Chapter Summaries

Kraft joined the Medical School gathering and identified an elderly patient’s symptoms as tuberculosis, though the patient’s many treatments had left the outcome unclear. As the discussion moved toward Kraft’s turn to present a case, he learned Lecturer Petrie had passed out and suggested the group visit him.

• Kraft found the Medical School gathering and joined the professors’ discussion of medical cases.
• Brimmer presented an elderly patient with a worsening cough, bloody phlegm, and a mild fever, while the professors debated possible causes and treatments.
• Kraft recognized the symptoms as tuberculosis and asked whether the patient had afternoon fevers, abnormal sweating, fatigue, and others with similar symptoms.
• Brimmer revealed that the patient had received numerous treatments and then suffered a prolonged, severe fever, leaving the gathering without a clear account of what happened next.
• Kraft asked where Lecturer Petrie was and learned he had passed out after one drink and was resting in a nearby room.
• Kraft suggested that the group bring Petrie Hangover Tea and visit him.

Kraft and the others found Petrie missing from the locked guest room, with only his boots left behind. Kraft recognized that an Assassin Pot had been used, while Martin reported that a suspected accomplice had also vanished from a locked storeroom.

• Kraft resisted the Deep Layer’s call to use his Spiritual Senses as he opened the room where Petrie had been left to sleep.
• Maynard, Linden, and Kraft found the bed empty and discovered Petrie’s boot on the floor.
• Martin arrived as the venue’s guards and searchers sealed the exits and searched the corridors without finding Petrie.
• Kraft identified the silver wine vessel as an Assassin Pot with two chambers and realized he had missed a chance to prevent the incident.
• Martin told Kraft that a suspected accomplice had locked himself in a kitchen storeroom and then disappeared too.

After Petrie vanished from the banquet venue, Professor Kraft discussed a suspected tuberculosis case and possible research with Viscount Fernand. Fernand then arranged for Knight Martin to take Kraft somewhere secure, revealing that the disappearance had made the venue unsafe.

• Martin ordered the supervisor to search the banquet venue and identify who had hired the servant after Petrie disappeared.
• Maynard asked Kraft whether a drug could cause the effect, and Kraft said producing a stable anesthetic would require proper equipment and time.
• Fernand asked Kraft about the case Brimmer had raised, and Kraft described diagnostic clues, his proposed research, and the lack of a reliable cure.
• Fernand connected Kraft’s advice to a specific patient and embraced him, then told Martin to take Kraft somewhere safe.
• Martin led Kraft away, promising that his assistant would be brought to him later by the safest means possible.

Kraft traveled under heavy escort with Martin through Westminster Castle’s defenses and discovered they had reached the legendary fortress known as the immortal, unfallen Oak. The chapter ended with Kraft recognizing Westminster Castle and confronting Martin about keeping its identity secret.

• Kraft asked Martin whether there were leads on the Heretics and the Devil Cherries, but Martin said it was too soon for results.
• Martin escorted Kraft by carriage along a long switchback road and through guarded checkpoints toward the Inner Castle.
• A knight named Baro greeted Martin but directed him to use another route because the inner gate was guarded.
• Martin led Kraft up a spiral staircase and across a massive wall between two towering fortifications.
• Kraft recognized the structures as Westminster Castle, the fortress pictured on one side of the kingdom’s coins.

Kraft was brought before the Duke of Westminster and examined him, discovering that the Duke had advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. During the examination, the Duke’s condition suddenly began to change, leaving Kraft to witness the mysterious episode the others had warned him about.

• Kraft spent the night in the Inner Castle and waited in his room until Martin came to escort him to a private meeting.
• Martin introduced Kraft to the Duke’s steward, Wilbert, and Viscount Fernand led them into the Duke’s quarters.
• The Duke revealed that his failing health had to remain secret because he had no heir and his death could destabilize Westminster and Dunling.
• Kraft received permission to examine the Duke and found signs of severe, widespread pulmonary tuberculosis.
• As Kraft listened to the Duke’s lungs, the Duke’s temperature rose and his awareness faded, prompting Fernand to warn Kraft that the unexplained change had begun.

Kraft examined the Duke of Westminster during a recurring episode of fever and neurological dysfunction, then recommended artificial pneumothorax after the Duke insisted on treating his pulmonary Consumption. As Kraft continued examining the Duke’s lungs, a previously hollow area produced a dull, solid sound, leaving him baffled.

• Kraft observed that the Duke’s fever and temporary speech and movement problems occurred together, and he suspected a second infectious disease causing lesions in the skull.
• Kraft identified the Duke’s disordered speech as Wernicke’s aphasia and learned from Fernand that the episodes occurred about once a week and lasted a similar amount of time.
• The Duke chose to treat his pulmonary Consumption first despite Kraft’s warning that the additional illness could make treatment more dangerous.
• Kraft proposed artificial pneumothorax as a risky treatment to compress the Duke’s lung, and the Duke agreed to proceed.
• During the continued examination, Kraft found that an area of the Duke’s chest that had sounded hollow now produced a dull, solid sound.

Kraft discovered that a cavity in the Duke’s lung had suddenly become dull to percussion, an impossible change that delayed plans for artificial pneumothorax. Using Spiritual Senses, Kraft saw a living, velvet-textured sphere inside the cavity.

• Kraft found that the cavity beneath the Duke’s right scapula now produced a flat sound, unlike its hollow sound during the earlier examination.
• Kraft explained the change to Professor Fernand and Wilbert, who wondered whether fluid had filled the cavity.
• The Duke urged Kraft and Fernand to begin treatment, but Fernand warned that treating an active lesion could be dangerous.
• Kraft agreed to discuss treatment further and planned to investigate the Duke’s recent contacts, meals, and activities while equipment was prepared.
• Kraft briefly used Spiritual Senses and saw a roughly spherical, living mass inside the tuberculous cavity.

After examining the Duke of Westminster, Kraft delayed the proposed treatment while he investigated the Duke’s unusual complications and arranged for craftsmen to build the equipment. He began tracing when the illness started and ended the day searching for his attendants, Kup and Yvonne.

• Professor Fernand warned Kraft that the Duke’s stubbornness made him push for aggressive treatment, while Kraft explained he would not perform Artificial Pneumothorax until he understood the Duke’s pulmonary complication.
• Kraft asked Westminster Castle’s craftsmen to make a Thoracic Puncture Needle and Inflation Device, and he tasked steward Wilbert with investigating possible causes of the Duke’s illness.
• Kraft realized the award invitation might have been written before the Duke became ill and asked Martin when he had set out, then told him to have Wilbert investigate what had entered the Duke’s vicinity around three months earlier.
• Kraft officially joined Rivers University as a professor and received a Golden Oak Leaf Badge from the Duke of Westminster.
• Kraft followed Martin to find Kup and Yvonne, who had spent the banquet sampling food and drinks and still had no idea where they were in Westminster Castle.

Kraft studied the Duke’s travel route and extensive menus, searching for clues to his illness, when Martin reported that a servant had become interested in Church gatherings. Kraft asked when the Heterodoxy had begun operating in Westminster, though he still felt he had not found the key inspiration.

• Kraft quizzed Kup and Yvonne on spelling, then rewarded Yvonne with the fruit platter for her effort.
• Kraft examined a map showing the Duke’s travels across his lands and realized the route was too extensive to trace in time.
• Kraft reviewed the Duke’s menus and considered how his diet and travels related to his illness.
• Martin warned Kraft to stay inside Westminster Castle and reported that a servant had recently begun attending Church gatherings.
• Kraft asked Martin when the Heterodoxy had started operating in Westminster.

Diego investigated the disappearance of a guest from Rivers University and traced a gang’s trafficking business to a secret river crossing. As he and his men approached the crossing through the woods, they were ambushed by an arrow.

• Diego arrested a gang leader while searching for people connected to the missing guest.
• Diego read the gang’s ledger and discovered that a buyer marked with a circle had taken several people.
• Diego questioned the gang leader and followed his directions to a hidden ferry crossing used for illicit trade and tax evasion.
• Diego and his men trekked through a fungus-covered forest toward the crossing.
• An arrow struck Diego’s armor, and he warned his men that they were under ambush.

Diego fought off an ambush in the woods and pursued the surviving attackers through the fungal forest. He and his men cornered them at a crude harbor dock, where a hooded figure bearing a Circle Cult emblem waited beside a small boat.

• An arrow ambushed Diego’s party, and Diego charged the crossbowman while two attackers tried to bring him down.
• Diego killed the crossbowman and his two companions, while the rest of the attackers fled.
• Diego learned that the captured guide had been shot dead and led the soldiers after the fleeing attackers.
• As he ran, Diego suffered from heat and exhaustion and saw vivid fungi seeming to spread across his vision.
• Diego and his men cornered the fugitives at a crude dock, where a hooded contact with a Circle Cult emblem waited by a leaky boat.

Kraft left the workshop to hear Martin’s urgent report about the Heterodoxy and the death of Diego, a knight who had pursued a criminal linked to disappearances. Martin brought Kraft to a courtyard and opened a box containing a disfigured person in a robe, whose chest wound was threaded with fine strands.

• Kraft asked the artisans to try making a hard, thin tube and a needle for his medical equipment before leaving with Martin.
• Martin told Kraft that the sect had been active for at least four months and that its first known case had involved a man cheating a believer.
• Martin revealed that Diego had died while pursuing a criminal connected to the disappearances outside the city.
• Kraft suspected the Heterodoxy was responsible for Diego’s death and asked whether they could continue the search.
• Martin brought Kraft to a guarded courtyard and opened a wooden box to show him a disfigured robed figure with a sword wound through the white circle on its chest.

Kraft examined the Heretics and Diego’s dead companions, finding white fungal growth in a fatal wound and their airways. He connected the growths to mushrooms in the forest and to the Duke’s lung lesion, but the cause of the deaths remained unexplained.

• Martin showed Kraft Diego’s body and explained that Diego had been the only one to face the enemy with his sword.
• Kraft found delicate white filaments growing from the wound, and Martin said they had increased since the body was placed in the crate.
• Martin reported that the other dead had no fatal wounds, while several people, including one of Diego’s Squires, remained missing.
• Kraft examined the Heretics’ mouths and found extensive white growths spreading through their airways.
• Martin said the forest where they found the bodies had been unusually full of mushrooms.
• Kraft connected the fungal growths to the Duke’s lung lesion and named Aspergillus and Candida as possible clues.

Kraft examined the Heretic leader’s corpse and found an extensive fungal growth beneath his skin. Martin remained with him, and the discovery was interrupted when Martin noticed that an object from the corpse was glowing.

• Kraft suspected that the unusual illness involved fungi with abnormal, relentless growth.
• Martin confirmed that their investigation was authorized and insisted on watching Kraft examine the Heretic leader’s body.
• Kraft opened the robe and found loose, fluffy tissue beneath the dead man’s skin, along with a flask and an undecorated pendant hidden in concealed pockets.
• Kraft peeled back the skin and exposed a vast mass of mycelium growing beneath it.
• Martin called Kraft over to look at an object that seemed to be glowing inside.

Kraft examined a corpse overgrown with fungi and discovered evidence that connected the Heretics to Hudson Town. A sealed bottle containing a mysterious black substance led him to call for more people and lamp oil.

• Martin found that a pendant taken from the suspicious man glowed with an eerie red light, so Kraft had it sealed in a lead bottle as a precaution.
• Kraft opened the corpse and found that fungi had replaced much of its tissue and filled its chest, making Martin recoil and retch.
• Kraft concluded that the fungal growth might help locate the Heterodoxy, and Martin identified Hudson Town, where the Duke's manor produced mushrooms.
• Kraft inspected a nearby bottle of dark liquid, sealed it with wax, and told Martin to bring more people with plenty of nerve and lamp oil.

Kraft and Martin arrived in Hudson Town while investigating Diego’s disappearance and sought help from the local Church. Kraft noticed something suspicious about the priest’s faded Church insignia and confronted him as the chapter ended.

• Martin gave Kraft a decorated one-handed crossbow and a case of bolts as a precaution against danger.
• Martin led Kraft, Kup, and part of the party from the manor to Hudson Town to ask the Church about Diego and his missing squires.
• Kup noticed that the flowers outside the church included bright parasol mushrooms, which made him uneasy.
• Kraft and Martin waited through the priest’s sermon about Saint Yeg and the Lord’s chosen king.
• Kraft seized the priest’s hand and pointed out that the double-wing ring on his robe had lost its color.

Kraft and Martin captured Joel, a false priest forced by the Orthodox Cult to run the church, and questioned him about the vanished original priest. When Kraft showed Joel a red-black ornament, Joel panicked and identified its light as the Cult’s Angel.

• Kraft restrained the false priest while Martin threatened him, then Kraft persuaded him to talk by warning that the Orthodox Cult might not trust him.
• Joel revealed that the original priest had vanished after entering a room locked from the inside, and that he had taken over as the priest’s apprentice.
• Joel said the Orthodox Cult had threatened him into running the church, collecting donations, and preaching about the Lord’s kingdom and the Chosen One.
• Joel named the group the Orthodox Cult and recalled that one visitor had burrs on his trousers, suggesting the Cult operated in the woods.
• Kraft showed Joel a red-black ornament, and Joel struggled frantically, crying that the Cult’s Angel was there.

Kraft and Martin investigated the fake Priest Joel and searched the Church for clues about the Heretics’ disappearances. They found nothing useful, but Kraft began to suspect the attacks on Petrie and himself might be connected to their surgical work or Petrie’s research into anesthesia.

• Joel panicked at the pendant, then told Kraft that a man wearing a ring had said the Angel had come to take the Priest away.
• Martin wondered whether the glowing pendant meant the Angel had been following them, and Baro struck Joel before Kraft and Martin stopped him.
• Kraft ordered the group to search the Church and return to the manor before evening, while Martin led Joel to the room where the Priest had disappeared.
• Kraft and Martin found the room filthy but discovered no useful clues, then climbed onto the Church dome and discussed the Heretics’ targets.
• Kraft and Martin questioned why the Heretics had targeted Petrie and Kraft, then recalled Petrie’s ice-cooled amputation and research into anesthesia at Dunling University.

Kraft wondered whether Lecturer Petrie’s research draft could connect him to the Black Fluid found on the Heretic, while preparing for an expedition into the Forest Wall. Martin explained their plan to reach a lumber camp by river, and Kraft and Kup took responsibility for keeping watch overnight.

• At dinner, Kraft asked Martin about Lecturer Petrie’s belongings and learned that Petrie’s room had been sealed; Kraft requested his research presentation draft.
• Kraft recalled the Black Fluid and suspected a connection between the sample found on the Heretic, Westminster, and Petrie, who had come from Dunling University.
• Kraft studied the Forest Wall and worried about how little the group knew of the terrain and the dangers they might encounter there.
• Martin told Kraft they would follow the river to a lumber camp, where the steward knew workers who ventured into the forest.
• Kraft asked Martin whether he or the Church had encountered abnormal cases involving Heretics; Martin said he had heard of such cases but had witnessed none himself.
• Kraft told Martin to sleep and said that he and Kup would take turns keeping watch.

Kraft and Martin questioned lumberjacks at the forest camp while searching for signs of Heretics, but found no useful leads. Kraft discovered that several discarded logs were diseased with pale, threadlike discoloration and ordered the lumberjacks to take them to where they had been cut.

• The old steward led the riders through an overgrown forest path to the lumber camp, where Sean and the other lumberjacks greeted them nervously.
• Martin questioned Sean and the lumberjacks about strangers, traces, and unusual growths, but they reported seeing nothing.
• Kraft inspected the camp and learned from the steward that the Duke allowed people to take trees no more than a handspan wide.
• Kraft examined discarded logs and found pale, soft, threadlike discoloration running through their wood.
• Sean explained that the lumberjacks had found the defective trees deeper in the forest, and Kraft ordered him to lead them there.