Tony tried to act as if everything seemed normal.

"Buna dimineata, Mr. Kavilosc! Did I come at a bad time?"

"Buna diminieata, Mr. Stark. I am so sorry for my lack of readiness this morning." He was clearly embarrassed. "I had contemplated contacting you to cancel the meeting, Mr. Stark, but you have traveled so far to meet with me."

Mr. Kavilosc brought Tony down the hall to his office. He gestured for Stark to take a seat, and then closed the door behind them.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Kavilosc?"

The Rumanian businessman stood behind his desk and looked down.

"As you know, the purpose of our meeting today is to arrange for the construction of a branch of Stark Enterprises here in Rumania. I had a perfect parcel of land picked out on the border of the Carpathian Mountains just for the factory."

"Go on."

"The land is near a river, and we would be able to build roads leading up to it. It's not overly far from the city, but there's enough land around to expand the factory as we grow. The only problem with this land, Mr. Stark, is that its owner does not want to give it up."

"How much are you offering for the land?"

"More than anyone around here would dream of asking for. Almost more than it's worth. But I received no response, no matter how many letters I sent. The owner of the land has no telephone, so my ability to contact him was limited."

Mr. Kavilosc then sat down behind his desk. Telling the rest of the story seemed to weigh heavy upon him.

"So I sent a group of our best negotiators out to the landholder's castle to meet with him personally. Our thought was that if we gave him some money up front, in person, that he would know that our intentions were sincere, and accept our offer. Unfortunately, things did not go that way."

Mr. Kavilosc looked off into the distance.

"The members of the party that went out to Castel Vraja have never returned."

Stark was concerned. "Did you notify the police? Is there an investigation underway?"

"Castel Vraja is a place that not even the police will go out to."

"But you wanted to build a branch of Stark Enterprises there. Hmmm." Kavilosc bristled a little at Stark's sarcasm. Tony began to think that his time was being wasted.

But Kavilosc's tone became more desperate than before.

"Mr. Stark, I must ask a favor of you. Even here in Rumania, we know of your valiant bodyguard, Iron Man. His adventures both with the Avengers League and alone are well known to us."

"I'll let him know of your admiration the next time I see him."

"Is there any way that you could ask him to go out to Castel Vraja, to see if he can use his technology to help me find my associates?"

Stark felt a little bit at a loss for words. "Well, I may have to call him away from something else. He is my bodyguard, and sometimes he has things to do for the Avengers League . . . "

"Please help me, Mr. Stark. Among the group of four who are lost . . . is my wife-to-be. Here is a picture of my Maja."

Maja was beautiful, that was for sure. She had raven hair, and fiery dark eyes. Tony had to think for a moment. His kindness had gotten him in a lot of trouble in recent months. Someone that he thought he had loved had helped to ruin his company's reputation.*

*(See Iron Man 1-10 for the story of Tony Stark and Poison Ivy's ruinous romance.)

But Tony saw the desperation and sadness in his host's face and eyes.

"I'll see if I can get Iron Man to help," he said.

Iron Man's radar and other scanning systems were actively hunting for anything that might emerge from the castle. He was also scanning the mountain paths and the path to the castle for any signs of human life.

Just as he suspected, the life readings were strongest right at the castle. There was a surprising amount of energy being read in by his sensors, energy that was not able to be classified by Iron Man's systems.

Iron Man landed, and Kavilosc's Land Rover stopped, at a place not far from the castle gates.

"You don't have to go any further if you don't want to, Mr. Kavilosc," Iron Man said.

"No, we will continue on," Kavilosc said determinedly. "I will find my Maja inside this evil castle."

The burly, buzz-cut Sasha put on his backpack and held an AK-47 in his hands. Kavilosc pulled out a snub-nosed pistol. Obviously, they were expecting to come up against whatever had made the previous group disappear.

Kavilosc pulled out a blueprint of the castle. He spoke in a hushed tone.

"There is a secret entrance to the castle up that hill over there. If we encounter no resistance, that entrance should get us inside quickly and quietly."

The group then trudged up the hill, trying to not make any undue noise. But they had already been noticed.

Up on one of the parapets of the castle, a winged beast cried out with a call that sounded half like a lion's roar and half like an eagle's cry.

"What is that?" Sasha asked.

Iron Man focused his long-range visual sensors on the creature.

"It's nothing I've ever seen before."

"Well, it sure sees us!" Kavilosc cried out.

The beast had launched itself down from the parapet toward the group. It swooped down out of the sky, its talons tearing through the air.

Sasha let loose at the beast with his AK-47, but as good as the bodyguard's aim was, he could not hit the agile creature.

"It's a gryphon or something," Iron Man yelled. "Keep it busy with your guns, guys, and I'll see if I can get it out of the sky!"

Iron Man soared into the air, high up above the gryphon. He hovered, waiting for the winged monster to make another dive at his companions. When the gryphon swooped down, Iron Man hit it with a repulsor ray from above.

The force of the ray along with its own force from the dive sent the gryphon careening straight into the ground below.

It lay helpless, its paws spindled and its wings broken. If it had not tried to kill them, the sight of the gryphon broken on the ground would have been quite sad. Mercilessly, Sasha pulled out his weapon and emptied dozens of rounds into the creature until it stopped twitching.

Iron Man landed and viewed the carnage.

"You killed it?" he asked in disbelief.

"Of course," Sasha replied. "That was what the beast was planning to do to us!"

Iron Man was going to protest, but he knew that time was of the essence. A creature guarding the castle had noticed them, and it would not be long before everyone and everything inside would be on alert.

The group did not see the fallen gryphon undergo a strange transformation very soon after they had left it behind.

"Just wait, boss," Sasha said in broken English. "We find our lost friends before you know it, supernatural monsters or no."

He stepped forward into an opening in the wall that clearly led to a rotunda-like structure. The moment Sasha stepped forward, a volley of spikes flew into his stomach. He fell back into the passageway.

"Sasha!" Kavilosc shouted.

"Not so loud!" Iron Man replied. He put an iron-gauntleted hand on Kavilosc's shoulder to stop him from immediately going into the rotunda.

They heard a lion's roar that also sounded somewhat like a trumpet. Iron Man's sensors picked up something with possessing an amount of unknown energy.

"Let me take a look. Don't go out there until I signal for you to follow me." Iron Man stepped cautiously into the rotunda.

There, poised before him with its back toward the far wall, was a ghastly creature. It was covered in reddish-yellow fur. Its roaring head was more man than lion, but its powerful body was definitely feline.

The most deadly feature of the beast was its spiked tail, which it pointed in Iron Man's direction. Iron Man turned on his repulsor array, which acted both as a defensive and offensive weapon at once. The quills were either deflected or vaporized.

The Iron Avenger leapt across the room and used his momentum to smash into the creature. Both combatants impacted into the wall.

Kavilosc carefully entered the rotunda to see a cloud of dust and fallen stone in the corner. Slowly, Iron Man emerged from the dust, victorious.

"I've generated temporary energy bonds to hold the creature prisoner. We should get about our business, though."

"We'll have to come back for Sasha, then," Kavilosc said sadly. "He shall be the last to fall to this unseen villain."

The walls of the rotunda began to shake.

"Unseen, yes. Villain, no," an eerie voice cried out. "It is you and your men who have chosen to invade my home. You wish to destroy my castle and ravage my lands! It is you who are the villains! Thus speaks Kraklow, the Sorcerer!!"

Iron Man rushed to detect from where the voice was originating, but his efforts were to no avail. It was not long before they heard the bellowing of another beast, this time coming from behind one of the doors in the rotunda.

"Should we see what that is?" Kavilosc said.

"It may have one of your search party as its captive," Iron Man responded. "If we go in quietly, we may stand a chance of taking it by surprise."

Iron Man opened the door as quietly as he could, but it still let out a tremendous squeak. They had entered an ancient, dusty, library. But they did not have long to observe their surroundings.

The squeaky door had awoken a hideous, rooster-headed monster that was sleeping inside the room.

It roared horrifically - the roar sounded like a mixture of a cock crowing and an alligator bellowing. It was a sound that Iron Man would never forget.

As the creature stomped across the floor Iron Man noticed that its eyes were glowing. The battle-hardened hero knew that the creature was preparing to use its eye-weapons, whatever they were, on them.

But Kavilosc had no such experience. He was suddenly transfixed by the beast's hypnotic glare.

"The Bazilyzek!" was the last thing Kavilosc murmured before he fell down dead.

Iron Man peered out to see Kavilosc's panic-stricken form lying prone on the library floor. The person for whom he was performing this mission and his companion were now dead. Was there anything left to do but stop this monster and go home?

He attempted to contact Oracle. From the opening of the transmissions back and forth between them, Iron Man could tell that there was not a very strong signal. It was no wonder seeing as Iron Man was in a remote castle far away from anything that could repeat a long-range signal.

"Oracle, I need help," Iron Man communicated.

"Signal . . . weak. Words . . . cut off."

"I'm fighting a Bazyliszek. Do you know what that is?"

"Polish . . . basilisk. Dangerous . . . mythical? Sure . . . ?"

Iron Man was frustrated. He hoped that he didn't get the wrong information from Oracle because of the bad connection.

"Eyes . . . kill. Stop the creature . . . .reflection."

Iron Man signed off.

"Reflection? Eyes kill?" Iron Man thought. Well, Kavilosc had been killed the moment he looked at the beast, so he had to make sure not to look at the creature directly.

He had his suit's photoreceptors turned down - he was just working off the infrared and ultraviolet spectra now.

Iron Man stepped out into the library.

"C'mere, ugly!"

The creature roared at him with its eerie combination of a cock crowing and an alligator's bellowing. Iron Man under all of his armor could feel the almost hypnotizing power of the beast's gaze. He had to tell himself not to look.

The monster roared with a small amount of agony and surprise at seeing its reflection in Iron Man's suit. But it was not enough to kill it.

Iron Man's sensors warned him to dodge a blow from the beast's tremendous rooster-like claws.

Then it came to him that the beast was not very intelligent. It was so used to slaying its prey on sight that it did not have much of the cunning of a predator that would have to work harder for its prey. Iron Man ducked into the shadows of one of the library's bookshelves as the Bazyliszek continued to pursue him.

Iron Man then re-emerged from behind the bookshelf. Then another Iron Man emerged from behind the bookshelf, and then another.

The Bazilyzek bellowed in confusion. Iron Man took advantage of the moment to power up his repulsor rays.

The Iron Avenger then blasted the creature between the eyes, sending it careening into the wall of the library. The creature's great weight caused the wall behind it to crumble down in a hail of stone.

Iron Man walked forward to verify that the creature was actually out of the fight. As he neared the creature, a bizarre thing happened.

The shape of the Bazilyzek transformed into that of a very severely injured man clad in hiking boots and warm winter clothes.

It was clearly a human. Was it one of the people that had been lost?

"What have I done?" Iron Man said aloud.

"You have just murdered one of the meddlers who attempted to force me to give up my castle," Kraklow's voice cackled. "I long ago mastered the art of transforming men into creatures, both magical and mundane. Congratulations on your triumph against the Bazilyzek! My manticore and my gryphon were the other travelers, similarly transformed. You fools were murdering your own comrades all the while!!!"

Kraklow's evil laughter died off, and Iron Man was left alone.

There were just two life readings left in the castle, both from near the main hall. One resembled a human life reading, while the other was definitely a magical one, because Iron Man's sensors registered it the same way they had registered the other magical creatures.

Iron Man detected the screams of a woman from down the hall. He would save somebody's life today.

The decrepit but powerful figure of Kraklow stood before Iron Man. Evil glimmered in his wizened eyes.

"Ah, so this is the brave knight who has come so far to challenge me. Now, fool, you shall taste the power of Kraklow the Sorcerer!!!"

"Not likely, old man!"

Iron Man remembered how decrepit the structural integrity of the castle was. Before Kraklow could begin his incantations, Iron Man fired his pulse bolts at the arch that overhung where the magician stood.

Fragments of rock fell, and one of them almost struck Kraklow. He turned and stopped his incantations. Maja squirmed below him.

Iron Man took advantage of the moment to fly forward, hitting the magician right in the chest. He heard the old man's ribs breaking as he impacted.

The magician lay knocked out in a pile of rubble.

"Multumesc," the young woman said.

Iron Man's onboard translators told him that this meant "Thank you." He used his suit's lasers to cut through the chains that held the young woman.

The woman started to babble excitedly in Rumanian. "Thank you, sir! The magician was about to use me as part of a terrible spell. Did you see what happened to the two other people who came with me?"

Iron Man shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid they are gone. Kraklow turned them into magical beasts and sent them against me."

"It's not your fault. Kraklow . . . tortured them before he turned them into beasts. The agony of transformation must have been more than they could bear. By killing them, you released them from their suffering."

"And my Nikolai? Did he come with you too?"

Iron Man began to think of what to say to this now bereaved woman. Just then the prone form of Kraklow began to stir slightly.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I have to get both you and Kraklow out of here."

Iron Man brought Maja back to the Land Rover. She started to sob as she realized that Nikolai had perished in the rescue attempt.

Kraklow has claimed too many lives tonight, Iron Man thought to himself.

Iron Man brought Maja back to Bucharest, and arranged with the police and the Rumanian Army to have them go out to Castel Vraja and retrieve the bodies of Kavilosc and his associates. As a last gesture of gratitude, Maja promised to work as hard as she could to build a Rumanian branch of Stark Enterprises and to make it successful, if only to honor her newly-deceased fianceé.

Iron Man communicated with Oracle again, this time from the place with the best reception in Bucharest.

"What do I do with this Kraklow guy? I've got him sedated and in one of my portable force fields, but if he wakes up all the way, I'm in big trouble."

"You should bring him to Stephen Strange, the so-called 'Sorcerer Supreme', in New York."

So it was very soon after that Tony Stark flew in one of his private jets back to New York, with Kraklow stowed safely aboard.

It was with a little bit of unsureness that Iron Man knocked on the door.

Strange's servant, Wong, appeared.

"Master Strange is expecting you, Iron Man. Please follow me."

Strange turned around as Iron Man and Kraklow entered the room.

"So, you have brought the feared sorcerer Kraklow to me? " he said, removing himself from contemplating a mystic relic. " You have done this realm a great service, Iron Man."

"What are you going to do with him?"

"He will remain forever imprisoned in another dimension. None of his spells will work there."

"Sounds good to me."

As Iron Man left the Sanctum Sanctorum, he reflected on the results of his brief world tour. Hopefully, the next stop in Madripoor would be uneventful. But given the way things had gone so far, he was not so sure.