Chapter Summaries

Renato left Klauthsura’s workshop and was confronted by Quelyn, who ordered him to help Tristana investigate a cult of Ghaunadaur after Lolth chose her for the task. Renato accepted the quest and went to seek potions before meeting Tristana.

• Renato gave Klauthsura Deep Dragon organs and tendons to process, and she said she would prepare potions for him.
• Quelyn appeared alone in Renato’s courtyard, identified him as Tristana’s guard, and ordered him to help her.
• Quelyn explained that Tristana had received an oracle from Lolth and promised the Nightwind Family’s support if Renato proved his worth.
• Renato read the quest to investigate the cult of Ghaunadaur and destroy its altar, then accepted it.
• Renato decided to ask Klauthsura for Oil of Speed and Healing Potions before heading to Tristana.

Renato met Tristana at the Breath of Tonnigat and learned that Lolth had ordered her to purge a cult in Sammoril. With other Priestesses forbidden from intervening and Tristana lacking loyal soldiers, the two were left to carry out the task themselves.

• Klauthsura gave Renato potions and reminded him to assess risks and plan a retreat.
• Renato reached the damaged Breath of Tonnigat and found Tristana murmuring scripture amid the lingering stench of necromantic magic.
• Tristana told Renato that Lolth had chosen her to purge the cult and sacrifice its followers, but her oracle revealed no useful details.
• Renato learned that Lolth’s custom forbade other Priestesses from helping or hindering the chosen person, leaving Tristana without support from her mother or family soldiers.
• Tristana admitted that she would not recruit commoner warriors and said Renato was enough.

Tristana took Renato to the Nightwind Family’s beast pens so they could ride to the Gray Zone and investigate the Half-Drow Mercenaries recruited into Ghaunadaur’s cult. Renato mounted a large Subterranean Lizard with ease, and they prepared to set off.

• Tristana explained that the Half-Drow Mercenaries had been recruited in the Gray Zone, Samoriel City’s largest marketplace.
• Tristana led Renato to the Nightwind Family’s beast pens near Lake Tonnigat and pointed out the family’s ranch on an island.
• Tristana brought out two Subterranean Lizards and explained how their adhesive feet and locking saddles let them travel through tunnels.
• Tristana warned Renato to feed his lizard fresh meat before mounting, but he had already climbed onto its back and secured the saddle clasp.
• Renato stroked the obedient lizard and told it to take him to the Gray Zone, promising to feed it fresh meat afterward.

Renato and Tristana entered the Gray Zone to investigate Ghaunadaur’s cult, and Renato decided to seek information from the Iron Price mercenary company. Tristana reluctantly agreed to his plan, while the pair arrived at the company’s battered tower.

• Renato surveyed the Gray Zone and learned from Tristana that mercenary companies controlled much of the area.
• Tristana identified the Iron Price mercenary company’s base, and Renato rode toward its tower to seek information.
• Renato and Tristana dismounted and left their Subterranean Lizards to rest on a stalactite, with Renato taking the Bone Whistle to call them down.
• Renato rejected relying solely on Tristana’s plan to seek divine revelation and persuaded her to follow his approach at the Iron Price tower.

Renato and Tristana met Raven the Shield-Smasher, commander of the Iron Price mercenary company, to seek help investigating a heretical sect. The chapter ended with Raven and Tristana reacting in alarm when Renato revealed that the sect worshipped Ghaunadaur.

• A guard announced Tristana and Renato’s arrival at the Iron Price tower, and Raven the Shield-Smasher greeted Tristana by name.
• Raven showed them the company’s price board and defended its reputation, while Tristana accused the mercenaries of abandoning a dangerous contract.
• Raven questioned Tristana about the purpose of her visit, and Renato took over the conversation and said he was acting on Matron Mother Quelyn’s orders.
• Renato revealed that a heretical sect worshipping Ghaunadaur was hiding in the neighborhood, causing Raven to leap onto the sofa and Tristana to grab his arm in alarm.

Renato and Tristana questioned Raven about the Gray Zone and the cult of Ghaunadaur, but Raven initially denied knowing anything. As Raven sized up Renato and concluded he was the Nightwind Matron Mother’s new patron, she considered using the encounter to secure official standing for Iron Price.

• Renato sensed Raven’s fear when he mentioned Ghaunadaur and realized she did not seem eager to kill him.
• Renato, Tristana, and Raven resumed their negotiations in a secret chamber, where Raven demanded payment for information about the Gray Zone.
• Renato stopped Tristana from insulting Raven and argued that Raven’s reaction to Ghaunadaur’s name showed she knew something about the cult.
• Raven tried to deflect their questions with rumors about ordinary troubles in the Gray Zone while studying Renato’s presence and equipment.
• Raven concluded that Renato was the Nightwind Matron Mother’s new patron and considered whether she could use his influence to protect Iron Price and gain it official standing.

Raven told Renato about the Mud Swamp Sisterhood, a powerful mercenary company whose rise and battlefield success seemed inexplicable. She said its core fighters, the Swamp Sisters, kept fighting through wounds, and rumors claimed they bled yellow pus instead of blood.

• Raven revealed that the Mud Swamp Sisterhood had risen to prominence in the Gray Zone six years earlier and controlled nearly an eighth of it.
• Tristana condemned the Sisterhood’s name as blasphemous, but Raven explained that names involving mud were common in the Gray Zone.
• Raven described how the Sisterhood recruited hundreds of unskilled drifters despite lacking noble patrons, money, or notable fighters.
• Raven said established mercenary companies had lost fighters and territory after clashing with the Sisterhood, despite easily routing its ordinary recruits.
• Raven explained that the Sisterhood’s core fighters, the Swamp Sisters, continued charging after being struck by bolts and blades, and reportedly bled yellow pus.

Renato and Tristana suspected the Iron Price mercenaries were trying to use them, but planned to investigate the Mud Swamp Sisterhood while watching for cultists. After two half-drow followers of Ghaunadaur ambushed them, Renato and Tristana captured one and prepared to return to the Nightwind Family Fortress.

• Tristana suspected Raven wanted to use them against the Iron Price mercenaries’ rivals, while Renato said he had demanded support to investigate the Mud Swamp Sisterhood.
• Renato and Tristana discussed whether the Sisterhood was a heretical base and planned to cooperate with the Gray Zone mercenaries if it was.
• Two hooded half-drow rushed from an alley shouting prayers to Ghaunadaur, but Renato killed one with a dart and Tristana subdued the other with her Serpent Whip.
• Tristana bound the captive and proposed taking her to the Nightwind Family Fortress for interrogation.
• Renato judged the ambushers to be minor cultists, fed the dead attacker to a lizard, and planned to withdraw while watching how the Ghaunadaur cultists responded.

Tristana tortured a half-drow attacker but learned only that a supposed Black Crossbow Mercenary Company member had hired the attackers to frame the company. Renato stopped Tristana from rushing after the suspected cultists and brought her to rest, leaving her to wonder about Raven before she fell asleep.

• Tristana emerged from the interrogation room and told Renato that a mercenary claiming to represent the Black Crossbow Mercenary Company had hired the attackers.
• Tristana suspected the cultists were among the Gray Zone mercenaries and proposed attacking the Mud Swamp Sisterhood, but Renato stopped her and urged her to rest.
• Renato took Tristana to his courtyard, where she washed and he dried her hair.
• Tristana worried that the heretics might flee, and Renato reassured her before telling her to go to bed.
• Tristana began asking Renato about Raven, but he teased her about her age, and she decided to sleep.

Renato learned that Tristana was sixty-five and would undergo her coming-of-age ceremony in half a month, while she asked him to help defeat Ghaunadaur's followers. As they discussed her rank and the drow priesthood, their conversation turned intimate, and Tristana insisted Renato keep his affection exclusive to her.

• Tristana confronted Renato about learning her age, and he revealed that Brichidi had told him she was sixty-five.
• Tristana explained that her coming-of-age ceremony was in half a month and that she needed to defeat Ghaunadaur's followers as an offering to Lolth.
• Tristana asked Renato to help her and promised to negotiate with the Academy about building a portal after she advanced to Superior.
• Renato asked about the drow priesthood's ranks and learned that snake-whip heads signified a priestess's status.
• Renato touched Tristana's hand, and she admitted she permitted him to take the initiative when they were alone but forbade him from being intimate with anyone else.

Renato and Tristana found Iron Price under attack in the Gray Zone and learned that Mud Swamp mercenaries had impersonated Black Crossbow to provoke a conflict. Raven planned a joint counterattack, using the Nightwind Family’s name and Renato’s presence to gather allies.

• Renato and Tristana returned to the Gray Zone and found corpses and burning ruins near Iron Price’s barricade.
• Raven told Renato and Tristana that the dead were Mud Swamp mercenaries who had disguised themselves as Black Crossbow and attacked Iron Price.
• Renato inferred that Mud Swamp might also have been behind the earlier attempt to attack Tristana by impersonating Black Crossbow.
• Raven said Black Crossbow had recently fought Mud Swamp over a tavern and that she had contacted its captain to arrange a joint counterattack.
• Raven revealed that she had invoked the Nightwind Family’s name to rally other mercenary companies and suggested Renato’s presence would secure Matron Mother Quelyn’s approval.

Renato and Tristana joined the Iron Price mercenaries as several Gray Zone companies attacked the Mud Swamp Sisterhood’s poorly defended base. After seeing the assault overwhelm Mud Swamp’s fighters, Renato ordered Raven’s troops to advance while he held the center and watched for irregularities.

• Raven treated Renato as an important Nightwind Family figure, while Tristana silently accepted her misunderstanding as the convoy headed deeper into the Gray Zone.
• Raven explained that the Gray Zone mercenary companies planned to attack Mud Swamp separately so they could avoid trusting one another and seize the chance to gain favor with the nobles.
• Renato, Tristana, and the Iron Price mercenaries reached Mud Swamp’s base and found it under attack from several directions.
• Raven’s fighters coordinated their assault, secured the perimeter, and waited for Renato’s orders as Mud Swamp’s defenders were cut down.
• Renato ordered the attack and told the Iron Price mercenaries to report any irregularities while he held the center.

Renato, Tristana, and Raven investigated the Mud Swamp Sisterhood after the Iron Price mercenaries routed its perimeter guards. Renato recognized the underground base’s religious design and decided to enter with Tristana and Raven to uncover whether the group served Ghaunadaur.

• Raven led the Iron Price mercenaries in cutting down the panicked Mud Swamp fighters, personally killing many of them.
• Tristana examined several bodies and reported that the Half-Drow showed no mutations and likely were not Ghaunadaur followers.
• Raven told Renato that the Mud Swamp base lay underground and that mercenary companies, including Black Crossbow, had entered through other entrances.
• Renato inspected the strange, inverted-pyramid-like structures and judged their decorations unlike those of Lolth’s faith.
• Renato ordered Raven to accompany him and Tristana underground to punish the unbelievers.

Renato and the Iron Price mercenaries broke through the Swamp Sisters’ barricade and entered their unfinished sanctuary. There, they found a dead Black Crossbow warrior and were confronted by bloated guards and a priest of Ghaunadaur.

• The Swamp Sisters’ chainmail-clad guards resisted crossbow bolts, but Tristana’s Sonic Spell weakened them and Renato killed them with a charge from the ceiling.
• Raven ordered the Iron Price mercenaries to break down the brick wall, and they entered a cold, unfinished chamber with a magical door leading deeper inside.
• The mercenaries found the half-buried corpse of a Black Crossbow warrior, and Raven wondered how she had died there.
• A squad of bloated Swamp Sisters emerged, questioned why followers of the False Queen were still alive, and were ordered by a priest of Ghaunadaur to kill and sacrifice the intruders.

Renato and the Iron Price mercenaries fought the Swamp Sisters while Tristana battled Ghaunadaur’s cleric. A mercenary struck the cleric’s neck, but the wound did not stop her as her right eye transformed and blazed with malicious golden light.

• The Iron Price mercenaries clashed with the mutated Swamp Sisters, whose regenerative bodies overwhelmed the defenders’ skill and killed one mercenary.
• Tristana cursed Ghaunadaur’s cleric, interrupting her chanting and gaining the upper hand in their divine duel.
• Renato charged through the Swamp Sisters, using Shadow Shield to deflect an attack and cutting down two guards with his sword.
• Two Iron Price mercenaries broke through toward the cleric, who trapped one with summoned tentacles while the other reached her.
• The surviving mercenary struck the cleric’s neck, but the cleric grasped the blade and declared that her enemies would remain blind as her right eye transformed into a glowing golden sphere.

Renato and Tristana fought the priest of Ghaunadaur in the hall, where the priest’s attack failed and Renato killed her with a single sword stroke. The battle briefly fell silent as the mercenaries struggled to process her death.

• The priest of Ghaunadaur blinded an Iron Price mercenary and transformed her body into pus, which the priest absorbed.
• Renato killed three Swamp Sisters as he advanced toward the priest, while Tristana struck her with a Guiding Bolt that failed to stop her.
• The priest of Ghaunadaur cast a spell of the Ancient Eye at Renato, but her golden eye cracked and dark shadows poured from it.
• Renato teleported behind the blinded, panicking priest and cut her in half with the Silent Lady.
• The hall fell briefly silent as the mercenaries witnessed the priest’s death.

After the Iron Price Mercenaries suffered devastating losses defeating the Swamp Sisters, Raven refused to lead her exhausted company onward. Tristana offered Raven and her mercenaries a place in the Nightwind Family’s service if they helped fulfill Lolth’s oracle, leaving their decision unresolved.

• The Iron Price Mercenaries counted eleven dead and nine seriously wounded after the battle, while Renato reflected on how much stronger he had become.
• Tristana broke the protective spell on the stone door and ordered the exhausted Mercenaries to assemble.
• Raven told Tristana that Iron Price could fight no more and explained that knowing when to retreat had kept her alive in the Gray Zone.
• Tristana offered to make Iron Price her independent armed force in Sammoril, with the Nightwind Family’s protection and steady pay.
• Tristana urged the wounded Mercenaries to help fulfill Lolth’s oracle, promising a chance at status, the Goddess’s favor, and membership in the Nightwind Family.

Tristana led the Iron Price mercenaries into the Mud Swamp Sisterhood’s stronghold, where they found a massacre and a grisly altar ritual. Dayette the Unbound confronted them as Tristana’s forces attacked, leaving the battle underway.

• Tristana rallied the Iron Price mercenaries with promises of protection, advancement, and rewards, then Raven helped them force open the stone door.
• Renato entered the stronghold and found the hall strewn with corpses from a fierce battle.
• Renato saw Swamp Sisters feeding body parts into a cauldron altar as its living sludge slowly grew.
• Dayette the Unbound descended from the altar and declared herself Ghaunadaur’s Chosen One, while Tristana challenged her.
• Renato moved closer to the platform as the Iron Price mercenaries formed a firing line, and Tristana’s whip signal sent a volley of bolts toward Dayette.

Renato and the Iron Price mercenaries fought Dayette the Inconstant in Ghaunadaur’s unfinished temple, where the altar strengthened her against their attacks. Renato overcame her scythe and killed her after Tristana’s curse stopped the slime from reaching her.

• The Iron Price mercenaries’ poisoned bolts killed the remaining guards but failed to hurt Dayette, who killed several mercenaries with her scythe.
• Tristana’s offensive spells and the mercenaries’ attacks could not meaningfully damage Dayette, so Renato ordered them to stop shooting.
• Renato teleported behind Dayette, but she anticipated his arrival and met his Black Blade with her scythe.
• Renato learned the scythe’s weaknesses and drove Dayette back to the altar, where she called on her lord for power.
• Renato shattered Dayette’s knee as Tristana’s curse forced the surging slime back into the cauldron.
• Renato cut through Dayette’s neck armor and killed her with a horizontal slash.

After the destruction of Ghaunadaur’s altar, Renato collected his reward and arranged for Raven’s Iron Price mercenaries to support Tristana while he sought more Gray Zone quests. He learned that Matron Mother Quelyn had made him a Martial Guard of the Nightwind Family, then headed to Klauthsura’s alchemy workshop for another dragon-meat meal.

• Renato recalled defeating Dayette, completing the quest, and receiving 2,000 experience points and 1,000 gold coins.
• Raven served Renato wine at the Breath of Tonnigat, where Iron Price had established a new outpost under Tristana’s protection.
• Renato told Raven to find him Gray Zone commissions and reminded her to deliver Tristana’s ceremony supplies outside the Nightwind Fortress.
• Raven explained that Iron Price still needed quick-paying mercenary work to feed its members and maintain their equipment.
• Renato learned that Quelyn had granted him the title of Martial Guard and made his courtyard residence permanent.
• Renato hurried to Klauthsura’s alchemy workshop, eager to find out what dragon-meat feast awaited him.