09-30-2018, 09:18 PM
and lord, I fashion dark gods too;
They fought the dead to come here, to bleed for him, for Pangea. He feels a thrill as he witnesses this, as the pieces worm their way out, strange and sick magic. They don’t know how much their blood matters – it’s the last tie needed between Pangea and the mountain.
It’s so powerful, blood. All the more so when given freely.
(Some give more freely than others, but that doesn’t matter. When one refuses, he simply snaps them out of existence, back to wherever they came. Perhaps there will be time for punishment, later.)
The blood pours from them, and rather than floating into the ocean all around them, it crashes into Pangea’s heart, lured by a strange gravity. The light grows stronger as the blood disappears within it, and light begins to pulse over them, sick and strange and growing stronger.
He feels the strength within himself as well – he is bound to this land, in his own way, and though Pangea’s downfall hurt only his pride, he feels a new and glorious strength as the drowned kingdom feasts on blood.
They collapse, drained, and one by one they reappear on the beach, blinking and dazed, and he wonders if the madness will wash out. There are odd stains where the pieces wormed themselves out, too. He doesn’t care. He’s brought them back alive, his brief thanks to them.
Some of them stagger and rise to their feet. He’s not watching. His wine-dark eyes are fixated on the horizon, the black sea, which has begun to roil, tumultuous.
The sea gurgles, and across the disturbed surface blood appears, like a monster has been slain beneath its depths. And then the water sinks into itself, an aquatic crater, and the ground beneath them shakes and trembles.
(In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.)
Pangea rises from the ocean, the slain monster arisen, woken. Back amongst the living. The heart is gone, sunk back into the heart, no longer so raw and exposed. It’s almost a normal land, were it not still shedding water, were there not hoofprints and bloodstains all over the drowned kingdom, evidence that should have been gone, preserved by the same sick magic that drew them there in the first place.
The dark god breaks into a smile, as if taking in the sight of an old lover.
The earth beneath them still trembles, aftershocks of this violation.
“Glorious…” he breathes, and he reaches out with his magic, touches the land. Feels the pulse of it. Still erratic.
Strange. Perhaps Pangea, although risen, is not yet healed. He probes further, the veins of cancerous magic that sit under the earth. He almost laughs.
It doesn’t matter to him, after all. To the others, well – they’ve made it this far.
“Well done,” he says to them, and leaves them with a small thanks, before he takes his leave to visit his old kingdom, to revisit the throne, to learn more about Pangea’s sick, beating heart.
NOTES:
Pangea’s back, baby!
- Wherever the pieces wormed out during the sacrifice left a mark/tattoo. The design, and permanence, is up to you (so it can fade completely or stay bold).
- Sochi, Zain, Maugrim, Noah, Rapture, Rajanish, Khaedrik, Sinner, Rey, Oxytocin, Shiya, Raul, and Ramiel – you all completed the sacrifice and were integral parts of Pangea’s rising. Great job!
- The bad news: you will all be sick from spending time in the proximity of Pangea (this also happened to Warrick, who brought Carnage his first piece of Pangea). For at least one BQ year, you will be weak, stumbling, feverish, whatever other symptoms you want to throw in there.
- ALL quest participants who completed the final round may select one (1) of the following traits. Please note that none of the healing traits may be used to heal yourself (or others) of the Pangea-caught illness until you’ve passed the 1-year mark:
- o Flora revival
o Blight
o Disease acceleration
o Disease suppression
o Self-healing (traditional, water, fire, or smoke self-healing)
o Health transference
o Regenerative Healing
o Phoenix-Type Immortality
o Serial Regeneration
- Multiple horses can claim the same trait. Traits are genetic.
- Thank you ALL for your awesome participation <3
c a r n a g e