Chapter Summaries

Joey returned from the Dreamscape and reunited with the other eight passengers, who discussed the night’s events and learned that their ship was headed for Ghost Island. Annie revealed her Brock family’s pirate origins as the island appeared on the horizon, leaving Chris questioning his faith in the family’s fleet.

• Joey escaped the Dreamscape after destroying the original Joey Clive and the Quadrupeds, then returned to his cabin in the real world.
• Joey apologized for forgetting his earlier visit to the Dreamscape, while Anderson and Margaret explained what they had experienced there.
• Annie warned the group that dying in the Dreamscape could kill them in reality, and Gull Friedman pressed her to reveal the ship’s destination.
• Annie told the group they were heading to Ghost Island and revealed that she belonged to the influential Brock Family of Feren.
• Annie said the Brock Family had made its first fortune as Black Sea pirates, and Ghost Island appeared in the eastern sky.
• Chris was shaken by the revelation, while Joey mocked his belief that pirates represented evil and the navy represented justice.

Joey and the others landed on a vast desert island, where he learned that Barbara was there and that a group was trafficking women for a supernatural experiment. Barbara arrived on the island and learned that Adela had fallen into a deadly sleep; meanwhile, Joey joined the Heavenly Court gathering and asked Helena and Clyde about the Sea God’s followers.

• Joey’s group landed on the island and dragged their sailboat ashore after Chris revealed its hidden wheels.
• Annie chose a campsite and said the island would keep them from being summoned into the Dreamscape.
• Barbara arrived with other captive girls, learned from a girl that Adela had fallen asleep, and asked Benny Hoyland whether Adela could wake and where Jennifer was.
• Benny Hoyland told his accomplices that Barbara had the strongest spirit-body compatibility and that their experiment would earn a great one’s reward.
• Joey used Azrael in the Round Table Hall and learned that Barbara was on the island.
• At the Heavenly Court gathering, Joey asked Helena and Clyde about people linked to the Sea God who were trafficking women.

Clyde, Helena, and Azure Dragon met in the Round Table Hall, where Joey canceled their fixed meetings and introduced a Task Board. Back aboard the ship, Joey began to suspect the other passengers might be the source of danger and focused his attention on Anderson Mike.

• Clyde entered the Round Table Hall after gathering most of the ingredients for his Sequence 8 Potion, and Helena apologized for speaking without Mr. Hermit's permission.
• Joey canceled the fixed Thursday meetings, allowed members to enter the hall freely, and created a board for private information and requests.
• Joey warned Helena that collecting documents from the old era was dangerous, and Clyde concluded that Mr. Hermit's awakening might attract the Seven Gods' attention.
• Clyde posted a commission for his missing potion ingredient, while Joey lamented that the Heavenly Court had so few members and considered studying the rod that drew spirits to the hall.
• At dawn, Joey joined Professor Remo for exercises, then noticed the others had left him out of their supposed terrain survey and wondered if the people posed a danger.
• Joey assessed the passengers as possible threats and decided to watch Anderson Mike closely.

Annie organized an island-wide search for the source of the Dreamscape curse, while Joey learned the others might abandon him and warned Chris that Anderson seemed suspicious. The teams returned with little information except a source of water, leaving the search for the curse’s origin unresolved.

• Annie showed the group a map and an image of a winged, six-eyed octopus-headed figure, explaining that it was the source of the curse and directing the teams to search for related objects.
• Joey confronted Chris, who revealed that Annie had said the island only temporarily blocked the dream’s summons and that the group might leave Joey behind.
• Joey told Chris that the curse did not affect him and persuaded him to keep watching Anderson, whom Joey suspected was a criminal or heretic hiding his identity.
• Joey and Chris searched the island but found nothing, then returned to camp using the Red Spider Silk to find their way.
• Margaret reported that Annie’s team had found a source of water, while the other teams had found nothing, and the group ended dinner in silence.

Joey and Annie revealed that they were both Transcendents while exploring the island, and Annie hinted that she had a hidden reason for coming. Back at camp, Joey stopped Mi Pang from eating the strange fish and warned everyone that it was a person.

• Annie tested Joey with a sudden kick, and they admitted they were a Pugilist and a Fortune Teller, respectively.
• Annie told Joey that she became a Transcendent for fun after a cursed supernatural item led her into the Dreamscape, and she withheld her true purpose on the island.
• Joey realized Annie was following a different map as they searched the forest, and she marked a location before they returned to camp.
• Joey found the group preparing a huge dark-green fish caught from a pool and rushed to stop Mi Pang from eating it.
• After Mi Pang had already tasted the fish, Joey asked whether he had ever eaten a person.

Joey cooked a medicinal soup for the group, then explained that the fish they had found was a failed Deep One of the Sea God Pathway. The next morning, Anderson and Professor Remo prepared to leave Ghost Island, and Anderson warned Joey that the island felt like the Dreamscape.

• Joey buried and doused the poisonous Deep One, then moved camp with the others after Mi Pang vomited.
• Joey cooked a restorative herbal soup that the exhausted group eagerly ate.
• Joey told the group that the creature was a Deep One, a failed Sequence 9 of the Sea God Pathway, and recounted his investigation of the Sea God Believers.
• Anderson accused Joey and Chris of watching him, then announced that he and Professor Remo planned to leave the island.
• Annie offered the departing men an inflatable raft, while Gul and Oli Via raised concerns about what they might reveal.
• Anderson told Joey that Ghost Island felt a lot like being in the Dreamscape.

Joey investigated the unnaturally deep, cold pool while probing Gul about his past and motives. As Joey descended, Anderson and Professor Remo found themselves repeatedly swept back toward Ghost Island whenever they tried to reach shore.

• Anderson and Professor Remo left in a dinghy, while Chris and Gul argued about whether to stay on Ghost Island.
• Joey accompanied Gul to the pool, learned that it was extremely deep, and heard Gul describe his dead daughter and a dream offering to bring her back to life.
• Joey grew suspicious of Gul and asked him to fetch diving equipment and help; Gul returned with Annie and Oli Via.
• Joey tied a rope around his waist and descended into the pool, finding increasingly cold water and no aquatic life.
• Joey tugged the rope five times before descending farther, while Anderson and Professor Remo were repeatedly driven back toward Ghost Island by waves.

Joey and the others discovered a corpse buried on the island, which Joey identified as Remo Lewis, while Anderson returned without the professor and became a suspect. Joey and Annie kept the discovery from the camp and watched Anderson, but the chapter ended after they spent the night awake.

• Joey searched the water with Gul, found no catfish, and returned toward camp with Gul, Annie, and Oli Via.
• The group uncovered a corpse in the sand, and Joey recognized the dead man as Remo Lewis before he and Gul buried him again.
• Joey told Annie about Remo Lewis and asked her to keep the discovery from the camp while they investigated further.
• Mi Pang reported that Anderson had returned from the sea without the professor, so Joey and the others went to the beach to search and Joey kept Gul away from Anderson.
• Joey stayed awake watching Anderson through the night, then encountered an exhausted Annie as they both left their rooms.

Annie led the group to uncover Professor Remo’s body, which Doctor Margaret determined had been dead for at least ten years, and they burned it before heading to the pond. When the pond drained to reveal a subterranean stairway, Anderson ran inside in a deranged state, and Joey and Annie descended together, where Joey tried to cure Annie’s claustrophobia by plunging her into darkness and was promptly struck for it.

• Annie, Joey, and Gul confronted Anderson and brought the group to the burial site, where they dug up Professor Remo’s body.
• Doctor Margaret estimated that Professor Remo had been dead for at least ten years despite his well-preserved body, and the group burned his remains.
• The pond suddenly drained into a whirlpool, revealing a stairway, and Anderson screamed that everyone would die before running into the passage in a fit of madness.
• Joey assigned Mi Pang, Oli, and Margaret to stay behind while he, Annie, Gul, and Chris descended underground and split up at a pair of branching passages.
• After Gul and Chris left, Annie’s claustrophobia overwhelmed her, and Joey switched off his flashlight to force her to confront the darkness.
• Annie recovered enough to stand, then hurled Joey into a stone wall and said she felt like hitting someone.

Joey and Annie explored a deep passage, where Annie vanished after finding the Feldmanra Formula, and a surge of seawater swept Joey into an immense underground chamber. There he reunited with Anderson, who claimed the chamber was the source of the curses and revealed he had survived in the Dreamscape for ten years.

• Joey realized Annie shared his sense of familiarity with the island and grew suspicious when she seemed to know what lay below.
• Annie found the Feldmanra Formula carved into the wall, but Joey turned back after warning her that the place was dangerous; when he returned, she was gone.
• A flood burst through the passage and carried Joey away, while Mi Pang, Oli Via, and Margaret waited anxiously by the pool.
• Joey found himself in a vast, dry chamber with a central fireball and mysterious carvings, where he encountered Anderson.
• Anderson said the chamber was the source of every curse and claimed he had survived in the Dreamscape for ten years; Joey sensed he might be an Out-of-Control.

Joey woke after three days unconscious to find Annie had taken control of the group and the curse had apparently vanished. He returned to Lia Harbor, planned to investigate Anderson, and was surprised when Annie appeared at his home the next morning.

• Anderson hurled himself into the red sphere, burned to ashes, and shouted Annie Bullock’s name as the underground chamber flooded and Joey lost consciousness.
• Joey woke aboard the sailboat three days later, where Annie said he must work for her or die and claimed his sister Barbara was safe.
• Benny Hoyland learned that a ship had left Ghost Island for Lia and ordered his people to watch the test subjects before setting out after it.
• Joey returned home, found that the Dreamscape curse no longer summoned him, and decided to investigate Anderson at the harbor shipyard.
• A fire broke out in the basement of Lia Harbor’s largest hospital, prompting the hospital to transfer its patients the next morning.
• Annie arrived at Joey’s house early in the morning, startling him by knowing where he lived.

Annie took Joey to the evacuated hospital basement, where Margaret helped her prepare something connected to Annie’s recovered memories and Joey’s missing sister. After a heretic called for Lia Harbor to tear down the Church of Light, Annie hinted at her ties to the Heavenly Father, and an explosion erupted at the hospital just as Joey realized the danger.

• Annie collected Joey and led him through the evacuated hospital basements, where the smell of rotting corpses grew stronger.
• Joey met Margaret underground, and Annie placed crystal-clear glass balls around the basement before the three headed back.
• Margaret bid them farewell with a look of pain and relief, while Annie told Joey she had recovered her memories and insisted he needed her help to find his sister.
• A voice from the church called for the people of Lia Harbor to tear down the Church of Light before noon, prompting the Sheriff's Office to rush toward the church.
• Annie suggested she was connected to the Heavenly Father and asked Joey whether he would pray for salvation as noon approached.
• Joey sensed danger at the hospital and demanded to know what Annie and Margaret had done there, but an explosion sounded before he could return.

Joey learned that Margaret and Annie’s entire party had died ten years earlier, while Annie drew him deeper into her plans and revealed a Sea-pathway Demigod was hiding in Lia Harbor. The next morning, Joey went with Annie to a shipyard, where they met Chris, as Benny Hoyland began investigating the missionaries and ships connected to Lia.

• Joey reached the hospital just as it collapsed, then watched unrest at the church square overwhelm the Sheriff's Office lockdown.
• Annie told Joey that a Senior Deacon of the Holy Hall and a Sea-pathway Demigod were hiding in Lia Harbor.
• Joey asked Azrael about Margaret and learned she, Annie, the others in her party, and Duke Kolmi had all died on September 9, 1375.
• Benny Hoyland returned to his bookstore, ordered an investigation into small sailboats visiting Lia Harbor, and decided to handle the missionaries himself.
• Annie brought Joey to a shipyard, where Chris greeted them.

Joey learned that Annie had been using his Fortune Teller spirituality to interfere with a Grade 2 Sealed Artifact while helping her group target the Demigod behind Lia Harbor. Chris died in the Hamilton Shipyard explosion, but Benny Hoyland concealed the incident, leaving Annie furious and Joey suspecting Benny had shot Chris.

• Joey confronted Annie and Chris, and Annie explained that they used his spirituality to interfere with the Cursed Telegraph Machine, a Grade 2 Sealed Artifact that could foresee danger.
• A church announcement threatened Lia Harbor, and Benny Hoyland ordered the docks sealed before the telegraph machine identified Hamilton Shipyard as a target.
• Benny led Sheriffs to the shipyard, where Chris demanded the return of a stolen item and Benny shot him three times.
• Chris's body triggered a massive explosion at the shipyard, and Benny concluded that the attackers were targeting him over the stolen Ghost Island.
• The deputy director blamed the blast on a laid-off shipyard worker, allowing Benny to dismiss Chris's warning and leave the scene.
• Annie lamented that Benny had denied Chris a chance to speak, while Joey suspected Benny had fired the shots that killed him.

Joey used Nome’s identity to gain Benny Hoyland’s trust and joined him in investigating Chris’s case. Their search led to Gull Friedman’s home, where they found Gull murdered and a string of numbers that Joey recognized as the Feldmanra Formula.

• Joey met with Benny at the Sheriff's Office, claimed he had worked with Nome, and proved he was a Transcendent by surviving a shot from a revolver with one empty chamber.
• Benny hired Joey to help investigate Chris, and they questioned workers at Hamilton Shipyard before Joey argued that Chris’s access to explosives needed investigation.
• Joey and Benny went to Gull Friedman’s home, where a frightened maid rushed out and they found Gull dead inside.
• Joey spotted the numbers 42505991 written near Gull’s body and recognized them as the Feldmanra Formula.
• Benny rolled Gull’s body over despite Joey’s warning, and the two examined the Strange Weapon embedded in his chest.

Joey touched the broken blade from Gul Fredman's body and saw visions of the blade’s origins, then pressed Annie Bullock for answers about the Feldmanra Formula, the Mermaid Forest, and the curse. Annie explained that eight early Sea God believers summoned Feldman, divided and consumed his body, and that their descendants included nearly everyone in Lia Harbor.

• Joey pulled the broken blade from Gul Fredman’s chest after seeing visions of its creation, the eight people who shared Feldman’s body, and its later history.
• Joey returned home and confronted Annie Bullock, asking about Ghost Island and her attacks on the Church of Light.
• Annie explained that the Feldmanra Formula contained a secret about the Sea God’s resurrection and compelled those who encountered it to solve it.
• Annie said eight people founded the Mermaid Forest, summoned Feldman through a ritual, and divided and ate his body, making his spine into the broken blade.
• Annie revealed that almost everyone living in Lia Harbor carried the blood of those eight people.

Joey learned from Annie that the curse came from eight people who divided and consumed a summoned being, whose scattered characteristics could eventually revive it. Annie revealed that Mermaid Forest had been trafficking people as sacrifices on Ghost Island, and suspected a traitor within the Church of Light was protecting the group.

• Annie explained that cursed descendants were drawn to Ghost Island and inherited memories preserved by the original eight, then recounted how the last survivor scattered the being’s characteristics to prevent its revival.
• Joey connected the heart at the bottom of the pond with several other supernatural objects, including possible eyes at the Old Church, and Annie said the heart had likely devoured the remaining objects.
• Annie explained that the curse now required fresh blood to revive the being and that descendants of the original eight made the best sacrifices; Joey realized the abducted girls were being targeted.
• Annie revealed that Mermaid Forest had secretly trafficked people to Ghost Island as sacrifices for a century and said a traitor among the higher ranks of the Church of Light was shielding them.

Joey learned that the Mermaid Forest was secretly sacrificing people to revive the Sea God, and Annie recruited him to infiltrate the Church of Light. After discovering that Red Spider Silk had fused with his poisonous blade Quenching, he tested whether it could transfer the weapon’s side effects and found that it could.

• Joey agreed to become Annie’s inside man, and she explained how the Mermaid Forest had seized control of the Sea God Church and continued its sacrificial schemes under powerful protection.
• Annie said she planned to use Joey to gain Benny Hoyland’s trust and take the lives of Oli Via and Mi Pang, while suggesting that Joey’s presence had disrupted the curse that had once killed the eight survivors.
• Joey revealed Quenching to Annie, and the blade fused with the Red Spider Silk, allowing him to control and retrieve the weapon through the thread.
• After Annie left, Joey tested Quenching and found that its poison had grown stronger, but its severe side effect caused him to suffer a sudden bout of diarrhea.
• Joey connected Red Spider Silk to a drinks seller and a bald man, activated Quenching on himself, and watched the pair suffer the transferred stomach pain.

Joey investigated a bomb threat with Benny Hoyland at the Cooperative, where an explosive magic array injured them both. He woke in the hospital and learned Annie Bullock had used him as bait to test Benny, leaving Joey furious but recognizing her reasoning.

• Joey questioned Azrael about Quenching and suspected it was connected to the Sea God and Maimaiti.
• After a peaceful half month working as an external investigator, Joey received a visit from Annie before a voice threatened to bomb Lia Harbor by noon the next day.
• Joey connected the previous attacks on the hospital and Shipyard to declining industries and predicted the Cooperative would be the next target.
• Joey and Benny searched the Cooperative, where Joey found a magic array that exploded, injuring both men and killing the old gatekeeper.
• Joey woke in the hospital and realized Annie had changed the plan and used him as bait to make Benny trust him.

Joey gained Benny Hoyland’s trust, then confessed that he suspected Benny’s connection to the missing women. After Benny nearly killed him, Joey revealed Nome was dead and learned that the abductions were tied to Feldman’s power and the Sea God; the chapter ended with Joey explaining that his occult gathering had tried to decipher the Feldmanra Formula.

• Annie told Joey that Benny Hoyland was at least Sequence 6, and Joey later earned Benny’s trust as they worked together to prevent a third incident.
• After recovering in the hospital, Joey went with Benny to Lia Church, passed a crystal-ball test for corrupted Spirituality, and explained his humble motives for joining the investigation.
• Joey told Benny he knew about his connection to the missing women, prompting Benny to threaten him and demand to know where Nome was.
• Joey said Nome was dead and recounted what happened at 3 Levitt Street, convincing Benny to lower his guard.
• Benny described the Sea God’s disappearance and the Seven Gods’ takeover, then denied that the women were being abducted as sacrifices and hinted that the goal involved Feldman’s power.
• Joey revealed that the occult gathering he attended had been organized to decipher the Feldmanra Formula.