Chapter 1: Uncertain Times

Chernobog hears a scratching at the back door. He goes to investigate, expecting a cat or dog wanting in. When he opens it, he does find a cat, but it darts off. Dragomir looks up, and sees the dirty face of a small girl peeking out from an abandoned building. The girl ducks back, but in an incomprehensible pique of curiosity, raises a tiny hand and waves.

The Cossack is startled for a few seconds, but then smiles and waves back at the little girl. He turns to the others.

"Fate is being kind today. I saw a child over there." Dragomir points. "We should make her acquaintance; she may have seen something. Which one of you is good with children? Dragomir is strong, intimidating man. I am maybe not best choice."

And I fear I may remind her of stories of other witches in huts

When it becomes apparent that no one else will tackle the task, Dragomir sighs.

"I will speak to the child. Children love Dragomir. I probably have many running around the Ukraine..."

The Cossack begins heading toward the location where he spotted the girl.

The girl, lurking in the abandoned building, does not hide when Dragomir appears. She is dirty, dark haired, fierce eyed. She holds her ground and looks up at him. "Are you a Cossack horseman?"

Dragomir crouches down so he is eye level with the child, and then grins.

"Hello little one. Yes, I am THE Cossack horseman. Tell me, you see anything strange in that building lately? You can tell Dragomir."

The brave girl says, "Da, a bad man. He killed someone in there. I heard the scream. They were in the for a long time. When he left, he came alone and there was no more scream."

"And what did this bad man look like?"

She gives you a child's description. "He was very tall, but not as tall as you. He had a big nose, sort of round, and brown hair, and it was short and a curly moustache and a beard that was brown and short, and he wore fancy boots that we're clean and pants and a shirt and a coat that had shiny buttons. Round and yellow."

No, the description, when related to the rest of the cabal, won't match anyone you've encountered so far.

Pistatel returns to the compound and the rest of the cabal.

Stepan hurries back to the crime scene. He slips past the guards and finds (or try to) his cabal friends. Still invisible he speaks: Borislav Artemovich thinks that we are the Regents men and we have done this. He has called for troops to attack us. We should go, but Pisatel stands with you, even if unseen

Da. Let us go

Kolya nods. "Agreed."

Dragomir thinks for a second. In a moment of bluster, he asks, "How many troops? I can handle ten soldiers by myself. Maybe twenty if I take a few minutes to stretch. But more than that, we might have a problem." He winks at the child.

The child is disappearing at the use of the word 'troops', vanishing into the abandoned building.

Dragomir nods. "We go back to the sanctum." The Cossack gets on his horse and begins to ride away.

At the sanctum, Dragomir will look for a parchment and some charcoal. He begins trying to sketch an image of the house that he and the others were just in. He’s using this to help focus his thoughts. The Cossack is not an artist, so the drawing is rudimentary.