Chapter Summaries

Ambassador Alvarez watched the newly arrived Bagnian mercenaries riot and decided their ferocity could make them effective against the Snake-Men on Casarina Island. Meanwhile, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the other recruits underwent several days of weapons, first-aid, and armor training as Bagnia prepared its force for battle.

• Alvarez saw the ragged mercenaries fight the Military Police with reckless fury and judged that their fighting spirit might suit the battle against the Snake-Men.
• Alvarez told his deputy to report that Bagnia's first troops were unusually fierce and could perform better on the island than expected.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun woke in a new barracks and followed an instructor to collect equipment and assemble for training.
• The recruits received uniforms, armor, and helmets, then drilled with Flintlocks, while a few learned to operate the Crouching Tiger Cannon.
• The recruits studied battlefield first aid and trained with Spears, Longswords, or Bastard Swords and Round Shields before practicing armor drills.
• Some recruits quit, but Chris expected veterans to fill the shrinking ranks and anticipated that they would join as officers with greater pay and freedom to choose missions.

Edric and the farmers of Sharp Hill Village discovered that King Chris had abolished agricultural taxes and opened a new market, but they feared the changes were a trap. Edric fled before registering the village’s land, leaving clerks to plan a visit to persuade them.

• Edric led Sharp Hill Village to Koltsovo Town, where the farmers found a bustling market and no tax collectors at the entrance.
• An old man told Edric that Chris ruled a united Minisia and Bagnia, had abolished agricultural taxes, and had driven off the entrance tax collectors.
• Fearing soldiers would punish the village for withholding taxes, Edric led the farmers to the Town Office to pay what they owed.
• A clerk explained that taxes had been abolished and offered land deeds and free seeds and iron tools to households that registered their land.
• Edric backed away from the registration form and fled to sell the village’s goods, while the clerks decided to visit Sharp Hill Village and persuade its residents.

Street-Sweeper investigated Kalan Town and uncovered a collusion between Mayor Hans and the Gray Wolf Gang that had crippled the Kingdom’s authority. He ordered the Blue Banner Army to suppress the rebellion, but its soldiers slaughtered and looted the town indiscriminately, leaving Kalan in ruins.

• Street-Sweeper entered Kalan Town, where Gray Wolf Gang members extorted travelers and residents feared the gang while local officials enabled it.
• Street-Sweeper saw Scarface enter the town hall and concluded that Mayor Hans and the gang were working together.
• The Blue Banner Army surrounded Kalan Town the next morning, and Street-Sweeper identified himself as an Inquisitor and ordered the Chiliarch to arrest the rebels.
• The Chiliarch beheaded Mayor Hans and ordered the Blue Banner Army to attack the town.
• The soldiers killed residents and bandits, looted homes and shops, and set fires while Street-Sweeper watched without intervening.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun left the recruit camp aboard a ship bound for Casarina Island and endured worsening seasickness, boredom, and a devastating storm in the Storm Belt. After logging back in during the storm, he was thrown across the hold by a violent impact and lost consciousness as the ship seemed to break apart.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun boarded a sailing ship at Omdur's harbor after a month of training and departed for Casarina Island.
• He recorded his first days at sea in a diary, suffering severe seasickness before gradually adjusting to life aboard the ship.
• As the ship entered the Storm Belt, a Sea God Priest performed a sheep sacrifice on the bow while Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun watched briefly before sailors locked him below deck.
• He logged out and posted on the forums, where players described different religious rituals taking place aboard their ships.
• He logged back in to find the hold in chaos as the storm tossed the ship, then a tremendous impact flung him into the air and knocked him unconscious.

After the storm passed, the surviving players reached Casarina Island, while Chris watched their livestream and considered what the voyage revealed about the Storm Belt. He left exploration to the players for now as he focused on unifying Minisia.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the other survivors climbed out of the hold after the storm subsided.
• The players spotted Casarina Island and streamed the fleet's approach to its harbor.
• Chris watched the livestream and used the players' location data to trace their route through the Storm Belt.
• Chris concluded that several churches might know how to cross the Storm Belt and estimated its distance from the Greek Continent.
• Chris considered iron paddlewheel warships but decided to focus on consolidating Minisia and let mercenary players explore for future rewards.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the newly arrived mercenary players clashed with Makon Alliance troops after a player killed a sailor who had mocked them. The players overwhelmed the soldiers in a chaotic brawl, leaving the dock in their control and discovering that the game’s rules could be broken.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun arrived on Casarina Island suffering from land sickness as Makon soldiers and dockworkers jeered at the disembarking players.
• A player seized a sailor’s saber and killed him after the sailor mocked him, prompting Makon soldiers to move against the players.
• A major sentenced the killer to confinement, but the players rejected his ruling and charged the soldiers.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun urged the players to seize weapons, and they overwhelmed the Makon troops with chaotic attacks and looted their equipment.
• The major ordered a retreat, and Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun realized his land sickness had passed as the players celebrated their victory.

Chris learned that the players' clash with dock sailors on Casarina Island had been triggered by the Makon Alliance's poor treatment during a ten-day voyage, not simply by the newcomers' lack of restraint. He left the players to handle the fallout and saw an opportunity to raise the price of future mercenary contracts.

• Chris read forum posts about the players' fight at Casarina Island and initially blamed the new players' unruly behavior.
• Chris searched the forum and found complaints about the crowded ships, foul conditions, bad food, and weak beer during the ten-day voyage.
• Chris concluded that the voyage had exhausted and angered the players, while the dock sailors' contemptuous mockery had set off their accumulated frustration.
• Chris blamed the Makon Alliance's poor logistics for escalating the clash and decided its need for capable mercenaries could justify a higher contract price.
• Chris learned that the veteran players assigned to control the newcomers had been lost to accidents or had joined the fight, and he left the players to resolve the situation themselves.

Governor Almeida sent Major Pedro Esteves to contain the Dock District clash and prepared to negotiate with the Bagnian mercenaries. Before he arrived, the players secretly acquired rifles and supplies through deals with the ship crews, leaving Almeida to face a far more chaotic and heavily armed situation.

• Governor Almeida ordered Major Pedro Esteves to cordon off the roads without provoking another clash, care for the dead, prepare compensation, and bring gold and wine for negotiations.
• Bagnian players treated wounded people from both sides while Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun learned from the Seagull's captain that the Black Mackerel carried cargo from Bagnia.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun led the players in a staged takeover of the Black Mackerel, and they hauled crates of flintlock rifles and ammunition ashore.
• The Seagull's captain and his sailors secretly removed valuable supplies from a dockside warehouse before the players set it ablaze as a cover.
• Governor Almeida arrived and found the players armed with newly acquired rifles beside the burning warehouse, making his planned negotiation far more difficult.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun negotiated with Governor Almeida when snake-men attacked Casarina Island’s dock, forcing the players and colonial forces into a desperate battle. After spotting an enormous, shadowy presence beneath the sea that seemed to be producing the attackers, he began climbing down to warn the others as Makon Alliance reinforcements arrived.

• Governor Almeida offered Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun twenty gold bars, but their negotiations were interrupted when a player reported that snake-men had swum ashore.
• Governor Almeida saw the Bagnian Mercenaries organize a fierce defense at the dock and ordered the colonial soldiers, cannons, mage advisor, and supplies to reinforce them.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun shot several snake-men, evaded a powerful snake-man warrior, and alerted nearby players, who surrounded and killed it.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun climbed a wooden lighthouse and spotted an immense shadow beneath a dark patch of water where snake-men kept emerging.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun started climbing down to warn the players as Makon Alliance reinforcements reached the battlefield.

Makon Alliance reinforcements and a mage helped the defenders confront the Snake-Men’s Sea Python, which raised swarms of venomous flesh snakes from the dead. Players used Dragon’s Breath flamethrowers to break the assault, forcing the Snake-Men back into the sea, while Governor Almeida surveyed the battered battlefield.

• Makon Alliance artillery, cavalry, and infantry arrived and stabilized the docks as Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun warned Governor Almeida about a huge underwater shadow.
• Governor Almeida identified the shadow as a Sea Python, and his mage advisor marked the beast with a beam of magic that revealed its enormous shape beneath the water.
• The Sea Python unleashed blood-red magic that transformed Snake-Man corpses into thousands of venomous flesh snakes, overwhelming the players and disrupting the Makon soldiers’ formation.
• Players brought out Dragon’s Breath flamethrowers and burned back the snakes, but Snake-Men killed all three initial operators with javelins, a Life-Draining Spell, and an ambush that detonated one flamethrower.
• Other players seized the two surviving flamethrowers and drove the Snake-Men back into the sea, ending the assault as Governor Almeida and his mage advisor watched in relief.

After the battle left only about two hundred players standing, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun met with Governor Almeida to secure fair treatment for the survivors. Almeida promised support and explained why Casarina’s defenses had been depleted, but Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun remained distrustful and resolved not to follow the Alliance’s orders blindly.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun counted the survivors and realized the players had suffered roughly eighty-percent casualties from the dock fighting and the snake-men’s poisonous corpse-sorcery.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun went to Governor Almeida’s residence prepared to demand respect and protection for the surviving mercenaries.
• Almeida praised the players as battle-hardened veterans and promised them barracks, food, medicine, death benefits, bonuses, and access to replacement equipment.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun doubted Almeida’s assurances because he had not delivered the gold he had offered during their earlier negotiations.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun asked why the snake-men had reached the docks, and Almeida explained that the fleet and most mobile forces had been sent to attack a large nest elsewhere.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun concluded that the Makon Alliance could not be trusted to give sound orders and told Almeida he would relay the explanation to his men.

Chris agreed to send Bagnia’s second batch of mercenaries ahead of schedule if the Macon Alliance raised the fee, while prompting Isaac to learn how many of the first batch had survived. On Casarina Island, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun investigated the docks and concluded that ship repairs and the businesses serving sailors drove the island’s economy.

• Chris told Isaac to offer an early deployment of the second batch for a twenty-percent fee increase and to ask Ambassador Alvarez about the first thousand mercenaries’ condition.
• Isaac realized the Macon people might have used Bagnia’s soldiers to cover up their own mistakes and hurried out to confront Alvarez.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun surveyed Casarina Island and inferred that its timber yards and separation between town and docks supported a ship-repair industry.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun reasoned that the Macon Alliance refused more Flamethrowers to protect the island from fires and accepted that the players would have to fight without them.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun explored the docks, observed their many taverns and solicitors, and decided the district could provide useful intelligence about sailors and the Snake-Men.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun saw the Makon Alliance fleet return from Casarina Island nearly destroyed, then refused Governor Almeida’s demand that his mercenaries scout the Snake-Men’s territory without proper support or payment. He returned to camp to gather the players and assess their supplies, preparing to use them as leverage.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun watched the Makon Alliance fleet limp into harbor as three battered ships, one of which sank, and suspected the Snake-Men’s sea pythons had attacked it.
• Governor Almeida held a war council without Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun, then summoned him the next morning to request a dangerous reconnaissance mission into the island’s interior.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun refused Almeida’s request, citing the lack of payment and information, and walked out of the Governor’s Residence.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun returned to camp and ordered the scattered players to assemble.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun inventoried the warehouse and found food for about a month, along with hundreds of firearms, cannons, armor, and melee weapons.

After Governor Almeida tried to seize merchant ships, fighting erupted at Casarina’s docks, and Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun sent players to scavenge supplies while preparing the camp for an attack. The players returned with a haul of weapons and provisions, and after nightfall the camp’s sentries sounded the alarm.

• The players refused to let Almeida’s envoy enter camp after learning he had failed to provide promised supplies.
• Almeida’s soldiers tried to requisition merchant ships, provoking Pomerelian sailors and crowds desperate to escape into a three-sided battle at the docks.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun ordered players to stay out of the fighting and scavenge gunpowder, medicine, armor, food, and other useful supplies.
• He also organized skilled players to inspect weapons, repair armor, and make improvised incendiaries while the camp’s defenses were strengthened.
• The scavenging squad filled its carts with supplies from warehouses and returned to camp before the dockside chaos settled.
• After darkness fell, the camp’s sentries blew their whistles to signal danger.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun watched Snake-Men surround the camp, then discovered they were using the camp as a diversion while attacking Casarina. He chose to keep the players in camp and watch the fighting from a tower.

• Snake-Men gathered beyond the camp’s firelight but did not attack, while Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun ordered the players to hold their fire.
• A group of players opened the gate and took both flamethrowers outside, forcing Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun to lead others out to recover them.
• The players argued over the flamethrowers, then noticed the Snake-Men had vanished and learned they were heading toward Casarina.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun heard screams and musket fire from Casarina and the docks, realizing the Snake-Men had used the camp as a diversion.
• The players debated whether to help the Macon people but stayed behind, and Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun sat on the tower to watch the fighting through his Telescope.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun refused Governor Almeida’s order to send the players into Casarina, choosing to keep their camp fortified as a diversion. After refugees reported that snake-men had overrun the docks and were strangely sparse near the camp, he ordered a group to investigate the Dock District.

• A wounded messenger delivered Governor Almeida’s order for the Bagnia mercenaries to abandon camp and reinforce Casarina, but Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun refused, arguing that the camp drew snake-men away from town.
• The players treated the messenger, ate, and continued strengthening their walls and digging trenches while occasional sentries fired at movement in the distant brush.
• Nearly a hundred refugees arrived and reported that snake-men had almost overrun the Dock District, while fighting continued in its last streets and Pomerelian ship guns had delayed the attack.
• The refugees said snake-men surrounded Casarina but were unusually scarce near the players’ camp, and Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun ordered fifty players to take a flamethrower toward the docks and return that night.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun organized the camp’s defenses and planned a daytime attack against the Snake-Men, but a lottery left him behind to guard the refugees. The chapter ended when battered Makon Alliance soldiers reached the camp and reported that Casarina had fallen.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun settled the refugees and organized the players to repel the Snake-Men’s repeated probing attacks.
• After the Snake-Men surrounded the camp overnight without attacking, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun proposed a daytime strike toward the direction they had come from.
• The players voted to go, but a lottery left Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and fifty others behind to defend the camp.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun heard fierce fighting several kilometers away and received no replies from the players who had departed.
• Routed Makon Alliance soldiers arrived at the camp, and their officer told Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun that Casarina had fallen.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun received a captured, unusual snake-man after the players retreated from a snake-man nest. The captive spoke Chinese and revealed that Nagsas was guiding the snake-men toward the Greek Continent as refuge from a looming calamity, while the snake-men gathered outside the camp.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun prepared the camp to cover the returning assault team as snake-men pursued them through the woods.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun ordered the defenders to fire, and the retreating players escaped through the camp gates with a bound captive.
• Dai Xi Hu and Archaeologist showed Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun the pale, humanlike captive they had seized from an altar chamber in the snake-men's nest.
• The captive spoke Chinese, said it had been born inside the Shelter, and described the Greek Continent as a refuge for human refugees.
• The captive explained that magic exposed the world to an unnamed calamity and said the snake-men sought sanctuary rather than conquest.
• The captive identified its mother as Nagsas, who had changed her form and bound herself to the snake-men to protect them, as hissing grew outside the camp.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the camp’s defenders fought off a two-pronged Snake-Man assault, but the attackers reached the walls and overwhelmed the defenders’ limited numbers. As the battle intensified, he sent reinforcements west and ordered flamethrower teams to prepare to burn the eastern wall.

• Players discussed the Snake-Man’s revelations until alarms warned of Snake-Man attacks from the east and west.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun ordered the players and armed Makon refugees to defend both sides of the camp.
• Snake-Men charged the walls, while shamans spread poisonous mist that weakened the defenders’ musket fire.
• Player cannon crews fired grapeshot at the shamans, killing one and forcing the others to flee, which slowed the poison mist.
• Snake-Men reached the walls and climbed them as the players and refugees fought to hold them back.
• After a player reported heavier pressure in the west, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun sent twenty players there and ordered flamethrower teams to prepare at the eastern wall.

After the eastern defense line faltered, five Snake-Man Assassins infiltrated the camp to rescue the captive divine son. Dai Xi Hu defeated them after Archaeologist fell and one assassin transformed, but he was badly wounded, so the players moved the captive to a safer location.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun sent twenty players to the western wall, forcing the eastern defenders to use flamethrowers to hold back the Snake-Men.
• Archaeologist and Dai Xi Hu guarded the bound Snake-Man divine son when five black-scaled Snake-Man Assassins broke into the tent.
• Archaeologist shot two assassins before another stabbed him, and Dai Xi Hu killed two more with his Rapier.
• The last assassin transformed with a black talisman, tore Dai Xi Hu's arm, and was finally killed when Dai Xi Hu severed his joints and pierced his skull.
• Other players arrived, bandaged Dai Xi Hu, and prepared to move the captive to the medical tent for safety.