Blingdenstone, once called the City of Speaking Stones, is a deep gnome settlement founded more than two millennia ago. The deep gnomes, insular and secretive by nature, care little about histories and legacies, and thus most of the ruined city's past is lost to time.
For centuries, Blingdenstone remained hidden and isolated from the rest of the Underdark, thanks to a combination of misdirection and magic. It wasn't until they provided shelter to a drow exile named Drizzt Do'Urden that the deep gnomes began to take a more active interest in the world outside their caverns. Perceiving the threat the drow represented to all the peoples of the Underdark, the deep gnomes abandoned their isolation when they came to the defense of the dwarves of Mithral Hall, defeating an invading drow force from Menzoberranzan.
This alliance, however, would spell Blingdenstone's doom. The vengeful drow bided their time, rebuilt their forces, and sent their armies out to strike back hard against the svirfneblin, returning in great force to lay siege to Blingdenstone. The deep gnomes were no match for the drow army. Thousands of svirfneblin were slaughtered, and those survivors who didn't escape to Mithral Hall or the surface world were dragged back in chains to Menzoberranzan as slaves.
Within the past decade or so, the deep gnomes have returned to reclaim, resettle, and rebuild their city. The ultimate success of their efforts, however, hangs by a slender thread. Most of the ruined city is a dangerous place and remains closed off, with tunnels and chambers barricaded with gates or deliberately caused cave-ins. The svirfneblin must contend with incursions by wererat squatters, insane elementals, ghosts, and a plague of invading oozes controlled by the Pudding King-a mad deep gnome under the influence of the demon lord Juiblex.