Recaps

Charles became a Green Court Lord and received a valuable set of elven wizard armor from Elendil, presented as a gift from Selena. At the banquet, he learned how few pure-blooded elves lived in the Verdant Crystal Domain, where his arrival was welcomed as both an affirmation and a source of strength.

• Elendil made Charles a Green Court Lord, a noble title of the second rank.
• Elendil presented Charles with a set of enchanted elven wizard armor, and Selena urged him to accept it as her gift.
• Charles accepted the equipment, which included a spellblade, cuirass, gloves, boots, and cloak with various imbued spells.
• At the banquet, Charles fielded questions about Lotheran before redirecting the conversation to the Land of Chaos.
• Charles learned that fewer than three hundred pure-blooded elves lived in the Verdant Crystal Domain, and the elves welcomed him as a new comrade-in-arms.

Charles refused Elendil’s offer of a fief and arranged to recruit commoners and obtain equipment in the Verdant Crystal Domain before reclaiming old lands. After returning to camp, he warned Molly that Selena might visit and said he did not want her to misunderstand their relationship.

• Charles told Elendil he wanted to reclaim old lands and asked to recruit soldiers, buy equipment, and sell spoils in the Verdant Crystal Domain.
• Charles refused to take Elendil’s soldiers, accepted an authorization order to obtain equipment, and prepared to leave the castle.
• Selena asked when Charles would return, and Charles said he would stay in the domain while recruiting and training troops; he welcomed her visits.
• Elendil watched Charles and Selena together and hoped they might be joined, though he knew Charles would not remain in the domain.
• Charles returned to camp, where Molly teased him about elven girls and his new equipment.
• Charles told Molly that Selena might visit and asked her not to reveal their relationship because he was afraid Selena would misunderstand.

Charles equipped and rebuilt his army by recruiting human soldiers in the Verdant Crystal Domain, then began training them to prepare for reclaiming Avenor’s old homeland. Selena grew closer to Charles as she brought him pastries, while Molly and Yvenjieling watched with displeasure and resentment.

• Charles collected superior weapons and equipment from the Verdant Crystal Domain’s armory and outfitted his bandit soldiers.
• Charles dismissed unsuitable bandits and recruited mostly human soldiers from the shantytown, keeping his force below three hundred.
• Charles reorganized and trained the army, pleased that many soldiers had the physical qualities of Great Knights.
• Selena brought Charles homemade pastries, and he praised them; she linked her arm through his and offered to make more.
• Molly watched Charles and Selena with displeasure, while Yvenjieling looked on with complicated resentment toward elves and half-elves.

Charles left the Verdant Crystal Domain with his army after bidding Selena farewell and began planning his conquest of the Land of Chaos. He sought a settlement with a large human population as a starting point, while the Book of Causal Paths urged him to hurry toward the coming wars.

• Charles comforted Selena and left the Verdant Crystal Domain to catch up with his advancing troops.
• Molly teased Charles about his goodbye, and Scorchflame returned to his shoulder as Charles declared the start of their conquest.
• The Book of Causal Paths urged Charles to start a war, claiming the plane was changing and that the deaths would feed its power.
• Charles studied a map of the Land of Chaos and identified the human-inhabited region between the Avenor Elven Court and the orc-controlled north as his intended battlefield.
• Charles told Molly to look for a settlement with many humans, not too close to or too far from the Verdant Crystal Domain, and explained that he planned to oppose the plane's major powers without relying on half-elves.

Charles decided not to seize and hold a settlement yet, since his small force would be vulnerable to retaliation in the Land of Chaos. Instead, he planned to build his reputation through guerrilla warfare by targeting the Howling Children of the Wasteland.

• Erika suggested taking a nearby settlement dominated by humans, and Charles reviewed intelligence about its rulers.
• Charles learned that the settlement belonged to the Howling Children of the Wasteland, an orc warband with thousands of capable soldiers and several settlements under its influence.
• Charles warned Erika that taking a settlement would draw attacks from its allies and from forces wary of a pure-blooded elf leader.
• Charles chose guerrilla warfare to make his name before trying to hold territory.
• Charles selected the Howling Children of the Wasteland as a target, hoping to win money and recruits by defeating the warband.

Charles briefed his core members on the Howling Children of the Wasteland, an orc warband that protected settlements and traded slaves, and explained how his mounted forces could counter them. He identified the warband’s wolf cavalry as the first threat to eliminate and pointed out where it was stationed.

• Charles reflected on how the war between the elves and giants had become a struggle for resources and faith, with both sides relying on humans and other peoples for followers.
• Charles summoned Erika, Molly, Bruce, and several captain-level officers to discuss the Howling Children of the Wasteland.
• Charles explained that the orc warband relied mostly on infantry, while his forces’ Gray-Scaled Horses and mounted recruits gave them an advantage in mobility.
• Charles warned that the warband’s wolf cavalry was dangerous and needed to be defeated before they could rise to power.
• Charles pointed to the wolf cavalry’s station on the map.

Charles and his force planned a stealthy attack on a main Warg Rider station belonging to the Howling Children of the Wasteland. After scouting the nearby settlement and camp, Charles noted that the Warg Riders' defenses were crude.

• The chapter described the strengths, weaknesses, and upkeep of Warg Riders, including the Howling Children of the Wasteland's force of nearly a thousand riders.
• Molly questioned whether Charles's small cavalry force could escape if enemy infantry surrounded them, and Charles explained that speed and mobility would let them break through or defeat smaller groups.
• Charles's force bought food, traveled by night, and hid by day before resting near the Warg Rider station.
• Charles scouted a nearby settlement where Warg Riders abused the residents and observed the station's wooden spikes and low stockade.
• Charles smiled and remarked that the Warg Riders' camp was crude.

Charles scouted the wolf cavalry camp and planned to lure its troops onto open ground rather than attack the defended camp. He disguised his force as a merchant caravan and drew out a squad of orc wolf cavalry, ending with his wand aimed at their leader.

• Charles used a summoned bird to survey the camp and counted more than seven hundred orcs and four to five hundred direwolves.
• Charles rejected a direct assault and planned with his companions to lure the wolf cavalry out, while the Book of Causal Paths predicted success.
• Bruce roused the troops before dawn, and Charles chose flat ground where his cavalry could conceal their tracks in trenches.
• Charles led more than thirty cavalrymen disguised as a merchant caravan past the orc camp, drawing out a squad of wolf cavalry.
• The orc leader grew suspicious of the calm Gray-Scaled Horses and demanded to inspect the caravan and Charles's token.
• Charles drew his wand and aimed it at the orc leader, revealing its gem glowing red.

Charles and his soldiers ambushed an orc wolf-rider patrol, then left survivors and wagon tracks to lure the orcs into pursuit. Gash Bloodtooth assembled more than three hundred riders and set out after the supposed half-elf merchant caravan, ordering his troops to capture any half-elves they found.

• Charles killed the orc leader and led his soldiers in slaughtering most of the nearby wolf riders.
• Charles let a few orcs escape and withdrew with the disguised merchant wagons, leaving tracks for the orcs to follow.
• Gash Bloodtooth heard the survivors’ report, identified the attackers as half-elves, and ordered his troops to hunt them down.
• Gash Bloodtooth sent a scout group ahead, then departed with more than three hundred assembled wolf riders without waiting for the rest.
• Gash Bloodtooth ordered his riders to capture any half-elves they encountered because they were valuable goods.

Charles lured the orc wolf riders into an ambush and used enchanted arrows to destroy their scouts. As Gash Bloodtooth led the main force into the trap, Charles strengthened his troops with Elven War Banners and began the cavalry assault.

• Gash Bloodtooth rallied the orcs by promising them captives as they pursued Charles’s caravan.
• Charles’s disguised cavalry lured the wolf rider scouts toward the ambush while his bird spotted the approaching main force.
• Charles enchanted his bow and killed the wolf rider scouts with a volley of arrows.
• Gash Bloodtooth found the scouts dead and charged Charles with the main force of wolf riders.
• Charles cast four Elven War Banners to empower his troops, and Bruce urged the soldiers to kill the orcs.
• Charles directed the cavalry into position, and the newly appointed officers ordered the bowmen to loose arrows at the charging wolf riders.

Charles led the human cavalry against Gash Bloodtooth’s wolf riders, using witchcraft to break their charge. Thorn Lash struck Gash and the other orcs, leaving the battle underway.

• Charles coordinated the human cavalry’s retreating maneuvers while Erika, Molly, and Scorchflame attacked the wolf riders with witchcraft.
• Gash Bloodtooth charged Charles, believing him to be a half-elf, and Charles cast Exploding Acorn at him.
• Gash Bloodtooth threw his shield at the acorn, but its explosion blinded him, killed riders, and broke the wolf cavalry’s charge.
• Charles activated Thorn Lash, which trapped the wolf riders and struck them with thorny whips.
• Three thorn whips lashed at Gash Bloodtooth while two struck other orcs.

Charles's forces crushed Gash Bloodtooth and his wolf riders with elven witchcraft, then used an Exploding Acorn and a cavalry charge to destroy another pursuing unit. The surviving wolf riders fled, while Charles continued directing the battle.

• Gash Bloodtooth and his wolf king were crushed to death by Charles's thorn whips, and the remaining wolf riders fled.
• Charles ordered his human cavalry to pursue and kill the fleeing riders while the rest guarded the area.
• Charles cast an Exploding Acorn against another wolf-rider unit, blasting riders and wolves with fragments.
• Charles turned the human cavalry around to charge the wounded orcs, leaving no riders standing and sending the surviving wolves fleeing.

Charles led his human cavalry to a decisive victory over Gash Bloodtooth's wolf riders, then attacked the unsuspecting orc camp. The chapter ended as Charles blew apart the camp's gate and palisade, and the orcs realized they were under attack.

• Charles's cavalry defeated the orc wolf riders, and Yvenjieling knelt before him, vowing to follow him as he promised humans would become overlords.
• Charles ordered the battlefield cleared and led most of his cavalry toward the orc camp before news of the defeat could reach it.
• The orcs left in the camp relaxed, unaware that Gash Bloodtooth's forces had been defeated and that Charles was approaching.
• Charles silently killed the camp's sentries and a patrolling orc officer with sorcery.
• Charles blasted the camp gate and palisade with an Explosive Fireball, and the orcs shouted that the enemy was attacking.

Charles spared the captured orcs but had their thumbs and big toes cut off, then burned their camp and led his cavalry to seize the nearby town. The townspeople were rounded up, and they recognized one of the bodies hanging from the flagpole as their lord.

• After Bruce urged him to kill the prisoners, Charles ordered that their thumbs and big toes be cut off instead, leaving them unable to fight or rejoin the Howling Children of the Wasteland.
• Molly reported that the camp's spoils were worth more than two hundred thousand Magic Stones, and Charles said the town was also theirs to take.
• Charles led his cavalry away from the camp, drove the prisoners along, and burned the camp to the ground.
• As news of the attack spread, wealthy townspeople tried to flee while others hurriedly gathered their belongings.
• Charles's cavalry charged into town and forced the fleeing residents to gather under threat of death.
• The townspeople saw corpses hanging from a wooden flagpole and recognized one as their lord.

Charles took control of a town after destroying the nearby orc wolf-rider camp, using the executions of fleeing masters to intimidate its residents. He forced an elderly man to become mayor and began conscripting strong men into his army.

• Charles had Erika, Scorchflame, and cavalry intercept the town's wealthy residents who tried to flee, then hanged more than a dozen humans and orcs.
• Charles announced that he was Imril, a Sun Elf and Verdant Court Knight, and declared the town under his rule.
• Charles identified the dead mayor and appointed an elderly resident as his replacement, threatening him until he accepted.
• Charles ordered the new mayor and cavalry to select strong laborers, then dismissed the remaining residents and gathered two to three hundred men.
• Charles separated the men who could ride from those who could not as he prepared to recruit more soldiers.

Charles looted the wealthy households in the town, paid poor residents for their livestock, and prepared to leave before the beastmen retaliated. He rewarded his soldiers and conscripts with gold, then invited the conscripts to join his campaign, and one man volunteered.

• Charles confiscated valuables and livestock from the town's wealthy households while paying market price for animals taken from poor residents.
• Charles told the mayor he was leaving to draw the Howling Children of the Wasteland away from the town and invited the mayor to bring his family along.
• Charles addressed his troops, shared the spoils, and gave each soldier twenty gold coins plus another twenty for every beastman killed.
• Charles awarded each conscripted man two gold coins, then offered ten gold coins as a settling allowance to anyone who willingly joined him.
• One conscripted man stepped forward and said he was willing to follow Charles.

Charles recruited dozens of men, accepted Charlotte and his family into the army, and learned that Charlotte’s changed fate had greatly strengthened the Book of Causal Paths. He studied the map and chose another Howling Children of the Wasteland settlement to attack.

• Charles recruited seventy or eighty men and left town with his cavalry.
• Charlotte decided to flee with Charles, and Charles made him the army’s quartermaster.
• Charles’s army continued onward with more than three hundred and seventy cavalrymen and additional recruits.
• The Book of Causal Paths gained a page of power, which it attributed largely to the change in Charlotte’s causality.
• Charles questioned the Book about Charlotte’s original fate, then turned his attention to striking the Howling Children of the Wasteland.
• Charles selected a new target among the orc settlements and sentry posts marked on his map.

Charles chose the Howling Children of the Wasteland as his first target because their territory could become a hub for trade, then launched an attack on one of their outposts. After his cavalry killed the guards and the responding patrol, Charlotte feared the orcs would retaliate.

• Charlotte described the Land of Chaos and named its six other major factions, warning Charles that the Howling Children of the Wasteland were too powerful to target.
• Charles decided to attack the Howling Children of the Wasteland because their territory could become a crossroads for trade.
• Charles ordered his cavalry to take an orc outpost and kill every orc there.
• The cavalry lured a nearby orc patrol to the outpost and slaughtered both the patrol and its defenders.
• Charlotte arrived at the outpost, saw the dead orcs, and feared the faction would hunt them down.

Charles used his cavalry to lure the Howling Children of the Wasteland out and harass their outposts, while the orcs tightened their encirclement. With more than four hundred and fifty riders and the enemy’s movements mapped by summoned bird scouts, Charles prepared to strike their forces that night.

• Charles’s cavalry destroyed several orc sentry posts and strongholds, killing the garrisons and hanging their corpses from stakes.
• A wolf-rider squad led by a brawny orc found a burned sentry post and ordered the infantry to hurry after Charles’s cavalry.
• The Howling Children of the Wasteland pursued Charles’s forces, using dire wolves to track them and waiting for infantry support rather than rushing into battle.
• Charles recruited fighters from small settlements, bringing his cavalry to more than four hundred and fifty men.
• Charles studied the region with Bruce and his summoned bird scouts, then decided to let the exhausted orcs rest that night while his cavalry collected some interest.

Charles led fifty elite cavalrymen on a night raid against an exhausted orc force, using his bird to locate their hidden sentries and casting spells to strengthen the attackers. The cavalry began its charge as the orc leader sensed danger, and Charles sounded the Cavalry Torrent spell.

• Bruce selected fifty elite cavalrymen, and Charles led them toward the orc camp with Bruce and Scorchflame.
• Charles's summoned bird revealed the camp's sentries, and the cavalrymen prepared for the raid several thousand meters away.
• Charles and Scorchflame cast enhancement spells on the cavalry and their horses before the group advanced.
• Charles silently killed the perimeter sentries with Bone Spikes and Kinetic Cones.
• The third-rank orc leader woke, smelled blood, and ordered a guard to check the sentries as Charles's cavalry began charging.
• Charles summoned a gray rhinoceros for Bruce, strengthened the front ranks with Trampling Aura and Soul of the Cavalry, and sounded Cavalry Torrent.

Charles, Bruce, and Scorchflame launched a surprise cavalry assault on the orc camp, using witchcraft to scatter the defenders and burn their supplies. Charles and Scorchflame focused their attack on the third-circle orc leader, who was left engulfed in dragon breath as the charge continued.

• The orc leader raised the alarm, but Cavalry Torrent let Charles and Bruce’s riders charge through ordinary obstacles in the darkness.
• Charles extinguished the camp’s bonfires while the cavalry trampled orcs, and Scorchflame flew overhead to set fire to the supplies.
• The orc leader tried to rally his forces, so Charles redirected Bruce’s charge toward him before the orcs could gather.
• Charles used Elven War Banner to restore and heal the cavalry, then trapped the orc leader with Thorn Lash and struck him with Radiant Ray.
• Scorchflame drew in the camp’s flames and blasted the orc leader and nearby orcs with dragon breath.

Charles and Bruce led a night raid that killed the third-tier orc leader and devastated the orc camp, though the cavalry suffered losses and Scorchflame was wounded. After regrouping, Charles waited for reinforcements, and at dawn the orcs heard the main human cavalry force approaching.

• Bruce charged the third-tier orc with the gray rhinoceros and killed him, breaking the orcs' morale.
• Charles led the cavalry out of the burning camp while Bruce and Scorchflame attacked from the air, but Scorchflame was wounded by thrown spears.
• Charles rallied the cavalry and led another charge through the chaotic camp, striking the orcs twice more.
• Charles withdrew to a high slope with thirty-five riders and sent messengers to summon the main cavalry force.
• At dawn, the exhausted orcs heard the human cavalry approaching again.

After Charles crushed the Howling Children of the Wasteland’s pursuers, Kurto Shatterbone sought peace, and Charles demanded three settlements in exchange for a truce. Kurto agreed, intending to deal with Charles’s forces after confronting the Scorched-Earth Warcry Tribe.

• Kurto Shatterbone silenced his warband’s calls for revenge and sent a messenger to ask Charles what it would take to end the fighting.
• Charles told Molly and Erika that negotiations could secure a foothold, then demanded that the Howling Children of the Wasteland cede three adjacent human settlements.
• Kurto Shatterbone considered the settlements’ limited value and agreed to Charles’s terms.
• Kurto Shatterbone planned to finish dealing with the Scorched-Earth Warcry Tribe before turning against Charles’s forces, now tied to their new settlements.

After the Howling Children of the Wasteland ceded three towns, Charles established control and assigned Charlotte to govern them. He sent Erika to obtain equipment for creating Blood Ring Knights and approved grain, relief work, and new recruits to strengthen his territory.

• Charles accepted the Howling Children of the Wasteland's surrender of the towns and entered one with his cavalry after the orcs withdrew.
• Charles appointed Charlotte mayor of all three towns and assigned him thirty cavalry guards.
• Charles sent Erika and Bruce with fifty cavalrymen to the Verdant Crystal Domain to buy witchcraft equipment and materials for the Blood Ring Knights.
• Molly gathered local herbs and studied them for making potions.
• Charlotte asked Charles for money to buy grain, then planned to feed residents in exchange for work expanding the military camp.
• Charles approved funds through Yvenjieling and asked her to recruit more soldiers.

Elendil and Selena learned that Charles had defeated the Howling Children of the Wasteland and seized three towns, though the territory remained at risk. Charles then began rebuilding and recruiting as his forces expanded.

• Elendil told Selena that Charles had fought the Howling Children of the Wasteland, and she anxiously asked whether he was safe.
• Selena read the report and rejoiced that Charles had won and taken three towns.
• Elendil refused to let Selena visit Charles because his territory was still in danger, but allowed her to help the men buying supplies.
• Charlotte secured food for the starving civilians and organized a work-for-relief program in the three towns.
• Charles began building a new military camp and secretly recruiting soldiers from the Howling Children of the Wasteland's territory.
• Charles's cavalry returned with new recruits, rapidly increasing the size of his forces.