Andrezi remembers that haunts typically can be affected by positive energy when they begin to manifest but have not fully manifested yet. Since full manifestation comes with potential adverse effects, it's best to dispel it now.
With the knowledge that the haunt need not fully manifest before being dispelled, the priest lets loose a burst of energy.
The temperature of the room returns to normal, and something of malevolence seems to depart.
Nia nods appreciatively at Andrezi. "That was quick work. Thank you." She heads for the double doors to the west.
The doors open onto what was once a well-appointed bedroom. The furniture in the room, while dusty and unkempt, doesn't exhibit any major signs of water or mold damage. The one exception is a dark stain on the desk near the northern window.
Nia enters the room and carefully checks for anything of interest, leaving the stained desk for last.
"During my studies, I sometimes indulged in books of...fantastical nature.
Amongst their number were a selection of Horror novels.
I often found them somewhat unbelievable, far too much...everything really.
After this, I believe I shall reread a few of them with fresh appreciation..."
Nia goes over the room carefully and finds nothing of particular interest. The dark stain appears to be blood that's soaked into the floorboards and the desk.
Garrick lets out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding, then pats the young cleric on the back, "Aye, good work." He looks about and says, "Some of these furnishings are in surprisingly decent shape -- they almost seem out of place in a place so dark and foul. Though, it might give us a reason to come back with a wagon."
The priest nods, appreciating the thanks, before approaching the blood-stained floor and desk, fully expecting another haunt to begin to manifest.
He looks around the area, seeing if there is any remaining signs of who or what the source of the stains was.
As Andrezi nears the desk, he suddenly notices an unsheathed dagger resting on it.
"No good can come of this..." the priest mutters to himself, unleashing another burst of energy.
Indeed, no good comes of it. The wave of positive energy doesn't quite dispel the manifestation, and Andrezi is suddenly overwhelmed with the conviction that he's just killed the person he loves most.
The priest seems to be fighting his own hand as it reaches for the dagger, "Ugh...not...enough...to...destroy...it...fighting...urge...to...slit my...throat..."
The cleric's willpower is enough to resist the supernatural compulsion, which quickly passes. What seemed to be a dagger is actually a long splinter of wood from the desk.
The threat gone, Andrezi wipes a bit of nervous sweat from his brow. "I stand by my earlier thoughts...this place should be burned to the damned ground it sits on."
Regaining a bit of his composure he adds, "Also it would seem that my ability to keep channeling energy is rapidly dwindling."
Nia jumps to help but Andrezi is over the compulsion before she could decide on what exactly to do. She nods. "This place needs to be destroyed after we're done here." The investigator gestures back out to the hallway. "Let's try to get this over quickly."
Garrick nods, "Aye, by fire to purify... else that or we'd need to salt the earth here."
Nia leads the way to the corner room. A few feet in front of the door, her foot comes down into something that crunches faintly...for some reason, there's a pile of dead flies on the floor.
The door opens fairly quietly, especially by comparison with most of the other doors in the house. The bedroom beyond is very nearly the complete opposite of the last one...every surface is covered with a thick layer of dark green, blue, and black mold.
Garrick says, "Careful. Mold spores can be dangerous. This place just keeps giving us reasons to burn it to the ground."
Nia stays in the hallway as she looks at the mold.
It seems to be ordinary mold.
"Hmm, while I agree that we should destroy this...house of horrors, we should be careful HOW we do it.
Lest fire is the catalyst that sets whatever causes this free..."
Nia pulls out a scarf and ties it over her nose and mouth. "Looks like regular mold." She enters the room to search it.
"Be careful." the priest says. "Nothing in this damned place has been normal so far."
Nia carefully enters the room, probing the mold and finding nothing on her way in. As she approaches the bed in the northwest corner, though, everyone hears a child's quavering, fearful voice: "What's on your face, Mommy?"
Round 1:
Initiative order
Nia
Garrick
Andrezi
The Bad Thing
Vidar
Garrick closes his hands around his axe, looking for something to strike at.
Nia moves over to the bed and checks it for signs of the spectral child.
Having already cautioned the others of his dwindling powers, the priest asks, "Seems we have another haunt, would you like me to deal with it? I won't be able to deal with many more in that manner."
Unless we are hell-bent on exploring this room, we need to get out NOW!" the priest says exiting the room.
Nia is fully on board with that idea and turns to sprint out of the room like a startled deer at Andrezi's shouted warning.
Garrick mutters again about burning the place down...
Everyone who entered the room is able to escape before the haunt fully manifests.
Andrezi knows that haunts typically can't manifest again for some time after they've fully manifested. In this case, though, the haunt never fully manifested, and the cleric isn't really sure what would happen. However, a bit of cautious experimentation shows that the eerie voice doesn't speak again when Nia approaches the bed.
After all of that, though, there's nothing of interest under the dense carpet of mold.
Nia nods at the door next to Garrick. "Next room."
Garrick nods, and moves out of the way to let Nia approach the door, even while muttering under his breath, "Only bloody thing we'll find here are more blighted horror scenes..."
It takes Nia a couple of tries to get the door open. On the other side is an apparent washroom...an iron tub sits in the middle of the room, the floorboards around it sagging under its weight.
Nia gestures at the sagging floorboards. "I don't like the look of the floor there, be careful if you go in." She looks around for a way to bridge the saggy floor with something more stable.
Nia is able to figure out how to reinforce the floor enough to enter safely. There's nothing of interest in the room, though.
Moving on to the west, the door at the west end of the hall leads to a flight of stairs going up, while the door to the northwest opens onto what appears to be a master bedroom. The once fine chamber, however, has been destroyed. The bed is smashed, mattress torn apart, walls gouged as if by knives, chairs hacked apart, and paintings shredded on the walls with frames left askew. There's one exception, though: a portrait on the northwest wall seems to have been spared the wholesale destruction, although it's hung turned to the wall so that its subject is unseen.
Nia sighs. "Yell if any of you hear anything spooky and I'll jump out of the room again." She gestures at the portrait turned around to face the wall. "I'm going to go see what that's about."
Nia enters the room and begins to search.
Nia has only been in the room a few seconds when she and Vidar hear a woman's voice, a cultured voice speaking Common with a Varisian accent: "What do you get up to down in the damp below?"