Aaron took his spoils, bid farewell to Rockefeller, the Dawn Grand Lord, and headed north alone.
"Save me... come quickly..."
He heard that voice again. This time, there was no doubt: that tiny figure was trapped inside the towering, rotten tree in the hills at the end of Moander's Road.
Moander's Road. Aaron knew he had to investigate. Even without that call, he would have tried to unlock Nurgle's Power.
He had to admit, Grandfather was far too lazy.
Nurgle did not care whether Aaron unlocked his power, nor did he care what Aaron did. He simply stayed in his rotting garden, enjoying the company of his children and grandchildren, or bent over his great cauldron, experimenting with new, juicy little burgers.
In terms of overall strength, Nurgle was certainly no weaker than Khorne. But in terms of influence and destructive power, he was only a little stronger than Slaanesh.
So, just as Tzeentch had reminded him, Aaron needed to see whether an outside stimulus could provoke Grandfather Nurgle's instinctive response.
Moander's Road was the perfect candidate.
Moander, the God of Rot, was an ancient god of decay, decline, and withering, quite famous in the Realms-as a loser.
It was no longer clear exactly when Moander had first appeared in the Realms. Broadly speaking, this God of Rot had arrived after the elves' power declined following the Crown Wars, but before the rise of Netheril. A strange deity whose appearance always displayed "male features and feminine qualities," Moander had built a temple in the mountains and begun spreading the faith. The Netherese had once recorded how Moander poisoned crops, livestock, and water sources to wipe out a tribe.
That was also the earliest record of the worship of Moander, the God of Rot.
Afterward, this evil god had done several