Recaps

[Practice More If You're Bad] and Viscount Alfonso Lange turned a staged battle and a disastrous raid into a purge of disloyal officers, then arranged for Alfonso to summon Duma. Alfonso joined Prince Nuowa’s cause and accepted the Soul Returners as allies, while Duma left him believing he had sacrificed half his lifespan.

• Xiuyi Aluode warned [Practice More If You're Bad] that his centurion planned to burn the plant people, and the players laughed before arranging to protect him.
• Viscount Alfonso Lange knighted Saili and authorized [Practice More If You're Bad] to protect his men, while [Practice More If You're Bad] lured Centurion Atli into a rigged raid on the occupied sand fort.
• The Soul Returners staged a defeat at Fortress Number Fourteen, and [Western Sharpshooter] shot Atli off the wall as the players spread word that he was dead.
• Atli fled with a few men while raiders struck Alfonso’s camp, but Alfonso and Saili defended themselves and regrouped the survivors.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] returned to find the camp burning and learned that [Gill's Cuisine] and his companions had raided it during the staged battle.
• Alfonso condemned Atli for the unauthorized raid and his other failures, then had Vogt, Luca, and Jeffrey seized and executed before promoting [Howling Pothos], [Retreat Drum Player], and [Elderly and Children Fly First] to centurions.
• Alfonso agreed to summon Duma after the Soul Returners described the process, and Duma appeared in his tent and offered to fulfill Alfonso’s wish to earn lasting military glory.
• Duma persuaded Alfonso to combine his wish with Nuowa’s, and Alfonso signed a contract that committed him to the prince’s cause in exchange for command over demon servants.
• Nuowa invested Alfonso as a viscount and declared he would fight the Skeleton Alliance before moving against the imperial capital, while Duma revealed that the Soul Returners were Alfonso’s servants.
• Alfonso welcomed the Soul Returners and pledged their service, while Duma returned to the Holy City and admitted he had only made Alfonso believe that half his lifespan had been taken.

Colin recruited Soul Returners while Nether Crossing pursued the Blood Corpses and uncovered Hall’s schemes to bring the Demon Realm’s powers into a major conflict. As the Empire and Skeleton Alliance fought over the sandcastles, Alfonso captured Sandcastle Number Thirteen, then withdrew before Colin’s reinforcements arrived.

• Colin accepted Ginseng Rooster and Gill's Cuisine’s Soul Returners as mercenaries, appointed them cavalry captains, and heard Ginseng Rooster’s proposal to serve as his adviser and help him seek promotion.
• Nether Crossing sent Chalco to capture Blood Corpses, and Chalco fought the rival vampire marquises Linda and Hall before Kailun surrendered and revealed Rosalind’s location.
• Nether Crossing wounded Kailun and learned where Rosalind’s true body was, while Rosalind mourned Linda and Hall revealed his plan to draw her, the Skeleton Alliance, and other powers into a battle.
• Hall warned the Great Labyrinth City that Rosalind’s army was approaching, then arranged with Ed to use the coming battle as a chance to escape and limit what Samuer could exploit.
• Alfonso and Colin’s forces clashed through their Soul Returner mercenaries, and Western Sharpshooter led the Skeleton Alliance cavalry against Elderly and Children Fly First before the Alliance won and Elderly and Children Fly First died.
• Colin learned that some prisoners were Soul Returners and considered recruiting them, while Alfonso’s forces captured Sandcastle Number Thirteen and then withdrew as Skeleton Alliance reinforcements approached.
• Colin reached Sandcastle Number Thirteen and found a tower made from the heads of more than three hundred skeleton soldiers, topped by Faulkner’s skull.

Colin rose to command several sandcastles while [Great Wei Boxing Champion] uncovered Loxor’s dragon powers and Seraphina sought an Authority of her own. Sailesi defeated Weber Rosalind, then rallied the council to take on the Rosalind Lineage and received a major force of reinforcements.

• Colin exposed Gelan’s attempt to hide the fall of Sandcastle Number Thirteen, and Osmond killed Gelan and made Colin Bastion Lord of Sandcastles Eleven through Fifteen.
• Colin took command of the sandcastles, their troops, and the Hard Armor Heavy Cavalry while Alfonso Lange received orders to march to Riel Valley.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] met Loxor, learned of his dragon history and poison craft, and warned him that Aeldra was hunting him.
• Ed discovered Loxor’s multiple dragon Authorities and urged Seraphina to grow stronger before facing him, so Seraphina entered an obsidian egg to seek an Authority.
• [Nether Crossing] confronted Weber Rosalind, caught his mountain attack, and then defeated Weber after Sailesi’s memories and illusions emerged during their battle.
• Sailesi killed Weber and routed the Blood Corpses, while the Gluttonous Lady Rosalind learned that Sailesi had severed her connection to True Blood.
• Sailesi called the councilors together and asked them to choose between hunting Rosalind, retreating, or sending reinforcements.
• The council chose to fight the Rosalind Lineage, and Crown assigned Sailesi eighty thousand elite soldiers and four Border Garrison Warlords while Whale Tail committed half her coastal troops.

The Skeleton Alliance withdrew its border forces and concentrated its strength in the Demon Realm, while Ed helped Hall escape Valhalla and players pursued opportunities in the shifting conflict. The arc ended as Rosalind attacked Sailesi’s army in her monstrous worm form and swallowed [Ginseng Rooster].

• The Alliance councilors ordered a retreat from more than a hundred fortresses, while [Divine Wings] went to the Demon Realm to support Rosalind’s authority.
• Hall escaped Valhalla by taking over Brenfield’s body and joining it with Cuiske’s symbiotic plant, then endured Ed’s traps and led a growing Blood Corpse force toward the Eternal Domain.
• Colin told [Ginseng Rooster] that the Alliance was withdrawing to its second defensive line and sending reinforcements to the Demon Realm, prompting [Ginseng Rooster] to share military intelligence with the Empire.
• Alfonso and the players captured Riel Valley and ambushed retreating skeletons, after which Marshal Loxor allowed Alfonso to keep his victory and ordered him to earn further merit.
• [Ginseng Rooster] spotted three Skeleton Councilors in the Demon Realm, and Ed used the intelligence to bargain with Loxor for mobile fortresses and a place at any fight among the remaining dragons.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] named his mobile fortress Magnetic Rod and traveled toward the Empire with other players, while his road-trip videos gained an audience.
• Sailesi assembled twenty-two Border Garrison Warlords as Rosalind arrived with a million Blood Corpses and transformed into an enormous worm to attack him.
• Rosalind burrowed through the battlefield and swallowed [Ginseng Rooster], whose status window showed a Strong Acid Corrosion debuff.