The people Paterdomus had barely returned to their homes and the High Prophet had only just descended below the cathedral when a burning red object roared through the sky and collided with the grand cathedral, blasting a hole through the roof and landing within, smashing the ornate tiled floor in the main atrium where it came to rest. The clergy and knights of Caldor hurried to the place where they had heard the great crash, and saw sitting on the floor a roughly hewn stone, about half a metre wide, inscribed with a couple of strange runes and glowing with a nasty red aura, a shade of red quite similar to that of the Source, and the aura cackled and cracked as if it were some kind of electrical storm. The priests were completely at loss as to what the strange stone might be, but they were not appreciate it having blasted a hole through their roof.

To inspect the alien artefact, the temple knights called for one of their squires to go look at it. Nervously, the young man approached the stone and peered at its irregular surfaces. "It looks very strange. The surface looks more crystal than stone," the squire eventually reported, "And these runes, they don't look like anything I've ever seen." He reached out his hand to run over it, but as soon as he touched the red surface he recoiled in pain. It felt like a burn, but it had not felt hot. Pain was not only present in his hand, but also in his mind, as some force powerful beyond his comprehension invaded his mind, probing for memories, especially recent ones. The presence departed his mind in just a few moments, but the squire was left a blubbering wreck from the psychic intrusion. The knights pulled him away, inspected the damage to his hand, which from such a short exposure seemed to be little more than a light burn, and noted how he had suddenly been turned useless. Reluctantly they escorted him to the water priests for healing.

The priests had assembled and were talking amongst themselves about what to do with this dangerous artefact. They noticed that the floor around it, despite them being confident that it was in better condition when it first landed, was fading, very slowly turning to fine dust. Suddenly a voice spoke within their heads. [i]"I could help you destroy your enemies."[/i] It sounded as if several voices were speaking at once, not entirely in sync with each other. The priests were silenced, surprised and shocked that this object could speak. [i]"Yes, destroy... Destroy the tribes. The necromancer. The shadow. The ice witches."[/i] The priests murmured amongst themselves. Who was this entity to think it could offer them this? The voice continued, [i]"I sense a great power here. Feed me it. Let me draw from it, and I shall grant your armies enormous power."[/i]

The murmurings multiplied. This offer of power appealed to the war-going nature of the fire priests, even though many were not sure what this source of power was. However, a pious and older member of the Anointed stepped forwards and spoke aloud to the stone. "The great god Caldor is our strength! It is he who grants us power, not deals with some- some- whatever you are!" This statement drew approval and nodding from the crowd of priests and knights.

The stone was quiet for a moment before speaking again, whispering in to their minds. [i]"Your god's strength is weak. It is I who wields the greatest power. It is I who turned your sun red. It is I who can destroy all."[/i]

"You blasphemous spirit!" the priest who had stepped forwards shouted. He pointed his hand forwards and in anger threw a bolt of fire so forceful it made a thunderclap as it was conjured. Such a mighty blow would normally be able to crack stone, but the strange rock in front of them was unscathed, it had merely rolled a metre away. Frustrated, the priest turned around and demanded, "Destroy that rock!" The crowd nodded, and dispersed as they went to find a way to do that.

First some of the temple knights returned with pickaxes and rock hammers. However, none of the strikes managed to put so much as a scratch in the stone, even with the knights' magically augmented strength. They persisted until the tools wore out or broke, which happened much, much faster than normal. Next someone suggested dropping it from a height, but someone else was quick to point out that if it had survived falling from the sky then no drop they could achieve could hope to damage it.

Then the priests decided to purge it with flame. Given the right method of casting, it was possible to engulf something in a fire which burned off spirit rather than fuel or flesh. Soulflame was very dangerous stuff, so it was rarely ever used, but now it seemed to be the only option. By the time they had made the necessary preparations the ground surrounding the stone no longer resembled the original tiled floor but was now comprised of very fine grey dust. With the sigils and holy candles in place on the floor and eight priests standing in a wide circle around the glowing stone, they summoned forth soulflame to cover the rock which had been bothering them. The sickly green fire twisted and crawled over the rock and would have jumped at the priests too if they had not put in place the controlling wards to keep it contained. The fire died as quickly as it appeared, apparently unable to burn anything, and the crackling red aura was still present, unchanged by all their efforts to snuff it out.

As the frustrated fire priests were cleaning up after their failed purge, two of the Disciples of Unda walked in to the atrium and looked at the stone. "I see you have a problem on your hands," one of the blue-robed priests commented.

"We are handling it quite fine," a fire priest replied arrogantly.

"I would beg to differ. We have watched your efforts, which despite being radical have done nothing." The water priest paused, then added, "The squire you sent us, the burns on his hands, those weren't real burns. It was as if his skin had partially died and been shaved off by a millstone, not as if his skin had been overheated. His mental problems seem consistent with a telepathic overload. We expect him to make a full recovery, given time. However, I would recommend that no one touch that stone, at least not with their bare hands, lest they receive worse injuries."

"Were you just here to point out the obvious, or did you have something actually helpful?" snapped another fire priest.

The second water priest nodded. "We met together to discuss what had happened here. We came to the conclusion that if you want to dispose of something that can not be destroyed, you place it where no one will ever find it. We have arranged for that stone to be taken by boat out to sea, where we shall cast it in to the depths."

"You think your water is so superior to our flame that it can deal with this unbreakable lump of rock?"

"It is Unda who delivers the life-giving rains and rivers. It is Unda who can call upon mighty floods. It is Unda who had reign in the seas. The fires of Caldor can not do everything. That is why they must work together."

Begrudgingly, the fire priests accepted the water priests' offer of help. A band of aquamancers entered and used a large amount of water to lift the stone off the ground and move it around without touching it. They brought it outside and loaded it on to a cart. After covering it with a cloth so as not to gain the attention of the public, the cart was dragged away by a horse. As the stone came close to the dock, however, its aura grew in intensity to the extent that the red pierced through the fabric covering it. In a matter of seconds the axle failed and snapped, dropping the cart to the ground, and the sheet which had been covering it was now threadbare. Once the cart was immobile, the glow subsided to its normal intensity. This was quite an embarrassing mishap for the water priests, but they did not let it stop them. They unhitched the horse and had it returned before they magically pulled water from the river to lift and float the broken cart the rest of the way to the boat that was waiting.

By the time the water priests had briefed the sailors on where they needed to go and how it was important not to touch the stone, a small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. One of the Disciples of Unda decided it was appropriate to give a short speech. "This unholy object here fell into our city just hours ago, and we can not let it remain here to taint our sacred streets. So by the power of Unda we shall rid our city of this object so it may be pure once more." This received a gentle applause from the crowd. The talking done, the sailors untied the ship from the dock and began to set off down the river towards the ocean. However, they had barely moved when the stone glowed brighter once more, causing the crew to back away from it. The destructive aura eroded a hole through the deck and dropped the stone below the deck. Tentatively, one of the sailors eventually took a look down the hole to inspect that damage, and what he saw was worse than he had expected. "Captain, we're taking on water! We're leaking." The aura had degraded the hull so that it was no longer water proof. Before anyone could get down there and attempt to amend the problem the hull appeared to pass some threshold of damage and it failed completely, allowing water to burst in. It took only a minute for the vessel to sink completely, forcing those who had been on board to swim back to the dock. Looking at the bubbling spot in the river where the ship and stone had sunk, the water priests were very unhappy at how this operation had failed so embarrassingly.