Chapter Summaries

The Tusk Tribe expanded its forces, integrated new members, and extended its influence through allied tribes and trade settlements. Beyond the Black Forest, a prolonged northern cold current drove creatures and species southward, setting wider migrations in motion.

• The Tusk Tribe completed the integration of seven small tribes and other witch doctor-less tribes, increasing its population by more than fifteen hundred and reorganizing its warriors into a main corps of nearly 650 trolls.
• The Tusk Tribe formed the Far Travelers, a fifty-troll unit tasked with exploring distant, unknown forests and seeking new tribes.
• Apprentices helped thirteen first-class allied tribes establish schools and reorganize production, while other allied tribes received less support and faced trade restrictions through the Tusk Tribe's settlements.
• The Tusk Tribe built settlements that served as storage centers and trading posts, where tribes exchanged resources for Food Coins and bought supplies, while access to effective bladed and long weapons remained restricted.
• A fierce cold current swept the northern lands for more than ten years, freezing grasslands and drying plains as creatures and species migrated south in search of resources.

A displaced tribe settled in a fertile river valley while two Far Traveler companies from Nomen Outpost searched the plains for food. The Far Travelers surrounded a herd they mistook for prey, then discovered that the animals were livestock belonging to a civilized race just as the attack signal arrived.

• After fleeing grassland barbarian raids and abandoning their farmland, the tribal leader chose to settle near a river at the Northern Foothill Mountains.
• The tribe built a stockaded settlement in a fertile valley and began reclaiming the surrounding land.
• After six months traveling north from Nomen Outpost, two Far Traveler companies struggled to find food on the open plains.
• A Far Traveler squad detected nearly a hundred hoofed animals, and whistles summoned fifty Trolls to encircle the herd and capture it for breeding.
• The northern squad leader spotted four tool-carrying, clothed figures among the white-fleeced animals and realized they were livestock owned by a civilized race.
• The squad leader tried to warn the others, but the commanders' whistle ordering an attack had already reached him.

A Troll patrol encountered and defeated four unfamiliar horned herdsmen, then captured them and decided to take them back for the Lord Speaker to assess. The chapter left the captives alive as potential leverage while the Trolls prepared to return with news of another civilization.

• The Trolls used the Windwalker Totem to catch up with the horned herdsmen and overpowered them in a brief fight.
• The squad leader examined a captive's durable saber, discovered he could not understand the captives, and signaled for the animals to be brought under control.
• Joelle Tusk and Valerie Tusk arrived, learned the captives came from another civilization, and urged the patrol to report the discovery to the Lord Speaker.
• When the squad leader threatened a captive, Joelle Tusk told him to keep all four alive in case they could be used to negotiate.

After the Far Travelers returned with captives from an unfamiliar tribe, Blade Tusk’s research into totem combinations continued to reveal problems with strength, duration, and stamina. The Far Travelers’ arrival with intelligent beings gave him a promising new lead.

• The Far Travelers withdrew into the forest with four captives, hiding their route by carrying livestock and leaving the herd’s tracks concealed.
• The migrated tribe discovered that shepherds were missing, but its Chieftain found no trace of the Trolls and ordered families to graze together while speeding up construction of a fortified settlement.
• After nearly two years of research, the Tusk Tribe learned to inscribe three totems on each Troll, and the witch doctors began testing combinations for warriors and Far Travelers.
• The witch doctors found that combining strength totems caused overlapping effects, shorter durations, and compounded weakening, while combining Mighty One and Windwalker preserved their effects but still had drawbacks.
• Blade Tusk concluded that totem combinations were limited by warriors’ energy supply and control of stamina, but neither problem had an easy solution.
• An apprentice told Blade Tusk that the Far Traveler company had returned with several intelligent beings, and Blade Tusk hurried to meet them.

Blade Tusk examined the captives and livestock brought back by the Far Travelers, recognizing the captives’ clothing and metal weapons as evidence of civilization beyond the Black Forest. He began learning their language, and over the following months the captives settled into life among the Trolls.

• Blade Tusk thanked the Far Travelers for their arduous journey and sent them to rest while he summoned livestock keepers and shamans.
• Blade Tusk inspected the sheep-like livestock and their wool, then entrusted the animals to apprentices for care.
• Blade Tusk showed the shamans the captives’ durable clothes and metal weapons, explaining that they revealed a substantial civilization.
• Blade Tusk questioned the captives, learned their names, and began identifying the rules of their language.
• Over the next few months, the captives received food and clothes and adapted to tribal life as the Trolls stopped challenging them and arranged suitable bathing facilities.

Blade Tusk and the witch doctors learned about the Tulun, their enemies, and the wider world beyond the Black Forest, then discussed how to make contact while protecting the tribe. They left the meeting planning expeditions, trade, and an embassy, while Meiya reassured Blade Tusk that her advancement was going well.

• Tibu told the witch doctors that the Tulun had fled south from the Seti and settled on the Blessed Plateau after their population fell from nearly one hundred thousand to about thirty thousand.
• Tibu described the Seti, distant caravan guards, Tulun customs, farming, trade, calendars, and shamans who seemed to be spellcasters.
• Blade Tusk ordered envoys and scouting parties to investigate routes through the mountains and directed the tribe to pursue contact with the Tulun, especially to learn their farming methods and obtain their crops and livestock.
• The witch doctors agreed to trade Black Forest goods for Tulun supplies and to establish warning posts and, if possible, fortresses at mountain passes.
• Blade Tusk asked Meiya about her slow advancement on their way home, and she said she would surprise him when the time came.

Vine Tusk and Creeper Tusk developed a tree that produced paper, and Blade Tusk helped the tribe create writing tools and primitive printing methods. The Black Forest First Printing Factory began making textbooks, while paper’s first use was a letter.

• Vine Tusk and Creeper Tusk showed Blade Tusk their new paper-producing tree and demonstrated its smooth, durable sheets.
• Blade Tusk learned how the paper was made and how quickly the trees could be grown and produce sheets, then praised their work.
• Vine Tusk and Creeper Tusk chose to return to the Brain Research Institute and the Spinal Cord Research Institute, and the Rune Council granted them naming rights for the new writing medium.
• Blade Tusk had apprentices make quill pens from ground chicken feathers and introduced woodblock printing and movable type.
• The trolls established the Black Forest First Printing Factory, whose production was claimed first by textbooks; paper’s maiden performance was a letter.

Blade Tusk and the witch doctors prepared a diplomatic letter to the Tulun tribe and sent Boat Tusk north as an envoy. After the fleet departed, the council agreed that the growing external threat required them to investigate the Black Forest Punishment and accelerate the unification of the Black Forest.

• Blade Tusk and the witch doctors finalized a letter offering friendship, the return of captured herdsmen, compensation, and trade, and dated it Rune Calendar Year 21.
• Boat Tusk volunteered to deliver the letter, and Blade Tusk accepted him after warning him to avoid needless conflict and rambling.
• Ten days later, Boat Tusk led four ships carrying deputy envoys, warriors, oarsmen, and trade samples north along the river.
• Blade Tusk urged the council to uncover the truth behind the Black Forest Punishment and speed up the integration of the tribes.
• Sharp Tusk and Rough Tusk agreed that the council should seek traces of the legend and expand the army to unify the Black Forest.

The witch doctors approved expanding the Tusk Tribe’s army, then debated the mysterious absence of westward exploration beyond the Black River. After the council rejected Blade Tusk’s plan to investigate the west himself, he declared that he would assume the office of Dictator.

• Rough Tusk proposed expanding the combat troops, and the witch doctors shaped a plan for three corps, recruiting soldiers through the tribe and its allies.
• Blade Tusk asked Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk about the Old Witch Doctor’s childhood migration, and their memories pointed toward the unexplored western bank of the Black River.
• Sharp Tusk suggested that the Old Witch Doctor’s memories might be confused, while Blade Tusk argued that a mental restriction could explain why Trolls avoided the west.
• The witch doctors unanimously opposed Blade Tusk’s proposal to investigate the west, and their vote overruled him.
• Blade Tusk warned that dangers and outside contact were closing in from several directions, then declared that he would assume the office of Dictator.

Blade Tusk assumed the office of Dictator and ordered a major military expansion before preparing to leave on a western reconnaissance mission. Meiya agreed to go with him after completing her advancement, and Blade Tusk waited the month she requested.

• Blade Tusk invoked the precedent of the Four Tribes War to make himself Dictator and issued orders to expand the army, train recruits, establish unit totems, and collect manpower and taxes from allied tribes.
• Blade Tusk appointed Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk to oversee the Rune Council during his absence, revising the decree to make the arrangement explicitly temporary.
• After the witch doctors tried to dissuade him from the western reconnaissance, Meiya quietly told Blade Tusk she would go with him.
• Meiya insisted she would finish her advancement and would not be a burden, so Blade Tusk agreed that they would face the danger together.
• Blade Tusk waited for the one month Meiya needed to complete her advancement while continuing his duties and cultivation.

Meiya survived her advancement and transformed into a purple-skinned, wolf-like beauty, then claimed the name Azshara for herself. Blade Tusk and Azshara left the tribe by boat to cross the river west, leaving Rough Tusk and the shamans in charge.

• Blade Tusk found Meiya weak and bleeding in the meditation room after her advancement, then waited as she recovered and mastered her new wolf form.
• Meiya transformed back, revealing her changed appearance, and declared that the name Azshara and Blade Tusk’s devotion belonged to her alone.
• Blade Tusk and Azshara spent three days together before preparing to cross the river, and Blade Tusk entrusted the tribe to Rough Tusk and the shamans.
• Daba rushed to join them, but Blade Tusk and Azshara told him to stay and guard the tribe.
• Daba insulted Azshara’s appearance, prompting Blade Tusk to lunge at him before Azshara calmed her husband.
• Azshara said farewell to the shamans and officials, then boarded the boat with Blade Tusk.

Nesta and Azshara explored the forest in wolf form, subdued a Wind Wolf pack, and led it on hunts. When a stronger pack closed in, they and their followers answered its howls and prepared to face it.

• Nesta and Azshara crossed the river in wolf form and ran through the forest together.
• Nesta subdued the male Wind Wolf leader while Azshara defeated the female, and the pair took command of their pack with the former leaders as adjutants.
• With help from the adjutants, Nesta and Azshara led the wolves on successful hunts for several days.
• Nesta ignored the adjutants' warning that their pursuit had entered another pack's territory and continued chasing a wounded herbivore.
• After the pack brought down its prey, wolves from the stronger pack surrounded them, and Nesta, Azshara, the adjutants, and their followers howled back.

Nesta and Azshara defeated a rival wolf pack, killed its Giant Wind Wolf leader, and took control of the pack and its hunting grounds. After questioning the new pack about civilization ruins, they slipped away so Nesta could ask Azshara to help with an experiment involving his troll form.

• Nesta provoked the blue-green Giant Wind Wolf, and the rival pack attacked Azshara, the lieutenants, and their wolves.
• Nesta studied his opponent’s Windwalking Spell and pinned the Giant Wind Wolf when its ability lagged; Azshara killed it with a bite to the throat.
• Nesta recovered a Magic Crystal from the corpse, and the rival wolves submitted to him and Azshara.
• Nesta questioned the seven Wind Wolves about civilization ruins, but they had found none.
• Nesta and Azshara left the resting pack and entered a tree hollow, where Nesta transformed into his troll body and asked her to help with an experiment.

Nesta underwent cranial surgery so Azshara could place a Magic Crystal in his wolf-form skull, but she removed it when she sensed he was in danger. The experience changed Nesta’s rune cognition and began growing a new crystal in his body, while he discovered that his Ignite rune set could persist without support.

• Azshara operated on Nesta’s wolf-form skull while he meditated and slowed the wound’s healing.
• Nesta’s body accepted the Magic Crystal, and he perceived strange strings that threatened to disrupt his understanding of Arcane Arts.
• Azshara sensed Nesta’s danger and removed the Magic Crystal, ending the change before it could further affect his cognition.
• Nesta reassured Azshara, then found that purple fibers in his skull had begun forming a tiny new crystal.
• Nesta tested his rune cognition with the Ignite and Flame Impact rune sets and realized that Ignite could persist without support.

Nesta tested whether his Magic Crystal could cast Ignite without a medium and then expanded his wolf pack westward while searching for the tribal ruins. At the ruins, the wolves uncovered a dark blue-green bone whose presence briefly frightened the Giant Wind Wolves.

• Nesta activated the runes in Wind Wolf form and successfully cast Ignite, but discovered his tiny Magic Crystal could hold no other spell.
• Nesta and Azshara grew their pack by defeating neighboring packs, then split its more than one hundred and twenty wolves into hunting groups and rapid-response forces.
• The pack advanced west for months, and Azshara learned from a subdued Giant Wind Wolf where the suspected ruins lay.
• Nesta, Azshara, and four other Giant Wind Wolves reached the ruins and identified them as the remains of a small Troll settlement, though they could not tell whether it had been the Tusk Tribe's home.
• After a Giant Wind Wolf detected a powerful scent underground, the six wolves dug up a dark blue-green bone that briefly made the four Giant Wind Wolves tuck their tails.

Nesta discovered that organized wolf packs had massacred the western Black Forest’s Troll Tribes and found a wounded giant wolf beneath the source of a vast pressure field. After Azshara rescued him, the pair returned to the tribe and briefed its witch doctors, who also reported that Boat Tusk had established contact with the Hornhoof People.

• Nesta unearthed a wolf corpse sealed in stone and concluded that wolf packs had systematically slaughtered the western Troll Tribes more than three hundred years earlier.
• Nesta infiltrated a pack led by a Wind Wolf Lord, followed it to a gathering of twelve Wolf Kings and thousands of wolves, and watched them launch a war against mountain-dwelling Magic Beasts.
• Nesta slipped away from the battle and entered a cave beneath a pressure field, where a wounded giant wolf attacked him and left him trapped under rubble.
• Azshara sensed Nesta’s distress, found him underground, and carried him to the surface; the two recovered before heading back toward the Black River.
• Nesta and Azshara returned to the Tusk Tribe and told the witch doctors about the western wolf forces and the underground monster; Sharp Tusk and Rough Tusk reported that Boat Tusk had reached the Hornhoof People and established preliminary trust.

Nesta returned from the western bank and organized the tribe’s preparations for confronting the Cave Wolf and its powerful wolf packs. The tribe began training an assault team, developing weapons and armor, and expanding exploration while waiting for the next stage of the campaign.

• Nesta learned that the Tulun Tribe had agreed to exchange farming techniques but could not spare seeds, and he reviewed reports about routes through the Northern Foothill Mountains and the White River.
• Nesta and the witch doctors discussed the Cave Wolf’s injuries and the danger posed by the western wolf packs, then Nesta ordered preparations for combat, exploration of the south, and a long-range plan to kill the Cave Wolf.
• Nesta approved designs for city-defense crossbows and repeating crossbows, encouraged Sharp Tusk and Rough Tusk to advance their energy levels, and assigned Giant Wind Wolf Magic Crystals for research.
• The tribe formed a twenty-witch-doctor assault squad, sent supplies to the Tulun Tribe, and began research into combining boats with Refrigerator Trees.
• Nesta’s team developed Steelwood armor and produced seeds for Armor Trees, giving the tribe the capacity to make one thousand armor sets each month while the Soil Research Institute studied soil fertility.
• The assault team resumed its drills and tentatively planned to advance behind heavy Steelwood walls rather than approach the Cave Wolf directly.

Nesta’s tribe studied the seeds stolen from the Hornhoof People and developed a high-yield crop, Crown Wheat, while hosting a Tulun delegation and expanding its explorations. The Tulun delegation returned home wary of the Trolls’ strength, while scouts uncovered a strange volcanic region in the south.

• Nesta identified that the witch doctors had grown the stolen seeds like trees, then told them to plant them in shallow, fertilized soil and avoid altering their growth pattern too drastically.
• The witch doctors discovered Crown Wheat lacked cambium and developed a variety yielding six hundred kilograms per mu per harvest, though it demanded fertile soil and had to be replanted after maturation.
• Nesta welcomed Tutun Earthshaker and his delegation; the Tulun farmers taught Trolls basic farming, while Nesta grew suspicious that one farmer was a shaman but decided against detaining him.
• After a month of visits and combat demonstrations, Tutun’s delegation sailed home with supplies, and the Troll students began working in the larger experimental fields.
• A Far Traveler squad reached a plateau beyond a northeastern mountain passage, while Valerie Tusk’s southern squad found red creatures fighting in a deep, glowing pit atop a smoking mesa peak.
• Aboard the return ship, Tutun asked a shaman elder about the Trolls, and the elder described them as powerful and dangerous, recommending friendship while warning them to guard their shaman knowledge.

Nesta led the tribe’s preparations for war against the Cave Wolf while farming, reconnaissance, and new Druid transformations advanced. After a four-month march and repeated clashes with wolves, the witch doctors reached the den and began enclosing the sleeping giant wolf in a vine cage, which it awakened and battered with a hurricane.

• Witch doctors adjusted Crown Wheat seeds after the first experimental harvest fell short, then harvested thirty thousand kilograms from fifty mu and began clearing ten thousand mu of farmland.
• Witch Doctor Sharp Tusk and Witch Doctor Rough Tusk completed their advancements, developing distinct wolf-like and tree-like Druid transformations.
• Nesta launched the expedition west with twenty witch doctors and two thousand soldiers, using modified Refrigerator Trees to transport food while Azshara returned to disrupt the wolf pack’s surveillance.
• The army endured more than a dozen clashes with wolves during its four-month march, and Witch Doctor Sharp Tusk held off a Wolf Lord while the soldiers killed the other attackers.
• Nesta led the witch doctors into the wolf den, where fifty-nine groups of vines formed a contracting cage around the sleeping giant wolf.
• The giant wolf opened its eyes when the cage reached its cavern and struck the vine wall with a hurricane, cracking it as the witch doctors rushed to strengthen it.

The Trolls’ siege forced Debelius awake, while Azshara killed a Lord Wolf and gathered more wolves to delay reinforcements. Debelius called across the Black Forest, prompting the Wolf Kings, other wolves, and intelligent Magic Beasts to respond.

• The witch doctors strengthened the vine barrier around the sleeping Cave Wolf, while Azshara gathered wolves and defeated a neighboring Lord Wolf to protect the Troll army.
• Azshara’s scouts reported her victory, and the Troll army advanced toward the cave as the siege continued underground.
• The barrier closed around the Cave Wolf, and the exhausted witch doctors watched as it awoke and identified itself as Debelius, King of Giant Wolves.
• Debelius’s roar injured the witch doctors, and its powerful howl spread across the Black Forest and reached the mountains.
• Lord Wolves, the twelve Wolf Kings, and intelligent Magic Beasts heard Debelius’s call and turned toward the cave.