As the month of Slyphian began during the year 116 of the Midnight Age,
many worries occupied the minds of Aetolians. Those who tried to ply
their trade at the forges of Sapience found that the coals burned only a
fraction as hot as they should, making the creation of weapons and armor
take ten times as long as before. Those who wished to tread the mountain
paths found the valleys and passes filled with rock fallen from the
peaks, making virtually every mountain route impassable. And those who
combed the seas for oysters found that they no longer produced pearls.
During all this, the newly-raised Earth elemental in the Tarea Mountains
stood mutely, ignoring almost all queries except when he stirred briefly
to take the name Fordrock. The small rocklings that had been discovered
roaming the hills of southern Sapience served as another puzzling clue
to the steadily increasing imbalance.

At last, on the 3rd of Slyphian, Fordrock began again to speak with
those that had kept vigil on the new mountain peak. In an offhanded way
born of sureness in his power, he acknowledged that this appearance,
which coincided with the start of these many physical changes, was
directly connected to them. The ritual that summoned him had augmented
the potency of the Earth element at the expense of Fire, Air, and Water,
Fordrock declared. The earthen part of coal had suppressed the fire that
allowed it to burn; the mountain peaks had thrown off the bonds of the
air to plummet into the valleys; and the sediment in the oceans had
ceased flowing with the currents, giving the oysters no material for the
creation of pearls. Fordrock showed little concern for the plight of the
Aetolians affected by these phenomena, and indeed hinted at further
changes to come, all towards the goal of making himself comfortable.

Many troubling visions had reinforced the belief across the realm that
the imbalance created by the Mhunna's imperfect summoning ritual was a
true threat to Aetolia. Paladins and Infernals dreamt of the ruin of
their forging, Magi of the loss of their pearls for the Master Crystal,
and Druids and Sentinels of the curtailed supply of valerian. The sleep
of Xorani was tainted with images of the suppression of Fire, that of
Atavians with the conquest of Air, and that of Grooks and kelki with the
rejection of Water. The followers of Lord Rahn and Lady Slyphe even
dreamt of assaults upon their Patrons by the earth spirits. Thus it
happened that when the recluse wizard Hycanthus shouted angrily on the
4th of Slyphian, many Aetolians were already prepared to act against
Fordrock, if they could only understand how.

Mersalis Dark and Avialle Tl'uncre were the first to find Hycanthus at
one of the massive rock-falls blocking access to the Vashnars. Grumbling
over the inaccessibility of his cottage, the wizard demanded to know
what had caused the imbalance in the physical elements that he was
sensing. As the Syssin Yong relayed the tale of the Mhunna's sacrifice
and the appearance of Fordrock, Hycanthus became quite agitated,
especially once he understood that those completing the ritual had set
no protective wards nor taken any precautions against this eventuality.
He surmised that the only possibility for weakening the Earth elemental
was to perform an analog to the summoning ritual with the molyvdian box,
which was being guarded by Fordrock himself, and the remaining lid,
which had been locked in a chest in the Syssin halls.

A few Aetolians cautiously returned to Fordrock's location and,
following the lead of Alsai Forestwalker, misled the elemental into
believing that they would use the molyvdian box to strengthen the
domination of Earth over the other three physical elements. Fordrock
overlooked the warnings of duplicity from Larion Elistar and allowed the
supplicants to possess the molyvdian temporarily. When they rendered the
box into Hycanthus's hands, he performed an incantation of
purity-seeking (which the impressed Thayer K'Hael observed closely on
behalf of his Magi) to cause the molyvdian lid to appear within the box.
After obtaining a vial of delphinium, the sleep-promoting venom
associated with Earth in the prior ritual, those assembled decided upon
a stick of lavender incense as the proper item in the new ritual to be
attempted. Avialle supplied an incense from among the varieties she had
purchased from Habbib the Kawhe Merchant, and the group headed north
into the mountains.

They searched Fordrock's mountain for a suitable place to perform the
ritual until Zephy Duses spied an overgrown cavern entrance at the base
of the peak's vertical western side. Within was the earthen chamber that
Hycanthus had predicted, as a balance to the concentrations of the other
three physical elements on the mountain. There they placed the
delphinium and lavender incense inside the molyvdian box and topped it
with the Earth-etched lid. With a mighty shake, the box shrank and
disappeared completely, and Fordrock grew unsteady, unresponsive and
tottering dangerously on the verge of falling over. As the power of
Earth weakened slightly, three lovely elementals of Fire, Air, and Water
rose nearby, pleading for aid in overthrowing the dominion of Earth.

The elementals explained that the rocklings, the small Earth elementals
that roamed the hills, should be sacrificed in the lava-filled fissure,
the mighty whirlwind, or the wide pool of deep blue water near the
dulled Fordrock, so that the power of the associated elemental would
grow. They also explained that should they defeat him, they would
reverse the changes that his summoning caused and more besides. The Fire
elemental promised hotter-burning coal for even faster forging; the Air
elemental offered to cut new passes through unexplored mountains; and
the Water elemental vowed to augment the pearls that the saltwater
oysters produced. They asked for champions for their causes, handing
them powerful gems that would stem the growth of the other elementals.
Grimdale Kal'Adun agreed to champion the Fire elemental, Mersalis
assumed the role of champion for Air, and Raistlin Myeras volunteered to
champion Water. Lord Arion manifested himself and rallied all knights to
the cause of Fire, and Lord Severn also made an appearance, though none
were sure whether His motives were pure.

As the negotiations were being made, Fordrock suddenly fell stupefied to
the ground. With a flash of inspiration, Lua Runae realized that the
rocklings would follow if they were given stone to consume, and that
they could be led to the Tareas and pushed into the fissure, whirlwind,
or pool. Once this was done, the three elementals appeared next to the
slumbering Fordrock, growing in size as they took in energy from the
streams of elemental essence fed by the rockling sacrifices. Some, like
Larion, tried to rally support for the Earth element, but the majority
wanted the recent changes to Aetolia reversed. Most of the powerful gems
were wasted, although Raistlin did manage to gain a temporary advantage
for Water over Air using the topaz he had been given. All through the
7th and 8th of Slyphian, Aetolians strove to slay the rocklings and
bring their corpses to the mountain, and onlookers fretted as the three
rebellious elementals grew slowly in size.

Without warning, Fordrock awoke and shouted in anger at the treachery
around him. A fierce battle ensued among the elementals, unleashing
forces at one another far beyond the abilities of Mortals. It took
Fordrock only a few moments to vanquish the still-weak rebel elementals,
but their tasks had already been completed. The small Water elemental
had restored most of the sediment to the oceans before being crushed;
the Air elemental had cleared the mountain passes, including a new route
in the Vashnars; and the large Fire elemental, made strong by the
tireless efforts of many knights, infused the realm's coal with the
power to burn hotter than ever before.

When Fordrock had quashed the elemental rebellion, he turned his pure
anger onto the crowd that had witnessed the battle and shouted his
invincibility to the skies. The act of hubris attracted the attention of
Lady Niuri, who appeared on the new mountain to confront the mighty
elemental. Fordrock slammed his stony fists into Niuri again and again,
but the Goddess of Mystery simply sat unharmed until the Earth elemental
had realized that his powers were naught when set against the Person of
a Goddess. Those gathered cheered as She informed Fordrock that his
earthen changes to the realm had been undone by the efforts of the
Mortals that aided the rebellion. Finally, just as the 9th of Slyphian
dawned on Aetolia, Lady Niuri took Her golden heq crook in hand and
swung it once at the overwhelmingly powerful Earth elemental, destroying
it with a single blow.

Though all the realm sighed in relief, the saga's ending was not
completely joyful. The doomed-fated Fordrock, in an act of petulant
vengeance against Niuri, flung the boulder-sized shards of his carcass
into the Mhojave desert. They struck the Temple of Mystery with
destructive force, toppling the tower into ruins on the desert sands.
Most sorrowfully of all, Sekhtet, the Aakhut and high priestess of
Niuri, was slain by the pure elemental stone, thus rendering her life
beyond recovery even for a Goddess. Grieving deeply, and with Her ties
to the Mortal realm severely weakened, the Mourning Goddess vanished in
a stream of tears, and Aetolia was left to puzzle over the chain of
events that led to this sorrowful state.


Penned by my hand on the 10th of Lleian, in the year 118 MA.