BAD END

(Author's Notes)

Panel 1: Inside, the pews are packed with townsfolk listening with rapt attention to the sermon. Laudna and Imogen lean against the back wall, as there is nowhere to sit. Laudna leans forward, intrigued by the sermon or perhaps simply by the strangeness of its deliverer. Imogen looks wary.

Preacher: Some of you may have seen it with your own eyes -- 

Panel 2: At the altar we see the object of everyone's attention: a cleric of unearthly celestial radiance: golden tan skin accented with golden markings like the rays of the sun, shining golden hair surmounted with a faint halo, wearing white robes trimmed with gold. They bear the holy symbol of Pelor. 

Preacher: -- that desolate wasteland just to the north of here, forsaken by the gods and the god-fearing alike. Once, truth be told, it was a haven of beauty and plenty, a valley as lush and fertile as this one.

Panel 3: The Hellcatch Valley, as described.

Preacher: Now it is only a barren hellscape to rival the Nine Hells, where the anger of the gods is written upon the earth in every jagged canyon, in every mile of lifeless, sun-bleached dust, in the faces of every hateful soul that scrabbles for a pitiful, godless existence there. The Hellcatch Valley, smote asunder by the divines amid the wrack and ruin of the Calamity!

Imogen: (whispering) I don't think that's quite how it happened.

Preacher: And what was the spark of the Calamity, my children? One spark, that grew into the flame that would cast Exandria into centuries of chaos and despair? This was not the work of gods, or even kings, but the wickedness in the heart of one man, who sought to compact with the Betrayers for his own selfish ends.

Panel 4: The congregation listens, taking the cleric’s words to heart.

Preacher: And it is this same wickedness that can take root in the heart of any mortal. It may come in guise both comely and corrupt, but the truly righteous will know it by its nature. Sorcery! Heresy! Wizardry! Foul covenants with the unholy! All of these are the tools of the Betrayers in the hands of mortalkind.

Panel 5: Imogen and Laudna exchange uncomfortable glances.