System Agnostic/Episode One: Party at Paraska Manor

The third chapter opens on a tour group in 78 CR, waiting just outside the Paraska Manor—at this point a museum—in Dolmvay. The group is an eclectic mix of students, bored teenagers, a family on vacation with a young child…and a pale man bearing a familiar eye-shaped holy symbol. A frazzled tour guide ushers them all inside with the warning that, while magic has long since left the realm, several artifacts are still volatile.

As they enter, the camera veers back to 466 PR, when the manor was still a residence, and focuses on four individuals who have been invited to a party there: the hunter Arlow, the chef Touse, the noble lady and engraver Nuria, and the medical scientist Disenna. They each received a mysterious invitation, all of which are signed by Lord and Lady Paraska.

Arlow and Disenna arrive a bit early and are met by a tall, dark-skinned humanoid in a dress uniform, and a fair-skinned woman with intricate copper braids who wears a flowing dress and furs.

The other invitees gather and at 7 PM sharp, they’re all greeted at the door by a disheveled and slightly confused young man who tells them he’s new. Chef Touse believes “New” is the man’s name and begins calling him such.

The group steps into the foyer and sees a statue made from some type of stone of a humanoid pixie with dragonfly wings, holding a gilded rose. Standing in front of the statue is a servant who wears his uniform much better than the timid man who greeted them at the door.

The servant tells them one of the hosts will be with them shortly and invites them to mingle. Disenna asks if this is the entire party for tonight, and the servant confirms this, saying all seven guests present are the entire party. The woman in furs asks why she only sees six guests, and the servant responds the man who greeted them at the door is actually a guest, not an employee. Touse asks the name of the chef preparing the dinner, and is informed their name is Antonio.

The other servants begin passing around refreshments. The taller humanoid strikes up a conversation with Arlow as he swipes more than one pastry from the plate. He introduces himself as Sir Syva Koncor, in the employ of the lady he arrived with. Koncor asks if anyone else was expecting an invitation, to which they all say no.

Touse asks if anyone will take his coat and tosses it to the young man from earlier, who awkwardly holds it. Arlow follows suit, and the two of them throw their outer clothing onto him, with Touse handing him a full-on multi-layer cake as well. The man staggers away with everything, trying to find a place to put them, and both Arlow and Disenna trail after him to help. Touse examines the pastries, thinking them to be crab rangoon, but is corrected by one of the servants.

Lady Nuria is finishing her second glass of wine and trying to avoid talking to anyone. She examines the art in the area and comes to a painting featuring three genasi representing water, air, and earth—but curiously, no fire. Her thoughts are interrupted by the lady accompanying Sir Koncor, who asks why she thinks there’s no fire genasi included. Nuria responds that artists take liberties, and it’s probably a commentary on something.

The woman notes Nuria carries herself differently from the others, and asks if she’s nobility. Nuria tries to place the woman’s face within her social circle, thinking back to all the parties and gatherings she’s attended. She does indeed remember her, but her mind goes back to a time where that woman was much younger, with unkempt hair and a face streaked with dirt—and eyes filled with fear. Nuria finally places the name: Lady Duskar Duskar.

They formally introduce themselves to each other, and opine as to the reason for their hosts’ absence. Myra eventually complains that the young man from earlier now has her furs, and excuses herself to track him down.

Arlow and Disenna follow the redhead boy as he simultaneously balances the coats—and cake—and searches for a spot to lay it all down. The group manages to find the ballroom, and the three of them drop the coats. The man tries to set the cake down as well, but gets caught on the edge of a dragon head bust; it topples over and shatters.

The young man starts panicking, and admits he only ever sees fancy places like this when working in them. He was fired from his previous job as a house painter when he was caught with a pipe in the garden trying to “calm down”. He shows them the crumpled invitation in his hands and says the hosts wanted to see his skills in action, but found the reason confusing as he had been fired from most of his jobs.

He introduces himself as Artok Bolt and drops the rest of the coats over the ruined dragon bust as he tries to reason his way out of blame for its destruction. They hear another crash nearby, but don’t see anything. Artok pulls out a pipe and asks if he’s allowed to light up in the hosts’ manor, but agrees to find a balcony for that.

As the group leaves the ballroom, Disenna briefly searches the area for the cause of the second crash. She doesn’t notice anything amiss, but there’s a layer of rock-dust at the base of one of the other busts that indicates something had shattered—yet the row of sculptures seems intact. Disenna recalls the many ghost stories surrounding Paraska Manor, and how “something” destroyed much of the house when the new owners took over the place from its previous disgraced occupants. She hurries to catch up to the others and they head back to the party.

Still in the main room, Touse suddenly notices the area getting far colder than it should be for the time of year. He asks Sir Koncor if he feels it too, which the other man confirms. The chef worries it might ruin the food, so Sir Koncor heads to the front door to let in the warm breeze from outside. The moment he opens the door, a virtual avalanche of snow comes pouring in, partially burying the taller man.

Arlow and Disenna help pull him out of the snow and look outside. Although it’s Autumn, and should be relatively warm for the year, the entire area is blanketed by snow, and the pair are pelted by ice as they retreat from the door. With difficulty the hunter manages to shut the door against the onslaught, and Disenna uses her scarf to try absorbing some of the snow from Sir Koncor.

Touse decides to retrieve the coats, and Arlow leads him down the hall to where they are. Lady Nuria drinks another glass of wine to drown her panic, while Lady Duskar trails after the hunter and the chef to retrieve her furs so she can help her snow-soaked companion warm up. The three of them enter the ballroom where Artok had dropped the coats—and the cake—only to find the previously broken dragon head bust is now perfectly intact.

Arlow assumes the hosts must keep “emergency dragon busts” around in case one breaks. He also notices the coats and cake are gone. Touse calls out for “New”, and surprisingly Artok comes running despite the fact the moniker isn’t his name. Touse asks where everything is, and Artok insists he left everything in the room—then stops short as he sees the fully intact dragon bust.

The chef tasks Artok with finding firewood as he goes in search of the kitchen. Arlow leaves to look for a warm sitting room, and Lady Duskar returns to the main room to care for her frozen knight.

Disenna tries to help warm up Sir Koncor, who insists through chattering teeth the snow shouldn’t be there. They stand up just as Lady Duskar returns, and the three of them begin to search for a warmer room as Myra suggests they all try to stay together.

Myra also calls out to Lady Nuria to follow them, but Nuria is trailing far behind them as she sketches a crackling fire inner notebook. By the time she’s finished, she glances up to see she’s alone in a kind of music room. She also notices the window in the room looks out the back of the manor, even though she had just been walking in the front of it.

As Nuria peers through the window, she sees that it’s completely covered in ice. As she watches, a crack spreads across the spot she’d just been looking at, but she’s not sure if it’s the ice or the window cracking.

Touse continues his search and eventually finds the kitchen. A large humanoid figure is busy hacking into something on a cutting board, and the chef begins to offer suggestions for alternate types of knives that will provide a cleaner cut. The person chopping the meat takes offense at his forwardness, and tells Touse to come to the chopping block and “show me how to do my job.”

Touse tries to determine what’s being butchered, and comes to the conclusion it’s serpent-like, but wholly unnatural and shouldn’t exist. He briefly panics, but recovers quickly and decides it’s merely some kind of snake. Turning to the other chef he admits he doesn’t know what’s being prepared, which only irritates the other man further. Touse then asks if the man received the cake he brought, but the other man says he hasn’t.

They briefly discuss the dessert course before Touse leaves, but not before calling the chef Antonio. The other chef denies that’s his name, and says there’s never been an Antonio at the manor. Touse asks his name, and he responds with something unpronounceable.

Arlow finds a sitting room for the group to recover, and Artok brings firewood. As the hunter lights the fire, Disenna begins hearing strange music from down the hall. She asks if anyone else hears the music, but the others say they don’t. She’s curious, but afraid to investigate on her own, so she asks Arlow to accompany her when he’s finished with the fire.

Arlow asks what kind of music Disenna is hearing, but she can’t put it into words. The tune and the words are alien, yet she feels the lyrics are familiar but *just* out of reach.

In the meantime, Nuria tries to determine if the cracks forming are from the ice outside, or the actual window. At first it was just the ice, but now the window is beginning to crack under the strain of the cold. Nuria walks over to the piano and touches one of the keys without pushing down; the only sound is the crack spreading across the window. She presses down on the key, and immediately the window shatters as wind and snow pour through the opening. She tries to escape through the door, only to find it locked.

The snow piles in with preternatural speed. Nuria suddenly feels a cold chill around her wrist, but not from the snow. She looks down to find an icy hand has risen from the floor and grasped her arm, causing it to burn. She tries to stab it with her pencil, but it yanks on her arm and she winds up piercing her own shoulder. The hand drags her even further into the snow, until she can’t breathe. It’s too hot, especially given the freezing snow, yet she feels a heavy, burning weight on top of her. She hears screaming, but can’t tell if it's coming from her.

Touse rejoins Sir Koncor and Lady Duskar in the sitting room. He asks about the whereabouts of Chef Antonio, and says the current chef is preparing snake meat for the party. This greatly upsets Lady Duskar, who leaves the sitting room; Sir Koncor explains to Touse that the lady is descended from a medusa and raises serpents as members of her own family. The knight is confused why Lord and Lady Paraska would dare serve snake meat to her.

Touse enlists the help of Artok to start ransacking the sitting room in search of a secret entrance. Artok can’t even get an agreement out before a bust from a nearby bookshelf dislodges and shatters on the ground—seemingly be itself. Touse is impressed, telling Artok to do the same thing with other books and statues, but Artok counters that he didn’t do it.

More books keep falling all around Touse. He starts sifting through the cookbooks, separating the “real” and “fake” cookbooks to find a secret entrance key. As he does so, the nearby bookshelf topples over…revealing a secret hole behind it. As he nears the hole, he hears a voice from further in:

“Come along—it’s time to come home.”

Back in 78 CR, as the tour group passes by the medieval weaponry section, two figures watch them from inside a spear that has clearly seen battle. Domus and Brodin stand in contemplation from the spear’s display window; Domus asks how much longer it will be, and Brodin responds it shouldn’t be long now.

Brodin points out the holy symbol on one of the tour group members, commenting the man is trying to conceal it but is doing a poor job of it. He tells Domus they’re “almost at the end.” Domus replies that he’s glad, because he wants to do something useful. When Brodin asks if he hasn’t already done something useful, Domus admits he doesn’t remember much of the past.

Brodin reminds him that, by reuniting Karavox, he may have saved the entirety of Quelmar—but everything will come down to what happens to the tour group that just walked through. Domus replies, “I guess we better watch closely, then,” to which Brodin agrees, but adds, “And if we have the chance, one last act. It’s what he would’ve wanted, since he can’t watch with us.”