Recaps

Klein and Sharron killed Steve the Wraith and gathered the spoils before escaping the clearing ahead of the authorities. Klein hid in Leverage Church as the Machinery Hivemind began investigating the scene.

• Klein shot Steve repeatedly while Sharron closed the mysterious bronze door and stopped him from entering it.
• Sharron destroyed Steve’s phantom, and Klein’s explosive flames tore apart his body.
• Sharron made Tyre the Werewolf kill himself and retrieved the Beyonder Characteristic released from his body.
• Klein collected the Biotoxin Bottle, the fang, the Azik Copper Whistle, and the Master Key, while Sharron extinguished the Crimson Moon Corona’s influence.
• Klein used fireworks and matches to escape the clearing, removed his disguise, and entered Leverage Church to hide from the coming searches.
• A Machinery Hivemind team arrived at the clearing and began searching for clues.

After escaping the authorities’ cordon, Klein hid his belongings above the gray fog and rested before examining his gains. He learned the Werewolf characteristic’s dangers and the Biotoxin Bottle’s effects, then opened the Book of Secrets and found its first line.

• Klein returned to Minsk Street, found the Book of Secrets, and stored it and his other items above the gray fog before going to sleep.
• In Klein’s dream, Ikanser used Arrodes to identify the people involved in the incident, and the mirror asked him about his sexual orientation.
• Klein examined the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic through divination and discovered its regenerative powers, combat abilities, and lingering mental imprint.
• Klein divined the Biotoxin Bottle’s effects and learned it could spread random poisons while gradually sickening its holder.
• Klein opened the Book of Secrets and read its first statement: “What we worship is the moon, not the Evernight Goddess.”

Klein examined the Book of Secrets and realized the Biotoxin Bottle had made him sick, then met Daily Observer reporter Mike Joseph for an East Borough investigation. There, Klein and Mike encountered the poor man Klein had helped before, who described his struggle to find work and shelter.

• Klein studied the Book of Secrets, noted its rituals’ links to primordial moon worship, and confirmed the book was authentic.
• Klein realized the Biotoxin Bottle had weakened him until he caught a cold, then reviewed his recent gains and losses over breakfast.
• Mike Joseph hired Klein for an investigation, and Klein advised him to change into less conspicuous clothes before they went to the East Borough.
• Klein and Mike entered a café, where Klein recognized the man he had previously helped and introduced Mike as a colleague conducting a follow-up interview.
• The man told Klein that he had found exhausting dock work, rented a place to sleep, and failed to get picked for a shift that morning.

Klein and Mike interviewed an elderly homeless woman in an East Borough café, where she recounted losing her family and then died while resting. After witnessing the indifference of the police, Mike revised his investigation plan with Klein and Old Kohler.

• Mike asked Old Kohler to invite an elderly homeless woman into the café for an interview, and she described how her husband and son died after the family went bankrupt.
• The woman ate, asked to sleep in the warmth, and died in her chair before she could continue the interview.
• Klein sent Old Kohler to fetch a police officer, who treated the death as routine and searched Klein for an illegal firearm without finding one.
• Klein revealed that he had hidden his revolver beneath the table, and Mike asked him to review his East Borough interview plan.
• Klein advised Mike to organize interviews by location and working hours, so Mike revised the plan and chose to begin at a nearby apartment building.

Klein, Mike, and Old Kohler explored the East Borough, learning about its gangs and the hardship faced by its residents as Mike sought interview subjects. Meanwhile, Derrick Berg underwent examination in the City of Silver and heard a desperate scream from a sealed room.

• Old Kohler warned Klein and Mike that gangs controlled homeless children and that the Zmanger Gang ruled the route ahead, so they entered territory watched by the Whyos Gang instead.
• Klein, Mike, and Old Kohler visited an apartment building where clockmakers shared expensive tools, and Old Kohler recalled his own lost family.
• Mike tried to interview a washerwoman and her daughters in their damp, overcrowded home, but the older girl refused because they had too much work.
• Derrick Berg was examined and taken to the City of Silver's chambers for residents at risk of losing control.
• Derrick heard someone cry for help from a sealed room, and the voice abruptly fell silent.

Derrick Berg was confined in the City of Silver’s tower, where an elderly prisoner recounted how his exploration team had encountered a man named Amon before its members lost control. In the Factory Borough, Mike’s investigation of the East Borough’s poverty left him increasingly silent.

• Derrick heard a prisoner calling for help, but a Dawn Paladin told him it was a sign of losing control and led him to a sealed room.
• After the prisoner next door lost control and was killed by the tower’s sealing item, Derrick spoke through the wall with an elderly man who said he had been imprisoned for forty-two years.
• The elderly man recalled finding a ruined city and meeting a living outsider who agreed to visit the City of Silver but vanished before they arrived.
• The elderly man said his team members all lost control after returning, and he was confined because the Council of Six suspected the outsider had corrupted them.
• The elderly man remembered the outsider’s name as Amon.
• In the Factory Borough, Klein and Mike toured the East Borough with Old Kohler, and Mike recorded its overcrowded, filthy conditions and the desperation of its residents.

Klein and Mike Joseph investigated the Factory Borough, where they saw dangerous working conditions and workers threatened by new machinery, while Klein arranged for Old Kohler to gather information about the East Borough. In Queens, Audrey probed her teacher Islante about mystical psychology and discussed her sincerity with Susie.

• Klein and Mike Joseph visited a white lead factory and saw women working amid toxic dust without protective equipment.
• Klein, Mike, and Old Kohler learned that textile workers were trying to smash new machines after being told a third of them would lose their jobs.
• Klein warned Mike that closing factories and introducing machinery could leave many workers hungry and unemployed.
• Klein hired Old Kohler to monitor conditions in the East Borough, offering him fifteen soli per meeting and a possible five-soli bonus.
• Audrey asked Islante about mystical psychology and whether she could join the discussion group Islante mentioned.
• Audrey asked Susie what she thought of Islante, and Susie said Islante was insincere but found the lesson interesting.

Klein attended Starling Summer’s matchmaking dinner, where he avoided the introductions by entertaining the children with a detective story. At a luncheon hosted by Hibbert Hall, Starling met a beautiful young noblewoman and learned that her dog Susie had cost 450 pounds.

• Klein went to the Summers’ dinner and found Jurgen among the guests, then Starling introduced them to several young women while openly discussing their incomes.
• Starling defended her matchmaking approach by arguing that a family needed an annual income of more than 200 pounds, and Klein joked that a dinner like theirs required more than 400 pounds.
• Klein entertained the Summers’ children with an improvised treasure story, then heard that Mary had invited Starling and Luke to a luncheon at Hibbert Hall’s mansion.
• Starling attended the luncheon with Luke and Mary, admired the mansion and its food, and met a striking young woman with a golden-haired dog named Susie.
• Starling asked the young woman how much a hunting dog like Susie cost, and she replied that Susie had cost 450 pounds.

Luke discussed Coim Company's plans to advance anti-pollution laws while Starling remained troubled by a noble girl's remark. At the Tarot Club, Derrick worried that a sealed mystical item might detect his attendance, then revealed an exploration team's encounter with Amon, a name Alger linked to a feared family from the Fourth Epoch.

• Luke discussed lobbying, public opinion, and pollution legislation with Mrs. Mary, while Starling silently recalled the claim that a trained hunting dog cost 450 pounds or more.
• Derrick recovered in isolation at the bottom of the City of Silver's round tower, received The Fool's summons, and worried that the tower's mystical item might detect him.
• Audrey used Susie to learn that Earl Hall had received reports on living conditions and dangers in East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough, apparently commissioned by the Church of the Goddess.
• At the Tarot Club, Derrick asked whether the mystical item could discover his attendance, and The Fool reassured him that it normally could not.
• Derrick described how an exploration team encountered someone named Amon forty-two years earlier and later went mad, leaving one survivor confined next door to him.
• Alger said Amon was the surname of a taboo family from the Tudor Dynasty, whose members wielded bizarre powers even in the Fourth Epoch.

The Tarot Club discussed the mysterious Amon and the danger posed by the lone survivor of the City of Silver expedition, while Audrey privately traded three pages of Roselle’s Diary for an explanation of the Cards of Blasphemy. The diary revealed Roselle’s early thoughts after transmigrating and left Klein wondering why he and Roselle had arrived nearly two centuries apart despite transmigrating less than a year apart.

• Alger told Derrick that the Amon Family had been one of the five great families behind the Tudor Dynasty, were reputed blasphemers, and claimed descent from the Ancient The Sun God.
• Derrick admitted he did not know why Amon had appeared near the City of Silver, and Alger warned him that the former exploration-team captain was extremely dangerous.
• Audrey privately asked The Fool to keep her new diary pages from Miss Magician and offered three pages in exchange for an answer about the Cards of Blasphemy.
• The Fool answered Audrey’s question by naming Sequence 0, Black Emperor, and Audrey gave him the diary pages.
• Klein read Roselle’s account of his transmigration as Huang Tao and realized that Roselle had arrived in the world less than a year before him, despite their lives being nearly two centuries apart.

Klein read more of Roselle’s diary, then the Tarot Club members discussed Beyonder ingredients, formulas, and leads they wanted. After the gathering, Derrick tried to contact the former exploration team captain, who unexpectedly spoke to him from behind.

• Klein read Roselle’s diary entries about discovering a supernatural battle and a mysterious silver medallion, then let the Tarot Club members trade.
• Fors asked for a Spirit Eater’s stomach pouch and Deep-sea Marlin blood, and Derrick offered Spirit Eater pouches in exchange for the Sun High Priest potion formula.
• Fors asked for ways to make money, while Klein had The World request leads on several Sequence 6 Beyonder ingredients.
• Alger asked the Tarot Club to find Botis, a man connected to the disappearance of colonial slaves, and offered at least a hundred pounds for information.
• After the gathering, Derrick knocked on the metal wall to contact the former exploration team captain, but an aged voice spoke from the bed behind him.

Derrick survived the former exploration captain’s sudden mutation, which Colin Iliad attributed to the Sun pathway’s connection to Amon. Derrick reported the incident to the Fool, while Klein considered how to improve his Magician potion digestion.

• A split-headed monster attacked Derrick in his room, but Derrick’s prayer summoned a powerful beam of light that destroyed it and revealed a phantom wearing a monocle.
• Colin Iliad arrived and collected a pure white sword and a translucent worm from Derrick’s bed, then explained that the prisoner had been kept under observation to learn about Amon.
• Derrick suggested his Bard and Light Suppliant sequences had triggered the mutation, and Colin questioned him before confirming his condition was stable and sending him home.
• Derrick recounted the incident and his suspicions to the Fool, then fell asleep as his right index finger began tapping on its own.
• Klein resumed planning his Magician Code and decided to test whether audience applause could help digest his potion.

After discovering that Amon had secretly attached himself to The Sun, Klein devised a mystical communion ritual to connect with the gray fog and find a way to stop him. As the ritual began, Klein felt power stirring but had no way to use it yet, and he turned his attention to the Sun Brooch.

• Klein saw Amon coiled around The Sun through the crimson star and realized Amon intended to use him to reach the gray fog at the next Tarot Gathering.
• Klein found no way to remove Amon with his available powers and artifacts, so he adapted a Blood Moon Ritual into a mystical communion ritual for The Fool.
• Klein instructed The Sun to test the ritual, and Derrick used his own blood to write The Fool's honorific name and prepare the altar.
• Derrick recited the honorific name and began connecting with the gray fog while Amon remained attached to him and watched the ritual.
• The mysterious space trembled and power rose through the gray fog, but Klein could not conduct another ritual to harness it, so he looked toward the Sun Brooch.

Klein used the Black Emperor card to strengthen the holy figure and drive Amon’s parasite from Derrick, allowing Derrick to complete the Mysticism Ritual and receive knowledge from Mr. Fool. A surviving Amon avatar escaped into a ravine, and Klein realized he needed to advance quickly before Amon returned to the City of Silver.

• Klein used the Black Emperor card to stabilize and strengthen the golden figure as Amon reached through the crimson star toward the gray fog.
• The golden figure merged with Derrick and forced Amon’s shriveled hand to retreat, expelling the parasite from Derrick’s Spirit Body.
• Derrick received knowledge about creating holy water and expelling evil spirits, saw images of Amon’s former hold on him, and thanked Mr. Fool.
• Amon appeared beside a ravine beneath a one-eyed giant, said “Fool,” and jumped into the ravine.
• Klein returned to the real world and resolved to advance his Sequence and improve his control of the gray fog before Amon could return.

Klein considered how to act as a Magician and decided to seek a relatively safe opportunity to take the initiative. In the City of Silver, Derrick confirmed he had escaped Amon’s influence, while Leonard heard a lesson at Serenity Cathedral that closely matched his own experience with a High-Sequence Beyonder.

• Klein reasoned that Magicians had to actively seek opportunities to perform and considered investigating Emlyn White’s companions as a relatively safe start.
• Colin Iliad ordered the shadow to keep watching Derrick, suspecting he was communicating with Amon, but warned against provoking Amon without clear evidence of malice.
• Derrick coughed up a dead, translucent worm with twelve rings and concluded that he had escaped Amon’s influence.
• At Serenity Cathedral, Leonard attended Senior Deacon Crestet Cesimir’s lesson on how High-Sequence Beyonders might deceive or parasitize Red Gloves.
• Leonard’s smile faded as Cesimir described a Parasite who offered knowledge and benefits while using its host as nourishment.

Leonard confronted the Parasite in his mind and learned that it was hiding from an enemy named Amon. Meanwhile, Klein investigated Emlyn White’s former neighbors and searched the Whites’ abandoned home, where he discovered Emlyn’s collection of dolls.

• Leonard questioned the Parasite about its intentions, and it explained that it needed a host to recover while hiding from a terrifying enemy.
• The Parasite told Leonard that the enemy’s surname was Amon.
• Disguised as a policeman, Klein questioned residents near 48 River Bend Avenue and learned that the White family had been kind and law-abiding.
• Klein entered the Whites’ abandoned home and found their rooms in disarray, along with books about herbs and folk remedies.
• Klein discovered a room full of lifelike dolls and wondered whether Emlyn was obsessed with collecting them.

Klein investigated the White residence and found no evidence of deaths or suspicious disappearances, then sent Detective Stuart a misleading lead about Emlyn White. Meanwhile, Alger finished digesting his Navigator potion and planned his rise through the Church, while Klein recognized that his spiritual intuition was warning him against divining the Werewolf characteristic and resolved to test the Biotoxin Bottle instead.

• Klein divined the doll’s origins and confirmed that Emlyn White had bought it, then found no deaths at 48 River Bend Avenue in the past ten years.
• Klein checked the River Bend police station’s missing-person records and found nothing suspicious.
• Klein wrote Detective Stuart a letter claiming that an informant had seen Emlyn White on Tuttwa Street.
• Alger finished digesting his Navigator potion and imagined secretly advancing through the Church while remaining captain of the Blue Avenger.
• Alger wondered whether the card beside Mr. Fool might be connected to Roselle's Diary and resolved to seek diary pages.
• Klein realized his spiritual intuition had been stopping him from divining the Werewolf characteristic and decided to test the Biotoxin Bottle the next day.

Klein investigated Madam Mary’s threatening letter and suspected it was a political setup to sway public opinion over Backlund’s atmospheric pollution inquiry. His deduction was confirmed when Hibbert Hall asked Mary to publicize the threat, while Klein later prepared to investigate the Biotoxin Bottle.

• Klein posted a letter to Detective Stuart and noticed that Mrs. Doris’s health remained poor despite her recovery.
• Madam Mary told Klein that she had received a threatening letter and a damaged doll, and asked him to protect her.
• Klein reasoned that the threat was likely staged to provoke public anger, then promised to protect Mary if his prediction proved wrong.
• Hibbert Hall visited Mary and asked her to let a reporter publicize the threat, confirming Klein’s deduction.
• Klein went above the gray fog to divine the origins of the Biotoxin Bottle.

Klein learned that the Biotoxin Bottle came from a deadly experiment, while Audrey studied a theory of shared consciousness with Islante. At Harvest Church, Klein found Emlyn already converted to the Earth Mother’s faith, and Emlyn revealed that he recognized Klein as the new owner of the Master Key.

• Klein divined the Biotoxin Bottle’s origin and saw a laboratory experiment consume its maker and everything in the room, leaving behind the bottle.
• Islante taught Audrey that individual consciousnesses were connected through a shared subconscious, and Audrey suspected Islante was a Mind Reader rather than a true Psychiatrist.
• Klein went to Harvest Church to investigate Emlyn White’s situation and found Emlyn serving as a priest.
• Emlyn told Klein that he had become a believer of the Mother Goddess and would soon be allowed to go home.
• Emlyn recognized Klein by his scent and called him the new owner of the Master Key.

Klein discovered that Emlyn had been subjected to a suggestion by Father Utravsky’s Nightmare Candle, making him want to return to the Harvest Church. Klein helped Emlyn leave and brought him back to his family’s home, where Emlyn thanked him and Klein named the payment he expected.

• Emlyn told Klein he had tricked Father Utravsky into letting him go, but Klein warned him that the bishop’s Nightmare Candle could expose lies and plant suggestions.
• Klein revealed that Emlyn’s parents had moved away from River Bend Avenue, prompting Emlyn to rush to Father Utravsky and ask to go home.
• Father Utravsky calmly allowed Emlyn to leave, and Emlyn soon admitted he felt compelled to return to the Harvest Church and help there.
• Emlyn decided to resist the suggestion by moving far away, but first asked Klein to take him back to River Bend Avenue.
• Klein accompanied Emlyn to number 48, where Emlyn eagerly looked toward his bedroom and thanked Klein; Klein requested a finder’s reward, carriage fare, and Beyonder medicinal concoctions as payment.

Klein collected payment from Jurgen, reported Emlyn White’s whereabouts to Detective Stuart, and reflected on how others’ reactions shaped his performances. When Stuart praised him for solving the case, Klein sensed that the applause had helped digest his potion.

• Emlyn White offered Klein the Sanguine’s friendship if he could remove the Nightmare Candle’s influence, and Klein promised to look for a suitable method.
• Klein received six soli from Jurgen Cooper for taking care of Brody and wrote Detective Stuart a report explaining that Emlyn had returned to 48 River Bend Avenue.
• Klein hired a coachman to deliver the report, then reflected that a performance depended on the reactions of everyone involved.
• Klein considered other possible performances, but decided that confronting the Tudor ruins’ Evil Spirit was too dangerous and that he would wait to ask about Will Auceptin.
• Klein studied the Book of Secrets while keeping a low profile ahead of the next Beyonder gathering.
• Detective Stuart praised Klein for quickly finding Emlyn, and Klein sensed that Stuart’s admiration had helped digest his potion.

Klein received his share of the reward for finding Emlyn White and brought Emlyn to examine Mrs. Doris. Emlyn’s medicine eased her breathing, though he warned Klein that her condition was irreversible and she might live only three to five years.

• Stuart paid Klein thirty-one pounds for his help and praised him as a skilled detective.
• Klein studied the Book of Secrets and prepared beef bone and radish soup while waiting for Emlyn.
• Emlyn arrived after visiting the Harvest Church, complaining that he could not escape the Psychological Suggestion, and Klein learned he had a medical license.
• Klein introduced Emlyn to Mrs. Doris and Lawyer Jurgen as a doctor specializing in lung diseases.
• Emlyn warned Klein that Mrs. Doris’s condition was irreversible but gave her medicine that eased her breathing.
• Jurgen watched Mrs. Doris improve and happily saw her stand and pick up Brody, while Klein remembered Emlyn’s grim prognosis.

Klein paid Old Kohler to gather information and learned that Liv’s younger daughter had disappeared, prompting him to offer help. Meanwhile, Fors met an elderly man seeking news of Anlisa and Labol, and the chapter ended with Klein arriving at Liv’s home.

• Emlyn questioned Klein’s payment for finding him, then left after Klein explained their agreement.
• Klein gave Old Kohler fifteen soli and heard about religious preaching in East Borough, the failed textile workers’ struggle, and Liv’s missing younger daughter.
• Klein offered to help Liv find her daughter and went with Old Kohler to visit her family.
• Fors encountered an elderly man at Anlisa’s former home, learned he was Labol’s older brother, and agreed to tell him what had happened.
• Klein entered Liv’s home and found Liv listless while her older daughter blamed herself for her sister’s disappearance.

Klein investigated Daisy’s disappearance, used her vocabulary booklet to trace her to the heavily guarded home of the suspected criminal Capim, and left without approaching it. Elsewhere, Fors met Lawrence Nold, who learned about Anlisa’s will and worried that the Abraham Family was fading away.

• Liv told Klein that Daisy had disappeared while delivering laundry with Freja in Broken Axe Lane, and Freja gave him Daisy’s vocabulary booklet as a tracking item.
• Klein asked Old Kohler to watch for missing unemployed female textile workers, then used the booklet and his cane to trace Daisy northwest.
• Klein’s search led to Capim’s luxurious, heavily guarded home, where his intuition warned him of danger, so he told the carriage driver to move on.
• Fors told Lawrence Nold that Anlisa had left her savings and cash to her, and that Anlisa and Labol were buried at Green Cemetery.
• Lawrence reflected on the Abraham family’s losses and wondered whether it would fade away.

Lawrence mourned the Abraham Family’s losses and feared for its future, while Fors asked The Fool to protect her from Lawrence’s divination. Klein used a ritual and a paper angel to interfere with divination, leaving Fors shaken by the angel she saw.

• Lawrence recalled how Botis’s betrayal devastated the Abraham Family, killed his brother Richard and children, and left him with little hope for revenge or restoration.
• Lawrence realized he might be the last survivor of his father’s branch and sat grieving in a cheap café.
• Fors prayed to The Fool about meeting Lawrence and worried that his divination might reveal her secrets.
• Klein sent Fors instructions for a ritual that would interfere with divination, then used the gray fog and a paper angel to protect her.
• Fors performed the ritual and woke from Artificial Sleepwalking after seeing a majestic angel wrap her in black wings.