Finding Malatyr's base of operations requires 4 Success Levels, whether tracking the elementals, following the cards, or asking the villagers.
About 6 kilometers south-east of Abiesberg our heroes find a small hut in the woods. It's a small two-floor wooden house, with grey smoke rising from the chimney. Everyone can sense a lot of magical energy coming from the second floor. A large amount of fallen leaves lie on the ground around the hut. An Intelligence+Nature or Intelligence+Notice Test reveals that this is suspicious, as autumn is only beginning and there are far more leaves here than in other places in the woods. 3 Success Levels reveal that there is something under the leaves.
Under the leaves is a net over a pit trap (Strength 2). If stepped on, the net collapses, revealing a 4 meter deep pit with magically sharpened stone spikes at the bottom, dealing 8 damage. The pit is a semicircle with a 1 meter radius in front of the door.
The inside of the hut looks perfectly normal: a bed, a small kitchen, and a writing desk - but no stairs. On the desk lie two tarot cards, linked to the three carried by Topazmesser. In the middle of the room ceiling is a hidden trapdoor, which when pulled folds down a spiral staircase.
The second floor is massive. If the hut's footprint was around 5 meters on each side, the second floor is easily ten times that. The room is a huge lab, some of the walls covered in vials of multicoloured liquids, some with bookshelves. On the floor about twenty meters away a magic circle is drawn on the floor, surrounded with red and white runes. In it stands Malatyr: a middle aged man with sleek brown hair and a well trimmed beard. He's chanting in some strange language, a faint swirl of red and purple light surrounding him. Between the stairs and the circle stands a large creature made of ice. It's not an elemental per se, but actually an advanced Homunculus (Perception+Alchemy reveals this).
"Stop! You don't know what you're doing," the sorcerer yells at them. If they advance towards him, the homunculus attacks. If they take it down, Malatyr briefly pauses his ritual and summons a Neznámy.