Urla'palos

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Urla'palos dates to the time when demon armies besieged Bal-Kriav. It was built by aboleth serving the demon lord Athroond and his aquatic demon knights and barons (and other titles created on the whim of their eccentric master). After the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE), the aboleth were pardoned by the Covenant, left to wander Ufthag's lakes and rivers and over thousands of years spread across Brucrumus's Underbelly.

In 1304 LE, Urla'palos was captured by the Lith-Crillion. The city's aboleth were dominated and then sent to labs where psionicists using psychic surgery subdued their predatory instincts and tried in vain to change them to be less evil. The Lith-Crillion turned Urla'palos into a research center for this type of work and for studying Underdark aquatic lifeforms. They had a deep interest in aboleth mind's for they are capable of storing an enormous amount of information.

Another strange feature of aboleths is their memory. An aboleth is born with a racial memory, each individual inheriting the memories of its ancestors. Furthermore, it assimilates the memories of those it consumes. Each aboleth's memories are stored within an ever-growing part of its brain which extends down its back as it ages. Aboleths enjoy spending time lost in particularly fine memories of their ancestors, and if they have nothing better to do, they may relive entire portions of their forebears' lives.[1]

Under Lith-Crillion management, the architecture of the city changed to one more suited for the air-breathing humanoids. Nearly all areas were sealed which was a godsend to the Lith-Crillion for they detested having to get close to the Aboleth's mutative mucus and gaining its aquatic boons. The Lith-Crillion remained in Urla'palos for three centuries, then abandoned it and went north to Titaram where they repeated what they had done to Urla'palos and its aboleth.

They came in swift and held powers of the mind that dwarfed our own. We were dominated, lobotomized, had our memories copied, they reshaped the cities into one of desert conditions, then were kind enough to release us, and then they moved on to the next concentration of aboleth.

- excerpt from the book Uckeeshi, of aboleth writing, found by the Gallant Nine - "Memory Stealers"

In the Durkoth Descent (995 HE - 1355 HE), the aboleth again found themselves under the mastery of another. Krak-Oth and his Durkoth enslaved the aboleth and again they had to change their city to the requirements of their masters. Unlike their previous masters, the Durkoth were more interested in mastery over the peoples around them than acquiring knowledge. The Durkoth of Urla'palos, after learning that the Lith-Crillion had subdued the aboleth predatory instincts, removed this impediment to their domination schemes. By the 14th century of the Horgon Era, Urla'palos came to dominate all of Ufthag and were just starting a genocidal war with Titaram. This war came to an end in Thyrm's Breath when almost on cue, the city's Durkoth retreated into the sunken city's deepest chambers and then disappeared.

Over the next two centuries of Thyrm's Breath the Durkoth retreat to their hibernation vaults was repeated across all their undersea and surface holds. From Cthorgo to Zen'nêlkhush, the Durkoth went into a deep sleep and their vaults disappeared. When the Masters awaken from slumber, they will have progressed to the next level of greatness, and only true believers will take their place at their side, for the rest will be no more than slaves.

- Kraadred, of the Master's Chosen cell of Entropy - "Durkoth Awakening"

After the disappearance of their former masters, the aboleth abandoned places like Urla'palos and Titaram with all but the insane of them believing them to being places where they are fated to subdual.

Today, Urla'palos is a dark murky ruin with crumbling architecture that is part demon inspired, part Lith-Crillion, part Durkoth and part aboleth. It is the abode of insane aboleth and underwater horrors befitting a place that has suffered a lot of mental trauma. Most of the creatures that reside here have psionic wild talents and mutations.

1. Skip Williams, Jonathan Cook, Monte Cook (October 2000). Monster Manual 3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 8