Chapter Summaries

After repelling the Snake-Men’s assault, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun learned from the captive prophet Slakma that the Snake-Men were exhausted by their wars and had withdrawn. As dawn broke, a second task force arrived in Casarina to find the docks devastated and signs of a recent Snake-Man attack.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun found Dai Xi Hu alive in the wounded camp after Dai Xi Hu killed the Snake-Man Assassins that attacked him and Archaeologist.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun questioned Slakma, who explained that his prophetic ability prevented him from lying when directly asked and that he had ordered the Snake-Men to avoid the camp.
• Slakma revealed that the Snake-Men had suffered heavy losses fighting the Makong people and capturing Casarina, leaving too few warriors to continue their assault.
• The Snake-Men made no further organized attacks through the night, and the players surveyed the destruction at dawn, unsure what to do after their enemy withdrew.
• The second mercenary task force arrived at Casarina’s docks and found burned warehouses, ruined supplies, and corpses, then set out to investigate the recent fighting.

Olaf examined the ruined docks and concluded that the Makon defenders had collapsed when wealthy leaders fled, leaving soldiers exposed to the Snake-Men. He defied Colonel Helios’s order to march on Casarina and led the Varangian Warband toward the mercenary camp to aid survivors.

• Olaf surveyed the devastated docks and found evidence that the Makon soldiers had fled toward the ships while Snake-Men attacked them from behind.
• Olaf noted that civilians in the commercial quarter had fought to the end, unlike the fleeing defenders.
• Colonel Helios ordered the landing forces to reorganize and advance on Casarina.
• Olaf told Helios that the mercenaries’ contract let them choose how to carry out their mission and that he would support survivors at the camp.
• Olaf led the two hundred Varangian warriors away from the docks despite Helios’s threat to execute him for disobedience.

The Varangian Warband protected Slakma at the Mercenary Camp while Chris learned more about the Snake-Men and ordered a stronger search for them. Julie reported Queen Elena’s attempts to recruit Sir Bruno and build influence, then made a personal advance on Chris, leaving her motives and his response unresolved.

• The Varangian Warband split from the other mercenaries and went to the Mercenary Camp to protect Slakma from the Snake-Men and the Makon Alliance.
• Chris read the players’ reports about Slakma, concluded the Snake-Men might be hiding elsewhere, and ordered the Clerk to increase the search effort and bounties.
• Julie told Chris that Queen Elena had offered Sir Bruno help with his estate and marriage, but Bruno firmly defended his wife and declined her overtures.
• Julie reported Elena’s inquiries into trade and meetings with Minisia merchants, and Chris ordered Julie to keep observing the queen without interfering.
• Julie seduced Chris in his study, undressed, and knelt before him.

Chris planned an inspection tour of Minisia to strengthen its integration into Bagnia, despite Queen Elena’s fears that Duke Young Charles and the Blue Banner Army might threaten him. Chris insisted that keeping Young Charles close would let him monitor and control the potential danger, while he privately suspected that political factions had influenced Elena’s worries.

• Bagnia’s civil servants faced covert obstruction in Minisia, while the Inquisition, Department of Justice, and Blue Banner Army helped suppress resistance.
• Chris decided to tour Minisia to complete its integration, and Elena urged him to delay because she feared the danger.
• Elena warned Chris that Young Charles and the Blue Banner Army might turn against him once they entered Minisia.
• Chris said he would bring Young Charles along and keep the duke and his forces under close watch.
• Chris considered whether members of Bagnia’s political factions had planted suspicions in Elena’s mind, but kept his thoughts to himself.

King Chris’s planned inspection tour of Minisia was meant to strengthen Bagnian rule and expose resistance, but Queen Elena’s pregnancy forced her to remain in the Capital and stirred political maneuvering. In Treasure Island City, Sir Dolong and former-regime loyalists began planning ways to undermine the tour and exploit the queen’s absence.

• King Chris planned to use his Minisia tour to win local support while drawing opponents into the open for the Intelligence Bureau, the Inquisition, and the Blue Banner Army to identify.
• Court physicians discovered that Queen Elena was pregnant, and Chris told her she could not accompany him on the tour.
• Elena considered how the child’s sex could affect her position and the succession, while factions in the palace began positioning themselves around the pregnancy.
• Sir Dolong gathered former-regime loyalists in Treasure Island City and weighed their proposals to disrupt Chris’s tour and identify Minisians who cooperated with Bagnia.
• Sir Dolong’s group learned that Elena would stay behind and discussed exploiting the pregnancy to spread rumors about Chris, Minisian blood, and the succession.

At the Black Sable Tavern, arms dealer Rex negotiated a risky weapons sale with a nervous cloaked buyer. Rex agreed to deliver the requested weapons in three days for double the price, leaving the buyer to return with the balance.

• Rex met a cloaked man who asked to buy a large quantity of weapons.
• Rex's underling checked the buyer's money, and the buyer named weapon models and an abandoned warehouse as the delivery site.
• Rex demanded double the price because the deal risked attracting the Inquisition.
• The buyer accepted, and Rex ordered him to return in three days with the full balance.

Jacques uncovered suspicious behavior among the royal train’s crew and ordered Olsen replaced and Erin arrested. On Casarina Island, Almeida returned and tried to claim the captured Snake-Man, but Bagnia’s First Fleet arrived to evacuate the mercenaries, leaving the island’s factions facing a changed balance of power.

• Jacques found the stoker Olsen’s answers and glances suspicious, so he ordered the train’s middle section inspected and Olsen replaced.
• Jacques detected inconsistencies in Erin’s claimed work history and ordered her arrested and replaced.
• Almeida returned to Casarina aboard the Sea Fox and demanded that the Bagnian Mercenaries hand over the Snake-Man, but Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and Olaf refused.
• A twelve-ship fleet from Bagnia arrived at Casarina, and its officer announced that it had come to bring the mercenaries home.
• Vice Admiral Marlow landed, requested a meeting with the mercenaries’ representative, and ordered arrangements for their evacuation.
• Olaf asked Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun whether he would leave with the fleet or stay to investigate the Snake-Man storyline.

Vice Admiral Marlow received the captured Snake-Man boy aboard the Sea Lion and ordered the First Fleet to leave Casarina Island for Bagnia. Governor Almeida learned the fleet had taken the divine Snake-Man and authorized his Mage advisor to report it.

• Marlow reflected on the Sea Lion’s firepower, accommodations, and the First Fleet’s precautions while docked at Casarina Island.
• Marlow summoned Advisor Polka and met Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun, who revealed a Snake-Man boy as the mission target.
• Polka identified the boy as the captured target, and Marlow ordered that he receive preferential treatment under marine guard.
• Marlow ordered the First Fleet to leave Casarina Island, cross the Storm Belt, and return to Bagnia with the Snake-Man.
• Governor Almeida learned the fleet had taken the Snake-Man, and his Mage advisor agreed to report the news.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the First Fleet discovered that an invisible magic ship was sailing beside them, and its armored crew launched a surprise boarding assault on the Sea Lion. The chapter ended with sailors fighting the invaders across the deck.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun spotted an unnatural wake to port and warned the fleet of a possible Sea Python attack.
• Vice Admiral Marlow identified the wake as a ship's trail, while Advisor Polka used his Magic Detector to confirm that a concealed magic ship was nearby.
• Polka warned that the wake could be an illusion and advised the fleet to increase speed before reaching the Storm Belt.
• The concealed ship appeared beside the Sea Lion, and dozens of armored attackers leaped onto its deck.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun raised the alarm as the invaders attacked the sailors and fighting erupted across the deck.

Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun and the Sea Lion’s crew struggled against the Magic Ship’s coordinated, magically protected boarders until players and marines counterattacked. As the battle reached a stalemate, the Magic Ship charged a beam that swept across the Sea Lion’s upper deck.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun charged the boarders but was driven back by their coordinated attacks and water magic.
• Players emerged from the lower compartments and fired a volley that disrupted the boarders’ formations, despite causing friendly fire.
• The Sea Lion’s marines formed a shield wall and advanced while the players spread out to attack and support them.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun climbed to the bow to use a swivel gun as fighting on deck settled into a stalemate.
• The Magic Ship gathered magic at its mast and fired a beam from its mounted gem across the Sea Lion’s upper deck.

The Mirror Sea Adventuring Company’s magical attacks kept the Sea Lion’s defenders under pressure as Bagnian warships moved to assist. Below deck, Dai Xi Hu fought off Candice’s invisible elven assassin and shot her, then called for a doctor.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun fired on the Mirror Moon, then urged the players to board it as Polka’s spell briefly dispelled the attackers’ mirror images.
• The Sea Fox and Lightning closed on the Sea Lion while two other Bagnian warships fired at the Mirror Moon, and Hobart worried about the growing threat.
• The Snake-Man Divine Child sensed an intruder near the guarded cabin, and Dai Xi Hu attacked the apparently empty doorway.
• An elven assassin appeared and used two mirror illusions to attack Dai Xi Hu, who identified the real attacker and shot her at close range.
• Dai Xi Hu recognized the fallen assassin as an elf and called for a doctor.

Players from the Sea Lion attacked the Mirror Moon, but Hobert used its magical defenses to escape the Bagnia fleet. Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun survived the boarding battle and was captured by the elves, while his fellow players realized he could report the ship’s location.

• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun led a small boarding party onto the Mirror Moon, where Hobert’s slippery deck, illusions, and Water Elemental Warriors overwhelmed them.
• Hobert ordered the Mirror Moon to evade the Bagnia battleships, and its illusions helped it escape into the night.
• Players aboard the Sea Lion found wounded half-elves and learned that Dai Xi Hu had taken an elven assassin to the Medical Room for treatment.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun led a final charge toward the Mirror Moon’s bridge, but a repulsion field threw him against the Breastwork and knocked him unconscious.
• Elven crew members carried the badly wounded Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun to the bridge and took him prisoner.
• After logging out, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun told the other boarding players he planned to kill himself, but they urged him to stay alive and report the ship’s location so Chris could send the fleet after it.

Chris traveled on an inspection tour, keeping Julie under observation while investigating Tavitsky’s administration, farms, and Blue Banner Army camp. He left Tavitsky after punishing corrupt officials and found that local farmers were benefiting from Bagnia’s policies and the army was in sound condition.

• Chris received a secret dispatch from the First Fleet and ordered Julie to refuse banquets and take him directly to the Royal Guard’s camp after a brief welcome at Tavitsky Station.
• Chris’s audit team uncovered extensive corruption among Tavitsky’s officials, and Chris ordered arrests, prosecutions, confiscations, executions, and lesser punishments based on each official’s conduct.
• Chris left Tavitsky after dismissing corrupt officials and arranged for replacements to arrive from the capital.
• Chris visited fields without advance notice and learned from Old Hank and other farmers that abolished taxes, cooperative grain purchases, and family subsidies had improved their lives.
• Chris inspected the Blue Banner Army camp, found its soldiers in good condition, and promoted the camp commander.

During his inspection of Omdur, Chris learned that the Kingdom’s supply of seasoned shipbuilding timber could not support rapid fleet expansion. He approved a temporary graded-timber plan for smaller vessels, promoted Fabian to oversee its standards, and realized he had forgotten to establish a Ministry of Industry.

• Chris inspected Omdur’s military camps and shipyards, then asked Sea Lion Royal Shipyard director Fabian whether timber supplies could sustain more battleship construction.
• Fabian explained that the Kingdom had nearly exhausted its seasoned timber reserves and warned that fresh or improperly kiln-dried wood could make warships unsafe and short-lived.
• Chris decided to reserve the best seasoned timber for principal battleships while allowing lower-grade timber for frigates and auxiliary vessels as a temporary measure.
• Fabian agreed to develop and enforce standards for graded timber use, and Chris promoted him from the fifth grade to the fourth grade of the civil service.
• Chris recognized that the Kingdom needed a Ministry of Industry and decided that ironclads could wait until demand for iron and steel grew.

The First Fleet returned to Omdur, and Chris arranged for its ships and captives to be secured while Vice Admiral Marlow reported to him. A captive player endured the elves’ abuse, then identified his location by the stars and vowed revenge.

• The First Fleet returned to Omdur, where Chris cleared the docks and met Vice Admiral Marlow as Royal Guards secured the ships and escorted those aboard.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun woke bound in a cabin aboard an elf vessel, where an elf guard ignored his pleas for water.
• A second elf tried to probe Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun’s mind, but he resisted and the elf withdrew.
• After logging back in, Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun refused water from the guard and logged out again.
• Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun woke in a sandy pit beneath the stars, recognized familiar constellations, and took a screenshot to record his location.

After learning that Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun had been captured and humiliated by elves, Chris approved a player petition for a warship. Knife-in-the-Butt and the players chose the battleship Storm and began assembling a fleet to retaliate against the elven outpost.

• Chris learned that the wounded Elf Assassin and other half-elves remained comatose, while Slakma cooperated with his interrogators.
• Chris discovered on the Player Forum that elves had humiliated Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun after capturing him, and that players had identified the location shown in his screenshot.
• Chris approved Knife-in-the-Butt's petition and allowed the players to choose any warship except the Sea Lion.
• Knife-in-the-Butt chose the heavily armed battleship Storm, and the players agreed to raise funds for supply ships and support vessels.
• Players contributed money, ships, and personnel, forming a Revenge Fleet centered on the Storm with three armed merchant ships and two reconnaissance sailing ships.

Knife-in-the-Butt and the players struggled to operate the Storm’s guns at sea, then began adapting through coordinated training. In the Blue Flame Archipelago, Hobert remained uneasy despite Alice’s reassurance that she would face any crisis with him.

• Knife-in-the-Butt halted the Storm’s voyage after players struggled to navigate, and he assigned a reserve navigator to the ship.
• The players’ first naval gunnery practice went badly as the Storm’s motion made aiming, loading, and timing their shots difficult.
• Knife-in-the-Butt organized training with the Storm sailing at half speed, and the players practiced steadying themselves, loading in pairs, and predicting the ship’s roll.
• Knife-in-the-Butt directed a test shot that landed less than ten meters from its target, encouraging the players to continue training.
• Hobert told Alice he felt an unexplained foreboding, and Alice reminded him of their vow to face any storms together.

The Revenge Fleet bypassed the Makon Alliance's supply station, and its fast reconnaissance ships intercepted the half-elven merchant ship Wave-Chaser. After disabling its sails with chain shot, the attackers revealed the enormous warship Storm, leaving Captain Los to order his crew to put away their weapons.

• Knife-in-the-Butt led the Revenge Fleet through the Storm Belt and bypassed Casarina Island to avoid alerting the elves.
• Captain Los and the crew of the Wave-Chaser sailed toward the Blue Flame Archipelago, unaware of the approaching ships.
• Two fast reconnaissance ships intercepted the Wave-Chaser and pursued it despite Los's attempt to escape.
• The reconnaissance ships fired chain shot that tore the Wave-Chaser's sails and rigging, leaving it nearly motionless.
• A huge warship emerged behind a headland, and Los stopped the crew from firing signal flares and ordered them to put away their weapons.

After a grueling seventy-day voyage left the Revenge Fleet short on supplies, Knife-in-the-Butt and the players chose to press onward and captured a half-elven freighter. They seized its crew, useful repair materials, charts, and logs, hoping to learn their position and gather intelligence.

• The Revenge Fleet lost time to a detour, unfavorable winds, and unfamiliar currents, while its supplies dwindled.
• After reaching a small island to replenish some water and food, the players decided to continue despite having barely enough supplies for the return voyage.
• Knife-in-the-Butt ordered the Storm and its Marines to intercept a lone elven-style freighter and capture its crew for questioning.
• The players boarded the freighter and found its half-elf crew surrendering without a fight, including an attractive woman who was a mage.
• The players secured the freighter's cargo of planks and rope, then took the prisoners and targeted the ship's charts and sailing logs.

Knife-in-the-Butt urged the Revenge Fleet to raid a major elven port after studying a captured sea chart. At Moonstone, Cole Meadow and the harbor witnessed cannon fire attacking the kingdom’s defense fleet, plunging the port into panic.

• Knife-in-the-Butt told the player representatives that the captured cargo and half-elf sailors could aid the fleet, and recommended keeping the sailors rather than selling them.
• Knife-in-the-Butt identified a large port on the chart as the fleet’s next target and urged the players to raid it rather than leave empty-handed.
• Cole Meadow anxiously waited for the overdue Wave Chaser, whose timber shipment was essential to his business contracts.
• Explosions sounded offshore, and smoke rose near an uninhabited island as Moonstone’s residents realized the harbor defense fleet was under attack.
• An elven harbor guard captain ordered the harbor closed and called guards and mages to battle stations amid the spreading panic.