A noble requests the party to investigate a spook house he rents in a town. They are to locate, identify, and banish the source of the odd sounds, sights, smells, or whatever. For this, they will be paid handsomely, since the noble likes the apartment's location as a perfect "incognito" kind of place.
The house with the apartment lies in a middle-class part of the town, the buildings are not very crowded, but old. The building is registered in the name of one Raushof Gollenbacher, but any attempt to find out who this person is, will fail; nobody knows. The proprietor is an old gnome called Muschfyths, who don't like people.
Muschfyths -is- Raushof. Raushof was a name he used when he bought the house years ago. He got fake ID papers from a human forger he knew at the time - the forger later died in a traffic "accident" (these things happen, you know...).
If the party checks for the names of previous renters of the building, the list will mysteriously have been destroyed in a recent fire, and Muschfyths will have a bad memory. If the investigators insist on sleeping in the apartment at night, nothing will happen - the "ghost" will only be present on nights the investigators are off the premises.
If the rental contract is checked, any lawyer type person will see, under close scrutiny, that it contains a clause denying the renter any rights of having his/her money back, and a demand of three months advance rent.
The house is FULL of secret doors. These doors lead into other rooms. Depending on the basis of the effects:
The devices are placed in the rooms surrounding the apartment. Muschfyths is the only person that knows how the things work. It's VERY dangerous to try and operate the devices without proper training - and if the party finds the devices, Muschfyths will have disappeared...perhaps.
Data on Muschfyths:
Race: Gnome Age: Above middle age (for gnomes, very old for humans) Physical: Not very strong, somewhat agile Mental: Very bright, VERY talented in either technical areas or magic relating to beings of a spectral nature (depending on the "source", see above) Psyche: Greedy, selfish, paranoid coward. Can be considered being of an evil alignment. Abilities: Depending on the "source" (see above): 1) Identify Ethereal Undead, Ritual: Enslave Etereal Undead, Ritual: Imprison Ethereal Undead. 2) (TL stands for Technology Level) Ritual: Make/Unmake Strange Device (TL +1), Operate Device (TL +1), Identify Device (TL +0). Also: Weapon Use: Knives and Daggers, Hiding: Urban, Culture: Gnome.