Recaps

Lin Ze and Grimm investigated a cave and discovered the remains of Albert Pendragon beneath a huge pelt. When the cave began to shake, they tried to flee, but a colossal creature opened a dark-gold eye beneath the stone hall.

• Lin Ze and Grimm followed deep footprints through the woods to a cave marked by a broken tree and trampled shrubs.
• They entered the cave and found bones, claw marks, and a crushed human body beneath a pile of pelts.
• Lin Ze found a silver band engraved with A.P., and Grimm identified its owner as Albert Pendragon, the lord's younger brother who had vanished three years earlier.
• Grimm examined an enormous gray-white pelt as the cave began to tremble, then warned Lin Ze that something inside was waking.
• The ground erupted and hurled Lin Ze and Grimm into the air, revealing a gigantic dark-gold eye beneath the stone hall.

Lin Ze encountered a gigantic dragon that awakened a powerful response in his dragon blood, then followed it to a stone fortress in a hidden valley. A gray-haired man there welcomed him as a Dragonborn, leaving Lin Ze unsure why he had been brought to the settlement.

• Lin Ze escaped the collapsing cavern with the unconscious Grimm as an enormous black-scaled dragon emerged from underground.
• The dragon’s presence triggered Lin Ze’s dragon blood, covering him in dark-gold patterns and scales before it let him move again.
• The dragon invited Lin Ze to climb onto its back, and he rode with it for about fifteen minutes to a valley.
• Lin Ze saw farmland and a stone fortress in the valley, and the dragon’s growl prompted the gates to open.
• A gray-haired man welcomed Lin Ze as a Dragonborn and led him toward the fortress.

Lin Ze learned that Whitewater Valley’s people believed he was the Dragonborn destined to lift the curse on the Black Forest, and that an ancestor had left him an item that could help him return home. After agreeing to investigate, he heard how the forest had spread and killed his father, but the curse remained unexplored.

• Colin told Lin Ze that Whitewater Valley called people like him Dragonborn and believed he could lift the curse on the Black Forest.
• Colin explained that the forest had been cursed five hundred years earlier, was steadily expanding, and could not be burned or safely cut down.
• Colin said the valley’s ancestors had left Lin Ze an item tied to his return home, but would only give it to him after he resolved the curse.
• Lin Ze agreed to try to help, and Colin thanked him on behalf of the valley’s people.
• Colin showed Lin Ze a map of the forest and told him that his father had entered it with seven others, returned alone three days later, and died two days afterward.

Lin Ze investigated the expanding woods in Whitewater Valley and discovered clues pointing to an old boundary marker and a growing disturbance beneath the soil. He planned to enter the woods the next day after making preparations.

• Eve brought Colin two strange, dark mushrooms she had found on the northern slope, and Colin suspected they had been affected by the woods.
• Lin Ze compared generations of records and learned the woods’ expansion had accelerated after the valley cleared land two hundred years earlier and moved an ancient boundary marker.
• Colin told Lin Ze that the marker was a rune-carved pillar said to have been left by the devil who cursed the valley.
• Lin Ze and Colin visited the northern slope, where Lin Ze felt a faint tremor coming from deep in the ground near the woods.
• Lin Ze decided to prepare and enter the woods the next day, then returned to the fort and ate mushroom soup with Colin and Eve.

Lin Ze entered the Black Forest to investigate its strange tremors and discovered living slime and attacking branches. He found a slime-covered boundary marker, but the forest fell silent and mist obscured his way back as he tried to copy its writing.

• Eve prepared dry rations for Lin Ze and followed him toward the Black Forest, agreeing to wait at its edge while he went in alone.
• Lin Ze found living slime covering a root and used Lumos to make the glowing slime retreat into the trees.
• A branch tracked Lin Ze and reached for him, so he raised an earth wall and tore the branch from its trunk.
• Lin Ze found a boundary marker in a shallow pit and caused the slime covering its carved writing to withdraw.
• The forest went silent and mist hid Lin Ze’s route back, so he began making a magical rubbing of the marker’s writing.

Lin Ze found himself back on the street and in the home from his previous life, where his parents welcomed him and everything seemed familiar. He recognized the flaws in the memories recreating them, rejected the illusion, and walked out.

• Lin Ze emerged from the woods onto the street where he had rented a room in his previous life.
• Lin Ze's parents called to him, and his mother led him home while his father followed.
• Lin Ze ate a meal with his parents and listened to his mother's familiar chatter.
• Lin Ze announced that he had to go and explained that the details of the scene did not match his memories of his parents.
• The room froze, and Lin Ze opened the door and stepped outside.

Lin Ze entered a living forest and discovered a stone pillar bearing the Chinese words “You've come.” The forest’s consciousness showed him a vision of a gray-robed man planting a staff among seven pillars, then asked Lin Ze to help it discover what it was.

• Lin Ze walked through the living forest as its trunks bent aside and countless eyes watched him.
• He found a clean stone pillar in a clearing and read the Chinese inscription “You've come.”
• The pillar showed Lin Ze a vision of a gray-robed man standing among seven pillars and driving a staff into a fissure filled with roots.
• The vision shattered, and a voice speaking Chinese identified itself as the forest’s consciousness.
• The forest’s consciousness told Lin Ze that the man had brought it from somewhere far away and asked what it was, saying Lin Ze was the only one who could see the vision’s contents.

Lin Ze entered the woods’ consciousness and asked it to stop expanding into the settlement, but it refused and attacked him. After Lin Ze used Fiendfyre and narrowly sent the growing flames through a rift, he tried to resume negotiations.

• Lin Ze spoke with the woods’ consciousness and learned it saw its growth as natural and refused to make way for the people living nearby.
• Lin Ze threatened to prune the woods, and it returned him to his body as dark green eyes opened across the trees.
• Lin Ze blasted a tree with Reducto, then used Fiendfyre to repel roots that attacked him.
• The woods confined and fed the Fiendfyre, causing it to grow beyond Lin Ze’s control.
• Lin Ze opened a rift with Boundary Break and sent the flames into the void before proposing that they talk again.

Lin Ze fought the forest consciousness as its roots poisoned him and drained his magic. Dawn scorched the roots and trunks, but they regenerated stronger, leaving Lin Ze weakened as they surged toward him again.

• The forest floor collapsed and its roots ensnared Lin Ze, piercing him with barbs that drained his magic and spread blue-black poison beneath his skin.
• Lin Ze blasted the roots with Reducto and tried to escape across the trees, but the forest attacked him with roots and branches.
• The forest consciousness told Lin Ze that it wanted to consume the magic inside him and urged him to stop struggling.
• Lin Ze cast Dawn, scorching the roots and shutting the trees' eyes, but the forest regenerated and grew stronger.
• The forest's roots surged toward Lin Ze as Dawn drained his magic and the poison spread through his body.

Lin Ze escaped the enchanted woods but collapsed from poisoned root wounds, only to wake tied up in a barn. After recovering his wand and freeing himself, he confronted Ainsley, a steward whose rune-etched rod suppressed magic, and revealed that her weapon was not enough to stop him.

• Lin Ze escaped the woods through a Boundary Break, severing the roots that had hooked into his leg, then treated his wounds and drank an antidote before losing consciousness.
• Lin Ze woke tied to a wooden frame in a barn, where his wand and Undetectable Extension Box had been taken from him.
• Lin Ze used Accio to retrieve his wand, broke the ropes, and hid the wooden case as he heard his captors approaching.
• Ainsley entered with three armed men and introduced herself as the steward of a neighboring territory, then used a rune-etched metal rod to suppress Lin Ze's magic.
• Lin Ze walked through the rod's pressure and told Ainsley that her weapon was still not enough to stop him.

Lin Ze fought off Ainsley’s armed men in the granary, revealing that their weapons could barely hurt him. Ainsley’s sister, Sera Morrison, arrived with soldiers, dismissed everyone else, and introduced herself to Lin Ze as a northern border patrol officer who had come to meet the Dragonborn.

• Ainsley activated her glowing rod as four men attacked Lin Ze with a hatchet, a ball and chain, clubs, and a dagger.
• Lin Ze used his strength and dragon scales to defeat the attackers, leaving them injured across the granary.
• Sera Morrison arrived with eight armored soldiers, ordered them and Ainsley out, and remained alone with Lin Ze.
• Sera introduced herself as a northern border patrol officer and asked Lin Ze if he was the Dragonborn people in Whitewater Valley had been discussing.

Saira explained the kingdom’s witch hunts and asked Lin Ze to investigate disappearances near an old northern watchtower. In exchange, she offered the item Lin Ze had been promised for helping Whitewater Valley, and showed him a bone.

• Saira told Lin Ze that King Constantine had ordered wizards arrested and sent to the royal capital, where more than twenty captured in the north had vanished from public view.
• Saira explained that the witch hunts began after Constantine stripped an unknown wizard of the title of Witch King.
• Saira asked Lin Ze to investigate an old watchtower where soldiers and villagers had disappeared and most returning investigators had gone mad.
• Lin Ze asked what he would receive for helping, and Saira said she had obtained the item promised by Whitewater Valley’s chief.
• Saira pulled a bone from inside her clothes.

Lin Ze recognized an unusual finger bone Saira had received from Colin and learned that it might be connected to finding a way home. He agreed to investigate the abandoned watchtower near Bitterwater Swamp and prepared to leave with Saira the next day.

• Lin Ze recognized the finger bone Saira had brought from Colin and placed it in his Undetectable Extension Box.
• Saira told Lin Ze that guards and craftsmen had disappeared at the old watchtower, three survivors had gone mad, and the surrounding villages had mostly emptied.
• Lin Ze agreed to investigate the watchtower, while Saira offered to accompany him and Ainsley objected before leaving with attendants.
• Lin Ze and Saira headed back to Whitewater Valley, and Saira explained they would cross Bitterwater Swamp by a hunters' path to reach the watchtower.

Lin Ze and Saira told Colin that the Black Forest was a living magical system they could not stop and urged Whitewater Valley to prepare to evacuate. Saira reduced the valley’s grain levy and offered help relocating its residents, then she and Lin Ze departed for the south.

• Lin Ze told Colin that the Black Forest was a living magical creature that he could not destroy, and recommended that Whitewater Valley’s residents move away.
• Saira told Colin she had secured a further thirty-percent reduction in the valley’s grain levy and said the patrol could help relocate residents who chose to leave.
• Eve asked Saira about the southern land, and Saira said it was more fertile and easier to irrigate but subject to stricter rules.
• Eve gave Lin Ze flatbreads and dried meat, and Lin Ze and Saira left Whitewater Valley the next morning.
• After they left the valley, Saira asked Lin Ze about the Black Forest’s consciousness, and he explained that wizards differed from ordinary people.

Lin Ze and Saira traveled north from Whitewater Valley, crossing rough terrain and learning more about each other’s work. After finding signs of recent activity in an abandoned quarrying village, they continued to a sheltered hollow and made camp for the night.

• Saira warned Lin Ze not to eat the sour berries and tied up the pony’s ears before they crossed a stretch where bandits might appear.
• During a midday rest, Saira described the hardships of patrol work, and Lin Ze jokingly claimed to be a dark wizard; Saira said she trusted her instincts about him.
• Saira led Lin Ze through the ruins of a former quarrying village and found fresh wood ash, which she suspected had been left by bandits.
• Lin Ze and Saira reached a sheltered hollow before nightfall, shared their meager rations, and lit a fire.
• Sela prepared the camping gear and told Lin Ze to take the first watch while she rested.

Lin Ze and Saira traveled north to Bitterwater Swamp after discovering that several people had approached their camp during the night. They reached Old Matt’s hut, learned about disappearances near a watchtower, and prepared to enter the swamp the next day.

• Lin Ze found fresh tracks from four or five people outside the camp’s protective charm, and Saira suspected they were the group seen near Quarry Village.
• Lin Ze and Saira traveled north for about four hours and arrived at Bitterwater Swamp.
• Old Matt told them that people who entered the swamp had disappeared or died, and he described a path through it.
• Old Matt showed them an old swamp map, which Lin Ze memorized and Saira tucked away.
• Saira agreed to leave her pony behind when she and Lin Ze entered the swamp the next day.

Lin Ze and Saira traveled into the swamp, where he used magic to make their journey safer and answered her questions about wizards and their schools. While sharing toasted bread at a midday rest, Saira asked why he had agreed to help her and described the arrogant wizard who had once intimidated her father.

• Old Matt gave Lin Ze and Saira food, boots, and advice about marking their route and avoiding poisonous green water.
• Lin Ze and Saira entered the swamp, and Lin Ze hardened the mud beneath his feet with his wand as they talked about wizarding education and patrol training.
• Lin Ze explained his yew wand and the saying that the wand chose the wizard while they followed a narrow branch deeper into the swamp.
• At midday, Lin Ze toasted their flatbread with a small flame, and Saira asked why he had agreed to help her.
• Saira recalled that a wizard at her father's castle had insulted his wine and frozen the dining table to frighten him.

Lin Ze and Saira crossed a dangerous, sprawling swamp and made camp in a stone shelter for the night. As they shared food and talked, Saira learned that Lin Ze came from a place beyond the maps of their era, while Lin Ze wondered where Mia and Sirius had been sent.

• Lin Ze tested the milky sap of the water lilies on a summoned toad, and the plant sap killed it before he led Saira through the patch.
• Lin Ze and Saira walked across the swamp all day, then used Lumos to reach a clearing as dusk brought thicker mist.
• Lin Ze transformed stones into a shelter and stove, and he and Saira cooked and ate salted meat with pickled vegetables.
• Saira asked about the swamp's past and Lin Ze's origins, and Lin Ze said he came from a place absent from maps of this era.
• After setting defensive spells and watching the mist clear above the swamp, Lin Ze thought of Mia and Sirius and hoped they would survive.

Saira and Lin Ze crossed the swamp on the back of a giant turtle, which stopped at a school of dangerous carnivorous fish. Lin Ze lured the fish away with a spell, and the turtle resumed its journey into darker waters.

• Saira woke to find that the ground beneath their camp was the back of a giant turtle carrying them deeper into the swamp.
• Lin Ze and Saira ate breakfast on the turtle's back and gathered water celery growing in a shallow pool.
• The turtle stopped before a dense school of fish that attacked and destroyed a stone Lin Ze threw into the water.
• Lin Ze used magical birds to lure the fish east, allowing the turtle to move past them.
• The turtle continued across the swamp as the water darkened and dead reeds appeared around them.

Lin Ze and Saira reached an old watchtower after the giant turtle stopped at its foot, then investigated its magical traces and entered cautiously. Inside, they found footprints and a staircase smashed by a millstone, and Lin Ze Apparated Sela onto the broken stairs.

• Lin Ze marked the giant turtle’s location with a Tracking Charm and made a stone path through the shallows to the watchtower.
• Lin Ze detected traces of magic beside the tower door and sent a transfigured tabby through the gap before Saira opened the door.
• Lin Ze and Saira entered the tower and found boot, sandal, and child-sized footprints leading toward the stairs.
• Lin Ze saw that a millstone had smashed the staircase, then Apparated with Sela above the broken steps.

Lin Ze and Saira investigated a strange magic formation in the tower and discovered the name Morgana written within it. They searched the upper floors for clues but remained unsure what had driven three people mad.

• Lin Ze examined the unfamiliar formation on the second floor and used his magic to reveal writing at its center.
• Saira recognized the writing as eastern tribal script and translated it as “Morgana,” a name Lin Ze associated with Merlin.
• Lin Ze and Saira searched a ransacked storeroom but found only old supplies and a damaged shield.
• Lin Ze and Saira climbed to the lookout, where they wondered what the three people had seen in the tower.
• Lin Ze said they would search the tower thoroughly for more clues.

Lin Ze fought off a swarm of slime-covered swamp creatures, then spotted a much larger shadow moving beneath the water and discovered the magic circle was expanding. He copied the circle’s pattern to show someone who might recognize it.

• Lin Ze and Saira saw slime-covered creatures swarm the watchtower, and Lin Ze left the tower to fight them while Saira stayed inside.
• Lin Ze froze the ground and shattered the creatures with a spell, defeating the swarm.
• Lin Ze spotted an enormous shadow moving beneath the swamp toward the northern bank, and he and Saira discussed the possible danger below the water.
• Lin Ze and Saira noticed that the water lotuses were moving and that their faint sweet scent matched the smell near the tower.
• Saira found that the magic circle’s powder and lines were spreading outward, and Lin Ze copied its pattern to ask someone he knew about it.

Lin Ze and Saira escaped the watchtower as red-lit water lilies climbed its walls, then Lin Ze reshaped the tower’s stonework into a ramp and unleashed Protego Diabolica against the monsters. He burned through the advancing creatures and vines while Sela watched in shock.

• Lin Ze and Saira left the tower and saw the red-lit water lilies spreading up the slope to trap them.
• Lin Ze used Apparition to reach the tower wall, softened its stones, and reshaped them into a sloping ramp.
• Lin Ze raised a stone wall to slow the monsters, but they broke through and rushed toward him.
• Lin Ze cast Protego Diabolica, sending a golden-red fire dragon across the slope that incinerated the monsters and vines.
• Sela stared in shock as Lin Ze controlled the fire dragon.

After Lin Ze and Saira survived the monsters at the watchtower, they discovered a hidden passage marked with the name Morgana and decided to travel east to learn more about the magic array. As they left, Saira asked whether Lin Ze could return to the distant place he came from, and he said he could if he found the way.

• Lin Ze used Protego Diabolica to burn away the monsters, then returned to the watchtower with Saira and examined the scorched remains.
• Lin Ze and Saira stayed in the tower overnight, and Lin Ze wondered whether the repair craftsmen had uncovered something beneath it.
• After daybreak, Lin Ze found carved magic-array markings at the tower’s base and blasted open a hollow passage with Reducto.
• Saira deciphered the writing at the passage’s end as “Morgana,” and explained that the Eastern Tribe’s territory lay east beyond the North’s border.
• Lin Ze and Saira packed their supplies and set out east to investigate the array and its connection to Morgana.
• Saira asked whether Lin Ze could return to his distant homeland, and Lin Ze said he could once he found the way.

Lin Ze and Saira traveled into the East, where Lin Ze asked a village elder about Morgana. The elder directed him toward Crow Valley, said Morgana had lived there, and knew nothing about Merlin.

• Lin Ze and Saira crossed into the East and learned from Saira that its tribes followed their own chiefs and that the region had been devastated by wars.
• Lin Ze and Saira camped in an abandoned village, where they talked about Lin Ze's schooling and how he learned he was a wizard.
• Saira avoided an eastern village because its people distrusted northerners, so Lin Ze went in alone to ask for directions.
• Lin Ze told an elderly villager he was looking for information about Morgana, and the elder invited him into his courtyard.
• The elder told Lin Ze that Morgana was said to have lived in Crow Valley, five days farther east, and that she had been a powerful witch who could speak to the dead.
• The elder said he had never heard of Merlin and warned that people avoided Morgana's former home.