Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi’s group encountered hostile, possibly corrupted druids in the forest, then continued toward Ebony Forest after Shivana recovered from her Wild Magic-driven attack. Three days later, they reached ruined buildings instead of the pristine forest Rumi had promised.

• Tang Qi apologized to the hidden attackers, showed House Hal’s crest, and used a Ranger leaf to persuade them to leave without further conflict.
• Tang Qi noticed the attackers’ vines and the lingering signs of corruption, and suspected they were not proper druids.
• Tang Qi learned that Shivana’s Berserk had triggered Wild Magic and teleported her into the forest, then ordered her to rest and recover.
• Shivana rejected Tang Qi’s concern, while Dawn and Rumi discussed the group’s next steps and the dangers of the plants.
• Tang Qi decided to leave the Sky Turtle behind and travel on foot toward Ebony Forest.
• Three days later, Tang Qi and his companions arrived at crumbling ruins, leaving Rumi stunned.

Tang Qi and the orcs reached the Ebony Forest, where Markwen tested them with an ambush before welcoming Tang Qi and revealing his connection to Rumi and Gravel. Their reunion turned to talk of old companions and Black Snake’s curse as Shalti emerged from the forest.

• Tang Qi stopped the orcs from panicking when phantom arrows scattered Rust Dust and destroyed their weapons, then negotiated with the hidden ranger who had invited them to the Ebony Forest.
• Markwen tricked Tang Qi into stepping into a pit, but Tang Qi escaped and appeared behind the orcs with Anbi and Shivana.
• Rumi recognized Markwen as the elder who had saved his mother and named him, and excitedly told Markwen about their past.
• Tang Qi and Markwen shook hands, and Tang Qi tore off Markwen’s illusory arm, revealing that he had recognized the wooden prosthetic and Markwen’s prank.
• Tang Qi told Markwen that Gravel had returned north to start a family, and Markwen asked about Black Snake before acknowledging his fatal curse.
• Tang Qi greeted Shalti as she approached from the shadows of the withered forest.

Tang Qi learned that the plague that devastated the Ebony Forest had originated from distorted arcane energy created when the rules of another world failed in this one. He connected that explanation to the Golden Country’s fall and wondered why the foreign civilization had appeared in the world at all.

• Shalti read Tang Qi’s notes, while Markwen revealed that the group’s identity had already been accepted because Tang Qi carried a Newleaf.
• Markwen led Tang Qi and his companions toward the Ebony Forest’s hidden passage and described the plague that had left the woods ruined.
• Shalti explained that the plague source was chaotic arcane energy formed when another world’s magical rules failed to apply in this one.
• Markwen said the plague had come from underground ruins in the Great Desert, and Tang Qi connected the explanation to the Golden Country’s fall.
• Tang Qi recorded his theory that the Golden Country’s spells had collapsed into the plague source and asked why the country had appeared in this world.

Tang Qi and his companions entered Ebony Forest, a peaceful realm in the Feywild where visitors followed laws of hospitality, ownership, and reciprocity. As Markwen led them toward town to arrange housing, Dawn revealed her beautiful face and asked Tang Qi for the rest of his cake.

• Tang Qi, Shalti, Markwen, and the group passed through a hollow in a dead tree and arrived in the lush twilight of the Feywild.
• Markwen explained that time flowed differently in Ebony Forest and described its three laws, which were enforced through reputation points.
• An elderly woman welcomed the newcomers with free cupcakes, and Tang Qi told Anbi that they could accept the food and repay the kindness later.
• Markwen explained that Ebony Forest provided food and necessities without money, then sent a green carrier pigeon to contact the elders about housing.
• Dawn removed her helmet, revealed her flawless face, and asked Tang Qi to give her the rest of his cupcake.

Tang Qi and his companions settled into Ebony Forest for a short vacation, where Dawn gained a temporary human appearance and planned to search for her missing body and memories in the Northlands. Tang Qi then visited Shalti to hear about the Plague Source, after recounting his own travels.

• Elder Bell Deer created a treehouse and bread trees for Shivana's orc tribe and explained Ebony Forest's rules for food and exchange.
• Elder Bell Deer said Ebony Forest's magic had revealed Dawn's subconscious appearance, and Tang Qi identified her features as those of the northern Nords.
• Dawn asked Tang Qi to take her to Ebony Forest restaurants, and he agreed to treat their stay as a vacation where everyone could pursue their own interests.
• Tang Qi followed Mr. Potato's directions to Shalti's treehouse and recounted his journey from Star Plum Town through the wilderness.
• Tang Qi asked Shalti why the Plague Source, which should have belonged to the Great Desert, had appeared within the Great Wall.

Tang Qi learned that Shalti was an astral elf searching the Golden Country for a way back to her homeland, then explored the Ebony Forest’s customs. The chapter ended when Rumi returned home in tears and asked why his mother was gone.

• Tang Qi dismissed the decade-old Ebony Forest plague story as unworthy of recording and learned that Collector had commissioned Shalti and other adventuring parties to search the Golden Country.
• Shalti revealed that she was an astral elf whose homeland lay among the stars, and that she had searched the Golden Country for a way home.
• Tang Qi left Shalti and began documenting the Ebony Forest’s society and customs.
• Tang Qi joined the locals watching a snail race and learned that Markwen was guarding a flail snail after another one had gone missing.
• Rumi rushed through the Ebony Forest, turning the flowers gray with his sorrow, and tearfully asked Markwen why his mother was gone.

Rumi returned to his ancestral home in Ebony Forest and found his mother and neighbors missing, but Markwen told him his mother had died and warned him about the Queen, who traded solutions for people’s desires. Tang Qi respected Ebony Forest’s privacy but suspected the signs of life at Rumi’s home and the workers’ avoidance of parents concealed a larger secret.

• Rumi told Markwen that his mother and the Monts were missing from their homes, which appeared recently inhabited.
• Markwen explained that Rumi’s mother was dead and urged him to guard against the Queen, whose bargains could exploit people in moments of distress.
• Robert described trading away his sense of taste to escape recurring nightmares about frozen carrots.
• Markwen explained that Ebony Forest allowed the Queen to stay because her bargains followed the Law of Mutual Benefit and she had a four-leaf clover.
• Markwen encouraged Tang Qi not to remain trapped in grief, and Tang Qi thanked him while reflecting on his own mother’s death.
• Tang Qi suspected that Rumi’s mother’s apparent signs of life and the workers’ reluctance to discuss parents pointed to a secret in Ebony Forest.

Tang Qi learned that the Ebony Forest Society raised children communally rather than encouraging parents, and Little Beard revealed that the practice began after a plague ten years earlier. The reason for the policy remained unexplained.

• Little Rascal stole Tang Qi's manuscript through a sleight-of-hand trick, then entertained Anbi with a coin-and-glass trick.
• Little Beard invited Tang Qi to cook serpent-chicken stew for a party, and the group decided not to invite Rumi because his mother had died.
• Tang Qi asked why Little Rascal the fairy did not know what a mother was, and Little Beard explained that the Ebony Forest discouraged parents and left child-rearing to the Society.
• Little Beard told Tang Qi that the communal child-rearing system was connected to the plague ten years earlier.

Tang Qi and his companions discovered that Rumi had vanished after apparently following a magic bean into the sky, possibly lured by the Nightmare Queen. They sought Markwen’s help to reach the clouds and rescue him, but learned that their quickest option required finding a large supply of Pixie Dust.

• Little Beard explained how Ebony Forest’s survival depended on the World Tree and why the Society had adopted communal child-rearing after the plague.
• Tang Qi and his companions visited Rumi’s home, found him missing, and used squirrels, birds, and fish to trace his path into the sky on a growing magic bean.
• Tang Qi suspected the Nightmare Queen had lured Rumi into a trade, and Little Beard offered his savings to help stop her.
• Little Rascal brought Rumi’s staff to Markwen, who agreed to help them reach the clouds in exchange for watching his Flail Snail until after the next ritual.
• Markwen offered to find a hot-air-balloon craftsman or use Pixie Dust to make the group float, but Tang Qi chose the faster method despite its need for a large supply.

Tang Qi and his companions gathered enough Fairy Dust to fly into the clouds by using Shalti’s song to draw the Pixies into helping them. Tang Qi, Dawn, and Shalti prepared to search the cloud kingdom for Rumi.

• Tang Qi learned that Pixies could not provide enough Fairy Dust unless they gathered together and willingly gave it.
• Tang Qi persuaded Shalti to help by promising information about a Conch Ship and a possible way for her to return home.
• Tang Qi, Little Beard, Markwen, and Shalti performed music that drew the Pixies out of hiding and moved them to donate Fairy Dust.
• The group gathered 6,073 portions of Fairy Dust, enough for a three-person round trip to the clouds.
• Markwen declined to join the expedition, and Shalti agreed to accompany Tang Qi and Dawn.
• Tang Qi, Dawn, and Shalti set off to fly into the clouds and bring Rumi back.

Tang Qi, Shalti, and Dawn flew through the Ebony Forest’s high-altitude barrier, then encountered harpies guarding the way to the Wish Palace. As the harpies attacked, Dawn loosed a silver arrow.

• Tang Qi struggled to fly with fairy dust as he and Shalti and Dawn climbed through the cold, oxygen-poor sky, guided by Yiwu’s gravity magic.
• Shalti used an enchanted [Rope Trick] to shelter the group and cast [Air Bubble] on Tang Qi; she explained that the World Tree had given her divine spellcasting in place of her lost Magic Web perception.
• The group spotted a cloud bearing a stone house, and a harpy’s sorrowful song ensnared Tang Qi in an illusion until Shalti and Dawn pulled him back to his senses.
• Tang Qi tried to persuade the harpy to let them continue toward the Wish Palace in search of a talkative Gnome, but she refused and warned that she would stop uninvited outsiders.
• The harpy’s song began again as more harpies rushed from the stone house, and Dawn fired a silver arrow at them.

Tang Qi, Shalti, and Dawn battled the harpies guarding the singing girl and stopped her escape. As Shalti’s wind spell trapped them beneath the clouds, she realized a storm was gathering overhead.

• Shalti shot an arrow into the harpy girl’s protector, and the Thorn Hail Spell burst from the wound to injure nearby harpies.
• Tang Qi used Yiwu’s repulsive force and Nasar’s Prank to disrupt and blind the harpies while Dawn charged into the flock and severed four of their talons.
• A harpy attacked Tang Qi, but he deflected its claws and Dawn’s flying gauntlet shattered one of its wings, sending it falling.
• Shalti bound another harpy with vines, while the girl’s song made her arrow veer away and the surviving harpies tried to flee.
• Shalti cast Wind Creation Spell, creating a wall of raging air that halted the girl and her protectors beneath the clouds.
• Tang Qi thought Shalti’s spell had swept up the clouds, but Shalti recognized that a storm was gathering.

Tang Qi and his companions took shelter from a colossal storm inside a magically protected hut after Shalti warmed his frozen hands so he could cast the spell. The storm swallowed them anyway, leaving Tang Qi and Shalti to realize they were still trapped within it.

• Tang Qi led Dawn and Shalti into a cloud-built stone house as a vast storm bearing a gigantic face and hand closed in.
• Shalti warmed Tang Qi’s frostbitten hands against her body, while Dawn captured the bird-demon girl who warned them the house would collapse.
• Tang Qi began casting [Leomon's Hut] as the storm tore the stone house apart and dragged Dawn and the girl toward the clouds.
• Dawn used [Supreme Holy Slash] to shatter the storm’s reaching hand, buying Tang Qi enough time to complete the protective hut.
• Tang Qi, Shalti, Dawn, and the bird-demon girl survived inside the hut, then noticed they were rotating and moving with the storm.

Trapped inside the storm summoned by the Cloud Mist Giant, Tang Qi learned that the Queen’s defenses guarded Wish Palace and that the harpy girl had traded her freedom to resurrect her lover, Fulei. After questioning why he should stop Rumi from making a similar bargain, Tang Qi proposed a deal with the harpy girl and devised a way to escape the storm.

• Tang Qi learned from the harpy girl that Storm was the Cloud Mist Giant, the Queen’s final defense, and that illusions and songs guarded the route to Wish Palace.
• The harpy girl explained that she had traded her freedom to the Queen to bring Fulei back from the dead, and Tang Qi questioned whether her lover was truly who she believed him to be.
• Tang Qi reconsidered his mission to stop Rumi from making a trade, since the Queen might be able to resurrect Rumi’s mother and fulfill his wish.
• Tang Qi offered the harpy girl a deal under the Reciprocity Law: she would guide him to Fulei and help him find Rumi if he got them out of Storm.
• Tang Qi proposed having Shalti cast Air Bubble on everyone, putting them in his dimensional bag, and using Gaseous Form to travel through Storm’s mist and escape above the clouds.

Tang Qi used his Dimensional Bag and mist form to escape the storm and reach the cloud tops, where a giant fairy dragon named Nasar captured him and then brought him to the cloud settlement. After Nasar flew off to watch a play at the Wish Palace, Shalti identified him as the creator of Tang Qi’s spell and said he was Nasar, leaving Tang Qi shocked by the apparent connection to Faerun.

• Tang Qi put his companions inside the Dimensional Bag, turned into mist, and climbed through the Cloud Mist Giant’s storm toward the cloud tops.
• A giant fairy dragon with iridescent eyes spotted Tang Qi, breathed pink smoke on him, and made him lose control of his mist form.
• The fairy dragon caught Tang Qi, carried him above the clouds, and showed him Cloud Window Lake, the Wish Palace, and the surrounding settlements.
• Tang Qi learned that the fairy dragon was Nasar, who knew Markwen and had invited Tang Qi because he seemed familiar and friendly.
• Nasar refused to take Tang Qi to the Wish Palace’s play without a ticket, so Tang Qi retrieved his companions from the Dimensional Bag.
• Shalti identified Nasar as the creator of Tang Qi’s spell, and Tang Qi reacted with disbelief that Nasar should live in Faerun.

Tang Qi developed a theory that the Forgotten Continent’s history had been rewritten when worlds merged, and decided he needed to verify it with Nasar. After reaching Fulei, he learned that Rumi was likely waiting in the Sorrow Market, where visitors stayed while awaiting the queen’s wish-granting transactions.

• Tang Qi wrote his theory about rewritten history on scratch paper and resolved to seek confirmation from Nasar before recording it in the Journal.
• Shalti said Rumi had to bear the consequences of his own choices, but she would intervene if the queen deceived him.
• Tang Qi and Shalti reached Fulei, a frogman playing a harp for his bird-demon lover Guna, and Tang Qi healed Guna’s injured wings.
• Fulei explained that the queen’s guests waited at the Sorrow Market because she needed several days to recover between granting wishes, and transactions had a wait of at least a month.
• Fulei told Tang Qi that many residents stayed in the Sorrow Market to avoid the Society’s Breeding Assembly, and Tang Qi asked him to take them there.

Tang Qi and Guna traveled to the Sorrow Market theater to find Rumi, while learning how the market’s residents performed stories to earn the Queen’s favor. Their arrival interrupted a wedding play that ended in a meteorite disaster, and the chapter left Tang Qi spotting a sorrowful Rumi as he departed his seat.

• The inn directed Tang Qi and Guna to Lakeheart Theater, and Shalti and Dawn stayed behind while Tang Qi’s lodging fee went on credit.
• Guna explained that market residents performed stories for the Queen to determine which wishes would be granted, then flew Tang Qi to the lake theater.
• A wedding play was interrupted by a meteorite effect, and the audience applauded its tragic ending despite the Queen giving it zero points.
• Tang Qi and Guna approached the theater entrance, where Tang Qi saw Rumi sitting in the highest seat before Rumi sighed and left.

Rumi stayed in the clouds to seek his mother, and Tang Qi agreed to help him enter the drama competition by writing a play. After studying the performances, they identified tragedy as the judges’ preference and set out to find forget-me-not grass and an inn, where someone offered them a ride.

• Rumi told Tang Qi that he had seen his mother near his home and intended to bring her back, so he could not leave the clouds.
• Tang Qi agreed to help Rumi write a play and explained that they needed to study the judges’ tastes to win the competition.
• Tang Qi and Rumi watched several plays and noticed that each was a tragedy built around hopes being destroyed.
• Tang Qi concluded that the judges favored tragedies and planned to draw inspiration from the week’s performances before writing their own script.
• Tang Qi and Rumi left the theater to find forget-me-not grass and lodging at Road’s End, but Rumi had no boat and jumped into the lake.
• As Tang Qi prepared to ride on Rumi’s shoulders, someone called out and offered them a ride.

Tang Qi and Rumi met Ponto, a Doppelganger whose wish for a unique body had cost him his creativity, and learned he wanted stories to inspire a new play. Rumi shared his wish to find his mother, and Ponto suggested the Queen might restore her, while Tang Qi grew suspicious about people revived after the plague.

• Ponto revealed that the Queen had made him the one-of-a-kind green-skinned, antlered Tiefling he had wished to become, but the wish had taken his creativity.
• Ponto explained that his Hundred Faces Troupe had dwindled after he lost his ability to create new plays, and he offered Tang Qi his script for Escape Island in exchange for stories and help.
• Tang Qi persuaded Rumi to share his wish, and Rumi told Ponto that he wanted to find his mother after leaving home for more than ten years.
• Ponto said the Queen had revived many people declared dead ten years earlier, and Tang Qi questioned whether they had died in the plague.

Tang Qi and Rumi followed Ponto’s troupe to a cave in the clouds where a bed-frame Giant Dragon guarded Forget-Worry Grass. Tang Qi overcame the dragon’s Dread Majesty and sent it away with a Suggestion Spell, then asked Rumi to help gather the grass.

• Ponto explained that the queen’s pet had moved the Forget-Worry Grass to a cave and that his troupe planned to harvest it.
• Snip-Snip cut the troupe members’ shadows loose to distract the bed-frame Giant Dragon while Ponto, Noa Bo, and Splat-Splat gathered fern leaves.
• Tang Qi entered the cave and resisted the Giant Dragon’s Dread Majesty because of his Dragon Slayer bearing.
• Tang Qi used a Suggestion Spell to send the bed-frame Giant Dragon flying toward the Wish Palace.
• Tang Qi asked Rumi to pull up Forget-Worry Grass and revealed that he had slain a Giant Dragon before.