Many an Aetolian eyebrow was raised early in the afternoon on the 12th
of Lanosian, year 116 of the Midnight Age. A sense of portent had
descended upon the land, and although sighs of relief were widespread
when the symbolic hourglass turned to the 13th without event, the
ominous mood did not lift. Indeed, at dawn on the 14th, citizens of the
realm were held transfixed as a series of images occurred commonly to
them. They saw an agile race emerge from their caves to gain fame across
Sapience, they saw a group of staff- and crystal-wielding figures, and
they saw a robed woman holding a blade and smelling of venom. While many
gathered at a curved mirror located at a minehead deep within Moghedu,
Winger Imperil followed the third vision back to his Guildhall, where he
discovered Istinista the Shadow Guide in a befuddled state.
Unrecognizing of any who approached, Istinista simply paced fretfully
back and forth, muttering to herself repeatedly the same quartet of
venoms: "Delphinium, darkshade, kalmia, scytherus."

Several of the Syssin went to their tutor's aid that long night, but
none could soothe her. Eventually, spurred by occasional outbursts from
Istinista, Winger braved the noonday heat of the western Mhojave to seek
the Great Mhunna. Others from the group at Moghedu joined him, and
together they found the Mhunna much saner than he had been ever since
his long death and revival. He felt the stirrings of destiny within him,
but he could not ascertain the cause without knowing more of the dreams
that were beginning to occur. Indeed, Mhuns all across Sapience (the
group indicated by the first image of the 14th) were seeing in their
sleep visions of the Mhunna and of a mysterious heavy box with vials
being placed within. Similarly, the Magi (indicated in the second image)
were having more precise dreams about the dark box and the objects that
were inside along with the vials.

Spurred by yet another Mhun dream, Euric Greymantle journeyed northeast
across the mighty Pachacacha and Zaphar Rivers into the Eastern Ithmia
forest, where he discovered strange items lying secluded within the four
ageless Cairn stones: dome-shaped pieces of a heavy, dark ore, each
bearing a pictogram of the physical element from the Cairn that hid it.
While he searched the forest together with Azrael the Druid, they
stumbled across the archeologist Trabarg carefully investigating a pit
he was digging in the grove of Aileach Daemir. At first reproachful for
the careless footsteps of the pair, Trabarg soon turned to amazement as
they showed him the strange dome. He produced for them a circular flat
piece of the same material, which he named for them as molyvdian. As
night fell upon the forest, Trabarg bade Olorin El'druith go and make a
rubbing of new inscriptions on the Cairn of earth. When Olorin brought
the parchment back, Trabarg translated the archaic runes as commands to
free the Earth from the clutches of Fire, Air, and Water.

The exciting news was soon relayed to the group attending the Mhunna,
who marveled at the appearance of the curious material. He explained
that molyvdian was a particularly rare and pure ore, so prized by his
people that the strongest of the Mhuns would fight over its possession
when a vein was discovered in their mines. Suspecting that the various
pieces were meant to be assembled into the box from the dreams, the
Mhunna sent several of the band to search for additional pieces within
Moghedu, knowing that it would require an expedition of force against
some of his people but feeling the hand of fate pulling him inexorably
forward. Meanwhile, on a chance remark by the Mhunna, a smaller group
set out for the jungle-held town of Saluria to investigate the
possibility of wisdom wrapped in the facade of a song.

The 17th of Lanosian found both journeys proven successful. Those
passing through the Itzatl Rainforest met with Tlolteotl, Bard of
Saluria on his customary chair at the bar of the Red Manticore Inn.
Surprised by their request, Tlolteotl regained enough sobriety to sing
an excerpt from a song that contained a reference to molyvdian. To the
amazement of the audience, the song described a ritual of summoning that
brought together all of the Earth-related visions they had been
pondering. They rewarded the bard greatly for his unknowing assistance
and rejoined their fellows in Moghedu, where it was revealed that three
additional pieces of molyvdian had been recovered from the reluctant
master miners. Returning to the desert, they shared all they had learned
with the completely lucid Mhunna, who now knew his destiny: He was to
lead a ritual of summoning for Laasen, the Mhun spirit of earth and
stone in its purest form, that would end in his own sacrifice.

As they worried over the lack of the fourth molyvdian side, fortune
turned their way as Vigil the Pureheart encountered the gathering. Upon
being shown the molyvdian, he hastened to Delos and retrieved the fourth
and final side-piece, which had been chance-found by Clio Thetis days
earlier, from the unlikely location of The Cat's Meow's stockroom. As
the eager crowd waited, Euric, staving off profound weariness to remain
phased in protection of the molyvdian, attached the four arced sides to
the circular bottom to assemble a suddenly-powerful open box. The Mhun
Jaina Amaratha and the wizard Raistlin Myeras had strenuous tasks of a
different sort, as they forced their unhappy bodies to unrestful sleep
time and again so that no detail of the prophetic dreams would go
overlooked. With the aid of these many, the Mhunna, Phobos Imperil, and
Sir Vigil reconstructed the details of the ritual they would need to
perform, and those collected set out for the cold Tarea Mountains.

There, at the edge of a precipitous chasm bordering the eastern side of
the Pass of Eurik on the quickly ending 18th of Lanosian, they performed
the ritual for distilling Fire, Air, and Water out of the element of
Earth. As they placed a vial of darkshade with a lump of coal inside the
molyvdian box, calling for the Earthen coal to reject the Fire it
contained, it magically shrunk in size until the domed lid was a perfect
fit; placing the fire-etched lid upon the box, they watched the powerful
elemental forces shake the molyvdian until the box reopened, empty, of
its own accord. They repeated the process twice again, offering a
feathered whirlwind talisman to the Air-constricting power of kalmia and
a pearl-producing oyster to the Water-thinning might of scytherus. As
midnight drew ever closer, the Mhunna gripped the valuable molyvdian box
and steeled himself to be slain in service to his God.

It fell upon Vaesith Mirari to perform the sacrifice. When the Great
Mhunna lay dead at his feet, the voices of all the Mhuns in Moghedu were
raised, hailing the passing of their selfless leader with shouts of
"Vhullesennhi Mhunna" as those present at the chasm's edge solemnly
passed the body from arm to arm as instructed. Shortly after midnight on
the 19th of Lanosian, Vaesith cast the Mhunna's body down into the
chasm. With a tremendous roar, they watched spellbound as an entire
mountain rose up from nothingness.

A quick exploration of the new peak revealed a thundering Earth
elemental at the base of its eastern slope, together with concentrations
of the other three physical elements nearby. The elemental revealed
himself not to be Laasen: due to impurities in the ritual, this
extremely powerful yet non-Godly being was summoned. While the audience
debated whether the Mhunna's sacrifice were in vain, the elemental made
himself at home in the material plane: he threw his Earthen power across
the land to unknown effect, and he released dozens of rocklings into the
hills of the realm. Further conversation proved unilluminating, and the
citizens of Sapience were left wondering, as many kept vigil on the new
mountain for days on end, whether the mighty changes they had wrought
would prove good or ill for those of flesh and bone.

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