Challenge #02408-F218: To Prevent Apocalypse...
(Someone complaining about why the gods didn't handle [Sealed Evil in a Can (horror from beyond reality flavour!)] earlier)
[Person who has more insight into how the gods work than others]: It's probably a combination of [god in important relevant position who got the job because all the other gods eligible for it, including the one(s) doing it who knew HOW to do it, died fighting OTHER horrors from beyond reality literal aeons ago] not knowing how to do their job, what exactly their job entrails, and [god of handling the REALLY dangerous things and being the Big Stick of the pantheon] being completely useless. -- RecklessPrudence
"Okay, I get how this being is beyond evil and should be stopped, but..." Lady Anthe flailed at the air. "Couldn't the gods stop them earlier? Did they have some kind of deity-repelling nonsense or...?"
Wraithvine only moved their eyes, glancing upwards to the ceiling in a moment of trepidation.
"Oh come on," said Marvin. "If they can smite us, they should have smote Hyarenkys... centuries ago. You know it's truth."
"They don't always like truth," said Wraithvine. "Besides, if we want their favour in this quest, we should at least speak favourably of them. Otherwise, our path to eliminate or at least restrain Hyarenkys is doomed to failure."
"I'm asking questions," argued Lady Anthe. "You always said that that was the way to learn things. Besides, they want us to eliminate Hyarenkys... don't they?"
"Us, or any other suitable canon fodder," said Rumtum from his apparent coma. "It doesn't matter to them which mortals throw their lives on the pyre. It won't even matter to them if we win or lose. We're gnats to them. Less than gnats." He stretched, rolled over, and curled back up to resume his torpor.
Moonlight pointedly looked up at the roof. "I hear no thunder, I see no lightening. I would hazard a guess that the gods are giving us some freebies. So to speak."
Steelfoot had been doodling in her workbook for most of this meeting, and only now looked up. "So now what? We go charge up to Mount Divine and help them barricade the door?"
"Much though that would be a fun idea," said Wraithvine, "I presume the goal is to seek out the lair of Hyarenkys, his phylacteries..."
"Her phylacteries," said the Hallowed Rennys.
"Hmf. And here I was assuming," Wraithvine shuddered. "It's catching. Euw. My apologies. We track down Hyarenkys and her phylacteries, destroying the phylacteries first and then destroying her. We're going to need Divine Weapons of Mass Destruction... bonuses for the undead... all that sort of nonsense."
"Concentration disruptors," said Lady Anthe. "Anti-magic stuff... anything that could disrupt an evil lich bent on becoming Divine. The last thing we need is yet another evil deity."
"Amen," said Moonlight.
"Nevertheless," said Lady Anthe. "I still want to know why the gods didn't stop this scum-sucker in the beginning."
Hallowed Rennys said, "I do believe they were more deeply involved in squabbling at the time."
"Of course they were," sighed Wraithvine, and flinched at the distant rumble of thunder.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Andreus]
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