Chapter 276: Cabin Fever (1/2)

Stepping through the door, Mike cautiously scanned the entry hall. After finding nothing of interest, he proceeded to carefully check the other rooms on the first floor, of which there were five.

To the left of the front entrance was a study of sorts, complete with a desk, a few tables, several reading chairs, and shelves filled with books. Habits from his old life kicked in, and he spent a few minutes scanning through the selection. It quickly became apparent that the previous owner of this demi-realm was some kind of researcher or sage, specializing in plants. Most of the books focused on botany, plant biology, and geography, but there were a few works on magic as it applied to plant life which might be useful for his own studies.

Unfortunately, it was readily apparent that the contents of this library were in poor condition, evidently having been left here unattended for a great deal of time. He would need to be very careful when handling them.

[Perhaps there is an application of Healing Magic that can be used on once living things...Might be worth experimenting with once I've finished exploring this place.] He thought while carefully setting down the volume he was examining. The idea had some promise, but he felt like anything he did would have about as much chance of creating some kind of zombie book as it did repairing the damage.

The next room they visited was a fairly spacious kitchen, complete with magic items capable of producing fire, water, and even a few rudimentary seasonings. There was a sort of cold storage closet that seemed to be permanently chilled by magic. The few food items remaining inside were desiccated to the point that Mike needed Appraise to even identify them, but indicated that the previous inhabitant had a fairly standard diet. Another closet, that seemed to function as a dry pantry, contained similarly spoiled products that had thankfully long since stopped rotting.

”This will take a while to clean fully, but will come in handy when traveling.” Tal commented while examining a collection of cooking implements stored in one of the cabinets lining the walls. She tried pulling out a frying pan, only to have the handle break off in a shower of rusted metal. ”We'll need to replace most of this.”

”Shopping trip it is.” Mike answered while sniffing the contents of a stoppered jug he found in the pantry. It might have once contained wine, but it had long ago become something close to vinegar. Putting it back on the shelf, he made a mental note to simply toss and replace everything in the kitchen.

Finally, there was a door that led down into the basement, but they decided to finish exploring the rest of the cabin before looking into it.

Another two of the rooms on the first floor were bedrooms with a few pieces of furniture and a closet-like chamber that was this world's version of a washroom. Mike got the impression that these were meant for guests, based on the uniformity of the layout. After a quick inspection, he concluded that nothing of value or interest remained inside of them, and most of it was in poor repair. With the exception of the wooden parts of the furniture, it seemed pretty much everything else had rotted to the point of near unusability.

[Based on the description of the doorknob's creator, this space should be about a thousand years old, assuming of course it didn't exist prior to the knob itself.] Mike thought while trying to recall what he could from the archaeology class he took in college. Judging based on the decay of materials was not exactly a textbook strategy, but as best as he could figure, the cabin was probably somewhere in the region of a few centuries old, and had likely been left unattended for several decades.

The last section of the floor was dedicated to a sort of common area, complete with a dining table and eight chairs, a couple couches, and a fireplace operated by magic. It seemed to extend away from the rest of the cabin in a separate area of sorts, which made it possible to have long rows of windows on three of the four walls. Additionally, there was a door that led out onto the porch. Much like the foyer, this room also had a high ceiling that extended to the second floor, with another balcony overlooking it. After poking around for a bit Mike stepped out onto the porch, noting that the floorboards creaked a bit ominously as he did so.

Ignoring the fact that it was a manufactured image, he took a moment to savor the view. His vantage placed him slightly above the illusory treetops, allowing him to overlook the gently rolling and forested foothills that stretched nearly to the horizon, before slowly turning into a tall, snow-capped mountain range with its peaks shrouded in mist.

To his left, there was a wide and placid lake that lay within walking distance. A quick check with aerosense told him that the portion nearest to the cabin actually existed, albeit without any real water. That said, there appeared to be a depression of sorts where he could mimic the presence of a lake, should he feel inclined to do so in the future.

Finishing with the first floor, he moved onto the second. The staircase from the foyer lead them to a sort of landing with a few chairs and tables located near the two balconies. Another three doors extended off from it, the first of which turned out to be for a sort of large storage closet or attic. It was filled with random junk of the kind that one accumulates over a lifetime, most of which didn't serve any practical purpose.

One whole section was devoted to a set of large storage cases containing various preserved plant specimens. Not being of a botanical nature, Mike quickly got bored of sorting through the extensive collection, especially since he had to rely on Appraise to get any kind of information at all.

After a few minutes of dedicated searching, the most interesting thing they'd found so far was a trunk stuffed to its brim with a variety of tribal masks, carved and painted in the shape of stylized animals. While fascinating to look at, they didn't have any unusual properties, appearing to merely be art objects that the previous owner had been collecting for some reason.

Moving on, they next encountered a large room with several full-sized windows that seemed to function as the master suite. A once luxurious bed dominated one side of the chamber, and was accompanied by two bookshelves, a nightstand of sorts, two dressers, a wardrobe complete with a large mirror, and a writing desk.

They took a quick survey of the rooms contents, and discovered little besides a large amount of women's clothes in the dressers and wardrobe. The books on the shelves were of a slightly different nature than the ones downstairs. While botany and plant biology still featured heavily, there were more works of a literary nature, with a tendency towards somewhat tawdry romance novels.

”This is just an educated guess,” Mike commented while scanning the books, ”but I think the previous owner was a woman.”

”Indeed.” Tal replied in a flat voice while eying a set of lacy undergarments that would have looked a bit silly on a man.

After a few moments, she spoke again. ”I also found this, but I was unsure if I should open it.”

She was holding a thin, leatherbound book that appeared to be on the verge of falling apart. Carefully lifting the cover, Mike quickly determined that it was a journal or some kind of research log, however, most of the writing was so badly decayed that he couldn't read it.

”Hmm, I bet this will have some clues, but I'm afraid that I'll need to be very careful while reading it.”

”Then you can understand the contents?” Tal asked.

”Yeah, it looks a bit faded, but I can make out parts of it.”