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[GlyphGryph]

One: We are perfectly capable of learning general magic. See: Our multiple general magic spells.

Two, it doesn't require us to be particularly mythical and mysterious, just reclusive (which we are) and primarily specifying in magics that these humans aren't familiar with (which again is true). All Elves are inherently magical, which is something that's generally known. We just need to play on that.

[RoaryStar]

Posting to watch, now that I found that this is back to active.

I believe the dormant necromancy thing is a soul. Or possibly, many souls.

Spoiler: My Theory with Almost No Evidence... or maybe not. (click to show/hide)

We know that all living beings have souls. When a person does not have a soul, (s)he is not alive, but also not dead. _{^{A vegetable?}}
Undead have no souls. They can follow orders, but have no initiative, not a lot of intelligence, if any.

This leads to a question:
If the body is complete with the soul, is the soul complete without a body?
If no:

Does that mean that souls are like bodies without souls? As in, they can't do anything without a body?
An undead body is a controlled dead body.
Maybe an undead soul is the same.

Then,
Can a soul be moved magically?                                                                                                          // Probably yes.
Can there be a spell that something can be teleported from one area to another, triggered automatically? // Probably yes.

If my theory is true...

Could the necromancer that made the monster do that? And would (s)he make it be recieved under the temple?

It could prove it true.
Maybe it was done to throw other... "good" necromancers off.

Of course, just a theory. But I say:

Try to Command Undead, visuallizing the undead as souls.

[Felius]

Just a minor P.S. about the thing in the Forest. It was fast, but it was around 3 vitality. It is unlikely to be some major monster, at least with that.

[Angle]

Cursed typos! I meant "Order" magic!

Also, the thing doesn't need to be very tough, just cast one spell - Steal Soul.

[GlyphGryph]

The thing in the basement also has exactly 3 vitality. And we couldn't visually see the thing in the forest.

I'm beginning to suspect it's some sort of "animate vitality" spell - literally turning their lifeforce into a "ghost", leaving their body missing it.

How much vitality do the kids have remaining again?

[RoaryStar]

How much vitality do the kids have remaining again?

2 and 2, if nothing changed.

[Leonon]

If we could learn to replicate the wards, perhaps we could learn to make a ward that's placed on a person (or person-like-animated-being) or a ward that can only be seen through when looking from the inside? It would also be nice to know what happens if two wards overlap. If the only thing that matters is warded/unwarded then it's not too useful, but if areas warded at different times are mutually invisible to each other it should be possible to create some rather interesting effects.

We should probably try going back to the forest during the day, hunting down the thing that chased us earlier, and casting control undead on it. Once it's under control we can get a better look at it and maybe be able to control the basement dweller. It's probably better to control it and do recon that way than to try to find a way to it.

As far as souls go, I  heard something earlier about cattle at nearby farms. We have Pacify Animal too, so I'm sure there are some birds or mice or something we can play with. If there are animals in the forest we should probably try any soul related spells in there. If we can't find any animals in there we should keep the soul experiments inside a warded area.

We may also want to give the kids some more vitality when we wake up, depending on how they're doing.

Also, if we get another dream visit we may want to see exactly how this whole "rule the world" thing is being planned. It seems like each necromancer has a plot of land they're allowed to conquer and rule as they see fit, though I could be wrong. We may be able to have Elven land under our protection, to be conquered by us and left alone by everyone else. If the undead we killed were still sending signal back to their leader we'll probably be called out on breaking them, but let's hope that doesn't happen. If it does happen we should probably apologize and ask for a spell that pacifies undead.

[RoaryStar]

I'll just post my thoughts on some of our suggestions, and possibly compile a list of the things we now know.

Spoiler: LordBucket on Dec. 24 (click to show/hide)

1. I'm in favor of investigating the necromantic source, I just propose we do it remotely and magically rather than by showing our hand to this priest, thereby endangering ourselves just to ask questions he might not even know the answers to.
2. As for the kids...right now we don't know how to help them. If we spend some time experimenting with soul magic we might be able to track down their souls and put them back in their bodies. If you guys think it's too dangerous or just generally a "bad idea" to be involved with that kind of magic...then there's nothing else we can do for them.
3. We have more important things to be doing than mucking around in this village. We either discretely try to find out more about the necromantic source beneath the temple, and/or we look into soul magic to try to help the kids...or if we're not going to do either of those things, then let's just leave and resume our journey.
4. I don't mind staying if we're accomplishing something or being helpful, but I see no reason to endanger ourselves by telling people that we have ties to or abilities that relate to necromancy.

1. The priest seems to like us a lot. Whenever some random townsfolk asks too much questions, he screams at them to stop disturbing him. He let Nym and Omo to get a peaceful sleep and wonderful food and told them so much about himself, even though they were strangers. If I were to say on this, the priest/wizard really trusts us. And I don't think that he'll believe a normal "necromancer that wants to take over the world" would risk their life to bring back two soulless kids.
2. It's risky, but if you use a few ants, it wouldn't be anything wrong - unless Elves don't allow messing with the soul of any living life forms.
3. If we just leave, it might be like betraying the village and giving up - if we can solve this, we would learn a lot, and possibly get a whole village, or more, on our side.
4. See 1 and 3.

Spoiler: Ancre on Dec. 24 (click to show/hide)

1. Yeah, I don't think we should reveal ourselves as a necromancer too. Let's investigate the necromantic source quietly.
2. The problem with experiments on soul magic is that you need a soul to experiment on. And for some reason I doubt anybody is going to willingly let us play with theirs. Especially if we don't know what we're doing and trying stuff just to see what happens.
3. Fakedit : Thinking of it again, we might be able to experiment that on little animals or something. Hm.

1. See LordBucket on Dec. 24, at 1
2. See LordBucket on Dec. 24, at 2
3. See 2.

Spoiler: Grek and NoahTophatz on Dec. 24 (click to show/hide)

This is our big chance to prove that we're on the side of Good. We should be able to turn the curse afflicting Aloclesno back upon itself with a single spell: Just find spirit we encountered in the forest, cast Command Undead and order it to do what it had been doing to the living to the undead instead!

and what if it has been turning the souls into more of itself the forest is pretty big you would need a large amount of them to curse the whole thing better to command it to stay still and do nothing

If there are more of them (which we do not know to be the case and have little reason to suspect) then our one will fly around converting them into undead destroying spirits as well. So if it's just the one, we've taken that out and if there's more than one, it will quickly convert the rest over the upcoming weeks.

Eeeehhh... Kind of risky, especially most of this (according to myself(yeah, bad grammar)) is based on assumptions.
1. We don't know if safeguard spells can be made against other magic, or if the necromancer could make it. (It's probably yes.)
2. We don't know if we have enough experience to control something so powerful.
3. We don't know if it can do that.

Spoiler: RAM, Toaster, and Felius on Dec. 24 (click to show/hide)

1. That would assume that they have souls, which seems less than certain...
2. Riding around on giant bats would be awesome.
3. We could start our soul magic by reviewing the kids. If we can figure out the difference between them and a normal child then we would have gotten somewhere...
4. Investigating the necromancy is a point of urgency, we can't really rest safely knowing that there is an unidentified form of the occult nearby.
5. Perhaps the elven theurge should phone home and contact the life mages, although order mages probably know more about souls. I expect that they once had a spell for temporarily bringing back their long-dead heroes...
6. It is possible that killing the thing in the forest would release all the souls it took, although there is no real reason to believe that such would happen, nor that it would help the children if it did.

1. No comment.
2. That was random. And can't you tame them, if you have the skill (or the dungeon master)?
3. "Hey, can I borrow your kid? I want to experiment on his soul." - Toaster. And the fact that we know that either the kids lost their souls, the souls were destroyed, or they were forced to become dormant kind of invalidates that.
4. Maybe, but the UFO seems to be dormant. I would support this, though.
5. "Phone home"? And I don't think that would be very likely.
6. Heh, maybe. Releasing the souls might be a bad idea, though.
The Released Soul strikes You in the Upper Body by accident, but the accidental attack is deflected by Your Elven Travel Garb! x 326
You are propelled away by the blows!
You slam into an obstacle!
You blow into pieces!
You lose hold of everything!
You have died after colliding with an obstacle.

We could start our soul magic by reviewing the kids. If we can figure out the difference between them and a normal child then we would have gotten somewhere...

"Hey, can we borrow your kid?  I want to experiment on his soul."
7. If the soul's been taken, we'd have to figure out where it is first, determine if it's even in a recoverable state, and then figure out how to get it back in.  Sucks for the kids, but there's better things for us to do right now.  If we can figure out (and subdue) what's taking the souls, we can leave that for other mages to fix while we concentrate on the root of the problem.  However, we need to figure out what we're actually trying to do here.
8. I suggest we wake up, get a bit more general information from the priest (without mentioning the basement item) then quietly investigate it ourself when we have an opportunity.

7. I agree with this. And I think we're trying to stop the necromancers from taking over the world one step at a time?
8. Meh. Sure.

I suggest we wake up, get a bit more general information from the priest (without mentioning the basement item) then quietly investigate it ourself with Omo when we have an opportunity.

9. That have some potential to blow up on our faces. Speak with the priest about general information, ask if the wards also raise alarm if zombies pass through them (even if just silently to him), as that could be useful to know when to send help to someone in case of attack.
10. Assuming they don't and he doesn't mention he can detect nearby undead, just send a controlled small undead animal to the basement. Rats and Roaches can get there much more easily than we can, and a rat on a temple's basement is not suspicious, nor will cause any issues if caught.
11. If he can detect the undead, then we might need another plan.
12. On a sidenote, if we get some free time, study our magical book or ask the priest if he could lend you some.

9. Probably no, though it might strenghen our relationship with the Priest, giving him an idea that could help.
10. It might cause an issue if the rat is... undead.
11. Duh.
12. You know, right now we're sleeping. If we wake up an hour later, we only lost an hour of free time. And I would say we still have a day before anything bad happens.

Spoiler: bombzero on Dec. 25 (click to show/hide)

1. You know I have to say I honestly feel like telling the priest that we are a necromancer would be a good idea.
2. Not quite that bluntly of course, but basically explain to him that we "saw" the monster, fixed the child temporarily after leaving the forest, and kinda lead it back around to us having these powers because we are a necromancer.
3. IMMEDIATELY, follow this with an offer to help fix the children, before the priest can even utter a syllable.
4. I mean I know this seems suicidally dangerous, but if we want to confront the other necromancers we /cannot/ do this alone. We're going to need the support of the people, the towns, the cities, the armies, and the rulers. This small town, and more specifically this priest, is a good place to start.

1. Yep. LordBucket, Dec. 24, 1.
2. I think we need to tell hime the whole story. Before you came, etc.
3. I wouldn't do that.
4. Before the first comma: maybe not. See 1.

Spoiler: GlyphGryph on Dec. 25 (click to show/hide)

1. Guys, for all we know, that thing we saw in the forest? WAS a soul, just trying to get back to its now moving body.
I think in light of this new information, it's a good thing we didn't destroy it.
2. I would like to mention again my plan of saying that we are a mage trained in fighting necromancy, something the Elves have always feared would be a threat once more, and that while we have limited experience actually USING our training, that is the reason we have left our lands and find ourselves here now. The one encounter had rescuing the children proved the practice of our theory, and it is good to know it works, and more importantly we've been using our magic to detect sources of undead energy... like the one in the basement, and the bits floating around in the wood.
3. Also, request he keep the information hidden - it would be unwise to let it become general knowledge, to tip our hands before it is needed and before it can be fully tested and we can report back. But, hopefully, our specific training can be of some use at the current time. At the very least, expanding our abilities by managing a basic grasp of this ward magic would be much appreciated - we've proven we can see and destroy (or at least damage) the undead, but hiding from them would be an amazing addition to our repertoire.

1. Maybe.
2. Isn't that branch of magic called "necromancy"? Necromancy deals with death. It takes life to give life or takes life to do something. Life magic probably uses sacrafices to give life. I wouldn't do that.
3. Obviously.

4. The thing in the basement also has exactly 3 vitality. And we couldn't visually see the thing in the forest.
5. I'm beginning to suspect it's some sort of "animate vitality" spell - literally turning their lifeforce into a "ghost", leaving their body missing it.
6. How much vitality do the kids have remaining again?

4. Yes.
5. Possibly.
6. 2 and 2.

Spoiler: Leonon on Dec. 28 (click to show/hide)

1. If we could learn to replicate the wards, perhaps we could learn to make a ward that's placed on a person (or person-like-animated-being) or a ward that can only be seen through when looking from the inside? It would also be nice to know what happens if two wards overlap. If the only thing that matters is warded/unwarded then it's not too useful, but if areas warded at different times are mutually invisible to each other it should be possible to create some rather interesting effects.
2. We should probably try going back to the forest during the day, hunting down the thing that chased us earlier, and casting control undead on it. Once it's under control we can get a better look at it and maybe be able to control the basement dweller. It's probably better to control it and do recon that way than to try to find a way to it.
3. As far as souls go, I  heard something earlier about cattle at nearby farms. We have Pacify Animal too, so I'm sure there are some birds or mice or something we can play with. If there are animals in the forest we should probably try any soul related spells in there. If we can't find any animals in there we should keep the soul experiments inside a warded area.
We may also want to give the kids some more vitality when we wake up, depending on how they're doing.
4. Also, if we get another dream visit we may want to see exactly how this whole "rule the world" thing is being planned. It seems like each necromancer has a plot of land they're allowed to conquer and rule as they see fit, though I could be wrong. We may be able to have Elven land under our protection, to be conquered by us and left alone by everyone else. If the undead we killed were still sending signal back to their leader we'll probably be called out on breaking them, but let's hope that doesn't happen. If it does happen we should probably apologize and ask for a spell that pacifies undead.

1. Wards against Wards?
2. I'd say that's a bad idea. If it was the monster, the sight of it (physical sight) might make us become vegetables.
3. Yes, possibly.
4. Heh, yeah.
Experiment with wards?

Spoiler: My Compilation (click to show/hide)

The priest seems to like us a lot. Whenever some random townsfolk asks too much questions, he screams at them to stop disturbing him. He let Nym and Omo to get a peaceful sleep and wonderful food and told them so much about himself, even though they were strangers. If I were to say on this, the priest/wizard really trusts us. And I don't think that he'll believe a normal "necromancer that wants to take over the world" would risk their life to bring back two soulless kids.
We seem to be in favor of experimenting on animal souls.
We seem to be in favor of finding the Necromantic source.

Let's see...
My idea of what we should do:
Tell the priest the whole story. Tell him of the necromantic source in the basement, then, if he allows us, go and investigate.
If not, experiment on animal souls.

Inform me if I missed anything important or if you have something else to add.
This is a mystery, we need as much evidence as we can get.

[Felius]

What makes you believe the priest won't simply make a mob out of the townspeople and try to kill us. If nothing else, for "our own good" before the necromantic powers corrupt us.

Telling Omo is one thing, he's a long time friend. The priest barely know us, and we only have some credit with him because we saved the kids.

And that's all assuming he's not actually an evil necromancer disguised as the village priest.

[RoaryStar]

What makes you believe the priest won't simply make a mob out of the townspeople and try to kill us. If nothing else, for "our own good" before the necromantic powers corrupt us.
Telling Omo is one thing, he's a long time friend. The priest barely know us, and we only have some credit with him because we saved the kids.
And that's all assuming he's not actually an evil necromancer disguised as the village priest.

Well, I don't think an evil necromancer will trust random passerby enough to let them go on a rescue mission, unless he wanted to "recruit" more zombies.
It might explain why the wards didn't work, but the townsfolk would lose trust in him, and it's a common strategy to gain trust and then betray.
And I don't think a wise person would kill someone while being attacked by zombies - probably isolate them, maybe interrogate them.
And, if he was a necromancer, he probably would know that you killed his zombies.
Though who knows? _{Monk12 probably does}
Any of us could be right. Maybe none of us got to the answer.

[Endymion107]

Do not tell the priest we are a necromancer. Very bad idea. If we must, at least figure out what the thing in his basement or whatever is first.

Soul magic could be useful, and may be required to fix the children, but it is likely Omo and others would not like the idea of us using it very much.

[Leonon]

The villagers would be wise to stop Nym if she got discovered, otherwise her undead horde could wipe out entire ponds!

[Felius]

Fear the might of the undead carp! Those fish are freaking hardcore.

But yeah, technically we don't know if the if the priest would turn us in or not. That said, the risk is high and the gain small, so let's not take the risk.

[RAM]

We have important things to do and the world will not wait for us(well, it might, some places base their time on dramatic necessity. Even then, there is reason to believe that there are at least two other protagonist out there...). While saving the children would be very nice, it may turn out to be something that we could spend months studying only to discover that the children's souls are unrecoverable and the only source of viable replacements would be taking the souls from other humans of similar ages... I think that we should brace ourselves for the possibility that we cannot practically fix this and move on.
 Having said that, we should take this opportunity to learn what we can about souls, we want the ability to detect them and it would be very nice to learn how to manipulate them, even if only to find ways to prevent it... If we can develop this to a point at which we can cast a spell to locate the children's souls, extract them, and then restore them to the children, then so much the better...

[RoaryStar]

We have important things to do and the world will not wait for us(well, it might, some places base their time on dramatic necessity. Even then, there is reason to believe that there are at least two other protagonist out there...).

You mean antaganists?

While saving the children would be very nice, it may turn out to be something that we could spend months studying only to discover that the children's souls are unrecoverable and the only source of viable replacements would be taking the souls from other humans of similar ages... I think that we should brace ourselves for the possibility that we cannot practically fix this and move on.

And in the months we try to do that, we will almost certainly gain experience and learn new spells.

Hmmm... I've changed my mind about telling the priest, with all your criticism. But it'll probably be very hard to learn of the necromantic energy if we do not have permission or if we don't have a lot of information that can tell if it's too dangerous or not. The best way to get permission or to get information from the priest to is to befriend him, and I don't think it'll help to randomly walk out one day.

I now say:
Help the children in any non-necromantic way possible and talk to the priest, using our expert (read: dabbling) social relationship knowledge to attempt to get more out of the priest, then decide on whether or not to look at the necromantic source.

Edit: typo fixed.