"Back up, back up!" Nia runs for the door as soon as she hears the woman's voice.
Nia is able to flee before the apparent haunt finishes manifesting.
Nia waits a few minutes before stepping back into the room.
The haunt doesn't apparently manifest.
The painting depicts a beautiful dark-haired Varisian woman in a thoughtful pose. When Garrick sees the portrait, he feels a sudden wave of sadness come over him. It quickly passes, though.
There's nothing else of interest in the room.
Nia gives the portrait a close look and then heads back out into the hallway.
Engraved on a plate on the frame is the name "Iesha Foxglove." Nia recalls hearing that Aldern married a Varisian woman named Iesha less than a year ago, but she hasn't been seen since he went to Magnimar a few months ago.
The stairs lead up to a dusty attic with several rooms off of a narrow hallway.
Garrick says, "Is the haunt linked to the place or the people? Like, is this the spirit of Iesha reliving her suffering? If so, can we put her to rest somehow?"
Nia shrugs as she heads to the first door and checks it to see if it's locked. "The place, if I understand your question correctly. Haunts arise from a source of terrific mental or physical anguish endured by living, tormented creatures. It's possible for a person who dies to rise as a ghost but a haunt isn't the person's spirit itself, it's a reflection or an echo of what happened and the trauma that occurred there."
Garrick sighs, "So, then, there's nothing here to lay to rest, other than somehow washing away the ... source of the echo, I guess?"
Nia hears nothing at the door and opens it, revealing a room containing a large number of wooden planks, some rope, bundles of shingles, kegs of nails, and the like. They look slightly the worse for weather; the ceiling above sags noticeably, and in several places the sky is visible despite some minor efforts at patching. There is nothing else apparent in the room.
"Storage room," Nia says. She nods at Garrick. "There is always a way to cleanse a place of a haunt but it is like a puzzle. You have to figure out what caused it and what can be done to fix it. It is frequently an involved process." The investigator sighs as she looks at the ruined roof of the storage room and then around at the hallway. "Honestly, I think everyone would be better off if we just make sure this place burns to the ground when we leave."
Nia shakes her head. "Next room?"
Nia finds nothing noteworthy on the door. That room is stacked with old furniture, spare linens, and the like. There's nothing of particular interest in either room.
Nia frowns. "Looks like the attic is just being used for storage. Maybe there's nothing to worry about up here." She heads to the next door.
Nia hears nothing at the door; it opens onto a loft with a steeply angled ceiling, with only four feet of headroom to the southeast. A low cot and a dresser are the room's only furnishings.
As soon as Nia leads the party further down the hall, though, a sudden and unmistakable shriek of pain and anger echoes through the attic. It's obviously coming from the far right door at the end of the hall.
Garrick looks to the Andrezi, "Can you manage to burn away another haunt? I can't imagine you can just keep doing that forever -- though it would be useful if you could."
"I can certainly try...I can attempt to do so two more times this day." the priest responds. "The degree of success though depends greatly on the strength of the haunt."
Nia shakes her head and checks to make sure the closer door is locked before proceeding down the hall.
None of the doors up here have locks, only latches that can't be secured.
"None of these doors lock," Nia whispers to the others, just to let them know to be on their guard.
Garrick grips his hand on his axe, and nods, then shakes his head and laughs at himself, "Aye, well, if there's something I can hit, I'm ready to do it."
Nia opens the door. A desk and a chair sit in the middle of this drafty room. Chimneys rise to the west, while to the east, two intricate stained-glass windows are set into the wall. The northern window depicts a dark-haired woman with pale skin, large green eyes, and a black-and-red gown; with both hands she wields a jagged iron staff. The southern window’s lower half has been broken and patched with canvas; what remains of its upper half depicts a handsome man dressed in regal finery and a crown of ivory and jade. Small scorch marks mar the wood near the broken window. A battered and ruined telescope lies on its side near the desk and a large trap door in the roof has been tied shut by several lengths of rope.
Nia gestures at the north window. "That's Arazni, the Harlot Queen of Geb and Aroden's former herald." She shakes her head. "Whoever built this house had some strange ideas." The investigator heads toward the chimneys to look for hidden items.
Nia doesn't find anything of particular interest in the room.
At mention of the Harlot Queen, Andrezi enters the chamber and looks at the two windows.
"Strange ideas indeed." the priest agrees.
Garrick steps into the room, then says, "Any idea what the uglier one is? Would all the... bad energy... in the manor have changed the original window to that?"
Nothing apparently happens when Andrezi and Garrick enter.
Nia gestures up at the strangely secured trap door in the roof. "Does anyone want to go up on the roof?"
Garrick shrugs, "Might as well.. just in.."
It'll be a bit of a climb to reach the trap door, which seems to have been opened and closed by a long-since-decayed rope and pulley system to facilitate observation of the sky with the now-ruined telescope.
Nia shrugs. "Alright." She looks around and points at the desk. "Let's move that over and see if we can get up there from the desk."
It takes some time and effort (the labor punctuated by occasional inarticulate screams from down the hall), but eventually you're able to get up to the trap door. It's tied shut and looks like it has been for some time, but that's what sharp knives are for. The trap door opens onto the steeply pitched and rather slippery roof, with no indication of any sort of platform or walkway. There's also no sign of a way to open it from outside. All of this suggests that it wasn't made to be used for access.
Nia looks around for anything of interest.
Nia sees nothing of particular interest.
Nia comes back down. "Nothing up there I can see. Let's go check the last 2 doors." She heads back into the hallway.
Nia leads the party up to the last two doors, starting with the quieter one .
The room beyond appears to be a study. Shelves of books line the walls of this room, interspersed with curious objects such as skulls fitted with stubs of candles, tribal fetishes, and decorative scroll cases. An empty birdcage lies near the southern wall beside a small desk and a fine leather chair. Statues and sculptures grin from all corners of the room.
Nia looks around for anything valuable or of particular interest.
Vidar finds his own interest piqued by the study.
This was very much what he imagined his own study might one day look like, though perhaps a little less...theatrical.
There's a large painting dominating one wall, depicting a bullfight. The painting bears a plaque that reads “Throwdown in Swynetown,” and in the painting, vast crowds jeer and cheer the bullfighter on, the huge bull aurochs towering over him, its cruel forward-jutting horns each the length of a spear. Dozens of bodies lie in the streets—the aurochs has clearly rampaged through them already, and although a score of brightly colored spears jut from the creature’s flanks and back, it still rages on.
Vidar is sure that it's worth around 600 gp.
Nia holds up a hand. "Let's make sure there's nothing else dangerous up here before we start going through all these books and things. I'd like nothing more than to spend a few hours in here but let's make sure nothing is going to try to kill us first."
The other door is locked, but given time Nia can pick it (though the sounds of sobbing from the other side are rather distracting). The room is cold and damp; an old armoire stands near the east wall. The ceiling slopes down to only four feet high to the northeast, leaving little room for a small window. A full-size mirror (at least, it looks like a mirror; the reflective side faces away from the door) in a dark wooden frame of coiling roses leans against these bricks, angled toward the tiny window. The noise is coming from behind the mirror where it leans against the bricks.
"More sobbing...I suppose I should be ready for another haunt." Andrezi quips following into the room.
Nia looks at the others. "Let me know if you hear or sense anything else that might be a haunt starting up, I'll jump out." She then enters the room and goes over to check behind the mirror.
Garrick nods, axe in hand, then chuckles grimly at how useless the weapon seems to be in this horrid place.
Nia sees what looks like a woman in Varisian clothing. She's curled up in a ball on the floor, sobbing. The way she's positioned, her face and hands aren't visible.
Nia turns to the others. "There's a woman here, looks Varisian. It doesn't seem like a haunt but I don't know how to tell, to be honest." She turns back to the woman and goes down on one knee. "Miss? Ma'am? We're here to help."