And so, Cassandra and Lil arrive in Hanging Tree, a small, respectable fishing town. The inhabitants are relatively sober, hard-working, and amiable. There are adequate facilities for (mundane) justice and law-enforcement-- debtors and bankruptcies are dealt with particularly sternly.

Fishing is the main industry, but there are some tiny farms in the neighboring countryside. The town boasts a small weekly market to which traders are sometimes attracted from the city of Sternza (well, not often, but occasionally) and Rose Harbor (with more moderate regularity).

What will you do first?

I look to speak with some locals about the haunted home we had heard about to learn more clues. Approaching it as a priestess looking to possibly cleanse the problem. Knowing people often trust priests and tell them their woes.


14:44, Today: Lethal Lil rolled 43 using 1d100 with rolls of 43.  Priestess.

Cassandra separated, at least obviously, from Lil and her open discussions, and tried to more subtly listening to the rumor mill,  perhaps even trying to discreetly nudge the conversation in interesting ways.
Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone was more excited to yak about halibut and crab pots

OOC:  g

15:54, Today: Cassandra Everquill rolled 73 using 1d100 with rolls of 73.  Rouge eavesdropping .

(Fail-- so raise the stat by 5.

Fortunately for me, I don't have to do anything extra to you if you fail if I don't want to-- you just fail.)



(Hey, I forgot to remind you to lower your Priest stat by 5 for the holy water! And do it now for another 5, too! Fortunately, you still make both rolls anyway.)

1. People say that you should report to the town hall and speak with the town council.

2. One old fellow you talk to also says: "Oh, you should talk to Old Bill. He'll probably be in th' tavern, The Brass Bell. If he's not, then... well, he will be sooner or later.")

Talks to the town counsel first.

^_^  I got too cocky ack

Followed Lil's lead

Four miles east of Hanging Tree, just inland of the old coast road and looking out to sea, stands the Haunted House. Until twenty years ago it had been the residence of an aged mage/alchemist of slightly sinister reputation, and even then had been shunned by reason of its owner’s mysterious occupations. Now, two decades after the sudden and unexplained disappearance of its occupant, the house has acquired an even greater air of mystery and foreboding with the passing years.

Dilapidated and now long-abandoned, the house presents an unwholesome appearance to the eye. Those hardy souls who have on infrequent occasion sought entry to it (for rumors of a secret hoard of alchemical gold have persisted since the old man’s disappearance) have all returned with naught save grim tales of decay presided over by frightening perils.

In more recent years there have been reports of fearsome hauntings-- ghastly shrieks and eerie lights emanating from within the dismal place. Now not even the bravest locals dare so much as to approach the house, let alone enter it. Indeed, such is the reputation of the
house that the fields around it, though prime agricultural land, remain untended and rank with weeds.

The reward for exploring the house, and either proving that there is nothing to fear, or dealing with whatever there currently may be to legitimately fear, is an appropriate sum, in your opinion.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow at the sight of the manir house
"Nice place.  Shall we see if anyone is home?"

"Let's look for other entrances and scout the grounds first. Keep an eye on the windows see if any spooks look our way."

Cassandra nodded and walked the perimeter, looking closely at everything

OOC:

20:00, Today: Cassandra Everquill rolled 78 using 1d100 with rolls of 78.  Rouge- look for hidden doors or traps.

20:00, Today: Cassandra Everquill rolled 50 using 1d100 with rolls of 50.  Fighter: look for ambush points

Stalks out the place looking for hidden entrances or other ways in Roguelike.



19:04, Today: Lethal Lil rolled 89 using 1d100 with rolls of 89.  Rogue.
Failed

The Haunted House stands on a cliff top over the sea, a good 70 feet above sea level, and starts about 80 feet back from the cliff edge. The 6-foot-high stone wall surrounding the yard has partially collapsed in a number of places, so access to any part of the yard is simple even if the main gate on the cliff road is ignored. This gate, of a heavy and ornate metal construction, is still functional and stands open. The back yard itself is overgrown and shows no sign of any care for years. However, any part of the back yard and the main earth driveway can be easily traversed.

The house is 35 feet high from ground level to roof ridge; the roof is peak-pointed and gabled, with several holes from missing slates.




(Fail, knock Rogue stat up 5.

By the way, I changed your sheet and got rid of the original scores, it was confusing, why save them

Fighter, NAILED IT PERFECTLY (right?), push stat up 10!)

Cassandra finds zero hidden doors nor traps.)




(Fail, knock stat up 5)



Cassandra notes:

--a round well to the east of the rear of the House, 5 feet wide and about 15 feet deep, with about 3 feet of water at the bottom-- just clear enough that you can see the rocky bottom of it.

--numerous small and harmless animals in the yard around the house-- she sees a mouse, a rabbit, and even a vole.

--basically, the whole house has a sort of T shape (or it would if you were a bird looking down at it from the right spot in the sky), with the front door being in the center of the wide part of the top of the T. The front door faces south. The sea, and therefore the cliff, is on the east side of the house.

--In addition to the front door, there is a back door, and a patio door.

--There are many windows, but all of them are too dirty to see anything useful through (on both the inside and the outside, so just wiping off grime on the outside wouldn't help. In fact, the outside's the cleaner side, because of occasional rain).

"Well, would you look at this place. Beautiful view, to bad it's in such disrepair. I wasn't able to find any hidden entrances, since it is abandoned why not use the front door eh ?"

Cassandra frowned in thought, annoyed at the ambivalent search results
"I didn't see anything glaring at us as a problem.   There are a few animals here and there, which I'm hoping is a good sign for nothing lurking too obviously. "
She looked at her pirate friend and shrugged
"We can, do that.   But we need to be wary.  Mortal squatters might have left defenses as well."

She was thinking that trying other doors might be a good idea, but if one was trapped, they probably all were

Takes out her pistol, "Aye you open the front door, I'll cover ye'."

She sets up to cover her friend with her pistol to threaten any squatters or animals that might have made the place their home.

Yes front door is how we are going it looks like.

Cassandra nodded and approached, ready to dive aside of trouble reared its ugly head, to allow her pistol packing friend a better shot.
She did her best stealthy approach, taking her time and working to not alert anyone


OOC:

16:25, Today: Cassandra Everquill rolled 4 using 1d100 with rolls of 4.  Rogue stealthiness.

(Cassandra's Rogue stat goes up 10 points!)

The front door isn't locked, and opens easily.

The interior of the house is very dilapidated, damp and with patches of (harmless) mold everywhere. Cobwebs festoon the place; dust and dirt are thick and rubbish is scattered about in profusion. Plaster, fallen from ceilings and walls, lies on the floor here and there; there is liberal evidence of rodent and insect infestation.

Because of all the windows (and, all right, the front door being open), there's plenty of light, dirty windows be darned.

So: the front door opens onto a musty, dirty entrance hall. To your left, a corridor leads into the west wing of the house. On either side of the corridor opening, the walls are bare, but some pieces of wood in the corner near the window indicate that a small wooden table or chair once stood there.

Ahead of you, another corridor leads towards the rear of the house.

To your right a staircase climbs to the second story, reaching it at a balcony which overlooks the hall along its north and west sides; the stairs appear safe to climb though the balcony rail is broken in several places. Under the stairs at the rear of the hall, a third corridor leads east.

Cassandra is being so incredibly slow and careful that she detects two "paths" in the dust along which there has been occasional and recent human movement — one from the foot of the stairs to the corridor towards the rear of the house, the other from the foot of the stairs to the western corridor.

Cassandra pointed out the two sets of tracks to Lil.
She spoke quietly
"What say you?  Stay downstairs for now, or head directly up?  If I were squatting here, though that is something I can't imagine wanting to do, I'd go upstairs, to keep intruders as far away as possible.  However, you never know what's lurking below"

"We are here for spooks not bums, let's go down then. We can check the upper floors later. Looks like someone took a fall from that balcony see how it is broken. Maybe that be the cause of the spooks." Shrugs.