He walks out of the drawing room without saying anything, passing through the library and out of sight, unless you move in order to keep him in view. From the layout of the house (or at least what they saw as they were escorted through the library to the drawing room) they might assume he had walked over to the gallery. Perhaps some piece of art had caught the showman's interest.
After a few moments there is sudden muted noise - as if of a body crashing to the floor. This is followed by a series of violent hacking coughing sounds, as if a man was trying to cough up his own lungs.
Richard immediately looks towards the apparent source of the noise, and starts to move quickly in that direction. He then stops, his eyes widening slightly, as he pulls a monogrammed handkerchief from his jacket and clutching it to his face, before walking briskly yet more cautiously towards where the sound came from. "No art gallery has made me collapse in a coughing fit, but then I haven't been to a gallery built on top of a chemical weapons facility before" Richard thinks to himself as he tries to think over what could have caused the noise.
Richard is concerned about Manny, but is at least glad that there's coughing coming from the sound of the crash; any noise is better than a deathly silence. Whilst not convinced that his handkerchief could protect him from whatever has caused the violent coughing, he's glad for it nonetheless.
Roland joins Richard on his way to the gallery, pushing past as Richard slows and heading towards Manny. He doesn't really know how to help if this is a medical issue but wants to be at the centre of things, find out what's happening. "Maybe that Manny guy's bump on the head was worse than we thought" Roland is concerned for the man, but heedless or unaware of any potential dangers to himself in this situation. Maybe he really is brave like the men he plays, or maybe he can't yet fully grasp the possibility of real danger.
Kurt proceeds cautiously in the direction of the gallery. He is not sure what has happened, but the possibility of a chlorine gas escape does suggest itself. He has some concern for Manny, but more for himself.
Hal follows the others to investigate. He may be unsuspecting but is not at ease and is more interested in not being left alone than finding out what happened to Manny.
Roland is first to reach the gallery, with Richard a few steps behind him. Kurt and Hal follow afterwards. The gallery is another L-shaped room, the end which you enter from joins the library and the dining room in an open-plan space. There is another external window. At the far end is a closed door, again of burnished steel.
The air in the gallery is warm and slightly stuffy as in the rest of the house so far - there are the same forced air heaters at the top of the wall - but bespite the investigators possible suspiscions, there is no tell-tale scent of lethal chlorine gas in the air.
The gallery prominently displays a large portrait, executed in oils. It is of dark haired woman wearing a dress of yellow silk. She is beautiful but somewhat cold and haughty. The painting is captivating despite their speed of your entry and the circumstances.
Below the painting, lying doubled-up on the carpet and coughing heavily is Manny. His racked coughs reverberating off the plain walls and glass frames in the gallery, as he gasps for breath between coughs. He has a slightly glazed although oddly contented expression. He does not at first react to your entry.
After a few moments, Manny sits up, gasping for breath. He is disorienatated. He cannot understand why the same air that seemed to choke him a minute ago is now clear. He wonders how long he has been out? He wonders why he is lying on the floor and for a brief moment he wonders who he is. Fearing that he is losing his mind he addresses Richard:
"Herr Doktor, I am feeling very strange. Do you think there could be side effects to my head wound?"
Richard moves to Manny and looks into his eyes, checking their focus.
"Sorry chap, I'm no Doctor, just picked up a few first aid skills over the years. Now, calm down, you're okay. Just focus on my finger as it moves... good... Right, let's see if you've banged your head again, hmm?"
To the best of Richard's First Aid knowledge, Manny isn't showing any serious symptoms. His pupils show an appropriate amount of dilation for the level of light in the room, and his eyes are able to follow Richard's finger without delay. The fresh bandage is in place, and there is no further sign of blood seeping through it.
It could be concussion, but that would have been expected that to show itself with the exhertion of getting across the former battlefield in the rain. The fall also doesn't seem to have done him much in the way of damage, falling onto the carpet as he did. Perhaps there is some psychological cause? Richard's training in psychoanalysis suggests that Manny is agitated, and something is causing him some psychological stress. Perhaps above and beyond just being in this unusual experience and surviving a coach crash.
"Now, are you ok to stand, or would you rather sit? Oh, and what happened?"Manny knows it is not the head wound. He is simply hoping against hope that there might be another explanation - something mundane and rational. Otherwise he can't be sure that he wants to know the meaning of the strange things that keep happening to him.
"This will sound strange, I know," he says, "but as I looked at the painting I was overcome by the thoughts of another. We five hardly know each other I accept, but you must believe me. I have experienced something similar before and the message was proved correct. Such things are strange but there is always meaning in them."Richard offers his hand to help Manny stand.
"The presence, the vision, I know not what, loved this woman. She was real and she rejected him. There is something more in the painting and in the house too, there is a significance to everything I think, but alas I am no intellectual. These riddles are perhaps for smarter men such as yourselves..."
"I've heard of people being overcome by an artist capturing a moment or emotion, but had always thought it mere hyperbole. We were involved in a terrible crash, walked through a nightmare, and are sheltering somewhere I doubt many of us could comfortably call 'homely'. It's a lot to take in, but time is on our side, if the bus timetables are anything to go by."
Richard looks at the painting, without any apparent ill effect. There is a signature on the painting. It's hard to make out, but it looks like it starts with an E then decends into a a squiggle, with an upturn at the end. There is no obvious occult symbolism to the painting. There is no information card.
Seeing that Manny seems to be ok and in good hands. Kurt decides to check out the "negative" pictures, to see if a closer examination reveals anything interesting, such as any common elements. Wondering if the buildings look alike - perhaps built in the style of their current refuge from the elements?
One of the buildings looks like a church, possibly orthodox, another a modern house, one is a large impressive hotel on the coast, the fourth looks like a civic building of some sort, a central European town hall if Kurt is not mistaken. They are all different types and styles of architecture from the look of them.
There are no names of the buildings, nor hints as to their location, but each of the them has a small card beneath it with a name, (in the same order as above):
Eichler, Maher, Trevail & Wittek.
Unfortunately, none of these names mean anything to Kurt. From by the photos Kurt says "Anybody know anything about art, and stuff like that?"
"Not my area of expertise I'm afraid, unless you need pieces attributed to eras." says Richard, having helped Manny to his feet, and looking one more time at the painting of the lady.
'Me neither I'm afraid. The written word is more my forte,' says Hal. He turns to Manny. The bus crash, the injury, the unsettling nature of their surroundings. It's not surprising he took a strange turn. Besides, a psychic lion tamer? Could be the poor fool was delusional to begin with.
'A good stiff drink will see you right,' he says with what he hopes is a reassuring (if slightly patronising) smile.
Roland has some knowledge of both architecture and photography.
The church is Saviour's Church in Baku, USSR designed by the architect Adolf Eichler
the Hotel is the Headlands Hotel, Newquay, by Silvanus Trevail
the house is magerstadt house in Chicago, Illinois, by George W. Maher
and the civic building is the City Hall in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, designed by Alexander Wittek.
They are all disperate types of buildings, and in disperate styles. None of them is modernist in the same way this house is, but Roland has a niggling feeling that there is something that connects all four buildings, or their architects. If only he knew more about architecture than his passing interest. It occurs to Roland, that there might be something of use in the library in this house. It looked like it contained plenty of books on architecture.
Photography indicates that the same photographer shot each picture - the same film type, exposure speed, and certain tell-tale aspects of the photographic style. The photographs were also lit with great care (or some sort of special filter) to avoid washing out the stars.
"I have an interest in architecture and photography, let me take a look. Hmm, I recognise all these places, and the names here are the architects. Can't figure out what the connection is though. Maybe... nah, I'd have to look it up.
Looks like the same photographer for each though. Probably some kind of amateur astronomer as well by the looks of it."
"I wonder if these were taken by our mysterious host?"
Manny steps forward and starts to examine the negative photos, pulling them away from the wall and looking behind them. They are fixed in place with what appear to be very normal picture hooks, and could be lifted off the wall entirely if anybody so wished. As Manny investigates, he spots the names on small cards underneath the four pictures.
Manny then moves to further examine the painting. He reaches up, places a hand on both sides of the frame. He then stops and seems fixed on the painting, he begins to speak quietly, almost inauibly, as if remembering something and talking to himself.
Still a little concerned about Manny, Richard stays close to him to make sure he doesn't collapse again.
The drama appears to have passed now that the strange lion tamer is now examining the photos Hal decides to wander off slightly and nosey around the rest of the room. There is a window looking out over the blasted terrain outside. It has the same control panel beneath it as Richard Pimms examined in the drawing room. The storm is still raging outside, although the glazing of the window blocks out much of the noise of the wind.
In the direction he entered the room from is the open plan area that links through to the library, and also through to what looks to be the dining room. There is a long rectangular table in the middle of that room surrounded by upright black chairs, There is another sideboard, similar to that in the drawing room, and another door on the far side. In a more conventional house, it would make sense for that to be a door to the Kitchen. If so, It's probably where the manservant went.
On the other end of the Gallery, past the painting and the negative pictures, is a door. It is made of burnished steel, like the main doors of the house, but is a smaller, standard size internal door. It is currently closed. These two doors, one from the gallery, and one from the dining room, are so far the only internal doors Hal has seen in this house.
Not thinking anything of Manny's strange behaviour, Roland joins Hal in looking at the rest of the room.
"Say, Hal isn't it? I fancy having a look at this guy's library. There's something bugging me about those photographs. Are you interested in books?"
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