Chapter Summaries

The Transian players arrived at Cape Shipwreck and turned the battle against Glamour Island’s plant undead, while Meow Brother and Natalie investigated the death spores behind the outbreak. After Chen Long found a huge undead stronghold and a concentration of deathly psionic energy, Murphy decided to go to the island himself.

• The players dropped from the airships and joined Little Rich Bro’s defenders, quickly rescuing the survivors from the plant undead.
• Little Rich Bro sent his gem scorpion Pangding against two thorn beasts, and power armor and Avalon Church clerics helped the players push the remaining enemies back.
• Meow Brother examined a plant undead corpse, and Natalie identified the infection as forbidden death spores that had run out of control after Glamour Island fell.
• Chen Long reported finding tens of thousands of undead gathered near a site with deathly psionic energy comparable to the underworld’s Great Pyramid.
• Murphy ordered Adele to notify Pablo and send the Origin Pioneer to collect him so he could investigate the site himself.

Brigadier General Fraser arrived at Glamour Island aboard the Cape Sword to rescue Princess Bridget, but Mother Marianne discovered that Bridget was infected with Death God spores. The group had to find the mother plant in the ruins before Bridget could safely leave the island.

• Fraser and Colonel Ron discussed the Dusk, the kingdom’s political corruption, and their suspicions about the Helmsian unrest while the Cape Sword headed for Glamour Island.
• After the Cape Sword landed at Cape of the Shipwrecked, Fraser met Little Rich Bro and offered to take Princess Bridget home.
• Bridget said goodbye to Little Rich Bro and Stinky Treasure, then collapsed in pain as strange markings appeared on her neck.
• Mother Marianne identified Death God spores in Bridget and warned that leaving the island would turn her into a plant undead.
• Mother Marianne said they had to find the mother plant in the former Old Church cathedral ruins to save Bridget.

After Princess Bridget and the Adventurers' Guild crew were infected with Reaper Spores, Little Rich reached Archdruid Caspar in a dream and learned how to reach the original spore plant beneath Avalon Keep. The group prepared to enter the underground route with Bridget as Captain Capet arrived to lead the assault.

• Mother Marian discovered that many crew members were infected, and Amber and Natalie discussed ways to reach the ruins and calm the island.
• Niu Niu told Amber and Natalie that Little Rich would seek help from the cyber ghost in a dream and that Murphy was on his way.
• Little Rich drank Cheche's vampire sleeping potion and contacted Archdruid Caspar, who revealed that the original spore plant lay beneath Avalon Keep and described an underground route from the coast.
• Little Rich promised Caspar that the players would rescue her and the island's survivors, then woke and shared what he had learned with Natalie, Fraser, and the players.
• The commanders decided to set out immediately with Princess Bridget, and a supply crate from the Sword of the Capet arrived carrying an exoskeleton and weapons for Captain Capet.

Chen Long’s strike team fought through a fishman nest beneath Glamour Island and reached Deadwood Town, where its plantlike survivors explained the island’s corruption. The group learned that the Black Grail, a former Avalon divine artifact, had caused the disaster and that Ms. Caspar and Knight Commander Epirus were still containing it with the holy blades.

• Chen Long sent Goji Berry Bro and his new squad to collect plant samples and guard the rear while he led the others toward the island’s central ruins.
• Thirty-Five Fights and the team entered the underwater cave, where they killed a large fishman clan and rescued Gorse Navy sailors marked for a ritual transformation.
• The strike team followed a root-lined passage to Deadwood Town, an underground settlement inhabited by plantlike survivors led by Senodis.
• Senodis revealed that some desperate islanders had embraced Dagon’s call and become fishmen, while the remaining survivors had held out for eight years.
• Senodis told the group that the Holy Grail of Avalon had overflowed with filth during the city’s destruction, creating the disaster that Ms. Caspar and Knight Commander Epirus were still containing with the Red and Gray Knights’ holy blades.

The group reached the ruins of Avalon Keep and learned that Ms. Caspar had bound the island’s dead souls to its twisted natural power to contain an evil entity. As Lady Natalie and Brigadier General Fraser led most of the party toward the tower, Meow Brother stayed behind to summon the Knight Commander of Epirus and challenge him for the Punisher.

• Mayor Senodis guided the group through Deadwood Town and explained how the survivors had endured underground and how Ms. Caspar used the Death God Spores to help suppress the evil entity.
• Sanwudou identified the townspeople’s plantlike changes as assimilation by Gramor Island’s distorted natural power, while Amber discovered an army of forbidden plants growing inside the dead tree.
• The group climbed to the ruins and Meow Brother found a corpse bearing Senodis’s name, realizing the mayor they had met was one of the island’s bound souls.
• Lady Natalie took the dead knight’s nameplate and led the group toward the intact tower, while Brigadier General Fraser assigned Ron to search for the Death God Spores’ mother plant and joined the expedition.
• Meow Brother stayed behind with his companions, summoned the Knight Commander of Epirus, and rode his bramblebeast into a duel against the Red Knight.

The players and Lady Natalie fought their way into Avalon Castle’s deadwood tower, where they discovered the Old Church’s Black Grail was pouring Chaos into the world. After the seal broke and a nightmare abomination emerged, Lady Natalie sent Little Rich Bro into the dream maze to rescue Lady Kasper.

• Lady Natalie led the players and Brigadier General Fraser through Chaos-corrupted Plantfolk undead to the deadwood tower, while exhausted Plantagenet sailors stayed behind to hold the rear.
• The party entered the tower and climbed into a dreamlike space that Cheche warned could affect reality.
• Natalie and Amber identified the Old Church’s Black Grail, which had become a node for pouring pure Chaos into the material world.
• Lady Kasper warned that an abomination was chasing her through the dream maze, and the Arbiter Holy Sword shattered as the Black Grail’s taint formed a monster.
• Great Shark struck the monster with Vam’s Executioner Great Axe as the players charged, while Natalie sent Little Rich Bro to rescue Lady Kasper from the nightmare maze.

Princess Brigitte recovered from the death-spore infection, but the awakening of a Chaos tower trapped her and the others in a battle on Glamour Island. As King Louis sent the Tower of Rings to help, Brigitte cried out for her father and her parents sensed her danger.

• Princess Brigitte woke with lingering pain and scars, and Colonel Ron arranged for Captain Iron Hand to carry her while the mercenaries collected pollen to cure the infected.
• A tremor revealed that the deadwood tower was rising and spreading a black storm, and Ron and Iron Hand fought Chaos abominations while escorting Brigitte toward the Ancient Tree.
• Meow Brother summoned plant spirits through the Ancient Tree, and Mayor Senodias led the transformed residents of Deadwood Town into the battle against Chaos creatures and Dagon fishmen.
• Brother Qu shot an abomination threatening Brigitte, who trembled and called for her father.
• King Louis asked Master Sim and the Tower of Rings to go to Glamour Island, and they departed as a black tower and storm blocked the royal flagship.
• Countess Margaret accused Queen Elizabeth of arranging Brigitte's kidnapping, then sensed her daughter was in danger and wept with the queen.

The defenders discovered that the Black Grail’s taint was linked to Aphidasil, the dead Astral World Tree, and Murphy prepared to strike it with the God-Rod. Lady Caspar was freed from the nightmare labyrinth and revealed how she had sealed the Grail, while the story ended with the Father of Oaks asking Murphy to help his former body find peace.

• Lady Natalie and the players fought the tainted creatures as Cheche warned that they needed to sever the Black Grail’s supernatural connection before destroying it.
• Grandma Bach and the psychic overlords arrived to reinforce the battle, and Grandma Bach determined that the Grail’s corruption was connected to Avalon and a source other than Dagon.
• Little Rich Bro reached Lady Caspar in the nightmare labyrinth, freed her from the tainted thorns, and learned that she had used Dagon’s nightmare to seal the Black Grail.
• Lady Caspar told Sim that the Black Grail was symbolically linked to Aphidasil, the dead Astral World Tree, and Little Rich Bro called for Murphy’s help.
• Murphy activated the God-Rod’s hyperdimensional targeting system to strike Aphidasil, and the Father of Oaks asked him to help the dead tree find peace.

Murphy used a Godrod strike to expose and destroy the Chaos corruption hidden inside the Afidashir Giant Tree, cutting off the Black Grail’s connection between the three realms. As the battle at Gramor Island ended, Murphy arrived to protect Brigadier General Fraser from a Chaos shadow and challenged the entity behind Dagon.

• Murphy fired a hyperdimensional Godrod shot that shattered the Afidashir Giant Tree and revealed Chaos filth pouring from its hollow trunk.
• Mannis realized the dead tree had served as a passage for Chaos corruption and that the Black Grail could have enabled an invasion of the material world.
• At Gramor Island, Niu Niu rallied the fighters after Murphy’s strike weakened the Black Grail, and Lady Natalie urged Brigadier General Fraser to destroy it with the Arbiter’s blade.
• Fraser struck the Black Grail with the broken holy blade, splitting it and severing the link between the Warp, astral realm, and material world.
• A Chaos shadow tried to seize Fraser, but Murphy arrived, used the Nightguard and Omega’s power to break its hold, and shielded Fraser with his wings.
• Murphy confronted the Chaos shadow beyond the sealed rift and taunted it about Dagon.

Murphy defeated the Black Grail and learned how Kasper and Glamorgan Island’s defenders had contained it for eight years. Avalon revealed that the Grail held a seed linked to the dead Afidashir tree, leaving the fate of the Astral Plane in Murphy’s hands.

• Murphy purged Fraser’s Chaos-tainted symbiote as the Black Grail’s defeat caused the nightmare realm to collapse, and Natalie led the others out with the Arbiter’s broken blade.
• Little Rich Bro returned with Kasper, and she admitted she had used dream magic to hide the Black Grail and protect Glamorgan Island’s defenders from Dagon.
• Kasper recounted how she and the resurrected Epirus had held the nightmare seal until Murphy and his warriors arrived.
• Murphy sent Little Rich Bro to escort the chained Kasper outside and confronted Avalon about concealing Glamorgan Island’s crisis.
• Avalon denied colluding with Chaos and said the ordeal had persuaded Afidashir to choose the right path; the Black Grail crumbled to reveal a seed, placing the Astral Plane’s fate in Murphy’s hands.

Murphy agreed to help restore the Shattered Astral Realm using Aphidashir’s seed and proposed creating an elven God of Death and a Black Knight legacy. On Gramor Island, the Red Knight Commander of Epirus passed the Punisher Holy Blade to Meow Brother before he and the other dead guardians finally crumbled into ash or became trees.

• Murphy learned that Aphidashir’s seed could restore the Shattered Astral Realm, but planting it would provoke Chaos and require preparation in the World Furnace.
• Avalon explained its disagreement with Aphidashir over saving the Astral Realm and pleaded with Murphy to help it recover.
• Murphy agreed to plant the seed after his heroes finished their material-world stories, but required Avalon and Rose to help create an elven God of Death and a Black Knight legacy with a holy blade called the Reaper.
• After the Black Grail was destroyed, Meow Brother approached the dying Red Knight Commander of Epirus to receive the Punisher Holy Blade.
• The Red Knight Commander corrected Meow Brother’s mistaken use of the White Knight’s code, urged him to live for battle, and died in the sunlight.
• Mayor Sen Audis and the other dead guardians transformed into trees, while Meow Brother and his companions mourned their passing.

After Glamour Island was saved, Murphy awakened the spirits who had sustained Caspar’s dream-lock and proposed that they establish an underworld there. He offered them a chance to serve as heroic spirits and intervene in the war over Helm’s Island, ending with his offer to appoint a volunteer Dream-Earl of Glamour.

• Mo Ni Qiong rescued Lady Caspar and reunited with Princess Bridget, while the island’s survivors rested and players searched Avalon’s ruins.
• Meow Brother asked Great Shark to teach him berserker techniques so he could strengthen his Battle Will Resonance with the Punisher, and Great Shark offered to let Vam possess him for a sparring match.
• The Deadwood Tower returned to the dream realm as the boundary between matter and dream stabilized, leaving Caspar’s still-functioning dream-lock unresolved.
• Murphy awakened the exhausted spirits who had served as nodes in Caspar’s dream and praised their sacrifice in suppressing the Black Grail for eight years.
• Murphy proposed that the spirits establish the Glamour Underworld and offered them a role in negotiating an end to the war over Helm’s Island, including the title of Dream-Earl of Glamour for a volunteer.

Murphy recruited the Old Church spirits to help prevent a war on Helms Island, then returned to Glamour Island to decide Lady Caspar’s fate. Little Rich Bro agreed to hire Caspar to strengthen his manticore, letting Murphy postpone his judgment and leaving Caspar under his supervision.

• Murphy persuaded the Old Church spirits to work at the Glamour Underworld and planned to speak with King Louis about avoiding a war on Helms Island.
• Little Rich Bro fed poison sacs to Stinky Treasure while Lady Caspar warned him that his adult manticore needed different training and offered advice on strengthening it.
• Caspar asked Little Rich Bro to help her reach Murphy, explaining that a nightmare mark forced her into Baphomet’s arena once a month and that she needed help removing it.
• Murphy arrived and told Little Rich Bro he could hire Caspar to help the manticore win its territory battle, postponing judgment because she had caused no serious harm.
• Little Rich Bro accepted Caspar’s help and promised to keep watch over her, while Murphy welcomed the decision as the sunship descended.

After the battle on Gramor Island, Sir Ferdinand confronted the mysterious Maredin living within him, while King Louis reunited with Princess Bridget and rewarded her rescuers. Queen Elizabeth then revealed her secret leadership of the Yisha resistance and asked Murphy to help stop its radicals, offering an ancient secret and assistance in finding Twilight’s hidden agent, the Nun.

• Brother Goji and Tan prepared to leave Gramor Island and welcomed the arriving Plantagenet royal fleet.
• Sir Ferdinand discovered that the wounds that should have killed him were healing and argued with Maredin, who warned him to stay away from Murphy.
• Countess Margaret and King Louis reunited with Princess Bridget, and the king rewarded the rescuers with Plantagenet knighthoods and vouchers.
• Adele learned that Queen Elizabeth had a hidden identity and gave her a communication orb to contact Murphy.
• Queen Elizabeth told Murphy she had secretly led the Yisha resistance for thirty years, denied ordering Bridget’s kidnapping, and asked him to help contain the radicals.
• Queen Elizabeth offered Murphy an ancient Yisha secret about the Land of Creation and political help locating Twilight’s agent, the Nun.

Queen Elizabeth explained how the Ishan restorationists split between peaceful negotiators and radicals, then enlisted Murphy’s help to prevent violence on Helm Island. Murphy agreed to connect her with the Helm Rangers and asked her to clear the way for his followers on Greeny Island; afterward, Countess Margaret confronted the other consciousness within Sir Ferdinand about Princess Bridget’s kidnapping.

• Queen Elizabeth told Murphy that the restorationists’ radicals had sabotaged negotiations and might have kidnapped Princess Bridget to destroy the prospect of peace.
• Queen Elizabeth accepted responsibility for her past actions and offered to help settle the border conflict, while Murphy agreed to connect her with the Helm Rangers.
• Queen Elizabeth revealed the Land of Creation beneath Greeny Island and agreed to keep local security forces from interfering with Murphy’s followers’ conflict with the Wolfgriffin faction.
• Murphy ended the call with Queen Elizabeth and met King Louis, urging him to rest while privately anticipating his reaction to the queen’s secrets.
• Countess Margaret confronted the consciousness inside Sir Ferdinand and demanded to know whether its people had arranged Princess Bridget’s kidnapping.
• The consciousness called Margaret Eula, admitted she had left its cause, and asked her to perform one final favor as a nun.

Murphy and King Louis agreed to establish the underworld on Glamour Island, while Helms Island descended into violence between the living and the dead. After Mother Marian helped Effie stop a planned terrorist attack and urged her to accept cooperation with the Plantagenet Kingdom, Effie was left facing a new mission beyond Helms.

• Murphy and King Louis agreed to establish the underworld on Glamour Island, and Louis designated the island neutral while permitting Avalon Church pilgrimages but banning preaching.
• The Underworld Guard and Effie's hunters attacked Isha restorationists who had rebelled and tried to seize control of Helms Island's fleet.
• A tied-up captain told Effie the rebels planned to ram the Plantagenet Royal Fleet and use the Astor's Glory submarine to bomb Greeny Island, but he then attacked her and was killed.
• Mother Marian told Effie that the submarine had been seized by Transian agents and Avalon Witch Hunters, then gave her a list distinguishing moderate and extremist restorationists.
• Mother Marian urged Effie to accept the island's future within a larger nation, eliminate the extremists, and take the Helms Rangers to the mainland on a broader mission.

Murphy met the Tower of Rings’ leaders, who asked him to retrieve the Eye of the World from White Cliffs so they could restart the Grand Dean. Their leader, Lord Sim, revealed that he was an illithid from Eden Zone and offered to explain his knowledge of Pliny Meiridine and the fight against Chaos.

• Murphy learned that Mother Marianne had persuaded Effie and the Helms Rangers to join the Order faction, and he decided not to involve himself in their negotiations with the Plantagenet Kingdom.
• Adele urged Murphy to prepare for the anniversary celebration at the Great Reef Province, and he agreed to leave after meeting his final guests.
• Grandma Bach and the other Tower of Rings leaders invited Murphy to White Cliffs to retrieve the Eye of the World and restart the Grand Dean.
• Murphy challenged Lord Sim’s assurances that White Cliffs was free of Twilight corruption and questioned whether Sim’s protection of the other psionic overlords involved illithid tadpoles.
• Sim removed his disguise and revealed that he was an illithid who had been brought to this world by the Creator to contribute to civilization’s diversity.
• Sim claimed he understood the threat posed by Pliny Meiridine and offered Murphy his insights into fighting the doomsday zealots.

Murphy accompanied Sym to White Cliff, where he learned that the Tower of Rings’ psions carried mind flayer tadpoles and that Sym had once served the Eden District. Sym revealed that Steiner had become a Chaos wraith and warned Murphy that he might be hiding near him.

• Sym told Murphy that every active Purifier psion at White Cliff carried a modified mind flayer tadpole, and Murphy agreed to visit the demiplane with the Rod of God ready.
• Before Murphy entered the portal, Grandma Bach said she had knowingly joined the Purifier faction and accepted the risks of the tadpole in her mind.
• Murphy arrived at White Cliff and followed Sym through its towers and town toward the Grand Dean.
• Sym explained that he had created the Beta Program’s memory-erasure function and that Steiner had tampered with its safeguards to erase memories of himself.
• Sym told Murphy that Steiner had died after becoming a Chaos wraith and warned him that Steiner might be hiding in the shadow of someone he knew.

Murphy visited White Cliff with Sim and learned about the Dean, an ancient machine that calculated risks and offered recommendations. After Murphy questioned it, the Dean urged him to pursue several urgent tasks and revealed that the Creator had hidden a gift at the end of Murphy’s journey.

• Sim explained that his neglect had allowed corruption to take root in the Tower of Rings, and that the Dean had advised him to cultivate psychic guardians.
• Sim told Murphy that the Dean’s computational core was housed in a factory beneath northern Greeny Island, and described White Cliff’s history as a psychic research station.
• Murphy questioned the Dean, which recommended that he strengthen himself, empower the Seed of the Galaxy, prepare against Dagon and threats from space, and take control of the Greenhouse of Life.
• The Dean explained that it calculated without a goal and told Murphy to stop clinging to the Creator’s broken blueprint and decide his own future.
• The Dean revealed that the Creator had hidden a gift for Murphy at the end of his journey and urged him to climb the world’s highest peak.

Murphy recovered the Creator’s Huntian device from the Grand Dean and combined it with the Myriad Phenomena Device, restoring the Eye of the World’s monitoring systems. After installing Eden as its AI, Murphy gained continent-wide surveillance and left for Great Reef Province, while warning Sim to restrain the mind flayers and promising to monitor the Twilight.

• Murphy and Sim found a mechanical module draining the Grand Dean, and Murphy merged it with the Myriad Phenomena Device to create the complete Huntian wristband.
• The wristband unlocked Creator weapons and world-monitoring systems, and Murphy decided to install Eden as its AI assistant.
• Murphy allowed the Plantagenet Kingdom to use an Eden-era factory for peaceful development, warned Sim to ensure mind flayer reproduction required consent, and threatened to use the Eye of the World to monitor him.
• Murphy returned to the Origin Vanguard and transferred Eden into the wristband, bringing the Eye of the World online.
• Murphy used the system to observe Triss in Scarlet Castle and remotely trigger her Raven Star Staff, then tasked Eden with watching for clues to the Twilight.
• Eden reported that Lady Rose was trying to infiltrate the monitoring network, and Murphy refused to give her access for now.