Recaps

Renato learned that plague and Drow attacks had troubled the Niter Kingdom as he tried to keep Sir Novak and his squires from searching the wheat field, where Klauthsura might still be hiding. The chapter ended with Renato blocking the soldiers’ path, ready to fight if necessary.

• Renato introduced himself to three frightened farmers, who told him that plague had struck the city and Drow had been killing people in the countryside.
• Sir Novak arrived with his squires and announced that he was carrying out a mission for the Niter Kingdom.
• Renato recognized the kingdom’s name as belonging to one lost a thousand years earlier and questioned Novak about the nearby threat.
• Novak said mages had predicted another band of Drow nearby and advised Renato to go to the city while the knights dealt with them.
• Renato blocked Novak and his squires from entering the wheat field because Klauthsura might still be inside.

Renato faced suspicion from Novak and his armed attendants while worrying they would find the unconscious Klauthsura and kill her. The confrontation eased when Klauthsura emerged from the wheat and addressed Renato as her master.

• Novak and his attendants cautiously closed ranks around Renato as he tried to think of a way to avoid a fight.
• Renato decided he would risk becoming a fugitive again rather than abandon Klauthsura, who might be unconscious in the wheat.
• Movement in the wheat made Novak and his attendants draw their swords and raise their shields.
• Klauthsura rose from the wheat, brushed off the grains, and asked Renato what had happened and why so many people were there.

Renato disguised Klauthsura as his servant and spoke with Sir Novak, whose comments about human purity led Renato to suspect he had arrived in Ereel a thousand years in the past. After questioning Renato and learning he was a northern noble, Novak gave him a Knight's Badge to enter the Royal City.

• Novak apologized to Renato for searching the wheat field and mistaking Klauthsura for a drow.
• Novak advised Renato not to take Klauthsura as a partner, believing she was a nonhuman slave whose offspring would harm his family’s status.
• Renato recalled the Southern Principalities’ history of human supremacy and suspected he had traveled a thousand years into the past.
• Renato used his knowledge of southern geography to answer Novak’s questions and learned that the northern and southern realms then shared an alliance against other races.
• Novak’s squires found no drow, and Novak gave Renato his Knight’s Badge so he could enter the Royal City.

Renato and Klauthsura investigated the strange landscape and determined that they had entered an artificially constructed demiplane, not returned to the Surface. Klauthsura confirmed that its sunlit scenery was real rather than an illusion, leaving them uncertain who had built the place and what awaited them there.

• After the cavalry rode away, Klauthsura inspected the knight's badge and found no magical effects or hidden mechanical components.
• Klauthsura used a spatial survey to determine that Renato and she were in a demiplane with an artificially altered, unstable structure.
• Renato checked his Gish Cloak and concluded that the sun overhead had to be false because it had not damaged the cloak as the Adventurer's Guide predicted.
• Renato asked whether the demiplane could be making everyone hallucinate, and Klauthsura connected herself to an unfinished Golem to test the environment.
• Using the Golem's readings, Klauthsura confirmed that they were still in a demiplane and that the surrounding scenery was real.

Renato and Klauthsura investigated the demiplane and its connection to the vanished Niter Kingdom, then found its invisible boundary. Klauthsura concluded that the realm was likely an abandoned experiment and reassured Renato that their escape plan remained on track.

• Klauthsura used psionics to map Renato's account and confirmed that the Niter Kingdom had vanished a thousand years earlier.
• Renato suspected that someone had arranged the disasters surrounding the demiplane and wondered how the ancient forest had become the Phantom Forest.
• Klauthsura reasoned that the demiplane's creator had likely failed long ago because the realm was collapsing and had reconnected with the Material Plane.
• Klauthsura led Renato away from Niter's Royal City and stopped at an invisible boundary where the forest was unnaturally silent.
• Renato touched the boundary and drew out gray-white mist, while Klauthsura warned that crossing it could strand or kill them.
• Klauthsura explained that the demiplane was within the size expected of a human legendary mage's creation and told Renato their plan was still going according to plan.

Renato and Klauthsura traveled to Niter’s Royal City to locate the spatial node and learned that a mysterious plague had devastated the Southern Kingdoms. After Renato showed a Knight’s Badge from Sir Novak, the guards let them enter the sealed city, but warned that it was dangerous.

• Renato and Klauthsura confirmed that the spatial node lay in the center of Niter’s Royal City and headed there before dusk.
• Renato questioned villagers and learned that soul-loss disease had spread across the south, killing commoners and livestock while resisting known cures.
• Klauthsura said she knew little about the disease and warned Renato to avoid possible infection.
• At the closed city gate, Renato learned that the new king, Pure White, had sealed the city because of the plague.
• Renato showed the sergeant a Knight’s Badge given to him by Sir Novak, and the guards opened the small door for him and Klauthsura.

Renato and Klauthsura entered Nittel's Royal City, where a magically concealed white Mage Tower and the sergeant's stories revealed the power and reputation of King Pure White. The sergeant led them to an inn reserved for visitors because the city was under plague quarantine.

• Renato and Klauthsura passed through the gate and saw the enormous white Mage Tower, which the Dragonborn suspected had been concealed by powerful magic.
• The sergeant told Renato that Pure White had created the tower and driven off foreign mages who had asked him to help found the Mage Association.
• The sergeant said the former king, Nittel III, had handed the crown to his brother before leaving on a tour to recuperate, but avoided discussing the succession further.
• Renato studied the quiet, nearly empty streets and tried to choose a nearby inn, but the sergeant said plague orders required citizens to stay indoors.
• The sergeant explained that Pure White had reserved a staffed inn for travelers, where Renato and Klauthsura could stay free for a week.

Renato and Klauthsura arrived at the deteriorating Burning Wood Inn, where Renato paid Matt to explain Nittel’s history. Matt described how the mage known as “Pure White” gave up his claim to the throne so his elder brother Nittel III could rule, leaving Renato with a clearer account of their relationship and the concealed succession dispute.

• Matt gave Renato and Klauthsura a room at the inn after the sergeant departed.
• Klauthsura requested that she and Renato share one room so she could attend to him at night.
• Renato paid Matt five Silver Crowns and asked him to explain Nittel to a newcomer.
• Matt said Nittel III had fled the city because of the plague and that “Pure White” had taken over the throne.
• Matt recounted how Nittel II chose his magically gifted younger son as heir, prompting nobles and knights to threaten rebellion.
• Matt explained that the brothers reached an agreement: Nittel III would rule, while “Pure White” served as chancellor and concealed his identity.

Renato and Klauthsura confirmed that the demiplane’s inhabitants were living humans and located the spatial node inside the Royal City’s white tower. Their preparations were interrupted when Matt appeared at their door and the inn rapidly decayed, revealing a zombie lunging at Renato.

• Klauthsura told Renato that the humans they had encountered were real, living people with souls, despite the demiplane’s apparent age and limitations.
• Klauthsura located the spatial node near their inn, inside the towering white tower, and planned to act after four natural hours.
• Matt came to invite Renato and Klauthsura downstairs for meat soup, apologizing for his earlier behavior.
• The inn’s door, walls, ceiling, and floor rapidly crumbled as a heavy object struck outside.
• Renato saw a zombie standing beyond the ruined doorway, and it lunged at him.

Renato and Klauthsura discovered that the innkeeper had become a zombie and that the Royal City of Nittel had transformed into a silent city of undead. The chapter ended with skeleton soldiers patrolling the ruined streets beneath a shadow of death.

• Renato recognized the attacking zombie as Matt, the innkeeper who had spoken to him moments earlier.
• Klauthsura used telekinetic force to crush Matt’s head, but she became bewildered after sensing negative energy everywhere.
• Renato opened the inn window and saw that the surrounding buildings and streets had crumbled into ruin.
• Renato saw that the city’s soldiers had become skeleton warriors marching through the streets, and the once-bustling Royal City of Nittel had become a Domain of the Dead.

Renato and Klauthsura fled the Burning Wood Inn after undead soldiers closed in, escaping through the roof with a combination of Spider Climb and telekinesis. They landed in the air above a street surrounded by nearly thirty Skeleton Warriors, who aimed their enchanted weapons at them.

• Renato regained his composure, warned Klauthsura that Skeleton Warriors were approaching, and urged her to find somewhere safe before investigating the changed demiplane.
• Klauthsura scanned the building and proposed reaching the roof, then moving to a nearby stone house, but the Skeleton Warriors broke through the inn’s entrance.
• Renato carried Klauthsura up a wall with his Ring of Spider Climbing as she used telekinesis to tear open the roof and lift them into the air.
• Klauthsura used psionics to hold herself and Renato aloft while they saw nearly thirty Skeleton Warriors surrounding the inn, with more arriving from both ends of the street.
• The Skeleton Warriors aimed their crossbows at Renato and Klauthsura, and dark green light began glowing on their bolt tips.

Klauthsura and Renato escaped the skeleton archers’ fire by landing on a rooftop, where Renato discovered he could deflect a crossbow bolt and fought off the first skeletal soldiers. More undead continued climbing onto the roof as the chapter ended.

• Klauthsura shielded herself and Renato from the skeleton archers’ bolts and struck their ranks with psionic lightning, but the undead rose again and kept firing.
• Klauthsura brought Renato down onto a two-story building’s roof, where the structure obstructed most of the archers’ shots.
• Renato instinctively deflected a crossbow bolt with the Silent Lady, using Dragonkind Senses to track and intercept it.
• Skeleton Warriors climbed onto the roof and attacked Renato, whose sword could not cut through their negative-energy-strengthened weapons.
• Renato trapped a skeleton’s billhook and knocked it and another skeleton off the roof with a shoulder charge.
• More skeletal soldiers emerged from the stairwell and advanced on Renato.

Renato and Klauthsura fought undead soldiers from a rooftop and faced a Royal Mage who could repair fallen skeletons. Klauthsura destroyed the Mage and its guards with a massive Acid Sphere, leaving Renato to see how badly the dead Royal Mage had been outmatched.

• Renato retreated as Klauthsura's Psionics Blast hurled Skeleton Soldiers off the roof, and he recognized the undead's awkward tactics.
• A Zombie Royal Mage arrived with a squad of undead and restored fallen Skeleton Soldiers with negative energy.
• Renato threw a Heavy Dart at the Royal Mage, but it focused its attention on Klauthsura.
• The Royal Mage cast an Acid Arrow at Renato and Klauthsura, while Klauthsura absorbed it into an Acid Sphere.
• Klauthsura burst the Acid Sphere over the Royal Mage and its guards, dissolving them and their defenses in seconds.

After Klauthsura’s acid spell devastated a squad of skeletons, Renato realized the Royal City was swarming with undead and decided they had to escape toward the city gates. He and Klauthsura jumped from the rooftop into an alley to begin their retreat.

• Klauthsura’s acid spell dissolved many skeleton soldiers but consumed much of her psionic energy.
• Renato spotted hundreds of approaching zombies, including spellcasters, and decided to flee toward the city’s outskirts and gates.
• Renato rejected long-distance teleportation as too dangerous and chose a route through a quieter block toward the main road.
• Renato warned Klauthsura to alert him telepathically if she detected a spellcaster and told her not to fly where the undead could see them.
• Klauthsura used psionic energy to slow their fall as she and Renato jumped from the roof into a narrow alley.

Renato and Klauthsura quietly cleared the wights in an alley of the Royal City of Nittel and rested while they considered how the city had become undead. Just as Renato decided they should leave the city and wait for answers, Klauthsura sensed a group of powerful undead approaching at high speed.

• Renato and Klauthsura used a psionic barrier to move silently through the streets and kill the wights without drawing the horde.
• After three hours of stealth, Renato and Klauthsura reached a building near the main road and the city gate, where skeleton soldiers still patrolled.
• Klauthsura warned Renato that her psionic reserves were low and that she needed an hour to recover, so Renato ate while she meditated.
• Renato found Novak's Knight's Badge rusted despite being stored in his Space Ring and decided to take nothing from the city.
• Renato suspected Pure White, Nittel's new king, might have caused the transformation, but chose to leave the city and wait for more information.
• Klauthsura abruptly sensed a group with extremely high negative energy readings approaching at high speed.

Renato prepared to fight approaching undead cavalry, but their charge smashed through the building where he and Klauthsura were sheltering. He emerged from the rubble and recognized the undead knight facing him as Sir Novak.

• Renato heard undead cavalry approaching and used an Oil of Speed and Cat's Grace before choosing to hold his position among the houses.
• Renato told Klauthsura to prepare control spells while he guarded the front entrance and tried to force the riders into narrow terrain.
• The undead cavalry charged straight through the house's stone wall, bringing the building down around Renato and Klauthsura.
• Renato survived the collapse with Shadow Shield and rose from the rubble, unsure at first what had happened to Klauthsura.
• An undead knight in brigandine emerged from the wreckage, and Renato identified him as Sir Novak of the Niter Kingdom.

Renato fought Novak, now a Death Knight, after resisting the undead knight’s magical command to duel. Renato disarmed Novak and drove his sword into the knight’s armor, but Novak unleashed an eruption of negative energy.

• Renato used Dakoul's Blessing to cloak himself in shadows as Novak challenged him with a Word of Power Spell.
• Renato rushed Novak and exchanged sword blows with the Death Knight.
• Renato used his knowledge of modern swordsmanship to disarm Novak.
• Renato drove the Silent Lady into Novak’s Ring Mail Gorget, but a powerful force stopped the blade from penetrating further.
• Novak gathered the surrounding negative energy and erupted in a dark green shock wave.

Renato fought the Death Knight Novak in the ruins, using Apocalypse Prophecy to expose the weakness in Novak’s armor and strike his core. Novak’s ghostfire erupted as he fell, leaving Renato standing among the wreckage.

• Novak released a torrent of negative energy that shattered Shadow Shield, but Renato’s armor and shadow power protected him.
• The Death Knight retrieved his sword and engulfed himself in green demonfire as Renato prepared to fight.
• Renato invoked Apocalypse Prophecy, then charged Novak and exchanged a rapid series of sword strikes with him.
• Renato used the crimson lines revealed by the prophecy to break Novak’s armor and identified the Death Knight’s core in his chest.
• Renato took Novak’s blow with Dakoul’s Blessing and drove Silent Lady through his exposed chest, shattering his core.
• Novak’s ghostfire erupted before his body collapsed, leaving his armor scattered and his skull unlit.

Renato and Klauthsura prepared to fight their way through a massive undead horde when dawn suddenly reversed the ruined city and erased the undead. They found themselves in the restored Nittel Royal City, where a familiar sergeant recognized Renato.

• Renato and Klauthsura assessed their injuries and supplies after defeating the Death Knight and its attendants.
• With undead converging from every street, Renato decided to hold the ruins and have Klauthsura use Acid Sphere to thin the horde.
• Renato prepared to face the oncoming undead as Dakoul's Blessing began transforming him into shadow.
• At dawn, time appeared to stop, the city rebuilt itself, and the undead dissolved into ash.
• A bald sergeant emerged from a nearby house and asked Renato why he was there.

Renato and Klauthsura returned to the Burning Wood Inn after finding Nittel transformed into a ruined city of undead that inexplicably came back to life. Klauthsura admitted their plan had failed and asked Renato to devise a new one, offering to follow it without making independent judgments.

• Renato recalled how the city's buildings and undead had reverted to normal, including Matt, whom Klauthsura had seemingly killed by destroying his head.
• Renato overheard Matt and the bald sergeant shifting blame for letting him and Klauthsura wander the sealed city, and realized they feared offending his noble status.
• Renato considered how his status as a noble from the North could help them navigate Niter Kingdom a thousand years in the past.
• Klauthsura shut out outside sounds with psionics, admitted their plan from Sammoril had been too idealistic, and apologized for leaving Renato to handle the crises.
• Klauthsura proposed that they compare their information again and asked Renato to make a new plan, promising to carry it out without unnecessary independent judgments.

Renato and Klauthsura discussed the Royal City’s nightly transformation and planned to test whether nightfall triggered it, while they struggled to find a way into the White Tower. Their discussion was interrupted when Matt urgently summoned Renato to meet Novak.

• Klauthsura said the city’s repeated changes between life and death likely followed a magical ritual with a recurring starting marker.
• Renato suggested that dawn and nightfall might trigger the transformation, and Klauthsura agreed to test the theory that evening.
• Renato and Klauthsura considered how to enter the White Tower but dismissed sneaking in or attacking it as too dangerous.
• Matt knocked on Renato’s door and told him that Novak was waiting downstairs and wanted to see him.

Renato met Sir Novak alive and restored after their deadly fight, then learned the Kingdom Knights had been battling Drow outside Nittel Royal City. He used a fabricated story about being an overlooked noble son to ask Novak to introduce him to the Niter Kingdom’s court, hoping to approach the white mage tower openly.

• Renato studied Novak’s restored armor and learned that Novak and his squires had fought Drow outside the city through the night.
• Renato returned Novak’s badge and exchanged formal pleasantries with him at the Burning Wood Inn.
• As Novak described the kingdom and its customs, Renato pieced together his current identity and considered approaching the white mage tower openly.
• Renato invented a tale of family favoritism, lost attendants, and a dead warhorse, prompting Novak to condemn Renato’s father.
• Renato claimed he wanted to prove his worth by serving the Niter Kingdom and asked Novak to introduce him.

Renato asked Novak to speak on his behalf so he could seek a knighthood and gain access to the White Tower, but the old knight warned him about the kingdom’s spreading plagues and turmoil. Novak agreed to take him to the palace and submit his request to the Royal Mages, though Renato would have to wait.

• Novak warned Renato that magical plagues and other troubles made the kingdom more dangerous than its borders.
• Klauthsura stayed behind at the inn while Renato rode with Novak, and she offered to follow invisibly and provide magical cover.
• Novak praised Renato’s combat ability but advised him against entering the kingdom’s turmoil.
• Renato insisted on proving himself, concealing his goal of reaching the spatial node near the White Tower.
• Novak agreed to take Renato to the palace and relay his request to the Royal Mages, warning that the process could take hours.

Renato and Novak waited at the Nittel Royal Palace, where Renato observed the mage king’s apparent support and the strange, inaccessible Mage Tower. Novak recounted his troubled past with Emily and warned Renato indirectly about becoming close to Klauthsura, before a guard summoned Renato to speak with a royal mage.

• Renato and Novak waited in the palace garden while guards announced their arrival, and Renato noticed the Mage Tower seemed to hover above the palace.
• Renato learned from Novak that he had once loved Emily, a dragonborn serf, and had a son with her during his years as a wandering knight.
• Novak explained that Emily had tried to borrow money in his name and flee, but was arrested and eventually exiled after he pleaded for her life.
• Novak told Renato that his son with Emily had left for Falania to pursue knighthood, though Novak feared others would reject him for his mixed blood.
• A royal guard arrived and invited Renato to meet with a royal mage before the matter was presented to Pure White.

Renato entered the Niter Kingdom’s crowded, makeshift palace hall and encountered tension between Novak and the chief mage. The royal guard took Renato to complete his identity registration while Novak stayed behind to confront the mage.

• Renato passed through a passage warded with poison-and-disease detection runes and entered the palace hall with Novak and a royal guard.
• Renato saw mages and apprentices sorting documents and supplies in the hall, which looked far less grand than he had expected.
• Novak explained that the court’s disorder was an exceptional response to the crisis, but an old mage interrupted and insulted the nobles who had followed Nittel III into the countryside.
• Novak threatened to defend the royal family’s dignity, but the chief mage ordered the guard to take Renato to the identity verification room.
• Renato checked whether Novak wanted him to stay, then left for registration after Novak said he would have a proper chat with the chief mage.