Mockery/Kerumath

Progeny of the Eggshell Sentry

To behold a Kerumath is to see the humble artist of a series of tragedies. Its feathers are a drab beige, with ivory spots under its wings, and gray feathered barbels longer than its wingspan, and the short beak poking out from under these is deceptively sharp. However, it rarely uses this aspect of itself.

With its right eye, a crimson red, it sees the obstacles that its master faces. "Kill this man." It says. "He will be in your way." And the master of the Kerumath will see the wisdom of this, and do so.

With its left obsidian eye, it sees solutions. "Buy this." The Kerumath says. "People will need it, and as their need grows, you will be able to sell it for more."

With every bit of advice the Kerumath gives, misfortune befalls someone who is important to its master. It need not be a direct outcome, or even related at all to the advice of the Lastling Road, but as fate strikes back at the man who has outwitted it, the Kerumath pulls another into the way to face its wrath. Some die, some lose everything, some suffer strange and terrible fates that have cautionary tales spring up around them. It is unfortunately rare that the moral of such a tale is "Do not deal with demons."

Eventually, all friends and allies and lovers and family of the Kerumath's master are deceased or soul eaten, or have left him. The Kerumath will continue to advise, until it feels the hands of Fate closing in, and at this point it leaves unless bound. The Kerumath's master will certainly die the hour he can no longer find his trusted advisor, and his soul has no fate in the Underworld or Creation--the wrath of the Pattern Spiders tears the soul apart, and the tiny shreds are drawn into the body of Malfeas, into tiny reservoirs where they take the saline flavor of nervous sweat, murdered blood, and ancient tears, and as the Kerumaths bathe and drink from these pools, they puff up and boast of their most recent additions to their birdbaths.

A Kerumath can lay eggs and reproduce itself, but it may only do so in a nest of redwood shavings and chips from the wooden mask of a Chrysogona. As the two demons tend to serve the same purpose--advisor to the great or would-be-so--they often come into contact from unwise summoners who try to gain the insights from two different points of view, or from two political rivals. The two will immediately fight to the death, and often will injure those surrounding. When it possesses the necessary chips, and no longer feels the need to fight the Chrysogona, it flits to its nest, and begins to sing to itself as it lays a crystal egg, and for once, when it gives further advice, the wrath of Fate fails to deliver--the Kerumath catches the Loom's vengeful pattern spider and takes one of its fangs, driving it away. It places the fang inside its egg, and thus impregnates it.