A Voice from the Past

 is a side quest in.

Synopsis
Dalton, a retired adventurer in Copperlane, has been hearing the voice of Rowyna, his former lover and comrade who died at his side almost 60 years ago. In his dreams, she wanders the catacombs beneath the city. He's asked the Watcher to venture down there to search for her.

Walkthrough
Dalton (who is north and just west over the bridge of the catacombs entrance) is an old retired adventurer who lives in the Copperlane district of Defiance Bay. He has been plagued by dreams of a woman he used to adventure with named Rowyna, whom he loved. She died fighting 60 years ago, but Dalton feels the dreams are different lately and that she is somehow still here. He asks you to investigate the catacombs.

Head to the catacombs in the southwestern corner of Copperlane. In the catacombs, in a room in the north west you will find the undead animancer Helig. The path to Helig is filled with various skeletons, so it may be a good idea to have crushing weapons to bypass their DR. The two corridors leading to him also contain traps, so make sure to keep an eye out in sneak mode. Helig will tell you that Rowyna died in battle with him. He claims to remember her but will not tell you anything unless you get his grimoire back from his former rival Moedred who - since no one knows that he murdered Helig - still works at the Sanitarium. Helig says that Moedred keeps "all that is precious to him" in a trunk in his lab, and hands you the key used to open it. If you want, you can also just attack and kill Helig at this point. He will drop the Soulward Amulet which you can return to Dalton.

Moedred is in the south end of the basement of the Sanitarium. He will admit to murdering Helig but claims he did it because the man was pure evil. He says the chest Helig asked you to search contains a dangerous monster and that he does not have any grimoire. Examining the chest (Perception check) shows evidence that supports that a monster is in it. Now that he knows Helig is "alive" he asks you to go back and end him.

Should you choose to open the chest (with the key that Helig gave you earlier), a Wicht pops out and kills Moedred before you can intervene.

Helig will get angry and attack you when you return and (indirectly) tell him that you did not open the chest (you have no option for lying). When he dies you find that he had his grimoire on him, as well as the Soulward Amulet, which contains some of Rowyna's soul.

If you killed Moedred by opening the chest, you can instead let Helig know that Moedred is dead and he will reward you with the amulet.

You can now finish the quest in 3 ways: Keep the amulet, give it to Dalton, or destroy it to release her soul.
 * Destroying the amulet yourself results in a moderate negative reputation with Defiance Bay.
 * If you give it to Dalton, you can convince him to destroy the amulet with 15 Resolve or 13 Intellect resulting in a moderate positive reputation with Defiance Bay.

Role-playing tips

 * If you ask Eorn whether he has seen Rowyna, he states that he heard voices coming from the northwest.
 * In a crate near Helig you'll find a Tarnished Locket. You can sell it or give it to the Revenant close to the crate for some little flavor text, as the poor creature seems to be somehow fixated on that thing. It's most likely nothing but a loose end and has no significant effect gameplay wise. However, some players have interpreted this to mean that the revenant is actually Rowyna who retains a semblance of awareness to care for the memory of Dalton even in her sorry state. This view is supported by the fact that the tarnished locket shows an image of a noble, albeit with the face part being too tarnished to recognize the painted. Dalton, when giving the player his quest, mentions that he was a noble and that he and Rowyna were lovers. The revenant's fixation on the locket implies that the person painted in the locket had a close relationship with the revenant, and when the fact that Helig is a necromancer who killed Rowyna is combined with this information, players are lead to believe that the revenant could a reanimated corpse of Rowyna. Nevertheless, this interpretation remains a conjecture without a more solid evidence.