Chapter Summaries

Chris restricted the players’ freedom while testing whether they could help Connie take Votradnoi without disrupting the main war. Connie captured the city’s outer defenses and entered with the help of local civilians and gang members, but Votradnoi remained a dangerous, unstable place.

• Chris punished two company commanders and continued the Prince’s Army’s march toward Votradnoi.
• Chris limited the players’ access to the map and sent two hundred of them with Connie to test a more flexible side quest.
• Connie reached Votradnoi and found a nearly empty city filled with starving civilians, which she feared could erupt into violence.
• Connie used agents who had blended into local gangs to pay civilians and street thugs to open the city gates.
• Connie’s force took the outer walls, secured the western gate, and gained control of a small nearby section of Votradnoi.

Connie rallied the players for a reckless night assault on Votradnoi, claiming she had arranged for locals to open the western gate and brought explosive siege spears as a backup. The adjutant remained alarmed as Connie ordered the force to move out.

• Connie announced a night attack on Votradnoi, and the players enthusiastically agreed despite having no detailed plan or siege equipment.
• The adjutant questioned the assault because they had not scouted the walls or confirmed the garrison’s strength, but Connie assured him she had made preparations.
• Connie explained that infiltrators had bribed locals to open the western gate at midnight.
• Connie showed the adjutant an Explosive Siege Spear from the Explosive Art Gunpowder Workshop and said it could blast open the gate.
• The adjutant saw Barbarian Guards waving the unfused explosive spears, and Connie ordered everyone to move out.

Alanka realized Votradnoi was in danger as Prince Chris's army approached and rallied the priests to defend the city. Meanwhile, Connie brought her troops to the outskirts, distributed food to the poor, and learned of a sewer entrance, which she warned was likely a trap.

• Alanka saw flames near Votradnoi's walls and ordered the priests to gather followers for a holy war to defend the city.
• Connie arrived outside Votradnoi with twelve hundred troops and hid them in the shantytown during the rain.
• Connie ordered her adjutant to distribute food to the shantytown residents.
• A boy offered to guide the troops into the city through a loose sewer grate, and the adjutant arranged to protect him.
• Connie told the adjutant that the sewer entrance was likely a guard's trap and could only admit a few people safely.

Connie led the assault on Votradnoi after the infiltrators signaled that they were ready, but the attackers found the gate blocked and shifted to scaling the walls. Adjutant Algernon supported the players with regular troops while they formed a rubble ramp, and Connie was left trying to push forward as the players kept blocking her.

• Connie ordered the players to charge Votradnoi after the infiltrators signaled, then told Adjutant Algernon to bring the regular troops forward as the situation demanded.
• Algernon sent a captain to investigate the drainage channel and led the rest of his soldiers to support Connie at the city gate.
• Algernon's soldiers suppressed the defenders on the walls with a volley of gunfire, but the players reported that the gateway was blocked solid.
• Connie ordered the players to scale the walls, and they blew up a neighboring house to create a rubble slope, sacrificing three players in the explosions.
• Algernon organized continuous fire support as the players climbed the walls, while other players repeatedly blocked Connie whenever she tried to lead the charge.

Ye Ao Nai He and the players climbed Votradnoi’s walls, where armed civilians helped them defeat the Garrison Regiment. After the civilians killed the soldiers who had surrendered and revealed their Earth Mother Goddess Church allegiance, Ye Ao Nai He and the players attacked them.

• Ye Ao Nai He reached the wall and joined a dozen players as they charged the Garrison Regiment alongside the armed civilians.
• The players and civilians overwhelmed the defenders, and the surviving Garrison Regiment soldiers surrendered.
• The armed civilians killed the surrendered soldiers before Ye Ao Nai He could take them prisoner.
• Ye Ao Nai He recognized the civilians’ Earth Mother Goddess Church slogans, and he and the other players turned on them.
• The armed civilians realized the players were not allies and charged, but the players cut them down in large numbers.

Ye Ao Nai He and the players slaughtered the Earth Mother Goddess believers on Votradnoi's battlements, where Connie recognized them as a third party rather than street thugs. From above, Connie surveyed three forces fighting in the city and struggled to decide whether to go to city hall or secure the gateway and open the gates.

• Ye Ao Nai He and the players countercharged the armed civilians, cutting through the believers and driving them from the battlements.
• Connie climbed onto the battlements and realized the dead civilians were neither her agents nor street thugs, but members of a third party.
• Connie looked over Votradnoi and saw the Garrison Regiment, Earth Mother Goddess Fanatics, and a disciplined third force fighting near the western wall.
• Connie observed that the Garrison Regiment held back because some soldiers believed in the Earth Mother Goddess, while the third force attacked both sides with bows and crossbows.
• Connie wondered who the third force was and whether she should head to city hall or capture the gateway and open the gates.

Players charged into Votradnoi to earn military merit, and Kan Jie led a group to search for grain by breaking into local homes. They entered Old Jack’s house, where his family was hiding, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Connie discovered that most of the Barbarian Guards and players had left the wall to attack the enemy.
• Kan Jie led a group of players away from the battlefield to find grain, which they believed would earn them the most military merit.
• The players decided to break into homes and ask residents where food was stored.
• Old Jack hid his children beneath the dining table and kept his wife from going outside to join the church’s holy war.
• Three warriors in black heavy armor smashed into Old Jack’s home, and he pulled his youngest daughter close in fear.

Street-Sweeper and the other players searched the starving district for a local who could lead them to stored food, and Old Jack offered to guide them to the Macquilan family's granary. With Old Jack recruiting hundreds of hungry people and the players gathering reinforcements, the crowd marched toward the central district shouting that Prince Chris had arrived.

• Street-Sweeper gave Old Jack's family flatbread and promised money and food in return for directions to a granary.
• Old Jack recognized the Double-Headed Eagle insignia and offered to lead Street-Sweeper to the Macquilan family's food stores.
• Street-Sweeper agreed to let Old Jack bring a neighbor and promised the group a sack of food each if the raid succeeded.
• Old Jack gave one flatbread to his wife, ate some of the other, and told her to hide with the children while he led the players away.
• Old Jack gathered hundreds of starving residents, while the players called in more than twenty heavily armored reinforcements.
• The players led the crowd toward the city's central district as they shouted that Prince Chris had arrived and everyone would have enough to eat.

Kan Jie led Street-Sweeper and a force of armored players and starving locals in a raid on a grain merchant’s shop in Votradnoi. After the guards were defeated and looters inside were punished, Kan Jie enforced a rule that everyone could take one sack of food.

• Kan Jie gathered more than thirty armored players and nearby locals to raid a large grain merchant’s establishment.
• The merchant’s guards fired matchlocks, but Kan Jie recognized their volley as a bluff and ordered the charge.
• Street-Sweeper hurled javelins into the guards, helping the players break the sword-and-shield mercenaries’ formation and drive them off.
• The crowd broke into the grain shop, and Kan Jie sent ten players inside to punish people who ignored his rules and attacked women.
• The locals filed out with one sack of food each, as Kan Jie’s rules limited every person to a single sack.

Kan Jie and the players’ grain raids inspired starving residents to revolt, and violence spread across Votradnoi as the city’s factions failed to contain the chaos. Alanka watched the city burn and questioned his holy war before Fanatics brought a chained woman to the Temple Spire, accusing her of being a Witch.

• Kan Jie and the players looted more granaries, drawing over five hundred starving people to follow them.
• Starving residents copied the players, raiding guarded shops and homes as riots spread through Votradnoi.
• The Earth Mother Goddess Church’s Fanatics attacked the Garrison Regiment and other groups, helping drive the city into complete disorder.
• Republic councilors received reports of mobs, fires, and surrounded soldiers, then several of them abandoned Parliament Hall.
• Alanka watched fires across the city, regretted launching the holy war, and learned the Holy War Army had refused to obey his orders.
• Three Fanatics brought a chained woman to Alanka and claimed they had captured a Witch who used dark magic.

After finding a performer tortured to death, Alanka recognized that the holy war he had started had turned starving believers against innocent people. He ended the war and set out alone to stop the violence, but the first woman he rescued still despised him for causing it.

• Alanka found a starving performer tortured to death and realized his holy war had led ordinary believers to kill her.
• Alanka declared the holy war over, ordered food for the three believers, and told the priestess to stay behind while he went to stop the violence.
• Alanka crossed the devastated streets of Votradnoi and found three thugs robbing and assaulting an elderly woman.
• Alanka killed two thugs with his scepter and drove the third away, then helped the elderly woman to her feet.
• The elderly woman recognized Alanka as responsible for the holy war, rejected his help, and left him with sorrow.

Alanka reached the West District, took control of the holy army, and led it toward Prince Chris's forces, where players ambushed the column. He survived their gunfire and weapons, defeated several players with his scepter, and Ye Ao Nai He fled after calling him a major boss.

• Alanka rescued a woman from a mob, then used his scepter to bring the unruly holy army leaders under his control.
• Connie learned that the Third-Party Faction was from the Minicia Kingdom and that Alanka had taken command of the holy army, prompting her to call him a traitor.
• Alanka led the regrouped holy army toward Prince Chris's territory, but a player-led volley of flintlock fire threw the column into chaos.
• Alanka charged the attackers, shrugging off bullets and Ye Ao Nai He's javelin before striking the players with flying shards of stone.
• Ye Ao Nai He escaped Alanka's next attack and warned his teammates that a major boss was on the scene.

Alanka led the exhausted Holy War Army in an assault on the western wall, using supernatural power to break through the Prince's Army's defenses. The players engaged him on the battlements while slipping past to slaughter his vulnerable followers.

• Alanka rallied the hungry, exhausted Holy War Army and led its charge toward the western wall.
• Ye Ao Nai He ordered the Musketeers to fire, but Alanka remained unharmed and unleashed a gale and an earthquake against the defenders.
• Alanka charged up the stairs as Connie ordered her troops to fall back and the Armored Heavy Infantry to block the advance.
• A player struck Alanka with a Bastard Sword, but the weapon barely pierced his robe and stone dust flowed from his wound.
• Alanka struck down players who attacked him while others slipped past and began killing the ordinary members of the Holy War Army.

Players and the Captain’s troops overwhelmed the Holy War Army around the city wall while pinning down Alanka. Seeing his followers slaughtered, Alanka realized his attempt at atonement had caused an even greater disaster, but a player interrupted his prayer before he could call on the Earth Mother Goddess.

• Players trapped the Holy War Army on the wall’s stairs as Ye Ao Nai He and the returning NPC soldiers attacked, while the Captain led a surprise assault from the rear.
• The Holy War Army fought fanatically, but the players’ armor and the narrow stairs turned their advance into a slaughter.
• Players discovered that Alanka could be hurt through vulnerable body parts and was tiring after using his divine magic.
• Alanka broke away from the players to rush toward the besieged Holy War Army, as the Captain’s troops cut through its rear ranks.
• After witnessing a boy die in a fiery attack, Alanka realized his attempt to make amends had caused a greater mistake and began praying, but a player struck him with an axe and stopped him.

After the Holy War Army was crushed at the West City Wall, Alanka asked to surrender but threatened to bring down the wall when Ye Ao Nai He refused. Ye Ao Nai He led the remaining Players in an attack, and Alanka invoked the Mother Goddess's Punishment as the chapter ended.

• Alanka surveyed the devastation and acknowledged that the Holy War Army had lost, with only about fifty members still alive.
• Alanka called out to surrender to the Prince's Army commander, while Connie stayed hidden and hesitated to answer.
• Ye Ao Nai He rejected Alanka's surrender and challenged him after Alanka demonstrated that he could make the wall collapse.
• Ye Ao Nai He led the remaining Players in a charge, and Alanka struck the front attackers with an emerald shock wave.
• Ye Ao Nai He hit Alanka's knee with a thrown saber, and Alanka aimed his glowing scepter at him and invoked the Mother Goddess's Punishment.

Ye Ao Nai He died abruptly during the assault on Alanka, while the players continued attacking the high priest. Alanka’s body shattered after he questioned his actions, then his spectral form was attacked and vanished in a beam of light, leaving Connie confused about what had happened.

• Ye Ao Nai He fell dead mid-charge, and the other players continued swarming Alanka.
• A player accused Alanka of causing the deaths in the holy war, and Alanka began doubting whether he had been wrong.
• Alanka’s scepter went dark, and his stone body shattered into dust and green crystals.
• Alanka reappeared as a ghostly figure, and an axe-wielding player struck off his arm before Alanka’s scream knocked the player unconscious.
• A beam of light enveloped Alanka and took him away, and Connie asked her adjutant what had happened.

Chris’s forces occupied Votradnoi after its garrison surrendered, while they fought holdouts at the former royal palace. After learning that Alanka’s remains contained valuable Green Crystals, Chris ordered research into using them despite the risk of curses.

• Chris watched his army enter Votradnoi and accepted the garrison’s surrender, offering its soldiers the choice to leave or help maintain order.
• Chris planned searches for Holy War Army fugitives and punishments ranging from execution and labor reform to fines and community service.
• Chris saw his forces besieging the parliament building, where Minisians and other holdouts were defending themselves.
• Connie told Chris that Alanka had died and left behind strange remains, and Chris asked to have the body brought to him.
• The Advisor explained that Alanka’s Green Crystals held power from the Earth Mother Goddess and might be used to create weapons, tools, or potions, though they could bring curses.
• Chris ordered research into the crystals and said his personal guards could accept the possible side effects.

Chris considered the Earth Mother Goddess Church’s corruption and planned to investigate its leaders after the looting in Votradnoi. Street-Sweeper brought him a ledger belonging to Bagnia’s Finance Minister, and Chris found evidence that his study allowance had been embezzled, raising the possibility that the kingdom’s overthrow had been a long-running conspiracy.

• Chris concluded that Church leaders had hidden behind the Holy War Army while sending ordinary believers into battle and withholding supplies.
• Chris ordered the Clerk to record his plans to raid Church leaders’ homes and secret safe houses the next day.
• Street-Sweeper arrived at the West City Wall and told Chris that players had caught Bagnia’s Finance Minister trying to flee in disguise.
• Street-Sweeper showed Chris the minister’s private ledger, which recorded embezzlement and Chris’s unpaid study expenses.
• Chris realized that people had deliberately withheld his allowance and wondered whether Bagnia’s overthrow had been part of a conspiracy against the royal family.

After capturing Votradnoi, Chris recruited Street-Sweeper as a temporary Inquisitor to investigate and punish his enemies while Chris dealt with the city. As Chris issued orders for executions, confiscations, and the Earth Mother Goddess Church, news arrived that Count Dirac Siso’s messenger had an important report.

• Chris asked Street-Sweeper to investigate the people who had cut off his support while he studied abroad, and appointed him a temporary Inquisitor with permission to confiscate their estates.
• Street-Sweeper left with his companions toward the Noble District, while Chris ordered the wealthy fugitives brought to the square and executed for treason without a public trial.
• Chris ordered the families of proven rebels exiled and stripped of their property, while allowing those who had not directly participated to pay ransom and choose whether to leave.
• Chris rejected the Earth Mother Goddess Church High Priest’s request for an audience and demanded the church surrender its property or face punishment.
• A messenger told Chris that Count Dirac Siso’s envoy had arrived with important news, and Chris ordered the envoy brought to his command tent outside the city.

Gibson Howard visited Prince Chris’s camp as Count Dirac’s envoy and asked for Chris’s opinion of the Bohemian Empire. Chris inferred that the count had clashed with the empire, and the chapter ended as he waited to read the count’s letter.

• Gibson observed the Prince’s Army camp and was struck by its orderly setup and superior supplies.
• An attendant brought Gibson into Chris’s warm command tent, where Chris offered him tea.
• Gibson delivered Count Dirac’s letter and asked what Chris thought of the Bohemian Empire.
• Chris questioned whether Count Dirac had begun fighting the empire, and Gibson answered with a deep bow.