[center][h1][color=brown][b][u]Algrim[/u][/b][/color][/h1] &[/center] [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/hWBpf7r/cooltext381472891944913.png[/img][/center] [hr] With the birth of a single mote of green in an otherwise bleak world, Yaerna turned her gaze towards tempering the unruly beings that rampaged on the surface for survival. Chief among the issues at hand were the strange creatures that sprung forth from cracks in the earth, or worse - from strange rifts in the fabric of existence, and tried to establish an unstable dominance over the few scraps that were left. They uprooted her vines and like those first humans, trampled any place and sought to kill everything in their path. Though the creatures were not an affront in and of themselves, they were untested; and thus should only remain if they managed to do so in an altering landscape with other creatures. So the Queen of Thorns resolved to test them herself and began her first of many hunts, leaving her extremely slowly growing glen behind to proactively hunt the beings of the world - and those beyond it. She took the form of a grandiose and wide-winged bird of prey and scoured the landscape for movement. Whenever she found movement, she dove to examine and pounce on it. Such events turned out to be extremely rare, and Yaerna instead ended up sailing across the western half of the shard observing the havoc and stability that seemed to slowly be establishing itself. A glowing jewel in the northwest caught her eyes from afar, and she made a mental note to visit whatever place exuded such curious glimmers after she had made her own mark on the world. Then another curiosity dawned on her. Far below, halfway to the edge of the world, an oily black shape twitched and slithered erratically across the ground, leaving a black trail after it. It was formless and shifting, a seemingly endless set of wriggling tendrils matched only by row upon row of sharp teeth and mismatched eyes. Curious, the Queen of Thorns leapt out of her flying form and turned into a weak approximation of her true self; a shadowy black and green lupine beast. Much smaller of course, Yaerna merely wanted to test this strange beings mettle, not invoke the full force of her royal dominion over nature. So the goddess dove from the sky in her beastlike form, paws pushed forwards as she howled a threatening warning in her playful attack. The creature did not have the sense to move. Yaerna's paws pressed on the black, irregular beast and it exploded with force, showering the landscape and goddess with a thick and oily black substance. Yaerna sniffed with disappointment. It had been larger than she first estimated and yet it couldn't even handle a single pounce. And it smelled foul - like an old corpse bathed in sulphur. Thoroughly let down by her test of strength, Yaerna interested herself in the trail the being had left behind, stalking across the landscape to follow the oily slag back to whence the creature had come. After a few moments of expeditious trotting, the Queen of Thorns came upon the only reasonable place the creature had come from; a reality-breaking rippling tear in the landscape itself, with no apparent care for what lay around it. To a lesser being, it took the appearance of a bubbling pool of tar nestled into a cavernous rift in the ground. Yaerna was not fooled. The very existence of it was anathema to the rest of the world, a foreign power that imposed itself on all it touched - teemed with an incomprehensible malice. It was a hole into another place, a place filled to the brim with some kind of primal, malicious sludge. So naturally, Yaerna had to experiment with it. Other trails of sludge came from the rift, suggesting the creature she’d pounced on had not been the only one. So the goddess resolved to wait and see if more would come. Turning back to a humanoid form, she settled down on a nearby stone, leaned back, and watched. The rift bubbled with evil intent, ever so often popping or burbling to spray the nearby rocks with sludge. Mostly it seemed innocent enough. When two days had passed, Yaerna started feeling the itch of impatience in her legs. The rift mocked her with inactivity. After another day, the Queen of Thorns resolved to meddle more actively in her experimentation. She kicked a rock into the sludge, and the black sludge accepted the tribute with an angry burp. A few moments later, a thin tendril sprayed up onto the rocks, almost as if the rift was trying to grab whatever had disturbed it. Amused, the goddess began feeding the rift with random things she could think to conjure, teasing the black goo with intermittent feeding and stirring. Poking and jolting. Pleased with her new game, the goddess lost track of time. The sound of approaching footsteps snapped her out of it. [color=brown]“Oh?”[/color] a deep voice rumbled. [color=brown]“What’s this?”[/color] Behind her was a short humanoid who seemed to be made entirely out of stone, save for a mossy beard and gemstone eyes. He smiled at her. [color=brown]“I’m Algrim. Would ye be a fellow god? I’m always runnin’ intah those these days.”[/color] Yaerna, caught holding a stone almost as big as herself over her head, had no real ability to deny the claim. After a few moments of hesitation, she dumped the rock into the brewing rift all the same, and turned to regard the short man. She cleared her throat and brushed her dirty and tattered clothes down. [color=olivedrab]"Ahem, indeed. I am Yaerna, the Queen of Thorns. My demesne stretches beyond the horizon. To whom am I speaking?"[/color] Yaerna questioned crisply and adjusted her wooden crown. [color=brown]“Well, I already told y’ that,”[/color] the other God replied. [color=brown]“Unless y’ mean my domain. Then I’m the God of Earth.”[/color] He dug his heel into the ground and twisted it to emphasize the point. [color=brown]“Y’ some sort of nature goddess, then? Plants and soils are natural allies, I’d say.”[/color] [color=olivedrab]”Earth? How quaint. I’m inclined to agree, Algrim. My keenest wish is for a verdant paradise where all manner of creature may freely compete. Unfortunately…”[/color] she replied and kicked a small rock into the bubbling pit. [color=olivedrab]”Between the earth-shaking, the dreary conditions and holes in the world like this one, it may yet take a while.”[/color] [color=brown]“Quaint?”[/color] Algrim repeated her word, affronted. [color=brown]“Quaint!? Are y’ in the business of insulting every’un ya meet?”[/color] Yaerna produced a thin smile, but nevertheless gracefully dipped her head in apology. [color=olivedrab]”It was not my intention to denigrate your very important domain. Without earth there would be nowhere for life to take root and grow.”[/color] the woman produced swiftly, and curtsied with her tattered leaf robes. [color=olivedrab]”What brings you to my neck of the woods, honorable god of earth?”[/color] [color=brown]“Well, I thought I’d see about stabilizin’ the local land,”[/color] Algrim replied. [color=brown]“I’m sure ye’ve felt the quakes. I came ‘ere t’ do somethin’ about it.”[/color] [color=olivedrab]"That's excellent news, Algrim. Would that I knew how to help, I would leap to your side in a heartbeat."[/color] Yaerna concluded with smooth etiquette and a hand placed gently to her heart. The bubbling pit burped angrily behind her. Algrim smiled. [color=brown]“Well that’s good, there is a way y’ can help, if y’ want.”[/color] [color=olivedrab]"Oh, grand,"[/color] Yaerna offered briefly. [color=olivedrab]"What role would I play in such an undertaking?"[/color] [color=brown]“Well it’s quite simple, really. Just offer a bit o’ extra power ta ‘elp me build an object that’ll stabilize the local area. Then do yer part in keeping it safe. You’ve set yerself up in this area, aye? So ye already ‘ave a vested interest in protectin’ it.”[/color] He glanced at the rift behind. [color=brown]“Is uh… is that thing back there gonna pose a problem?”[/color] [color=olivedrab]"What do you mean by bu- Oh, this?[/color] Yaerna quirked a brow, turning to gesture at the black pool of swirling, otherworldly madness. [color=olivedrab]"I doubt it. I've been watching it for a few… hm, days? It spawned some unearthly critter before, but it seems to have calmed down by the time I got here."[/color] she sighed and vented her mild frustration by chucking the stag helmet she'd worn in the past into the bubbling hole. The pit accepted it with a bubbling pop. A few seconds later, the ground rumbled and groaned under the burgeoning growth of the black sludge. Long dark tendrils slashed up from the hole and attached itself to dirt and stone, and the rift in reality seemed to grow ever larger as something within its dark core fought to claw itself out of the boiling sludge into their reality. Before long, it took shape as a massive stag of black sludge and random bits of debris. Dead animals captured by the dark mass and various things Yaerna had offered to the mysterious hole jutted out of the formless being like connecting points holding the madness together. Atop a giant heap of black goo vaguely in the shape of buck's head sat Yaerna's stag helmet, the crowning catalyst in sparking an otherworldly invasion. The shifting black creature was a jumble of gaping maws, loose black tendrils and an endless assortment of eyes, yet still saw fit to vaguely appear in the shape of a grand stag. It rose out of the pit with swift anger, soon towering several dozen heads taller than Yaerna and Algrim both. It released a deafening roar, spraying the landscape with black goop, before setting hundreds of eyes on the two deities. [color=olivedrab]"It appears that your arrival has jostled it."[/color] Yaerna concluded to Algrim with a non-plussed expression. Briefly, Algrim glanced at her in befuddlement, before snapping his attention back to the creature. First and foremost, that thing needed to be dealt with. [color=brown]“Yer an ugly sight,”[/color] he taunted the beast, while digging his heel deeper into the ground and twisting his foot. The creature reared back, ready to charge, only to immediately slip when it lurched forward. The soil beneath is very feet had been loosened, and the abomination crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs and antlers, sliding toward them. [color=brown]“Th’ thing about fighting a god o’ earth,”[/color] Algrim said casually, as he levitated dozens of stones from the ground and shaped them into spikes, [color=brown]“is that there’s Earth all around us.”[/color] As the creature attempted to rise, Algrim let loose his attack, sending a storm of stone spikes flying toward his foe. And yet as they made impact, they did not cut into the beast’s flesh as he had hoped. Instead, they were absorbed by it, and seemed to do nothing at all. Algrim let out a growl mixed with disappointment and frustration. Yaerna had been watching the exchange with barely suppressed glee, and her eyes shone when she watched Algrim fire off his stone missiles. The fact that they had no apparent effect on the creature did not appear to bother her much. [color=olivedrab]"You are more powerful than you appear."[/color] she quipped briskly before turning her attention towards the black beast of sludge, bone and stone. The abomination lurched overhead, raising one of its oily slag-like limbs to prepare to crush them both with a solid slam. The mere act of raising its long tendril showered the landscape in black sludge. The goddess at Algrim's side was prepared however, and the small shoots and roots littering the ground came alive at a flick of her chin. Far away from them, two long vines cracked through the ground as they grew in size and slashed through the air towards what could be understood as one of the beast's hind legs. The power of the two giant whips cut straight through the sludge, separating the leg with a sickening sound. The beast fell backwards briefly, stumbling and roaring as its legs fell to the ground on its own and reshaped into its own little formless spawn of evil. Despite her best attempts to sneak attack the beast, it still lunged with its full limbs attention at the both of them, and Yaerna extended both her hands to the sky, quickly creating a seemingly impenetrable tangle of leaves and branches in a small dome around to take the extent of the slam. The barrier shook with a rumble and black sludge forced itself through the gaps, and the goddess grunted loudly as she was forced to her knees, almost as though she took the feedback of the hit on herself. Yaerna gasped for air and the barrier fell in on itself quickly as the shield became a jumble of inert weeds and bark, revealing the beast still looming above. The landscape around them was now entirely covered in the dark goop; the abomination has obliterated just about all old features during its assault. While this unfolded, Algrim had not sat idle. He had conjured forth more stone and dirt from the ground, this time forming it together into what appeared to be a large rectangular slab, with one of the edges sharpened. As he levitated it over his head, it could perhaps be compared to an oversized knife blade. Algrim took stock of his target, noting that despite all the damage Yaerna had done, it still had a head. Algrim lowered the rock-knife so that it was directly in front of him, with its blade pointed up at the creature. Then, with a mighty kick, he sent the stone slab hurtling forward, cleaving straight through the beast’s head. The abomination paused for a grueling moment, roaring and gurgling with unrelenting fury. Then, it's head lost what little stability it had left after the massive stone blade sheared through it. In massive globs of black sludge, the beast destabilized and fell apart. Starting with what remained of its head, smaller shapeless sludge creatures broke free from the main body and fell down onto the ground - most immediately splashing harmlessly against rock and dirt, leaving the landscape an oily mess. The entire creature rippled and fell apart, with a few autonomous abominations remaining stable as the large body collapsed onto the ground. Yaerna pushed up onto her feet beside Algrim, breathing out sharply and adjusting her crown. Fresh vines rumbled through the ground from faraway places, cracking through stone and dirt to lift into the sky and slam down like lashing whips onto the smaller abominations, who could not handle the pressure of the vines' weight or the force of the strikes, and simply squished undervine, one by one. Yaerna turned to the earthen god and allowed herself a curt but terse smile. [color=olivedrab]"Your strength does you credit, Algrim. Perhaps you would hunt with me in the future? I've not ventured far yet but if there are other beings out there stronger than this, I'm certain we could make a day of it."[/color] A smaller abomination lurched up from beside the pit, screeching with dozens of maws as it rose to assault the two deities. It nearly reached an arms length before the previously inert leaves and sticks on the ground around them twisted and several new vines smashed into the creature, splattering black sludge everywhere. [color=olivedrab]"Oh, I nearly forgot,"[/color] Yaerna breathed with brisk humility, wiping some sludge from her arm. [color=olivedrab]"You had a request for my assistance?"[/color] Algrim nodded. [color=brown]“I believe I’ve already explained the principles to ye,”[/color] Algrim said, nodding. [color=brown]“I just need ye ta loan me some extra power, so that we can build something that’ll stabilize the local area. Are y’ still interested?”[/color] Yaerna tapped her lips as she considered the matter anew, even as her vines battled what remained of the abominations, some of whom were now attempting to return to the growling black ditch from whence they came. The vines smashed and squished even tiny fragments, however. [color=olivedrab]"...I will lend you my power, if you in return seal this loathsome abyss into your realm of earth. I do not want these hellions in the food chain."[/color] The God of Earth nodded again. “I suppose I could do that,” he said, striding toward the pit, right up unto its very edge. One of the abominations leapt at him, but he punched it into the rift with ease. He gazed into it for only a moment. Then, raised his arms and shouted: [color=brown]“[b]DOWN![/b] Ye bastard!”[/color] before thrusting his palms down toward the ground. The earth rumbled, and then the black rift suddenly fell downward, for the God of Earth had opened a hole directly beneath it, of the exact same shape and diameter. It fell to a great depth, perhaps three hundred or so feet. Then the God of Earth did a series of complex hand gestures, packing earth and stone around it as tightly as physically possible. Then, he compressed it, packing more and more onto it. Every single particle of dirt, stone, and gravel was fused together. Every atom so tightly bound as to make the stone harder than any natural metal. He piled this on for several layers, until he was confident that no natural force in the world would ever break through it. Then the earth shook again as he filled in the hole. The ground they were standing on lowered somewhat as the earth was displaced, creating a valley. Then, finally, it was over. He took a deep breath, visibly strained from the effort. [color=gray]“There,”[/color] he whispred softly, in a rich weary voice that was noticeably different from any he had used before. [color=gray]“It’s done.”[/color] He held out his hand to her. When he spoke again, it was with the voice he had originally used. [color=brown]“Now come on lass, let’s get to it.”[/color] Yaerna had stood silent, watching her peer and his efforts with interest. Given attention, she offered a gentle nod in return, and stepped forwards to take the offered hand with her own. [color=olivedrab]"Let this covenant signify a shared vision; I lend you my power, Algrim of the Earth."[/color] As he had done three times before, Algrim channeled his power; both his own, and that which was offered to them. This time it came with much more difficulty, due to his previous display of strength, but he managed it all the same. His palm flashed green, and when the glow faded there was a bright green emerald, radiating power. He offered it to her. [color=brown]“Now y’ just need tae plant this gem in the ground. Like a seed.”[/color] Yaerna accepted the gem with due reverence, keenly creating her own ceremonial curtsy as she took it from him. She took a few steps aside, and knelt onto the dirt in the middle of the valley to create a space for it by hand. With some determination she cleared a neat resting place for the emerald and laid it down with expectant eyes. Satisfied with her own diligence, she packed dirt and soil on top of it with care and artificial mysticism before standing up. Awkward silence followed as the goddess stared intently at the earth where she had planted the gem, refusing to budge for fear of missing whatever wonder would take place. When several moments had passed, Yaerna swung around to face Algrim with a thin smile. [color=olivedrab]"After such effort and fanfare about lending you my power, I was expecting something more poignant, Algrim. I won't say I'm not di-"[/color] The ground rumbled and shook under their feet, and before the goddess could finish her admonishment clusters of vines and long roots and brambles shot from the ground, coiling and twisting around each other. They lifted the surprised Queen of Thorns into the sky as they climbed high, breaking earth and sky alike as they entwined each other in a race upwards. When the assault ended, the vines tightened a final time, leaving barely more space between each other than bark would have. The massive cluster of rising vegetation had formed itself into a giant, leafless tree in the center of the valley, twinned out of taut green and brown vines. Roots and vines coiled around the base of it, and Algrim could observe the base of it digging itself firmly into earth with far extending roots both above and below ground. From far above, the goddess of the wild gave an excited thumbs up from a vine before catching herself in the act and returning to a more composed manner. [color=brown]“Ye were saying?”[/color] Algrim called up to her. Yaerna stepped off of her perch and fell from the great height. The goddess gripped her cloak on both sides and held it out, giving herself makeshift wings to safely glide down on. She came to a halt in front of Algrim when her feet touched soil again. [color=olivedrab]"I lov-.. Amaz-..”[/color] she began, but contained herself, brushing her clothes down as she took a breath. [color=olivedrab]”Ahem. I find it acceptable. It shall make a good jewel from which to oversee the extent of my demesne. A good effort, if I may say so.”[/color] [color=brown]“Hm. Well, just be sure ta keep it safe. I need t’ be on my way. Thank ye for your help, an’ may we meet again,”[/color] Algrim said, before turning away to resume his journey. Yaerna watched the earth god turn, and parted her lips to speak, eager to get the last word in. She seemed to think better of it, and eventually turned back to regard the massive tree and the barren landscape around it. [color=olivedrab]"I should probably clean this sludge up. Yeah. Can't have the jewel of the land smelling like death. ...Yes, an important task, to be sure. A great undertaking that must be considered first."[/color] she concluded to herself in quick procrastination and turned back to look for Algrim, but he was already on his way, and Yaerna couldn't very well chase him down. No, that wouldn't do. [hr] [hider=Post Summary] Yaerna finds a weird black rift thing and decides to spend a few days throwing stuff into it. Algrim appears and tells her about his plan to build the pillars. Yaerna agrees to help but then the rift spits out a sludge monster. Algrim and Yaerna destroy the monster, before Algrim seals the portal deep within the earth. Then they create the pillar, which takes the form of a tall mass of vines. [/hider]