consider the following:
two obj files, a.o and b.o
ld a.o b.o && echo "success"
produces a.out with no output to stdout except for 'success'
ls -l a.out confirms that a.out exists with the proper permissions, but:
./a.out produces the output:
'bash: ./a.out: No such file or directory'
yet a hexdump a.out confirms the file exists...
i've also tried ld a.o b.o -lc (as performed in the man page)

a.o is a file compiled with gcc -o a.o --shared a.c
and b.o is a file compiled with nasm -felf -o b.o b.c

any help would be greatly appreciated...

You compiled the gcc file incorrectly. Use the gcc -c option to produce a .o file. Then in the ld command you are trying to produce a shared library which you later try to run directly in the shell.

If ld and bash didn't work, your system would be pretty hosed.