Two days have passed since the lava elementals invaded the town.

Kharam Dzu, despite its precarious position at the foot of a volcano, had felt rather quiet as of late. Plumes of smoke rose from Stormbrow, but then, they always did. Vibrations occasionally shook the ground near Gertigson statue, but the citizens had grown used to those. Nature's volatility had settled into a gentle repetition rather than an imminent threat. An expression of a power greater that - rather than inspiring fear - reminded us benevolently of our insignificance. It was comforting, like staring into a vast blanket of stars in the night sky.

Citizens were organizing into groups to deal with reports of a bandit threat when the elementals appeared. I cannot claim certainty, but to me it was as if the elemental beings awakened within the town itself, rather than first laying siege to the northern gate. The ground shimmered with a heat that billowed towards us like an unseen roiling apparition before coalescing into elemental forces. I remember thinking, "how long had these eerie spirits been sleeping among us, sleeping fitfully as we settled into a collective lull?"

Many of the elementals were what we had come to expect - the flames which licked across their bright forms were a scarlet magma hue that we knew well - but other elementals ignited with a blue fire that seemed hotter still. Blue and red alike rolled towards our group of adventurers like inexorable waves, and the two hues overheated our bodies, our weapons, and our minds.

The battle was like any battle, with its sweat and blood and the thrill of the kill, except that none of us knew if it would end or how. Of course, like all battles it seemed endless but end it did, and after the elementals were subdued we noticed a man in our presence - Ulfor.

Ulfor spoke of Stormbrow - the volcano - as if it were a being with emotion and volition. Ulfor told us that Stormbrow was angry and that the blue that we saw in the elementals was the blue blood of the volcano Stormbrow. When asked why Stormbrow was angry, Ulfor couldn't say, but offered to lead us to the volcano base where he had seen a "blue blood" oozing from its wounded surface.

Ulfor took us - Azanoth, Brimzstone, Jeriah, Jenan, Lady Jadezen, Meriakas, Lord Aranthius, and Sabotage - to the lava flow. His path surprised me, as it continued past the maps I had bought from the local cartographer so long ago - though perhaps my maps had grown outdated. We found ourselves near the basalt flats, where the ash hags and fire ogres live, at the end of a trail of silica-stained rock. Night had fallen, and its darkness contrasted with the bright blue lava we saw issuing from the fumarole. I attempted to inspect the crevice more closely, but it erupted with a constant jet of steam and gasses too hot to bear.

Ulfor could tell us little more, and though we speculated among ourselves about the meaning of the events, it was little more than that - speculation.

Something older than us - a power far greater than we had been playing at - had woken, and we knew nothing of how to appease it.

Or whether it could be appeased at all.

- From the journal of High Lord Azanoth