Do not tell the priest we are a necromancer. Very bad idea.
Agreed. Don't tell him.
Not only would it be dangerous, there's no real benefit to us even if he's ok with it. If we just want to investigate under the temple we can easily justify that without risking having him tell the entire village and the local military patrols that the probably only two elves travelling together in this part of the world are necromancers.
If we really want to tell him about the necromantci source beneath his temple, say something like "Excuse me Me Priest. Last night we were examining the wards to try to determine why the undeda were able to penetrate them, and during our efforts we happened to notice something peculiar beneath the temple. But we're not completely certain what it is. Do you have any ideas?"
Problem solved.
As has been discussed a couple times, if anybody thinks it suspicious that we can or can't do any particular thing, all we have to do is shrug and say "elf magic."
we should take this opportunity to learn what we can about souls
I
proposed some experiements but there was a philosophical outcry that such magic might be a bad idea.
We have important things to do
Yes. Sidequests are fine, but let's remember there's a main quest too.
we should take this opportunity to learn what we can about souls
there is a decent chance that we could get away with goofing-off
spend a few days learning some general magic or very discreetly performing some experiments
Actually, I'm inclined to agree, and that's my vote.
Stay in the village a couple days and knock out a bunch of the pending experiments we've had on the to do list for the past 6+ months of real-life time.Among those, also do the soul experiments and try to help the children. But if we can't, then don't waste the next week stressing over it. We have a world to save and a couple presumably high level necromancers out there that we're going to have to face someday.
I propose we grind some levels and answer all those unanswered questions we've had for basically ever.