[IC] Gurr'Kha - The Dead World

[A Lowly Wretch]

CRACK!

Such was the sound of the cobbled stones shattering beneath the blow from her anchor as she hammered down with a singular strike. Bits of rock flew in every which direction, numerous pieces plinking harmless off her solid mass of armor. She stood there a moment before lifting her anchor only to see a firm anchor-shaped depression in the ground where she had struck.

"Owoh? Where did she go...?" She slowly wondered aloud as she hoisted her anchor back onto her shoulder effortlessly while turning her narrow eye slot about to find her target. She looked over to see the orc grappling the woman she was trying to hit. Given the fact she was unconscious it seemed fairly clear to her. Evidently this orc had grabbed her and beat her up before she could even hit her, knocking her out on his own.

"Nice hit!" She chimed, sticking out a metal thumb up to the orc. She turned to face her employer as he made an announcement.

"Okay, listen up! I've got this here job that needs doin', and I thin it's good if we do it fast, so don't do that again!" He proclaimed, trying to get their attention.

After he was finished she turned to the crowd of interesting folk, standing tall with her anchor braced across her back plate.

"Hey! Everybody who's apart of this better listen! We got a job to do!" She called out, her hollow voice echoing within the metal helm which served to muffle her shouting to a mild degree. It was almost enough to hide the wholly unnatural aspects to her voice. She waved her free hand to the group as she called for attention.

[Lady Selune]

She awoke, but the place was not the same. She stood to her feet and looked around. She was in a field, much like those from which she had grown up in, surrounded by neck-high golden rolling fields. She held her hand out, noting how the mail and armour she normally wore was absent, replaced by a simple white dress, bound at the waist with a silver band. She looked up, the wheat parting neatly as a figure strode towards her. They were radiant... They glowed with beauty, majesty and power. She gasped and averted her gaze, looking down as her patron paced towards her with grace. She felt delicate hands underneath her chin, lifting her up to see her goddess in her eyes.

"Hello little one." Said the goddess, quietly. Radiant did not do this woman justice. Every inch of her hurt Galdari's eyes, so beautiful was she.

"My lady," the paladin said, very uncomfortable with the position that she was in, staring so deep into her lady's eyes. "How may I be of assistance, humble as I am?" She twitched a little as the hand adjusted, squeezing her cheeks in a matronly way. The goddess gestured outwards with her arm, towards the rolling fields.

"I'm afraid that the fields are not as they once were little one." The goddess spoke now with more than a touch of sadness in her voice. Sighing, the woman's hand slipped down to Galdari's shoulder, squeezing it tightly. Then, the fields seemed to fall away. Left instead was brown earth and stunted growths, each one of them sickly. She was a farm girl, she knew what that was. Blight. In the fields of her lady.

"My lady... How is this... How is this possible?" The paladin gasped, slack jaw in horror and revulsion as she looked at the poor display in front of her. This was unheard of. No, not unheard of. Impossible. How could divine crops ever be corrupted by blight? The woman shuddered a little and looked up at her mistress. "Is it possible to be cleansed?" The woman stared up at the goddess, who looked down sadly.

"The Golden Fields show the truth of the mortal world. This is what the world you live in is like. Little one, this is not the natural order of things, but it can be set straight. The man who offered you a job, he is an indirect artifact of my will. Through him you will be able to purge the blight from the world, and the Golden Fields at the same time. The people you're with, as strange as they seem, they will be needed to be my instrument.

The woman in front of her held up her hand, and a golden sickle materialised. "Your armour, blessed as it is, will not be needed any more my child. Go in the barest needed, my light is with you." The flat of the sickle gently touched the Galadari's shoulders, and she stiffeded. Was the goddess.. Knighting her? No, that was not possible, truly?

"All of those I am with, my lady?"

"All of those that you are with. The orc, the dragon, the strange and the peculiar. They are channels through which you will flow. Your flame will grace the land, and it will leave it as pure as the day that we formed it from the shapeless nothing. Do this, and you will be venerated forever, by mortals and immortals alike."

"My lady... I cannot say anything..." If she had been slack-jacked before, that was nothing compared to what she was now. Nothing made sense to her, but her heart burned fereverntly with an unquenchable faith.

"Say nothing then little one. My grace, my light will be with you, to guide you in troubling times. You must only worry about the destruction of the problems that plagues your world, not of the protection of your own blessed body. Farewell, little one." The woman let the sickle vanish once more, and Galdari could feel herself being pulled away from the Golden Fields. With head bowed in reverence, she felt herself return to her mortal body.

"Owwwwwwwwww..." She groaned, rolling over to her back and placing a hand to her bruised head.

[Gordoth]

Right. It looked as if everything had calmed down, to a degree. There were multiple dust particles clouding the view, but outlines of figures could still be perceived. Urdal shook his head at the apparent childish behavior of those people, but he remembered that some of them had been affected so greatly they seemed to be unable to put the world in its appropriate place, mind wise. He clapped his hands and started throwing a look at each person who had engaged in this debauchery-rich endeavor.

"Right, let me get this straight! Numenor, Orky, priest, lady on the ground, Gangra-- Gang, come here and... Line up!" He issued his first order, and already felt wrong. But that was that. He had completely neglected to take into account the priest was out cold in the dirt. He then took a look at those who had not actually 'signed' a contract with him yet. First, he faced the large, demonic individual.

"I don't think we got through the job stuff properly, so I'll offer again! I'm lookin' to go north, and I need some people. You almost agreed to join, so I'm sure you won't mind. I'll give you anythin' you want as payment, once the job's done!" The half-elf explained to the black and red giant of a person and then turned to the dragon, who's name was nicely mentioned by him.

"Sir... Endrokin... I'm offerin' the same to you. I can get you a load of treasures, if you'd want that. Or anythin' else." Informed Urdal as he looked at the uncomfortably imposing dragonkin.

He had made his case. And now he needed to hold these perceivable madmen together.

[FalloutJack]

There was something most agreeable about the way he connected. For the longest time, even though he had gotten along with one well enough, he had wanted to clock a paladin in the head. A nice big grin formed on the dragon-man's head. Senah would've loved...would've... All at once, Endrokin's merriment vanished. Good gods, the curse had been listed from his kind as all of time and space suffered the loss of the gods, but what of those of his own kind? Not only taken from those he had had no choice but to travel with, but those he actually enjoyed the company of...! What of his own kind? Where were they, now that their power was free? What of the huntress with whom he traveled? Or his mentor, who raised him? Or another whom he lost during the war?

Endrokin's troubles so-consumed him for a moment that he almost did not hear the voice of the elf, the elf that should not exist. They were extinct! His kind murdered them all. What was this historical blunder that they were still alive? How much had the world changed because of his actions? It was so hard to tell what was true now. He had to find others, confer with them the things he knew or thought he knew, else he would go insane. He now turned to the being who should not exist, Urdal.

"I'll be accompanying you, even though I hold all of this under suspicion. There is much which I must deal with in the world, and this is as good a direction as any. Should we encounter more of my own kind, you will let me speak to them. I must know what I know..."

He seemed very adamant on this, if a bit confusing about the last bit. Nevertheless, dragon joins the party. So, let's get this crazy-go-nuts show on the road.

[Gordoth]

And death befell the world, and all who had ever roamed the lands ceased to be, slowly, painfully, succumbing to madness first and hunger second. Their hopes fell, their dreams failed them, and all rational races were gone.

What remained was a world more reminiscent of a wasteland. The irrational beasts of the wilds grew to be, once again, the dominant species in Gurr'Kha. Whatever was left of rationality was no more.

Eventually, rational beings could rise again, and they would name the world they lived in differently. They would find, many, many years later, the remnants of what had once been the civilizations which were destroyed by the death of what their people believed in.

Gurr'Kha is unfortunate.