Chapter Summaries

After surviving a violent fight, Vanessa resolved to do whatever it took to stay alive and decided to investigate a clue at No. 37 Rosin Alley. When she found the corpse she had retrieved was badly damaged, Old Lachi demanded payment to cover it up, leaving her facing a steep bill.

• Vanessa returned to the hospital with the goods, then broke down in the morgue and recognized how fragile her survival had been.
• Elliot saw the declaration “[I will survive!]” appear on the brass dial and smiled.
• Vanessa woke from a strange dream featuring a clue to a book collection hidden at No. 37 Rosin Alley and decided to go look for it.
• Vanessa discovered that the corpse she had retrieved was badly damaged and feared the hospital would hold her responsible.
• Vanessa asked Old Lachi for help, and he first demanded one hundred Leo before raising the price to one hundred and twenty.

Vanessa received 120 Leo from Old Razi for selling a corpse infected with Mad Rat Disease and went to Rosin Alley to investigate the old man’s abandoned house. After finding the hidden key, she was startled by a grinning little girl who appeared in front of her.

• Old Razi paid Vanessa 120 Leo for the corpse and explained that it had been infected with Mad Rat Disease.
• Vanessa decided to ask Dorothea about the disease, buy Winnie a present, and check out Rosin Alley.
• Vanessa found the old man’s abandoned house at number thirty-seven and dug beneath the paving bricks beside the mailbox with Allen’s folding knife.
• Vanessa uncovered the hidden brass key and prepared to enter the house.
• A grinning little girl suddenly appeared in front of Vanessa, and Vanessa demanded to know who she was and why she was following her.

Vanessa meets Alice, a deformed child who was trying to help her, and regrets suspecting her. She enters the old house to search for books that might help her survive, leaving the exploration just beginning.

• Vanessa readied a pocketknife when Alice approached, but a hooded figure arrived and explained that Alice had hurt her head as a child.
• Alice helped Vanessa to her feet and apologized for frightening her before the hooded figure led her away.
• Vanessa discovered that the knife had cut her fingertip and scolded herself for suspecting Alice.
• Vanessa used the rusty key to unlock the old house and decided to search inside for books.
• Vanessa entered cautiously with a nail-studded club and inspected the empty sitting room.

Vanessa searched the old man's house and found a photograph dedicated to Sophia Everhart, a collection of books, a key hidden in the fireplace, and a trapdoor beneath the stove. At the Difference Engine, Elliot finished searching the house, but the girl's card froze and the speech panel displayed, "I get it!"

• Vanessa examined a damaged photograph inscribed "My love-Sophia Everhart" and wondered who Sophia had been to the old man.
• Vanessa searched the study, gathered books she hoped to sell, and considered asking Dorothea about finding a bookstore.
• A controlling will took over Vanessa and searched the house repeatedly, eventually retrieving a key from a gap in the fireplace bricks.
• Vanessa's body kicked the stove and revealed a hidden trapdoor, then the will began searching the same drawers again.
• Elliot finished exploring the house at the Difference Engine, but the girl's card froze and the panel displayed, "I get it!"

Vanessa searched the house under the control of a mysterious will, which led her to a hidden basement and an attic full of locked chests. She began to suspect the will could make reality follow its actions like children playing house, but she remained unsure what kind of being controlled her.

• Vanessa mistook the mysterious will’s control for a ritual lesson until Elliot interrupted her and used the hidden trapdoor clue to guide her into the basement.
• Vanessa found a finely carved pattern on the basement floor but could not identify it, then returned upstairs with questions.
• Vanessa used a key to open a concealed attic hatch in the study and discovered several dusty chests.
• When Vanessa tried to open a locked chest, the will controlled her hands to attempt lockpicking, but the lock stayed shut through repeated tries.
• Vanessa concluded that the will could make the world cooperate with its prescribed actions, like children playing house, and wondered what was controlling her.

Vanessa opened the case and found a book claiming that supernatural power came from sacrifice, while Elliot wondered whether its rules could apply beyond the game. The chapter left Vanessa puzzled by a handwritten claim that there were no True Gods, despite the Seven True God Churches.

• Vanessa opened the brass-locked case and found books, including one titled "The Sins and Punishments of Sacrifice-The Pitiful Extraordinary Ones."
• Vanessa read a note stating that all supernatural power came from sacrifice, and Elliot read the same words through the Difference Engine.
• Elliot considered whether the Difference Engine's deductions about supernatural knowledge might be usable in reality.
• Vanessa read that reckless sacrifices brought terrible results, that stable sacrificial methods were called Paths, and that sacrifices outside them could twist wishes.
• Vanessa found a handwritten annotation saying "There are no True Gods" beside the book's reference to the Seven True Gods, and questioned its claim.

Vanessa read a book about sacrifices, then was controlled into spying on a secret gathering where people mixed their blood with minced meat and ate it. She returned late to the hospital, where Old Razi assigned her a delivery to the Wild Dog Gang.

• Vanessa learned from the book that the flat area in the basement was a sacrificial altar, then hid the book in the attic before leaving for work.
• Elliot used the Difference Engine to control Vanessa and send her to explore the mysterious mansion.
• Vanessa climbed onto the mansion’s roof and watched hooded people cut their wrists, mix their blood with minced meat, and eat it.
• Vanessa escaped the rooftop, suspected she had witnessed a cult ritual, and hurried back to the hospital.
• Old Razi scolded Vanessa for arriving late and ordered her to deliver a shipment to the Wild Dog Gang.

Vanessa visited Dorothea and found Winnie there, but noticed fresh bandages on Winnie's wrist and grew suspicious that she had been involved in the flesh-eating incident. Dorothea offered Vanessa a job as hired muscle for an investigation, leaving Vanessa unsure whether she could fight without Elliot taking control.

• Vanessa hurried to the Wild Dog Gang's territory and found its members greeting her with unusual awe and fear.
• At Dorothea's home, Vanessa discovered Winnie was visiting to rest, and offered to help and buy her a gift.
• Vanessa noticed fresh gauze around Winnie's left wrist and wondered whether Winnie had shared in eating human flesh.
• Dorothea told Vanessa that rumors called her the Mad Caregiver and asked if she could fight.
• Vanessa hesitated without Elliot's control and answered that she probably could fight, prompting Dorothea to demand a clear answer.

Vanessa returned to Miskatonic University to seek help from department head Randall and investigate the cults that might have endangered Winnie. Unable to find Randall or Dorothea, she went to the library and began piecing together clues from books.

• Dorothea gave Vanessa a recommendation letter to see Randall and suggested that treatment records could support her claims about her illness.
• Vanessa decided to return to Miskatonic University because Randall might know about secret societies and cults, especially those connected to Winnie's injury.
• Vanessa reached the History Department but left without speaking to her former colleagues because she felt ashamed of her bloodstained clothes and disheveled appearance.
• Vanessa learned that Dorothea had left with Professor Rosalie's team to investigate an infectious disease in the East District.
• Vanessa used her still-valid library card and searched books for clues about organizations that consumed raw flesh and blood.

Vanessa discovered that the Mourning Poetry Society’s blood rituals were not considered cult activity, but Elliot forcibly controlled her into beginning a self-sacrifice ritual. As Vanessa drew the array, Elliot considered which entity should receive the offering.

• Vanessa learned that the Mourning Poetry Society believed consuming flesh and blood could purify the soul, but its rituals had not harmed outsiders or earned it a cult designation.
• Vanessa left the library, hoping to return to campus someday with Winnie and bring her a gift.
• Elliot impatiently ordered Vanessa through the Difference Engine to complete a sacrifice.
• Vanessa was compelled to go to the basement at No. 37 Pine Resin Alley and draw a sacrificial array with her own blood.
• Vanessa realized the ritual was intended to sacrifice her, while Elliot began considering the kinds of entities that could receive the offering.

Elliot examined two dangerous Paths for sacrificing to evil gods: one that granted physical enhancement and another that offered supernatural intelligence. He weighed their strange costs, but the chapter ended before he chose a Path.

• Elliot learned that the books offered no instructions for sacrificing to True Gods and found only two evil-god Paths.
• Elliot read Pulu's account of sacrificing hair, nails, and an appendix to Shengtuo for gradual physical enhancement.
• Elliot considered trying the Flesh Ascension Path, though the surviving diary revealed nothing about Pulu's eventual fate.
• Elliot studied a doctor's report about sacrificing negative emotions and frontal-lobe tissue to Jingyuan for relief from mental illness and exceptional intelligence.

Elliot chose [Path · Omniscience · Part Two] for Vanessa, but stopped the sacrifice when he realized she did not want to lose her identity and compassion. Vanessa then noticed that the ritual named Sun Wukong as its recipient.

• Elliot compared the two Paths and chose [Path · Omniscience · Part Two] because it offered faster advancement.
• Vanessa feared losing her emotions and frontal lobe, and questioned whether she would still be herself or care for others afterward.
• Elliot recognized Vanessa as a living soul, pulled the Path card from the slot, and decided not to force her to sacrifice.
• Vanessa resumed drawing the ritual and noticed that its recipient was Sun Wukong.

Elliot discovered that the Difference Engine let him sacrifice to himself, while Vanessa feared the unknown entity receiving her ritual. After Elliot chose an offering and bestowed a Path card, Vanessa saw the card appear in the blood of the ritual.

• Elliot tested character cards as ritual targets, then used his own card when the Difference Engine accepted it.
• Vanessa realized the ritual had begun and panicked because she did not know which entity she was sacrificing to.
• Elliot instructed Vanessa to offer the excess nail on her left little finger.
• Elliot chose the [Bestowal] option and placed [Path Two] into the slot.
• A bloody light flashed, and a card appeared on the floor before Vanessa.

Vanessa’s small fingernail sacrifices produced cards for supernatural Paths, while Elliot used the Difference Engine to explore how sacrifices powered a branching route toward advancement and obtained a strange secret art. The final ritual left Vanessa screaming in pain after her left index finger was shot away.

• Vanessa discovered that sacrificing a sliver of her fingernail had produced the [Path · Omniscience · Part Two] card and recognized its offerings from a medical report.
• A second card, [Path · Flesh Ascension · Part One], appeared, and Vanessa was controlled into sacrificing another fingernail.
• Elliot used the [Blessing] card to activate the eye slot on the Difference Engine’s map and concluded that sacrifices fueled progress through branching supernatural routes.
• Elliot selected [Distortion] and obtained the [Secret Art · Trigger] card, which described a finger shooting out like a bullet.
• Vanessa clutched her bleeding left hand and discovered that she had lost a finger.

Elliot realized the glowing blood only he could see might be connected to the permanent [Spirit Vision +1] blessing. Vanessa lost her little finger to learn [Trigger], and the chapter ended with her facing treatment and fearing the cost of using the art.

• Elliot questioned whether extraordinary power was a blessing or a curse after seeing Vanessa lose a finger to learn a Formless Art.
• Elliot found a pool of faintly glowing blood in the secret room, but Conrad showed no sign of seeing it.
• Elliot examined the blood and suspected his new [Spirit Vision +1] blessing let him see things others could not.
• Vanessa went to Doctor Norman for treatment because Miss Crow was away and she could not afford the hospital fees.
• Norman prepared to clean and stitch Vanessa's finger stump after learning the severed finger was gone.
• Vanessa recalled that she had received [Trigger] during the sacrifice and that each use of the art would cost her a finger.

Vanessa learned that Mad Rat Disease could animate corpses within a fixed outbreak zone, and she and Elliot realized that it might already have broken out in New Scandinavia. After the operation, Vanessa urgently asked to speak with Doctor Norman in private.

• Doctor Norman operated on Vanessa without anesthetic, while Elliot helped her endure the pain and noticed a supernatural glow around the doctor’s hands and tools.
• Vanessa asked Doctor Norman about Mad Rat Disease, and he explained that it affected the dead, could spread only within a fixed area, and became inactive outside that zone.
• Norman said the corpse Vanessa had brought in was inactive because it had come from outside the affected area.
• Vanessa realized that Mad Rat Disease might have broken out in New Scandinavia, where many corpses were present.
• After finishing the operation, Norman offered Vanessa a prescription, but she asked to speak with him privately about something important.

Elliot used Vanessa’s warning about a Mad Rat Disease patient to question Dr. Norman, who dismissed it as an isolated case. Back at the mansion, Elliot probed Conrad about secret societies and noticed the old butler react with unusual tension when he mentioned the Hammer Brotherhood.

• Vanessa told Dr. Norman that she had encountered a Mad Rat Disease patient near the Harbor District, but Norman dismissed her warning and charged her for treatment.
• Elliot took control of Vanessa long enough to thank Norman and leave, deciding that arguing with the doctor could expose him to danger.
• After leaving the Difference Engine, Elliot went to speak with Conrad, hoping his status as the Sterling Family heir would help him uncover secrets.
• Elliot asked Conrad for information about the Hammer Brotherhood and the Mourning Poetry Society, and Conrad showed unusual hesitation.
• Elliot suspected Conrad’s tension concerned the Hammer Brotherhood, but steered the conversation toward the Mourning Poetry Society and its taste for raw flesh and blood.

Elliot tried to learn about the Mourning Poetry Society but discovered that his request had brought its leader, Flora Prescott, to visit him. He realized his status was apparently high enough for Conrad to invite her directly, though he had no idea why.

• Conrad mistook Elliot's question about eating raw meat for a sign that he understood something about the young master's tastes.
• Elliot explored the mansion using Spirit Vision but found no supernatural traces and learned he could switch the ability off.
• Conrad told Elliot that he had a visitor and insisted he dress formally for dinner.
• Elliot met Flora Prescott, known as Miss Elegy, who oversaw the entire Mourning Poetry Society.
• Elliot realized Conrad had invited the society's leader directly and concluded that his status must be far above hers.

Elliot met Flora, the leader of the Mourning Poetry Society, and learned about the society’s rituals and charitable work. After donating money, he grew curious about Flora’s cooking and hoped to invite her back.

• Elliot deduced that Miss Elegy was a commoner seeking help from the Sterling Family and spoke with her informally.
• Flora explained that the Mourning Poetry Society shared raw meat and blood during Communion and sometimes ate a symbolic amount of a deceased companion’s flesh.
• Flora asked Elliot to support the society’s charity, and Elliot arranged an additional monetary donation.
• Elliot questioned Flora about the society’s practices and concluded that its members did not regularly eat human flesh.
• Elliot noticed Flora’s reaction when he teased her about fine food and guessed she was an excellent cook.
• After Flora left, Elliot told Conrad he wanted to invite her back to try her cooking.

Vanessa visited Winnie, learned that Winnie was caring for several orphaned children, and realized how little she knew about her friend’s burdens. Unable to find Winnie at home, Vanessa went to the Mourning Poetry Society’s hideout, where she began trying to climb in.

• Elliot used Spirit Vision after Flora left and suspected the Mourning Poetry Society had its own supernatural Path.
• Elliot noticed Vanessa’s card was already exploring the Mourning Poetry Society hideout in the Difference Engine.
• Vanessa visited Winnie’s apartment with fruit and learned from Mrs. Lynn that Winnie cared for several children from an orphanage.
• Vanessa left Winnie a note offering support and went to the Mourning Poetry Society’s hideout to look for her.
• Vanessa tried to climb over the hideout’s wall, copying what she remembered doing while under control.