Recaps

Klein defeated the Seer pathway Beyonder Rosago by using a Words of Filth charm and shooting him, though the True Creator's ravings also harmed Klein and his bodyguard. He then carried Rosago's remaining spirituality above the gray fog to perform Spirit Channeling and began seeking the Seer pathway potion formulas.

• Inspector Faxin revealed himself as Rosago and used his abilities to control Klein while trying to seize control of Klein's bodyguard.
• Klein used the Words of Filth charm to disrupt Rosago's control, and its power caused all three of them to collapse in pain.
• Klein recovered first, shot Rosago five times in the head, used a Requiem Charm on the corpse, and put his bodyguard to sleep with Sleeping Charms.
• Klein avoided directly Spirit Channeling Rosago's contaminated corpse and instead carried the dead man's remaining spirituality above the gray fog.
• Klein discovered that he could perform Spirit Channeling there without praying to anyone and divined for the Seer pathway potion formulas.

Klein used Spirit Channeling to learn the Seer pathway formulas for Magician, Faceless, and Marionettist, then returned from the gray fog and found Miss Bodyguard awake. They searched Rosago’s remains and divided his belongings, including a corrupted Beyonder characteristic and a mystical Notary item.

• Klein channeled Rosago’s spirit and learned the Magician and Faceless potion formulas, along with warnings about relying too heavily on divination.
• Klein learned the Marionettist formula and its ritual of consuming the potion amid a mermaid’s singing before his dwindling spirituality ended the session.
• Klein returned to the bloodied room, where Miss Bodyguard had awakened, and told her he had used charms because Rosago’s corpse seemed likely to reanimate.
• Miss Bodyguard advised Klein to find a psychiatrist, and they began searching Rosago’s corpse before Military Intelligence Section 9 could arrive.
• Klein found cash, ritual supplies, paper figurines, and a Notary mystical item; Miss Bodyguard took the item and explained Rosago’s Beyonder characteristic had been corrupted by an evil god.
• Klein picked up Rosago’s pitch-black eye, recognizing that he would need to learn how to remove an evil god’s corruption.

Klein survived Rosago’s attack with Miss Bodyguard’s help, then learned that Bakerland had been assassinated. Miss Bodyguard returned after cleaning up the scene and continued her contracted protection of Klein for three days.

• Klein touched Rosago’s contaminated Beyonder Characteristic, saw black threads extending from himself and Miss Bodyguard, and stored the item in an iron cigarette case.
• Miss Bodyguard merged with Rosago’s corpse, restored its appearance, cleaned the murder scene, and left to retrieve Rosago’s original clothes and dispose of evidence.
• Klein reflected on Rosago’s powers and the danger of the battle, then used a coin divination that indicated Bakerland was dead.
• Two military attachés examined Bakerland’s body at the Intis embassy and suspected that a Shepherd, possibly from the Aurora Order, had carried out the assassination.
• Miss Bodyguard returned to 15 Minsk Street, accepted Klein’s promise to pay her remaining 900 pounds directly, and said she would protect him for the rest of the three-day contract.

Klein reviewed the strange pull drawing him toward Seer-related people and events, then set plans to grow stronger and find Lanarvus. The next morning, he learned Military Intelligence Section 9 had found nothing and read that the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility for Ambassador Bakerland’s murder.

• Klein checked that Rosago’s Beyonder Characteristic was concealed, then wondered whether his repeated encounters with the Seer pathway reflected a strange mutual attraction.
• Klein rejected divining the nature of his mysterious characteristic and planned to gather materials, find protection, invest, take commissions, and pursue Lanarvus.
• The lady bodyguard told Klein that Military Intelligence Section 9 had come the previous night and found nothing, then warned him away from opening the iron cigarette case.
• Klein read that Ambassador Bakerland had been murdered and that the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility for the attack.
• Klein prepared to go out and catch someone cheating.

Audrey learned that Mr. A had assassinated Ambassador Bakerland, while Xio and Fors arranged to pay the remaining fee without meeting him. Meanwhile, Klein used the lady bodyguard to conceal his camera’s flash and hid in Erica Taylor’s room to photograph her with Doragu Gale.

• Audrey heard Earl Hall and Hibbert discuss Bakerland’s assassination and realized Mr. A had completed the task she commissioned.
• Xio and Fors worried about delivering the remaining eight thousand pounds, but Mr. A instructed them to deposit it into several anonymous bank accounts instead.
• Mr. A refused to investigate who had commissioned the assassination and declared that the Aurora Order needed to plunge the continent into chaos; afterward, he coughed up bloody fragments and swallowed them.
• Klein followed Erica Taylor to the Cragg Club, where the lady bodyguard concealed the flash inside his camera.
• Klein used a tarot card to enter Erica’s room and hid in a cabinet, waiting for Doragu Gale and Erica to be alone.

Klein secretly photographed Doragu Gale and Erica Taylor for his employer, then learned that the Intis ambassador had been assassinated and that pollution reforms were about to pass. After withdrawing cash and returning home, he headed to the Bravehearts Bar to seek contact with Beyonder circles.

• Klein used a supernatural camera to photograph Doragu Gale and Erica Taylor together, then escaped the room unnoticed with Miss Bodyguard.
• Klein met Allen Kreis at the Cragg Club, where Allen told him the Intis ambassador had been assassinated and the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility.
• Allen said the Government Employee Unified Examination Bill and pollution measures were expected to pass, and explained that Mary hoped to join the Atmospheric Pollution Investigation Commission.
• Allen told Klein that a run of surgical mistakes had left him worried about his work and license.
• Klein withdrew five hundred pounds, gave three hundred to Miss Bodyguard, returned home, and later set out for the Bravehearts Bar to seek Beyonder contacts.

Klein returned to the underground gathering and warned the Apothecary to abandon his herbs after learning that Black Snake had died in the sewers. As the gathering ended, Klein learned that the Apothecary had chosen his path for the potions’ effects on sexual performance.

• Klein asked Miss Bodyguard whether anyone was watching him, then went to the Bravehearts Bar to ask Kaspars about another underground gathering.
• Kaspars arranged for Klein to attend that night’s gathering, where Klein wore a mask and hood while Miss Bodyguard secretly followed him.
• The Apothecary announced that Black Snake had died in the sewers, and Klein advised him to abandon his herbs and report the dangerous beasts to the police anonymously.
• Eye of Wisdom praised Klein’s suggestion, and the members continued trading items before the gathering began to disperse.
• Eye of Wisdom and the Apothecary recognized Klein as the man who had bought an ominous item from Black Snake, and Klein said he had been lucky.
• The Apothecary revealed that his teacher had urged him to choose a path that could make someone lucky, but he had instead become an Apothecary for the potions’ effects on sexual performance.

Klein asked the Apothecary and Eye of Wisdom about medicines, potion formulas, and mystical items, then learned about the risks and rarity of Sealed Artifacts. Eye of Wisdom declined to sell his powerful 2-081 but described two other items for sale, which Klein said he would consider at a later gathering.

• The Apothecary described his interest in Backlund and asked Klein to help him find medullary crystals of the Elven Spring, but refused to teach him the Apothecary potion formula.
• The Apothecary offered to bring Klein four spiritually enhanced sedatives, and Eye of Wisdom approved Klein’s attendance at the next gathering and explained how to find its announcement and entry signal.
• Klein asked whether anyone had mystical items for sale, and Eye of Wisdom described the powers and danger grades of Sealed Artifacts before introducing his 2-081.
• Eye of Wisdom explained that 2-081 could reveal information about opponents and sometimes imitate their abilities, but warned that overusing it could turn its user into an idiot.
• Eye of Wisdom refused to sell 2-081 and instead offered a sun-domain brooch and a water-and-wind-domain hat, each with significant drawbacks and a high price; Klein said he would consider them later.

Klein noticed a murder that resembled the Blood Worship Cult’s work, then accepted Miller Carter’s commission to investigate a concealed underground structure beneath his new house. The chapter left Klein preparing to explore the structure despite the lady bodyguard’s warning that it held some danger.

• Klein and the lady bodyguard spotted a mutilated woman near an alley, and she identified the murder as resembling the Blood Worship Cult’s work.
• Klein returned home, collected the photographs and his bail money, withdrew his remaining cash, and paid the lady bodyguard six hundred pounds.
• Miller Carter hired Klein to investigate a concealed underground structure beneath his house on Williams Street, offering fifty pounds and limiting him to three assistants.
• Klein divined that he should accept the commission, asked the lady bodyguard about the danger, and agreed to investigate.

Klein explored the underground structure beneath Miller Carter’s house and discovered a vast nest of snakes behind a set of stone doors. After his bodyguard drove the snakes away, he entered the hall and suspected the structure dated to the Fourth Epoch.

• Klein delivered Mary’s photograph, received the remaining seven pounds, and watched her leave with Starling Summer.
• Klein went to Miller Carter’s mansion on Williams Street, where renovations had exposed a secret basement door.
• Klein entered the underground passage, inspected its empty rooms, and opened the black stone doors at the end.
• Klein found a huge nest of snakes in the hall and asked his lady bodyguard what she could do.
• The lady bodyguard drove the snakes away with freezing wind, and Klein entered the hall and identified its distinctive candleholders as possibly Fourth Epoch in style.

Klein explored an ancient underground hall whose architecture suggested it dated to the Fourth Epoch, finding two immense seats and seven black stone doors. Behind the leftmost door, he discovered a statue that appeared to depict the Evernight Goddess, leaving him unsettled and unsure what it meant.

• Klein counted the hall’s forty-one candleholders on the left and forty on the right, then found two enormous iron-black seats on its raised platform.
• Klein learned from the lady bodyguard that one seat bore the Tudor Family’s coat of arms, while she could not identify the other emblem.
• Klein and the lady bodyguard found seven black stone doors, and Klein chose to open the leftmost one.
• Klein recognized the door’s symbol as the Sacred Emblem of Darkness and opened it to reveal a statue of a beautiful woman beneath a starry dress.
• Klein and the lady bodyguard suspected the statue depicted the Evernight Goddess, and Klein considered several troubling explanations before suggesting they inspect the other doors.

Klein and the lady bodyguard explored a hall containing prayer rooms and statues for six orthodox deities before approaching its central chambers. When Klein discovered a room filled with glowing remains and bloodied doors, Azik's Copper Whistle warned him of an evil spirit, forcing them to flee back to safety.

• Klein and the lady bodyguard found a prayer room and statue dedicated to the Earth Mother.
• They inspected four more rooms containing the emblems and statues of the deities of Storms, the Sun, Combat, and Knowledge and Wisdom.
• The lady bodyguard sensed restrained danger behind the central door and warned Klein not to touch anything inside.
• After the passage ended in a collapse, the lady bodyguard scouted through the earth and confirmed that route was blocked.
• Klein peered into the remaining room and saw glowing skeletons and bloodied double doors as Azik's Copper Whistle turned deathly cold and black worms emerged from his arm.
• Klein and the lady bodyguard escaped the advancing darkness, and she identified the pursuing presence as an evil spirit.

Klein left the ancient underground hall without confronting the dangerous evil spirit, then began investigating the history of the house’s former owners. That night, he dreamed of a Dragon-slaying knight whose rotting face resembled the figure seated behind the blood-colored door.

• Klein decided against exploring the innermost room and told Miller Carter he would gather information before returning, warning him to keep the entrance shut.
• Miller told Klein that the house had belonged to the Pound family, which declined after its heirs died one by one and eventually lost its viscount title.
• Klein returned home, made dinner, and used a coin divination that advised him not to report the underground structure to the police that night.
• Klein became lucid in a dream and watched a gigantic armored knight defeat a Dragon with a barrage of spectral fighters and a lightning-like sword strike.
• The dream shifted to the blood-colored door, where Klein saw the same knight seated in armor, now normal-sized and visibly rotting, before he woke beneath crimson moonlight.

Klein tested whether he could use the Eye of All-Black to control a dummy above the gray fog, discovering that he could create a convincing fake Tarot Club member. Meanwhile, Benson encouraged Melissa to pursue technical studies in Backlund, and the lady bodyguard agreed to hear any clues Klein found about the Pound Family.

• Klein learned that his disturbing dream of a bloodstained door came from the evil spirit's aura and would fade over time.
• After the Unified Examination Bill passed, Benson urged Melissa to apply to Backlund Technical College and said he would resign to prepare for the government examination; Melissa agreed to consider leaving Tingen with him.
• Klein searched libraries for information about Viscount Pound but found no useful details, then arranged to share any clues with the lady bodyguard through Maric.
• Klein confirmed the lady bodyguard had left by touching Rosago's Eye of All-Black and seeing the fine black threads extending from his body.
• Above the gray fog, Klein used the Eye of All-Black to control a dummy with Marionettist abilities and made it choose the Tarot card The World.

Klein introduced The World as a new Tarot Club member and assigned Justice to have her candidates investigate Lanarvus. He then received six more pages of Roselle’s diary, including revelations about Roselle’s children and a dispute with Florent of the Sauron Family.

• Klein created The World as an alternate identity and left Rosago's Eye of All-Black above the gray fog.
• Klein held a Tarot Club gathering and introduced The World to Justice, The Hanged Man, and The Sun.
• Klein told Justice that her two candidates remained under evaluation and asked her to commission them to find information about Lanarvus in Backlund.
• The World asked whether members could issue tasks and gather materials at the gathering, and Justice explained that Mr. Fool’s reading came first.
• The Hanged Man provided six pages of Roselle’s diary, which described the births and predicted futures of Roselle’s children, including Bernadette.
• Klein read Roselle’s account of Florent of the Sauron Family asking him to become a subordinate, and Roselle vowed to make Florent pay.

Klein read Roselle’s diary and learned more about the Sauron Family, Roselle’s dealings with the Eternal Blazing Sun, and an ancient organization that worshiped the original Creator. Roselle’s final entries revealed that he had created the Cards of Blasphemy and discovered the truth about Sequence 0 and the true gods.

• Klein considered the Sauron Family’s long history and wondered whether it had declined before Roselle overthrew its rule in Intis.
• Klein read Roselle’s account of reconciling with the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun through legal reforms and commercial development, then questioned why Roselle was later assassinated.
• Klein learned that Florent’s resemblance to a High-Sequence ancestor could make advancing easier because of the Beyonder Characteristic’s lingering mental imprint.
• Klein read that an unnamed ancient organization worshiped the original Creator, expected an inevitable apocalypse, possessed the second Blasphemy Slate, and restricted members to certain pathways.
• Klein discovered that Roselle planned to hide the twenty-two Cards of Blasphemy for his children and revealed that each pathway had a Sequence 0, the position of a true god.

After reading Roselle’s revelations about Sequence 0 and the Divine Pathways, Klein heard Audrey settle the remaining payment for the Bakerland assassination. The World sought rare Beyonder materials and received offers from the Tarot Club members, while The Sun and The World agreed to pursue a weapon exchange.

• Klein read Roselle’s diary entry about Sequence 0, true gods, and the Divine Pathways, then concealed his reaction and praised Audrey for dealing with Bakerland.
• Audrey offered to pay the remaining 5,000 pounds owed for the Qilangos bounty, and Klein accepted the delayed payment.
• The World requested Mist Treant roots and sap, Elven Spring marrow crystals, and Evil-patterned Black Panther spinal fluid.
• The Sun offered to help obtain the Mist Treant materials after advancing and asked for a weapon to improve his combat ability; The World agreed to find one.
• Audrey offered the Psychiatrist potion formula and materials, while Alger offered the Wind-blessed formula in exchange for the requested materials.
• The World said he had another request.

At the Tarot Club, The World traded knowledge of the Demoness pathway for Justice Audrey’s promise to gather information on fallen Loen nobles, and asked Mr. Fool about the Sauron Family. After the gathering, Klein rested and prepared to test the Azik Copper Whistle at a cemetery after dark.

• The World asked Justice Audrey to compile detailed information on fallen nobles in the Kingdom of Loen, and offered knowledge of Beyonder pathways in return.
• The World explained that Sequence 7 of the Assassin pathway was Witch and described its effects and acting requirement, then revealed Sequence 6 was Pleasure; Audrey accepted the exchange and arranged to deliver her information through Mr. Fool.
• The World asked whether the Sauron Family of Intis still had High-Sequence Beyonders and offered a Sequence 7 formula for Mr. Fool’s answer.
• Klein ended the Tarot Club gathering, dismissed The World, and returned to the real world after recovering some spirituality.
• Klein decided to go to a cemetery on Backlund’s outskirts and test the Azik Copper Whistle after dark.

Klein tested the Azik Copper Whistle on graves and hospital corpses, discovering that it affected only recently deceased bodies that had not received requiem rites. He escaped the hospital morgue unnoticed and left eager to attend the upcoming Beyonder gathering for a weapon that could help him obtain a main ingredient for the Magician potion.

• Klein tested the Azik Copper Whistle on an old grave and a body buried that day, but neither reacted after a requiem ritual.
• Klein infiltrated Saint Einhorn Hospital’s morgue and found that the corpses showed no reaction while his spirituality covered the whistle.
• Klein withdrew his spirituality, causing a corpse to sit up and the bodies in the iron cabinets to pound against them.
• Klein used Requiem Charms to quiet the corpses, then evaded the elderly watchman and escaped the morgue.
• Klein concluded that the whistle affected recently deceased corpses without requiem rites and that spirituality could suppress the effect.
• Klein walked through Backlund, looking forward to the Beyonder gathering and considering how to trade his potion formulas for a weapon.

Audrey hired Xio and Fors to find the fugitive fraudster Lanarvus and asked Fors to bring her to a gathering where she could investigate the Psychology Alchemists. Meanwhile, Klein waited for Audrey’s information and met Talym at the Cragg Club, where Talym hinted at a potentially violent commission.

• Audrey showed Xio and Fors wanted notices for Lanarvus and offered them a hundred pounds to find him in Backlund.
• Fors told Audrey she suspected a member of a new Beyonder gathering belonged to the Psychology Alchemists and offered to request permission to bring Audrey along.
• Audrey found no leads for Glaint’s Apothecary formula, then rode away with Susie.
• Klein left home to pass the day at the Cragg Club while waiting for information from Audrey.
• Talym told Klein that Mary and Doragu were negotiating a divorce, then asked to assess Klein’s shooting and fighting skills for a friend’s problem.

Klein practiced firearms and fighting at the Cragg Club before meeting Daily Observer reporter Mike Joseph, who sought protection while investigating a victim in the serial murders. After consulting his divination, Klein prepared to answer Mike’s offer.

• Klein demonstrated his marksmanship and defeated Talym Dumont in a brief fight at the Cragg Club.
• Talym introduced Klein to Mike Joseph, a reporter investigating the serial murders of women whose internal organs had been removed.
• Mike told Klein that ten victims had once worked as streetwalkers and that the youngest victim, Shermane, had still been working as a prostitute.
• Mike asked Klein to protect him while he investigated the Golden Rose, offering one pound or five pounds if a fight occurred.
• Klein went to the washroom, tossed a coin, and received an affirmative answer.

Klein accompanied reporter Mike Joseph to the Golden Rose to investigate Shermane’s death, where they discovered the owner, Lopez, was hiding something and heard her mention Capim. After escaping the brothel, Klein met Isengard Stanton, a detective assisting the police, who asked to speak with him.

• Mike Joseph took Klein to the Golden Rose and questioned one of the girls who had known Shermane, but learned that Lopez had forbidden the women from discussing her.
• Mike confronted Lopez about Shermane, and Klein noticed from her behavior that she was lying.
• Mike paid Klein to help him follow Lopez; Klein knocked out two enforcers and entered a side corridor with Mike.
• They overheard Lopez tell someone not to send anyone over from Capim for the time being, then fled the building.
• Mike left to investigate who Capim was, and Isengard Stanton introduced himself to Klein as a detective assisting the police and invited him to talk.

Klein met detective Isengard Stanton, then suspected that Isengard might be a Beyonder and that Maric and Miss Bodyguard were being hunted. After confirming no one followed him, Klein decoded an advertisement that invited him to a Beyonder gathering the next evening.

• Isengard paid Klein two pounds for what he learned while following Ms. Lopez, and Klein told him that she had warned a subordinate not to send anyone else to Capim for the time being.
• Isengard discussed Capim’s reputation and asked Klein his name; Klein introduced himself as Sherlock Moriarty, while Isengard privately noted that Klein’s appearance seemed deliberately mismatched.
• Klein sensed that Isengard’s emotional state remained unusually consistent and wondered whether he was a Beyonder.
• Klein went to the Bravehearts Bar to ask for Maric, but Kaspars said Maric had not appeared, and Klein noticed someone seemed interested in Maric’s whereabouts.
• Klein left without seeking information about other gatherings, checked above the gray fog that he was not being followed, and returned home.
• Klein decoded an Ernst Firm advertisement in the Backlund Morning Post as instructions for a Beyonder gathering the next evening.

Klein disguised himself and sold the Bard and Light Suppliant potion formulas at a Beyonder gathering, then watched as another member offered two weapons with Beyonder effects. The chapter left Klein considering whether one of the weapons might suit his promise to find The Sun a combat aid.

• Klein disguised himself as a worker and attended the gathering without revealing that he had been there before.
• Klein offered the Bard and Light Suppliant formulas, and a hooded man agreed to buy them for 600 pounds on the condition that he would not resell them at the gathering.
• Eye of Wisdom used a ring to verify the formulas, and Klein completed the sale and received the cash.
• The Apothecary offered sedatives, asked again for elven spring medullary crystal, and wondered whether a missing member had died.
• A hooded woman announced that she had two weapons with Beyonder effects, and Klein considered them as possible choices for The Sun.

Klein bought a Hurricane Axe at the gathering and arranged for Mr. Fool to bestow it on Derrick Berg. Derrick performed the ritual and discovered that the weapon sent to him was an axe.

• Klein outbid another attendee for the Hurricane Axe at 560 pounds, and the elderly Eye of Wisdom had it appraised before Klein took possession of it.
• Someone bought the Whip of Slowing, the Feathered Man's Heart went unsold, and a Sequence 9 Corpse Collector formula was purchased.
• Klein asked the gathering for the spinal fluid of an Evil-patterned Black Panther, but no one responded; the Apothecary then admitted he had not returned to the sewers to investigate the dangerous beast.
• After the gathering ended, Klein took the Hurricane Axe to East Borough, sealed his room, and sent it above the gray fog for Derrick Berg.
• Derrick prepared and performed the ritual to request the weapon, then saw that the bestowed weapon was an axe.