I’ve heard the same story from so many people.
A shady man in an alley offers you a hit from his stash.
Just one toke, that’s all.
You immediately feel the potent rush of his chosen drug. It permeates every crevice of your body, makes your skin tingle. You can’t help but smile as you feel a high that evades all Slum dwellers.
You reach for another toke, but he stops you.
The first one’s free, but there is a second.
For a price.
You hand over all your credits to this shady man. He fills your hand with the stuff, but he’s not done yet. He takes you to his den of iniquity, filled with beautiful women all prepared to do whatever you want.
For a price.
Your inhibitions gone from the venom coursing through your veins, you sell yourself to this man. All so that you can move beyond the high he’s given you to the pleasures of the flesh.
So many end up broken by this endless process.
But there is one who does not.
The shady man.
Drexl.
With a smile on his face, he goes out into Arcadia offering exactly what any man needs.
He hooks them in with a taste, a glimpse of the high his stash can bring. That’s when tells them he has more. Pleasures await them if they come with him. All that they desire can be theirs.
For a price.
Drugs. Women. Any vice is available with Drexl.
But there is one thing that Big Slim will not share, will never let a single gram slip away:
Power.
That’s the true commodity the shady man deals in. By entrapping the needy, they begin to depend on him to supply their every need.
Their highs only come with his stash. Their pleasure, only with his women.
For a price.
So I ask you today, Drexl, what do you have to offer Grimskull?
A high? My only high is the snapping of tendons in the embrace of pain.
Pleasure? I only derive pleasure from the screams of my foes.
Power? The only real power in Arcadia is pain, Drexl, and you have chosen to run from it.
But you will run no longer.
Because I am now the shady man in the alley.
My stash is waiting for you. It is not a drug, nor a woman, nor any vice.
It is pain.
And it will take you higher, bring you more pleasure, than you could ever imagine.
It only takes one dose.
Your body fills with adrenaline. Time slows down, and your focus snaps to the roaring of your nerve endings.
They scream for mercy, but Grimskull has none.
Everything in your body cries out, your inhibitions fall away as you reach for something, anything, to release you from my gentle embrace.
But nothing in this world comes free.
You taught me that.
There is only one price to be paid to release you from the embrace of pain.
Only one high.
Only one pleasure.
It is Grimskull’s power.
Pain.
It is your death, and I’d offer it to you freely.
For a price.