Aledrec,

The transcripts you requested:

Sincerely Yours,

Roarin Bilmfrickten Workshop Assistant Room 12, Last Stand Inn Sanctuary

Attached are numerous transcripts from tomes:

Book of Urdlen Urdlen (urd-len) crushes life without regard. There is nothing it does not want to spoil or destroy. The Crawler Below is a genderless, half-mad, blindly destructive impulse. No one can predict where it will strike next or what its plans are to further the cause of evil among the Forgotten Folk. The nature of its plans to bring evil into the hearts of gnomes are not understood even by the other gnome dieties. It is said that Urdlen lusts for precious metals, jewels, and the blood of any humanoid.

The church of Urdlen is secretive in the extreme, a murderous cult within the communities it infiltrates or a lurking threat outside the margins of society. From their subterranean warrens, Urdlen's clerics wage an unending war on communities of the Forgotten Folk, particularly the clergies of the other gnome deities. When not hunting other creatures, members of the clergy work to steal objects of value, particularly gems and works of art, and then destroy or deface them. They generally share their lord's love for evil and deadly pranks directed against all creatures, including gnomes.

Clerics of Urdlen pray for their spells at midnight, when the world is buried in darkness. In a regular ritual known as the Feeding, Urdlen's clerics appease their deity by pouring the blood of the creatures they kill into the ground and burying it. Jewels and valuable metal goods are also sacrificed to him by ruining them (breaking, tarnishing, melting) and then burying them.

On Midwinter Night, followers of the Crawler Below gather in subterranean caverns to offer blood sacrifices to the deity in an effort to appears its wrath. If Urdlen is displeased by the volume of blood or the value of the despoiled goods offered on the Night of Blood, it may appear and slay all the assembled worshipers in an orgy of unbridled destruction.

History/Relationships: Urdlen's place in the gnome pantheon is unquestioned, though the deity is greatly feared and reviled by nearly all the Forgotten Folk. Urdlen hates all other gods of the gnomes with a passion, and it has garnered the enmity of the dwarvem and halfling deities as well. Other enemies include the kobold gods and Grumbar.

Dogma: Succumb to the bloodlust. Hate, covet, crush, despoil, and kill. Revel and exult in orgies of death and destruction. That which is living or created by life, must be murdered or destroyed. The strong survive and the weak are their cattle. Propitiate the Crawler Below so it does not come for you.

Old Book of the Chosen The Chosen shall deliver unto the Great Appetite his food. The Chosen will ensure that meat, drink, fungi, ...cheeses..., leafy vegetables, bundles of flower petals, bats, and small animals will never be lacking. It will be the privilege of the Chosen to select from the workers those who shall be offered up as food and offerings. It is the duty of the Chosen to ensure that the unwilling are brough before the Great Appetite to be consumed.

Explorations of Zav Carstain, Volume 14 The Dunwarren Armory

After years of exploration and research, I believe I've come close to the location of the Dunwarren armory. I have found not only an ancient svirfneblin map, but also an inventory log, and schematics of various objects.

The map shows an area below what we now call the bowels of the machine. It seems the armory is somewhere within the complex of ruins down there. I've found the map to be difficult to follow, but I've narrowed things down to a few regions of the ruins.

The inventory has a list of weapons, animatrons, and defense systems that are stored in the armory. Evidently, some of these devices can be activated to provide security to the armory as well. Good thing I have schematics.

Defense orbs seem to be large capacitors to hold electricity. They have a clay and metallic shell, with water surrounding a metallic core. I can only assume the orbs have some delivery mechanism to fire the charge at enemies.

There are about 15 different schematics I've found of animatrons. Most are similar to styles we've already discovered. However, they all seem to have some modifications to them. The numbering indicates there may be over a thousand versions, although obviously most pages are missing.

Soem of the weapons schematics seem strange. Electric catapult ammo, various hand weapons, and what seems like a clock. I have no idea what it would be doing in an armory.

The uncovery of this armory would do much in the defense of Sanctuary, and in the discovery of more of the svirfneblin culture that dwelled here before us.

Zav Carstain

Dunwarren Reissued Despite living in the ruins of this once great Svirfneblin metropoilis for over a century, we know as little about the nature of Dunwarren as the original Bresleys did when they founded Sanctuary.

In the interests of common safety, a few small sections have been sealed off and made habitable but the majority of Dunwarren has not even been explored and are considered to be nearly as dangerous as the rest of the Underdark.

Despite being a city of such a great physical size, Dunwarren has remained virtually unknown by the other nearby residents of the Underdark. When questioned, Duergar claim they knew that deep gnomes lived here, but grudgingly admit that no one knew that such a large population once thrived here. As of yet, no one has asked the Drow if they knew about the city but one can only assume they didn't. The svirfneblin of the Blue Mushroom Inn have refused to discuss the subject of Dunwarren, saying only that the presence of outsiders within the ruins was unwise and unwelcome.

Dunwarren was abandoned and completely empty when the Bresleys founded Sanctuary. No on knows definitively where its inhabitants went, but due to the orderly way it seemed to have been "packed up" and lack of evidence of violent battle many conclude they simplu moved away. In the past year, the efforts of adventurers and scholars have uncovered new evidence about Dunwarren that may explain the mysteries of the past. Unfortunately, typically this new evidence has only inspired new questions, not answers.

The animatrons of old Dunwarren are an integral aspect to the nature of this place, and bery early after the founding of Sanctuary was taken apart and studied by Melinda Bresley and those who would later fofrm the core of the Spellguard. The Spellguard's mastery of the defense animatrons is considered by many to be a prime reason that Sanctuary has been able to resist the many dangers of the Underdark.

Dunwarren itself, particularly sections of it, seems to have been designed in a highly machanistic fashion. It has long been speculated that entire wards and sections of the ruins are in fact parts of an enormous, incomplete machine whose ultimate purpose is unknown to us.

Some sections of old Dunwarren appear to be fairly typical stone buildings in the style of svirfneblin everywhere, whereas others seem to be built upon "vaults" where magic, technology, and animatrons are particularly highly concentrated. Most of the "vaults" that have been found are usually very dangerous, filled with animatrons or other dangers.

A final point of interest about the structure of Dunwarren is the enormous lengths to which the city is designed to control water. Sewers, drainage systems, pumps, hydraulic shafts, waterworks, treatment machinery, and other structures that are in some way related to water are common throughout the ruins.

Explorations of Zav Carstain Volume 21 I have discovered evidence of an ancient game played by the Svirfneblin in Dunwarren. It seems a number of teams sponsored by different organizations in the city competed in leages, as well as in tournaments, and that the sport had quite a following. The game is surprisingly violent compared to what I'd explect of Svirfneblin, so I can only guess that they adopted the game from somewhere else and then adopted it to their own tastes.

I've found diagrams of a rectangular stadium surrounded by a raised platform for observers. Some of the diagrams include obstacles or traps in the arena area, some do not. What is consistant between all of the diagrams are two staircases leading from below, and two rings at opposite ends of the arena from each other.

Some additional drawings and accompanying notes show an irradiated flowing orb. It seems the game associated with this orb and arena has the objective of getting the orb into one of the two rings.

As stated earlier, descriptions of the game sound violent, with players tackling and beating each other when they try to advance the sphere.

They called the game Stupendous Scintillating Stadium Shimmer Sphere, although there is mention that the uncouth called it simply Shimmer Sphere. Uncouth or not, I believe I will adopt that title as my research progresses.

I hope to actually discover the arena itself, perhaps with further information on how the game was played by the Svirfneblin. I believe such a discovery could give great insites into their culture and recreational lives.

Grelda Blingenrock's First Journal Day One - Daddy said we all had to move now, so we're living in a new home underneath an old storage building. Daddy gave us all keys but said we were never to leave without him. I hid mine in Bupo.

Day Two - I lost Bupo. Daddy says it's too dangerous to go look for him.

Day Three - Daddy said we were only going to stay here for a little while, but now he says it might be a lot longer. He won't tell how long though. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Drow. The Chosen made everyone move out of this Ward because of the drow, but we're not going with the others.

Day Six - It's been an awful long time and I'm really sick of staying here. I dont think Daddy knows what to do. I overheard him talking to Mommy about the big machine that everyone has been working on, he says there aren't enough workers to build it anymore.

Undated - Daddy didn't come back from getting food, I dont know what to do.

Last Days of Dunwarren Originally, Dunwarren was a thriving metropolis of svirfneblin miners. This was before their scholars discovered a currently unknown secret of societally breaking power. In the assumption that society only functions because it is held together by divine law, posited originally by Bernarius Crumb, it is clear that this secret still lost to age was enough to undermine the major social mores and glue of Dunwarren resulting in a perplexing and rapid collapse.

The collapse was precipitated by two major factions that incited a civil war in Dunwarren. Currently, the factions are referred to as the Moles and the Machinists. Each apparently formed as a response to the societal fragmentation engendered by earlier discoveries. Each response is typical I feel of any society that is seeing a social collapse--embrace or rejection.

Feeling this collapse was inevitable, the Moles turned to a dark cult like religion that ultimately sponsored murder, rape, and mass suicides. Even worse was the supernatural effect on the cultists themselves. Today, the squatters of Dunwarren can find the "rat-kings" strewn at cultic sites. believed to have little power, the full story of these "rats" is rarely linked to the actual "moles" that they represent.

The Machinists took the second route, rejection. In an effort to resist or fight against whatever this dark secret was--they turned to the creation of animatrons. This led to a conflict with local druids that further weakened the crumbling city. Civil war with the cultists weakened the machinist factions even further.

Ultimately, Dunwarren collapsed in on itself. It is only recent research through interviews with some few survivors that the truth has been learned. The great secret of Dunwarren still haunts Sanctuary today, and still threatens the same response should it be released into common knowledge.

Pumphouse Manual Evidently, the town of Sanctuary only takes up a very small part of the original deep gnome metropolis. The complicated machinery of the pumping mechanism brings up plenty of fresh and clean water from some unknown source very far below. It is speculated that most of the water was originally intended to be used as coolant for the enormous gnomish machinery that actually makes up much of the city's upper-most floors. With the machines being inoperational, most of the water simply flushes down into the uncharted sewer system below.

With the peculiar disappearance of the deep gnomes, the purpose and operation of their elaborate machines remain a mystery.

Temple Heiroglyphs Panel 1 - This section of the wall is covered with heiroglyphs that show small gnomes working in a mine shaft.

Panel 2 - This section of the wall is covered with heiroglyphics that show a giant stone elemental crushing indicipherable humanoid figures.

Panel 3 - This section of the wall is covered with heiroglyphics that shows a giant tablet blazing with energy or light, with many small gnome figures crowding around to examine it.

Panel 4 - This section of the wall is covered with heiroglyphics that show gnomes working on a huge machine of cogs and gears.

True Path to Happiness Fellow folk, my brethren... have you ever felt alone? Isolated? Watching from the sidelines as our fast-moving magical society passes you by? Have you wondered if you would ever have an impact on your world, or achieve peace with those around you?

Wonder no longer. I have discovered the path to happiness in our modern world, and have returned to spread the good word. Listen, read, and open your mind to the supernumerary possibilities that await.

To embark upon the true path to happiness, you cannot sequester yourself away amongst gear and tome. We have grown insular, timid, shy beyond the imagination of our forefathers. The path to happiness is to know one's fellows! Take up the mole-skull, the razor claws, and wear them with pride, not with shame. Smash the contraptions that have drawn us apart with boldness and righteous fury, not ambivalance or timidity born of shameful calculation. Dig dirt burrows in the primal soil, and bathe in the bones and blood of those who oppose us: only then can we achieve peace with our world.

Crush and dash to pieces the automata that have consumed our lives! They do naught but enslave us to gears and widgets. Take up the mole-skull: wear the jagged mask not to hide, but to reveal your true face. Exult in the dance of praise to the White Mole, dance with your brothers and your sisters, your fellow faithful, and know them. Revel in his burrows, and reject the hollow halls of iron tombs. Join and be one with the land, and the flesh and blood of the faithless, and the frenzy of the enlightened. Praise Urdlen, and know enlightenment.

This is the True Path to Happiness.