Chapter 8: A house and a mystery
From what she observed, Penny was saddened to consider Sarah Winchester a woman who'd rather hang on to the past, in clothing, in house, and in memory, rather than change or move on. Yet she was not merely an eccentric and silly old dear, no, there was a sharpness and suspicion to her that made Penny wary. Just as well she hadn't claimed to be a medium; she had no doubt Sarah would see through that.
From the spying window, Penny strolled around the séance room. 'I must say, the plans for this house are... very interesting, to say the least.' she remarked, deciding not to creep delicately around the matter with Mrs Winchester, but instead to confront it head on. 'What do you expect to house in this labyrinth, the Minotaur?' she chuckled.
Penny started openly tapping the walls with finger and cane, listening for hollow spaces, unsteady sections, clicks and creaks, all sure signs of a secret passage. 'You don't mind, do you? The usefulness of a secret passage in a dedicated séance room is obvious, and this house is clearly riddled with them. Though having to go through a secret passage to enter is certainly novel... I remember a house in Somerset; a fraudulent medium had her accomplice make eerie noises from a priest-hole. Unoriginal, really. Of course, he wasn't aware the priest was still in there with him...' No medium expected a genuine ghost, she'd learned.
OOC: Search for more secret passages, 18. Knowledge (physical sciences - engineering) 21.
Knowledge (arcane lore) 24 - significance of the spider webs and number 13, etc.?