#58 Edder the Sigilyph has been murdered by the Stalkers.

Location: Outside Dern's Delicatessen
Cause of Death: Incinerated

Outside of Dern's Delicatessen, Britera the Braixen and Lexin the Flygon had been trying to get Deen the Timburr to relax and give a coherent witness testimony. They could easily tell it had been his first time seeing a murder, and this was a grizzly one at that. He had already vomited twice over it, and both Lexin and Britera knew it had to be the smell that was getting to him. Deen was trying to remain calm, but it was still well out of his comfort zone.

"I swear I'm never going to forget that smell," Deen grimaced, looking at Edder's husk of a corpse.

"Relax and take it easy," Britera told him. "When did you find him like this?"

"Only about an hour ago," Deen replied. "Guy's body was still smoking. I don't even know... who is this?"

"Edder," Lexin stated in a cold voice. "The body is badly destroyed and almost recognizable, but I can distinguish the Sigilyph features. Thankfully, they're unique and there's enough remnants of them to make the determination."

Britera tilted her head and looked over at the corpse, nodding. She too, could see traces of the colorful, fork-like Sigilyph appendages among the burnt and incinerated remains. All the while, Sten was taking pictures, making faces, and shaking his head at the sight and the smell of the Sigilyph's husk of a corpse. Every now and then, he'd put the camera aside and take notes.

"Edder?" Deen asked, looking perplexed as to why it had been him. "That crazy old bastard? Who'd want to kill him?"

"You'd be surprised," Britera replied. "The elderly make easy targets, unfortunately. And it seems like no one cared or knew enough about Edder to watch over him while he was out tonight. He probably even forgot what time it was and thought the deli might still be open at this hour."

"And what's Ka-rra-sin?" Deen asked, looking at something he found on the road. "Looks like weird letters right here."

Britera stepped around to take a look at what Deen was referring to, and it surprised her also. It seemed like something she hadn't seen before. She looked at them from the same angle as Deen, as the letters were rapidly disappearing with the gusts of wind and already there was some smudging.

"Karrasin," Britera stated, making out the letters written in the ashes. "I wonder... we've found other murders like this before, but we never found these ashes."

"Possibly blew away before we saw them," Sten stated, taking a picture of the word. "What do you think means? Possible Stalker ID?"

"Maybe," Britera shrugged. "Could be a code phrase. Or some kind of occult lingo. That's the stupid thing, you never really know with these maniacs. They put random crap like this all over the place. We end up wasting so much time trying to figure it out while they keep doing this."

"It seems like they were wrong about Edder," Lexin stated in a cold tone. "There were many who believed he was psychotic, but it turns out he's the victim this time. We might need to look back at whoever made these claims."

"You do that and I'll see if I can look into what this whole 'Karrasin' thing is about," Britera replied. "Maybe there's another mention of it somewhere in some of the past records."

Lexin nodded, but to the best of his memory, he hadn't seen it before. Despite his best intentions, once again, it always seemed like the Stalkers were so many steps ahead of them and they kept struggling just to remain on the trail, never mind catch up to them...

Doom Tracker:
3/20

The Enthrallers have learned a fraction about your mission...
Mission Disclosure: 20%/100%