Make StartCombat a no-op for dead targets and don't play an attack line when already in combat

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@
     Bug #7758: Water walking is not taken into account to compute path cost on the water
     Bug #7761: Rain and ambient loop sounds are mutually exclusive
     Bug #7765: OpenMW-CS: Touch Record option is broken
+    Bug #7769: Sword of the Perithia: Broken NPCs
     Bug #7770: Sword of the Perithia: Script execution failure
     Bug #7780: Non-ASCII texture paths in NIF files don't work
     Feature #2566: Handle NAM9 records for manual cell references

apps/openmw/mwmechanics/mechanicsmanagerimp.cpp

@@ -1681,6 +1681,7 @@ namespace MWMechanics
             return;
         }
 
+        const bool inCombat = stats.getAiSequence().isInCombat();
         stats.getAiSequence().stack(MWMechanics::AiCombat(target), ptr);
         if (target == getPlayer())
         {
@@ -1715,7 +1716,8 @@ namespace MWMechanics
         }
 
         // Must be done after the target is set up, so that CreatureTargetted dialogue filter works properly
-        MWBase::Environment::get().getDialogueManager()->say(ptr, ESM::RefId::stringRefId("attack"));
+        if (!inCombat)
+            MWBase::Environment::get().getDialogueManager()->say(ptr, ESM::RefId::stringRefId("attack"));
     }
 
     void MechanicsManager::stopCombat(const MWWorld::Ptr& actor)

apps/openmw/mwscript/aiextensions.cpp

@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@ namespace MWScript
                 runtime.pop();
 
                 MWWorld::Ptr target = MWBase::Environment::get().getWorld()->searchPtr(targetID, true, false);
-                if (!target.isEmpty())
+                if (!target.isEmpty() && !target.getClass().getCreatureStats(target).isDead())
                     MWBase::Environment::get().getMechanicsManager()->startCombat(actor, target);
             }
         };