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At the northern gate of Entrée

Brie sniffles as she dabs her eyes dry with the offered pocket square, offering a shaky smile to Vesper as she is feeling a bit more warm and tingly inside. "I'll *sniffle* I'll do my best!" she says, retrieving a fresh, neatly folded pocket square from one of her own pockets and offering it to Vesper as replacement. She even adds a little curtsey! A quiet "n'awww" is heard from the nearby guards.

In the depths of the Burokori Forest

The Evil Guards of da Ramena Bowl undulate and move their claws menacingly with their spindly arms, deep shadows cast by their inhuman shapes.

Until Eleanora starts to speak, that is, all three briefly stopping what they are doing (but still swaying). On the first question about the type of curse, the guardian on the right (the one Eleanora is closest to) clears his throat, raises his arms (brief hitch when it sees Tourna doing the same!), and tries to interject "E~e~evil cur-", but Eleanora just keeps going. And the more she lists with no shortage of enthusiasm, while caressing the dazedly wiggling mass of wooden (and a little table-shaped?) roots, the more the guardians stop moving. Arms frozen in the air at first, but moving closer to the body with every passing example.

Eleanora leans in, and the guardian in front of her bends back at the same time, swaying even more dangerously while quickly glancing to its colleagues, who suddenly seem very interested in the poofy tree crowns far above or a nearby bush. As the priestess requests help, still smiling widely, there is a moment of silence, drops of sweat flowing quickly down the darkness beneath the hat.

"I, uh, I go get da... curse book. Yeah. You wait here." And with that, the guardian rotes, top first, then followed by the bottom. It quickly runs down the path into the area presumed to be the Ramena Bowl, moving in serpentines while swaying close to losing balance in every curve, arms noodling wildly in the air. The other two Evil Guards make shocked noises, startled by their colleague running away tactically retreating to lay even more fearsome curses on the party. The back of the running guardian looks just as weird as the front, with three protusions under the coat, one close to the shoulders, one in the small of the back, and one near whatever it has for feet.

The two remaining guards try to regain their composure, clearing their throats and getting their menace back on. "You... you better run! Or you get even scarier curses! And evil fire! Eeevil!" More arm-raising, as if the party were a bear to intimidate.

During this whole exchange, Vesper and Santokumaru examine the Evil Guards of da Ramena Bowl closely, comparing notes. Vesper, of course, received an immaculate education, in addition to brushing up on topics local to the area. Ramena Bowl does indeed ring a bell, there even was a small note on the map handed to them, indeed describing the area ahead of them, surrounded by natural (if unusual) barriers. But he remembers nothing in the way of tales about guardians or "Evil Guards" of said area. What he knows about demonology also fails to match the appearances of the creatures ahead of them (who are visibly perturbed by Eleanora's enthusiasm).

Santokumaru, likewise, fails to recall any of the many local spirits that would match these demons. There are a few that take the form of animate (and often irate) household items. Cautionary tales are passed from generation to generation in that regard, as, for example, if a hundred years old family chef's knife is no longer well-cared for, things could get dicey, figuratively and literally. But long fellows in coats and hats, no, can't say those have come up.

While there is still the chance of local, little-known apparitions or entities, Vesper can put those to rest with decent certainty. You see, most thoroughly evil creatures like specters and demons... come with corresponding presences, auras. Their evil affects their surroundings. To the sharp elvish-butlery eye... that is simply not present. So these are most likely terrestial creatures, no ones connected to other, overlaying spheres.

And perhaps even more irksome, these ruffians have poorly-fitted coats and hats, both overly large! And Vesper can definitely see the creatures moving in three distinct sections beneath the coats. Some form of charade is afoot here. The ruffians certainly seem a bit on the backfoot in the face of Eleanora's unbridled inquiries, and one of their colleagues taking off, shamefully leaving the others behind.