"Are you guys hearing this?" Aldrich asked the rest and he knew the answer by looking at their faces. They did not. Aldrich guessed that if he had a stronger spirit he might have been able to hear the ghost.
But at this rate they won't be able to get anything done.
Suddenly Aldrich and the rest raised their weapons in response to the ghost pointing at them.
"Father!"
Aldrich looked carefully and realized the ghost was pointing at Huzon. He allowed him to walk closer to the ghost. When Huzon was close enough the yellow smoke scattered and entered Huzon's body from his mouth, ears and nose.
"Attack—" Hellen was about to rush when Frank stopped her.
"Stop, we might hurt Huzon if we act recklessly!"
Aldrich nodded in agreement and narrowed his eyes, he was taking too risky a gamble right now. Hopefully it will pay off or he might have to resort to extreme measures.
While they were on edge observing Huzon abruptly Aldrich felt a spine chilling palpitation and he looked up. At some point in time, right above their heads, dozens of ghosts manifested and hovered there, staring at them.
Aldrich gritted his teeth, from the beginning this quest had a dangerous lack of information, the bandit quest was not so bad compared to this.
Finally the shaking of Huzon calmed down and he opened his eyes, only they were only whites.
"Do not be scared," Huzon or rather—the ghost said with Huzon's mouth. Aldrich didn't freak out he saw something like this before, this time the ghost was able to talk properly.
"You can call me, the ghost of the keeper," the ghost said, "I have awaited the day when someone will heed my call and come to save us."
"Save you?" Aldrich asked just to make sure, "you mean you want us to exorcise you?"
"Indeed, not just me," the ghost pointed above to the other ghosts hovering in the air, "all of us, please save us, save Ebrict. A great evil is here."
"A great evil?" Aldrich repeated, "well what do you mean? We just have to break the haunted object, it's probably that poison bottle right?"
"What are you saying? The whole the town must be in danger." Frank quickly countered.
"Frank, we're here to exorcise the ghost and then we're out of here." Aldrich replied, feeling that this was not the time to argue.
"I mean I don't completely agree with Frank but… we can't just leave the people knowing they could be in danger." Hellen said.
"Who said we'll just leave them be?" Aldrich facepalmed, "we'll get the news of the danger to the lord who has five Crestmasters under him, don't forget about the inquisition too."
Aldrich took a deep breath, "I reckon these guys will be better at handling whatever it is that evil is. As long as it doesn't have anything to do with our quest then forget it."
"It's not… the bottle." The ghost said at last causing Aldrich to curse inwardly, "it was the item you were looking for but no more. Not since that monster did something here."
"You mean… the monster has the haunted item? He was able to change it from the bottle into something in his possession? What about all these other ghosts what are they doing here?"
"At first I was alone but when that monster came here, more and more ghosts came to be. The monster kills people down there and imprisons their ghosts here."
So the monster was killing people and deliberately creating ghosts and imprisoned them here somehow. This was bad news, it can't be a simple monster…
"Do you know what the new haunted item looks like?" Cole asked a good question.
"A ring with a red ruby. You must destroy it to free us all." The ghost said.
"Where is this monster? You said it was down there? Where exactly, we've been through the whole lighthouse and haven't seen any sign of the monster you speak of."
"When I was helping the smugglers I used a secret cave under the cliffs, you can go there through the cellar under the ground floor. You must hurry, there is no time! It's about to start when it's over the whole of Ebrict will be under water!"
So this is what the whole warning was about. Aldrich felt conflicted, nothing in life was easy. At least not in his life.
The ghosts then disappeared altogether and Huzon was about to fall on his face but Aldrich quickly caught him. It was not hard for him so he took him out of the lighthouse and laid him on the cart.
Then he picked up the spear of the Ravenfolk, it was about to get brutal soon.
"I found it." Cole yelled at them. He was given the task of finding the trapdoor of the basement. Apparently it was hidden under a carpet in one of the rooms, it looks like they didn't search good enough.
Emma had already went on her own to see the two Crestmasters because the poison should always be treated as soon as possible.
Aldrich and company went down to the basement. A pervasive odor of rot and mold fouls the air here. Bags of roots and tubers hang from the ceiling overhead, having sprouted roots through the cloth and withered in their time here.
A stack of moldy sacks rises to the side of the stairs. A pair of wine racks sit against one wall.
One of the racks has suffered a partial collapse, leaving bottles and broken glass on the floor. Skittering can be heard from the dark corners of the room.
It was much darker here than it was up there obviously, and the smell of the rotten foodstuffs made for a terrible first impression. Thankfully the light of the moss lanterns was good enough.
Now they just had to find a secret door that would lead them down to the cave which was now occupied by a terrible monster.
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