As you cautiously explore the remnants of the villa, you stumble upon a grand chamber, its walls adorned with faded frescoes and cracked marble. The air grows heavy with a lingering presence, and an ethereal glow flickers in the corners of your vision. Suddenly, a translucent figure materialises before you.
The ghost, a roman noblewoman clad in a flowing gown, appears to be trapped in a loop of tragic events. She gazes vacantly, her eyes filled with sorrow and confusion, reliving her final moments over and over again. The room around you seems to transform, taking you back in time to the night of the fiery catastrophe.
Panic and fear dance across her face as she moves through the room, desperately searching for an escape route. The flames devour the once-grand villa, roaring all around and making the air hot and difficult to breathe.
Lady Elara's attempts to flee become increasingly frantic, but both doors and both windows are engulfed in flames. She calls out for help, her voice filled with desperation, but her cries go unanswered. The suffocating smoke fills the chamber, while the crackling of the inferno grows louder with each passing moment.
She seems to be searching for something along the south wall, but the fire has by now reached the room and the tapestry, and several times she recoils back into the center of the room from the heat. Finally, she huddles up into a corner of the room, clutching an amulet hanging on a necklace she is wearing.
The vision slowly fades and her figure is replaced with the rubble that has fallen in that corner as the room returns to normal.
The ghostly figure of Lady Elara repeats her anguished attempts to escape, her face etched with pain and anguish. She is unaware of the character's presence, trapped in an eternal cycle of suffering.
If the party remains in the room, the vision will repeat every few minutes.
If they search the rubble and move away a good part of it, they will find the bones of Lady Elara, and the necklace clutches tightly in her now skeletal hand.
Inspecting the necklace, they will find a small mosaic family portrait inside, with Elara and her husband, as well as two boys and a small girl. The two boys are Lucius and his younger brother, Gregorius. The girl is their sister, Valeria (who also perished in the fire).
If the party searches the south wall, they can notice a faint draft coming from an unremarkable section of it. By investigating further, and succeeding on a mental (perception) roll, they find a hidden mechanism or lever that reveals a concealed doorway leading to a secret passage.
If they open the passage, they interrupt the haunting cycle by providing Lady Elara with an escape route. As the vision resets, Lady Elara finds the now open passage, and escapes through it to safety, into #TODO passageway F and from there into the Inside - Central > Atrium, where they all spot a robed figure with a torch and a large flask of oil in its hands setting more tapestry and furniture on fire.
Lady Elara freezes at the sight as if she recognises the figure and an expression of shock and surprise crosses her face before she, the figure and the entire illusion fades away, never to return.
The party has no opportunity to identify the figure before them, but Lady Elara clearly did.
If the party has seen the vision of Lucius brooding already, they will recognise the robes as the ones Lucius was wearing.
Allowing the ghost of Lady Elara to escape the flames will free her and this particular ghost illusion will resolve in a golden glow and never appear again.