay in Chardo Port because a mysterious spirit had chosen her.
• Lord Paving identified the spirit as Eden, a former protector of the world, and told Sherron that it might be connected to her bloodline and her role as Murphy’s representative.

The Warp-tainted mist around the Brass Dwarves' Fortress distorted time, space, and memories while gnolls and other enemies attacked. After the commanders exposed an illusion and learned the fortress was being corrupted through its stores of Burning Gold, the Sangai and elven forces prepared to withdraw, leaving High Lord Hadlan to defend the fortress.

• The fortress remained sealed inside Warp-tainted mist as its commanders struggled to contain growing attacks and unrest among the troops.
• Brigadier General Padru and Major General Misoyang were summoned to a meeting and discovered that their memories and the other commanders' memories of past meetings did not match.
• Lord Umon exposed the Silver Dwarf priest as an illusion, revealing that Padru was dead and the other commanders had repeatedly suffered brutal battles against invading enemies.
• The commanders realized the mist was distorting their perceptions and that the Warp's influence was seeping into the fortress through its Burning Gold stores.
• High Lord Hadlan refused to destroy the Burning Gold, while the wounded Lord Umon announced that the Sangai would leave and the ranger-general said the elves would break out.

Gellman Bonechewer oversaw the gnoll assault on the Brass Fortress while weighing his rivals’ movements and ambitions. After the Bloodscar clan withdrew to join a campaign in Transia, Gellman saw a chance to force the Whiptail clan into the siege and reconsidered how to secure his own rise.

• The ratmen’s tunnel assault breached the Brass Fortress, but the dwarves repelled the first wave before gnolls and kobolds pushed into the fortress and began a six-day siege.
• Gellman rewarded the clan that captured a dwarven armory and ordered Chief Singer of the Whiptail clan to meet him, while criticizing the Bloodscars for spending their elite warriors recklessly.
• A messenger reported that Potana and the Rending Claw army had been destroyed at Blackflame Pass, and Manson announced that the Bloodscars would withdraw to support the Rending Claws in Transia.
• Manson told Gellman that the Lord of the Hunt favored the Transia campaign and that Hugson was the god’s chosen one, challenging Gellman to win support by conquering the Genoa Peninsula.
• After Manson left, Gellman realized the Bloodscar withdrawal removed the Whiptails’ excuse to avoid the frontal assault, giving him a chance to bring their hunters into the siege.

After the Brass Dwarves retook a camp, they celebrated their battle wages and demanded better pay, while Hadland learned that the fortress had quickly reclaimed the first layer after Gaia’s protection vanished. Hadland refused to seize Gaia’s treasury and considered getting rid of wyrdgold, but Bannock urged him to keep it and blamed the departed foreigners for the vanished Warp attacks.

• The royal accountant paid Squad 117 for retaking the camp, and the Dwarf warriors celebrated their gold and gemstones.
• Squad 117’s captain demanded Ironheart-level wages, so the accountant offered a bounty for seizing a Skaven tunnel in exchange for a chance at wyrdgold.
• Hadland read Bannock’s report that the Brass Dwarves had reclaimed the first layer in half a day and gained support worth 167 treasuries.
• Bannock suggested taking the Temple of Gaia’s treasury, but Hadland refused because he still considered its wealth sacred to the Mother.
• Hadland said he might destroy the wyrdgold, but Bannock argued it was essential and claimed the foreigners had caused the Warp visions and mental attacks.

Murphy learned from Lord Oufge that burning gold amplified the Brass Dwarves’ desires and helped drive them from Gaia’s faith, while Oufge regretted exiling his son and grandson over sacred tradition. Oufge then warned Murphy that Lord Paine was approaching Shadowy Valley and told him to greet the elder vampire with Triss.

• Murphy asked Lord Oufge why the Brass Dwarves had lost Gaia’s favor, and Oufge explained that Gaia had accepted dwarven faith despite the risks it posed to her.
• Lord Oufge said burning gold amplified emotions and desires, while wealth and greed led the Brass Dwarves toward indulgence, exploitation, and abandonment of their faith.
• Murphy suggested Gaia might have gained new domains by accepting the Brass Dwarves’ changes, but Oufge called the idea terrifying and said they could return only by embracing their former simple lives.
• Lord Oufge admitted that he had exiled his son for loving a human woman, separating the couple and leaving their child, Marshal Loren, to grow up with hatred.
• Lord Oufge told Murphy that the Frost Dwarves had a special, forgotten mission and might soon arrive in Transia with Baldr.
• Lord Oufge sensed Lord Paine approaching and urged Murphy to greet him with Triss.

Lord Paing arrived in Shadowvale after reflecting on his role in Heather’s fate and the Battle of Blackflame Pass. Triss revealed that the vampires had found their race’s original sin and offered to help him recover his lost memories, and Paing agreed to face the truth with Murphy.

• Triss summoned the Blood Eagle Clan’s important members to welcome Lord Paing as he rode toward Shadowvale on his winged unicorn, Aurora.
• Lord Paing regretted misjudging the jackalmen’s attack and discussed why Murphy had been right to leave Heather in the astral plane.
• Players intercepted Paing, and Haizhu was weakened by his Eye of Judgment after casting an investigative spell on him.
• The vampire players escorted Paing noisily through Shadowvale, where Triss and Murphy greeted him.
• Triss told Paing that the vampires had found their original sin and offered to help restore his lost memories, and Paing accepted Murphy’s help.

Lord Payn entered the Forbidden Zone to recover his ancient memories, while Murphy brokered a temporary truce between him and Eor, the giant serpent whose mate Payn had killed. In a memory from the past, Payn revealed that he and Salokdar had secretly planned to protect the Creator’s supplies by hiding them in the Land of Holy Blood.

• Players discussed Lord Payn’s reputation and appearance, while Water Madam and Orchid tried to follow him before Ms. Dorothy sent them on errands.
• Lord Payn left Aurora with the Blood Eagle Clan, and players discovered that she offered reputation and quests to those who served her.
• At the Forbidden Zone, Eor confronted Lord Payn over the death of its mate, but agreed to leave after Murphy witnessed Payn’s promise to seek out the truth and offer Eor a future challenge.
• Murphy and Triss brought Lord Payn into the biological chamber, where he entered the pod and began the memory authentication process.
• Murphy witnessed a memory in which Payn and Salokdar discussed dangerous experiments, the Administrator Project, and their plan to hide the Creator’s supplies in the Land of Holy Blood.

Murphy relived Salokdar’s memories of Eden’s destruction and learned how the survivors escaped and had their Warp corruption purged. Lord Paine recovered his own ancient memories, discovered Murphy was the Creator’s planned Administrator Alpha, and left him to deal with Triss.

• Murphy told Triss that the Land of Sacred Blood had hidden the progenitor’s source blood, the Madblood Clan, and relics collected by Lord Paine.
• Triss explained that the Madblood Clan guarded the Land of Sacred Blood and suggested the Nosferatus had migrated there after Eden fell.
• Murphy relived Salokdar’s flight from Eden as the Warp invaded, and heard Lord Paine order him to rescue Fato and his people.
• Salokdar crashed the Crimson Dawn at the Land of Sacred Blood, then heard that Paine would purge the survivors’ Warp corruption by wiping their memories.
• The purge erased Salokdar’s memories before he could finish telling Oksana he loved her, and the memory resonance reached Shani at Krim Fortress.
• Paine awakened with his full memories, learned he had lived 3,700 years, and confirmed Murphy was the planned Administrator Alpha.

Murphy learned from Lord Pa Ying that the Dusk sought the World Heart on the New Continent and posed a threat to the Creators’ plans for the universe. Pa Ying offered his forces to help Murphy fight back, leaving them preparing to confront the Dusk amid the Black Calamity.

• Murphy found Lord Pa Ying operating the exhibition hall’s Creator technology and learned he was trying to reconnect with Eden, the damaged core AI.
• Pa Ying warned Murphy that the Dusk’s Scholar faction had used Creator knowledge to create the ratmen and urged him to send operatives after its central laboratory.
• Pa Ying explained that the Sentinel Legion had helped create the new gods and guarded the World Heart, while the Creators had entrusted Murphy with administrator permissions.
• Murphy asked Pa Ying to lead a group against the Dusk, and Pa Ying identified its High Priest, Nun, and major factions, including the Source, Wilderness, and Scholars.
• Pa Ying revealed that the Dusk had nearly annihilated a native kingdom on the New Continent while searching for the World Heart, and said Murphy was the only one able to stop them.
• Pa Ying agreed to move most of the Blood Covenant Knights to Transia and put his retainer army at Murphy’s disposal.

Lord Paing transferred the Bloodbound Clan to Murphy and explained how Heather had become bound to the Lord of Darkness. He gave Murphy a device that could grant control of the Scarlet Dawn, and Murphy and Triss discussed the mysterious Lily before the chapter ended.

• Lord Paing affiliated the Bloodbound Clan with Transia, unlocking its race template and Judgment Knight class for Murphy.
• Lord Paing told Murphy that Heather had been corrupted after finding an ancient ruin, and that he had saved her by making her his progeny.
• Murphy proposed finding the Radiance Divine Artifact in the Land of Origins, and Lord Paing agreed to seek it after the Black Calamity.
• Lord Paing gave Murphy a futuristic authentication device that granted secondary control of the Scarlet Dawn, then left after taking a Mental Strength Amplifier component.
• Triss revealed that Lily had been Lord Paing's first progeny and her close friend, while Murphy said Lily had been Lord Paing's female clone.

Murphy discovered that Lord Aurora was an Old God hiding from Lord Payen and negotiated for the unicorn to sire offspring in exchange for keeping his identity secret. A server announcement ended the Battle of Blackflame Pass, opened the second phase of the Dark Tide after fifteen days of preparation, and named new rewards, factions, and Hall of Fame inductees.

• Murphy used a detection spell on Lord Aurora and learned that the unicorn was one of the world's Old Symbols, hiding its identity because it feared Lord Payen might imprison it again.
• Lord Aurora asked Murphy to keep his secret and offered ten offspring; Murphy used Lord Payen's blood crystal to bargain for thirty, including offspring with demon-hunting steeds.
• Murphy promised Little Ashina that one of the unicorn-blooded foals would be hers, and she flew off excitedly to find a suitable mare.
• The system announced that the first phase, the Battle of Blackflame Pass, had ended with an Excellent result and began settlement of player rewards, new unlocks, and the second phase's preparation period.
• The announcement set the Battle of Shadow Valley to begin in fifteen days, tasked players with delaying the Jackalman army for at least twenty days, and appointed Uncle Qin the Doorman as overall commander.
• A second announcement inducted fifteen players and the Silvermoon's Pride and Big Bird Go Round and Round guilds into the Hall of Fame, granting them titles, rewards, and new benefits.

Players celebrated the third Hall of Fame selection and opened their war chests while the dev team announced a Lunar New Year event and new game helmets. Murphy learned that Astral wolves were coming after him, then turned the threat into an idea for the event.

• Players questioned Qing Dynasty Veteran’s Hall of Fame selection until Bang Ge’s battlefield statistics and accounts of his command at Blackflame Pass proved his merit.
• Players opened their war chests, with Meow Brother receiving consumables, Terra Nova finding a Salamander molten sword, and Miss Peachy finding a Power Hammer.
• The dev team announced Lunar New Year activities and said it would distribute a thousand helmets to waiting reserve players.
• Mannis told Murphy that Silver Wolf Hellsong and her mate were rallying wolves to punish him for sending an evil god into the Astral Realm.
• Murphy asked Triss about the threat and proposed elite Nian beasts from the Astral Realm as enemies for the Lunar New Year event.

Moonlit Mad Wolf and his group received game helmets and chose to enter the game as gnolls, where Hogg welcomed them as divine warriors sent by the Creator. The new players formed the Graywolf Army and prepared to join Hogg’s quest to seek the roots of gnoll civilization.

• Moonlit Mad Wolf urged his group to choose gnolls so they could explore the Dark Mountains and join Hogg’s legendary quest chain.
• Wolf received a game helmet, and twenty-one members of the group discovered that they had received helmets too.
• Twenty-one gnoll players appeared in the Blackeye clan’s hut, fought the guards, and drew Hogg and Bobok Blackeye to the scene.
• Hogg told the players that they were divine warriors and invited them to help find the source of gnoll civilization.
• Moonlit Mad Wolf and the other players chose the name Graywolf Army and accepted weapons and armor from Bobok.

Hogg organized the growing gnoll faction around exploration, conquest, and the promise of power while preparing undead forces for the Wise Wolf. He learned that Nanaak Blackeye was pregnant and followed her to meet her lover, Hugerson, who was about to become a Chosen of the Lord of the Hunt.

• Hogg sent Bobok to lead twenty-one gnoll players on quests to tame direwolves, learn to fight, and recruit warriors from nearby clans.
• Bobok outfitted the players and promised ranks based on how many opponents they defeated, then led them out to conquer and recruit.
• Hogg told Ripper to train the ancient gnolls, and Ripper argued that victories and chances to gain power would attract more players.
• Lameclaw reported that Nanaak Blackeye was pregnant and had secretly left to meet someone, prompting Hogg to ride after her.
• Nanaak met Hugerson in a secluded valley, where he revealed that he would soon become a Chosen of the Lord of the Hunt.

Hugerson and Nanak shared a farewell before Hogg pulled Hugerson’s consciousness into the King of the Gnolls’ mental space. Fierce revealed himself as Hugerson’s ancestor, condemned the enhancements that had damaged him, and threatened Nanak and her unborn twins to force Hugerson to face him.

• Nanak comforted Hugerson as he prepared to leave, sensing that he was heading toward a dangerous choice driven by revenge.
• Hogg approached the couple and warned Hugerson that the corrupted Wolfblood Holy Sword would attract Nord hunters.
• Hugerson attacked Hogg, but Hogg touched his wrist and drew both their consciousnesses into Fierce’s mental space.
• Fierce identified Hugerson as his grandson and blamed Botana’s voodoo enhancements for damaging Hugerson’s body and mind.
• Fierce ordered Hogg to seize Nanak and threatened to kill her and the unborn twins unless Hugerson earned his favor.
• Hugerson charged Fierce to protect his family, but Fierce easily kicked him back and told him to stop fighting and explain his plans.