Correna leads the way back into the hall. From the doorway it proceeds straight on (a 90' turn to the left in the hall's direction from the front door) going behind the stairs to the second floor.
The first door Correna comes to is on the left. Like all the other doors so far it is unlocked. As the door is opened, Gen could almost swear she hears something like the giggling of children mixed in with the squeaking and scraping of the door.
The room is large, with a set of bay windows on the outside wall. It looks like it was a cheerful and inviting room at one time, but now a moldering sofa sits along the south wall of this room, and once-comfortable chairs sit in front of mold-covered windows.
Trying to be ready for anything, Correna steps in sword in hand...
Gen stays in the hall but peers inside.
Perception
Roya stays between the two woman, gripping her Starknife tightly.
As Correna slips into the room, a vision of shorts manifests. The room shifts its appearance so it looks like it must have back when the house was inhabited. The furniture is no longer decrepit and broken. The mold covering the windows is gone, and instead rosy evening sunlight comes into the room through them.
It is also now inhabited by what could only be Sir Roderic and his family. He sits on the couch reading a book aloud. Although the words seem familiar, you cannot make out exactly what they are. But by the expressions on faces and tones of voices, it must be amusing.
One child sits upon Roderic’s knee while the other two sit on the floor around him, listening to him read. Roderic’s wife, Andella, sits next to him on a chair doing needlepoint.
The warm, contended scene lasts only moments. The family suddenly shifts, their skin sloughs away in wisps of shadows to reveal skeletal faces. Roderic turns to the door where you are clustered. He points accusingly toward the interlopers and shouts “Get out!” in a gasping voice.
Everyone feels a wave of raw, cold fear wash over them. Correna and Gen manage to stand their ground, but Roya flees screaming.
"Sorry for intruding", Roya screams as she makes for the door, once again fleeing from the apparition.
At least it's not a bug...
Grimacing in anger at the ghost's raw emotion, Correna point's her blade back at him!
"NO! WHY did you appear in town! WHY are we in danger! TALK TO US!"
Gen turns to Ro to watch her flee but holds her ground gritting her teeth against the fear created by the apparition, "If you want to help us, help us. We are here".
Before Corrina and Gen can even finish their replies the scene fades away, leaving the room as they first saw it. It is again long abandoned, with broken furniture and windows covered in mold.
"Damn", Gen swears and rushes out of the room to catch up to Roya!
Echoing her new friend, Correna nods and agrees as she rushes out.
"Damn."
She also does a quick search of the room before leaving it.
Roya waits outside, a safe distance from the house:"Maybe I should just wait here while you finish exploring the place?", she suggests, her face red with shame.
Correna's search of the room doesn't turn up anything very interesting. There are a couple of books on the floor by the sofa, by damp has turned the pages between the covers into mildewy lumps that can no longer be separated into single pages. An old wicker box holds rusted knitting needles, yarn, and thread.
Taken together Corrina can imagine the ghostly vision she saw was one that occurred frequently in the evenings when Sir Roderic and his family lived in the house.
Correna moves to the last hallway door.
"Never let it be said Correna was afraid of a haunted house..."
"Ro we are all scared, this place is scary. You have to face down your fears and march right back in with me, come on. Next time I might be the one to run..."
Gen heads back in and meets with Cor as she is about to enter the next room.
"I suppose so."
Roya takes a deep breath, then marches towards the front entrance, remembering a Mantra her father taught her: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Correna opens the door and finds the kitchen. A sickeningly sweet scent hangs in this room’s otherwise stale air. Mold and fungus grow up the side of the northern and eastern walls, both of the the external walls. Only the northern wall has windows though. They are bayed like the northern-side windows in the room across the hall where the ghostly family appeared.
What was once a table lies decayed and slumped to the floor at an angle. A door and a stone hearth occupy the west wall of the room, the oven’s door slightly ajar.
"I guess we shouldn't expect anything less I guess."
She quickly begins searching the kitchen, using her sword to touch anything first, starting with the oven door.
"Whats that smell?", Roya wonders, preferring to think about the possible origin over wondering if the room will bring frightening ghosts or monstrous bugs.
Gen holds back, molds are dangerous and more than one person may upset the room too much, "Be careful Cor".
As Correna checks inside the oven, something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. The colorful patten of mold on the wall by the oven seems to shift and move just a bit.
It's enough of a warning for her to draw back just before a club-like blob forms and swings down to hit the spot where she had been a couple of seconds ago.
With her full attention on it now, Correna sees a small shifting amorphous mass attached to the wall. The appendage that struck at her extends from the mass. It draws back after failing to make contact with her and begins to reposition, almost like a snake readying a strike, to try again.
Stepping back out of immediate reach, Correna launches a small damaging spell at the monstrous fungus!
"Not today monster!"
"Get out of there Cor, I'll close the door behind you!"
The blob turns out to be a very quick mover, that and the difficulty of telling exactly where it begins and ends against the backdrop of similar looking mold cases Correna's acid to miss the thing.
It slides down and off the fireplace, following Correna out into the room. The wobblig appendage it has created swings at Correna and just barely clips her. Aside from a minor thump on the leg, the spot where it touched her burns as if from acid.
Roya, startled by the wobbly creature, bravely attempts to cut it with her Starknife, but by the time her blade strikes, the creature had already moved.
"Corr, acid won't hurt that thing!"
Gen draws and swings her blade as it seems clear that Corr won't leave the room just yet.
Attack - Damage
Gen's swing is heavy but awkward, she misses the creature but smacks the hell out of the floor...
"Ahhgg! Feel my blade!"
(19-20/x3)
Although the ooze now has victims to choose from, it continues to harass Correna. Its appendage smacks into her harder this time and the acid burns more severely.
Roya whirls around as the ooze evades her previous blow, and just starts swinging her starknife as the ooze forms it's pseudopod to attack Correna - there was no way the creature could evade THIS blow.
And she brought her starknife down right at the center of mass - unfortunately the thing had no anatomy to speak of that would take extra damage from such a devastating blow...which was probably why it didn't care about leaving itself open in the first place.
Gen hacks at the damned thing
Attack - Damage
yet again unable to land a blow.
Trying again, Correna chops at the monster...
(19-20/x3)
...and thinks she succeeds!
She then backs away from the monster, limping on her burned leg.
"This may take more then we have right now..."
Between Roya's and Correna's strikes on the ooze it is split into three pieces. Even an amorphous blob can't survive such dismemberment.
Roya cleans the remains of the gelatinous creature off her blade, wiping it on whatever fabric she can find.
"What WAS that thing? No, wait, I don't even want to know. It's not a bug and it has not sent me running out of the house terrified. I don't care what it is, it's gross but less gross than anything else we found so far..."
"It is, or was, a garden ooze. They are small opportunistic hunters that use plants or fungi as camouflage.
Should we exit and come back tomorrow? Corr, you're hurt pretty bad..."
"Oh, sorry, Miss Correna!"
Roya extends her hand and touches the acid burn on the Half-Orc.
Feeling the healing of the young woman's touch soothe the pain quickly, if not completely.
"Thanks Roya. That's much better. You can call me Corrie if you like. All my friends do, as well as my parents. You too Genevieva. I think the bonds of battle have mired our future together on this...quest? Is that was this is? I guess so...Anyway, I have no problem continuing. We are almost done with searching the cabin. Why not finish it up now so we don't have to come back later?"
"Let me try again...sorry, I'm not very good at this.", Roya responds when the wounds partially close, but nowhere near as much as she would have liked.
Nodding, and feeling almost new, Correna waves off Roya's worry.
"You did fine! Yes, let us finish this now. Thanks again Roya."
She then turns sword in hand and finish the search...
A search of the kitchen turns up nothing of interest.
Turning to the last door, Correna inspects it for danger and open it if it looks clear...
Roya remains right behind the Half-Orcish woman. When she had seen Correna for the first time, she had been somewhat afraid of her. But with the other things this house had thrown at them, she now seemed much less intimidating.
Gen shrugs and heads forward as well. As Corrie is taking all of the up front danger how can Gen complain about moving forward?
The door is standard, the same as used in the rest of the house. It is unlocked so Correna opens it and slips inside, Roya and Gen trailing behind her.
The room is a sort of back hallway with a second stairway up to the second floor. The only furnishing in the room is a broken side table.
There are two doors at the far side of the room. The one to the right probably opens onto the large, deck like patio they could see from the outside. The other is under the stairs. The door under the stairs has been secured in crude fashion. The knob has been struck off, and an iron spike has been driven into what used to be the lock.
Correna points at the under-stairs door.
"That doesn't look good. What do you think? Something dangerous?"
Stepping up she knocks on the door lightly with her free hand, sword ready in the other.
"Anyone in there?"
"With all the creatures we encountered so far, I am a bit scared about what needed to be locked away because it was dangerous - by someone that didn't think the front door needed that spike thing...", Roya is clearly uncomfortable with the door, keeping some distance to it.
"Probably yep, you're right Corr. Could be undead as if it was alive it'd probably be dead by now.
We don't have to finish now, we can rest and come back tomorrow. Up to you Ladies. I am fine to go on or not but I fear I have used my spells a bit hastily today so I'm out".
Correna's knock is met with silence.