on my journey i came upon a home i thought was owned by a normal elderly couple; my goodra had no problems with them, so we decided to spend the night. The moment i walked the threshold my happinny burst from her pokeball and started crying and screaming, trying to push goodra and i back out. the elderly couple turned out to be haunters, luring us in. my houndoom took care of them but how do i make sure to never fall for the ruses of ghost pokemon? what would they have done to us if we stayed?

Ghost pokémon are unfortunately notorious for being tricksters, anonymous, and many of them have the ability to either turn invisible or mimic the appearance of something else. Even those that have tangible bodies or are tied to tangible objects (such as sableye and spiritomb, respectively) have some techniques in their arsenals that allow them to trick a passing human.

The best strategy to avoid such encounters is to be heavily aware of your surroundings. Never enter buildings in the middle of nowhere unless you know who lives there, and never enter abandoned structures, either. Be very careful when you enter graveyards and memorial towers, and do so in a group if at all possible. Most importantly, always keep a pokémon on hand that can sense danger if you happen across any of these structures. Your happiny, for example, is a baby pokémon, which means it has a heightened sensitivity towards all things supernatural—a quality that allows her to notice by instinct if something is wrong. However, a better choice for future reference would be any pokémon with Foresight, a psychic, or even a fellow ghost-type.

As for what the haunter might have done, oh, any of a number of things, anonymous. Some haunter merely like to play with humans by tricking them and scaring them. Others lure humans in to feed on their life forces. Either way, it’s safe to assume it wouldn’t have been pleasant for you.