[shaman]

Go crazy people.

8 Blood curse in The Old Kingdom.


Uther was back in the capital. Even the usually unshakable wolvark was rocked to the core by what it had become. With the industrialist army encroaching closer and closer into the native’s beloved homeland the whole city had a morbid chill about the place. The once magnificent stone streets and buildings were now becoming blotched and filthy as their maintenance workers had been conscripted. The streets were bustling with thrown – together militia. And tension was incredibly high, espionage was one of the biggest fears and several false “Spies” and “traitors” were rounded up in the last few days.

At first the war had been going well, mudokon head-hunters had proved invaluable against the sligs in deployments throughout the jungle. But they were hopelessly outmatched by the magog cartel’s mastery of weapons technology and there were simply too few firearms in The Old Kingdom to turn the tide of the war.

After a series of rapid defeats and conquered or obliterated towns, the remaining natives had fallen back to their capital and the vast cities surrounding it. It was a fortress capable of withstanding siege for months on end, but broken supply lines meant that food was scarce; slowly but surely the natives were being starved out as the industrialist’s grip tightened around the jungle.

Uther, however had other plans. He had arranged to be smuggled out of The Old Kingdom as soon as he had met his contact and received his pay, it was starting to rain. Uther looked around at the plight of the city, maybe it was his mercenary blood in him, but he didn’t feel sorry. He didn’t feel anything. It wasn’t like it was cowardice to flee a world imminently going to crash and burn, and besides; this was no ordinary war.
When the war started, nobody thought it would get this bad for the natives.

Just before the natives started losing there was talk of something lurking in the jungles – that being said- there was always something in those jungles. But this was different; it was as though every inhabitant knew by instinct that something was wrong. But when it was explained by word of mouth it sounded like trivial and childish folklore.

Even the industrialists felt it, they would not go into the jungles at night, or into sacred areas even in daytime. Uther had been into the jungle umpteen times, and although he couldn’t put his finger on what it was; he did feel something, like there was always something watching you, something behind you all the time.

He didn’t like the jungle.

It only got worse as the conflict progressed, there were reports of squads of sligs and mudokons going missing only to turn up dead if at all. There were reports that people had seen Mudokons with screaming grotesque faces walking in the jungle at night. People hearing laughter outside their homes and unable to see where it was coming from.
Like most living in The Old Kingdom, uther had heard the tales of “The ninth cheiftan” and his legend about the shrykull. Some thought the war had caused him to return and seek vengeance for his banishment, some say the things being heard in the jungle were the spirits of his followers rising to once again be led by their leader after all these years. There were even whispers that the missing sligs were in fact being killed by the otherworldly forces they had provoked.

Uther didn’t believe them. He was a wolvark of logic and fact and refused to be scared by a few soldiers telling stories around a fire.
All the same though, he cringed at the thought of staying here much longer.


The monstrous stone gat rumbled open. Revealing the bowels of the Capital’s walls, Toko, Murphy, Ianto, Jimmy, Marley and Tony stood nervously outside, facing the guards. Ianto in particular was totally taken aback by how the atmosphere inside. Hundreds of armoured mudokons, Skubba Toads and Grubbs were pacing around with looks of total retirement on their faces. The front line was only a few hundred metres from the wall now. The jungle behind them had fallen eerily silent, in anticipation at the dawn of the new day; which would inevitably bring more conflict.

The group had taken no more than a few stepps when they were confronted by several mudarchers.


“Declare yourselves”! One of them shouted. “Who are you?”

“I live here”. Toko said warningly. “Please, what harm is an old mud going to cause?”

The mudarchers exchanged looks of suspicion. And then began eyeing them up for signs of weapons. – which evidently none of them were carrying.

“Go on”. The mudarcher snapped and stepped aside to follow Toko and his party into the city.

“Look at em’” Marley sneered. “Odd most of these guys are barely trained!”
The mudarcher sighed. “It’s been like this for a while now, I mean weeks. We’re coordinating attacks from more overrun areas and that means less qualified troops are needed here, we have to take whatever we can get.

“Save it Marley” Toko said.

“Why are we here anyway”!? Marley grunted at Toko, the last couple of days have been hell for us and we hardly know why you told us to come here”!
Toko stopped.

“You will all know very shortly”! He snapped. “But I can’t say tell you here, there are things at work here that cannot be made public yet, you want your money or not?! ... then follow me”.

“So what is your business in the capital”. The Mudarcher said.

“Precisely that” Toko snapped again.“Our business”.

Ianto saw Murphy give Toko a unnerved stare. Ianto himself was becoming more and more leery of Toko, they had nearly been killed more times than he cared to count on their way here. It was high time they got some answers. The mudarcher gave a slightly insidious smile.

“No offence meant” He said. “But it’s our job to ask questions, we got about ten or eleven spies yesterday, not to mention the filth thinking of surrendering”.
Toko shook his head as though shaking off an irksome fly.

The party had now entered a large stone chamber; thick stone pillars supported an arched stone ceiling, hundreds of natives of all races were furiously working to repair machinery and weapons. The whole place had an air of hurried, frantic desperation; most of the workers looked like they hadn’t slept for days. Every one of their faces screamed. “Help me, I’ve had enough. Hide me.”

The further they walked into the capital of The Old Kingdom, the more it became obvious. They were facing annihilation, Ianto had seen the industrialists. There could be no victory against them; a surge of guilt ran through him, telling him that maybe if he had spent less time being a bandit and more time fighting ... they wouldn’t be in this mess.

And subtly, the group passed out the other end of the wall, into what remained of the capital.


Uther was growing ever impatient. He was expecting an attack on the capital any moment, and being in the middle of a battle before he had a chance to get paid was not what he had in mind.

“Come on come on!” Uther whispered under his breath. His tail tapping the ground impatiently, his contact had told him plain and simple; “outside the central temple at dusk.”

A sobering thought gripped Uther, what if his contact had tricked him. So he would get rid of a few traitors and Glukkons and be left to die a violent death as the capital was flattened.

Uther’s heart had just started to race when, five mudokons walked up to him. He recognised the one at the front immediately; his contact. Calling himself Toko, had finally arrived.

“I have done it” Uther said impatiently. “You have my fee?”

Ianto was very puzzled, now there was a wolvark involved? What on Oddworld for? Even more worrying was the fact that many natives had stopped and were now looking at toko intensively, as though waiting for something to happen.
Uther became a little tenser. “I killed the Glukkons, and the traitors, now I want my fee.”

“Of course” Toko said. He looked around, checking all the natives stood around him. “But first I must apologise to you all”.

“Why?” Marley said. And he got his answer.

The natives around them descended on the group. Uther, Marley, Ianto, Jimmy, Tony and Murphy were set upon by dozens of screaming warriors. Murphy fought like a mad man lashing out with his paws at the natives and striking some to the ground, but they kept on coming. Until the whole group lay bound at Toko’s feet.

“You Bastard!” Murphy spat at Toko. “I trusted you! Where are you taking us!?”

“What’s going on?!” Jimmy shouted before being silenced by a hefty kick from another mudokon.

“Toko you promised me I would be paid”! Uther shouted as he was disarmed. Toko, however, seemed rather unmoved by his betrayal. And more natives were gathering at the scene.

Marley thrashed at the bonds around his feet and hands. “I should’ve killed you Toko! I should’ve killed you when we were back in the jungle.”

“What about us?!” Ianto protested. “You told us we’d be coming here to help the war! I can’t believe I trusted you!”

“Indeed you will.” Toko said solemnly. He was flanked by shaman – priests. And over a hundred natives had gathered around the six restrained bodies on the ground.

It had started to rain; a thin sheet of sunlight broke the darkness. The atmosphere was tense, impossibly tense; the calm before the greatest storm.
Toko took off his mask and stared at each of them in turn, his old face sunken and sad. Then he pointed slowly to a statue at the base of the great pyramid - a statue of a
great scrab with paramite arms and a vast, physique.

“You don’t know who that is”. Toko whispered. “Do you?”

“It - It’s a shrykull”. Tony stuttered fearfully.

“Very good” Toko replied “A creature that hasn’t been seen in these parts for thousands of years, and one that we need very much.”

“It’s a myth”! Jimmy shouted “A myth! They aren’t real! Is that why you did this to us? A dumb fairy story?!”

“The shrykull is very real”. Toko retorted, his voice harsh like a man possessed. “The ninth chieftain banished the shrykull long ago before he himself was expelled from The Old Kingdom, this land is cursed. It can never be protected from invaders until the Ninth chieftain returns. And there is only one way to make that happen”.
Marley had turned pale.

This almost unshakable mudokon had been rocked to the core as he realised what the capital’s inhabitants had decided to do.

“Toko.” Marley Whimpered. “You’re insane!”

“Am I?” Toko laughed. “If it is insane to want to save your people from the Glukkons, then yes, yes I am insane. There is only one way to allow the Ninth chieftain to return and so break the curse, the blood of the three most sinful creatures in the kingdom. Murphy, Ianto and Uther are the key to ending this war”.

Ianto shivered with fear. Toko had tricked them all.

An almighty cheer rang through the crowd of natives, a savagely mocking sea of laughter that reflected the natives’ total desperation.

In the face of death and enslavement, they had turned to the oldest legend they knew.
A rumbling sound broke the silence. The natives turned around began frantically shouting up at the sentry’s on the wall to tell them what was going on, the reply came.


The industrialists were advancing.