The Mouth of Urdlen by Gnorman MacDonald

[Sternhund]

The Mouth of Urdlen
Brought to you by Gnorman MacDonald

This text that lies before you was a story told only behind the closed doors to the entrusted of Sewer Town. It is what we all thought to be the true nature of the monstrous Appetite, its followers the Chosen, and of death in the Underdark.


Look around you, denizen of the dark. Seek the restless undead, and know they cannot find solace in the afterlife. All those who have been slain in this hell are doomed to remain here for all eternity. For these dead, there is only one solace they seek. It is the ever starving Mouth of Urdlen.

Before the Bresley Brothers discovered the abandoned Dunwarren settlement, there resided a metropolis of svirfneblin activity hidden from all the Underdark. It was within this metropolis that a group of svirfneblin were entranced by the radical ways of Urdlen. A cult dedicated to Urdlen was founded, and they began a mass conversion of the populace to his cause. Unrest fell upon Dunwarren, and before long the svirfneblin were divided into two factions. These were the Urdlen cultists, and the Machinists.

The Machinists were those svirfneblin dedicated in the creation of the enigmatic Machine. While the original purpose of the Machine remains unknown, we do know that when the svirfneblin population was divided, the Machinists used the machine as a mechanism of defense and a method of retreat. This is evident by the factories founded within the Machine which mass produce the animatrons that continue to combat the Chosen today.

It was not long until the Cult of Urdlen amassed such large numbers that they began the ritual of summoning Urdlen himself. The Machinists could not halt it, and thus the avatar of Urdlen took form beneath Dunwarren as a large, gaping mouth now known as The Appetite. As reward for their loyalty, this avatar transmogrified the cultists to the ubiquitous Chosen wererats we see today. It is their goal to awaken the Appetite to its fullest potential by feeding it every Machinist svirfneblin that survives hidden deep within the Machine today.

Yet be cautious not to be slain in this dark, for this evil avatar halts all spirits of dead from escaping to the realms of Kelemvor. Instead, all dead are forced to meander in this Dunwarren. Just look to the Mausoleum of Upper Sanctuary, for it is the perfect example of the restless dead. Look too, to anywhere, for the dead never lie in peace. The only possible rest is for the spirit to find the Mouth of Urdlen, and feed itself to the black gaping hole, thus destroying its existence forever.

This is why we must ascend. We must escape doom, and bathe in the morning light.