Grimlock Grimlocks are a race of monstrous humanoid s that live in the Underdark . Grimlocks are savage humanoids that have dwelt within the depths of the world for thousands of years . As such , they have lost their sight in the lightless depths and have replaced their ability to sense the world around them with an acute sense of smell and echolocation . The underworld is a savage place , and grimlocks are just as primitive . They make crude clothing from the hide of animals and weapons from stone . Physical description . Millennia of living in darkness have left the entire species blind and vulnerable to light . Grimlocks are humanoid creatures and have slightly scaled , gray skin that is usually scarred from hunts through constricted passageways . Perhaps the most striking feature of a grimlock is the complete absence of eyes or eye sockets . Blank skin stretches across the upper face , giving grimlocks a shadowed , masked visage . The average height for a grimlock , male or female , is five to five and a half feet . The average weight is around 180 pounds . Society . Grimlocks prefer to keep to themselves , but their isolation is often disrupted when mind flayers raid their packs looking for slave fodder or , as more often is the case , their mushroom fields are razed and their water cisterns are drained by drow . This leaves the grimlocks starving and desperate , and they are forced to raid surface communities in order to survive . For this reason , grimlocks are hated by surface dwellers . Grimlocks tend to have intense distrust toward any race other than their own . They quite reasonably act xenophobically to other races , as they are fed on by mind flayers , enslaved by both drow and mind flayers alike , and subjected to extreme depravity by aboleth s . In the Underdark of Faerûn , some groups of grimlocks worship individual medusae , considering them as minor deities . The power of a medusa ' s gaze is beyond the grimlock ' s ability to comprehend ( as they are blind ) , so it seems divine to them . More enlightened grimlocks , however , tend to worship Shar , the goddess of darkness . Many wild grimlocks are born in an extended series of caves that they call the Fingerhome . The caverns of the Fingerhome extend throughout the upper , middle , and lower Underdark . One tribe of grimlocks resides in the Cavern of Cloven Heads , a small cave that five thousand years prior was the site of a battle between a rear guard of dwarves of Clan Black Axe and a group of drow refugees led by Menzoberra the Kinless ( the Lolth ite priestess who founded Menzoberranzan ) . This tribe abandoned their nomadic ways and settled the surrounding caverns . Within the Cavern of Cloven Heads lies a monstrous boulder engraved with runes . Surrounding the boulder are the riven skulls of hundreds of drow . This discovery matched fragmentary legends regarding the grimlocks ' lost ancestor mound , so they now revere this mound as such . ( This mound is actually an ancient dwarven cairn of the Black Axe Clan . The inscriptions on the boulder are Dethek runes that relate the legend of the " Brave Beards . " The rock itself lies atop the spot where the last defender of the dwarven rear guard , Dorn Black Axe , literally sank into the floor of the cavern . ) Language . The language of the grimlocks is a dialect of Terran and Undercommon . Some choose to learn Abyssal and other evil tongues in order to gain power for themselves by making sinister deals . History . Grimlocks are the descendants of humans of Uthgardt ancestry from the Golden Eagle and Red Pony tribes . Long ago , in 576 DR ( the Year of the Sunless Passage ) , these barbarian tribes vanished into the Underdark by way of a passage that leads down from beneath One Stone , the Uthgardt ancestor mound located in the easternmost Moonwood . After years of wandering in the lightless passages of the Underdark , these barbarians evolved to the current grimlocks . They still retain twisted vestiges of their ancient traditions , including a depraved form of ancestor worship that involves consumption of the aged and weak while they still live . References . Sources . For more detailed information , see the article at the " Annex " . Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons v3 . 5 Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition Other