Dawn’s Hope - Monastery
Baerdog7/Archpaladin Zousha
Leading Karth and his retinue of bodyguards along, you come to the ritual chambers quickly. It had been expected that the Abbot’s meetings with the various grandmasters would have concluded by now, but apparently they have dragged on. As you enter, you see the mustachioed face of Oldak Chandler glared down at the Abbot.
“I will give you one more chance to atone. Renounce your association with these false prophets and I will try to convince the Council they should let you retire quietly. But if you insist in persisting with your blasphemy, it should go badly for you. I swear it!”
The abbot slams his fist into an open palm.
“Damn your pigheadedness, Oldak! Are you such a lapdog that you won’t even pause to consider our evidence!?
Think, man!”
Unfortunately, at that point the image of the grandmaster’s eyes shift, focusing in on the entering group, and most especially Karth.
“Ah, it all becomes clear now, as the puppet master reveals himself. Finally decided to crawl out from under whatever rock you were hiding under, I see.”
“A pleasure as always, Chandler.” Karth says with a tight-lipped smile. The grandmaster’s image scowls.
“I do not know how you escaped from your cage, vermin. But I will see to it that you don’t escape the hangman’s noose this time! As for the rest of you, know that the Hells always have room for more sinners!”
With an angry gesture, the grandmaster breaks the connection, and his image dissolves as the Abbot sighs. “Well, that could have gone better. Not unexpected, but better.”
Karth listens to both Ander’s and Hondshioh’s pleas with growing displeasure, although he remains silent until they finish. And then he simply laughs.
Theme Music:
“None of you truly understand, do you? No one ever truly understands, because you have all blinded yourselves to the truth. The corruption in the Church is not the problem, *we* are.”
Karth smiles and shakes his head.
“We have all allowed ourselves to turn a blind eye towards the failures of the Church as a whole. You say that you see the corruption, but have you ever stopped to consider how it came to be? It came to be because we allowed, because the *system* allowed it!”
Karth gestures dismissively at Ander.
“You think you can simply come down here from on High and clean up this mess, do you? Rally the troops, unite the Church, and bring the corrupt Council to justice, hmm? And what do you propose then, or are you simply going to ride off into the sunrise?”
Karth grimaces as he clenches his hand into a fist.
“Can you really tell me that a year from now, or ten, or even a hundred, that you won’t be coming back down here to clean up the next Council? And the next!? I say NO! No, I will not allow this endless cycle to continue!”
For a moment, just a tinge of regret crosses Karth’s face, although it is quickly overridden with disgust.
“The Council is not to blame for this. No, the people of the Church are to blame, from the Council down to us, and on down to the weak maggots who are part of the Church simply because it is the only thing they have ever known. And the only way to break the cycle is to break the Church. I am saddened by the steps I had to take to accomplish that goal, but I do not regret them.”
“Monster. How many defenseless women and children have been killed in your name!” The captain spits, evidently quite aware of the schism Karth had caused all those years ago.
“Yes! Yes, I have killed women and children! When a forest grows too old and sick, a cleansing fire sweeps through it. Perfectly healthy trees are burned alongside their rotten brothers, but in the end some survive! And after the fire, they thrive, rejuvenating the forest! And that is exactly what must be done with the Church! It is not just the rotten core which must be excised, but all the weak people, the misguided people, and all those who simply don’t care what happens to the Church so long as there is food on the table. The strong will always survive, but unless the parasites are also culled, the corruption shall always return.”
Karth hand drops down to the hilt of his sword as he defiantly raises his chin to Ander and Hondshioh.
“It is weakness, and compromise with that weakness that has led the Church to its current point. Tell me, why should I also compromise my values to you, in return for playing a bit role in your efforts to save the Church that I know in my heart will never succeed?”