Nestled within the craggy heights of the **Sword Mountains**, Ieirithymbul remains one of Faerûn’s best-kept secrets—a reclusive haven of rock gnomes, where innovation and magic blend seamlessly into the very stone of their subterranean halls. Few outside the gnome race have ever laid eyes upon it, and those who have are either trusted allies or lost souls who never found their way back. #### **A City of Secrets and Ingenuity** Ieirithymbul is not built as a town in the conventional sense, but rather as a series of **labyrinthine tunnels, hidden workshops, and concealed sanctuaries**, all woven into the mountainside like the gears of some grand unseen mechanism. Every path and corridor is designed with purpose—some lead to the heart of the settlement, where the great artificers toil over arcane blueprints, while others spiral into nowhere, ending in illusory walls or deadly traps meant to ward off intruders. The gnomes who call Ieirithymbul home are not merely craftsmen; they are **visionaries, tinkerers, and arcanists** who weave magic into the art of invention. Their city hums with the quiet whir of clockwork guardians, alchemical distilleries, and delicate constructs designed to aid their daily lives. Time itself seems to bend in these halls, where glowing crystals pulse with strange energy and mechanical birds flit through tunnels carrying messages encoded in song. #### **A People Isolated by Choice** For all their brilliance, the people of Ieirithymbul remain **deeply suspicious of outsiders**. Their isolation is a deliberate choice, born of past betrayals and the ever-looming fear that their knowledge, if exposed to the wider world, would be exploited for war and destruction. It is said that long ago, Ieirithymbul suffered a great calamity—perhaps the theft of a powerful invention, or an invasion by those who sought to plunder their secrets. Whatever the truth, the gnomes have since **withdrawn from the world**, severing most ties with the surface save for a handful of trusted traders and allies. Even among their own kind, few know the way to Ieirithymbul. The tunnels leading to the city shift like clockwork puzzles, opening only when the correct sequences of levers, hidden glyphs, or spoken riddles are applied. To the uninvited, the mountains seem unbroken, offering no sign that a city lies beneath. #### **A Legacy of Wonder and Peril** Despite its secrecy, whispers of Ieirithymbul’s wonders have spread among scholars and adventurers. Tales speak of **constructs more advanced than any seen in Lantan, weapons that bend the very laws of reality, and forgotten blueprints that could reshape the world**. Some say that deep within the city, an ancient vault holds designs for a machine capable of unravelling magic itself—a device so dangerous that even the gnomes fear its existence. To seek Ieirithymbul is to court mystery and danger in equal measure. Those who come with greed or ill intent will find only frustration and death at the hands of the city’s many defences. But those who come with open hearts, with minds eager to learn rather than to take, may yet earn the favour of the gnomes and gain access to wonders unseen by the rest of the world. The hidden city waits, gears turning in the darkness, secrets locked behind doors only the worthy may open.