Chapter Summaries

Douglas recognized the approaching footsteps as an army and organized the soldiers into a shield-and-spear formation. As Redd ordered King Ghidorah to attack the advancing half-orcs, the enemy kept filling the gaps and pressing forward, and the formation advanced to meet them.

• Douglas listened to the approaching footsteps, identified them as an army, and ordered the soldiers to form ranks with tower shields and spears.
• Redd saw a large, tightly organized force advancing through the darkness as horns sounded.
• Redd ordered King Ghidorah to attack, and King Ghidorah swept the front ranks with three Gravity Beams.
• The surviving half-orcs filled the cleared gap and began advancing along the flanks as another horn sounded closer.
• Redd ordered the shield-and-spear formation forward, and the soldiers advanced slowly over the uneven, scorched ground while intercepting the half-orcs.

Redd’s forces repelled repeated orc charges with the spear phalanx and aerial attacks from the Demon Dragon Legion, while King Ghidorah watched the darkness beyond the battlefield. The retreating orcs drew back as the ground split open, revealing an enormous wormlike creature with a broad, eyeless head.

• The spear phalanx held against dense waves of orcs while the Demon Dragon Legion and Ehm burned through their ranks and disrupted their reinforcements.
• King Ghidorah remained alert near the camp, watching the darkness beyond the battle line, and Redd noticed its vigilance.
• As the orcs’ horn calls grew irregular and they retreated without scattering, Redd ordered Douglas to advance cautiously and warned King Ghidorah not to follow them far from camp.
• A deep underground roar sounded again, and cracks spread across the ground beside the orcs’ retreat.
• The earth rose into a long ridge, opened into a broad hole, and an enormous wormlike creature emerged with a flat, broad head and dark, opening-and-closing eye sockets.

King Ghidorah grappled with a colossal subterranean worm, pinning it down and draining its energy through his bites. As the worm weakened and tried to escape, King Ghidorah tightened his hold.

• The enormous subterranean worm emerged from the ground, and King Ghidorah rushed to attack its flank.
• The worm slammed into King Ghidorah, but he braced himself and bit into its body with all three heads.
• King Ghidorah steadily absorbed the worm’s energy as it struggled to drag him underground and half-orcs watched from a distance.
• The worm weakened, lost the strength to release its bite on King Ghidorah’s wing, and was pinned against the ground.
• The worm tried to retract its body and escape, but King Ghidorah tightened his bites as its body visibly shriveled.

King Ghidorah killed the corrosive worm with point-blank Gravity Beams, though its attack wounded Ehm and harmed nearby Half-orcs. King Ghidorah then turned its beams on the retreating Half-orc formations, erasing those in their path.

• The worm sprayed corrosive liquid across King Ghidorah, Ehm, the ground, and nearby Half-orcs, but King Ghidorah's armored scales resisted most of the damage.
• King Ghidorah fired three Gravity Beams into the worm's open mouth, tearing its body apart and scattering its corrosive remains across the battlefield.
• Ehm retreated from the corrosive spray and landed farther from the battle with a wound near its right wing root.
• King Ghidorah shook corrosive residue from its body and wings, causing fresh casualties among the Half-orcs.
• King Ghidorah turned toward the Half-orc formations and swept them with Gravity Beams, erasing those caught in their path.

Trolls joined the Half-orcs’ attack, pelting King Ghidorah with stones until Redd authorized it to use wide-area abilities. Redd ordered the troops and Demon Dragon Legion to withdraw to the shore, healed Ehm’s neck wound, and watched the enemy lines falter under King Ghidorah’s aerial pressure.

• Trolls emerged behind the Half-orcs and threw large stones at King Ghidorah, whose response shifted as the impacts accumulated.
• Redd authorized King Ghidorah to use wide-area abilities and ordered Ehm to bring back the Demon Dragon Legion.
• Redd told Douglas to halt the spear formation and retreat, and Douglas led the soldiers backward while keeping their ranks intact.
• Ehm returned with a wound on its neck, and Redd healed it by channeling green light into the damaged tissue.
• King Ghidorah circled above the battlefield, disrupting the Trolls’ aim as the Half-orcs scattered and regrouped.
• Redd ordered everyone to fall back to the shore while soldiers and Demon Dragons withdrew along separate routes.

King Ghidorah drew on the surrounding energy and unleashed a vast golden thunderstorm that swept across the battlefield and far beyond. Redd and Douglas sheltered against a cliff as the storm’s expanding force battered the mountainside, waiting for it to stop.

• King Ghidorah climbed above the battlefield, spread its wings, and began drawing energy through its entire body.
• King Ghidorah roared and formed a growing storm, with golden lightning spreading through the clouds and striking the ground.
• The storm displaced and destroyed rocks, Half-orcs, and trolls as its energy field expanded across the battlefield and beyond.
• Redd and Douglas sheltered behind a cliff while the storm’s light, wind, and tremors swept over the mountainside.
• Douglas asked Redd about the storm, and Redd told him to wait until it stopped.

After King Ghidorah’s lightning storm annihilated the half-orc and troll army, Redd used their mental bond to confirm that nothing remained alive. King Ghidorah then began feeding on the corpses.

• King Ghidorah’s sustained lightning storm weakened and ended, leaving the battlefield scorched and still.
• Redd and the people sheltering nearby straightened up and surveyed the devastated camp as Demon Dragons landed at the edge of the scorched area.
• Redd linked his consciousness with King Ghidorah and examined the battlefield through the three heads’ overlapping vision.
• Redd confirmed that the half-orcs, trolls, and Uruk-hai were all dead and that nothing capable of moving remained.
• King Ghidorah bent down and began eating the troll corpses.

After King Ghidorah finished consuming the battlefield’s remains, Redd ended their mental link and ordered the troops back to camp for a personnel count and supply tally. The soldiers returned, rebuilt the fires, and Douglas began collecting unit reports.

• King Ghidorah tasted the troll, warg, and half-orc remains through their mental link, and Redd severed the connection after a few breaths.
• Redd ordered Douglas to bring everyone back to camp and count personnel, supplies, and losses.
• Douglas relayed the order as soldiers and Demon Dragons returned from the hillside, coastline, and skirmish positions.
• Redd confirmed that no half-orcs or trolls remained alive and walked back toward camp.
• Soldiers relit the campfires while Douglas gathered personnel counts from unit officers.

Redd assessed the camp’s losses and oversaw the cleanup after King Ghidorah’s thunderstorm destroyed the attacking forces. The black mist and cursed creatures remained still, while the surviving half-orcs fled underground.

• Douglas tallied the casualties and damaged supplies, and Redd ordered him to reorganize usable equipment and replenish the fire oil reserve.
• Redd watched King Ghidorah patrol the scorched battlefield and confirmed that it had recovered from the storm.
• Soldiers spent nearly two hours gathering salvage, sorting weapons and armor, and moving corpses while Redd checked the camp’s defenses.
• Redd observed that the black mist had stopped moving and that cursed creatures had withdrawn into their hiding places.
• The surviving half-orcs retreated underground, leaving footprints that led southeast toward a distant fracture zone.

Redd followed a trail of half-orc footprints away from camp with Douglas and King Ghidorah, which he had called away from its food. The trail led them to a vast, deep mine, where Redd surveyed the branching tunnels but could not determine where the footprints went.

• A soldier found footprints while moving an overturned tower shield, and Douglas inspected them and reported their direction and number to Redd.
• Redd ordered King Ghidorah to come with him, promising it could return to its food afterward.
• Douglas led Redd and King Ghidorah southeast along the footprints as the black mist thickened around them.
• They found a wide, circular fissure containing a worn staircase that spiraled down into a deep mine.
• Redd examined the mine’s many levels and tunnel entrances but could not see where the tunnels led or where the footprints continued.

Redd turned back from the mine after a sandworm briefly emerged and vanished, leading him to suspect that something had deliberately guided them there. As he and Douglas prepared to leave, a calm orc in black armor rode up on a black horse and faced King Ghidorah.

• Redd chose not to enter the mine because King Ghidorah could not fit through its passages and the tunnels were unknown.
• A smaller sandworm emerged nearby, watched them, and withdrew underground as King Ghidorah fired three beams at the closing breach.
• Redd connected the worm’s appearance and the clear footprints leading to the mine with a deliberate reconnaissance attempt, then told Douglas to head back.
• Hoofbeats approached from the direction of the mine, and King Ghidorah prepared to attack as Redd waited for the rider.
• A black-armored orc on a tall black horse stopped about thirty paces from King Ghidorah and showed no fear of the dragon.

Redd learned that an unnamed inviter had brought a powerful military force through a transport network anchored by the Valyrian Peninsula, and rejected the rider’s demand that he leave. After King Ghidorah killed the rider and his horse, Redd returned to camp considering the threat and the limits of attacking the underground mines.

• The masked rider told Redd that an inviter had opened a passage between worlds using the peninsula’s volcanoes and magical network as beacons.
• The rider offered to avoid war if Redd and his dragons left, then warned that his forces had a vast military legacy and a continually calibrated transport network.
• Redd ordered King Ghidorah to kill the rider, and King Ghidorah’s Gravity Beam erased the rider, his horse, and the ground beneath them.
• Redd concluded that the passage exited within the Valyrian Peninsula, that King Ghidorah could dominate large ground forces, and that the underground mines would hinder attacks on the Half-orcs’ lair.
• Redd, Douglas, and King Ghidorah returned to camp, where the supplies and tents had been reorganized after the inventory.

Redd spent a sleepless night considering the Half-orcs’ arrival and the underground passage that could bring more forces onto the peninsula. In the morning, he ordered a sweep to clear the island’s surface before nightfall and assigned King Ghidorah to intercept anything emerging from underground.

• Redd returned to his tent while King Ghidorah kept watch at the edge of the scorched area.
• Redd reasoned that the passage beneath the Fourteen Flames had operated for some time and could send more enemies through different exits.
• After resting through the night, Redd left his tent and went to the temporary command post, where Douglas awaited orders.
• Redd ordered the Demon Dragon Legion to clear living creatures from the surface before nightfall to prevent the curse’s black mist from gathering again.
• Redd assigned King Ghidorah to provide aerial surveillance and kill any Sandworms, worms, or Half-orcs that emerged from underground.

Redd oversaw the morning advance and ordered food supplies requisitioned after learning the Demon Dragon Legion’s meat would last only twenty-one days. He remained in camp studying the clearing map as Douglas left to deliver the order.

• Douglas organized the teams’ advance, while the Demon Dragon Legion took flight to clear its assigned areas and King Ghidorah circled above the region.
• Redd returned to his tent and updated the clearing-progress list as Dragonfire struck the ground in the distance.
• Douglas reported that the soldiers’ food would last about three months, but the Demon Dragon Legion’s meat would last at most twenty-one days at the current pace.
• Redd ordered food delivered within twenty days through Volantis Port Authority and the Magistrates of the nine City-States, threatening to dispose of officials who failed.
• Douglas took the requisition order and inventory list toward the docks, while Redd stayed behind to examine the clearing map.

Redd tracked the Demon Dragon Legion’s progress clearing the terrain while supplies were adjusted to meet the dragons’ enormous appetite. The first dragons returned to camp to feed as the clearing operation stretched farther and consumed more fuel.

• Camp officers reduced dry rations and dried meat and added dried beans and grain to the soldiers’ meals.
• Redd ignored the hostile rumors spreading through the nine Free Cities because they did not affect his plans or supply lines.
• Douglas considered how the newly appointed Magistrates would meet Redd’s grain demands to avoid losing their positions.
• Redd listened to reports, marked the Demon Dragon Legion’s advance and terrain on a map, and noted that fuel use rose with the length of the clearing route.
• The first Demon Dragons returned to camp and rapidly ate meat and bone from the shrinking food piles.

Redd monitored the camp’s recovery and studied the supply route from Volantis across the dangerous Smoking Sea, recalling how its volcanic hazards had nearly killed him. As the Demon Dragon Legion returned, the food shipments remained dependent on a route Redd feared could fail.

• Redd surveyed the camp as soldiers rested, replenished equipment, and made space for the returning Demon Dragons while King Ghidorah watched from high above.
• Redd reviewed and annotated a topographic map, then marked Volantis as the origin of the Fleet’s planned food shipments.
• Redd considered the Smoking Sea’s unpredictable steam eruptions and ongoing volcanic activity, remembering an incident that had nearly killed him.
• Redd checked the distant horizon for signs of trouble, then returned to the map and traced the shipping route more firmly.
• Redd felt the ground tremble as the Demon Dragon Legion lowered its altitude and returned to camp.

Redd focused on clearing the surface and strengthening the camp while leaving the mine tunnels untouched until reinforcements arrived. As the black mist receded and the camp grew into a fortified settlement, King Ghidorah patrolled overhead to eliminate underground threats that surfaced and disperse the clouds.

• Douglas reported that the ground between the camp and mine had been cleared, the black mist was thinning, and no new footprints had emerged from the mine.
• Redd ordered his people to avoid the mines and finish clearing the surface before dealing with the underground threats.
• Over several days, the camp expanded with double walls, wooden houses, a tower, and organized paths and living areas.
• The Demon Dragon Legion continued burning away surface creatures and their hiding places as Redd marked their progress on a map.
• Redd assigned King Ghidorah to survey the area from above, kill Sandworms and Half-orcs that surfaced, and gradually disperse the clouds.

Redd oversaw the camp’s progress on the Valyrian Peninsula, where the completed harbor opened a supply route for reinforcements and reconstruction. A shortage of timber forced him to pause expansion and request more workers and supplies from Douglas, while a faint tremor passed beneath the camp before the chapter ended with Redd checking its firelit defenses.

• Redd planned to establish a Valyrian Freehold centered on himself and the Demon Dragon Legion.
• Redd inspected the completed harbor and received Douglas’s dispatch saying reinforcements and craftsmen would soon depart from Volantis.
• Redd planned the harbor’s expansion and camp layout as soldiers speculated about future construction.
• Redd suspended the camp’s expansion because timber was scarce and prioritized harbor repairs and lighting.
• Redd sent Douglas a raven message urging faster delivery of supplies and personnel, especially craftsmen.
• Redd felt a faint tremor beneath the ground and later inspected the perimeter wall from the camp’s wooden tower.

Redd maintained the camp’s defenses while waiting for the half-orcs to act, and a transport fleet arrived carrying supplies and workers from Volantis. Douglas reported that the Smoking Sea was calming and that Volantis’s officials had hurried to fulfill the requisitions.

• Redd continued watching the ground for signs of underground movement, but detected no tremors and kept the camp’s defenses in place.
• A lookout spotted a fleet of more than ten ships approaching the harbor and alerted the camp.
• Douglas arrived with the fleet and told Redd that the voyage had been calm and the Smoking Sea had fewer steam vents.
• Douglas handed Redd a list of grain, fire oil, tools, and building materials, and reported that craftsmen and laborers from Volantis had come to help with construction.
• Douglas explained that Volantis’s officials had gathered supplies quickly because the previous magistrates’ executions had frightened them into action.

Douglas presented Redd with a shorter sea route that could keep supplies arriving regularly, while the camp expanded and secured its facilities. After confirming the island was clear of creatures, Redd traveled to the ruins of Valyria City and announced that he wanted to rebuild it.

• Douglas showed Redd his revised route from Volantis and estimated that the fleet could complete a round trip in about thirteen days.
• Redd ordered the camp to begin laying warehouse foundations, and Douglas warned that storing six months of supplies would require more space and building materials.
• Craftsmen reinforced the harbor, dug warehouse foundations, and installed supports along the perimeter wall as Redd inspected the construction and drainage.
• King Ghidorah and the Demon Dragon Legion patrolled the camp's expanded perimeter, and Redd confirmed that no creatures remained nearby before reducing large-scale clearing operations.
• Redd led craftsmen and guards to the ruins of Valyria City, accompanied by King Ghidorah and Ehm.
• Redd surveyed the ruined city and told Douglas that he wanted to rebuild it.