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Question Good Haunted house retrieving a stolen child: How?

8 years 11 months ago - 8 years 11 months ago #1 by a-d
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    • Question
    How would a good haunted house go after a child who'd been been kidnapped?

    Inspired Author MMcGregor's story, "I Am What I Am," chapters "25. Interlude 12: Family," and "31. Interlude 14: Successor" on the website, Twisting the Hellmouth.

    Also inspired by stories of mothers protecting their children, haunted houses killing or abducting those inside them, and the few stories of possessed houses which protect those who live within them.

    Scenario
    Someone enters a haunted/possessed house to kill/harm/kidnap one or more of the people who live there.

    Somewhat Applicable Responses
    Stories tell of parents attacking head on or playing the assassin to protect their children, often taking terrible injuries in the process.

    They also tell of parents who decide their only option at present is to endure for now, then follow and rescue or avenge their family.

    Translated Responses
    A haunted house that tears itself apart in an attempt to run off or destroy those who would threaten it's family.

    ...?
    Endure, yes. But how would a haunted house follow it's families attacker to rescue or avenge them?

    Most of the ways I can think of would require rather high levels of power.

    Extra
    Oh! Also, can any of you recall stories of good haunted/possessed houses?
    ...Or let's go crazy and ask if you can recall any stories about good haunted/possessed cities, continents, or worlds.
    Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by a-d.
    8 years 11 months ago #2 by Domoviye
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    • Make it a possession. It possesses a nearby person and hunts the kidnapper down, jumping from body to possession to body. But each time it loses a little piece of itself.
    8 years 11 months ago #3 by Kristin Darken
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    • Theatres in general have a reputation for being haunted. The one I work at is on the list of most haunted sites in the US. We have people out from different ghost chaser groups all the time, especially around Halloween when the can get news coverage for their search. Our pagan costume shop mgr takes them around the facility to do all their measurements. One little walk space well away from all the lighting and sound tech has some really high EM readings... No apparent reason for them.
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    8 years 11 months ago - 8 years 11 months ago #4 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • So how is the house haunted?

    Poltergeist episodes?

    Dream manipulation?

    Spectres?

    Physical Manifestations?

    Actual ghosts?

    Once you work out how the place is haunted, next it's time to work out the limitations. Is the haunting contained to a specific location? What are the limits of that location? Can they pass those limits, but at a cost? Only for a set amount of time? Only once?

    Once you work out your limits, then you need to work out your tone. Are we after an adventure story? The tale of a ghost who has haunted a place, but is now forced to grow because of his love of a child, perhaps a redemption story where the ghost saves the child and atones for the cause of his haunting, allowing them to move on?

    In this style story, you could have the inhabitants of the house becoming aware of the ghost, and working together with the ghost. A good plot would be that the child is kidnaped and bought to the house by the kidnapers who are using the house as thier hideaway. The ghost then decides to help the child and the adventure begins.

    Next you could style the story as a continuous series of funny tales. A family oblivious to the danger their child is in, a villain continuously plotting to kidnap the child, hires crook after crook to do it and they all come into the house at night, which uses all its tricks to eventually scare them away, rinse, repeat as often as you like in a continuing series. Again, if you want, you could have the children seeing and befriending the ghosts, with oblivious / absent parents, for that added vibe.

    So my favourite "Happy Haunted House" stories (all movies, TV I'm afraid).

    The Ghosts of Motley Hall
    The Canterville Ghost
    Elly and Jools (Australian TV Series)

    And of course there is Casper the friendly ghost.

    Moving to Ghost Stories, the ones that stick with me, "Fisher's Ghost" (I'm from Sydney, and that is probably the most famous ghost from here), and as a book, Mercedes Lackey's "Fiddler Girl" story, where she has a ghost near the start.
    Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Phoenix Spiritus.
    8 years 11 months ago - 8 years 11 months ago #5 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • Oh, if you want an actual "sentient house":

    Old delapidated house, was once quite grand, but now fallen into disrepair. House has grown self-aware and despondent as it slowly decays.

    A bunch of kidnapers decide to use the house as their hideaway, and after kidnaping a kid hole up there to await the ransom. A member of the family (black sheep, prodigal sons work well in this part) tracks the kidnappers and comes trying to rescue the kid. The house makes itself know to the rescuer and helps them infiltrate, while distracting and misleading the kidnapers, helping the kid escape and hide, etc. The happy ending is that in thankfulness, the family buy and move into the sentient house to live in it and to return it to its former glory.
    Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Phoenix Spiritus.
    8 years 11 months ago - 8 years 11 months ago #6 by Arcanist Lupus
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    • a-d wrote: Extra
    Oh! Also, can any of you recall stories of good haunted/possessed houses?
    ...Or let's go crazy and ask if you can recall any stories about good haunted/possessed cities, continents, or worlds.


    Not a story per say, but Betrayal at House on the Hill is an amazing board game. You play as a group of investigators exploring a haunted house (which is modular), until half way through, when one person turns traitor and tries to kill everyone else. Or turn them into zombies, or wake up Dracula, or any number of different goals, depending on the scenario. You'll get some great stories out of it.


    There's a pretty good collection of Urban Fantasy Home Improvement stories, which includes a couple of good haunted houses.

    Also, there's a middle grade series by Jessica Day George called Castle Glower . The castle isn't haunted, per se, but it's a genius loci that exhibits many classic haunted house behaviors, but without the horror atmosphere. Tuesdays in the Castle actually has a "protect the resident family" conflict as the main conflict, so I definitely recommend.
    "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy." - Spider Robinson
    Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Arcanist Lupus.
    8 years 11 months ago #7 by Kristin Darken
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    • When I talk ghosts, I typically break it down into three types of things:

    1. A loose soul, no longer tied to a body either because of damage/death of the flesh... Or because of spiritual / psychic damage causing the destruction of the connection between soul and flesh. This is one of the risks of astral and other spirit travel and why you should never wander too far afield from your flesh until you know how to protect yourself and your way home.

    Loose souls don't typically stick around without a purpose... There are natural currents to the planes to overcome and the normal cycle draws souls in so they can move on to what is next for them. Loose souls rarely have anything good about them... They are too focused on finishing their tasks.

    2. There are impressions. This is mainly a facet of magnetism. As anyone with a bit of electrical knowledge can tell you, any time we pass an electric current through a conductive material it produces a magnet field. More current, more conductor? More magnetic field. Well, the human body operates using organicly generated electric current passed through a nervous system consisting of hundreds if not thousands of miles of conductive material. During times of great stress and emotion, this magnetic field is even greater than normal. We can see this using scientific equipment... In fact, researchers are using MRI to learn more about how the brain works all the time. The thing is, if you expose certain materials to a magnetic field, it imprints, leaving that signature on the object. Now consider theatres and battlefields, churches and cemeteries. Places where people come together in numbers and experience events and moments in which everyone is generating a similar magnetic signature?

    The only thing that is missing is the understanding that some of us are capable of sensing these impressions. And really, the same concepts support the idea of empathy... just requires greater sensitivity.

    3. The third thing we call ghosts is nothing to do with souls of the dead or echoes of past events. These are encounters with non physical beings... Creatures/beings who do not live here but are exposing themselves to the physical world while exploring, learning, or on rare occasions, when coming here to teach someone.
    Fate guard you and grant you a Light to brighten your Way.
    8 years 11 months ago #8 by ~Archangel~
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    • Maybe the house makes a pact with another spirit that can go after the child. Sorta like Beetlejuice meets a Clint Eastwood western?
    Many people hear voices when no-one is there.
    Some are called 'mad' and shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day.
    Others are called 'writers' and they do pretty much the same thing.
    -Ray Bradbury
    8 years 11 months ago #9 by Arcanist Lupus
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    • Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green has a pretty good house in it.


    As far as having a haunted house track down a kidnapped child - generally speaking, haunted houses have a great deal of difficulty exerting their influence on things/people outside their domain. That's sort of the point - the haunting is confined to the house. If the house have outside influence, I'd expect it to be strongly oriented towards luring people into the house. Which works great on the unsuspecting, but less well on people explicitly fleeing the house. But that's what makes it interesting, if you have a house-protagonist - you have a powerful protagonist dealing with a problem outside of their comfort zone.

    Alternatively, you could go the Baba Yaga route and have the house pick itself up on giant chicken feet and chase after the kidnappers. That could be fun. Or you could have the house teleport a la the little shop that wasn't there yesterday , and have it follow the kidnappers that way. That is particularly fun because it means that the kidnappers are being haunted by the house.
    "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy." - Spider Robinson
    8 years 11 months ago #10 by Kettlekorn
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    • Motor homes and trailer houses exist, and a haunted houseboat could be pretty interesting.
    I am the kernel that pops in the night. I am the pain that keeps your dentist employed.
    8 years 11 months ago #11 by Kettlekorn
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    • Meanwhile, in Karedonia...
    I am the kernel that pops in the night. I am the pain that keeps your dentist employed.
    8 years 10 months ago #12 by Mister D
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    • In the White Wolf game about ghosts, Wraith, almost all ghosts had to have some form of object that was binding them to the physical plane.

    If the whole house itself was acting as a binding object, then parts of it would work equally well.

    Have a splinter or a fragment caught in their flesh, or unnoticed on a piece of their clothing, and they antagonist would be followed by the spirit of the house wherever they went.

    Having it as a splinter of wood, and there would be a blood-connection as well, which would allow for some of the magical explanations...

    Some interesting idea's you have. Looking forward to reading your work. :D
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