Chapter Summaries

Adele reported that the Plague Clan was concentrating its forces while searching for the Bonechewer King's hoard, and Murphy chose to launch an assault rather than let them leave the swamp. He ordered Adele and Phemis to design a player-guided campaign leading to Plague Town, preparing to open the new team dungeon.

• Adele reported that the Plague Clan had filled Filthy Swamp with weaker undead and planned to search for the Bonechewer King's hoard before withdrawing.
• Adele presented Murphy with options to ignore the Plague Clan or attack it, and Murphy rejected waiting because his warriors wanted a new challenge and he refused to tolerate the enemy near Transia.
• Adele proposed mobilizing the warriors through a Bloodclaw-mapped route to clear the skeleton armies and strike Plague Town, despite the risk of heavy casualties.
• Murphy studied the swamp map and decided to turn the route to Plague Town into a new team dungeon and event for his warriors.
• Murphy assigned Adele and Phemis to create the dungeon's quest chain and combat plan, then announced that Team Dungeon No. 003, "Land of the Rotten," was about to go live.

An in-game announcement revealed that Transia’s factions were preparing a multi-front assault on the Blightclaw gnolls in Filthy Swamp, while players discussed the new operation and foreign reputation factions. The chapter ended with players showing off wind griffins gained from an escort quest and proposing an aerial cavalry unit.

• Administrator Alpha posted reports from Transian factions accusing the Blightclaw clan of threatening the region and calling for warriors to attack Filthy Swamp.
• Old Soldier of the Qing Dynasty analyzed the attached map, outlining the gnolls’ defenses and recommending a coordinated assault on Blightclaw Town.
• Players discovered new investigation quests leading into Filthy Swamp, while Lumina Sunscar explained that Krim Fortress and the Pioneer Legion were foreign support factions rather than player allegiances.
• Meow King and Electronic Succubus Lao Qu showed off wind griffins they had received from the mountain folk, and Thirty-Year-Old Smoke proposed forming Transia’s First Aerial Cavalry Company.

Murphy visited Femis at the Scarlet Devil Mansion to discuss the design of Team Instance 003, “Land of the Rotting Dead.” Femis outlined a guild-based assault on Filthy Town, and she and Murphy shared confidence that Transia could resist the Black Calamity with the heroes’ help.

• Murphy decided the players would lead the swamp battle while the Cadman People's Army continued training, making it a final test of their combat readiness before the Black Calamity.
• Murphy flew to Femis’s mage tower, where she was overseeing its completion and had named it the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
• Femis showed Murphy a map of Filthy Town and explained that its warlock tower could be temporarily overloaded for up to six hours by a targeted psionic countermeasure.
• Femis proposed that adventurers’ guilds take turns attacking Filthy Town during those six-hour windows, with three preparatory routes and optional efforts to seize other psionic nodes granting buffs.
• Murphy praised Femis’s instance design, and Femis said the undying heroes could keep returning as long as Transia continued to fight.

The Scarlet Beasts reached the Filthy Swamp first and planned how to claim a front in the assault on Plague Town, while other guilds formed their own alliances. The chapter left the players preparing to compete over the swamp’s fronts and rewards, with Happy Bang’s allies now rivals.

• Leading Pigeon and the Scarlet Beasts used Hogg’s map to reach the Bloodclaw outpost and realized the swamp was too vast for one guild to handle alone.
• A-Cha proposed coordinating with other guilds to divide the three attack routes and have each guild try to clear a front before joining forces if necessary.
• The Scarlet Beasts planned to recruit experienced players and enlist allied small guilds, including the Scholars' Mason Brotherhood, the Eight Demons, and the Shadow Sect.
• Meow Brother told Happy Bang that the Big Bird Guild would not join his faction and had instead allied with Madam Water’s Silvermoon Guild and Taipal’s Torrent Knights.
• Meow Brother and Happy Bang declared themselves rivals and planned to compete over who would plant their flag on Plague Town’s tower first.

Brother Bang accepted a strategic partnership with Anthem of Loyalty while insisting that their relationship remain confined to the game. Murphy launched the Shadow of the Swamp event, which divided the players into three fronts and made clearing the swamp dungeon a race for Hall of Fame honors and their rewards.

• Brother Bang worried that Meow Brother had abandoned their cooperation, and Merya explained that Meow Brother needed to pursue his own ambitions.
• Vagabond offered an alliance between Anthem of Loyalty and Brother Bang’s squad, and they agreed to cooperate in-game, including training new players in the swamp campaign.
• Murphy published the Shadow of the Swamp event after learning that the Crimson Beasts had captured an outer outpost of the Skeleton Army.
• The event assigned guilds to southern, northern, and western fronts, set a forty-day deadline, and linked victory to clearing the Land of the Rotting Corpses dungeon.
• Murphy announced that successful guild members would enter Transia’s first Hall of Fame and receive commercial discounts, medals, and statues.
• Old Huo rallied his associates to identify and support the team most likely to secure the event rewards.

The student players advanced through the swamp while A-Cha devised a plan to use command rods to scatter the skeleton army and persuaded Major Ron to prove the Plantagenet soldiers’ worth by defending captured outposts. Ron accepted the challenge and led his officers toward the front, determined to earn respect through battle.

• Treasure Cove and Lion's Pride backed the Crimson Hammer and Sickle, while the other player-governed villages supported their own teams.
• A-Cha ordered Cheche to obtain command rods from Hogg so the players could drive skeletons away and advance faster.
• Major Ron asked Ge Bao to let the Plantagenet soldiers join the battle, but A-Cha and Ge Bao challenged them to defend three outposts through the night first.
• Major Ron accepted the challenge and took the outpost locations, prompting A-Cha and Ge Bao to laugh about NPCs now trying to earn players’ favor.
• Ron told his junior officers the battle was their chance to establish themselves, then prepared to lead willing soldiers to defend the outpost.

The students left the captured outposts to the Plantagenet soldiers while Ge Bao, Cheche, and A-Cha'en organized a hunt for the undead commanders. As Major Ron’s troops fought off a night assault at Outpost Three, a dazzling ball of light revealed a dangerous enemy caster.

• Major Ron used a speech agreed upon with Colonel Fraser to keep the officers from backing away from the fight, and four hundred Plantagenet soldiers moved into the three captured outposts.
• Ge Bao cast a detection spell while Cheche headed to Outpost Two, and A-Cha'en coordinated the students’ plan to find and eliminate the liches controlling the skeleton army.
• Murphy watched the students prepare their ambush, asked Lady Adele to protect them, and fell asleep while Adele secretly checked the forum and its entertainment updates.
• The skeleton army attacked Outpost Three, and Major Ron shot two skeleton mages while his soldiers held the defenses against the surrounding force.
• Major Ron and Lieutenant Bob compared the attack favorably to earlier battles until a high-level enemy caster appeared and unleashed a dazzling ball of light.

Ge Bao and the other players defeated undead commanders attacking the outposts, then Ge Bao stabilized Major Ron’s badly wounded adjutant and offered him a mechanical prosthetic through Transia’s disability insurance. Major Ron accepted the offer and vowed that his troops would remain in the fight.

• Ge Bao, Coo-Coo Chicken, and Meow Shark ambushed and killed a necromancer at Outpost Three, while A-Cha escaped a trap set by three underworld knights and elite skeletons.
• Coo-Coo Chicken and Meow Shark questioned the captured necromancer and learned that he had a mage tower near Bernet City.
• Ge Bao found Major Ron’s adjutant near death from the will-o’-the-wisp blast and used blood to stabilize him before arranging transport to a field hospital.
• Ge Bao offered Major Ron disability insurance and a mechanical prosthetic for his adjutant, and Ron agreed to pay for the procedure.
• Major Ron refused to withdraw his troops and declared that they would stay and fight for victory.

Afeng operated on Lieutenant Robinson, a badly burned soldier saved after shielding Major Ron, while Murphy and Natalie discussed expanding medical care through the Avalon Church. Robinson’s recovery became the first case for Sharon and Loyal’s disability insurance, and they began designing him a combat prosthetic arm.

• Lieutenant Robinson regained partial awareness during surgery and feared that undead captors had taken him from the battlefield, but Afeng and Bella kept him sedated as they treated his wounds.
• Afeng debrided and stitched Robinson’s injuries, explained skin grafting to Bella, and finished the operation before Bella administered healing magic and nutrients.
• Murphy asked Natalie to have the Avalon Church work with Afeng on medical training and a practical handbook for ordinary people, and Natalie described Crow’s growing influence over her guild and church.
• Countess Sharon and Loyal arrived to make Robinson the first beneficiary of disability insurance and began designing a mechanical arm, with Loyal persuading Sharon to add one weapon.

Loyalty agreed to help develop incendiary weapons for Happy Stick’s plan to clear a supply route through the Filthy Swamp, while Murphy considered backing the operation. After finding Triss away, Murphy secretly entered her laboratory and discovered a dissected forest elf whose identity and connection to the elven king raised new questions about Triss’s research.

• Loyalty discussed a mechanical prosthesis for Second Lieutenant Robinson and reviewed the progress of the arsenal’s rifle and ammunition production.
• Dou gave Loyalty Happy Stick’s plan to burn a route from the Maginot Line to Plaguetown, and Loyalty proposed developing white phosphorus weapons while asking the players to enlist Triss and other alchemists.
• Dou argued that the players should cooperate across guilds to support Transia’s survival, then set off to persuade Triss with fine wine.
• Murphy overheard Loyalty and Dou’s conversation and decided that clearing a military road through the Filthy Swamp could help Transia reach the Dark Mountains.
• Murphy found that Triss had gone to Treasure Bay after players offered her drinks, then secretly used her laboratory key to investigate her research.
• Murphy found a dissected corpse identified as Luna Christine Emargill and realized she was a forest elf from the same clan as the current elven king.

The Silver Moon Guild prepared for its southern-front campaign against Plaguebane Town as Meow Brother proposed using Avalon’s seeds to grow a treant army in the swamp. The guild agreed to fund his plan and planned to enter the swamp the next day to find the Witch Hunters’ forward camp.

• Madam Shui, Orchid, and Sister Pomegranate discussed the other fronts’ progress and agreed that their undermanned team needed to advance carefully.
• Meow Brother and his allies arrived on wind gryphons, and Madam Shui teased Orchid about Mr. Yuan before revealing she had invited him to Transia.
• Meow Brother presented Bloodwood and other seeds and proposed cultivating a treant army called “Avalon’s Fist” to defend the swamp and remain there after the war.
• Madam Shui expanded the plan to at least three thousand treants and agreed to find a druid to manage them, while Meow Brother identified Belly Brother as a potential expert.
• Madam Shui offered thirty thousand gold coins for seeds, and Meow Brother left to buy them before the group’s planned expedition into the swamp the following day.

Meng Haha returned to the swamp camp and explained her government work to Sister Pomegranate, then traveled to the Ancestral Forest to tell Madam Shui that Cement Heart needed help. The chapter ended with Meng Haha asking Madam Shui to help find Cement Heart a beacon in Transia.

• Little Ashina went for a ride on a Windroc with Brother Qu while the Big Bird Group headed early to the swamp.
• Meng Haha teleported into camp, and Sister Pomegranate confronted her for hiding her government work and involving Little Ashina in the computational orb operation.
• Meng Haha explained that the inquiry was over and asked about Sister Cement and Ruyi, who had helped send an encrypted message.
• Sister Pomegranate directed Meng Haha to speak with Madam Shui and Orchid in the Ancestral Forest, and Meng Haha agreed to go.
• Meng Haha's teleportation spell went wrong, and she crashed into Madam Shui's hut as Madam Shui prepared to change into her new ceremonial garb.
• Meng Haha told Madam Shui that Cement Heart was being monitored while studying Alpha's headsets and needed a beacon in Transia.

Lord Ripping Flesh prepared the Warplague Clan to enter the Swamp Forbidden Zone and seek the Bone-Biter King's secret treasure while Transian forces attacked. After learning that Lord Source's agent planned to use the clan as bait against Governor Murphy, Ripping Flesh considered abandoning its apprentices and finding a wiser successor.

• A Warplague sorcerer reported that Transian forces and the Plantagenet Kingdom's army had captured six outposts, but Ripping Flesh dismissed the threat and asked about preparations to enter the Swamp Forbidden Zone.
• Ripping Flesh warned that legendary serpents guarded the zone and ordered its apprentice to finish preparing one hundred Netherworld Knights before the enemy broke through three defensive lines.
• Ripping Flesh contacted Lord Source's agent, who said he would arrive the next night with a way to obtain the treasure and ordered Ripping Flesh to leave its clan and army behind afterward.
• The agent explained that the swamp would serve as a grave for Governor Murphy and that the Warplague Clan would be used in the plan; Ripping Flesh refused to commit to the order.
• Watching its apprentices prepare for battle, Ripping Flesh decided they were unfit to lead the clan and resolved to leave them in the swamp while seeking a better successor.
• Ripping Flesh thought of Hogg as the kind of clever, capable gnoll it wished could inherit the clan, and wondered whether he had survived the Transian advance.

Chief Hogg hosted Colonel Fraser and Professor Malcolm at a Bloodclaw Clan feast, where he defended his people’s identity and negotiated recognition of their authority over Smuggler’s Woods. A violent tremor from the swamp’s forbidden zone interrupted their talks, and Fraser hurried to his position.

• Hogg welcomed Fraser and Malcolm to a barbecue, where Fraser observed the gnolls’ hospitality and learned that Malcolm had taught Hogg history.
• Hogg explained that the Transian gnolls were distinct from the Dark Mountains gnolls and had chosen to fight alongside humanity in the Black Calamity.
• Fraser revealed that Marshal Loren had sent him to assess the Bloodclaw Clan, and Hogg demanded recognition of his clan’s rule over Smuggler’s Woods during the campaign.
• Hogg offered a trade route between the Kato region and Transia through Smuggler’s Woods, and Fraser said a guild leader would discuss the proposal later.
• A violent tremor came from the swamp’s forbidden zone, prompting Hogg to send guards to check the den and Fraser to ride to his position.

Cheche’s party attacked the undead defenses near Plague Town while the flesh-ripper led an army into the Filthy Swamp’s forbidden zone. There, the legendary giant swamp serpent Ningjinanka devastated the invaders before a mysterious psychic banished it to the Astral Plane, giving them thirty minutes to search the land of creation.

• Cheche spotted tremors and flashes near Plague Town, gathered the student party, and led an assault on Outpost Seven, but the undead defenses repelled them.
• A-Cha explained that the three fronts were working together, while the party wondered what was causing the increasingly powerful tremors.
• The flesh-ripper’s undead army entered the forbidden zone and fought through swamp beasts displaced by the gnoll shamanists’ destruction of the local ecosystem.
• A mysterious psychic told the flesh-ripper that the swamp held a secret connected to the Bone-Biter King and that he had come to retrieve something for Lord Source’s organization.
• Ningjinanka appeared, blinded and confused the army with its radiant hide, then crushed many undead with an earthquake and war stomp.
• The psychic banished Ningjinanka to the Astral Plane and urged the flesh-ripper to find what they sought before the serpent returned in thirty minutes.

Meat-Ripper accompanied Explorer into the Creator’s exhibition hall to retrieve the Bonechewer King’s remains, learning that the gnolls’ civilization tablet lay deeper in the protected core. Explorer promised to recover it if his mission succeeded, while Meat-Ripper left with the corpse and advice to search the surrounding swamp for the king’s belongings.

• Explorer led Meat-Ripper through the cave and explained that the Bonechewer King’s civilization tablet was protected in the exhibition hall’s core.
• Explorer and Meat-Ripper removed their psionic equipment and passed through the hall’s detection gate into the Creator’s visitor hall.
• Meat-Ripper found the Bonechewer King’s preserved corpse and learned that the king had died praying to the Creator more than a century earlier.
• Explorer told Meat-Ripper that the tablet was in the core and suggested searching the nearby swamp for the king’s hidden belongings.
• Meat-Ripper placed the corpse in a body bag and departed after learning Explorer’s codename and receiving a warning about a giant serpent.

Flesh-ripper recovered the King of the Bone Gnawers' remains and secretly planned to use a necromantic awakening to claim the power hidden in the swamp. Meanwhile, Murphy's uneasy premonition led Triss to divine signs of a giant serpent, mist, stars, and a desecrated corpse, though she did not uncover what he was hiding.

• Flesh-ripper ordered his apprentices to collect Ninkinanka's blood while he returned to Plague Town with the King of the Bone Gnawers' remains.
• Flesh-ripper told his apprentices the king's legendary weapons had been lost in battle and promised the one who found them the Plague Clan's leadership, while they secretly planned to kill him.
• Flesh-ripper decided to pursue the power hidden in the Land of Creation and ordered Limpclaw to prepare a necromantic awakening ritual.
• Murphy told Triss he felt an unexplained warning of danger, and she used a crystal ball to divine images of mist, a giant serpent, stars, and a desecrated corpse.
• Triss failed to identify the source of Murphy's unease and advised him to avoid Astral Plane powers, while Murphy privately congratulated himself for keeping his secret from her.

Murphy discovered that the new incendiary weapons tested by Loyal Bro and the players could devastate undead forces, and he ordered them produced in preparation for the Black Calamity. The chapter left Murphy arranging a supply of burning gold and proposing that blood thralls manufacture the weapons in secret.

• Murphy flew over his territory and reflected on how much power and land the Blood Eagle Clan had regained under his rule.
• Murphy spotted Thirty-Year-Old Smoke testing a napalm incendiary bomb, which ignited a large area of the wasteland.
• Smoke dropped a white phosphorus bomb designed by Loyal Bro, and the blast burned most of the skeleton soldiers in its test zone.
• Loyal Bro ordered white phosphorus weapons added to expedited production, while noting that burning gold could improve the incendiary bombs.
• Murphy said he could seek help from a Silver Dwarf marshal and a vampire lord to obtain burning gold before the Black Calamity.
• Murphy ordered Loyal Bro to prioritize mass production for the war in the Filthy Swamp and suggested using blood thralls as secret workers.

Murphy sought a way to secure firegold for Transia’s army and discovered that Lady Heather Hoffman, rather than Lord Paine, handled the Bloodsworn Knights’ dwarven supplies. He also urged Laennia to pursue her feelings for Maxim, then learned that the Legendary Hero had built an impact fuze that could enable mortar production.

• Murphy visited Laennia and asked her to pass along his request to import firegold, but she explained that Lady Heather Hoffman managed the Bloodsworn Knights’ dwarven procurement.
• Laennia told Murphy about Lady Heather’s family ties to the Brass Dwarves and her role as quartermaster general, giving him a promising route to obtain firegold.
• Murphy recognized Laennia’s feelings for Maxim and suggested she could earn enough standing with the Lord Paramount to pursue a relationship despite the Knights’ rules; Laennia was left conflicted.
• Murphy contacted a half-dwarf marshal at the Pioneer Fortress and offered to share credit concerning the Frost Dwarf lord’s whereabouts in exchange for help.
• The next day, the Legendary Hero showed Loyalty Bro a crude impact fuze he had devised, and Loyalty Bro said it could make mass-producing mortars possible.

Players on the swamp campaign arranged cross-front purchases of faction equipment, while Little Ashina continued lending money to newcomers. Colonel Fraser recruited players for camp activities and quests, and General Baldwin sought to use their eagerness for labor while considering how to handle Fort Krim’s armed blood thralls.

• Players advertised reputation-gated weapons, armor, supplies, firearms, and explosives, and coordinated purchases for teammates on the other fronts.
• Little Ashina continued offering new players one-month equipment loans at three percent interest.
• Colonel Fraser asked players to find entertainment for his soldiers and unusual ancient artifacts for his father, and they quickly supplied mahjong and relics.
• Fraser gave players a quest to collect marks and texts from gnoll shamans, which they eagerly accepted.
• General Baldwin learned that Transian players had completed menial work at Fort Krim and ordered more upkeep tasks while forbidding them from approaching the armed blood thralls.
• Baldwin considered how to deal with the ten thousand armed blood thralls before the Black Calamity began.