Well, I haven't been doing a great job recapping The Gathering Storm, so here's a speedrun before The Wildered Quest comes out tomorrow.
Chapter 8
* Ral meets Dovin Baan. He visited several worlds before determining Ravnica's Azorius fit him best. Thanks to Ral making the secret open, he doesn't bother to hide he's a planeswalker.
* Dovin is helping the Izzet build the Planar Beacon. He's been the target of pranks, such as requests for alligator sandwiches, but he always gets them done within an hour, and he finds amusement from their shocked reactions.
* The engineers report the Planar Beacon is close to completion, and soon Ral will have to set the activation code. The device is designed to never turn off once activated. Ral uses a piano piece from Elias (his first boyfriend) as the password.
* Kaya is recovering from her invasion of Orzhov HQ. A servant informs her she is now the guildmaster.
* Teysa explains that they assumed all of the Ghost Council's contracts were with Orzhov as a whole, but in fact, most of them were handled personally. When Kaya killed them, all of their contracts transferred to her. Since she has control of the majority of Orzhov's financial operations, she is the de facto guildmaster. Teysa talked the others out of killing her.
* If Kaya leaves the plane, that will be considered breaking the contracts, and they will immediately take her life as collateral.
* Bolas sneaks into Kaya's bedroom, in the form of an old man. He congratulates her on her new job. In addition to helping her with her plane, like originally promised, he'll free her from her new guildmaster position if she does something for him at the Guild Summit.
* Ral dreams of the past. Elias's poetry career has taken off greatly in the last three years. The two rose to aristocracy, with surprisingly little pushback. This was thanks to Ral's deal with Bolas.
* Ral worked as a hitman and enforcer for Bolas on Ravnica. A shakedown goes wrong and he almost kills a kid after the kid stabbed him, and he returns home only to see Elias cheating on him with another man.
* This was the event that made him spark and planeswalk away.
Chapter 9
* Lavinia is meeting with Ral openly now, since the Guild Summit is proceeding and it only makes sense she'd talk to him about it.
* The Summit is tomorrow, and they need to find Bolas's agents before then.
* Kaya takes a break during a meeting and runs into an old man. He begs her to forgive his debt, and realizing that's something she can do, she does.
* Bolas talks to Vraska in the form of a possessed shadow elf. He suspects Jace was behind Vraska turning against him.
* Vraska has her Erstwhile zombie guards attack him, but he gains control of them instead. He knows having them attack her will do nothing, but he could easily have every Erstwhile zombie attack the Golgari, causing chaos. Many would see this as an opportunity to overthrow her, leading to a civil war.
* Vraska is unsure what to do.
Chapter 10
* It's the day of the Summit. Crowds gawk at the Simic delegation arriving. Ral is shocked to see that Borborygmos actually showed up, and wonders how Niv-Mizzet did it.
* Borborygmos grumbles. A small green humanoid in a well-tailored suit interprets for him.
* Lazav arrives too. Aurelia is angry he refuses to take his true form even here.
* The guildmasters debate the threat of Bolas, many thinking he isn't worth consideration.
* Niv-Mizzet arrives and tells them that Bolas is more powerful then him, which has a lot of weight coming from him. He requests the Guildpact be amended to give him power above the other guilds, and in return he will abdicate his position in Izzet.
* Isperia calls a recess for each guild's lawmages to go over Niv-Mizzet's plan.
* Vraska goes to her assigned chamber that night, but a note under the door tells her to go to the conference chamber now.
* There, she finds Isperia alone with no guards. They talk. Vraska explains that she was the one who made her spark, thanks to an order she wrote that led to her imprisonment and torture.
* Isperia finds the execution regrettable, but her order was sound. She'd do it all over again.
* Vraska turns her to stone.
* The next morning, the guildmasters gather outside the conference chamber, which is oddly locked. Baan unlocks it, and inside they see Isperia's stone form. Vraska is gone.
* Ral assures everyone they're well protected, but everyone leaves the conference. Hekara stays with Ral. Lazav reminds Ral that he told him that he [Lazav] wasn't the one he should have mistrusted.
* Ral's mind goes back to the Implicit Maze (from the Return to Ravnica story) and he realizes there's still a way to salvage this.
Chapter 11
* Ral is focusing all of Izzet on a single project.
* Ral dreams of the past. After planeswalking, he's immediately accosted by thugs. He defeats them and steals from them instead.
* Ral sees a job listing for an apprentice at an artificer's shop. After showing off his electric powers, he's hired.
* Later, Ral has a new boyfriend, but he was just getting close to Ral to steal from his boss. Ral wants 25% of the take. He already learned everything he needed from the artificer.
* In the present, Ral reports the situation to Niv-Mizzet. Six guilds are still willing to work with them, with Azorius and Dovin Baan being the most cooperative. Dimir is cooperating, but Ral remains distrustful. Simic has gone into hiding, and Selesnya will be neutral and nothing more.
* Domri has defeated Borborygmous off screen, so I guess we'll never know how that happened.
* Vraska has disappeared off the plane.
* Ral has a plan to avoid the restrictions of the Guildpact with specially placed nodes. However, he'll need to place nodes in Golgari and Gruul territory. He suggests they take that territory by force.
* He explains the plan to the six ally guilds and they agree to help.
* Hekara is upset that Vraska turned against them, since she fought alongside them.
Chapter 12
* Teysa doesn't want Kaya involved in the battle herself, since her death could be catastrophic for Orzhov.
* Kaya considers forgiving all her contracts, but that could result in her death. For now, she forgives the debts of people who ask her in person and have debts she considers unreasonable.
* Ral is part of a Boros and Azorius joint attack on Gruul territory. They're confronted by Domri, who claims to be the new Gruul guildmaster.
* Gruul attacks with giant birds and boars.
* A huge battle erupts, with soldier fighting Gruul warrior.
* Ral's side wins and the Gruul retreat. They note they got a much stronger resistance than expected. It must be because of Bolas.
~~~
I was surprised to see the story continue on after the Guild Summit. I figured MaRo was mixed up when he said the events of Ravnica Allegiance happened after Guilds of Ravnica, since clearly WAR started after Isperia's death, but no, that isn't the case. The Gruul riots and Kaya forgiving Orzhov debts all happen after her death.
Though it isn't stated, I suspect Ral traveled to Fiora (setting of Conspiracy).
