Kurt's vision

Kurt quite probably felt hunger, it had been a long journey here, and some time since he had eaten. However, something caused him to be suspiscious about the cooking meat, and its source. Things had gotten desperate on the Eastern front, and there had been rumours of...unsavory..practice.

Sniffing the air, the meat smells like fatty pork, and is being boiled in some kind of weak stock, probably made from the bones of the animal. The aroma of this suffuses the kitchen from the open pot. It has that sweetness that is sometimes offputting in meat, but it does still smell like the flesh of an animal, rather than that of another, more upright prey animal.

The smell of meat still suffuses the room. However, that sweetness shifts, starts to develop a sharper note that irritates the senses. Was something else added to the pan? The butler barely moved.

It's not that.

Kurt can smell chlorine gas.

It stings the back of his throat. he coughs involuntarily. The movement shifts shifts viewpoint, and the officer's sword hanging on the wall in the dining room catches his eye. It holds his focus. Sitting there, polished and shining. A weapon, but also a symbol of authority.

He feels a weight pressing against your mind, the mind of somebody else. Somebody who has weilded that sword.

He sees through the eyes of another. Not here, and not now, not in the dining room, but somewhere else in this house, earlier in time.

As you turn the handle in the bathroom, you hear the hissing begin,
just as you thought.
You recognise the smell of chlorine gas instantly of course.
You smelled it often enough during the War.
It's all very Neat;
A perfect double-envelopment maneuver.
Perhaps turning the handle some more will open the pipes even wider, and you'll simply choke and die before you vomit your lungs out.
As long as that traitor Xavier vomits his lungs out first.
Then you'll have served your country.
Even if it has crushed you under its heel.

Kurt comes to his senses, kneeling on the floor of the dining room and coughing, close to the door to the kitchen. The Luger has fallen from hia grasp and lies near him.

Richard, momentarily halted by both embarrassment at the intrusion and the presence of the disturbing manservant, snaps to his senses when he sees Kurt collapse. Immediately he kneels down next to him and ensures Kurt's airways are clear, two fingers on his neck to check Kurt's pulse.

Whilst he does his best to attend to Kurt, Richard tries to study Kurt's expression. Is it pain? Could well be, choking is hardly pain free. Confusion maybe? That would be understandable, Richard is definitely confused by today's occurrences. Richard shakes his head in annoyance, he's never been that good at reading people.

"Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?"

Quite why the manservant wasn't shocked by the intrusion, let alone the collapsing, speaks volumes to Richard. He's not entirely sure what's written within those volumes, but he has a strong feeling that it's not good. Whilst 'unflappable' is surely a required characteristic of a manservant, 'callous disregard of the well-being of guests' is surely not.

Roland is angry at the manservant's impassiveness. He takes a step or two toward him looking him in the eyes and pointing back to Kurt. He should show some concern, some kind of emotion. Useless panic would be better than this cold observation.

"Hey! Can't you see this guy's in trouble? What the hell kind of country is this where you don't lift a finger to help a man choking? Damnit I want you to fetch the man of this house right now!"

He continues to stare the manservant in the face, hoping Richard and perhaps the others can help bring Kurt round.

Kurt sits up and tries to catch his breath.

He seems to have had vision involving the thoughts and experiences of a third party. He has considerable antipathy towards someone called Xavier. It might be worth finding out who he is/was and his connection with the house. Also further discussion with Kurt's commpanions about their "episodes" may prove fruitful.

Chlorine gas reminds Kurt of the war. Not good.

Roland gets a good look at the manservant's face as he stares at him. You don't get good at acting without being able to read and understand people's body language. Perhaps he's even been experimenting with some of the Stanislavski's methods - really getting inside the mind of a pirate, or fighter pilot to get the best portrayal on screen. He puts this to use now.

The manservant is nearly unmoving. There is a subtle rise and fall of his chest as he breathes, but the rhythm is slow. Slower than normal.There is no sign of emotion on his face, his eyes hidden behind those dark glasses, uncessary in the dim light of the kitchen. The impression that projects is not one of calmness however. Rather it is as if the manservant has made himself impassive and uncaring. Hardly responding to the world around him. His movements are funtional, minimal - efficient, but devoid of the variety of character that makes up most people's bearing and gait. Roland for example has an upright, active stride. His new companion Manny tends to slump dejectedly, interspersed with moments of conviction.

The manservant has seemingly removed those traces of individual motive force derived from personality.He reminds Roland somewhat of the automatic movements of Brigitta Helm's 'Maschinenmensch' in Metropolis, or the actors playing the 'Anihilants' - Ming's robotic servants in the Flash Gordan serials.

The manservant continues to hold the meat cleaver in his right hand at his side. The knuckles of that hand are even paler than the rest of his skin due to the tension there. He is gripping the tool, the potential weapon, very tightly.

One thing is for certain. Roland's fairly sure that the manservant isn't acting.

"My God, what's wrong with you?"

Roland stands more at ease, continuing to regard the servant and glancing at the hand wrapped tight around the cleaver's hilt.

"Can you tell me, yes or no, is your master here?"

Slowly, deliberately, the manservant moves his head from side to side, to indicate the negative. Rolands ability to assess honesty suggests that the manservant might be lying about the absence of his master.

"Finally, an answer. Well, my friend and I will leave you to your work, and take our colleague through to another room."

Roland turns away from the servant towards the others, helping Richard help Kurt to his feet. "Come on guys, let's head back through." He looks them each in the eye, a serious look betraying his calm and reasonable tone.

Hal watches the exchange with a sense of unease. His gaze flits from the cleaver in the manservant’s hand to the discarded Lugar lying nearby and wonders if events are about to take a significant turn for the worse. He briefly considers his own Webley back in his bag in the other room but quickly dismisses the notion. Tempers are frayed and another firearm is unlikely to help.

He decides instead to intervene and gently places a hand on Roland’s arm.

“Steady on old chap,” he says in what he hopes is a reassuring manner. Then to the manservant:

“Can you assist us? We appear to be having a spot of trouble.”

Hal then goes on to quickly outline recent events in the hopes of eliciting some reaction.

The manservant watches Roland turn away from him, and head back to assist Kurt and Richard. He then turns his dark glasses towards Hal, his face just as impassive. He appears to be listening to Hal's account of the past hour or so, including the collapse of Manny in the gallery and himself in the library. The manservant was himself present for Kurt's collapse in the dining room.

When Hal has finished speaking, the manservant waits for a moment. Taller than Hal, the manservant looks down on him. He appears to be checking the front and sides of Hal's head, potentially for any cuts of bruises from the detailed collapse. Apparently finding no serious injury he turns away.

He walks to the counter. Opens a large, metal refrigerator doorwith one hand, and produces a jug of chilled water. This he hands to Hal. He makes a gesture with the now empty hand, pointing back to the dining room, then at the bubbling pot on the counter. He moves his hand several times to indicate twenty minutes. He seems to want you to await dinner.

Kurt coughs

"Kof...Kof...Gak -Thought I was back in the war for a minute. There's something about this house that's giving people hallucinations. Also anybody find any mention of someone called Xavier while we've been here?"

Nobody having picked up the luger, Richard carefully stoops to retrieve it, making sure his fingers are nowhere near the trigger, before handing it to Kurt, appearing to hold his breath as he does so.

Nodding towards the manservant, Richard says "Let's leave the gent to his preparations, hmm? Shall we find the dining room?"

As he ushers them to leave the kitchen, he whispers to the group

"This man, indeed this house, unnerves me greatly. There is something most
strange afoot, and we'll need to keep our wits about us if we are to get to
the bottom of this."

Kurt pockets the gun and says:

"Danke. I agree something is wrong with this house - did anybody else
who had a strange turn experience visions from their past?"

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

Hal's stride takes him first into the dining room. He is the first of the passangers to step foot inside this room.

It is again shaped like an 'L' with one open plan end opening out onto the library and gallery spaces. There is another window that reveals the view from the back of the house. It is similarly bleak to the view from the front.

Standing out against the bare, white walls is a large, highly polished, ebony dining table, surrounded by high backed chairs made of black lacqured metal. There are five of the chairs. two on each side, and one at the head of the table. They seem spaced out, as if the table should accomodate more settings than this.

On the wall above the table hangs an officer's sword from the Great War.



There are set of double doors on the opposite side of the table, again made of burnished metal, like the single door in the gallery, and the larger front doors of the house.

From behind the double doors, there can be heard, over the footsteps of the passengers, a dull hissing sound, accompanied by a rhythmical thud, a sound of something heavy and metal hitting something more yeilding.

Kurt says to the other "Do we want to see who or what's behind the door?" Entering the room behind Hal, Roland turns to Kurt.

"Absolutely, it's about time we found out what's going on here."

Kurt takes out his Luger, although he has the sneaking suspicion it won't be of much use here. Roland is pleased and frankly, a little excited at this turn of events. He doesn't show it though, maintaining a look of seriousness and capability as he strides up to the doors, turns to ask Kurt if he's ready, and attempts to open them (dramatically if possible).

Richard, momentarily distracted by the officer's sword on the wall, jumps slightly as Kurt pulls out the pistol. He's always been wary of firearms, respectful of how easy it is to cause unfathomable destruction with one. Even though he's handled one briefly in the past, it was an experience he'd hoped was never to be repeated. Seeing the luger now brings some of that back to his mind, and he unconsciously clenches and relaxes his hands, before shaking them as he snaps his focus back to the door, and the odd sound emanating from behind it.


He moves towards the door, eyes searching for the door hinges, noting which way they open. Once his hand grips the door kob, he looks up at Kurt, his eyebrows raised in the universal body language way of saying "Ready?". Richard waits for a nod from his armed companion, ready to open the door swiftly should the signal be given.

Kurt looks at Roland and Richard and say, "I'm ready if you are."

"Ok, here goes nothing."

Richard looks once more to Kurt and Roland, glancing also to Manny to see if there's any dissent, before opening the door in a swift, but (hopefully) smooth manner.

The rhythmic noise continues behind the door, as the five men take up positions on their side. Richard and Roland stand at either side of the double doors. Their hands tensed on the handles waiting to pull the doors open. Kurt stands directly opposite the doors, the barrel of his Luger pistol jutting forward at the doors, waiting for whatever lies beyond. Hal and Manny are stood behind Kurt, watching.

On a nod from Kurt, the door is pulled open.

It moves smoothly on well-oiled hinges. In the space beyond there are a a set of short steps. These steps lead down from the dining room, to the lower space of what appears to be a modern, high quality kitchen.

The manservant is stood behind a central, steel topped work counter. He holds in his right hand a large butcher's cleaver. He continues to raise and lower this instrument with mechanical tempo, cleaving through whatever sits on the chopping block.He is watching the door as it opens, but does not falter in his work for one moment.

His chopping completed, he turns and slides the contents of the block, some cut of meat, into the large boiling pot, sitting upon hissing gas jets. The kitchen smells, somewhat uncomfortably, of boiling meat.

The kitchen features a large, modern refrigerator and other conveniences. There is another window in this room, and a further steel door on the far side. A large rack of knives hangs on the wall behind the manservant, who regards the group, impassive behind his small dark glasses, and silent. He does not seem taken aback by their rapid entrance, nor by the pistol pointed in his direction.

He retains the cleaver in his right hand

The group is caught momentarily inactive by the scene of apparent normality behind the door of the Kitchen. The manservant appearing to be preparing a dinner for them.

The pale, hairless butler continues to stare impassively at them for a moment or two, as each member looks to the others to be first to say something about their intrusion. The drive that had brought them here seems to have, perhaps momentarily, faltered. Perhaps it is embarrassment, perhaps a deeper caution. When no-one speaks, the butler continues with his work.

Then they hear a coughing sound amidst their number. It is Kurt. The unexpected sound draws their attention to him. He looks pale and the luger in his hand wavers.

He coughs again, and there is a sudden blank and unseeing look in his eyes as his throat convulses and his lungs heave.

He drops to his knees, falling to the carpet with a poorly controlled thud. His back remains ram-rod straight however. The luger drops from his hand and slides to the floor.

There is something more complicated about the expression on his face. It carries something, something that can perhaps be uncovered, and understood.

The manservant remains in the kitchen unreacting. He seems to be watching the rest of the party intently.