The Last Contract
Official
Fantasy
Medieval
Monster Hunting
Dark
Inspired by The Witcher
The Story
Lady Maren has called you to the estate. Her daughter Irina is to be married but has started walking the halls in her sleep, eyes open, whispering words she doesn't remember by morning. The episodes are getting worse.
Inside, the household is doing its best to pretend everything is on schedule. Irina is warm and sharp and determined to make light of it. Lord Maren pours himself another drink every time you bring up his daughter. The estate priest has been going through the ceremony text and keeps finding passages he can't place.
The ceremony is upon them, and the deeper you look, the less straightforward any of it gets.
The Location
The Maren estate sits alone in a wide valley in the eastern provinces. Stone walls and steep timber roofs, surrounded by bare autumn fields and walled by low hills. The nearest town is three days on horseback. The day of the wedding: low autumn sun pours across the valley, lengthening shadows from the bare trees and warming the stone walls of the estate. The air carries woodsmoke from the great hall hearth, the dry smell of fallen leaves, and the held warmth of a clear afternoon.
The World
A grounded late-medieval Eastern European world. Stone manors, candlelit halls, muddy autumn roads, worn leather and iron. Magic is real but rare, distrusted by ordinary people, and practiced by those who learned it from older bloodlines or older books. Hunters of such things exist, and old pacts older than the church; most villages will go a lifetime without seeing either.
Locations
Bride's Chambers
A large bedroom on the upper floor with heavy curtains and embroidered pillows. A vanity covered in perfume bottles and ribbons. A wooden hoop and unfinished mending lie by the window seat. A half-eaten meal sits on a tray by the door.
Chapel Cellar
A cool stone basement beneath the chapel, used for storing sacramental wine and old records. Dust covers rows of bottles and stacked ledgers. The air is damp and still.
Estate Chapel
A small stone chapel with tall narrow windows. Candlelight flickers across carved walls. Father Oswin arranges flowers near the altar while humming to himself. Wooden pews worn smooth from generations of use.
Estate Courtyard
Gravel paths wind between trimmed hedges and stone benches dressed with white ribbons for the wedding. Late afternoon sun lays long warm shadows across the gravel; hanging candle lanterns wait unlit for the evening reception. Servants carry crates of wine and flowers across the courtyard. The chapel doors at the far end of the path stand half-open.
Father's Study
A wood-paneled room smelling of pipe tobacco and old leather. Bookshelves line every wall. Lord Maren sits behind a wide desk covered in correspondence and wedding logistics. A fire crackles low in the hearth.
Herb Garden
A walled garden behind the kitchen, overgrown in places. Rosemary, thyme, and the last spent lavender grow in raised stone beds. Sera Valdris sits on a bench reading. A few late bees drift between the spent flowers in the warm afternoon sun.
Servants' Quarters
A narrow hallway of small rooms behind the kitchen. Smells of soap and boiled linen. Marta folds sheets at a long table while younger servants scrub pots and trade gossip.
Valdris Wing
The guest quarters given to the groom's family, recently redecorated with heavy drapes and foreign furniture. Incense burns on a side table. The wing's main sitting room is empty when the player arrives.
Characters
Irina Maren
neutral
The bride-to-be. Pale and tired, with dark circles set under her eyes.
Lady Maren
ally
The bride's mother, who hired the player to investigate. Sharp-eyed, tightly composed, with hands rough from years of running the estate.
Lord Maren
neutral
The bride's father and lord of the estate. Heavyset and red-faced, with a wine cup never far from his hand.
Zofia Maren
ally
The bride's older sister, who nursed Irina through the worst of the illness. Watchful and guarded.
Marta
ally
The estate housekeeper, forty years of service. Stout, sharp-eyed, and trusted with every door in the household.
Aldric Valdris
neutral
The groom, from the visiting Valdris family. Tall and clean-shaven, with patient eyes and steady hands.
Lady Valdris
neutral
The groom's mother and matriarch of the Valdris family. Silver-streaked and perfectly poised, with rings on several fingers.
Kael Valdris
neutral
The groom's younger brother. The careless one of the family, more at home among the servants than his own kin.
Sera Valdris
neutral
A distant cousin of the Valdris family. Slender and ash-blonde, quieter than the rest of them.
Father Oswin
neutral
The estate priest, set to officiate the wedding. Thin and tonsured, with worried eyes.
Bound Stag
neutral
A chained, dormant figure in the shape of a great stag. Does not move on its own.
Marsh Heron
neutral
A heron the height of a man, motionless among the herb beds. Holds its ground when approached.
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