My impression is that Argan Argar released Lodril. "Hey, demon thingy;
youse free. Go."
He did nick Lodrils spear (or incorporated it, or ripped it off, or
whatever, which is why spear is a holy weapon to worshippers of AA,
especially around Shadow Plateau).
Then he forced Lodril to make a thing of perfect beauty (a really
_really_ nice house) to impress the Earth goddess, whom he was courting
at the time. Then they got married and had a baby (the Only Old One).
I don't think anyone ever said exactly why AA let the nasty burny thing
off the hook, just like that. Might be because the Earth had a soft
spot for it. Might be because it was an evil burn thingy, and hey...
"what is I gonna do wid' it anyway -sit on it forever? Yuerr!". Or it
might be because a large part of Argan Argar is about benign
interactions.
Another thing: this isn't necessarily an uz story, but until now uz has
had pretty much monopoly on the telling of it. I would _love_ to see
the Esrolian grannies' version.
Cheers,
Dan