Chapter Summaries

Tribune Kudell led the players into a new campaign to eliminate Transia’s gnoll dens, with rewards tied to individual and team kill points. As players rushed to organize and compete, the Witch Hunters planned their own route and tactics for the coming hunt.

• Murphy equipped Tribune Kudell with protective armor, and Kudell led a hundred players out of the city to hunt gnolls.
• Ge Bao and the other vampire players discussed scouting gnoll strengths and targeting elites after nightfall, while Good Pigeon scolded Car Car, A-Cha, and Coo-Coo Chicken for dying during a flight attempt.
• The main quest announced a timed, two-phase operation to clear gnoll dens across Transia and offered point-based rewards, including equipment, keys, and titles.
• Good Pigeon decided to register a team and have the vampire players focus on elite gnolls at night, while A-Cha proposed borrowing Murphy’s scouting bird.
• Happy Stick urged Scarlet Hammer and Sickle to find a nearby gnoll den and farm points, insisting his team would take first place.
• Meow Brother planned for his group to hunt in northern territories after resurrection, and the brothers discussed seeking Witch Hunter support and trading reward keys for lucky players’ prizes.

Murphy prepared Transia for a possible gnoll warlord by sending Natalie to gather intelligence and demanding that the Avalon Church provide priests for the relocated villagers. After Natalie left to consult Avalon, Murphy arranged a hidden player reward, while Meow Shark hunted gnolls and found four hyena pups.

• Murphy told Natalie that the Adventurers' Guild needed to investigate the rising gnoll gangs in the Andmar Hills and that Avalon Church priests should support the new collective farms.
• Natalie objected that the Witch Hunters lacked enough trained priests, but Murphy insisted that church leaders serve his rule and demanded an answer by the next morning.
• Murphy claimed Avalon had approved his plans, then instructed Triss to make a rare hidden token that players could exchange with Razor Dorothy for the Soul-Reaping Scythe design.
• Triss said she had not yet tracked the pearls from Zweig, and Murphy asked whether she was hiding anything from him.
• Meow Shark killed a gnoll beast tamer, collected its materials, and found four newborn hyena pups in its den.

Meow Shark raised four blood hyena pups while Murphy’s forces and the players slaughtered gnolls across Transia. As night fell, Sister Pomegranate’s team searched a cleared gnoll nest and discovered a captive gnoll that could talk.

• Meow Shark brought four blood hyena pups to camp and explained why he believed they would make excellent war beasts.
• T-Rex Cheche watched the contest standings as Sister Pomegranate and Cat Bro competed for the most kills.
• Tribune Kudel received the day’s casualty figures, praised the warriors’ determination, and ordered the gnoll trophies displayed in camp.
• Sister Pomegranate fought recklessly to keep her lead, but Madam Shui and her friends urged her to rest and rely on her strengths after dark.
• Little Wei Ming heard someone calling for help inside the cleared nest and found a caged gnoll that could speak.

Ashina brought a clever gnoll messenger to Murphy, where Triss identified its Mossy Valley heritage and it revealed that King Kenport was assembling an army of seventeen thousand gnolls. Murphy recognized the prisoner as a chieftain and declared its true name was Bonegnawer.

• Ashina escorted the captured gnoll messenger to Cudell, who recognized its Mossy Valley markings and ordered it taken to Murphy.
• Cudell challenged Pomegranate to hunt five elite gnoll chieftains before dawn, while the Four-Man Weapon-Fighting Squad decided to pursue tougher enemies too.
• Triss identified the gnoll's Mossy Valley heritage and explained how some gnolls there awakened intelligence and psychic talents.
• The gnoll revealed that King Kenport was a hunting priest from the Dark Mountains who had gathered seventeen thousand followers and taken the messenger's clan.
• Murphy rejected the gnoll's chosen name, Nash, and told it that its true name was Bonegnawer.

Murphy tried to recruit the captured gnoll Nash by renaming him Hogg Bonechewer and offering his clan land and acceptance in Transia. After learning that Kenport commanded seventeen thousand gnolls, Murphy proposed using a small Astral Rift to disrupt and terrorize them, though Triss warned of the risks.

• Murphy invented a Bonechewer lineage for the captured gnoll and offered him a chance to lead his clan into Transia as Hogg Bonechewer.
• Murphy sent Ashina to escort Hogg to a holding cell and gave him seven hours to decide whether to accept the offer.
• Triss warned Murphy that gnoll treaties were unreliable and that scarcity drove the Black Calamity, while Murphy argued that recruiting even a small clan would cost him nothing.
• Murphy revealed that Hogg had reported Kenport’s army of seventeen thousand gnolls and suggested targeting them with an Astral Rift.
• Triss explained the dangers and limits of the spell, but Murphy decided its psychological effects could rout the gnolls and planned to have Femis and his psionic warriors assist her.

Hogg Bonechewer accepted Murphy’s offer after Little Ashina persuaded him that he could save his kin and become the leader of Transia’s gnolls. Murphy assigned Ashina and her companions a hidden quest to help Hogg rebuild his clan, leaving them to begin organizing his new faction.

• Hogg wrestled with his desire to rule the Smugglers’ Forest and his fear of betraying Kenport and the Bonechewer King.
• Little Ashina told Lumina, Orchid, and Lady Water about Murphy’s scheme, and Orchid urged her to help secure a hidden quest.
• Little Ashina persuaded Hogg to accept Murphy’s offer by promising him a chance to unite and protect the gnolls.
• Hogg swore allegiance to Murphy, who gave him a computation orb and assigned Ashina and her companions to help him rebuild his clan.
• A hidden quest required Hogg’s new clan to reach 30 members, including two elite chieftains and ten Black Iron warriors, before the extermination campaign’s first phase ended.
• Little Wei Ming led Hogg away and declared himself Hogg’s strategic adviser, starting with finding him food and proper clothes.

Heaven-Chosen Construction Worker and Bricklayer tested a psionics-based method for rapidly building houses, and Triss successfully cast their wooden mold into a sturdy stone structure. Murphy commissioned them to rebuild homes across the territory, while Heaven-Chosen Construction Worker’s administrative trial promoted him to village chief and assigned him a much larger city-building quest.

• Heaven-Chosen Construction Worker and Bricklayer assembled a three-room wooden mold for testing their rapid construction method, including channels for underfloor heating.
• Mud Truck Iai, Bulldozer Man Attack, and Full-Coverage Semi visited the site, and Mud Truck Iai suggested adding heated brick beds to the design.
• Murphy and Triss arrived, and Triss used earth psionics to turn stone into slurry that filled the mold and hardened into a house.
• Shovel Guy suggested leaving the wooden boards in place as an exterior protective layer, and Heaven-Chosen Construction Worker tested the structure with a sledgehammer.
• Triss struck the house with a psionic blast, destroying only part of it and confirming that the construction was unusually sturdy.
• Murphy commissioned the builders to construct homes for survivors and communal farms, and Heaven-Chosen Construction Worker learned he had become a village chief and received a quest to design and build a city.

The construction worker and the bricklayer struggled with planning Scarlet Castle’s first city, so the construction worker recruited his advisor, Old Chen, to help. Old Chen became intrigued by the game’s architectural documents and agreed to apply for a testing helmet, leaving the students to prepare for his arrival.

• The construction worker and the bricklayer admitted they could not plan Scarlet Castle’s new city alone, and Shovel encouraged them to take on the project.
• The construction worker decided to ask Old Chen for help and contacted Alpha about getting his advisor a testing invitation.
• Alpha sent the construction worker translated documents about elven and Sanghai architecture to pique Old Chen’s interest.
• The construction worker sent Old Chen the documents and described the city-planning task, prompting Old Chen to ask questions about the game’s architecture.
• Old Chen worried the testing application might be a scam but ultimately agreed to apply, while warning the construction worker not to be playing a prank.

Professor Chen overcame his fear of the hyper-realistic game and arrived in Transia, where Murphy welcomed him and suggested he become a territory administrator. After reuniting with Construction Worker and Bricklayer, he rejected their plans until they consulted local customs about feng shui and lingering evil influences.

• Professor Chen received the gaming helmet, researched the game, and entered the midnight chamber, but Murphy’s appearance frightened him into logging out.
• Construction Worker called to check on Professor Chen after the test team detected his emotional spike, and Professor Chen enabled physiological monitoring before logging back in.
• Murphy summoned Professor Chen again and welcomed him to Transia, while the Meow Brother Squad resurrected and hurried off to join the gnoll extermination campaign.
• Meow Brother greeted Professor Chen warmly, and Murphy suggested that he become an administrative officer in the territory.
• Construction Worker showed Professor Chen the students’ plans, but Professor Chen told them to consult a local master about feng shui and redraw them to account for the city’s recent disaster and lingering evil influences.

Old Chen assessed the damaged soil in Scarlet Keep and joined the Ashen Worker and the Bricklayer in planning the city’s reconstruction. He assigned them to make Transia’s development plan their graduation project, while Murphy secretly listened and encouraged them.

• Old Chen examined the desertified inner city and learned that astral corruption would keep the soil barren for years.
• The Ashen Worker and the Bricklayer proposed planting grass and trees, bridging or repurposing the great rift, and dividing the city into residential, commercial, administrative, and church districts.
• Old Chen ordered the two students to survey Transia and help plan development across the region, including its settlements, farms, and water systems.
• The Bricklayer explained that administrative and crafting players had to train apprentices for a Junior Architect Examination, and Old Chen questioned whether the game truly simulated real-world physics.
• Old Chen made the Ashen Worker and the Bricklayer use Transia’s city plan as their graduation project and warned that they would have to complete it without outside help.
• Murphy listened through Raveno and encouraged the students to put their knowledge and creativity into rebuilding Transia.

Old Chen became Transia’s chief architect and set out to plan five collective farms while players profited from clearing gnoll dens. Maxim assigned Dolores responsibility for the remaining ghouls, and she negotiated with Little Ashina and Lumina for help in exchange for elite gladiators.

• Governor Mirian appointed Old Chen chief architect of Transia and gave him authority over the territory’s construction plans.
• Old Chen examined his character traits and headed out with Ashes and Bricks to inspect the designated farm sites.
• Players cleared gnoll dens, collected stolen goods, and sold their spoils to Maxim’s Cadman People’s Army camp.
• Dolores reported that Murphy’s warriors wanted her to provide battle-tested gnolls for a clan, and Maxim told her to handle the request while defending the sewers from ghouls.
• Dolores offered Little Ashina and Lumina elite gladiators for free if they helped the Blood Rat Gang deal with the ghouls on the third underground level.

Little Ashina, Lumina, and Madam Water devised a plan for Hogg Bonechewer to build a gnoll clan by freeing gladiators rather than relying on the players to do everything. Hogg began recruiting a battered arena fighter, and Dorothy offered him a place in the Blood Rat Gang in exchange for helping her.

• Lumina proposed splitting up so some players could continue earning gnoll points while she and Little Ashina helped Hogg recruit a few gladiators.
• Madam Water argued that Hogg should gather and lead his own followers, so Lumina called Little Ashina away from the arena to hunt ghouls.
• Hogg watched a gnoll gladiator lose his second fight, then offered him a chance at freedom in exchange for surviving and helping free more gnolls.
• Hogg gave the wounded gladiator a flail, renamed him Nash, and arranged for Dorothy to make his next fight dramatic rather than quickly fatal.
• Dorothy declined Hogg's money and offered to recruit him into the Blood Rat Gang, train him as a gnoll thief, and help him free gladiators in return for his service.

Little Ashina and Lumina discussed Hogg’s plans before flying toward the Dark Baronies, while Femis finished hunting Blood Eagle traitors in Count Siko’s domain. When a distress flare drew her to Andre’s battle with Siko’s winged cavalry, Femis pursued one knight into a trap and confronted the cavalry’s leader, offering peace in Murphy’s name.

• Little Ashina and Lumina agreed that Hogg was building a clan and might eventually become a player boss, then Little Ashina flew Lumina toward the Dark Baronies.
• Femis and E-sis Adele learned that most Blood Eagle traitors had fled into the Sax region and that Lady Cecilia and the Siko winged cavalry remained missing.
• Femis decided to return to Murphy, but a Thorn Clan distress flare revealed that Andre and his servants were under attack by winged cavalry.
• Femis used Night Howl to restrain the cavalry’s charge, marked a fleeing rider, and chased him into the forest, where the cavalry surrounded her.
• Femis summoned blood-red vines and demanded that the winged cavalry surrender, offering to negotiate peace with Murphy.

Femis met the Sico Winged Cavalry and passed Murphy’s offer to their commander, Warland Gray Eagle Ofor, who agreed to carry the message to Count Sico. Murphy learned that the Sico line still had a leader, but Count Sico warned him that the Wolfsbane Clan’s Gray Claw faction had entered Transia and might be connected to the gnoll warlord in the Andmar Hills.

• Femis introduced herself to Warland and tried to restore ties between the Blood Eagle Clan and the Sico Winged Cavalry, but Warland blamed her father for abandoning Sico City.
• Femis left Warland a Calculation Orb, and Murphy warned him that the Black Calamity was coming, invited Count Sico to negotiate, and proposed that they meet if he defeated the gnolls within a month and a half.
• Murphy told Mirian that the Winged Cavalry still had a lord and prepared her to negotiate with them, while Mirian worried about her upcoming financial mission and its reward.
• Warland contacted Murphy again on Count Sico’s behalf and revealed that the Wolfsbane Clan’s Gray Claw faction, led by Corando, had entered Transia and was hiding in the Andmar Hills.

Murphy learned that the Wolfsbane clan might be helping the gnoll warlord Kemport threaten Transia, and he prepared to alert the Blood Oath Knights while arranging aid for Mirian. At Triss’s workshop, player What Color Is Loyalty demonstrated a homemade incendiary weapon, which Triss approved and ordered him to produce for the troops.

• Knight Varland warned Murphy that the Wolfsbane clan might be supporting the gnolls, though he admitted the intercepted message could be false.
• Murphy and Mirian discussed the danger of the gnoll warlord Kemport and the possible Wolfsbane plot, while Murphy sent players to assist Mirian on her trip to Batasin City.
• Murphy set out to inform Lady Lainia of the suspected Wolfsbane involvement but changed course after sensing Triss at her alchemy workshop.
• What Color Is Loyalty tested a bottle incendiary on a scarecrow and explained several ingredient variations to Triss and Murphy.
• Triss praised What Color Is Loyalty, gave him an alchemical formula, and ordered him to make three hundred incendiary bottles within three days.

Loyalty Bro recruited Triss’s apprentices to make Molotov cocktails and began adapting the camp’s machinery to build modern weapons. After Murphy reconsidered how to report the Wolfsbane Clan’s suspected collusion with the gnolls, he overheard Loyalty Bro’s theories about the world’s stalled gunpowder technology and asked him to talk.

• Loyalty Bro taught Triss’s apprentices to make Molotov cocktails for a Military Order Mission and arranged to pay them half the reward.
• Triss told Murphy she suspected Kolando had acted without Old Edward’s approval, warned that the Ancient might be manipulating events, and urged Murphy to be cautious about reporting the matter to Lainia.
• Murphy kissed Triss, then decided to wait for solid evidence before reporting the Wolfsbane Clan’s suspected ties to the gnolls.
• Loyalty Bro inspected the camp’s bullet-processing equipment, argued that the world’s primitive gunpowder technology concealed a deeper clue, and persuaded the other players to help him modify it and build modern weapons.
• Murphy overheard Loyalty Bro’s discussion and invited him to talk about the truths the otherworldly spirits might have discovered about their world.

Loyalty Brother learned why Transia lacked access to burning gold and accepted Murphy’s quest to develop a modern-style firearm, opening a new crafting path. Meanwhile, Meow Brother’s squad headed to Batasin City to advise Mirian and recruited Thirty-Year-Old Smoke after meeting him in Scarlet Castle.

• Murphy explained that dwarves and halflings relied on burning gold for advanced technology, then asked Loyalty Brother to develop a firearm using methods from his world.
• Loyalty Brother triggered the hidden quest “Otherworldly Heavenfire,” which required him to build a working, recruit-quality modern-style firearm within 20 days for a workshop and 5,000 gold coins.
• Meow Brother, Little Hands, and their squad rode toward Scarlet Castle to join Mirian’s diplomatic mission to Batasin City, while Jie Chong and Brother Black Silk complained about being passed over.
• Meow Brother’s group saw the new dormitory building in Scarlet Castle and found Heru arguing with his apprentice, Thirty-Year-Old Smoke, over clairvoyance spells.
• Meow Brother invited Thirty-Year-Old Smoke to join the squad as a scout and support player, and Smoke accepted.

Yansang joined Meow Brother’s group as its aerial scout while Happy Stick led the Crimson Hammer and Sickle Corps in a successful attack on a gnoll camp. After Great Shark passed his trial, Happy Stick agreed to help Lumina’s group raid a much larger gnoll den in exchange for a share of the spoils.

• Yansang told Meow Brother’s group about his aviation career and used a scouting spell to spot gnolls near an abandoned village.
• Meow Brother gave Yansang a veteran-grade Midnight Arcane Staff and named him the Big Bird Go Round and Round group’s “Eye in the Sky.”
• Happy Stick directed the Crimson Hammer and Sickle Corps in surrounding a gnoll camp, defeating its forces and capturing elite gnolls for sale.
• Great Shark reached level ten, received veteran-grade armor from Lin, and fought an elite gnoll berserker for his trial.
• Lumina asked Happy Stick to help raid a gnoll den holding at least four hundred gnolls, and Happy Stick negotiated for thirty percent of the spoils and first pick of the loot.

The Cadman People's Army and the players attacked a huge gnoll den near the Filthy Swamp while Kudel and Maxim discussed Transia's lost territories and the warriors' rapid growth. The assault uncovered three Wolfsbane vampires, and Maxim confronted two of them as the story left the battle underway.

• Kudel and Maxim watched the players and Cadman soldiers attack the gnoll den, while Kudel praised their fighting and Maxim explained their rapid progress.
• Kudel and Maxim prepared to join the battle, discussing the gnoll hunts in nearby territories and a possible future fight against a gnoll warlord in the Andmar Hills.
• He Dong Lion's Roar and Lin Bei Dog Paddle cornered and killed the den's elite gnoll boss as the players and recruits fought through the caves.
• Cat Bro spotted three Wolfsbane vampires escaping among the gnolls, and Dog Paddle and He Dong Lion's Roar intercepted one of them.
• Maxim landed in front of two fleeing Wolfsbane vampires and challenged them, while one answered that she was ready to fight.

Kudel and Maxim captured Wolfbane vampires and uncovered evidence that they were trading weapons with gnolls, while Kudel considered forming his own group of warriors. Happy Rod's crew found the hidden stockpile and debated how to sell it, unaware of what the other player factions were pursuing.

• Kudel defeated and captured a Wolfbane envoy, then ordered Maxim to question the vampires and clear out the remaining gnolls.
• Maxim explained the Blood Eagles' warrior-retainer system to Kudel, who asked to take Cat under his tutelage if Cat agreed.
• Happy Rod organized the players to search the gnoll den for evidence and loot, enforcing rules for sharing the spoils.
• Pomegranate Sister identified weapons and armor bearing a Plantagenet forge's emblem, suggesting the Wolfbane vampires had traded with the gnolls.
• Lumina proposed selling the goods through the administration office, while Little Ashina offered to buy them at a premium; Happy Rod refused to hear their secret and planned to consult Meow.