Online:Belaigh and the Molmor

Book Information Belaigh and the Molmor
ID	7551
See Also	Lore version
Collection	Archipelago Books and Almanacs
Locations
Found in the following locations: Fighters Guild, Vastyr, on a table to the left of the entrance (map)

Belaigh and the Molmor

by Sirino Hentor, Elder Historian

How Molmor Islet came to be

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Now it is commonly told that the All Flags Navy sailed to Thras and there destroyed the Sload like a swift thunderbolt of divine justice. This, however, is not the entire tale. Lethargic and craven the Sload of Thras may have been, but they beheld their doom taking shape in the shipyards of High Isle. At times the Sload unleashed huge sea-monsters to attack the Systres Archipelago. The mightiest was the beast known as the Molmor.

Some survivors described it as a vast whale covered in dripping slime. Others claimed it had the grasping tentacles of an octopus. And some who saw the Molmor spoke of veritable forests of sharp spines, each longer than the lance of a knight. Where it swam, the sea turned black and boiled. And when it heaved its bulk ashore, it crushed everything in its path.

For seven years the beast ravaged the coasts of Galen. Many captains of the All Flags Navy attempted to defeat the Molmor, but to no avail. Finally Baron-Admiral Bendu Olo issued a call for assistance, promising to grant any boon to whomsoever could defeat the creature.

Even the bravest heroes hesitated, for the Molmor had drowned or devoured nearly all who set out to hunt it. But then a young and untried druid of Galen came forward. "I am Belaigh of the Eldertide," she told the Baron-Admiral. "I will drive away this monster. But then you must honor your promise and grant my boon."

Bendu Olo quickly agreed, although he had little fear of his promise. Belaigh was a maid of less than twenty years, slender as a reed and clad in rags. Yet something in the young woman's manner troubled him, so he sent a knight of his household with her to report her doings.

First Belaigh climbed to the highest hill of Galen and from its crest took one flake of stone. Then she went to the isle's forests and took an acorn from the mightiest oak. Next, she went to a steaming vent and gathered a handful of ash. And lastly she went to a deep spring at the heart of the isle and used the pure water to mold ash, acorn, and stone together. "Now we are ready to face the beast," she told the bemused knight.

"How will you slay the Molmor with a clod of wet dirt?" the knight scoffed.

"The Molmor will slay itself," Belaigh answered, and went down to the shore to find the monster. The Molmor was not hard to locate. It floated at rest in a western bay, foul spume streaming from its flanks. The maid climbed to a point overlooking the bay, and then she called to the monster. "Foul beast! I am but a small morsel, but I will fill your belly. Come and devour me if you will!"

The Molmor heard her cry and came in a rush so swift and terrible that Bendu Olo's knight fell down in fright. But when it opened its maw to swallow Belaigh, she hurled the clod of stone, seed, ash, and water down its gullet and called upon the Green. Very nearly the Molmor swallowed Belaigh too, but she sprang aside. Before it could strike again, a great pang troubled its belly.

The Molmor fell back into the sea, thrashing and roaring. To the knight's astonishment, vines of living ivy erupted from the orifices that had before dripped slime. Its tentacles and flukes became as stone and seized fast to the seabed. And its jutting spines turned to trees. In the space of but a moment, the Molmor became a great rock in the sea, draped in seaweed and crowned by a small forest.

"It is done," Belaigh said to the knight. "Now take me to your leader."

The knight did as she asked and told Bendu Olo all that he had seen. The Baron-Admiral looked upon Belaigh and bowed his head. "I gave my word. Name your boon," he said.

"Cut no living tree nor break any stone on Galen," she replied. "Call back your loggers and your miners. This island shall not be used up to make your fleet."

Bendu Olo sighed in defeat. The mighty trees and rich veins of Galen would have been a great help in the construction of his All Flags Navy. Yet his word had been given, and he abided by it. "So be it," he answered. And thus Galen was spared further damage by the axe and pick.

Of Belaigh no more tales are told. But Molmor Islet still stands in the sea off Galen's western shore.