Elder Evils

Illus. by R. Horsley
48
nd the Five shall awaken to cleanse the world of
living vileness, and when all is purified unto
emptiness the Children of Zoretha shall arise to
fill creation with their glory. Therefore tremble
in thy home, o mortal, for thou standeth between
this earth and grim salvation.”
—The Zoretha Scrolls, chap. 13, verses 23–25
The Hulks of Zoretha are five stone monoliths that
have stood still and silent for as long as history
records. Deep within their stone hearts pulse five
malevolent intelligences determined to destroy
all life on this plane. If awakened, the Hulks will
destroy the world to make a nest for their own
foul brood.
BACKGROUND
Few scholars have heard of the Hulks of Zoretha.
Not many have ever seen the Hulks, and fewer
still have lived to pass on the tale of five stone
monoliths hidden deep within the mountainous
snow-capped north. Those who know of the Hulks
have only read of them in dusty ancient scrolls,
and the barely comprehensible tidings contained
therein are usually discounted as superstitious
nonsense, mad ramblings, or at best archaic and
obsolete information.
Only the most perceptive aficionados of the ancient
and the bizarre notice the strange similarities in the
archaic accounts of visits to the Hulks. These accounts
reveal that the Hulks have existed far longer than the
reach of recorded memory, even that of the elves. They
are too old to have been carved by any civilization known
to mortal scholarship, and no mythology hints at their
creation being attributed to any god. (Knowledge [history]
DC 32)
The scholars most knowledgeable about the Hulks
of Zoretha recognize that the horror of the Hulks is
no mere superstitious nonsense. Far from being simple
carvings from some primeval civilization, the Hulks
of Zoretha radiate some kind of nightmare-inducing
power. They are horrifying to all who look upon them,
sometimes to the point of driving even servants of the
gods mad. Those thus afflicted are sometimes able to reveal
more information about the Hulks of Zoretha through
their nightmares than history alone could ever disclose.
(DC 37)
A small number of living mortals in the world have seen
the Hulks in person or hold copies of recent accounts of
such visits. These people are either too mad to publish their
experiences or too fearful for the world if the existence of the
Hulks becomes common knowledge. Visitors to the Hulks
of Zoretha attest to the presence of mad cults worshiping
the Hulks as gods. These cults believe that the monoliths
fell from the sky before the dawn of mortals and that they