Ugrur-melakh

The Ugrur-melakh (Khuzdul for the Echo-horns) are ancient Dwarven constructions located within the caverns of Gloomingtarn in Mount Gundabad. According to Dwarven lore, they were devised to channel and shape the natural acoustics of the vast caverns, producing a deep, reverberating resonance that carried across great distances.

The Urgur-melakh were arranged at overlooks, along thoroughfares, and near strategic positions within Gloomingtarn. When properly aligned, they capture and redirect the cavern's natural resonance, creating sounds of such force and dissonance that they are capable of unsettling or driving off intruders. Lore preserved among the Dwarves also claims that the echo-horns were once possessed of an enchantment dating back to the Elder Days, though no direct evidence of this enchantment has been confirmed in later ages.

During the renewed Orc incursions into Gloomingtarn, the Orcs demonstrated an unexpected understanding of the Ugrur-melakh's function. They altered the alignment of several echo-horns and deliberately avoided others, suggesting a lingering fear or superstition surrounding their effects. One cluster of basalt columns supporting an echo-horn was destroyed on the orders of the Orc lieutenant Hathnákh Curse-breaker, causing an echo-horn to topple near the Orc encampment at Drúkala.

When this toppled echo-horn was later struck during a skirmish, the sound it produced drove many Orcs into madness, though the effect proved temporary. The Orcs regrouped under Hathnákh, who styled himself Curse-breaker, claiming credit for overcoming the protections of Gloomingtarn. In truth, the breaking of the warding-runes was accomplished through an artifact of the Iron Crown, though this fact was unknown to most of the Orcs.

Following the defeat of Hathnákh near Drūkala, Dwarven forces were better able to resist Orc advances within Gloomingtarn. In the aftermath, Dwarven expeditions undertook efforts to realign the surviving Urgur-melakh. Though the ancient warding-runes on the gates could not be restored, the echo-horns were once more set to harness the cavern's resonance, preserving a fragment of the ancestral craft and knowledge of the Dwarves of Gundabad.