Mansion on Haunted Hill [Closed]

Rad followed the group as the tour began, he was excited to see the rest of the house, and the prospect of a ghostly gala both interested and worried him. "So mister Sooth Sight, if we were to see some ghostly goins on, what should we do? I mean, I don't really believe in this stuff, but I imagine you'd rather we didn't go breakin stuff in your house chasin shadows eh?" Rad chuckled a little at the thought, the idea of a big gryphon like Kestrel trying to grapple with something that wasn't real just amused him greatly.

Ale had to agree with rad, partially, what to do if he was threatened? Although ale wasn't thinking about what to do if a ghost attacked, more what to do if some crazed security bot or horrific ghoul experiment from the basement attacked? Ale did not trust mr. sooth sight, the house, the stories the guest that were invited, all of this didn't seem to sit right with the unicorn. But back to the topic of personal defense, ale recalled the guns in the main entrance hall, the gaudy golden rifles, if they still functioned they they might come in handy. He still had his 9mm tucked away in his vest pocket and it did fill him with a bit of confidence but not enough to stake his life on it. As the tour progresses he would keep an eye out for anything he could use as a weapon, a trophy rifle, ancient swords, hell kitchen cutlery. Anything could help.

Deus sits behind and watches as the rest of the group continues on to the tour. She would follow behind, watching. Observing the others, learning their weaknesses, waiting for her chance. She was going to prepare for any eventuality.

Aqui looked around the room, after so much impressive things in the house he had started to expect each room to hold the same value. He followed in the back of the group, while a few ponies he knew, most he did not. He would have to keep an eye on them to see if any where working with the stallion host.

"Ah, yes. I was hoping the clothes would all fit well." Sooth said as they went back into the Main Hall, "I had to pay off several couriers, caravans and even other Stableton residents to get the dimensions right. Especially you, Happy Trails, your information was especially hard to acquire."

Sooth Sight paused for a moment in the Main Hall, then turned to head down the hallway to their right, "This hallway leads to the East Wing, which is where your guest rooms are located. Each of the hallways leading to the respective wings are sharp S bends and then a long hallway, as you'll see. There is a stairwell at the end of the hall on which you can access the 2nd and 3rd floors." After rounding a right corner then a left corner, they emerged into a hallway lit a little dimly with 4 light chandeliers made of clear crystals. There were no artifacts in the hall, but there were many paintings on the walls. Each of them were portraits of many generations and eras of unicorn ponies.

From fillies, colts, mares, stallions, all sorts of portraits lined the walls, "These, here, are portraits of my ancestors, all of the previous owners of the mansion and their children are featured here throughout the East Wing. Now since these are the places where most non-residents spent most of their time, this is where the most activity has been reported. There have been cases of the paintings flying off the walls, rearranging, and sometimes temporarily... changing, inter I quote, 'distorted, disturbing images.'"

Sooth then walked toward a nearby door, "All the guest rooms are the same so we'll only investigate one, shall we?" he opened the door with his magic. The room had prim furniture, featuring two large, comfy-looking beds. Especially notable was a door which signified that each of the guest rooms had its own bathroom, "I believe you'll enjoy the accomodations, should you survive or not be broken."

Kestrel gazed over each of the paintings in turn, committing each to memory. One never knew when the images of the world about you could come in handy.

The mentioning of what had often happened here was also recorded, Kestrel knew what to look for then should something go amiss.

The mention of a second and third floors piqued the griffons interest, he'd need be exploring those later. For now though, he settled on exploring the rooms. They seemed as though they were set up for two.

"Will we be pairing up? These rooms appear to be set up for such."

Aqui look at the pictures with some interest, there had been quite a few who lived here over the years. As he heard what the pictures did it only served to make him more interested in what the night had in store for them.

As they entered the room Aqui was pleasantly surprised with the size of them. He listened as Kestrel ask about pairing up, perking his ears up Aqui listened to see what the stallion would say about whether or not they would be grouping into pairs.

"Sorry that you had to go through all that trouble for nothing, seeing as this suit here is mine." Trails said in the best apologetic tone he could muster despite not really caring what so ever. "I'm guessing most of those couriers you paid off were wrong anyways, after all, my only interactions with those ponyfolk is either gunfights or drunken sex." He shrugged as if to say 'oh well' and looked in on the bedrooms indifferently. "If we do pair up I think we'd be able to get along easily enough. Not like we don't normally sleep on the ground or anything."

Ale kept an eye on the paintings as the group walked. He wasn't sure why but he had a feeling as if the paintings themselves were watching them. He also took note of something sooth sight said, "The most activity has taken place in the guest wing. So are the ghost trying to show off?" Ale was a bit confused by this, in all of the stories he'd read or heard, the phantoms never seemed to play favorites. So why don't they haunt the residents as much as the visitors? This was just adding fuel to the fire of ale's doubt, there was something their host wasn't telling them.

When they reached the guest room ale saw the pristine furnishings and the comfy looking bed, and that's when he realized just how tired he really was. he then heard kestrel and trails comments on the fact that there were two beds and added, "if we are pairing up, then for whoever is my roommate, Dibs on the minibar." he said as he turned his gaze to the collection of bottles and an ice bucket on a nearby table in the room.

Sooth Sight looked at Trails, furrowing his brow, "Well, as a pony who has an eye for clothing, I believe that the tailored clothes would have suited you fine. However, if you do not wish to keep them, that is quite alright." He then looked to Kestrel and Ale who guessed that the rooms seemed as if they were set up for them to paired up in the rooms, "Ah, indeed that is the case. And I shall reveal the pairings at the end of the tour, where you shall receive a survival kit for the night as well, then you shall all be left to it... By me, at least."

As Sooth sight began leading them back to the Main Hall, those who paid attention would noticed that a picture of a young colt on a swing set and a mare playing a piano, which had been right next to each other, had now switched places. There had also been a filly playing on the same swing set in the quite obviously acrylic paining, but the filly had inexplicably vanished.

"This wing is identical on all three floors, so, lets move on to a more interesting part of the mansion, shall we?" He continued back down the hall and into the Main Hall, "In the West Wing my and Silver's quarters, as well as the music room, kitchen, greenhouse, mirror room, sunroom, and study. All shall be open to you except for our quarters and the study, however, where do you all think we should start in this wing?"

Kestrel nodded imperceptibly as he began to follow after the master of the estate yet again; walking out into the hall. On a hunch he gave the hall a once over. The picutres had changed and the Filly was gone.

Resiting the urge to narrow his eyes Kestrel kept calm and moved to follow after the master of the estate, making note of every word he said. At the mention of a survival Kit, Kestrel perked a mental brow. Just what did that mean? Did the man seek to arm the ponies here? The griffon had already managed to sneak in one of his weapons, so he was good in that regard.

He was not however going to turn down a free weapon.

Hearing the layout of the next wing Kestrel began to assemble a mental map of the place in his head, he'd be learning it all soon enough, but it never hurt to try and make a map before hand. He understood the reasoning behind the restrictions as well...excluding the study. Perhaps the host of this little get together was hiding something after all?

Kestrel might just be checking in on that later.

"We should start at the closest room."

As the group started to move ale noticed that something was off about the paintings and trotted over to get a closer look. As he stared blankly into the canvas of a swing set it came to him, "This painting is off center." he thought as he used his hoof to straiten the picture and move on. He was only two steps away when he stopped and he realized what was wrong really wrong with that painting, quickly returning to the portrait of the swing set he began to look around it, behind it, even across from it, hell he even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He then turned to the others and asked, "Um guys, wasn't there a colt in this painting a minute ago?"

Cuppa trailed along with the group, giving a thankful smile to Sooth Sight before raising a brow in question. "A survival kit? Jus' whut are we meant t' be expectin' tonight?" Cuppa inquired as they continued going.

She definitely noticed that the pictures were different, but she wasn't going to make anything of it. Though Ginger mentioned it and she gave a slow nod. "Yeah, but ah could explain tha' all reasonable-like without even thinkin' 'bout it."

Dash hadn't been paying very much attention to the paintings, but he looked over when some mentioned that they had appeared to have changed. He raised an eyebrow, wondering if they had been like that just a second earlier. However, he would make it a point to pay more attention to such things, in case it was a warning for bigger things to come.

Sooth looked over to the paintings as well, "Hmm..." he hummed simply, then looked to Cuppa when she asked about what the survival kit was about and what they had to expect to face, "I honestly do not know." Sooth Sight said, "All I do know is that guests here have had unpleasant experiences and that some have outright vanished. I would like to perhaps become neighborly with Stableton, so allowing some of its residents to vanish without a trace would not reflect well on me. However, I had to disarm you of your personal weapons so you all wouldn't be tempted to rob me. A simple precaution, but also part of the challenge."

He then looked back to the hall bends leading to the West Wing and lead them over through the Main Hall, "I suppose we shall start at the Music Room, it is the closest."

As Aquilinus walked along with the group he wasn't paying too much attention to the paintings. After he heard about the way they changed at random it would be best if he just ignored them all together so as to not worry about them. It was when Sooth said they would be starting in the music room that he perked up and trotted ahead up next to Sooth. "So what kind of instruments do you have there?" he asked with eagerness in his eyes. Music was one of the few things that made him feel close to home, close to where he came from. It drove the demons away from his mind about who he used to be in the Legion. The night might not be a complete job for him after all.

"...I had to disarm you of your personal weapons so you all wouldn't be tempted to rob me. A simple precaution, but also part of the challenge." The Stallion had said.

"Or so you think." Kestrel thought to himself, taking up his position at the back of the group once again. Upon hearing the first destination Kestrel gave a silent nod; the zebra's excitement not being lost to the keen-eyed predator either. Kestrel was not as big a fan of music as the Zebra no doubt, his kind had a big reputation for communal song and dance, but he was still rather interested in what they would find.

Not to mention if this house really was haunted there would be plenty of things for the spirits to mess with in such a place. Music was a powerful tool, even to those that have passed the Veil.

Ale started to trot away from the painting, towards the rest of the gang, but he kept looking over his shoulder at the other pictures to see if any of the others had changed. "Where the hay did that colt go?" he pondered "Maybe there's some kind of false wall with the other painting behind it or perhaps the colt was painted with some kind of paint that disappears when exposed to something. I refuse to believe this stupid house is haunted, there is no such thing as ghost." Ale was so deep in thought that he missed the explanation about the survival kits, not that it really would have mattered to him, he still had his pistol tucked away for emergencies. When he did tune back into the conversation he heard "...we shall start at the Music Room, it is the closest." This was not as interesting to ale as much as the other possible rooms, he doubted there would be any displayed weapons amongst the violins and cellos their host most likely possessed. Unless Mr. sooth sight owned the spiked axe of rock, witch was highly improbable, this room would be a bust for ale. He'd have to speak up next time if they were to end up anywhere good.

The music room? That could always be a nice place to start, surely if there was anypony able to play instruments, they'd be able to make a nice little tune to soothe the soul, so to speak.

"Can't say I blame you for not wanting a bunch of ponies armed to the teeth strolling around your trophy room." Trails said to their host. "Not sure I much like the idea of dealing with whatever has you spooked with my hooves. I find a slug shuts things up much faster. Lead the way."

Winter brightened at the sound of the music hall. Winter always had appreciation for music, being able to sing herself and enjoying it as a simple hobby. She particularly liked the work of Octavia, a pre war mare who played the Contrabass who could sometimes be heard on DJ Pon3's station. She hummed the tune to herself, a sad minor tune that bought her to tears the first time she'd heard it. Sometimes she wondered what happened to Octavia, if she had made it to a Stable or if she'd perished outside with the others.

Of course it wasn't a very nice thought. But every time she heard that sad tune she thought about the wasteland, the war and how pony kind had fallen. In a way it gave her such an emotional pull that it reminded her that no matter what, she was still equine. As long as she could still hurt, she was still here and could still do better, so that one day they might put down the guns, push aside the hate and go back before it all went wrong.

Dash hadn't given all that much thought about music, so the thought about an entire room in a mansion devoted to music seemed odd to him. He was nonetheless interested. He followed along as Sooth Sight lead them them through the Main Hall through to the East Wing Hall. It appeared that this hall was far more complex than the simple row with rooms of the West Hall. Here there were several sub halls leading off from the main one with small staircases leading both upward and downward to sublevels. The ceiling was as high as the mansion was tall and had bridges going back and forth on the two upper levels. It seemed like it would be easy to get lost in this particular area of the mansion.

Sooth Sight lead them down a small set of stairs down one of the smaller hallways and around a few corners, "Now it goes without saying that the danger here comes from getting lost. Here some ponies have gotten lost and never returned. Especially in the lower sections of this Wing. It is in this wing that there are entrances to the basement levels of the mansion, which I do not suggest entering regardless of any circumstances... Ah, here is the Music Room." Sooth Sight then opened a door located at the end of the hall.

Inside the room was a small auditorium. Everything there seemed a little dusty, but in almost equally pristine condition as everything else in the mansion when compared to the broken junk found most everywhere in the Wasteland. Most notable were a pipe organ located at the center back of the stage, a piano set up facing the stands, a pair of Les Paul guitars, a large Cello and and a massive platinum harp, "Now for those of you who are musically inclined to spend time and sooth your soul, you are free to use any of it. Just well... Don't break any of it."

Kestrel made a mental map of the room he was in, nodding at the vast selection of instruments and things scattered about the room. But something was holding him back, namely a certian comment about getting lost. This had caused Kestrel to mentally perk a brow. Why? Easy. Some of the guests, himself included, had PipBucks. The little device was rather useless in most instances, at least to Kes, but it had its moments.

Like right now.

Pulling up the device and activating its map feature, Kestrel attempted to find a map of the building he was currently in. If he could bring it up, he really wouldn't have to totally rely on memory alone.

Redundancy is a wonderful thing sometimes.

Rad had followed the others, he had begun daydreaming really as his short attention span kicked in, he had taken a vague note of the thing along the way, but in all, the lack of anything really happening was getting to him. Almost enough that he just wished for a ghost or something to appear, and he didn't even believe in them. Though when the came to the music room Rads eyes lit up. He hadn't seen a piano since he was in Friendship city, and the one he had there was in bad shape. "That piano... It's got all it's parts? No missin keys? Broken wires? It all works? I haven't played in a long time, or ever on a fully workin piano..."

Looking into the music room, Cuppa frowned slightly and let the others go about whatever they intended to do in the music room, if they went in to look around that was. Sure, music was nice, but Cuppa had a minor disdain towards it. She would wait outside the room whilst they did whatever they wanted to do.

When Kestrel looked at his Pipbuck, and brought up the map, he would be greeted not by a concise map of the mansion he was in, along with reference points and a compass, he was greeted with naught but static where the map should be and the compass displayed the needle spinning erratically, randomly switching directions and doing complete 360's as it tried to recalculate it's own position. Suddenly, static noise on the Pipbuck's local map screen began to form a recognizable object, but not of a map of the mansion. The fuzzy image was that of an unnaturally twisted face of a griffon. The ghostly griffon stared back at Kestrel from the screen of his Pipbuck before suddenly opening its bent beak in what appeared to be vicious, but silent, roar. At that moment the Pipbuck's screen once again returned to a state of static non-functionality.

Dash looked around at the instruments, "Nice..." he said, impressed by the sheer amount of mint-condition musical instruments. He didn't really know how to play anything, but he remembered listening to DJ-PON3 for hours with Leafrun and the rest of his family on different occasions.

Sooth Sight looked over to Rad Boom, "Of course it has all of the keys. None of them were ever even lost." he said proudly, "I have heard of pianos out in the Wasteland, being picked for their parts to repair or make weapons. A terrible shame, and a terrible fate for such a regal instrument. If you like, you may try it." Bane Silver visibly sighed. It seemed like she was less willing to allow them all to just peruse her and her husband's collection.