Thulgood Manor

A few uncomfortable hours later, the group found themselves at a fancy wrought-iron gate, the top of which stated in large, stylized letters: "Thulgood Manor."

Taking the initiative, Alesha hopped down from the very-uncomfortable Harold and rushed up to the gate, opening it. "I'll walk from here," she said, body cramped and skin irritated from the Undead Werewolf's fur. She hadn't expected the creature to be so thoroughly unenjoyable to ride, even if it had been necessary. She wouldn't have been able to keep up with the group's trotting pace otherwise.

Seth shrugged and replied, "That's fine. The Manor itself can be seen from here, so it's alright if we are a little slower for this last portion of the trip."

The gravel path to the Manor was not very well maintained. Stray patches of grass and weeds dotted it everywhere, and the edges of the path had grown ragged. The courtyard ahead had fallen into disrepair as well. When they entered it, they found cracked flagstones with young bushes between them, a central fountain overgrown with moss and mold, and even a broken-down carriage worn from the weather. Everyone dismounted to investigate.

"This looks bad," Alesha said. "I knew there was something more going on."

"It may not be as bad as it seems," Seth stated cautiously. "Though I am inclined to agree. Even a severely depressed Dark Spiritist of Thulgood's stature would have servants to maintain the grounds for him."

Meanwhile, Flynn and Harold were sniffing the air. "Well, something definitely happened here. Harold and I smell nothing alive other than us."

Everyone went silent.

"What should we do?" Alesha asked timidly. Though there was greenery everywhere and the sun shone brightly up above, a chill went down her spine, and her tail flicked instinctively, scattering the gravel by its tip. Startled, Alesha looked back at it, then calmed herself. The noise was just her tail. Her stupid, new tail.

"Aw, what's the probl'm?" Delilah asked boisterously, putting one arm around Seth and the other around Alesha, as they happened to be standing by each other. "C'mooooon, it'll be fun! Let's go into the mansion, have ourselves a lil' spooky adventure! We gotta know what happened here so w'can report on back, don' we?" She pressed her face very close to Seth's, her voluminous hair still so big that Alesha had to move her face away to keep her nose from being tickled by it.

"I suppose that would be helpful," Seth said in a neutral voice, ignoring the breach of personal space. "I do need to pass this exam but would prefer we do not make any rash decisions. Alesha, Flynn? What are your thoughts?"

Getting a strange spark in his eyes, Flynn replied enthusiastically, "Sure! Let's go. I think it'll be fun."

Were these people right in the head? Flynn seemed normal usually, but looking at him now, Alesha wasn't sure. There was a fire in his eyes that looked a little crazy to her. "Well, if you guys think it's safe, then I guess the more information we can bring back the better. Since we can't deliver the letter anyways."

Delilah snorted, letting them go and making a pose with her hands on her hips. "Safe? Eh, I ain't sure bout that. But we ain't gonna die today! I'll make sure o' that!"

The group went inside the manor, its front door creaking from disuse. Inside, the only light was that which spilled in from the doors and windows. Since the manor was small, this meant that although it was dark, they could still see well enough. Alesha didn't notice the darkness at all, though, and only realized the others were having trouble when Delilah cursed at a desk she'd run into. "You alright?" Alesha asked.

"Yeah, it's jus' dark in here."

"Wait, it is?" 

"You can see in the dark?"

"... I guess I can. That's new."

"Eyyy we're darkvision buddies!" Flynn said. "I'm half-vampire, so this isn't hard for me either."

"Nice," Alesha replied, consenting to the high-five he suggested.

They continued exploring the mansion together, with Alesha having adamantly refused Delilah's suggestion to split up. There was no way she was going to let that happen in an abandoned mansion! It was too much of a horror-story trope. Whether the danger of splitting up was real or limited to stories, Alesha was in no hurry to find out; and besides that, this was a fantasy world. They were exploring a mansion where a so-called "Dark Spiritist" used to live and that seemed like prime horror-story territory to her. 

Despite Alesha's worries, they didn't find anything besides empty rooms until they reached an office on the second floor. 

Entering the room, they found papers and furniture strewn about everywhere. Books were tossed about carelessly, a couch and two chairs were tossed aside, a desk was split in two, and several bookshelves lining the walls were broken by blunt force. In a corner of the room, a decaying corpse lay crumpled in a heap.

There was one bookshelf that had been left untouched, and it was swung open as a door to a secret passageway.

Flynn briskly approached the corpse, and Alesha was about to protest but was too slow. By the time she opened her mouth and reached her hand out, he was already crouched by it, manhandling the corpse into a seated position and rifling through the pockets, completely unbothered by the level of decay.

Alesha covered her mouth with one hand, the hair on the back of her neck rising along with a sense of nausea. Well, he did work with the undead regularly, so perhaps his comfort with corpses was to be expected.

"This is probably Mr. Thulgood," Flynn announced. "There are no signs of external wounds, though I can't be totally certain since he's already been dead for so long. Maybe he was poisoned, or cursed."

"Heh, if it was poison, I gotchu!" Delilah said cheerfully, skipping over to join Flynn by Mr. Thulgood's supposed corpse. She began pulling out instruments from various pockets in her chemist's cloak as she happily hummed to herself. 

Alesha decided to look at other things. She had no expertise with corpses, and no desire to acquire any. She ended up sorting through the various papers with Seth. They discovered that most of them were either parts of Mr. Thulgood's Dark Spiritry journals, miscellaneous shopping lists, accounting ledgers, or letters. There were a few odd things as well. A poem about daffodils, a recipe for Pumpkin Juice, a short story about a swordsman named Mink who rescued princess Belda from the greedy hands of Ranondorf, and a song supposedly able to encourage trees to grow into the shapes of houses. Alesha was tempted to keep the last one for herself just out of pure curiosity.

After everyone was done with their investigations, Delilah having confirmed that Mr. Thulgood had died from poison, they decided to check out the secret passage together. 

Taking a deep breath, Alesha followed behind everyone else, since she really didn't want to risk anyone else stepping on her tail today. 

It had already happened twice.