It has been ten years since Count Osvalt Draşov and his armies marched south and were lost. Their sacrifice purchased Olrau a decade of peace, but danger once again stalks the hinterlands. Travelers find villages destroyed, their people and livestock torn apart. The forests have become places of shadows and fear, where few dare to tread. The creeping darkness spreads north, threatening even the fortified towns that ring Castle Draşov. Peasants huddle in their homes, as they did before Osvalt's March, whispering prayers and making warding gestures in the hopes that whatever hunts them will pass them by.
- Petitioners seek help from Count Vilhelm in Castle Draşov. A peasant brings word that there is contagion in the south, and that Baron Lascăr Ulici has stopped holding court. Vilhelm travels south with Halloran and Tarn. En route they find that House Guleşc has become corrupt and is hoarding money, but Vilhelm convinces Baron Guleşc to build a defensive wall. At Castle Ulici, Halloran snoops around and finds that the court physician seems to know more than he lets on about the contagion, and Vilhelm argues with the deformed Baron Ulici. Vilhelm and his retinue depart to investigate the contagion, finding an infected varghulf devouring corpses in an ossuary tower. They kill the varghulf, though Vilhelm is wounded. Upon their return to Castle Draşov, they find Count Osvalt returned from the dead.
Back in Castle Draşov Vilhelm recovers from his injuries. Count Draşov sends Tarn on patrol to the south, where he finds infected rats crossing a corpse choked stream. Halloran is approached by a fisherman who complains that his compass always points at the castle. He is interrupted by Count Draşov, who asks Halloran to find a way into Dmitrie Vidraru's tower. Vilhelm sees a cultist bleeding another patient in the infirmary, and his scream draws Halloran. Halloran and Vilhelm are attacked by dogs clad in silence. Tarn, returning from his patrol, helps them flee from the hounds and the trio hides in an unused chamber. Steeling themselves, they make their way into Dmitrie's tower. Based on some recovered notes, they discover that Dmitrie had been working on duplicating his body and soul using a cyst recovered from Garaxas and a mysterious substance from a place called Haariya. On the roof Tarn finds a mirror that allows him to peer into the Netherworld, where the disembodied duplicated souls were stranded. The souls possessed the guardsmen that entered the tower at Tarn's behest, and the party fled back into the castle.
- The party sets out for Haariya to uncover its secrets. En route they meet Raluca, a farmer who fled from Ulici raiders that were burning her village. While assisting her they are attacked by Ulici crossbowmen, but escape. While camping that night Halloran spots an Ulici wagon dragging dozens of yoked ghouls southward. He waits until morning to reveal this to Vilhelm and Tarn. The party reaches the mountains and finds a pair of Ulici spearmen guarding the entrance to Haariya. Halloran slits their throats. The party follows wooden rails through the depths of the mountains, eventually reaching a huge gallery with a partially exposed tank, carved from a single giant quartz crystal, containing a roiling mass of black ichor with a single red nucleus. There are azhad working to excavate the crystal under the eye of dozens of guards. Halloran recognizes it as Ennothta, an Ageshkiri imprisoned during the Great War.