Scenario:Auld Lanxiety - Chapter 2: The Priestly Path - Episode 4

Auld Lanxiety - Chapter 2: The Priestly Path - Episode 4

On another island, Erunes possessed by Kleshas try to run Human and Harvin children out of their village. A Draph priest appears and banishes their evil thoughts with his flute.

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Meanwhile on another island...

Human Boy: ...

Harvin Boy: ...

Demagogue: Gong! This land belongs to the Erunes. No one else is welcome here.

Demagogue: We are proud Erunes.

Demagogue: Peace will only flourish when the Erunes live here alone, gong.

Demagogue: Variation is a sin. Appearance, ability, thought... Differentiation of any sort is the root of conflict.

Demagogue: It is only right that we weed it out, for the sake of peace!

Enthralled Erune 1: That's right! Get out, gong! We don't need Humans in this village!

Human Boy: ...

Enthralled Erune 3: You too, pip-squeak! You should just clear out!

Harvin Boy: ...

Enthralled Erune 2: All you do is make trouble for the rest of us!

Enthralled Throng: Yeah, gong! Get out!

???: Ooooh...

Enthralled Erune 1: What was that?

???: ...

Enthralled Erune 3: Who the heck are you?

???: I am a wandering monk who travels among the islands in search of forbidden requiems that lie in ancient ruins.

Enthralled Erune 2: Well? What business do you have here, gong?

???: Drifting through this world, I alight on this island to find base ignorance—the stain of Avidya—running rampant.

???: Such sadness.
Such wretchedness.

Enthralled Erune 1: Listen, you creep...

Enthralled Erune 1: Gong back to Valtz or wherever you're from!

???: To divide and devalue one's neighbors—Could there be greater folly, deeper impoverishment of spirit?

???: This humble priest cannot allow such foolishness to pass.

Enthralled Erune 2: You've got a gate over yer yap, so why don't you shut it! Or do you need it gonged for you?

???: Poor souls, so twisted by temptation that reason no longer reaches you.

???: Come, let my flute bring peace to your storm-tossed souls.

The man produces a flute and brings it to his lips.

The deep, pure notes weave through the crowd, quelling the turmoil in those souls distorted by their darkest yearnings.

Enthralled Erune 2: What... What is that sound?

Enthralled Erune 1: Stop... playing... gong...

As the melody envelops them, the adults in the area lose consciousness and collapse one by one.

Human Boy: Are they asleep?

The dumbfounded boy—quaking with fear behind the stranger—ventures a tentative question.

The man ruffles the boy's hair and speaks in the gentlest voice he can muster.

???: Fear not, young one. I merely soothed the fever of these people poisoned by evil thoughts.

Harvin Boy: Evil... thoughts?

???: Unforgettable desires slumber in the heart of every mortal.

???: When allowed to go unchecked, they lead people astray into the worst kinds of folly...

???: Your neighbors were blinded to the light of reason, clinging doggedly to their mistaken beliefs.

???: The violence of their words was the product of evil thoughts allowed to fester like an untreated wound.

Human Boy: Oh...

???: I have taken their pain and will shoulder it in their stead.

???: Happiness in this life is found when one looks honestly at oneself.

???: Though their path be mired in darkness, never forget that it leads into the light.

Human Boy: ...
Okay! I understand.

Harvin Boy: Thank you, mister!

???: How rewarding a thing is a child's smile... It is peace itself.

???: These people should soon regain their senses now that they have thrown off the yoke of their Kleshas...