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- The Manor is a huge, squat keep, built in an ancient style, now crumbling and enveloped by ivy. It is filled with empty rooms, rotting furniture and dusty wall hangings. If examined closely, the tapestries depict ancient crimes – murders, rapes and much worse – all the perpetrators and victims appear to be members of the same family.
- The Master is long dead. His remaining family seem reluctant to mention his name or speak of him, especially in the presence of any of the many painted portraits of him that hang about the place. Closer examination of the portraits reveals them all to be the same image – that of a robed, grey-haired man with odd whitish eyes – save that all the backgrounds are different.
- The Mistress is enormous and toad-like, croaking commands and running the staff ragged. She clearly runs the manor, and anyone who interferes with her suffers debilitating stomach ailments shortly afterwards. Her control of the kitchens is particularly suspect, as are the many “exotic” ingredients found in the pantries and stores.
- The Staff are barely visible, performing their duties as quickly and quietly as possible, then vanishing into other parts of the house, visibly terrified.
- The Heir(s) is hidden and not discussed, but whispered rumors are that the infant has been hidden since birth and is somehow terribly unnatural.
- The Hunt is a mixed pack of vicious mongrels, kept roughly in line by several surly, cursing huntsmen.
- The Demesne are semi-permanent herding camps, linked by animal trails and log roads.
- The Dungeons are a seemingly endless labyrinth of rough-piled stone, dotted with small alcoves that hold unnerving pieces of statuary or small oddly-stained altars. The sounds of footsteps seem to echo throughout the halls, making it seem like people are always moving around down there.
- The Secret is that the tunnels under the Manor are the center of a demon-worshipping cult that sacrifices humans.
- The Manor is a timber hunting lodge filled with stuffed, skinned and mounted trophies of animals and monsters, hanging alongside weapons, rusty traps and paintings of prized hounds and horses. Everywhere you go within the hall, dozens of glittering eyes seem to track you from the mounted heads that cover every wall. Occasionally, the faint sounds of a baying pack of hounds seem to echo through the rooms.
- The Master is a fit and charismatic middle-aged man with a distinctive strip of white hair. He is charming, welcoming and invites the party to stay as long as they desire. Occasionally, you might notice him staring at one of you with an expression of awful hunger, but that might be your imagination.
- The Mistress is ancient but unnaturally spry, seemingly aware of everything that happens within the manor. Her hunched, black-clad form can be seen bustling around at all hours. In fact, she sometimes seems to be in several places at once.
- The Staff are oddly servile humanoids from surrounding tribes. They obey the family without question, but occasional flashes of resentment are visible.
- The Heir(s) is a huge and simple son. He is persistent in his affections for attractive women, and mindlessly cruel to animals, staff or those smaller than himself.
- The Hunt are a pale and silent pack of long-haired hounds with several slender, silver-clad attendants.
- The Demesne are a cluster of muddy, reeking huts surrounded by animal pens and tended fields.
- The Dungeons are a network of limestone caverns that extend far beneath the manor. The upper areas are worked and used for storage and security, but the lower reaches are unexplored.
- The Secret is that guests are sometimes snatched for magical experimentation.
- The Manor is a tall, moated round-house set next to a deep swamp. The keep’s interior is a deep shaft with a circular stair that goes all the way to the roof. It’s infested with frogs, toad, newt and other, less pleasant things. At night, the strange lights in the swamp are mirrored in the black water at the base of the central shaft, and the odd piping of the swamp inhabitants almost seems to form chittering voices.
- The Master is long dead. His remaining family seem reluctant to mention his name or speak of him, especially in the presence of any of the many painted portraits of him that hang about the place. Closer examination of the portraits reveals them all to be the same image – that of a robed, grey-haired man with odd whitish eyes – save that all the backgrounds are different.
- The Mistress is pampered and demanding, but oddly skilled at getting what she wants. Something about her just seems to encourage compliance; perhaps it’s the odd sibilance in her voice, or the sinuous sway of her walk.
- The Staff are barely visible, performing their duties as quickly and quietly as possible, then vanishing into other parts of the house, visibly terrified.
- The Heir(s) are several adult men and women, who come and go often and constantly plot against each other and their parents.
- The Hunt is a mixed pack of vicious mongrels, kept roughly in line by several surly, cursing huntsmen.
- The Demesne are a scattering of strongly-built farmsteads, all barred and defended night and day.
- The Dungeons are an extensive and crumbling series of basements and storage rooms which attach into a set of much older, deeper tunnels. Those oddly-proportioned tunnels seemingly were not built for human traffic.
- The Secret is that the area is infested with doppelgängers, although not everyone has been replaced yet.
- The Manor is a tall manor on a point overlooking an isolated cove. Built of the local white chalk, it has patios and stairwells that extend down the cliffs below it. Seen from the day, it is an attractive structure, but moonlight bleaches the white walls to the color of unburied bone, and causes the building to shine with unnatural brightness. The cove below constantly washes up old bones and the corpses of the drowned.
- The Master is a corpulent and florid drunkard who wallows in food and drink. He is an avid hunter, but uses it as excuse for depraved cruelty towards animals, his retainers and his family. His drunken feasting and gluttonous feedings occupy the main hall at all hours, except when he disappears into the kennels and basements for long periods of time.
- The Mistress is pale, distant and ethereally beautiful. She walks silently about the house at all hours, even appearing in places that seem impossible to get to. Her skin is oddly chilly, but perhaps that’s just because she walks around barely clothed all the time.
- The Staff are regimented and tightly trained – all bear weapons and appear to belong to an elite military unit, but perform domestic chores and labour about the manor.
- The Heir(s) are many bastards that make up much of the staff. They seem resentful of their position as servants. Their resemblance to the master and mistress is obvious, though never mentioned.
- The Hunt are lean, reddish hounds that work with a crew of silent red-coated huntsmen and seem to feed only on blood.
- The Demesne are towers built on hills, manned and alert at all times.
- The Dungeons are a dank series of half-flooded galleries, dripping oubliettes and muddy sewers. The place is infested with snakes and toads of unwholesome size, along with other, even less pleasant lurkers.
- The Secret is that cannibalistic orgies are regularly held at the manor, and guests of honor are usually the main course.
- The Manor is a tall, moated round-house set next to a deep swamp. The keep’s interior is a deep shaft with a circular stair that goes all the way to the roof. It’s infested with frogs, toad, newt and other, less pleasant things. At night, the strange lights in the swamp are mirrored in the black water at the base of the central shaft, and the odd piping of the swamp inhabitants almost seems to form chittering voices.
- The Master is an enormous, shambling wreck of a man, clad in worn, stained clothing and with a massive, shaggy beard. He communicates mostly in grunts and scowls, seeming to stare at nothing and mutters to himself constantly. Occasionally, glimpses of his limbs and torso reveal horrible, barely-healed scars and oddly precise tattoos in what appear to be arcane designs.
- The Mistress is locked in a tower and rarely spoken of. Something seems to scrabble at the inside of the barred doors and windows, though, and faint shrieking and odd chanting can be heard echoing down in the night.
- The Staff are oddly servile humanoids from surrounding tribes. They obey the family without question, but occasional flashes of resentment are visible.
- The Heir(s) are twins, with identical appearance and clothing. They are rarely out of each other’s company and often speak in unison or finish each other’s sentences.
- The Hunt are a hyaena-like, humped and cackling pack with a hunched and hooded keeper.
- The Demesne are a cluster of muddy, reeking huts surrounded by animal pens and tended fields.
- The Dungeons are clearly dwarven stonework, carefully fitted and lovingly carved. All coated in a layer of dust and grime now, though, save the occasional prints of a pair of heavy boots going here and there.
- The Secret is that the area is haunted by a variety of ghosts and spirits, making moving about after nightfall very dangerous