A Stranger In a Strange Land

You wake up suddenly with a sharp thud of inertia, face first into the sandy dirt. Disoriented and weakened, you struggle to lift yourself up, with gruff and derisive laughter heard in the distance as you slow make yourself to your feet. Looking around, you gain a slight sense as to what happened; there's a trading caravan not a few minutes from you that just stopped, you must have been **** there and fallen off. Or thrown. That only begins to answer the litany of questions buzzing in your mind. With the thunderous headache you're experiencing, it's difficult to answer any of them, or to even keep them straight. You notice that you're without your paladin's armor, or any weapons, and instead in simple clothes of a peasant.

Traders on carriages yell at you, causing you to move out of the street you were unknowingly standing in, moving towards the nearest building you could find, hoping for a modicum of shade from the overbearing sun. You close your eyes, hoping for a moment of clarity and calm.

"Iomadae, what has happened to me, I need your strength and your guidance. Where am I? How am I still alive?"

"My dear boy, it's not because of Vahn that you still draw breath. You owe your life to me now."

"Blightmaw!" You curse out loud, looking around for the Dreadlord to appear somewhere, as he did in your dream. The bystanders look at you oddly, but pay no mind to the poor and probably crazed peasant. "Show yourself, what is all this about!"

"Even at your best, you could not make demands of me, and clearly, you are far from your best, discarded and defeated as you are. I thought it proper that before I let you die, I give you the education that your foolish masters never did...."

"Look around you, paladin. Aren't you pleased at what you see?" As you listen, you do look around. In a sparse, dry desolate land, these people are hard and haggard. The building just next to you looks like a bordello of some kind. You see slaves being held in a chain gang across the way. Some poor wretch is scorching in the midday sun in a pillory, where heat and dehydration will quickly kill them. "This is the civilization that you and your deluded friends thought so important to save and protect. What you see is sentient life at its truest level, a truth kept away from you both from your wealthy privilege and by your impossibly naive faith."

"Lies" You think to yourself, "For all the weaknesses and flaws, there is more to the world than this. There is goodness in these people. It's only because of the presence of evil spirits and demons like yourself that they suffer from corruption."

"That absurd notion is what we are here to disprove, once and for all. You can try to uplift these people, and find the good in them, but watch out that they do not bring you down in the process. You may want to care for yourself first. You are clearly not looking well..."