Chapter Summaries

Vanessa and Dorothea confronted United Mining, whose private army had taken control of the East District. After Lawrence Clark tried to shoot Bryce, Allen intervened and seized him, leaving both sides poised for violence.

• Vanessa recognized that United Mining's emblem resembled the Troy Society's and learned from Dorothea that the company used a private army.
• Lawrence Clark announced that United Mining had purchased the East District and asked Bryce to discuss business.
• Dorothea warned Bryce not to trust Lawrence, who drew a revolver and shot at him.
• Bryce threw his machete at Lawrence, but a guard blocked it with a shield.
• Allen sliced Lawrence's bullet in half and lunged through the guards' shield wall after Vanessa called out.
• Allen grabbed Lawrence by the throat as the Wild Dog Gang and United Mining's soldiers prepared to attack.

Lawrence revealed that Mining United had come to harvest the people of the East District as medical resources and tried to tempt Vanessa and Dorothea with power and money. They rejected his worldview, and Allen forced him to explain that the Circle of Vitas might have caused the Mad Rat Disease before Lawrence offered gold pounds to negotiate.

• Allen disarmed Lawrence and held him while Dorothea demanded to see Mining United's East District contract.
• Dorothea used the contract to challenge Lawrence's authority in the Harbor District, and he explained that Mining United intended to harvest the East District's residents as resources.
• Lawrence tried to persuade Vanessa and Dorothea that they should join Mining United and profit from the city's brutal order, but Vanessa reaffirmed her resolve to change the world.
• Damian spoke of people who challenged unjust cycles, and he and the others stood against Lawrence's attempt to make them accept his worldview.
• Allen demanded to know whether Mining United had caused Mad Rat Disease or killed someone, and Lawrence denied responsibility while pointing to the Circle of Vitas.
• Allen loosened his grip after consulting Dorothea and Vanessa, and Lawrence offered gold pounds to negotiate.

Dorothea used Elliot Sterling’s sponsorship of the Holy Communion distribution to force Lawrence to compensate the Harbor District and bar United Mining from returning. After donating their compensation to the refugees, Damian, Vanessa, and the Mourning Poetry Society left with donations totaling one thousand four hundred and fifty-one pounds.

• Dorothea told Lawrence that he had targeted Elliot Sterling during the charity distribution, making Lawrence fear the consequences of offending the Sterling heir.
• Lawrence offered blank checks instead of sending his soldiers against Dorothea and the others.
• Damian received a one-thousand-gold-pound check for the refugees, Lawrence paid the other key figures, and United Mining was barred from the Harbor District.
• Dorothea told Vanessa to keep her fifty-pound compensation for losing a finger, while Bryce returned his check and Damian donated his.
• Vanessa donated one pound, and Damian recorded her gift as one hundred and three leo beneath Elliot Sterling’s hundred-gold-pound donation.
• The Mourning Poetry Society returned by carriage with its donations increased from one hundred pounds to one thousand four hundred and fifty-one pounds.

Vanessa and her companions discussed a mysterious letter from the Troy Society and struggled to find a way to investigate the noble organization. Elliot realized his history differed from Vanessa’s and decided to use his family’s influence to contact the Troy Society without letting them inspect his Difference Engine.

• Vanessa told Dorothea and Allen about the letter from the Troy Society, and they wondered whether the group had noticed her as the Mad Caregiver.
• Dorothea recognized the letter’s extraordinary stationery as the kind used by the nobility and explained that her merchant family had little access to powerful nobles.
• Vanessa’s group found no clear way to investigate the Troy Society or the Circle of Vitas, leaving Vanessa frustrated by their lack of noble connections.
• Elliot realized that Vanessa’s historical knowledge differed from his own after he recalled that the Troy Society had emerged from the Golden Dawn.
• Elliot inferred that the Sterling Family held great influence in the Empire from the Public Security Bureau’s and United Mining’s dealings with him.
• Elliot asked Conrad to invite Troy Society representatives to introduce their products, but refused to let them service his suspicious Difference Engine.

Elliot tried to learn about secret societies but noticed Conrad growing suspicious, so he disguised his question as an interest in the Rose Troupe. After the Troy Society representatives disappointed him and Lillian agreed to visit, the Difference Engine reported that the Night Watch Bureau investigation was complete.

• Elliot noticed Conrad's wariness when he hinted at contacting organizations like the Mourning Poetry Society, then deflected suspicion by asking about Lillian and the Rose Troupe.
• Elliot asked Conrad to gather information about the Mourning Poetry Society, poetry, history, and the occult, and copied a cryptic letter to send to Lillian.
• Two Troy Society representatives visited with Difference Engine catalogs, and Elliot angrily sent them away for knowing little about its history and significance.
• Conrad returned with Lillian's response that she wanted to visit Elliot, leaving him to feign delight despite his reluctance.
• Elliot saw the Difference Engine display that the Night Watch Bureau investigation had been completed.

At the Night Watch Bureau, Inspector Luke welcomed Eleanor as his assistant and showed her the Difference Engine, [The Thinker], which detected an Evil Name but could not identify its organization. Elsewhere, Elliot saw that the Bureau had uncovered nothing and examined the [Evil Name] card the Engine produced.

• Luke learned that Eleanor had awakened a [Relic], survived madness, and become able to control her frenzy, so he appointed her his assistant.
• Luke took Eleanor to the confidential records room and explained that [The Thinker] monitored supernatural activity across New Scandinavia.
• Luke found a report in which [The Thinker] detected an Evil Name but left the organization field blank, a result he had never seen before.
• Elliot read the Bureau's report that it had uncovered no information and concluded that the investigation had found nothing.
• Elliot recognized the [Evil Name] card as a negative effect but had no idea how to remove it, then looked over the other cards.

Elliot stopped the Night Watch Bureau’s investigation by occupying the only [Evil Name] card, but accidentally started a conversation about it. Vanessa then woke Alice and broke into Dorothea’s eighth-floor dorm room, where she said she had done something very evil.

• Elliot found Character Cards for Night Watch Bureau detective Luke Dennis Holmes and Detective Assistant Eleanor Bennett, then decided their incompetence made them less of a threat than the investigation itself.
• Elliot pulled the [Evil Name] card from the Difference Engine and used other cards to keep it occupied, preventing the machine from producing another copy and halting the investigation.
• Elliot noticed that the cards he had inserted had started a [Conversation] about [Evil Name].
• Vanessa left the sleeping Alice and climbed through a window into Dorothea’s eighth-floor dorm room, taking Dorothea’s revolver from her.
• Vanessa told the frightened Dorothea that she had done something very evil, and Dorothea worried that Allen and the orphans might be in danger.

Vanessa told Dorothea that she had founded an Esoteric Cult, while Elliot struggled to control their conversation through the Difference Engine. The Night Watch Bureau failed to detect the Evil Name again and decided to keep monitoring the Engine.

• Vanessa woke Dorothea in the dormitory and confessed that she had founded an Esoteric Cult, which she considered extremely evil.
• A dormitory resident knocked to complain about the noise, and Dorothea promised to treat everyone to dessert before attacking Vanessa.
• Elliot recalled how he had controlled Vanessa’s journey to Dorothea and struggled through a teammate battle and conversation without hurting Dorothea.
• Elliot considered having Vanessa and Dorothea occupy the Evil Name card with Conversation whenever the Night Watch Bureau investigated.
• Luke told Eleanor that The Thinker could no longer detect the Evil Name, and he decided to observe the Difference Engine before requesting repairs from the Troy Society.

Elliot sought information about Lillian and the Rose Troupe to prepare for meeting people beyond the mansion, but a disturbing dream of Flora left him fearing something had happened to her. He found a supernatural strand of Flora’s hair in his hand and hurried to inspect the Difference Engine before Lillian arrived.

• Elliot asked Conrad to gather information about the Rose Troupe after learning that Lillian would visit the next morning.
• Elliot learned that Lillian had risen to fame through her dances and that the Rose Troupe was touring the Empire.
• Elliot dreamed of Flora, whom he also knew as Miss Elegy, bleeding and turning away from him.
• Elliot woke with a strand of black hair in his hand, used Spirit Vision to confirm it was supernatural, and searched his room for other traces.
• Elliot went to the study to check the Difference Engine while Conrad prepared for Lillian’s arrival.

Elliot used the Difference Engine to turn a lock of hair from a dream into a supernatural card, then welcomed Lillian, a celebrated dancer, to the Sterling manor. Their lively conversation left him captivated, and Lillian offered to show him her dance.

• Elliot fed the mysterious long hair into the Difference Engine, which produced a card named [Flora's Breath] and identified it as something from a dream.
• Elliot prepared to meet Lillian, a famous dancer who stood apart from the usual noble social circuit.
• Lillian arrived at the Sterling manor, asked to pick a flower, and let Elliot place a red rose in her hat.
• Lillian explored the manor and drew Elliot into an easy conversation, while his Spirit Vision showed no supernatural glimmer around her.
• Lillian noticed Elliot staring and asked if he wanted to see her dance.

Lillian captivated Elliot and the household with a passionate dance, then secretly passed him a ring bearing a message from the Rose Cross. Elliot discovered an address on the note and wondered what awaited him there.

• Elliot cleared the drawing room and arranged for musicians to accompany Lillian's dance.
• Lillian performed an intense, entrancing dance that left her accessories scattered and the onlookers spellbound.
• Lillian teased Elliot, briefly leaning against him as she secretly slipped a ring into his hand.
• Elliot examined the ring and found a note reading, "The Rose Cross sends its regards," with an address at High Street, Claridge Hotel, room 307.
• Elliot realized the address was likely in the city and probably not where the Rose Troupe was staying.

Elliot received a ring and note from the Rose Cross and tried to uncover what his predecessor had done. While speaking with Lillian, he realized the East District’s plague and rapid redevelopment might have been part of a deliberate plan, and he used the Mourning Poetry Society to hint that he wanted her to meet Miss Elegy.

• Elliot hid the Rose Cross’s ring and note, suspecting the society’s approach was connected to his predecessor.
• Elliot learned from Lillian that the East District’s new Art Gallery and theater were being prepared for her performance, despite the district recently being devastated by plague.
• Elliot wondered whether the plague had cleared the East District for redevelopment and thought of the people buried in a mass grave beneath the future stage.
• Conrad refused to let Elliot attend Lillian’s opening performance, and Lillian comforted him when she saw how exhausted he was.
• Elliot asked Lillian about the Mourning Poetry Society and mentioned its leader, Miss Elegy; Lillian picked up his hint and decided to see her.

After Lillian left, Elliot planned to use Vanessa to investigate the Rose Cross, but the Difference Engine soon showed that she was in combat again. At the Mourning Poetry Society, Damian privately asked Vanessa whether her regenerative power could heal others, and he seemed relieved when she said it required a sacrifice.

• Lillian left Elliot after telling him she would write again, and he decided to have Vanessa investigate the Rose Cross before visiting the Mourning Poetry Society.
• Elliot returned to the Difference Engine and saw a red interrupt countdown indicating that Vanessa was in combat.
• Dorothea confronted Vanessa about climbing into her room at night, but Vanessa insisted she would keep following the Lord’s instructions.
• The Mourning Poetry Society continued distributing Holy Communion in the Harbor District with escorts from the Public Security Bureau and United Mining.
• Damian stayed behind after breakfast and asked Vanessa privately whether her power to restore flesh could heal another person.
• Vanessa said healing required a sacrifice, and Damian replied that it did not matter.

Damian asked Vanessa to save Flora, but an unseen force stopped him from explaining before Elliot’s [Interrupt] caused Vanessa to slap him and end the strange light gathering on his forehead. Damian then led Vanessa to Flora, whose worsening condition was revealed as a horrific curse, and Vanessa realized that speaking about it might spread it.

• Damian struggled to ask Vanessa to save Flora as white lights gathered beneath the skin of his forehead.
• Elliot’s [Interrupt] activated, and Vanessa slapped Damian, making the lights vanish.
• Damian took Vanessa to the basement and gave her a book titled Immortality-The Collective Delusion of Short-Lived Monkeys.
• Vanessa found Flora lying in a pool of blood, with wounds across the upper half of her face shining with white light under Spirit Vision.
• Damian said Flora had always been in that condition and that it was getting worse.
• Vanessa guessed that the curse would spread if Damian talked about Flora’s condition.

Vanessa discovered that Damian and Flora were blood relatives and that Damian planned to take the curse onto himself so Flora could live. Though she admitted she had no solution, she drew a flawless Sacrifice Ritual, leaving Damian stunned and worshipful.

• Vanessa realized the curse passed through the Lancaster bloodline and that Damian had changed his surname to Graves to deceive it.
• Damian confirmed Flora had chosen to break the curse’s cycle and that he intended to bear the curse himself so she could live.
• Vanessa said she had no solution but suggested trying Sacrifices with whatever they could offer.
• Vanessa used Flora’s blood to draw a Sacrifice Ritual, and Damian watched her create it with perfect precision.
• Damian knelt before the Ritual and began doubting his own ability to draw one.

Vanessa activated a recipientless sacrificial ritual, leading Damian to believe he had glimpsed the all-encompassing Great Being called the Blank. She sacrificed the curse entwined around Flora Belenga Lancaster, and the offering was accepted, but Vanessa questioned whether Damian should receive the resulting bestowal.

• Damian recognized Vanessa’s ritual drawing as superhuman and wondered if she belonged to the Ascension Society.
• Vanessa activated the ritual without naming a recipient, and Damian concluded that all sacrifices might flow to an all-encompassing being he called the Blank.
• Damian fell to his knees in ecstatic reverence, then offered himself as the sacrifice so Flora could be saved.
• Vanessa sacrificed the curse entwined around Flora Belenga Lancaster, and the ritual accepted the offering as Flora’s bleeding slowed.
• Vanessa asked what bestowal Damian wanted, then objected that the reward should not go to him because Flora owned the curse and had not agreed.

Elliot examined Flora’s supernatural path and discovered that her abilities had been gained randomly, while a mysterious presence let her grow stronger at the cost of her life force. Damian explained that Flora had chosen to end the Mourning Poetry Society’s reliance on its curse, then hinted that the book Vanessa held was the society’s former sacred relic.

• Elliot studied Flora’s branching diagram and saw that she had selected abilities across disconnected paths while skipping the gateways to higher tiers.
• Elliot asked Vanessa to question Damian, who explained that the Society received supernatural abilities randomly rather than choosing them.
• Elliot realized Flora could gain strength without sacrifices because of another presence within her, while the curse consumed her life force.
• Damian said Flora had chosen to return the Mourning Poetry Society to an ordinary society because its sacred relic had lost its sanctity.
• Damian looked at the book he had given Vanessa, and Vanessa froze at its title, Immortality—The Collective Delusion of Short-Lived Monkeys.
• Damian said there was no true immortality.

After Flora sacrificed the Bloodline Curse, Damian realized she had gained power without paying its usual cost, and Elliot chose to advance her supernatural abilities. Flora became a first-tier Supernatural person and received three new ability options, leaving Elliot to decide which one to select.

• Vanessa suggested that Flora could sacrifice the Bloodline Curse and keep its power, and Damian realized she had become stronger without bearing the curse.
• Elliot chose [Touch the Supernatural · First Tier] for Flora, activating it and gaining [Spirituality +1].
• The tabletop announced that Flora had officially become a first-tier Supernatural person, could use Spirituality to sink or rise when entering a dream, and had all conditions restored.
• Elliot saw three new options—[Wistful Eulogy], [Insight into Weakness], and [Ice Body]—and considered how his choice would shape Flora’s path.

Elliot chose [Insight into Weakness] for Flora, who woke healed and learned that the curse had been sacrificed without Damian giving anything up. When the Mourning Poetry Society returned, Lillian Rose arrived looking for Miss Elegy, and Flora claimed she was the basement monster and went to fetch her.

• Elliot rejected [Wistful Eulogy] and [Ice Body] before choosing [Insight into Weakness].
• Flora woke up in the basement, discovered her wounds were healing, and asked Damian what he had sacrificed to remove her curse.
• Damian told Flora he had sacrificed nothing, leaving her confused and alarmed as she checked herself for missing body parts.
• The Mourning Poetry Society members returned and panicked when they saw blood-covered Flora chasing Damian upstairs with a shoe.
• Lillian Rose introduced herself and asked Flora if she was Miss Elegy; Flora claimed Elegy was downstairs and went back to fetch her.

Dorothea encountered Eli, the boy whose plague-infected mother she had shot, and struggled to find him a safe home. As Allen hesitated to take Eli in because of his ties to the Esoteric Cult, a red-haired girl offered to support him through the Theatre Troupe.

• Dorothea recognized Eli, whose mother she had killed, and Eli thanked her for stopping to help them.
• Dorothea examined Eli's healing wounds and worried about what would happen to him after the Holy Communion distributions ended.
• Alice and Allen explained that orphanages could provide food and shelter, though most offered few prospects for children after they grew up.
• Allen hesitated to invite Eli to live with him because the Esoteric Cult and its plans for revenge could put the boy in danger.
• A red-haired girl offered to have Eli help the Theatre Troupe and said she would earn money to support the children.