Going back to the haunted house

While the party is preparing to secure their room, they are approached by Marcello, who claims to be from the town council. He has heard that they had recently made a foray into the haunted house, and desires to know if they had discovered anything of significance, claiming that the house has been causing quite a stir of commotion lately, with the strange noises and lights that have been heard or seen near the house. They said that although they had gone into the house, they had not discovered anything of significance other than that it appeared to be empty. He left his name with the party and directed them to contact the town council if they discovered anything of import... not offering any particular reward, per se, but saying that he was authorized to offer them a favor in return for their assistance.

That night, Etna foiled an apparent attempt on some of the party characters' lives, catching an assassin in their room in the middle of the night. Startled, the assassin darted out the window, blindly leaping to the ground. Momentarily stunned by the fall, he was an immobile target from the second floor while the druid in the party used her Entangle spell to prevent the assassin from escaping before he could be questioned.

Unwilling to talk beyond the claim of wanting to seek vengeance, the party bound the assassin and took him the to the courthouse, where it turns out that this assassin was known as Ned Snakeshaft, and a small reward was offered for his capture. The courthouse keeper referred them to speak to somebody from the town council if they wanted to know more.

The following morning, the went to the town council to find out a little more about the fellow who had tried to assassinate them the previous night, and speaking to Marcello, they discovered that apparently he was suspected to be working with a gang of smugglers that have so far evaded all attempts at locating their base of operations. They were told that their leader, Sanbalet, was an illusionist, and when asking for a description of him, they discovered that the magic user they had killed yesterday matched that description quite closely. A reward was offered for either his capture or proof of execution, and not wishing to tip their hand that they had already dispatched this magic user, they decided to say no more about it to Marcello at that time.

Returning to the house, they found it exactly as they had left it, with the dead bodies still strewn about the great room. The party decided to explore more of the house.

Room after room turned out to be virtually empty, however... and finally running out of rooms to search on the main floor, the party proceeded into the cellar, where they found a corpse, dead perhaps some 3 or so weeks, wearing plate mail armor, and having a large shield and a long sword. The body turned out to be infested with rot grubs, however, and there was no real way to get that armor off the body without becoming infected. Tristan decided to risk it, however, since Seamus was ready to offer the benefit of a cure-disease potion to a person who would be infected.

No sooner had he touched the deceased human when a rot grub immediately bore into his hand, and started moving through his body, causing him quite a bit of pain. Working through it, however, he removed the plate mail from the corpse in only a few minutes and then drank one of Seamus's Cure Disease potions, which immediately cured him. Tristan decided he should likely want to clean the armor properly before wearing it and put it in his backpack.

Etna noted a secret door in the room that led to a much larger cellar area, and appeared to possibly be the base of operations for these smugglers, with 10 beds along the wall, each with a small locker at one end. They discovered 2 casks of brandy and a bolt of silk, making a connection between these and the manifest they discovered the previous day. While searching the lockers, Trina spotted a concealed door on one end of the room, which led south, and the party deduced that was a route to the water.

One of the doors appeared to lead to the magic user's room, where they found several vials of colorful potions and the illusionist's spellbook, as well as discovering a parchment with several strange markings on it that could not immediately decoded. A locker within also contained some fighters gear most of which was white with red crosses painted on them.

The other door was barred, and had DANGER written on the door in common. Tristan, curious about what was behind it, opened the door and they saw the body of a human male near the door, bound and either very near or only very recently dead. At the other end of the room were some skeletons, which were not getting any closer to the door or to the party, but appeared threatening nonetheless.

Curious about the person they discovered, they checked to determine if the man was alive. He was, but very dehydrated. They quickly pulled him out of the room and put him onto the bed, sealing the skeletons back in the room, and while they were doing this they noticed that the patterns on his clothes distinctly matched those that were on the armor they had just found in the mage's quarters. Giving the man some water, they were ultimately able to resuscitate him, and he was able to speak clearly enough to ask for food and water, which the party was willing to provide.

After he had been fed, the man introduced himself as Tallus, a paladin of Tyr, and explained that he had come to the house to investigate some strange goings on here, but was overwhelmed by a number of thugs when he arrived, who bound him and threw him in the room with the skeletons to die. He was very grateful for having been rescued however, and pledged allegiance to aid the party to the best of his ability. The party, realizing that the armor they had uncovered likely belonged to this man, returned it to him, and he suited himself up properly.

Tallus insisted that the party should dispatch the skeletons in the other room, as they were an abomination, which the party debated for a couple of minutes but ultimately decided to do. Going in, the skeletons were now lying on the ground, but after they had come further into the room, the skeletons reanimated and began attacking. The narrow quarters in the room made it impossible for any more than two skeletons to attack two party members, so Tallus and Tristan worked steadily at dispatching them. It took many rounds to finish them off, but they ultimately succeeded.

Noticing a secret passageway leading further east, the party opened it to discover what appeared to be, at one time, a magic user's laboratory. The remains of someone who was obviously a magic user was noticed and although most of the equipment in the lab was too old and worn by the passage of time to be useful, they did notice several objects of great value on the desk before the body. A book that the person was obviously reading when he died covered the creation of an object called the Philosopher's Stone, a magic item for turning things into gold, and on the desk, the objects they had noticed before were indeed golden, as if the magic user had some partial success in creating such an item.

Searching the laboratory in more detail, they also uncovered the remains of the magic user's spellbook in a secret compartment. Sarlac examined the book and although he could not determine its contents without further perusal, he stashed the book in his now quickly growing library of books.

Finding nothing more of value, they investigated the secret door they deduced led to the sea, below. Beyond the door was a cavernous passages, leading down closer to sea level, and certainly enough, the party did discover a large opening that lead out to the sea. Also in the cavern, they discovered numerous bolts of cloth and several casks of fine brandy that tallied up what they had initially read in the manifest they discovered. An 8-man cutter ship was discovered that they noticed was large enough that they could probably utilize it to carry all this cargo back to town.

Heading back upstairs, the party investigates several rooms, but due to concerns about unstable floorboards, they are reluctant to check areas where they believe the floor may be unsafe. Trina volunteers to check things out, however. One of the floorboards does give out underneath her in one of the rooms she examines, but Trina does not fall... instead, she simply floats there almost as if nothing had happened. The party, although utterly confused by how she was doing this, is eager to send her to test the remaining areas of the upstairs floor. She does so, finding one more noticeable area where the floor gives way, creating a 5-foot wide hole in the floor that the party would have to jump across to get to the other side.

Most of the party has no difficulty in doing so, but Tristan, who is now quite heavily loaded down with gear, determines that he may not be able to clear that hole and so decides to wait for the party at the bottom of the stairs on the main floor.

Searching the remaining rooms, they discover they are all virtually empty except for one, which had a ragged and dusty cloak hanging on a peg inside a small wardrobe. Etna reached in to grab the cloak but as soon as she touched it, she released several poisonous spores, and she fell unconscious.

The party attempted to use their own facilities to heal her, but could not. They determined they would need to return her quickly to town, as her breathing was unsteady, and she may not have long to live.

Tallis took her to a temple of his own god, where the priests were willing to heal her for a reduced rate on account of Tallis's allegiance. Some minor quibbling about how to pay for the spell occurred, which Tallis quickly settled by pointing out that Etna was dying while they argued about it. Tristan quickly grabbed two amethysts that were worth approximately what it was going to cost to cure her and the priests readily agreed to the exchange. Etna was revived, but was not in any shape to continue adventuring for the remainder of the day. She would need at least a night's rest to continue.

Tristan and Sarlac went to the magistrate to try to claim their reward for stopping Sanbalet's gang. The magistrate was grateful, and paid them 1200 platinum for their efforts.

Some of the party went back to the house to retrieve the casks and bolts of cloth by boat. Upon returning to the docks with the cargo, however, they were told that these contents were contraband and subject to a tarrif. The town council was willing to buy the cargo from them, but at a reduced rate due to the tarrif. The party agreed to the amount. After this, the party decided that they should rest for the night and called it a day.