[DrPraetorious]

"Him that you would have placed above all, a new Lord of the World, this God is dead?" The village headman is trembling with sorrow and fury.
But a few days before he would have said "the True God," and meant it.
"Yes." says the crippled old man, who glows still with the holy mantle of the Prophet.
"But worry not, ye faithful. He will rule still - not in this world, perhaps, but our fallen brothers march still in the Land of the Dead, and we will make him King."
At a gesture from wssddd, one of the shambling corpses who had held down the village elder slits his throat. The soulless corpse rises a moment later.
Another dozen zombies are busy tilling salt into the fields - they hunt down the people of the village and slay them, and when they fall, they rise also to join the slaughter.
The great city of eldregate itself is in flames. All through the dominion of the True Dragon, there is wailing and death and gnashing of teeth.
aassdd gestures towards the mountain of treasures. Gold, yes, but a full thirty score gems of power, besides.
"Will we take this with us to the world of the Dead, brother adept?"
ssssdd grins. Stars spin in his eyes, for this one has reclaimed that power of the spheres which once made Eldregate so mighty - but it was not enough. "They will serve us better in this world, and in vengeance. The foes of the cursed Worm will turn them into weapons of death for a surety. Crystalmist has defeated our God and his legions, but we can yet ensure that the victory spawns only the blackest fruit."
He lifts a single perfect pearl in a clenched fist and crushes it. Two silvery portals open up in the nothingness. In each, very startled young women are strumming on stringed instruments, but in one they are accompanied by dancing goat men, and in the other they lounge on silk pillows in some manner of temple.
At first it seems they expect some horrible manner of necromancy, which seems to amuse ssssdd, but he bows. "Enjoy," he says.
A host of undead toss gems by the fistful into the gates. For the goat-men, onyx and emeralds - for the maidens of the cultured temple, pearls, diamonds, sapphires and tourmalines.
"The long months I walked the land, seeking the places of power, and it comes to this?" snarls aassdd.
ssssdd shrugs philosophically. "Between them, with the power of these gems, they should have no trouble splitting the kingdom of Man in half and destroying it utterly. When we chose to conquer the Jotuns, we knew one of our enemies might take advantage of that moment of weakness."
aassdd spits on the floor. "Folly. This will buy no mercy from the goats."
"All the works of men are folly, as we will soon discover. Come, the armies of Man are on the march. We go to join our brethren."
A last shattered remnant of legionaires forms into ranks. They are broken and crippled men, but none will be left behind. At the last, only a valient death will give them a stand beside their dead God.