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.