We don’t know enough about the Conlee to know if they were just being justly vindictive, or actively cruel. I am not convinced they are cruel.

A top-of-the-line stove is a fancy ceramic thing. In any reasonably large household, it is never let cool — it takes a pile of wood and a long time to get it up to temperature, so fuel and magic are used to keep it there. Putting a child in one = baking a child.

And I am sorry, but both you and Sythry are wrong on this part, when we think about small scale explosions as a common combat occurrence. (Nevermind we have established that this was not the case, hear me out) To protect children, you do not herd them together in a common area where one explosion will wipe them all out. You actively encourage movement AWAY from you, so that they don’t get caught in the explosions that will ensue. Travel in close groups inevitably leads to many dying, instead of just one.

(Just out of curiosity, I know that Stoves are fireproofed in Sythry’s World. Why did no one hide the children in the stoves?)

I suppose there might be some situation in which that was good tactics, but I can’t, offhand, think of it.