It began with a brief rumble, a tremor so faint that Hrorknar, the gnoll
smith, barely paused with a frown from pounding on his forge deep within
the bowels of Manara Barrow. Shrugging, he returned his attention to his
hammer and anvil.

The next one knocked him flat.

All across Sapience, Achaeans felt shockwaves from the earthquake
rolling out from the Granite Hills, the bass-throated rumbling of the
suddenly shifting rocks lasting for an endless, petrifying moment. In
the Manara Burrow, the epicentre of the quake, the screams of gnolls and
Mingrunks rose high and shrill over that sound.

But worse for Hrorknar -- the rock beneath him was beginning to split
open. The illusion of solidity melting away as the ground yawned like a
living thing, its impossibly huge mouth opening wider and wider; if the
earthquake were a beast, this was its maw. The gnoll scrabbled across
the ground on his hands and knees with a desperate burst of strength,
away from the gaping chasm that threatened to swallow him in.

Only a final leap saved the gnoll from such a fate as the chasm ceased
its widening, and the earth and rocks around him finally settled into
stillness and silence. Unfortunately, the silence would not long remain
unshattered.

Piteous cries rang out in the aftermath of the earthquake, their source
once again the Burrow. When intrepid adventurers arrived at the Burrow,
they soon found that it was overrun with huge, vicious fire wyrms nearly
twelve feet in length, rampaging through the tunnels and slaughtering
all in their wake. Delphinus Windancer, having bravely descended down
the chasm in the forgeroom to explore what lay beyond, was the first
adventurer to be slain by one of the wyrms.

Dozens more were slain by the ferocious Wyrm Lord who prowled within the
magma caverns that had been revealed by the earthquake. A group of
adventurers finally slew the Lord, the dragon Aztecia Fuil'gra landing
the final blow.

The magnitude of the situation was perhaps as unexpected as the sheer
numbers of the fire wyrms that swarmed out through the chasm. Before
long, scores of wyrms had found their way to the surface and entered the
Granite Hills. From there, they spread with lightning speed, an
infestation unlike any seen before, ravaging the nearby towns of Petra
and Tasur'ke in great numbers, even storming through the streets of the
city-state of Hashan.

Civilised settlements were not the wyrms' only destination -- many tore
through the nearby forests as well, setting the woods ablaze with
roaring flames. The forestal community leapt into action to douse the
fires and slay the wyrms, while in the towns and cities great forces
gathered to combat the new and unexpected terror.

The death toll did not ring but drummed in a frenetic beat. Hundreds of
wyrms were slain, but hundreds of brave adventurers fell beneath the
talons, fangs, and fiery blasts of the beasts as well.

Panic swept throughout the realm, as sure and speedy as the shockwaves
had been. As the hours turned swiftly into days, there seemed to be no
end in sight to the teeming masses of wyrms writhing their way forth
from Manara Burrow and swarming the nearby towns and spreading outwards
even as far as Ashtan and Shallam.

A horde of fire wyrms laid siege to Jaru after the Jaruvian mayor closed
the gates. After long persistence, the wyrms managed to knock down a
portion of the northern wall of Jaru and swarm the town.

One adventurer, Imyrr Rousseau, engaged Hrorknar in conversation about
the chasm that had appeared in his forge, asking if he might know how to
collapse it. Hrorknar only snorted, saying he was no demolitionist. He
smithed things, did not destroy them, unless it was to melt down steel
in the flames.

Hrorknar's words gave Imyrr an idea. However, he was not to act on this
idea for quite some time, until it was clear that the killing the wyrms
seemed to have little effect on the numbers that continued to pour
forth.

Roughly three days after the earthquake had first struck, Imyrr,
accompanied by Asara Eslofe, travelled to the caverns of Moghedu. There,
they sought the services of the famed mhun demolitionists. They were
told to seek the master mhun demolitionist. However, when they found him
and explained to him their needs, he proved to be reluctant to risk his
life in the venture.

"Don't you realize the seriousness of the situation?" Asara chastised
him. "The wyrms will overtake the surface and even invade your home. You
would not dare to endanger your people like that."

"Is there something we could do that might convince you?" Imyrr asked.
"Or something perhaps that you could direct us to do in your stead?"

Finally, the mhun demolitionist sighed and admitted he was low on the
high-grade explosives he required for such a task. He instructed Imyrr
and Asara on the ingredients he needed to create the explosives:
limestone and sandstone for saltpetre, the coal from the Siroccians
mountains, and cinnabar from which to extract sulphur. Assisted by Xel,
Aztecia, and other friends, the two were able to locate all the
ingredients within hours.

The master mhun demolitionist, frightened by the tales of the wyrms
rampaging above, demanded that a sizeable force guard him while he
worked to collapse the chasm in Manara Burrow. A massive group of
adventurers amassed in answer, including Cypra, Lother, Kelderos,
Halios, Redwan, Mest, Draqoom, Yavimaya, Jaizur, Skye, Mayapple, Spire,
Swishowski, Jago, Prenumbra, Theldestron, Andreg, Biulf, Allo, Woodrow,
Beneficia, Astarael, Aaralyn, Zenui, Zarz, Eluned, Varick, Avto,
Nakoruru, Alyssia, Mishap, Rhaakhoen, Matt, Carmell, Sabbinashma, Jaret,
Thor, Nightbird, Indred, Tsuchinoko, Rameus, Zenokail, Teresina, Pazalu,
Vinceres, Kole, and still others.

Led by Aztecia and surrounded by a large guard, the master demolitionist
finally arrived at the chasm in Manara Burrow, where more eager to guard
the mhun awaited. The master mhun demolitionist quickly extracted the
necessary chemicals and combined them together with precision into a
deadly powder. He then packed the powder into slender tubes and placed
them strategically around the gaping chasm.

He then scurried backwards towards the far wall, bracing himself and
exclaiming, "Back it up, people! She's gonna blow!"

As the adventurers hurried to mimic him, a thunderous roar followed by
massively undulating vibrations ripped through the area. The chamber was
suddenly filled with ash and thick black smoke, accompanied shortly
thereafter by the sound of falling rock.

As the smoke and airborne mineral debris cleared, all that remained of
the chasm was a narrow fissure, barely wide enough to permit the passage
of a single man, much less a fire wyrm.

And thus the immediate danger to Sapience has been abated, and the
freeways are safe to travel once more -- or at least as much as they
ever were. The fissure remains in Manara still, rewarding the most
intrepid of adventurers a glimpse into the fiery subterranean belly of
the land, within which fire wyrms and a myriad strange creatures adapted
to the forbidding temperaturers freely roam.

Rumours have even floated upwards of a village of humanoids formed from
obsidian, though that must surely be the hallucinations of a simpleton
who has inhaled an excess of volcanic fumes.


Penned by my hand on the 13th of Mayan, in the year 394 AF.