Bellmouths are blind amphibious creatures found in flooded ruins, abandoned cisterns, limestone caves, and old relay chambers.
Their bodies are pale and squat, with broad forelimbs and several layered throat sacs beneath the jaw. These sacs allow the animal to reproduce complex pressure patterns after hearing them only once.
What they imitate
A Bellmouth can imitate:
- signal-bell sequences
- engineering test notes
- warning knocks
- human speech rhythms
- Tarlaxian road patterns
- the mechanical cadence of a lock opening
The sound is never a perfect copy of a voice. It reproduces the structure underneath it.
What they wake
Young Bellmouths use this ability to communicate through stone and water. Older animals sometimes trigger dormant mechanisms accidentally. A relay chamber abandoned for a century may suddenly begin answering because a Bellmouth has learned its old call.
When frightened, the animal releases every stored pattern in a single burst. The pressure can crack glass, stagger nearby people, and leave blood running from the ears.
They are not aggressive unless cornered. Their danger lies in what listens when they call.
A Bellmouth chamber often contains water rings moving despite still air. Small repeated knocks may continue after everyone has stopped walking.
At the table
A Bellmouth can open a forbidden door, imitate an ally's signal, or accidentally awaken a device nobody present understands.