One door from the dining room opens into the front hall of the house, a hall that runs between the two north facing rooms of the first floor.
The other door opens into a back hall. Here you find another staircase leading upward, a mudroom of sorts that is mostly empty, and a door that leads outside to a sagging deck that reaches out over the river.
A door that opens to the space beneath the stairs is boarded over. The doorknob is broken off and a steel spike has been driven into what used to be a lock.
As you move through these spaces, the floor sags noticeably (not so much under Myrandya's steps, as she is lighter).
Since the boy explained he had never seen the ghost they are looking for, Maverick's motivation decreased noticingly. "Well, let's go on."
At the boarded over door he halts. "Someone doesn't want us inside here. I wonder why. I should have brought a crowbar..."
"This should do the job, I think," Eunice says, holding up a stout, sharpened iron bar. "It's plenty tough; I use it for chiseling now and then."
She peers at the door, seeking a good place to wedge the kunai's tip into, but eyes the others. "We'd best be ready for whatever's inside before we open it, though. Look around the rest of the house first, maybe?"
Avoiding too much bunching up to make sure they don't fall through the floor, Wes follows along. He shrugs at Eunice's warning. "We're already here, may's well pry it open I say." Drawing his rifle, it's clear he's ready for trouble.
With the room searched, she will push the group to search the hallway briefly, but to check the door under/nearby the stairwell. As they go about it, she readies a spell for anything that may have been sealed inside. After so many years, if anything were to come out and attack them, it may be some form of undead creature, however, such a thing likely wouldn't happen. More like a swarm of bugs.
Nempura will assist opening the door and will step back. It is clear that when she does apply such pressure, it is more about intelligence than brute strength. She certainly knows her angles and leverage.
*+2 crowbar
Maverick is astonished at the graceful elf's help in opening the door. So it was actually him as sting her with what pitiful muscles he had. He should really get some workout from time to time.
He makes it clear that he will go in first and face whatever should be waiting. "Everybody stay back, I'll have a look." Revolver drawn and in front of him, he slowly opens the door.
As Maverick pulls the door open, he finds that the closet space under the stairs appears to be filled with water. The water then rushes out, flooding the room with cold salty water.
Being the first one upfront there was no way Maverick could dodge the massive wave of water that someone had secured behind this door. It totally washed over him knocking him to the ground.
+2vs transmutation
The agile elf performs an hydroacrobatic twirl that launches her out of the way of the blast of the water and onto her feet high and nearly dry next to the flow. One can only describe her action as if she used the flow of water to help her avoid its worst qualities. With a quick look to the closet, she finds the effect strange.
She scans the cause to find out how to free her allies from being engulfed in the mere seconds that the flow has been rushing inward.
As water flows out of the room, Higgins quickly grabs onto Maverick to get him up and on his feet again. "Guess nobody's been in there for a bit," he remarks.
Eunice doesn’t dodge the deluge so much as scramble back awkwardly, banging against the others as she does so.
”Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. How did all that get in there?”
"Ahhhbbbkbkkbkbk--" Myranyda cries, as she is taken by surprise and her small body is knocked down by the wave of water.
The water subsides, flowing out the doors and through the gaps in the floorboards.
"Holy s!&%, that's a gamble I lost. Well played, Nivi, well played." Maverick straightens back up and examines his clothes.
"I don't suppose anyone of you got that nifty clothes - dry spell?" He asks the group, looking at Nempura.
"Brrrr, zhat vater vas cold!" Myrandya cries. "Hold a moment vhile I reload my veapon, in case zhe deluge ruined zhe black powder in my ready cartridges."*
"It looks like the gaps in the floorboards provide entry for the water. Perhaps water retention kept it from going back out the same way? It must be a frequent event or the water would have dissipated."
She shrugs and then gives a smirk to John.
"And what if you look better like that?" she chuckles and then swishes her hand. A ring of lights surrounds John, then coalesces into a cube. Much like a gelatinous cube would do, this cube moves over the man's body and where it has passed, he is dry. She will then do that to all who wish her magical touch to bless them.
"Let's just leave that door closed. If it is flooding in that room only, it is probably keeping the whole house from flooding and then cascading down the river with the additional weight behind it. Perhaps if I," she bends down and angles a hole with her dagger in the closet so that the water can filter back out after the river is done surging.
Nempura then gestures to the others to continue onward where they wish. Hopefully, the idea works. She closes the closet door and secures it shut in a better manner than how they found it. With fine penmanship, she scrawls on the door with her charcoal a warning for those in the house not to open the door. The dew in the morning hours should also stain the door with the char for a prolonged effect. After she is done, she recasts her detect magic spell and keeps it active for the sake of avoiding any further traps that are magical in nature.
"Hold up a sec, Bella. May as well check in there before you rig it up shut," says Higgins. He'll take a quick look around to see if something might've been left behind in the formerly sealed closet.
The water of the river doesn't reach this far under the house, and certainly not this high. Also, the water that soaks you before Nempura begins drying it and indeed the water on your lips is salty, not like the snow fed river water. Both are cold, so that isn't a difference.
The closet does seems to be empty, but there is a pair of cavalry boots that washed out of the closet onto the floor that glows with a magical aura.
Maverick makes some impolite noises with his tongue and lips as he tastes the remains of the water. Then he turns to Myrandya. "Am I crazy, or does this water taste salty? I don't remember seeing an ocean put there."
With big eyes he looks around hoping someone got a good explanation.
"Ya sure yer alright, Maverick? Ain't no salt water gonna be 'round here," he says skeptically.
Then he picks up the cavalry boots still holding some water and sniffs it. He dips a finger in the water, licks it, and spits. "Ptttt. Well I'll be, guess you were right?" He wonders if he knows anything that might explain the strange phenomenon.
"These are magical...Enchanted."
Her eyes draw closer to the boots and she examines the spells behind crafting them. Perhaps she can discern what they do exactly or their referenced common name among magical shop owners?
"That is … odd," Eunice murmurs, tracing a line of water on the floor where it had pooled. "You can get salty water in lakes, if the rock is the right kind, but that's not the case here. I suppose it could've been conjured that way — which I suppose doesn't make any less sense than leaving a closetful of fresh water. We're missing something, I think."
Audrahni nods. "Roderick himself would have said it was "like using a shovel to kill a cricket," but yes, a ghost breaking up a gang fight is over the top. But something has the Captain all aflutter. The sheriff is tied up dealing with those same gangs. She was thinking you lot could go out to the Captain's place and see if anything there could shed any light on his thoughts.
"As for the history lesson, the Captain was gunned down by a group of bandits out of Riddleport that were raiding, rustling, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. He asked not to be buried in the grave yard. His wife and children died in the water, and he wished that we commit his body to the Gulf."
"Let's see, their magic seems to indicate they can aid you in riding, and give benefit to your steed for a short time. I'm still not sure what caused the water...We can call them Roderick's Mounted Boots."
Looking at the boots for a moment, she then goes to the closet and enters it. Once inside, she looks about fully on the ceiling, floor, and walls for what could have caused the surge of water.
"Perhaps a hole in the ceiling?"
There are gaps in all of the woodwork, wall boards, ceiling, floorboards, from neglect and rot, but nothing that looks contrived or created.
Examining the ceiling, however, leaves Nempura with a strange feeling of water closing around her and the breath within her wanting to burst out but at the same time horror that she could not regain it. Obviously, this is an unfamiliar feeling to the sea elf.
Nempura shakes her head at the thought and recalls some strange currents near waterfalls that are oppressively tight, as well as the pressures of the depths of the ocean, but none are like what she feels. A shiver passes over her shoulders and she shudders.
"Perhaps a haunting then? I just had the strangest feeling that I was being drowned in horror...which clearly is not possible. Perhaps a purging of the area with holy energy might be a welcome idea...if any of you are capable. I am not."
Higgins nods at the mention of the boots. "Might find these handy when I'm ridin' Midnight. Y'all mind if I keep 'em?"
He thinks on the meaning of the sea water. "Captain Roderic's wife and family drowned in the ocean. This here house may be more haunted then I'd reckoned. I say we just seal it up for now like you were thinkin', Bella."
"That sounds right," Eunice says, cautiously looking at the ceiling where Nempura felt the sense of dread. "And warn the boy not to poke around here. If this area is linked to the captain somehow, no sense in risking his anger for idle curiosity."
"I don't mind if you take the boots, though you already ride fairly well...while some do not..." she mutters and shrugs, showing she doesn't really care who ends up with them. "Or, we can sell them and split it when we get to town. Like a real adventuring party...which...I guess we technically are, aren't we?"
Nempura hums in thought at that and then seals up the door.
"Okay you horrific ghostly force...stay." she commands, as though it were a dog. Then seals the door tightly, writing on it in black what is inside. Then, when the group is ready, she will follow them into the next hallway to explore the other rooms.
Myrandya shakes her tiny horned head. "I do not have ze powver to channel ze energy like ze holy people do, but from vhat I haff read about ze hauntinks, zhere is usually some action-- or perhaps ceremony is zhe better vord-- zhat vill dispel ze geistly magic for good. I vonder if our knowink that Roderick's family vas drowned vill help us lead his soul to rest?"*
Maverick pushed on, leading the group into the next room. "Let's try our luck in the next room, before we go upstairs." Clearly, occult theories was not his favorite topic.
Wes nods in silent agreement with Maverick's plan, and follows his lead.
Nempura moves after the other two, taking up a middle position this time. She considers what Myrandya stated as she looks back to the small tiefling creature.
"I like yer thinkin'. I'm gonna keep an eye out for somethin' that will appease the ghosts in this place, but I'm doubtful we'll find it..."
She then goes more quietly as they approach the doorway. She will keep as quiet as she can. These close quarters aren't good for fighting (should they need to).
Then the sea elf directs her dancing light spell to follow them. As soon as the door is open, she sends the lights in to illuminate the whole of the room for the humans.
Eunice follows the others, looking back, pointlessly, at the gloom that masses behind them as Nempura's lights move ahead before turning her attention to the new room.
A sickeningly sweet scent hangs in this room’s otherwise stale air. Mold and fungus grow up the side of the northern walls, and 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.
A moldering sofa sits along the south wall of this room, and once-comfortable chairs sit in front of mold-covered windows.
Wes sniffs the air. "What's that weird sweet smell? I mean, is that pie?"
Wes looks around, and if he doesn't see any danger, heads over to the slightly-ajar oven to see what's inside.
Myrandya looks about with trepidation. "Zhis room has not been cleaned in a fery long time," she says, stating the obvious.
"I'd say this house hasn't been cleaned in a long time!" she comments on Myrandya's remark. "It's a shame because it really is a nice home...or was. Maybe I'll come out here and mend some things for the boy's sake."
Wes clearly has detected something. Her sense of smell worked differently than land creatures, but she's learned to tell what is sweet and foul through her own senses since being on land at a young age. She still remembers centuries ago when it was as foreign to her as it would be for a land-dweller to enter the ocean and to suddenly begin smelling ocean currents and picking up the oils and the vibrations of fish. Now, she is all too used to both worlds.
"Let me look about with my magic to see if anything still lingers in this place..."
She scans with her detection of magic that she keeps active. As the duration runs low, she will recast it in an effort to keep it going and to ensure they are aware of magical presences before they stumble upon them.
she will enter the room herself and will take in a sniff.
"Yes, sweet. I smell it too."
"Perhaps the boy was baking?"
Eunice, bringing up the rear, hasn't smelled it yet, but steels herself for the possibility of a grim discovery. "Decomposing bodies can sometimes smell like that too; careful."
Wes moves to the oven, pulling open the door. Indeed, he finds some sort of sweet baked good still in the oven, but what is was is obscured by the hairy growth of mold or fungus. Whatever it is, the hairy mass lurches toward him.
Whatever is growing on the baked good lashes out at Higgins, smashing into his hand and forearm and leaving behind an acid that has his skin burning.
"Arw you kiddin me? Giant insects, giant fungi." Maverick shouts while aiming his drawn revolver and shooting at the strange creature.
"What did you do? What's happening?" she asks. All she can see is chaos in the room as something is lashing out at her companions. She tries to identify it specifically.
"Damned pie mold!"
Surprised and offended, Higgins steps back and fires his powerful rifle at point blank range.
; .
Myrandya yelps!
"Pie … mold?" Eunice sounds incredulous, but it's clear something is happening. She hustles as best she can behind the others, trying to get a look and bringing her shotgun to the ready.
The pie, and the mold growing on it, burst at the impact of bullets from Higgins' and Maverick's attacks. This appears to be a typical garden ooze, a sort of fungus that diseases plants, and, in this case, plant derived products.
This is silly, but it doesn't appear to be anything supernatural, just an intrusive fungus taking advantage of the abandoned house. There is nothing especially haunted about this kitchen.