Chapter Summaries

Duanmu Huai and Anthony traced the Void Ghoul painting to Christine, a former Miskatonic University art student who had suffered a breakdown after creating it. When Duanmu Huai confronted her, Christine handed him a diary and revealed that her inspiration came from Dunwich.

• Duanmu Huai and Anthony learned from Professor Osborn that Christine had dropped out five years earlier after painting the Void Ghoul and suffering a mental breakdown.
• Professor Osborn gave Anthony Christine’s contact details, and Anthony confirmed that she still lived with her parents.
• Duanmu Huai and Anthony visited Christine and found her emaciated, terrified of art supplies, and unable to paint.
• Duanmu Huai used his Fear Domain aura while questioning Christine about the Void Ghoul painting.
• Christine handed Duanmu Huai her diary and stammered the name Dunwich.

Christine’s diary revealed that she had gone to Sentinel Hill and returned with no memory of painting a terrifying Void Ghoul. After the System assigned Duanmu Huai a mission to become the source of fear there, he set out alone for Sentinel Hill, where he faced a desolate path beneath gathering storm clouds.

• Christine’s diary explained that her trip to Sentinel Hill left her frightened and unable to remember painting the Void Ghoul.
• Anthony recognized Dunwich from an old case file and went to retrieve it.
• The System activated the “Source of Fear” mission, directing Duanmu Huai to defeat the opponent at Sentinel Hill and become the true source of fear.
• Duanmu Huai identified Yog-Sothoth as a possible opponent, then decided to go to Sentinel Hill despite his reluctance.
• Duanmu Huai persuaded Anthony to stay behind and traveled to Sentinel Hill with the maid.
• Duanmu Huai followed the barren road toward the summit as dark clouds gathered and Night Hawks cried through the forest.

Duanmu Huai confronted the Formless Thing at Sentinel Hill, asserting that humanity was under his protection and resisting Yog-Sothoth’s power with his will and Black Flame. He destroyed the creature and completed the “Source of Fear” mission, gaining a new trait for Aura of Fear.

• Duanmu Huai climbed Sentinel Hill, declaring that he would protect humanity from the gods and other threats that preyed on it.
• At the stone ring, Duanmu Huai resisted the Formless Thing’s display of Yog-Sothoth’s power by invoking the Black Flame of the Fated Land and affirming that all things must end.
• Duanmu Huai subdued the Formless Thing with his Aura of Fear as its power and will weakened.
• Duanmu Huai slashed the air with a blade of black flame, tearing open and destroying the Formless Thing.
• The System announced that Duanmu Huai had completed the “Source of Fear” mission and gained the Fierce Aura trait.

After closing the Sentinel Hill case, Duanmu Huai opened a detective agency and antique shop in Arkham to protect people from Evil Gods and cursed objects, but business stayed quiet. Bored, he went to Miskatonic University to work as a life model, where Professor Osborn introduced him to the students with a strange speech.

• Duanmu Huai learned that Christine had died of terror and that the museum victims remained missing, so the Sentinel Hill case was closed.
• Duanmu Huai sold his manor and opened an Arkham Detective Agency and Antique Shop, with Lorena running the shop and screening cursed items.
• Duanmu Huai waited nearly half a month without receiving a case and decided to become a life model at Miskatonic University.
• Professor Osborn explained the nude-model job and led Duanmu Huai to the art studio, where the students watched him without fainting.
• Professor Osborn praised Duanmu Huai as an extraordinary talent and urged the students to cast off the world's Binding Vow before beginning the session.

After a day at Miskatonic University, Duanmu Huai’s agency advertisement reached Mark Ryan, a veteran pursuing the cultists who killed his wife. The symbol appeared on Mark’s hand during a dream, freeing him to kill the monster in his nightmare, and he decided to go to Arkham City.

• Duanmu Huai posed as a model at Miskatonic University, explained his agency’s work, and handed out business cards.
• Mark Ryan continued investigating the underground church after a monster crawled out of his wife and the cultists targeted him.
• Mark found an advertisement for the Mysterious Detective Agency in a newspaper but dismissed it as a fraud.
• During his recurring nightmare, Mark felt pain on his hand, regained control of his body, and crushed the monster that had killed his wife.
• Mark woke to find the agency’s warhammer-and-skull symbol on his hand and decided to travel to Arkham City.

Mark visited the Inquisition shop in Arkham City after finding its address in a newspaper and discovering its symbol matched the mark on his hand. He bought weapons and protective accessories for his fight against cultists, then left without agreeing to seek further help from Duanmu Huai.

• Mark found the Inquisition shop at 666 Fool Street and saw its symbol matched the mark on his hand.
• Lorena explained the shop's weapons and protective items, its risks, and that firearms were not for sale.
• Mark asked whether the Inquisition could let him meet someone who had died, and Lorena said the shop offered no such service.
• Mark bought an iron shovel, a dagger, a ring, and a bracelet to prepare for fighting monsters.
• Lorena gave Mark a business card and invited him to contact Duanmu Huai, but Mark left without intending to ask for help.

Duanmu Huai accepted Anthony’s offer to investigate a Jack the Ripper-like series of murders in Fog City and traveled there with Lorena, Ling Nu, and Rabbit Rabbit. Before they reached their destination, Lorena told him someone had been murdered aboard their train.

• Duanmu Huai complained to Anthony about having too much free time and asked for a case to investigate.
• Anthony offered Duanmu Huai a letter of introduction and case files for a series of murders in Fog City that had been classified as a U-Level case.
• Duanmu Huai arranged passage to Fog City by train and airship, bringing Lorena, Ling Nu, and Rabbit Rabbit along.
• Duanmu Huai read the case files and learned that young women had been murdered and disemboweled, while several investigators had disappeared.
• Lorena woke Duanmu Huai at three o’clock and told him the conductor wanted to ask questions because someone had been murdered on the train.

Duanmu Huai investigated the disappearance of a journalist after the journalist’s assistant asked him for help. He found evidence linking entrepreneur Phillip to Silver Twilight Lodge, but Phillip had vanished from his cabin before Duanmu Huai could confront him.

• A journalist’s assistant told Duanmu Huai that her teacher had disappeared after warning her to beware of Phillip.
• Duanmu Huai examined the assistant’s belongings and had her search them again for anything the missing journalist had taken to the interview.
• Ling Nu found a concealed pocket in a travel bag, where the assistant discovered a note detailing Phillip’s payments to Silver Twilight Lodge.
• Duanmu Huai recognized Silver Twilight Lodge as an evil cult and suspected Phillip had targeted the journalist for discovering his connection to it.
• Duanmu Huai kicked open Phillip’s cabin door to arrest him, but found the room empty.

Duanmu Huai investigated the disappearance of Phillip and the journalist, finding the journalist’s corpse and a diary at a ruined station where time and space seemed distorted. After the train became trapped in a loop around the station, Duanmu Huai drove off a creature and found evidence that Phillip had been crushed beneath the train.

• Duanmu Huai learned that Phillip had vanished and found his room empty aboard the train.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena discovered the journalist’s decades-old corpse in the ruined temporary station, along with a diary describing how he had become trapped there after Phillip disappeared.
• Duanmu Huai ordered the corpse carried back to the train, which then repeatedly returned to the station instead of reaching its destination.
• Duanmu Huai shouted at a creature outside the train, and the train struck it before stopping.
• Duanmu Huai found expensive clothing and a business card among the crushed remains, identifying the second missing person as Phillip.

After reporting the train deaths, Duanmu Huai declined Anthony’s request to investigate Silver Twilight Lodge and traveled toward Fog City aboard the luxurious airship Full Moon and Stars with Lorena. He learned about the rumored Chain Jack killings from students bound for the Royal Academy of Masters, then heard a murder cry on the third morning of the voyage.

• Duanmu Huai reported the deaths of Phillip and the journalist to Anthony, who arranged for someone to investigate Silver Twilight Lodge and invited Duanmu Huai to pursue the case.
• Duanmu Huai declined Anthony’s invitation and boarded Full Moon and Stars with Lorena, bound for Fog City.
• A student from the Royal Academy of Masters approached Duanmu Huai, and they discussed the Chain Jack killings rumored to have occurred in Fog City.
• The student gave Duanmu Huai his business card, and Duanmu Huai gave him one in return.
• On the third morning aboard the airship, Duanmu Huai heard someone shout that there had been a murder.

Duanmu Huai investigated Williams Ford’s murder aboard the airship, where cultists had drawn a magic formation in the victim’s blood. After the radio was found damaged, Doctor Rose narrowed the suspects to a normal adult male, leaving five people under suspicion.

• Duanmu Huai questioned bodyguard Dote Fisher and Doctor Rose, who said Williams had been killed by a single cut to the throat and that his abnormal blood made the time of death difficult to determine.
• The passengers gathered on the Observation Deck and reconstructed the likely timeline, concluding that Williams had been killed aboard the airship and that the culprit was among them.
• Captain Carter reported that the radio had been damaged, cutting the airship off from contact and causing the passengers to panic.
• Arthur Lanshire mocked Duanmu Huai, but Duanmu Huai frightened him into silence with a glare.
• Doctor Rose used the wound and the magic formation to rule out several people, leaving the two male students from the Shuo Academy, Captain Carter, navigator Bart, and Fred Winston as suspects.

Duanmu Huai investigated Williams’s murder scene and learned from his diary that the victim had fled the Silver Twilight Lodge, which wanted his blood for a ritual. A vision suggested the killer was a male smoker, narrowing the suspects as Duanmu Huai and the others continued their investigation.

• Duanmu Huai questioned Dote and learned Williams had asthma, avoided smoke, and had hired Dote because he feared threats from his past.
• Duanmu Huai examined the blood-covered Magic Circle and realized his presence had dispelled the dark magic that had been cast in the room.
• The Black Cat found tobacco ash on Williams’s collar, and Duanmu Huai experienced a vision of the killer standing over the dying victim with a cigarette.
• Duanmu Huai concluded the killer was a male smoker and considered the Captain, the navigator, Arthur, and possibly the male students among the suspects.
• Dote brought Williams’s diary, which revealed that the Silver Twilight Lodge had pursued Williams after he tried to leave its cult and escape its planned blood ritual.
• Duanmu Huai identified the Lodge as the likely culprit behind the murder and left with the others to search elsewhere.

Duanmu Huai searched the airship and uncovered evidence linking several passengers and crew members to the dead Williams Ford. After finding Williams's pocket watch in Navigator Bart's locked case, he returned to the Observation Deck to identify the culprit.

• Duanmu Huai found suspicious magic formations in Fred Winston's room, though Ling Nu gave no sign that they held useful clues.
• Ling Nu uncovered a torn group photograph in Arthur Dote's trash can showing Williams Ford, Doctor Rose, and the maid Ethel.
• Doctor Rose admitted she had known Williams through a club and said Arthur had threatened to expose her past unless she supplied him with prohibited drugs.
• Ling Nu led Duanmu Huai to a locked case in the crew bedroom, where he found Williams's pocket watch.
• Dote identified the watch, and Duanmu Huai discovered that the case belonged to Navigator Bart before heading back to the Observation Deck.

Duanmu Huai exposed Dr. Rose and Arthur as the killers behind the murders aboard the airship, though Rose revealed her monstrous form before he could present evidence. Lorena knocked Rose unconscious, and Duanmu Huai subdued Arthur, leaving the case solved.

• Duanmu Huai questioned Arthur, Fred, and Bart about the photograph, occult circles, and stolen pocket watch, and Bart admitted to theft but denied murder.
• Duanmu Huai explained that the killer had planned for everyone aboard to die and accused Dr. Rose, bluffing that he had evidence until she revealed herself as a monster.
• Duanmu Huai identified Rose as the mastermind and Arthur as her accomplice, both members of the Silver Twilight Lodge, and Rose declared that they would sacrifice everyone to Nyarlathotep.
• Lorena struck Dr. Rose in the face with her Holy Book, sending the monster crashing into a wall and leaving her still.
• Arthur drew a pistol, but Duanmu Huai intimidated him, then punched him unconscious and declared the case solved.

After settling the previous case in Fog City, Duanmu Huai heard about a young woman who had mysteriously vanished before her body was found and began to sense an evil presence in the city. He rescued Mary from the river and helped Ling Nu revive a cat, then disappeared before Mary could thank him further.

• Duanmu Huai handed Inspector Lestrade his report, received authorization to investigate in Fog City, and heard about a young woman who disappeared before her body was found in the river.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena discussed Fog City's ominous atmosphere and Duanmu Huai's doubts about opening his shop in Arkham.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena saw Mary swimming into the river after a small black cat and watched a wave sweep her away from the bank.
• Duanmu Huai pulled Mary from the river, and Ling Nu revived the cat by pressing its chest until it coughed up water.
• Mary thanked Duanmu Huai, but when she looked for him moments later, he had vanished.

After learning that the girl he rescued, Mary, possessed a rare Gold Eye, Duanmu Huai began investigating the river murders. He found that all the victims attended Royal Shuo Academy and decided to investigate the school.

• Lorena and Duanmu Huai discussed the courage of the girl who jumped into the polluted river to rescue a kitten.
• Duanmu Huai recognized the girl's golden, slit-pupil right eye as a Gold Eye, a rare ability that granted immunity to illusions and strong magic resistance.
• Mary's friends scolded her for jumping into the freezing river and arranged for a doctor to examine her; Mary said she wanted to thank the man who rescued her.
• Duanmu Huai began a field investigation and reviewed the files on young women found murdered in the river.
• Duanmu Huai noticed that every victim had attended Royal Shuo Academy and decided to investigate the school.

Duanmu Huai searched Royal Shuo Academy for clues about the murders and failed to lure the killer out with Lorena, but he found an apartment perfectly suited to his size. After learning it was haunted, he became even more eager to buy it.

• Duanmu Huai secretly eavesdropped on Royal Shuo Academy students for information about the murder victims’ possible connection to their teachers.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena spent a week searching for the killer, but they made no progress.
• The hotel manager told Duanmu Huai about an oversized apartment created for an art exhibition, and Duanmu Huai visited it at 135 Birch Tree Street.
• Duanmu Huai and the artist agreed on a half-price sale, and they signed the contract and transferred payment.
• The artist warned Duanmu Huai that the apartment had a history of murders and hauntings, but Duanmu Huai grew even more determined to buy it.

Duanmu Huai moved into the haunted apartment and dealt with a female ghost that emerged from his bathtub. After he spotted another spirit in the corridor, he teamed up with Ling Nu to hunt it down.

• Duanmu Huai had workers clean the apartment and then relaxed in its oversized bathtub.
• A bloodstained female ghost emerged from the bath, but Duanmu Huai struck her and dragged her back into the bathroom.
• Duanmu Huai sensed another spirit in the corridor, and Ling Nu spotted it as well.
• Duanmu Huai and Ling Nu pursued the second spirit through the dark corridor.
• The second spirit tried to flee, but Duanmu Huai appeared in front of her and said he had found her.

Duanmu Huai investigated the attacks in Fog City and spotted a gold-eyed girl who could see through his concealment. During a nighttime patrol, he found her being pursued by an iron monster that wanted her Gold Eye, and confronted it.

• Lorena reported that she had found nothing unusual while investigating the haunted house attacks with Duanmu Huai.
• Duanmu Huai watched Joseph Chapek approach three girls at Royal Shuo Academy and recognized the gold-eyed girl he had once rescued from a river.
• The gold-eyed girl saw Duanmu Huai through his Raven Guard concealment, so he returned to the apartment and learned that Miskatonic University had bought exorcism ornaments from his shop.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena went out after midnight, and a girl's scream drew him into a darkened version of Fog City.
• Duanmu Huai found the gold-eyed girl fleeing an iron monster that demanded her Gold Eye, then attacked the monster with black flames.

Mary Clarissa Christie recalled the black city, the steel monster, and the tall man in black who saved her before she woke from a fever while Charlotte Bronte remained comatose. She found Duanmu Huai and brought him to Charlotte, and he asked Mary to recount exactly what had happened.

• Mary fled a steel monster through a strange, sealed version of Fog City until a tall figure in black appeared and unleashed black flames that she recognized as Destined Death.
• Mary woke two days later and learned that Charlotte had not regained consciousness despite repeated examinations by doctors.
• Mary remembered seeing the same tall man by the Thames and at Shuo Academy, then decided to seek his help.
• Mary found Duanmu Huai waiting near her home, thanked him, and told him about Charlotte's coma.
• Duanmu Huai accompanied Mary to Charlotte's home, concealed himself from the maid with an illusion, and asked Mary to describe the events of that night exactly.