Odrun Fell

The Blackmouth Grotto is one of the few known natural entrances to the Spirals. Ancient explorers once claimed the Grotto was a wound where the Shroud has almost turned inward. It was where the greatclub's magic started to twist roots and matter into a recursive ruin. The cavern walls are veined with blackened wood, pulsing like it were alive and slowly dying. Scholars and delvers from the Hilt say that the grotto was one of the major birthplaces of the Hollowmasks. The sound of weeping, laughter, and false prayers can be heard drifting from the depths. The Cudgel has posted no formal claim here, and the Barely refuse to harvest anything that grows within fifty feet of the entrance. Although it is deemed dangerous, there are great rewards that accompany the risk, as passing through the grotto leads explorers into the Spirals, where fame and fortune are as common as danger.

The Blackmouth Grotto yawns at the base of a collapsed ridge, hidden beneath a curtain of thorned vines and chitinous ferns whose undersides pulse with amber light like warning signals. Its jagged entrance resembles a mouth torn from the earth itself—roots hang like fangs, dripping with thick sap that glows faintly in the gloom. A low mist seeps constantly from within, clinging to the ground like spilled ink, while the air just outside the threshold is choked with the scent of rot, pheromones, and something almost… nostalgic. Bioluminescent moths circle the threshold in erratic patterns, always just barely illuminating the fractured chitin glyphs carved into the cavern's flanks—marks not written by any known hand.