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Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)

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EarthScorpion said:
Yes. However, "stay still and let me kill you" is an Unacceptable Order and so sorcerers can't give that order to bound spirits, because binding can't give Unacceptable Orders. Likewise, if you try to murder a demon, it'll try to run away or fight back even if it's bound, depending on personality.
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Gotcha, so hypothetically if you were able to arrange for a sorcery bound spirit to be rendered Inactive by any other means, you could then perform Sacrifice of the Crystalized Heart?
 
Shyft said:
Gotcha, so hypothetically if you were able to arrange for a sorcery bound spirit to be rendered Inactive by any other means, you could then perform Sacrifice of the Crystalized Heart?
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Yes. You're an awful person, but it's 100% viable. At that point, it's little different from a sorcerer betraying any other ally of theirs to carve their heart out for power.

(which is totally Sorcerer-OK for me)
 
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Session 106
  • Threadmarks
    • Hoof! Three sessions behind at the moment, largely because a work crisis knocked me off kilter for about a week and I was in no fit state to do formatting. So, here's Part 106 for ya'lls. Where we see more of Malek, some troubling developments arise with Eko, and we discover that @EarthScorpion is teriblu. Again. (Check the bottom of the extras to see how and why).

    Extras:
    EarthScorpion: Hmm. Having fun?
    Aleph: Yes.
    Aleph: And that was a useful look at Eko. Keris will remember that.
    Aleph: I see that her Ekoese is starting to slip beyond the level where Keris can understand it all.
    Aleph: A notable sign of how she's growing.
    EarthScorpion: Poor Eko.
    EarthScorpion: She used to be unconditionally the happiest soul.
    Aleph: : (
    EarthScorpion: Now, heh, now it's probably Vali.
    EarthScorpion: Although, to be fair, Eko is usually fairly chill. It's just she's also lonely right now.
    EarthScorpion: It's only her and the babies left in here, after all.
    EarthScorpion: After all, she's the eldest, and physically basically adult.
    Aleph: yeah
    Aleph: poor eko
    Aleph: She'll be happier once she gets her szilfa and she can throw herself into a culture of stageplays and travelling shows and - sigh - mystery acts.
    Aleph: oh goddammit they're a cultural thing of the Ruin
    Aleph: it's like a cross between an escape room - you know, those things where you and a group of friends have to find a way out? - a murder mystery play, a puzzle with audience participation and an improv riddle contest
    Aleph: but the basic concept is that a szilfan mystery play presents a mystery to the audience - usually a complex, many-layered one with a distinct theme - and they must half-watch and half-participate to solve it before the end of the performance, or the szilfa troupe "win".
    EarthScorpion: also sometimes they abduct an audience
    Aleph: Except, sigh.
    Aleph: it's also a contest between the szilfa troupe. Because they decide on the theme beforehand, but the rest of it is entirely improv as each actress tries to wrestle the details of the mystery away from the others and wrap her own puzzle around the answer - which emerges synergistically by solving all of the questions posed (usually existentialist ones).
    Aleph: And the one who unveils the full form of the compound statement or philosophical viewpoint or culprit and motive and chain of hidden events or whatever is the winning szilf.
    Aleph: heh
    Aleph: With a full szilfa troupe behind it, all pulling in different directions and working against each other and the audience to put layer after layer of obfuscation and guile around the core of the performance, a skilled troupe who are above-average in skill and who work well together and who specialise in mystery acts can usually keep Eko entertained until at least partway through the second act.
    EarthScorpion: Zanara: "HELPING!"
    Aleph: ?
    EarthScorpion: Zanara is going to get involved in this.
    Aleph: Yes, heh.
    Aleph: Though I don't think they're actually that fond of them. It's more an Eko style of performance than a Zanaran one.
    Aleph: It's not focused on being pretty, it's focused on fooling the audience and making them think really hard to follow the plot and figure out the mystery before the end.
    EarthScorpion: Yes, exactly. That's why it's "HELPING", not "I'm helping".
    Aleph: : P
    EarthScorpion: Hmm. Who's hipster - Eko or Zanara?
    Aleph: Eko is hipster. Zanara is indie-punk.
    EarthScorpion: Sigh. Yes. Eko's stuff is super abstract.
    EarthScorpion: Oh, Eko. She adores all her siblings, not just Calesco. For a murder wind she's very sentimental and loving. She plays with Kali all she can because Kali is covered in feathers.

    ...

    Aleph: hee
    Aleph: Rathan is trying to out-Extra Malek.
    EarthScorpion: Rathan is so fucking extra.
    Aleph: Sigh. You know what?
    Aleph: If the Pantheon Charm on Szoreny's side that Rathan eats is the one linked to Kagami, all three of Keris's older souls have a fetich for an "elder sibling".
    EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "But of course. Power is my inheritance. And you spoil the other two."
    Aleph: heh
    EarthScorpion: Hee. Keris didn't react to Eko's "I'll make sure I'll meet him at your wedding with him" comment
    Aleph: she was in despair by that point

    ...

    Aleph: I am enjoying bb!DB.
    EarthScorpion: she is smol
    EarthScorpion: She wasn't actually meant to be so Haneyl-like, but that's just a byproduct of the fact Haneyl loves Wood aspect abilities.
    EarthScorpion: Also, have you worked out the deal yet with her daughters?
    Aleph: Hmm? That the servant staff are all clones of her who may not be fully sapient and a very low percentage of them Exalt and "wakes up"?
    EarthScorpion: Well, it's that there's... "levels", we might say, of her clone-fruit.
    EarthScorpion: And the highest grade ones very rarely Exalt.
    Aleph: Keris: "... fuck, I gotta admit that is a super tempting prospect."
    EarthScorpion: But yeah, she's got full on Brave New World via botany going on.
    EarthScorpion: The servants don't need to be smart, so they're grown in one way. The soldiers need to be a little smarter and capable of using their initiative so they're done in a more expensive way. And ones like the sentry who need to be fully capable require as much input as a normal child.
    Aleph: Keris: "... it's not unlike Haneyl's mudmen, trained beasts and actual citizens."
    EarthScorpion: Spiritually, they're all human, biologically they're... essentially "plant-beastmen" - but the cheap ones basically can't Exalt because they're too lacking in "human-ness".
    Aleph: ...
    Aleph: they're Bobs
    Aleph: lol
    EarthScorpion: The cheap ones grow on trees - the expensive ones are born like mandrake roots and their plants require nine months of close attention. : P
    Aleph: hee
    EarthScorpion: Zanara: "Oh, that's so clever. Who needs slaves when you can grow things like that who don't even understand what freedom could be? It's so pretty!"
    Aleph: dammit Zanara
    EarthScorpion: Heh
    EarthScorpion: Not going to lie, my notes on Pardis basically consisted of one word.
    Aleph: Oh dear.
    EarthScorpion: "Shuri"
    Aleph: ...
    Aleph: Goddamn you I can see it.
    EarthScorpion: : D
    Aleph: Speaking of Shuri... would Keris fall for this, yes or definitely?
    EarthScorpion: Yes. That's the problem with having Eko and Zanara as your R&D heads.
    Aleph: Keris: "You're both groundeeeeeeeeeed!" *is sent flying off into the distance*
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  • Threadmarks
    • So will any of Eko's 2CDs be able to keep up with her intellectually? Certainly that hope would be a reason for her to start working out how to fully ascend as a 3CD and start growing them.

    I also wonder if Oramus or Elloge is more likely as a source for another of Eko's Pantheon Charms. I'm thinking Oramus, but ribbons covered in writing is an interesting image for her.

    Also, is there any chance of an omake or one-session sidestory about what Haneyl's been up to? It would be interesting to see her perspective on things given just how long she's been separated from Keris. Especially if Sasi has at some point summoned Kaleska and thus given Haneyl a more direct chance to talk with her.

    As for the continued subject of Ney, I think by this point Asarin could be taking notes for her eventual transformation into the Unconquered Tsun.
     
    The Sandman said:
    I also wonder if Oramus or Elloge is more likely as a source for another of Eko's Pantheon Charms. I'm thinking Oramus, but ribbons covered in writing is an interesting image for her.
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    Pretty sure the plan is that Eko will get Elloge, from what Aleph has said before. Not sure about which souls would pick up whatever Oramus Charms Keris learns. Ancient and Firstborn would almost definitely have gone to Vali, though. It fits right in with his central theme that the only constraints he accepts are the ones he imposes on himself.
     
    The Sandman said:
    Also, is there any chance of an omake or one-session sidestory about what Haneyl's been up to? It would be interesting to see her perspective on things given just how long she's been separated from Keris. Especially if Sasi has at some point summoned Kaleska and thus given Haneyl a more direct chance to talk with her.

    As for the continued subject of Ney, I think by this point Asarin could be taking notes for her eventual transformation into the Unconquered Tsun.
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    I obviously can't write a Haneyl extra on account of not knowing what she's doing, and I doubt @EarthScorpion will because he wants to conserve surprise for when Keris sees her for the first time in two or three seasons. It's possible you might get one after they reunite, though.

    And honestly, I think being friends with Asarin is part of what's fuelling Keris's tsun side, so it's more like the other way around.
    spacemonkey37 said:
    Pretty sure the plan is that Eko will get Elloge, from what Aleph has said before. Not sure about which souls would pick up whatever Oramus Charms Keris learns. Ancient and Firstborn would almost definitely have gone to Vali, though. It fits right in with his central theme that the only constraints he accepts are the ones he imposes on himself.
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    Keris does indeed have Ancient and Firstborn, and it has indeed gone to Vali.
     
    I was wondering at the impetus for Keris learning Elloge charms for Eko to get her blood thematics, but I can see it now.

    Means to Meaning and Jeweled Tongue Translation to insure that whoever she is talking to can understand her Ekoese no matter how complex it gets. Witty Soul Satori and Ether Scroll Inscription to put out information at the pace that she's thinking it. Witty Soul Satori even has the Ichor keyword for the first bit of blood thematics.
     
    Aleph said:
    I obviously can't write a Haneyl extra on account of not knowing what she's doing, and I doubt @EarthScorpion will because he wants to conserve surprise for when Keris sees her for the first time in two or three seasons. It's possible you might get one after they reunite, though.
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    Oh, Haneyl's having fun. She's taking place in a narrative that's one part "a sheltered teenage girl goes to stay with more cultured relatives and learns all kinds of new things and makes new friends and experiences a blossoming of romance" and one part "a dark cult summons a powerful demon who takes mortal form and corrupts all they touch, luring others into subjugation and sin". You know, healthy young adult novel meets the kind of thing that gets banned from school libraries.

    Also, she might also be playing the role of the new bitchy queen bee transfer student in someone else's story. She's a proactive girl.
     
    Session 107
  • Threadmarks
    • The second of the three banked sessions I have; Part 107. This should give ya'll some more to talk about, heheh. We get a nice talk with Malek where we dig into some of her backstory, Keris being BEST BOTANIST and cashing in on all that work she did up in the Northeast, Mad Plant Science Occultism and Genesis, Pardis showing off her Shuri side, a wonderful birthday party for Calesco and...

    ... well, an interesting present.

    I'll let you all see what I mean by that without further ado.

    Extras:
    Aleph: Hmm. What's the Cog+Lore roll for Keris to vaguely know of the invocation ritual as a thing that's possible, or is that common enough knowledge that she doesn't need one?
    EarthScorpion: She knows that wicked sorcerers consort with demonic altars and statues which talk with the voice of dark spirits, from plays on the street in Nexus and also Saata. The GSPs don't really use that spell 'cause of the fact that they have CCS.
    Aleph: It can be used for 3CDs too~
    EarthScorpion: Yes, but 3CDs often don't like being called that way rather than just being IMed, if they already know you.
    Aleph: Look, sometimes you need a proper conversation rather than a series of emails with a ten-day reply lag.

    ...

    Aleph: Heh. It occurred to me that elinvar, as a form of wooden lesser-starmetal, would be perfect for the star-themed Calesco's bow if it was a really dark, dense type. A dark yew, maybe.
    EarthScorpion: Well, I mean, you won't get an artefact bow in time for her birthday. Because it's in a few days.
    Aleph: Yeah, but in a similar way to Haneyl and Vali, she can get the... vessel? Vessel for one - an elinvar-yew bow that will be transformed into an artifact by firing ten-thousand starlight arrows, or something similar.
    EarthScorpion: Mmm.
    Aleph: Heh. If Eko gets a mask-artifact in her Panoply; that'll almost certainly be the same way.
    EarthScorpion: Well, her dress is probably becoming something like that. She's been wearing it non-stop for a year.
    Aleph: Hah, yes.
    Aleph: Sigh. That fits. The Sasi siblings take existing artifacts and remake them. The Adorjan siblings are given a set by their mother, but take another set of non-magical exceptional gear and fill them with power. Rathan and Zanara remain to be seen.
    EarthScorpion: Anyway, Keris gets her hand on some fine hardwoods from Malek in return for some notes on North-Eastern plants and their magical uses. It's a fine, dark wood with hints of lighter speckles in the bark - Malek says it was growing in a remote forest in Perswha linked to the Maidens.
    EarthScorpion: Unfortunately she doesn't have elinvar sitting around, but these hardwoods have been growing in the area of a Sidereal demesne she knows about.
    Aleph: Oooo, excellent~

    ...

    Aleph: So, fast-forward to Calesco's birthday, with some Keris-sorcery-learning on the way?
    EarthScorpion: OK, so, hmm. What version of the spell does Malek know? Roll me Cog + Occult and we'll see how closely it matches your wants.
    Aleph: 4+5+9 Kimmy ExD {impossibly high standards, thinks she is fair, demands payment}=18. 10 sux.
    EarthScorpion: So, the version she uses herself for when she wishes to contact a demon lord is quite an interesting set-up. She has a complicated arrangement involving corrupted yellow jade that distils an oily fluid rich in a sort of generic low-grade Hellish essence, which she burns in offering to the icon, placed upon an old Dragon King altar she found and repurposed. She also uses her plant-beastmen as cultists, though they're too stupid to know what they're doing. The spell she's devised therefore has the properties:
    Target - Any, Essence Aspect - Hellish, Anchor - Artifact (Any Religious) or Cult
    Dicepool - (Persuasion + Expression)
    EarthScorpion: It has generally religious overtones - Keris doesn't recognise it, but there's corrupted Varangian religion in it.
    Aleph: Iiiiinteresting. Keris can deffo get use out of that, heh. And yesssss~ Per+Exp, hee.
    EarthScorpion: Basically, from a creationborn's PoV, Malek sacrificed ease of use for flexibility and making sure the safeguards are in.

    ...

    <about Pardis>
    Aleph: ....
    Aleph: Keris is basically being Serafina to her Haneyl, honestly.
    EarthScorpion: : p
    EarthScorpion: Of course, if you read between the lines, the five-season growth thing was piggybacking onto her own DB-ness. Doing it "properly" from how much work she put in.
    Aleph: Yes, heh. Did Keris correctly guess and hit all four Principles there?
    EarthScorpion: I can't confirm, but she was in the right ballpark with Pardis.
    Aleph: Social Keris is scary Keris.
    EarthScorpion: She would terrify starting Keris.
    Aleph: She really would.
    EarthScorpion: That or get her crushing on her future self.
    Aleph: ... well, yes.
    Aleph: She could play her chargen self almost as easily as Sasi.
    EarthScorpion: Maybe even better, because Keris can code-shift down to "being poor" better.
    Aleph: Heh. True
    Keris: "C'mon. We're gonna go knock over a few Bag-ships."​

    ...

    Aleph: hee
    Keris: "... now why didn't I think of that?"​
    EarthScorpion: Calesco: "Because that's a Zanara idea and Zanara ideas result in mutations."
    Aleph: Keris: "They could be pretty mutations! I could make a simple Luminescent-equivalent one that shows whether the baby's awake or asleep in there, and lights up when it's kicking!"
    Keris: "And then take it off again when they're born."
    Keris: "Maybe not a literal glow, though. Just a changing picture."​
    EarthScorpion: Calesco: "Mutations of the baby, Keris."
    Aleph: Keris: "Well, not if you're careful about it."

    ...

    Aleph: Hmm. So the thing is
    Aleph: Keris is very unwilling to be away from Kali and Ogin for more than about half an hour, at the moment. She'll relinquish them to Rathan and Calesco, and to Oula if she has her hair tied back and is wearing special gloves or Rounen for storytime babysitting if they're in a crib, but she really prefers it when they're both with her, if not actively being held. I mean, she doesn't need a double-stroller. Keris is perfectly capable of basically just... keeping them in a hair-sling against her chest all day, where they can easily suckle if they get hungry and have lots of skin contact and attention. She'll put them down in a cradle when she needs to do things that are dangerous or athletic, but that's her ideal state.
    Aleph: And she's probably not willing to give that up for a solid week or so around Malek.
    Aleph: So she'll have used Haar-Hidden Dealings to disguise their nature by keeping them swaddled up and so on - which I think gets the full +3 - but yeah, she'll have had them around Malek while learning sorcery, and around Pardis making the bow.
    Aleph: And while she might well have fooled Pardis, who's more focused on Calesco and the bow, there's a fair chance Malek will have noticed they're... odd.
    EarthScorpion: Oh, I mean, I assumed that Malek would have just learned their natures over the time, and not really thought much of it because she believes Keris is some order of powerful demonic being, maybe even what the myths of the Anathema are based on, so akuma-progeny are just what you'd expect.
    Aleph: Yeah. Just wanted to clarify.
    Aleph: And assume that if Keris is in a scene, the twins are as well, and that it's a coinflip as to whether she's got them in slings.
    EarthScorpion: I mean, this is the woman who's staffed her estate entirely with plant-beastmen of herself.
    EarthScorpion: She has a refreshingly open approach to human reproductive practices
    Aleph: Hmm. It's been... two, maybe three weeks? They're at almost seven months equivalent now.
    Aleph: "Seven-month-olds are learning to get around, although they don't all do it in the same way. Your baby may creep, scoot, roll, crawl, or combine all four movements. You can encourage this new mobility by placing toys just out of your baby's reach. Make sure baby is safe while exploring by putting away any toys or other objects that contain small or sharp pieces."
    Aleph: Okay.
    Aleph: So the other reason she has them in slings a lot
    Aleph: is because they are already beginning to play Escape The Crib.
    EarthScorpion: Especially Kali, who's cat-mobile when she's a tiger cub.
    Aleph: Keris: "KALI NO!" *lunges to catch her*
    Aleph: sigh
    Aleph: yes
    Aleph: Especially in chick form, Kali appears to have literally no fear of jumping off high places like the edge of the crib.
    EarthScorpion: Also in tiger cub form. Where she mostly, but not always, lands on her feet.
    Aleph: Yyyup.
    Aleph: And, sigh, if she starts crying and is not within patting range, Ogin will proceed to squirm-crawl off the same high thing to get to her.
    EarthScorpion: He tends to scale his way down things like those sticky legged spider toy things. Using baby grabbing with his tails, and then dropping down, then grabbing something else, then dropping further.
    Aleph: hee
    Aleph: so cute
    EarthScorpion: Heh.
    EarthScorpion: They'll probably be on solids by the time Big Sis Haneyl meets them. So she gets the pleasure of feeding them.
    Aleph: ... actually, heh. Malek might at least be somewhat interested in their specific types of inhumanity; at least to the level of "ah, so she can turn into a cat and a bird of some kind" curiosity-satiation.
    EarthScorpion: Well, heh, that'll probably come up first time she either sees a change or Keris comes in with a wrapped up tiger cub.

    ...

    <re: Calesco bow>
    Aleph: ...
    EarthScorpion: did u like it~
    EarthScorpion: : D
    Aleph: were you planning that all the way back then?
    EarthScorpion: : D
    Aleph: or did you just happen to think "oh sweet, she can use Szánalome as a bowstring" when the subject of her bow came up?
    EarthScorpion: Wouldn't you like to know?
    Aleph: yes
    Aleph: yes, I would
    Aleph: that is why I am asking
    EarthScorpion: (mid point between the two, really)
    EarthScorpion: (not right now, but not quite that long ago)
    Aleph: heh
    Aleph: In-game, though, Adorjan totally did. She's more-than-Eko-brilliant. It was obvious that her precious younger daughter would need a bowstring.
    Aleph: Keris: "... that concerns me on multiple levels."
    EarthScorpion: on the other hand, this is Adorjan
    Aleph: well, yes
    EarthScorpion: Of course, the old question is how real Malek's "sincere regrets" really are.
    Aleph: Hmm. True.
    Aleph: I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, though.
    Aleph: And also use Kindness Expects Repayment on her.
    Aleph: "With a grunt of effort, she pulls it back - and as she does, Keris hears the wind that blows over the point go silent and sees red streaming off its point", lol
    Aleph: Heh. Calesco's arrows don't explode like that. They just tend to ignore backstops. She can snipe people in a bunker from outside the bunker.
    EarthScorpion: No. They slice. At 3CD level, they do the Kenpachi thing, only as an arrow.
    Aleph: that's sort of what I meant; they cut rather than exploding
    Aleph: ... sigh. They're Wind chakra, not Fire.
    Aleph: Vali will think her cutting arrows are "totally wicked, sis!".

    ...

    EarthScorpion: So next session is going to be Keris' first pre-meditated murder of a demon lord. : P
    Aleph: "first", lol

    ...

    Aleph: You know, Rathan will always be a clean-shaven bishie.
    Aleph: but Vali will totally have a rocking beard in adulthood.
    Aleph: (which he will put into dreadlocks, naturally)
    EarthScorpion: The question is
    EarthScorpion: does the dragon also have a beard?
    Aleph: he is a goat-dragon
    Aleph: so probably
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  • Threadmarks
    • Okay, so now for some reason I'm seeing adult Vali's dragon form as Mammon from K6BD, except in much better physical and mental shape.
     
    I do love how Keris and her crew are essentially a series of rolling horror stories of one sort or the other when viewed from an outside perspective, and how Kerisa is going all Empty Child on every village they come across.
     
    I think she needs to find (or be found by) whoever currently has Rosseah's Exaltation before we start nearing peak horror story though.
     
    The Sandman said:
    Okay, so now for some reason I'm seeing adult Vali's dragon form as Mammon from K6BD, except in much better physical and mental shape.
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    Well, Vali's form is limbless, with brass wings and basalt skin that looks like the surface of lava in how it's riddled with cracks through which you can see the glowing molten rock underneath. Haneyl is a wingless four-legged crocodile-headed dragon, and Vali is a winged but limbless goat-headed dragon - I guess you might call him a wyvern if I recall my dragons correctly. So not really that much like Mammon, except in the beard.
    Academia Nut said:
    I do love how Keris and her crew are essentially a series of rolling horror stories of one sort or the other when viewed from an outside perspective, and how Kerisa is going all Empty Child on every village they come across.
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    Hey now! Not every village! Just every village they stop anywhere near during nightfall when the moon isn't too bright in the sky! :p
    The Sandman said:
    I think she needs to find (or be found by) whoever currently has Rosseah's Exaltation before we start nearing peak horror story though.
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    Remember that Kerisgame may not have Lunar mates as a thing - or rather it does, as part of the TAW charmset, but it's a choice on the Lunar's part to create a magical bond to something they have a Principle towards - and it's entirely ST choice on whether to have it be just that or to include a costless permanent bond to a single Solar Exaltation that follows them through hosts. Rosseah wasn't necessarily Yamal's mate; they may just have been his mom friend and Dulmea-equivalent.
     
    Academia Nut said:
    I do love how Keris and her crew are essentially a series of rolling horror stories of one sort or the other when viewed from an outside perspective, and how Kerisa is going all Empty Child on every village they come across.
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    Now, now.

    She's accompanied with Rounen on some of these things, so it's an Empty Child accompanied by a demon whose head basically looks like a Jack O'Lantern. Who has a habit of hunting people's pets and cooking and eating them. And leaving bones around where he ate. Also, stealing books, including religious texts that he just steals and reads because they're something new.

    (Once again, we are reminded that sziromkeruby have an ecological impact similar to a cat that can use tools and spit fire)
     
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