Recaps

Ed and the players captured Motley and the Stained Ones, then turned their attention to a reviving vampire marquis and the Sea of Flowers. Four players who transformed into Blood Corpses encountered the marquis’s influence at the sealing site, while Ed tried to stop him from taking control.

• Motley led the Holy Crusaders to White Wax Town, where Duolin and the players delayed them with security checks until Blood Corpses drove them toward the gates.
• Ed and the players ambushed Motley in the church, using Willow’s Disorder and repeated attacks to subdue him before assigning him to mechanical work.
• The players captured forty-three Stained Ones, including Motley, and sent a disguised force led by [Zhongde] to infiltrate Ginkgo Town.
• Bennett warned Gray that an awakening vampire marquis was summoning Blood Corpses, and Ed began investigating the marquis and the Sea of Flowers as possible threats and allies.
• Ed and Willow devised a plan to bind a replacement Territory Secret Pact to the marquis’s land and give it to the bee people, while Ed sent players to survey terrain and collect plants.
• [Clear Soup Master], [Pizza Heart], [My Buddha Ciba], and [Namo Goose Rice Tofu] transformed into Blood Corpses to advance their survey quest, then were compelled to dig at the marquis’s sealing site.
• The marquis tried to control [Clear Soup Master] through the Root Network, but Ed drained much of his mental power, and [Clear Soup Master] secretly warned the others before pretending to pledge loyalty.
• [Shit Appraisal Master] and [Good Times Don't Last] found more than a thousand Blood Corpses digging at the cliff and were ordered by an unseen person to join the work.

The players sabotaged Oliver Adelaide’s revival and helped destroy his Blood Corpses and the Soldier Bee legion, then expanded Ed’s control across Aduolin Province. Ed advanced to the middle tier, while Gray began working with the players on mechanical experiments.

• [Clear Soup Master] organized the players to feed Oliver nonhuman blood and red liquids while Blood Corpses dug toward his seal.
• The queen bee claimed a new territory, detected the Blood Corpses, and sent Soldier Bees to attack them as Oliver’s revival neared.
• The players poured their collected liquids into Oliver’s sealing array, and Ed triggered a mutation that broke Oliver’s body out of the seal.
• Oliver fought the Soldier Bees while the players watched, then Adelaide briefly appeared through Oliver before Ed detonated the toxins and Oliver died.
• The players held a tournament over Oliver’s corpse, which the Sandwich Adventurer Party won, and Blood Corpse-transformed players led the remaining forces back toward White Wax Town.
• The Holy Crusaders captured towns and Territory Secret Pacts across Aduolin Province, unlocking a hidden quest to occupy settlements and capture Stained Ones.
• Ed expanded his Root Network through the newly captured regions, recruited players for town administration, and demonstrated a Territory Secret Pact to [Haide].
• Ed used Oliver’s corpse as a template for his Middle Tier transformation, which caused a psionic surge that affected Willow, Seraphina, Xilǐ'er, Gray, and others.
• Ed woke after advancing to the middle tier and returned the psionic energy he had drained from Willow, while Gray gave players switchblades and planned to wield a large hammer.
• Gray helped [Do Some Farm Work], [Traditional Eccentric Wheel], and [Diorite] test a machine that restrained and dismembered a Blood Corpse.

Ed revealed himself to Nuolun, who joined the Second Holy See and helped lead the campaign against the Stained Ones. At Black Locust Town, the Soul Returners and Holy Crusaders stormed the church, captured its tax collector, and looted its stores.

• [Dark Archmage] was captured by Nuolun’s clerics, then escaped by abandoning her body and reported the encounter to Ed.
• Ed recognized Nuolun and the Fourteenth Knights as Pure Ones, then joined the players in Blue Gum Town to meet their approaching force.
• Ed revealed himself to Nuolun, who joined the Second Holy See and brought her Holy Crusaders into an alliance with the Soul Returners.
• Ed showed Nuolun evidence of the Fallen Ones’ crimes, and she publicly executed four Stained Ones in Blue Gum Town.
• Nuolun and the Soul Returners marched on Black Locust Town, where she discovered that its clerics were Stained Ones and launched an assault on the church.
• The Soul Returners used slingshots to send scouts through the church windows, while Nuolun’s cavalry helped retrieve the wounded.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214], [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows], and [Gu Gugu] fought inside the church, stole tree seeds and robes, and escaped before [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] died of his wounds.
• [Zhongde] directed the players’ assault on the upper floors, where they subdued the tax collector, took his hidden valuables, and looted the church.

After the Second Holy See secured its territory, Ed welcomed a dying soldier into the World of Disorder while Gray and the players traveled to Great Labyrinth City. The envoys gained an audience with the Grand Foundry Master and opened talks on cooperation, though their meeting was concealed from Ed’s observation.

• The bishop killed himself after the players surrounded the grand prayer hall, and the tax collector and clerics surrendered before the Soul Returners took them to a concentration camp.
• Ed completed the hidden side quest and planned the Second Holy See’s growth as players stabilized the towns and built a safe zone against the Blood Corpses.
• Gray’s Antasia carried him, Bennett, and Soul Returner envoys toward the Graycast Corridor, while Xilǐ'er returned to his territory and was summoned by both kings.
• Li Yu persuaded Ed to accept a dying soldier into the World of Disorder, where Ed recreated his body and welcomed him as a true Soul Returner.
• The Graycast Corridor authorities detained Gray and the players, then released the players after Gray’s identity was verified and heard his account of the Second Holy See.
• The players explored Great Labyrinth City, learned that Amber Dragon scales came from an ancient battlefield, and met Bobby before going to the palace.
• The Grand Foundry Master discussed peaceful relations and possible cooperation with the envoys, then the players discovered their recordings of the meeting had been obscured.