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- The Legacy Chain routinely researches the nature of mystic threats. This is some of their information on Ghost Widow. If you can find all of their research, it might give Seer Marino a better idea of just what Ghost Widow really is.
- Had I seen you just minutes ago, I would have ordered your death. But there is new evidence. Ghost Widow now claims that you and Seer Marino were working with her to root out a nest of traitors. I will not question her word at this time, and will even remove the termination warrant on your life until the facts are clear.
- After you released Ghost Widow from the spells of the Mu, she spoke to you:
'I know your warning, and I know what Seer Marino hopes to gain. It's ironic that you and Pia have done so much to save my life, really. I'm already dead, and she'll never get what she wants.
Death is like being a living memory. All I am, all I can be, was frozen at the moment I died. We, the dead, cannot change on our own. The dead cannot move on. And the dead cannot let go. But for those like me, those still able to think and to feel, it's a curse beyond imagining. I can understand what has become of me. I can understand that I am dead, and that I am in a way, a living memory.
I died worrying for Paolo, and I will care for him as best I can as long as I exist; it's part of what makes me exist. But by the same token, I also cannot give him up. And though I've tried to make him go, he will not leave my side until he thinks I am safe. We are bound together, protecting each other in our strange half-lives.
Tell Pia I'm sorry, but I cannot give Paolo back to her. All I can do is try to protect him as he protects me. I know that they move to kill him. Mu'Rakir's hatred for my poor Wretch has left that mystic twisted and blind. Well, more so than is normal for his kind. He thinks I need Wretch to re-form my spirit should I be dispersed. I do not. My spirit was re-bound to Arachnos itself, not to any one man. No, I need Wretch because concern for him is a part of me. And the dead cannot change.
Save Wretch, and all your trespasses will be forgiven.
- After you helped Mu'Rakir fight off the Lost who had cornered him, he told you why he was here:
'I return to this place from time to time to refresh my memory. To recollect my mistakes. To remember the dead.
It was years ago, I was barely an adept raised out from the ranks of the Wolf Spiders by the power of my Mu bloodline. This building had been the scene of a disastrous operation the year before that ended in a fire and the death of a Night Widow and her support squad. The investigating Arbiter found the place was haunted, and we were sent in to exorcize the ghost. We summoned forth the tormented spirit of the slain Night Widow. We began the exorcism, but her power was such that we feared it could not be done.
Then she cried out: 'Paolo!' she cried. 'Paolo! They are hurting me!' And we were soon beset by a misshapen monstrosity in the tattered remnants of an Arachnos uniform. Terror gripped me, and my wards slipped. The ghost was free and bound us with spectral terrors. We had no time to rebuild our wards before the wretched mutate was upon us. It slew half a dozen of us, sloughing off our magics as it snapped my cadre's bodies in half. And the ghost of the Night Widow exhorted it on the whole time.
When we survivors told our tale, Lord Recluse himself took interest. When next we returned, we were ordered to communicate with this spirit, and then to free it from this place. And this we did, despite the bile on our throats and the burning desire for revenge in our hearts.
Thus did Ghost Widow and the Wretch join the ranks of Arachnos.
I suppose that information should be classified, but I care not. The melancholia I feel here overwhelms such petty concerns, and I am awash in what might have been had I not failed my cadre at that moment.'
- After you and Hunstman Ohanko decided to split the purloined data on Wretch, he told you a little about why he wanted it:
'Mu'Rakir told me about you. He's one of us. And we think that you're one of us, too. Oh, we know a lot about you. We know that you're working with Seer Marino. And we know that she has a grudge against Ghost Widow over the death of her brother. We also know that you're ambitious enough to realize that if one of Lord Recluse's inner circle was taken out, it would open a spot for someone like yourself. So we're willing to cut deals for those who might be our allies. I'll have my people contact Seer Marino.'
- The combined work of the Legacy Chain's specialists on ghosts, spirits, and specters paints an interesting picture of just what Ghost Widow is. They theorize that due to the method of her original death, Ghost Widow is bound by the emotions and feelings she felt in her last moments of life. Normally ghosts of this type cannot leave the place where they died, but Ghost Widow was released from the place of her death by the magic of Arachnos's Mu Mystics. Even when she's been dispersed in the past, she has always reformed. The Legacy Chain's experts believe that something is holding Ghost Widow in this world, but are lost in debate as to what it may be. The leading conjecture is that Wretch, her constant guardian, may serve as an anchor that Ghost Widow uses to hold herself to this world, and pull herself back together when dispersed. The last part is purely supposition and theory, and there are several scholarly refutations of the whole idea.
- These medical files list, in hideous detail, all of the mutations and transformations that turned Paolo Marino into the Wretch. Terrible burns, mutations from dangerously contaminated water and possible exposure to chemical and supernatural agents all combined to change a man into a monster. Amazingly, the doctors note that some or all of these may be reversible using the advanced sciences available to Arachnos. However, the records also show that whenever the doctors tried to make Wretch understand that his mutations could be fixed, he would become violent until Ghost Widow could calm him down.
- In halting sentence fragments, the creature that was once Paolo Marino thanked you, and tried to explain something:
'Wretch thank, Wretch thank. BAD 'rachnos try hurt. You help. You okay. You been near Ghost Lady. Can feel it. So Ghost Lady okay. Ghost Lady told me it all be okay. She so sad, so sad, but she say it all be okay.
I remember. Remember when I was Paolo. Remember when I had job protect Ghost Lady before she Ghost. I remember fire, and pain, and after. I live, and she live, in a way.
Job not over. Not over 'till she finally safe. 'Till she at peace. Tell Pia sorry. Can't go back. Won't go back. Not till job done.
Talking hurts.
Done now.'
- After you took care of his guards, Huntsman Ohanko told you:
'Our trusted ally! I'm glad you came. Things got bad, an Arbiter caught on to the plan. I took care of the Arbiter, but don't worry. We have a plan that will handle finding someone to pin the Arbiter's death on. But now, we'll have to move everything up and strike quickly. First we get the Widow. Then, before she can reform, we'll have to move fast to take out Wretch. We'll get you a time table for both operations. Oh, and keep an eye on Seer Marino. We've tried to keep her in the dark about things, but if she realizes that Wretch is her brother, she might get emotional when we kill him. I want her to have the chance to enjoy thinking that killing Ghost Widow avenged her dead brother for as long as she can. So I want to make sure that you're right there with her when it goes down.
It ain't easy, you know? I mean, I knew Paolo. This is a release for him.'
- The collection of surveillance photos and a betamax video tape are all marked with the night in question, and stamped by an Arbiter Daos as Arachnos evidence. They must have been left behind during the investigation. The tale they tell is stark. It looks like a normal, if late-night, business meeting until people start dying to the unseen Night Widow assassin. Then one of the business men pulls a grenade out of his briefcase, and others pull guns. An explosion rocks the room, and gunfire crackles through the smoke. The first time the hooded figure of the Night Widow assassin appears, she's bleeding from several gunshots, and the corridor behind her is on fire. Desperately, she calls to her support team, who can be seen in further photos kicking through doors only to run right into a squad of heavily-armed thugs. The last moments of the video of the firefight show the Wolf Spider leader shouting silently into his communicator as he rushes into the flames to rescue the Night Widow, already dead floors above.
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