The first habitations they passed were small hunters’ huts, none apparently in recent use. At each of the first two, Baron Rostov abandoned the main game trail and found an alternate path, on which they covered their tracks as well as they could, before returning to the trail. At the third hut, he stopped the group. The sun was behind the mountains and darkness would soon come.
“This, gentlemen, will be our base of operations for the next couple of days unless we are discovered. I suggest your men prepare a meal, Mr. Bartok, while you and Mr. Jankov become familiar with the surroundings. I will be conjuring a messenger to alert my Chancellor of our situation. Is there any urgent message any of you would like to get out?”
Jaromir quipped, “Dearest Mother, although I am being pursued by a creature that makes even Vampires shudder, the Christian faith in which you raised me sustains … Hah! … No, nothing I can think of.”
The Baron smiled. At least morale was still up. The men went about their duties, and he moved behind the hut to summon an Invisible Stalker. When the summoning was finished and the powerful creature bound, it growled, “You distract me again with your summons to your fascinating little plane. But it is well that you called on me, Rostov, and not on some flighty Imp or Pixie. Our Ethereal Plane is stormy; some great magic is afoot. And because these are uncertain times there, I demand full release from my obligation for doing whatever task you are about to lay upon me.”
“You ask much, but you will have it, if you also tell me what stirs the plane so.”
“A Lich who now names himself John Porter has been much more active on our plane than on what you call the Prime Material Plane. He has seduced some of the Kalnichov Vampires and they have set about some great task. On my plane, this valley throbs and rocks in sympathy with their great efforts.”
“Who among the Kalnichovs stand against him?”
“Those who cast him out were forewarned. Them he did not seduce.”
“I will go to them.”
“Not on my plane you won’t, nor on your Prime Material. The Lich has them under siege.”
“Very well. Take a message to Chancellor Niko Jelacic. Tell him that Mr. Porter has revealed Dey-nom-Nazadlan—”
“So that is the great work! No wonder the valley rocks and rolls. If Nazadlan is returned, the plane will be profoundly altered. So profoundly that I’m doubling my fee to you—”
“I believe we already have a deal,” the Baron said politely.
“—but without loss of honor I can accept this news of great concern as covering the extra cost.”
With their own logic and codes, Stalkers are not easy for humans to deal with. But they are resourceful, highly intelligent, and good observers of the Ethereal and Material Planes. So the wizard had learned their points of view well … for a human.
“Also tell him that Mr. Porter has captured my simulacrum—”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not good, Baron. He will be used against you.”
“My fear exactly. So, if I may dictate without interruption, my message to Chancellor Jelacic is: ‘John Porter is a Lich. He has revealed Dey-nom-Nazadlan and captured a simulacrum of me, which he will use against me when he discovers its nature. With Grigor, Zoltan the Dandy, and two other men I have gone into Kalnichov lands to seek help from that family against the renegade.’ Give the Chancel—”
“Twenty minutes to formulate a reply and bring it back to you, if he has one: Yes.” The Stalker stared at him. “Yes?”
“That’s it,” said the Baron. Before he had finished “it”, the Stalker had disappeared. Part of the Stalker code was that they wasted no time.
Rostov sat down heavily upon a fallen log. Within a few hours, he had produced a simulacrum and a whole illusionary party, freed his men from the Lich, and summoned a Stalker. He longed for the cornucopia of restorative drugs and spices he kept at Falcon’s Aerie for such busy occasions. A simple meal would have to do. Levering himself up, he went into the hut where his men had prepared soup, bread, and cheese. The Baron ate mechanically and fell exhausted onto the cot left for him. The Stalker had brought him no message back from Niko.
His dreams were not pleasant. He had half-hoped that Mr. Porter would throw the simulacrum into some dungeon to await further developments, but instead he was actively trying to bend it to his will. When Rostov woke from those uneasy dreams he wondered why, of all the things the Lich could be personally spending time on, breaking the simulacrum was first on the list? This was troubling, indeed, but there was one compensation: Pursuit of the party on any plane would be fitful for at least a few hours.
The hut was still dark, filled only with the breathing of Jaromir and the Dandy. The Baron got up and walked out. He breathed the night air. It should have been refreshing, but whatever was poisoning the land was in the air as well. He cleared the leaves off the water in the rain barrel behind the hut, then leaned tiredly against it, scrying by moonlight for nearly half an hour.
Out of the deep shadows, Grigor came to him. “Nothing so far on my and Franjo’s watch, Baron.”
“Do you feel the disease around us, Grigor?”
“I do. When you sent the Dandy and me to scout, we found a broken land. Even a few days ago the evil here was only beginning to wake. Now there is little alive but many corpses of beasts killed by other beasts. We should not stay here.”
“Not for long, I agree. But this is now a calm node in the swirling vortexes of conflict around us. There is civil disorder in Ravenloft.” That was Vladimir Kalnichov’s castle, in the northeast of the valley. “There is an eldritch horde heading for Falcon’s Aerie. And Wolf’s Lair is under siege on our Material Plane and on another.” That was the Stokavski manor, to the north. “It is there that I must go next.
“Grigor, you remember how you guarded me in Rome while I traveled to another plane. These days, I travel like that only when surrounded by sturdy walls and powerful glyphs. I believe the Lich knows this, which is why some of his ethereal abominations race south through the night, trying to intercept me as I head for the manor.
“So it is safer to do my traveling from here, if you and your men can ensure I remain undisturbed.”
“We will protect you, Baron,” said Grigor.
“Do not take this on lightly. And not unless you are sure you can succeed.”
“The Dandy and I have surveyed the land well. The four of us can protect you.”
“Indeed, we can, sir!” said the Dandy, until then unnoticed behind the Baron.
Rostov started. The man was good!
“Very well, gentlemen. I would gain little from more sleep, but I will require another meal and some quiet rest. In an hour, while it is still dark, we will put up a blanket across a corner of the hut.”