Haunted House on Island: Plot

The characters met at a party thrown by the socialite's father. The nerd is a grad student of her father's, the athlete just won a gold medal, the animal handler is popular at the moment and invited to entertain often, and the masseuse is father's masseuse. The socialite invited them all on this cruise.

On a cruise, storm comes up. Their yacht is driven against rocks at night far from the mainland. They are flung overboard/manage to escape the sinking ship, but the ship's captain, who is a gruff old man named Brian Mallory, is badly wounded getting to shore. Roll for swimming to shore. Cold and wet, they need a place to get warm. Lightning illuminates a house nearby.

The house is clearly abandoned. There are two rooms that are mostly empty. One room is locked. In it, there is a ton of stuff (can see through outside windows). It is creepy, with African masks, books in strange languages, and lots of animal parts, things in jars. There is a large painting of a guy in a mask surrounded by rats. They have the feeling the painting is watching them. If they search the room, they find a map in a drawer of the desk. There is also a diary in which someone is writing about experiments, but the last half is missing. A crash of thunder, a gust of wind, the door slams, and candles get blown out. Someone feels a cold hand touch them. Someone hears a scurrying sound. When they use the lighter, the figure from the painting is in the room with them, yells in a foreign language, and the rats start pouring out of the painting. They only have to fight the guy. The door is locked the first time they try to get out.

Clues:

• surveyor's map
• first half of diary
• hidden chemicals (hidden wall panel that leads to a hidden room in basement)
• second half of diary (in hidden room)

The characters manage to escape from or subdue the bad guy, but when he is subdued, he fades away. Or find the boat house by searching the island.

They find the hidden boat house, but the door is locked. When they get in, they discover that a part is missing from the engine (spark plug) and there is no fuel.

The heroes either go back to the house to get the missing items (have at least two options for each) or come up with some other solution.

Ending: the characters have to fight off the bad guy and his swarm of attack rats while getting away in the hidden motor boat. Nerdy character's knowledge helps with weak points (destroy mask) and engine. Animal handler knows weak points of rats, how to scare them off (certain kind of rat).

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