Emma has Aiden stop the cart. Climbing down carefully from the driver's bench, Emma approaches the old man. Trying not to startle him, she clears her throat before stepping up to him and tugging on his sleeve, "Sir? Excuse me Sir, can you wake up please? I need to ask you something." She says, hoping that waking him up doesn't make him too cranky.
Not getting any response from the older gentleman, she looks back at the others and shrugs. Knowing her voice can be hard to hear sometimes, she decides to slightly increase her volume, in case he was also hard of hearing.
Tugging on his sleeve again, she says in a louder voice, "EXCUSE ME SIR?"
"I'm old, not deaf," the old man says, barely opening his eyes. "Bloody out of towners...The 'ell you want? Out with it."
"We have a few questions we'd like to ask." Aiden says, getting down and striding up behind Emma.
Emma reaches back and up for her husband's hand, giving it a light squeeze to let him know that while she appreciated his support, that she was alright. Accustomed to dealing with cranky elders, she doesn't allow his brusque manner phase her.
She starts by giving him a smile, "I'm sorry for disturbing you, and I didn't mean any offense. I'm just smaller and sometimes quieter than others, and with you being asleep I wasn't sure if you would hear me or not. I never meant to insinuate that you were impaired in any way, or insult you."
Emma takes a moment to gather her thoughts, "Yes, we're from out of town, let me start by introducing ourselves. I am Emma, the Vicar of Rosewood and this is my husband Aiden. Our friends by the cart are Rosie and Clyde. We come here on a mission of vital importance. A couple of nights ago a ghostly black carriage came rolling through our village and took over half our townspeople with it, and left their husks behind. The four of us decided to go after it, in hopes that we can free the souls that it has taken, not just from our village but others as well, and if possible either destroy it so that this doesn't happen again...or at least find the root cause of this abomination and put an end to it. Either way, we have to stop it and we have less than a month to do so. We found this," Emma pulls the journal they found in the church ruins out of her vestments to show the old man, "While in the old ruins of the Church of Pharasma in Millsworth. The last few pages detail what happened there after the carriage passed through there last time, and speaks of Brother Maynard making his escape through a tunnel that he dug from his quarters. We know that he took the sacred censer, and headed for Furrows Glen, or Glenshire as it is now known." Emma takes a couple minutes to catch her breath, "We noticed coming through that the carriage had indeed passed through, but there are no bodies lying around...so I figured that being an expert in matters of the undead, that Brother Maynard found a way to protect the town from the carriages evil curse. We also deduced that the Manor that lies just yonder, belonged to Maynard and we were hoping to find someone that he might have passed his knowledge of the undead onto? We want to free everyone's souls, and stop the carriage from ever riding again....but we don't really know what we're dealing with, and we're running against the clock. We have less than a month to reverse the effects of the carriage, and return the souls to their bodies, or they're going to rise as undead and start attacking the living."
Looking at the old man with imploring eyes she asks, "Do you know if there is anyone in that manor, or this town that can help us figure out how to defeat it, or at least where to start? Please Sir, I'd be willing to pay for any help you or anyone else in this town can provide."
She hopes her explanation for their visit wasn't too complicated to understand, Emma knew she could be a little long winded sometimes.
The old man keeps polite eye contact with Emma, though his mind wanders a time or two while she talks. "There's no one in the manor. No one remembers who lived there or what they did. All I know is I keep it locked up since someone in my father's day up and disappeared in there."
He clears his throat. "We're just tradesmen and merchants here. Don't think anyone could answer any questions about the undead."
Emma can't help the sigh of disappointment as it escapes her, she really hoped they would find some answers here.
Emma thinks for a moment, "Okay, I understand you keep it locked because someone disappeared in there a long time ago. I really believe that the answers we need are in that house. Brother Maynard had to keep records or something. Is there any way you could let us in for just an hour or so, so we can try to find something that might help us figure this out?"
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Aiden silently stands beside Emma as she puts her powers of persuasion to use.
The old man lets out a sigh. "Fine, but whatever happens is on you and you alone."
He gets up from his seat and grabs a walking stick adorned with several holy symbols. With a grunt, he walks toward the manor.
Emma nods as she starts to follow him, "I understand. Will it be okay to leave our horse out here, or should we tie him up closer to the manor?"
"I'll see to your horse and make sure he's secured," the old man replies. He produces a long silver key from his pockets and unlocks the gate.
The rusted metal lets out a grating screech as the old man pushes the gate open for you. "Have at it. The front door should be unlocked."
"Thank you so much, we really appreciate it. We'll try not to take too long." She says, hoping that they actually find something helpful.
"I'll go ahead...just in case," Clyde offers.
"Be my guest," Rosie says with a nervous chuckle. "I wonder if it's haunted..."
Emma nods as Clyde moves to go ahead of them, "I hope not...I don't really have any experience communicating with spirits. Maybe if it is it'll be a nice one?" She says with a bit of a nervous sound to her voice.
Taking his bow and strapping his longspear across his back, Aiden falls in behind Clyde, Shadow padding along silently at his side.
Clyde opens the door to the manor and peers inside.
You find yourselves in a moderately-sized foyer, lit only by the sunlight that peeks through the grimy windows. The walls are featureless, made of plain wood boards. A thick layer of dust covers the stairway going to the next floor. There is a door to the left and one to the right.
Aiden notices that the floor shows signs of rot. There is a gaping hole, hidden by the shadow of the stairs.
Emma looks around with all of her senses as they enter the manor and tries to stay alert to their surroundings, "I thought briefly about splitting up to search through this place more quickly....but, it's already giving me the creeps and I'm not sure it would be a good idea for us to separate. I think we could use a little more light in here." She says, pulling out her aspergillum.
Speaking a few words, she holds up her battle aspergillum as it starts to glow with light similar to a torch.
"Be careful where you step, try to stay close to the walls if you can. This floor is rotted partway through." Aiden says, pointing out the hole in the stairway's shadow.
Bow in hand, he carefully ventures further into the foyer, moving toward the door on the left.
Emma nods, "Okay love, I'll just follow you guys. We should probably check these doors for traps as we go, since someone just up and disappeared from here. We all need to keep our eyes peeled for anything that looks like notes or a journal....I think we shouldn't spend anymore than twenty minutes on each room. I don't want to waste anymore time than absolutely necessary. Does that sound okay?" Emma really hoped that they would find something useful here, but she didn't want to spend all day in the manor.
"I don't think this place is trapped...it's just...old."
"You'd figure a place like this would've been better kept."
All that Shadow's keen nose can detect is the lingering smell of mold and fungus. Aiden can tell where the stout beams are and makes his way across to the door on the left. It opens up into a small dining room with a kitchen attached. An open door next to the door you entered reveals a set of stairs leading downward.
Emma shrugs, "Whatever happened here spooked the people badly enough that they locked up the entrance to it, and posted someone outside to keep people from going in. We just need to be cautious." She looks down to where the stairs lead, "Maybe we see what's down there first, and then once we're done we can go back and see what's behind the door on the right?"
"Makes sense." Aiden replies moving warily to the stairs.
The stairs are made of a sturdy stone and lead down into a what seems to be a wine cellar. The wooden floor down here is rotted as well, but, with nothing but earth beneath it, you can stand on it without fear of falling.
Rosie looks around for anything of interest.
Clyde also takes stock of the surroundings.
The duo notice that one of the walls has a large hole where a small trickle of water flows. They also notice a skeleton with a broken leg by a rack of wine bottles. It appears that whoever it was fell from the floor above.
Rosie recalls that there is a lake not far from this town. It is likely that this cellar may have been breached by an underground tunnel, letting the water in.
"There's a lake around here. Looks like a pocket of water managed to push through the cellar walls and flood the place," Rosie says, slightly relieved that there was a natural explanation for the condition of the manor.
"Guess the old priest ought to have reinforced the walls," Clyde mutters.
Emma looks around as well, even though the others are usually better at finding things. Going over to the remains, she takes a closer look at the skeleton.
Shrugging she looks over at Clyde, "He might not have known about the lake, or been too concerned or busy with other things to worry about it too much. We'll just have to be really careful."
"I wonder if the flooding was the result of a natural surge, or intentional." Aiden mutters
Emma looks confused, "Why would someone flood their home on purpose?"
"No one would, but an enemy might." Aiden replies.
Aiden does not see anything that would indicate whether the flooding was an accident or not. Emma doesn't discern anything interesting about the skeleton.
"I suppose we should continue on."
Emma nods as she moves back away from the skeleton, "Yeah, let's continue on. I have no idea how many rooms this place might have. If we find anything that looks strange...like magicky or just...you know, out of the ordinary, we don't touch it. I don't want anyone disappearing." She says before heading back up the stairs.
"Agreed." Aiden mutters with a nod as he turns and heads back up the stairs, choosing the other door.
Carefully making your way across the foyer once more, you open the door to the right and enter into a small reading room. Four heavy-looking bookshelves full from top to bottom line the walls. There is a basic desk and chair in the middle of the room.
"Think there might be anything useful on the shelves?" Aiden asks, giving the rest of the room a quick once over.
Emma nods, "No telling what kind of information could be in one of those books. I think we should each take a shelf and look over it thoroughly. I think if we all take a shelf, and spend 20 minutes looking it over, that should be enough to know if there's something important there." Emma takes the chair to the farthest bookshelf, and climbs up on it to start searching the top rows of the shelf.