Overlooking the bay and within spitting distance of the marina, the Colt mansion is a relic from the days of Gotham the port. It has somehow managed to weather urban renewal projects and rezoning issues, keeping its expansive grounds while nearly all its neighbours have been sold off or refurbished. Retaining its old world splendour while undergoing constant rebuilding work, the interior has been remodelled more times than Gotham refuse collectors have gone on strike and the outer wings are forever being torn down and rebuilt. Those few gothamite lucky enough to see the interior report a nightmare scene of impossible angles and insane architecture. The 160 room house is a jumble of twists and turns, dead ends and doors to nowhere. It is the result of years of nonstop construction with no more of a blueprint than the whim of the house's owner and her descendants.
Here are some statistics about the house:
160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, 2 ballrooms, 40 staircases and more than 450 doorways. There's also a chimney that rises 4 stories only to stop 1 1/2 feet from the ceiling. There are stair cases that go no where, doors that open into walls, and a surprising amount of objects that come in thirteens.
Another odd occurrence in the house happens when tour guides or tourists see one of the faucets running and spilling water on the floor. They'll go get something to clean it up with, only to come back and discover no water anywhere in the huge house which, by the way, doesn't have plumbing.
There was also one time when a tourist complimented the tour guide on the way they got someone to dress up like Mrs. Colt and sit in the kitchen. Later the tour guide went to ask their manager if they had anyone who dressed up like her, because they hadn't seen or heard anything of it. The manager said there wasn't anyone who had been hired to do that.
Atmosphere
While nominally a Haunt overseen by the Hierarchy, the Colt Mansion's leadership is relatively lax. As an outpost of the Stygian empire, the Colt Mansion often gives shelter to travelling legions or visiting agents en route to other necropolis.
The Colt mansion bares all the hallmarks of a haunt. Strange noises, a dank and oppressive aura, cold spots and a bad reputation with the local kids. People have been dared to spend one night alone in the Colt Mystery House, with the doors and windows all locked, monitored with and alarm system and video cameras in each room. They retired to the Daisy bedroom, Mrs. Colt's favourite bedroom, and went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, the woman woke up because she heard foot steps heading towards the bedroom. She woke up her husband, who told her she must have dreamt it, and to go back to sleep. She did, but an hour later, the husband woke up, because he heard foot steps coming towards the door. He woke up his wife and she said they had probably both been dreaming so they should just go back to sleep.
About an hour later, they both woke up to the sound of organ music, remembering that Mrs. Colt played the organ and there were three in the house. The organ music stopped with a crash, and the two decided to go back to sleep and check the videotape in the morning. When they did the next day, they saw the organ in one frame, solid and still. Then in the very next frame the keys to the organ were completely shattered and all across the floor. Never a door or window had been cracked, nor the alarm system set off through the whole night.
Story
Lucile Colt was the wife of the heir to the Colt Pistol fortune, William Colt. They had one child, a daughter, Annie, who died about one month after her birth. William died approximately 15 years later of tuberculosis. Mrs. Colt, deeply distraught over both deaths, consulted a medium for guidance. This is where the fun starts.
The medium, rather than giving a message of a comforting nature, told Lucile that her family was cursed by the spirits of all those killed by Colt Pistols. These spirits had taken the lives of her husband and daughter as a revenge. The only thing that would pacify these tormented, and tormenting, souls would be to purchase a house and build on it continually. If Lucile did as the spirits directed, she could escape them. Apparently, the medium also gave Lucile the impression that if the construction ceased, so would Lucile's life. Make sense to you? Me neither! It made sense to Lucile, though, which is why I'm able to write about this.
In 1884, Lucile bought a house in Gotham and immediately set to using her $20,000,000 inheritance to fund nonstop additions. There were people working on the house twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year until the day she died, thirty eight years after construction began. Lucile was responsible for the architectural design of the additions, which includes doors that open to 8 foot drops, staircases that rise to nowhere but the ceiling, switchback staircases with two inch steps, and a room that has a window in the floor. Theories abound as to why Lucile constructed the house in this fashion. A common one seems to be that it was her intention to confuse the spirits that were after her. A more outlandish one is that she had a seance every night to learn what the spirits wished. Most sources I read stated that the house has a "seance room", but some claimed it a bit of legend.
