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[Angle]

Oh, and we seriously might want to consider having Eko put up a ward against necromancy. Because there might be more o these things...

[Andres]

I think the necromancer sealed himself inside the golem - or maybe just his soul - and has been stealing souls either to prepare to revive him or to sustain him. A personal theory of mine is that he's trying to do the former, but doing so is actually impossible - he's just really desperate and maybe a bit insane.

[Shadestyle]

I think the necromancer sealed himself inside the golem - or maybe just his soul - and has been stealing souls either to prepare to revive him or to sustain him. A personal theory of mine is that he's trying to do the former, but doing so is actually impossible - he's just really desperate and maybe a bit insane.

Easy way to test that. Run a mundane blade along it and get a rock ready like you are going to crack it open. The worse it freaks out, the more likely that is true. (Don't ACTUALLY do it though.)

[Andres]

While he may have sealed himself inside it, he might not actually be in control of it. Doing so might damage his soul if the construct gets damaged, as it just did, so he's probably just residing inside it.

[The Alchemist]

((Just finished re-reading the whole thing and thought I'd make a suggestion, seems fitting since this was the game that got me to sign up on the forums in the first place.))

It is possible that it is Omo's soul that was repelling our influence, but more importantly we already saw how the construct took Omo's soul in the first place

There is no time to discern details; only this glimpse. From the time you first sensed the construct to the time it burst into view has been only a handful of seconds. Now it is directly beneath Omo, and though its body ceases its frantic movement the speed of its actions transfers immediately to the realm of Necromancy. To your eyes, a fine rope of Necromantic energy seems to erupt from the "head" of the monster, snaking up between the branches before coiling around Omo's head. There is a whipping motion as the rope of Necromantic energy curls into a ball and snaps back towards the creature.

I suggest that we imitate the construct and create our own rope of necromatic energy to try to grab the ball of vitality we believe to be Omo's soul and return it to his head.

Edit:
Additionally I believe this construct would have Omo's soul over a necromancer's since:
1. The "curse" (which for the most part appears to be the construct) was put in place over 1000 years ago

"Yes. Aloclesno is a cursed place, cursed by Balkoth the Necromancer more than a thousand years ago."

2. Additionally from what I remember from reading the necromancer did this in order to route guerrilla fighters who were hiding in the forest and proceeded to fight much longer after this incident. Which means there wasn't much reason (unless there's an unseen benefit) to leaving a part of their soul in the construct.
3. The necromancer in question I believe was Golgothan and not an elf so even if they survived it is unlikely that they would have survived to this time.
4. If the necromancer left a part of their soul in the construct, I would think that they would do so to allow them greater control of the construct when they left the area in which they could control it, so I doubt that a construct like this if it had the necromancer's soul would be content with just sitting in a forest waiting to steal people's souls with large stretches of time between each capture.

[Parisbre56]

but clearly, or for long;

I think a word got eaten there? Unless my knowledge of English is failing me.

It follows then that if the presence is away from us, and necromantic in nature, maybe try to command it while we're all inside of Eko's ward (or a new one if it's too far away). The ward's shielding effect might be enough to disrupt or remove whatever outside influence is keeping us from taking control of the construct.

That's a good idea for a future experiment, but there are a few problems. If you remember, minor wards against necromancy work by altering and blocking necromantic senses. So unless those sensors are used to receive orders/magic (unlikely) it will not work. You'd need something like a major ward or better yet a sanctuary. And just to be on the safe side, ensure that such a ward will only disrupt spells going in or out of the area and not spells in the area itself, because if they disrupt the magic of the creature, we risk loosing it (and Omo's soul if we haven't gotten it fixed by then).

Ask Eko if he knows anything about contests of will between casters.

Yeeeah that might be useful. Something like "There's something more here, not sure what."

If we go with that suggestion, maybe tell him that we feel another presence. Like this thing is fighting our influence more than it should be able to and that this has to be coming from somewhere else. That we momentarily felt another presence or some of its feelings. Descriptive but keeping the details of what we were trying to do vague.

Eko has that trait Clarity that lets him resist things better. Maybe he could help us achieve a lesser form of that? Or some other kind of  meditation that could aid us in mental combat?

I think the necromancer sealed himself inside the golem - or maybe just his soul - and has been stealing souls either to prepare to revive him or to sustain him. A personal theory of mine is that he's trying to do the former, but doing so is actually impossible - he's just really desperate and maybe a bit insane.

That is very clearly not the case. It was stated that the opposing influence came from somewhere outside the golem. So it couldn't have been inside it. And we know that the one who is the assumed creator of the golem (Balkoth, unless I'm misremembering the name) died at the end of the Golgothan war somewhere very far away from this forest (Golgothan Swamps, the temple of Death if I remember correctly). Even if the golem was created by someone else, like one of Balkoth's necromancer lackeys and he/she had put her soul or even part of it in it, we would had been able to see it. Souls are incredibly complex, while the necromantic energy of the construct was very simple. Nym said it looked nothing like Omo's or Eko's soul.

That doesn't mean that there aren't souls involved though. Maybe Balkoth used the soul of one of his followers to create a semi-immortal golem administrator. A guy that has been imprisoned in some sort of construct and forced to follow certain orders and make the golems act a certain way. Or some variation of that. Maybe he's tasked with gathering souls. Has some sort of soul vault. Or soul fridge, if he's using them to sustain himself.

People expressed surprise that zombies were active so long after Balkoth died. Maybe spells (the continued existence and operation of magical energy of all faiths) need the wizard to be alive to continue functioning? Maybe that's what the administrator does, makes sure the constructs remain functional and continue following their orders by attaching their magic to him?

Or maybe it's related to the unexplained bypass of Eko's wards. We know that zombies somehow bypassed the wards. We know that zombies can bypass minor wards with command undead. And we know that whoever is controlling this thing is much more powerful and has much greater range than we do. Maybe the administrator influenced those zombies once they entered his range and made them bypass the wards? Or maybe Curo has found out about the golem and is using it for his own nefarious goals? Maybe he has obtained an artifact that can increase his range tremendously?

Although the administrator might not be fully human or fully sentient. Or maybe he can't control the golem fully. After all, if he could, he might have done something different with the golem. Maybe he's only part of someone's soul. Or maybe his dark feelings blind him.

It is possible that it is Omo's soul that was repelling our influence,

Possible, but not very likely. The feelings did not feel like Omo's, for one. And he'd have no reason to resist us, unless he is doing it unintentionally.

I suggest that we imitate the construct and create our own rope of necromatic energy to try to grab the ball of vitality we believe to be Omo's soul and return it to his head.

Not really necessary to make a rope. The soul is already inside a necromantic "bottle" of sorts. All we have to do is carefully move that bottle of necromantic energy.

That's going to be my long term suggestion. Just do the soul transfer now, then use our rope to tie the creature here for us to experiment on later while Eko takes care of Omo back in the camp and maybe makes a sanctuary or major Ward to make the experiment area safe and stop  necromantic spells from entering it.

[Gwythur]

We have a bit of a problem here.  We're down to 4 mana, and I think it's important to retain enough mana to steal vitality the golem and snuff it out if something goes horribly wrong.  We know it has 3 vitality, and I assume we can't use half mana points, so I think we should hold 2 mana in reserve for an emergency.  Granted, we have a potion to restore 2 mana, but there may not be time to drink and cast if we need to act quickly.  We're limited to one, maybe two more experiments here today, and command undead has already failed us.  I had really counted on that working, too.  I didn't expect the golem to be actively controlled.  As an aside, isn't our control spell line of sight?  Either this is a more advanced control, or we're misinformed about the capabilities of our spell.

Our more useful spells here seem to be steal vitality (already mentioned), command undead (which has already failed once, and doesn't seem likely to succeed if we try again), and alter golem/impair undead (which would require more thought, since we don't want to accidentally damage Omo's soul).  Alternatively, we could try to sever the bond between the controller and the golem in some magical way that we're not currently aware of.  Severing the bond may be easier without a contest of wills to control it.

Eko has 7 mana, but his spell list is somewhat less applicable to handling the golem than ours.  If we tell him that there is an active mind controlling the golem, he may be able to use probe thoughts on it, but that spell "works less well on those who are strong of will."  Probably worth trying, though, and it would still leave him enough mana for a major ward, should we decide we need one.  Does anyone have an idea how minor abjuration might be applicable here?  At some point in the future, we should teach Eko how to make mana potions when there's time and access to crystal.

I also think we need to fully immobilize the golem.  I'm not sure that we're going to finish our experimentation today, based on our mana reserves.  The leather bindings holding the legs on can be cut.  I think we should remove all the golem's legs using our knife or hatchet.

[RAM]

I wonder if solid objects block detection, maybe the curse is buried, it is not unheard of for beetles to burrow.

Given that this apparently drove off a relevant force of armed folk it stands to reason that it is not easily overcome with physical means. It is certainly dangerous, but one assumes that there were many horrors in the Golgothan armies and that its original target would have been willing to face such things, and it could probably have been bested by just rushing it. So it stands to reason that incapacitation of this sort is not permanent. And obvious hypothesis is that it is based somewhere, probably carries the souls that is collects back to its base, and may be one of many, and that the base has the means to repair and/or reproduce the beetle. Or possibly it is a grey goo scenario in which the beetles are the base... Whatever the case, it should not be considered secure if a duplicate would have the means to free itself. Perhaps we could hang it from a tree? They do not seem very bright, they may operate solely on the assumption that an object is secured to its nearest neighbour...

And the best course may be to give Eko the potion and have a sanctuary here to prevent external interference. If we can be confident that it will not harm the soul jar then it may be best to do that immediately and save our mana for defence should we be attacked while Eko is casting. It was a thousand years ago or some such, but what information we have suggests that its original victims had no magical resources and were more forced to leave rather than completely destroyed, so a sanctuary has no compelling reason to fail. That does leave us with the risk that the curse can reconstitute itself, but if we keep a watch that risk should be minimal.

I also feel compelled to point out that as limited as its senses may be, direct physical contact between it and something with a soul is probably a really bad idea.

The way I see it we have two options, the first being to try reversing what happened, which may be a one-way process. It doesn't seem likely that it was designed to be reversed, but the process may be innately reversible and there may be some function of the curse that requires placing the souls in a similar receptacle to that which they were taken from, I mean, they must do something with them, and a grey-goo needs sustenance...
The second method would be to do it manually, which would mean learning soul manipulation from studying an example device that is largely automated and we are not inclined to disassemble too vigorously and remembering the one time that we witnessed it in operation. Learning to contain, or at least maintain containment of a soul, transferring that soul into a vitality network without damaging either, and then integrating the soul with its owner, well, seems like something that might involve risks of catastrophic failure...

There is a third option, drag Omo and the curse to a more qualified mage, possibly a Life mage... There is some risk that the curse can track the beetle and that we will be besiged as long as we keep it...

[The Alchemist]

The way I see it we have two options, the first being to try reversing what happened, which may be a one-way process. It doesn't seem likely that it was designed to be reversed, but the process may be innately reversible and there may be some function of the curse that requires placing the souls in a similar receptacle to that which they were taken from, I mean, they must do something with them, and a grey-goo needs sustenance...
The second method would be to do it manually, which would mean learning soul manipulation from studying an example device that is largely automated and we are not inclined to disassemble too vigorously and remembering the one time that we witnessed it in operation. Learning to contain, or at least maintain containment of a soul, transferring that soul into a vitality network without damaging either, and then integrating the soul with its owner, well, seems like something that might involve risks of catastrophic failure...

There is a third option, drag Omo and the curse to a more qualified mage, possibly a Life mage... There is some risk that the curse can track the beetle and that we will be besiged as long as we keep it...

The way I see it is that the third option is essentially off the table for us. The only life mages that we know of are the elves who wouldn't be to happy with the fact that we left and are days away, not to mention that Omo's condition may be rendered irreversible at some point during the days that it takes us to find a qualified life mage. As for any other mage, right now the main magical faith that is practiced is Order magic so most mages we would meet would be Order mages and Eko already knows some Order magic. Additionally any other mages that we could find are likely to be at least a few days away from where we are.

The other two options seem the most likely to work, which is essentially finding a way to direct Omo's soul to where we want it, or trying to do some soul manipulation magic which I think is similar to the spell the construct did which seems to be divided into three parts:
1. send a probe of necromatic energy (we directly saw this).
2. Have that energy encircle the piece of vitality we wish to move (We didn't see this, but it could be inferred as that is how we would "grab" a bundle of vitality)
3. Direct the energy to where we want it to be.

I already suggested the spell option, and in practice it seems to be a more advanced/specific steal vitality spell so it is reasonable that we should be able to cast it. Right now the main concern is our mana, so let's focus on helping Omo, we don't know what's happening to the soul but being away from the body can't be good, we can figure out how this thing works when everyone is safe not before.

[RAM]

I would say that it is a good deal more than an advanced steal vitality. Steal vitality is like shovelling some sand in a sack and running off with it, what we want to do is to move a block of sand from one place to another without changing the relative position of so much as a single grain, and placing it a hole that has enough space but may have subsided a little and having the end result be that nobody can tell that it was moved.
There is a whole host of elements here that steal vitality just doesn't interact with. Steal vitality suggests, but does not confirm that we have the necessary tools, but there is nothing to suggest that we have the skills. Doing this ourselves would require creating a brand new spell.

Also note that in all the previous attempts to fix this by professional mages, the original soul has not been available, so seeking help is not as futile as it may at first appear, but any of the options that I can see seem fraught with risk. Simply reversing the process which originally took the soul has a chance of being an easy and effective means of fixing Omo. We can, hopefully, search the constructs memory and know if inserting souls safely is something that it does. Now, it is possible that they put the souls into a furnace and just reversing the process wouldn't integrate the soul with the vitality network, so there really isn't any sure thing here. Note that the force resisting our control of the golem was not that much stronger than us, it is entirely possible that we could defeat it if we tried again.

If we are going to try doing this manually, we should probably start by trying to make Omo's vitality receptive to a new addition. It is possible that if we just stick the soul back in it will just work, there are just so many unknown factors here...

[The Alchemist]

My main issue with finding other mages to help fix this issue is that it would take days maybe even weeks to find one (we are in a forest near a somewhat remote village in a country of Order mages) and by that time it may already be too late.

As for creating a new spell, we have already seen the spell in action so we're not creating anything, just discovering how to cast it as we have done with every single one of our necromancy spells. Still there is some risk to attempting a new spell, I'm not saying there isn't I just think that since we witnessed the process that caused this we can reverse the process and fix the issue. As for why I think this is similar to steal vitality is that steal vitality takes from all over the body while this spell is more specific and takes only the selected ball of vitality. There's nothing to suggest that we have to keep everything we're trying to grab in fixed relative positions. However, I will caution that since steal vitality does not produce a 1:1 ratio that if this spell is similar to steal vitality, then it is likely that we would cause some damage.

[monk12]

but clearly, or for long;

I think a word got eaten there? Unless my knowledge of English is failing me.

Whups!

but not clearly, or for long;

Carry on!

[Parisbre56]

EDIT 12/5/15: Made some edits to the plan to clarify things and to add the Alchemist's suggestion

I say tell Eko to stab the thing's legs and make sure the thing stays still while we drink drink the potion. Unless it looks like its vitality is getting dangerously low, in which case we should tell him to stop. EDIT: Or maybe have him use the rope to tie it somewhere if it would be possible to anchor it that way more quickly. Either way, it's better for it to be steady during the operation.

Then tell him that whatever happens, focus on keeping himself, us and Omo safe. Tell him that the only thing keeping Omo's soul intact is a knot of necromantic energy and that we are going to try to carefully put that into Omo (so that he doesn't get scared by the orb of necromantic energy moving away from the creature, since necromantic energy is sometimes visible. We don't want him getting scared and hitting it with a spell by accident). But it feels like there is another mage opposing our influence and controlling that creature, a mage that is probably a necromancer. And we're running out of mana, so we might end up having to cast from vitality.

If we are hurt or rendered unconscious by our effort or any meddling from that opposing influence while doing so, then we need him to try and keep everyone safe. If not us, then Omo, since we're the one that dragged him into this.

Maybe he could try to create a major ward or sanctuary around all of us if he can do it without disrupting any necromantic energies inside the ward (since that could hurt Omo), merely stopping necromantic energies from going in our out. Because whatever this is, it won't end with this creature. There's something more out there and if we end up spending all our energy helping Omo, we won't be able to help him fend off any further attacks.

Then we start the operation. The first spell we need is See Vitality. Like a surgeon, we need to take a look at the transplant and then the patient and come up with a basic plan. Where everything goes and how it goes. Not everything if it's too complicated, just the basics, the basic steps. Rehearse our movements in our mind.

Then we need an Impair Undead or Alter Golem to open up the construct's skin, if we can't do it easily physically (to save mana) by using our hatchet to pry it open or unlock a latch or something. We felt that thing's body, we should know if such a thing exists or if we can simply stab it with our hatchet to make a hole without risking hurting Omo's soul.

Then we need an Alter Golem/Steal Vitality combo-like spell (Transplant Vitality Network?) that will keep the vitality inside its bottle of necromantic energy and slowly move that bottle towards Omo's head.

Use the vision See Vitality provides us to find the right position and the right connections and repair any that need repairing with an Alter Golem-like effect to the bottle. Be mindful not to disrupt the pulses of vitality while doing so. Hopefully the body itself will want the soul there and will help with the reconnection, perhaps adding some of its vitality to the bottle. Maybe let the bottle dissolve if it looks like the soul does not need it to remain stable once inside the body. Whatever looks best at the time. Since this is new magic, we might have to make some snap decisions based on how things look.
Add a bit of our vitality if it looks like the soul needs it to finish its connections or if the bottle is not as full as it should be or if we need to kick-start the pulsing effect. I think that the last time we used Steal Vitality on ourselves, we lost 1 mana and 1 vitality and gave 1 vitality to the little girl.

And whatever we do, do not stop and do not let the spell fade until we're done, even if it means we'll start casting from vitality when we run out of mana like it happened with the tree. Saving Omo is more important. Better for us to feel weak and sick than for Omo to be soulless. We can always regain vitality if we survive this, but we probably can't create a new soul.


I really hope this works. The other presence makes things even worse and makes me feel like we have to act quickly. We don't know what capabilities the golem has, if it has any self-destruct methods or a way to destroy Omo's soul. We know that command undead has about the same range as our necromantic sight. That's probably not the case with the other presence, but if it is, it means that it could potentially cast spells that require necromantic LoS, like Alter Golem or Steal Vitality. And we don't know if there are other things like this one out there or what the other could try to do. Waiting for  a sanctuary or major ward would take too long, during that time things could become even worse. Not to mention the chance it has of disrupting necromantic magic. And whoever that presence is, it could send more things our way. Especially if it's connected to Nightroars.

If we do this right and are lucky, we'll level up while doing this. And if we're really lucky, we'll get an even better necromantic sight, perhaps something that allows us to see the threads of necromantic energy connecting the construct to the presence and follow them to their source where we can give him what he deserves. Or at least the extra level will gets us closer to his level and make it easier for us to fight his influence and check the Golem's mind and capabilities.


Irrelevant, but I got an idea for an experiment... There is very clearly something holding vitality inside living things. Either biology or natural life magic, similar to how death magic holds vitality inside dead things. And when they die, that vitality is lost... but is it destroyed? Is it lost slowly or quickly?

Where do living things get their vitality from? Is vitality everywhere around us and some living things simply have the capability to absorb it? Or is it created when a living thing receives nutrition from its environment?

A way to discover that would be to wound something while using see vitality. Does something wounded experience the same "leakage" of vitality we saw in the dead leaf? Or does vitality simply disappear from it? Or maybe dissipate equally from its entire vitality network?

If wounding something causes leakage of concentrated vitality, then that could be used to create a more efficient version of the drain vitality spell for use during combat or with sacrifices. You wound or kill something and then drain the escaping vitality from it and use it for whatever you need it. Kinda like those vampire weapons that wound your enemy and transfer part of their HP to you.

Heh, even more ridiculous idea: Necromantic chainsword. Take a piece of wood shaped like a sword (or an actual sword or blade if you can find one) and make it into a golem with necromantic energy shaped like scoops along its edge. With a mental command, the scoops start rotating, digging into the enemy's vitality network. Then they make their way back down on the other side and get inside the hilt of the sword where they deposit the vitality. If you get wounded and need a boost, then you simply order the bottom of the hilt to open and let the vitality flow inside you. Not very cost effective and considering we know nothing about swords it's unlikely to get enough use to pay itself off, but I'd love to use that on the bastard controlling the curse. It would be fun to watch him panic as his vitality is stripped away from his body.

Not to mention how useful such a concept would be for creating undead armies. Imagine a machine like that mining trees and pumping the vitality into corpses or rocks to easily create golems and zombies. All we need is a way to make a necromantic machine that can create more necromantic energy or a way to convert vitality to mana or a way to make golems cast spells and we have an factory for building undead factories ready.

[The Alchemist]

I say tell Eko to stab the thing's legs and make sure the thing stays still while we drink drink the potion. Unless it looks like its vitality is getting dangerously low, in which case we should tell him to stop.

Then tell him that whatever happens, focus on keeping himself, us and Omo safe. If we are hurt or rendered unconscious by our effort or any meddling from that opposing influence, then we need him to try and keep everyone safe. Try to create a major ward or sanctuary around all of us if he can do it without disrupting any necromantic energies inside the ward (since that could hurt Omo), merely stopping necromantic energies from going in our out. Because whatever this is, it won't end with this creature. There's something more out there and if we end up spending all our energy helping Omo, we won't be able to help him fend off any further attacks.

Then the first spell we need is See Vitality. Like a surgeon, we need to take a look at the transplant and then the patient and come up with a basic plan. Where everything goes and how it goes. Rehearse our movements in our mind.

Then we need an Impair Undead or Alter Golem to open up the construct's skin, if we can't do it easily physically by using our hatchet to pry it open or unlock a latch or something. We felt that thing's body, we should know if such a thing exists or if we can simply stab it with our hatchet to make a hole without risking hurting Omo's soul.

Then we need an Alter Golem/Steal Vitality combo-like spell that will keep the vitality inside its necromantic bottle and slowly move that bottle towards Omo's head.
Use the vision See Vitality provides us to find the right position and the right connections and repair any that need repairing with an Alter Golem-like effect to the bottle. Hopefully the body itself will want the soul there and will help with the reconnection, perhaps adding some of its vitality to the bottle. Maybe let the bottle dissolve if it looks like the soul does not need it to remain stable once inside the body. Whatever looks best at the time, since this is new magic.
Add a bit of our vitality if it looks like the soul needs it to finish its connections or if the bottle is not as full as it should be. I think that the last time we used Steal Vitality on ourselves, we lost 1 mana and 1 vitality and gave 1 vitality to the little girl.

And whatever we do, do not stop and do not let the spell fade until we're done, even if it means we'll start casting from vitality when we run out of mana like it happened with the tree.

+1 Except for.
How about instead of telling Eko to keep stabbing the construct we tell him to take Omo's rope (if we have it on hand) and tie it up. The only other thing that I'm (slightly) against in this plan is the use of an Alter Golem/Steal Vitality combo spell since we have no basis that it exists or would be successful (mainly I'm just worried about botching a spell and losing mana). I think copying the construct's own spell that it used would provide a greater chance of success.

[Parisbre56]

Sure, use the rope to tie it to a tree or similar if that can get it steady enough, whatever is better/quicker.

I disagree with the second part because the way I see it, it would needlessly complicate things. The golem needed such a complicated method because it probably can't create and manipulate necromantic energy like we do. It needed to create the bottle and move it around by using its body instead of any spells available to it.

We on the other hand have spells. And if you remember, the first time we cast steal vitality we saw it as a purple sphere even though we didn't have necromantic sight. And zombies also looked purple. So it is safe to assume that necromantic energy looks purple. And that means that the steal vitality spell just creates a ball of  necromantic energy, inside which vitality is trapped, a bottle one could say, and then pulls it out of the target.

Now, in our situation, the construct has finished the complicated job of creating a bottle for us. So all we need is to keep that bottle intact and slowly and carefully move it from one place to another, like we do with steal vitality. But we might need to apply necromantic "force" to have the bottle keep its shape or to repair the connection between the body and soul or to cause the bottle to dissolve if it isn't needed, hence the alter golem part. I don't have a name for such a spell, hence why I described it as a combo.

I guess we could call it something like "Transplant vitality" or "Transplant necromantic energy". Could use it in the future to transfer an organ from a living thing to one of our golems to more easily create complex organs for them. Although the more humane thing would be to copy the organ instead of outright taking it.

Oh, idea! What if the construct is gathering souls for exactly that purpose? To have them transplanted into golems or zombies? I mean, it's easier than creating a soul-like thing from scratch. All the necromancer would have to do is break it, fill it with fear and anger against everything living. And then you'd have an immortal soldier with a good mind, perfect for leading groups of zombies like a general. And if the soul retains some of its traits, then those "generals" could regenerate vitality overtime or cast spells. Maybe the presence we felt is such a general, a soul placed somewhere and given the job of maintaining the curse and directing it more intelligently to perform hit and run attacks or evade order mages.