Community

Gerenzrik the Sly returned to Mount Gargoth, to find many new surprises. His people were taming horses and learning to ride them, and the fire archons he had met in the halfling lands seemed to have a garrison near the eladrin homeland as well.

"Here," he said, "let's pass them by and ascend the mountain."

He, and his men brought what they had learned and acquired back to the mountaintop. To this day, Gerenzrik is remembered as the first eladrin hero; the man who introduced the High Men to the world at large, who invented war (in his meeting with the fungi) and peace (with his subsequent humanoid encounters). Most importantly, he is seen as a patron saint of agriculture, as he succeeded in his original mission.

Gerenzrik did not end up inheriting his father's chiefdom; in later years, he fell in battle while leading a group of eladrin to exterminate the fungi from the path of the trade route. The fungus colony was wiped out, but Gerenzrik was an unfortunate casualty.

"There has never not been peace in the Golden Hills, your majesty. We seek to disturb nothing."

"As for your relatives...we encouraged them to settle in new lands. We stole or kidnapped no one. The halflings who came to us did so of their own free will. Can you say the same of the hundreds of thousands who live and work under your occupation? Are those who toil under the watch of your thugs more 'independent' than those who came to us?"

The eladrin looked very coldly at King Ettri.

"Dwarvenkind begins to usurp control of what was meant to be an equal partnership of the races. This cannot be accepted."

"You have decided what the halflings were created to do, then? Very well. It seems we have nothing left to discuss."

The eladrin returned to Mt. Gargoth.

...

The chieftains held a meeting in their great temple.

"This is ridiculous. The dwarves can't simply declare an entire region of inhabited land to be theirs. Are they simply toying with us?"

"Nay. Dwarves never play games."

"Perhaps they can be appeased with gifts? Send an offering to the dwarves, asking for understanding?"

"WHAT? What have they done to merit gifts from us? We owe them no courtesy for their aggression! If anything, it is they who owe compensation to us!"

"What, then, do you suggest? Are such insubstantial questions of merit really worth sacrificing a friendship of nearly two centuries?"

"With all due respect, your parents were not yet alive when our people first awoke on this holy spire. Mine were. Tahns told them that the world was theirs, so long as they treated it with respect and dignity! So we have always done, and we were prosperous! For all their obsession with the natural order, the dwarves are obstructing ours!"

"So what, then, do you propose? Turning our weapons on the dwarves as if they were beasts?"

The arguing went on and on. Finally, a tough, wiry old hunter named Sielleron gained the floor.

"We don't need to appease the dwarves. Nor do we need to make war. Our traders will continue to visit the Golden Hills as they have always done...guarded by large groups of warriors. If the dwarves give them no trouble, then none will be given in return. If, however, their warriors use force...ours will return the courtesy in the fullest. The dwarves must be reminded of their place in this world, but we must not violate the sanctity of peace unless forced."

This was a middle ground everyone could agree on. Soon, eladrin trade caravans were on the road again, this time guarded by squads of feathered and painted horsemen, carrying spears and obsidian-toothed clubs.

A tall, somewhat haughty-looking female eladrin rode up in front of him. She took her hands of the reigns and made the same fist-banging gesture.

"Good tidings to you as well, master dwarf. We would wonder ourselves what business a large number of armed dwarves might be doing in hill country."

Her words were soft and polite, but there was a subtle sneer in her face and tone of voice.

The woman looked at him very closely.

"My friend," she said, "you seem an intelligent and reasonable man. Please, for everyone's sake, just follow your better judgment and let us continue forward."