SSoS is basically an episode of Scooby Doo: the D&D Edition.
No, really. How many Scooby Doo episodes have been motivated by pure greed of the villains pretending to be ghosts? "He thought he would scare everyone away, and then buy up the land at a bargain!" That's the motivation for the smugglers' spook house. It's purely financial, trying to avoid excise tax.