The banshee, a luminous spirit, manages to appear sad and angry at the same time, obviously a being in an enraged lamentation.
Her wail is renowned as it is filled with such sorrow and hopelessness that most who hear it abandon life instantly, passing beyond their current pains.
That's the monster memory, instantly available the moment you spot the banshee. It tells you quite plainly that hearing her wail is deadly. The thing also has an average speed of 100, so running like a bitch is a perfectly natural and completely sufficient response.
You're saying "no, the monster memory isn't a solution either" - how on earth is it not? It isn't enough to make the crucial information they need available by the simple examination of their surroundings?
You're also saying "methods of learning about the banshee are purely a matter of luck", which is complete hogwash. There's a mad minstrel song and (provided it is made sure the player survives spotting the banshee) the aforementioned monster description. Players can miss those, sure, but that has nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with how thoroughly and cautiously they explore. It's called Ancient Domains of bloody
Mystery; collecting clues (like
randomly strewn about bodies that never rot) and realizing their meaning in time is a huge part of what makes ADOM
ADOM. This is a dangerous world that will
screw you up if you aren't paying attention, be it in combat or exploration.
It's not the kind of game that shows a huge honking arrow over your head, telling you where to go at all times; that kind of game would have a clearly established "The Banshee" questline, in which you first have to get the Beeswax quest item to even get
access to the Banshee's lair, which you're planning to raid about 200 times because the Banshee has a 0.1% chance to drop a green legendary epic set item and in the level rage from 22-26 gives more XP per invested game time than the big snake thing you had a lvl46 buddy help you farm a couple of levels ago.
It's also not Legend of Zelda. I love Ocarina of Time to death, believe me, but among the many different things it did right is that it encouraged exploration and required you to listen to people and examine hints and clues. It's also more of an action game. But, even in Ocarina of Time, there are insteadeath-dealing monsters in the Forest Temple; the big hulking hands that descend from the ceiling and cause a game over if they grab you. Luckily, they announce their presence by a looming shadow over your head and an ominous sound effect. Guess what they
don't do? Snatch
another monster upwards right in front of your eyes.
Clues and warnings are enough.