"Not a blessed clue," Lym replies. "Do any of you recognize her?"
I guess I should try to work out what we are dealing with here.
Knowledge:Religion
Rhianni explains to Tomaru and the rest of her compatriots what they see before them.
"This type of undead is a revenant, similar to a zombie, but much more powerful. Its sole purpose is to seek vengeance on its murderer, and cannot rest until it accomplished this goal. Revenants are also afflicted with a strong sense of self-loathing, where they become paralyzed with self-pity upon seeing their own reflection or an object of importance to it. If we could find the murderer or his spirit, perhaps we can set her to rest. I would leave her now, we don't want to disturb her, we don't want her wrath directed at us. Shut the door quietly and we should leave." the Varasian women says in hushed tones.
"What's got her sitting still?" Lym whispers back. "Why isn't she roaming, looking for her murderer?"
"The mirror," Praxim says, shifting his aim towards the looking glass.
"I wonder whether she can talk while paralyzed," Lym muses, "or would talking break the hold the mirror has on her...?"
"I don't know, I'm really not sure I want ot find out either." says a nervous Rhianni. "If only we knew who she could be? Then we might be able to help her soul. We could always find another mirror or two, just in case, there must be more in this dreadful place."
Do they remember seeing any mirrors in the other rooms?
Rhianni knows everything any one else would know.
There were no other mirrors.
"We should destroy it. Send it on its way to stand before Pharasma."
"When it might be a useful ally against the ghouls?" Lym counters.
"If it's paralyzed by the mirror, is it safe to enter the room and get a good look at her face? She might be one of the people in the portraits."
"We would be able to get just as good of a look once it is... dismissed." Tomaru will not go into the room.
Lucian looks at Tomaru and asks:"Shall I enter and ... dismiss it. Just because it is still doesn´t mean it isn´t a potential danger, isn ´t it?"
"Err.. sure."
"Stop, please," Lym says. "Revenants never rise unless they've been wronged. In this place, that's pretty much guaranteed to be connected to the master of the house and the ghouls somehow. This creature could be useful to us -- for now."
"What if its murderer is still here, somewhere, or at least it thinks it is? Freeing the creature could lead us there, or at least show us the way. Or, it might tell us something useful. Or it might attack us."
"That is why I wanted to find out whether we could talk to it without breaking its fixation on the mirror," Lym says. "To discover the creature's background and intentions. Unfortunately, there is only one way to find out, and that is to experiment directly."
"You do realize the potential danger here, don't you?"
"Of course," Lym says. "But still..."
"Of course, if we could send her murderer or whatever to it's doom, then maybe this thing will go on it's way to Pharesma without troubling us. I say we leave, we have other evils to confront. Why waste our energies in fighting with this?"
"It is just so tempting to try and plumb its knowledge of this place," Lym sighs. "But I agree leaving it here is better than trying to fight it."
"Do you have any idea of how old the creature might be? How long it's been sitting here?"
Praxim tries to spot dust on the creature.
"I disagree. It is not better to leave it here to cause mayhem and destruction. I give you a chance to make use of it, then I will destroy it. Alone if no one wishes to aid me. So, here's your chance. Make use of it."
There's no dust on her.
"Very well, then," Lym says. "Stand ready."
Lym calls out to the revenant: "Can you hear me? Can you understand me? Can you speak?"
If she does not get a reply to this hail in Common, she will repeat it in Varisian and Shoanti.
You get no response.
Rhianni's heart thumps in her breast, pounding as Lym calls out, "See, it will not be disturbed or moved. Tomaru, we can come back and put its soul to rest later. We will not leave it here to trouble more innocents." she says, fearing the a fight with it will sap their strength.
"We can't leave this thing at our backs. It could use that time to break out of its trance and come for us or some helpless farmer."
Rhianni shrugs at Tomaru, "Then be prepared for when she comes at us with vengeance in her soul" says Rhianni seemingly resigned to Tomaru's want to destroy the creature. Rhianni takes a step back, "I don't like this, it's up to you to destroy this thing, my magic is unlikely to help much." she shrugs her shoulders raising her hands up and shaking her head from side to side. Then her hands and arms make shapes of protection as she touches Lucian and speaks in ancient Varasian words of power, before retreating to the back, safely behind the others.
"I will seek the input of the Starsong." Tomaru casts Augury Would it be a good thing to let this thing finish its purpose?
Tomaru clears his throat in embarrassment "There is a chance that I spoke to swiftly. Perhaps we should allow this retched soul to finish its business."
"Shoot the mirror," Lym suggests. "If worse comes to worst, we'll be able to run without being in range of her hands."
Praxim nods and fires.
Attack:
SMASH!!! He puts an arrow into the glass where the creature's head had reflected. Glass cracks, shatters, and falls to the floor, leaving a wooden frame with a few fragments and a quivering arrow.
The living corpse immediately stands up and lets out a baleful shriek, then cries out, "ALDERN! I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR! I'LL BE IN YOUR ARMS SOON!" She then pushes her way past the party and out into the hallway.
"Looks like we made the right choice," Lym says, after her heartbeat has calmed down to a more reasonable rhythm. "Lady," she calls after the revenant, "might we be of assistance to you?"
"Come on. We have to make sure it causes no collateral damage." Tomaru runs after the revenant.
The revenant heads towards the stairs hurries down to the 2nd floor, then down to the ground floor.
Following down both flights of stairs, you enter the main hallway of the ground floor through the southern door.
A rather gruesome antique - what appears to be a mummified monkey head - hangs on the northern wall here. A bellpull extends from the monkey's gaping mouth. A ratty throw rug partially obscures a foul-stain of dark-colored mold on the floor.
The revenant continues across the rug and opens the northern door, and then proceeds down another flight of stairs.
Yes
Lym mutters spells under her breath while following after.
"There is magic here," Lym warns, her eyes narrowing as she looks ahead. "Tread carefully!"
Rhianni follows Lym.
Yes, I am still following it.
Down the stairs:
A large oak table, its surface covered with moldy stains and rat droppings, sits in the center of this large kitchen. Shelves line the walls, and an oversized fireplace dominates in the northeast section of the room. The shelves in the southwest wall are in a much greater state of array, and two one-foot-wide cracks in the wall near the floor lead south into the earth beyond the basement walls.
The revenant hurries south and through the door leading to a hallway going east, until she reaches another door, this one made of iron. The undead beats on the door with her fists, causing significant damage.
A rapidly growing collection of squeaks sounds from the cracks in the walls, followed by the emergence of oily rats, which develop into aggressive swarms, pouring out of the fissures.