Craftsman's Journal

This journal belongs to a hapless artist who won the commission of a lifetime: frescoes on the ceiling of Svartrau Cathedral. But his triumph curdles into horror as the monsters that killed the knyaz and fed on his blood stalk the land, and flight becomes the only option.

He pays the soldiers a fortune for a place in their transport — money he won't need in the grave — and prays they reach the Northern Cleft bridge in time, cursing their agonisingly slow pace.