After a brief rest and freshening up in the guest house for a short while you make your way up to the main house. Your sailor companions remain in the guest house, choosing to stay with their wounded comrade and sleep rather than spend time in a library, the thought of which makes them react with obvious disdain. As he left Dr Fran promised to attend to Jeb's injury presently with a chuckle and the phrase, "The title isn't just for show dear fellows."

As you reach the front doors they swing open in readiness and you are greeted by a slim man, mercifully this time of normal height and dimensions, dressed in flowing red robes and wearing a small, pillbox style hat. Incongruously in this place he looks like nothing so much as a cardinal of the Church of the New God. His age is difficult to determine as his features seem like those of a man in his thirties but his black hair is shot through with silver and there are patches, like liver spots, on the backs of his hands. The newcomer bows to you slightly from the waist and announces in a surprisingly softly spoken voice (though maybe you have just spent too long in the company of Dr Fran), "Welcome to the manor house. I am Felix, the doctor's private secretary. You are expected in the library if you would follow me."

Inside the door you are admitted to a cool corridor running left to right with a floor of polished black and white tiles. A large double door stands closed directly in front of you while to the left you can see through to an open door where the familiar noises and smells of a kitchen greet you. You can make out the unmistakable shape of Orson moving around in there. Felix leads you off to the right through another side door and, as you follow, you catch a whiff of something chemical in the air before you find yourself in a large main hall. The floor of this hallway is covered in once fine carpets, which now look like they have seen better days, and the walls are hung with paintings of wildlife. Other than the door you came through four other doors lead off the hallway and a small stairway leads up to the second floor.

Felix knocks once on the first door, immediately on your right as you come into the hall, and pushes it open without waiting for a reply; holding it open for you to go ahead. The room inside is clearly a library though it's current state would be enough to give most librarians worth the name heart palpitations. The room is a chaotic collection of books, scrolls, knickknacks and curious items spread across shelves, tables and chairs in a haphazard fashion. Books have been stacked in four foot high piles and scrolls form tangled piles in the corners of the room. There is a powerful smell of damp, no doubt where water has found its way through to some of the papers. There are two huge oak tables and several stools and low benches which look to have been made from driftwood lashed together with vines (though most are covered in papers, books or items). In addition there is one large, well over stuffed, armchair with an imperiously high back. Dr Fran, still in the clothes he met you in, occupies that chair with his cane propped up to one side.

He greets you as warmly as ever with sparkling eyes, "You're here, tremendous! And you look fabulous, fresh as daisies. Shall we commence the tour or would you rather wait here and have a chat until lunch? I don't think it should be very long."

As you have all entered the door is pulled closed softly behind you. Felix does not follow you in.

Just when he thought his host could not impress any further, Kaine was proven wrong. From the corridor with the impeccable an expensive looking tiles to the vast & overstuffed library, Kaine had to admit he was beginning to envy their strange host his life on this isolated island.

Yes, there were worse ways to spend ones existence than a private island, a large manor house, servants and good food and a lifetime worth of books to pore over until your life ended.

The only things that took away from the feeling were the smell of damp permeating the room, and the strangely conflicting features of Felix. A glamour perhaps, to make him appear younger...or more human? thought Kaine, locking the thought into a corner of his mind to disseminate later.

"I for one am famished, I just didn't know how badly until I smelled the wonderful odors from your kitchen," Kaine replied with a smile to the good doctor, taking a seat at one of the massive oaken tables close to Dr. Fran while eyeing the spines of the closest of the tomes, trying to see if anything caught his fancy to read later.

Not seeking to offend the sensibilities of their host Kaine had left his staff in his room, he had brought his travel-bag with his meager possessions reclaimed from the shipwreck with him, and decided he would borrow a few books with the good doctors permission after they finished eating and carry them with him in his bag to read as time permitted.

"A chat sounds almost as good as the meal smells, there is much I would like to know about this island. Not the least of which are the creatures that attacked us and the sailors from our ship...what did you call them, broken ones?" Kaine asked Dr. Fran curiously.

Cavalier was curious about its invitation to dine. It did not need to, simply. There wasn't a single piece of flesh or mortal need for it to have a drive for, but it felt that tagging along was suitably correct, and it understood that declining might be seen as rude. It had no need or intention of being rude.

It watched the manor with what looked like a cool, dethatched interest. Of course it could not muster a lot of emotion and feeling through the porcelain mask that substituted as its face, so this would have to do. It hoped no one would mind.

As they came to sit to wait for their food, it took a massive seat in one of the couches. After a very brief creak, it decided that perhaps this piece of furniture did not support its entirety, so it decided to stand instead. Entering a more idle state, it became rigid, though its head turned as people spoke. Statuelike, almost.

Now washed and the worse of the diet scraped and brushed from his clothes Gren accompanied the others the the main house.

He was interested in what the big man had to say, if he could get them off the island and what hospitality he had to offer.

He also wanted to see the j
Lay of the place they now found themselves, he wasn't much for human dwellings and he wanted to make sure he had a route out of required.

Fran sighs deeply and runs a hand through his beard, "Ah yes, the broken ones. Poor souls. There is something about this island - a plague, or perhaps a curse is more accurate - that twists and blends forms together. You may have noted some truly curious animals where the fauna has been merged and the broken ones are what happens to the native population. Some maintain more of their humanity than others but most are poor reflections of what they once were. I am surprised to hear they attacked you; the tribes up in the North of the island tend to be quite peaceful creatures but some of the broken ones do tend towards aggression."

"I've spent twenty five years on this island trying to find something to help these creatures but I've not yet been able to find a cure; the curse is too strong even for my talents. But I'm not giving up, I have made some inroads and there are still options to try!" By the end he's become quite animated, a passion in his eyes you haven't seen before.

Cavalier looks to the good doctor.

"Twenty-five years? Just how old are you? I wouldn't think you particularly old." Sure, the man seemed advanced in age, but twenty five years ontop of a life and also a doctor's schooling..

"A curse...something magical in nature then," Kaine surmised, stroking his beard in thought. "It would have to be quite powerful to affect such a large area and for such a long time."

Glancing at the doctor he asked curiously, "What sorts of inroads do you mean? Have you attempted some form of a cure, that dispels the curse or reverses its effects? What other options are you considering?"

Kaine tried to place his words carefully, nothing Dr. Fran said implied he had attempted anything magical in nature for his work, he appeared to be a man of learning, science perhaps or alchemy at most.

But then again there was the issue of Felix the manservant, and his odd features: a younger mans face but an older man's skin. Thus would not do for them to tip their hand more than they already had, and speak of what they themselves were capable of, or not. They did not yet fully know the intentions of their hosts after all.

Skitterlung had his head on a swivel at the dinner table. It wasn't that he was afraid of poisoning, since he felt as though he, and some other short folk, could probably ingest many poisons without serious harm. He was nervous about his companions, however, and nervous about this man's intentions.

"Those shorts were crazy for a curse? The work of talls, I say, curses and things." He looked about the table, supposing that his response was perfectly rational and would be met with a positive reception.

Fran barely looks taken aback at Cavalier's question, "Not quite as old you I wager my clockwork friend, but old enough. Fewer years left in front of me than behind I'll wager but I still think I have plenty of time left yet."

"The curse is, indeed, quite potent and resistant to attempts to resolve it. I believe it may stem from an artifact of a foul power somewhere on this island though I have not yet been able to find it. For my part I am a healer and I know a little of magic. I have tried to separate the poor creatures into their constituent essences but my successes have been limited  - even when I can divide them often the halves do not live long thereafter. Things are improving, however, and I am sure will continue to do so. You saw my man, Orson, earlier. He was one of the first of those I managed to save. I will have to show you my laboratory after lunch as well as some of my more recent patients."

He rises to his feet and then picks up his cane from it's place against the chair. "I have no doubt you are right my diminutive friend, the curse is certainly the work of 'talls' as you say. I even have an idea as to who but that is something for me to discuss more with you at a later point. If you will excuse me I just want to check on lunch."

He moves off towards the door, turning back to you as he reaches it "Please do make yourselves at home, it shouldn't be very long." With that he leaves the room and pushes the door to gently behind him.

Kaine watched Fran's retreating back thoughtfully, stroking his beard as he considered the doctor's words. He was not knowledgeable in the type of magic Fran claimed to be able to perform but the doctor's mention of a laboratory implied a likely melding of alchemy with the more 'traditional' arts. Or at least, that is what Kaine presumed.

Once Fran had closed the door behind him Kaine remarked to his companions in a soft voice, "If our host managed to capture and...experiment on these broken ones, he is quite resourceful. And has likely also earned the enmity of the creatures on this island; we should tread carefully. The experiments he mentioned do not sound very pleasant, the creatures must have suffered greatly after being split, before dying."

He made a note to inspect Orson more carefully next time, perhaps even talk with him a bit to gauge his reaction to being saved, as the good doctor put it. Kaine idly wondered what type of creature Orson had been before the successful experiment, given his height, which was taller even than Fran.

"That artifact sounds interesting to say the least, could be worth quite the penny to interested parties, of which our good doctor is but one," Kaine added thoughtfully, but he was speaking as much to himself as his companions. He did not think most of them had much of a desire or use for money. Cavalier was mostly a machine be it sentient or not, Gren a mole-kin, a species who likely found precious metals and jewels on a regular basis deep within the earth, and Skitterlung...well money was a concept of the talls anyway.

---

Making an Intellect Challenge Roll to determine if Kaine might have heard anything similar to this artifact of foul power that 'twists and blends forms together'. Roll Result: 11


21:56, Today: Kaine rolled 11 using 1d20+1.  Intellect Challenge Roll.

Gren leaned forward and in a low tone "call me paronoid but what is to say he's not binding creature as well as ripping them apart."