Chronicle

The team hires a cab to bring them from Charenton to their hotel in central Paris. They find the road blocked a few hundred meters away from their destination: anti-war protests are in progress, with unruly youths taking the streets and mounted policemen assembling to oppose them. The investigators decide to avoid the protests and head back on foot.

Having read Prof. Smith's journal on the Blood Red Fez, the 1923 investigators become convinced that the simulacrum story is not a mad man's dream but indeed represents serious danger. The team decides to depart for Paris as soon as possible, in order to investigate Smith's clues. 

In Budapest, the investigators decide to avoid the Orient Express for the final leg of their journey to Istambul. Menkaph is on the train and must undoubtedly have noticed that his victim and the Whispering Fez are missing. They decide to hire a coach to the border, and ride the local trains across the Serbian kingdom and Bulgaria. Moving as fast as the connections allow, the team arrives in Istambul almost a day after leaving Budapest. 

Professor Smith's journal contains a retelling of strange events that occurred 30 years ago, in the spring of 1893. 

Two headlines in the Saturday morning newspapers catch the attention of the investigators: "Man dies three times in one night", and "Professor's home burns". 

Professor Smith mentions the Sedefkar Simulacrum and pleads with the investigators to continue the search that he can no longer undertake.

Professor Smith gives a talk on "hauntings", offering a scientific approach to the study of paranormal phenomena. Through careful examination of three hauntings recorded on photographs and film, he deduces that there may be other worlds and dimensions just beyond our reach and understanding.

The lecture's message is challenged by the Turk Mehmet Makryat, who claims that following science without regard to the Old Ways is dangerous and can lead to tragedy. The heroes get a chance to meet prof. Smith after the lecture and discuss his experience and conclusions. 

In new year's day 1923, the Mauldrey Exhibition of mesoamerican sculptures opens to the public. Many illustrious guests attend the opening ceremony and have a chance to introduce themselves. 

Sir Clarendon, Mudiwa and John White get introduced to professor Julius Arthur Smith, a fellow member of the Oriental Club. Professor Alan Hart, a university colleague of Dr. Smith is also attending, as is the young priest Oscar Danjou from Paris, having recently arrived in London. 

David McCullen, Mr. White and Mudiwa meet for the first time, in a mutual visit to the Kerguelen archipelago in the Southern Indian Ocean.

In that remote corner of the world, they come in contact with a murderous cult of worshippers of the God of the Black Stone, an otherworldy entity put to torpor at the depths of prehistory and only reawakened two centuries ago. A meeting with a german occult society expedition informs them of the terrible truth of the God's cycle of awakening, demanding a sacrifice every thirty years to ritually bind the being back to slumber.