  We discuss the baryonic contribution to QCD thermodynamics near the QCD phase
transition, which we split into "stringy excitations" and the "chiral" lowest
states. Our finite-$T$ string model for the former component is inspired by the
lattice data on static potentials and ideas of string survival even $above$
$T_c$: it is used to explain two sets of baryonic susceptibilities calculated
on the lattice by the Bielefeld-BNL group. Two new ingredients of the model are
(i) the near-$T_c$ tightening of the strings, and (ii) physical upper limit of
the string length. Then we proceed to more subtle effects related to chiral
restoration dynamics near $T_c$: we suggest that "melting" of the sigma terms
of the lowest nucleon/$\Delta$ masses can explain these susceptibilities. In a
discussion, we consider bound monopole-quark states, as a possible explanation
to some deficits of contribution at $T=(1-1.4)T_c$.
