Pendrath na-Udûn

The Pendrath na-Udûn(S. "Stairs to Hell;" La. Kivinen Selkäranka) form a winding, stone stairway which climbs the smoldering heights of Naur Firnen. The stairs were carved into the contours of the mountainside long before the memory of Men, following a sometimes open, sometimes secretive line up the ridges and valleys of the Naur Firnen. Built to serve as an outpost of Angband in the days before the War of Wrath, these stairs remain as silent witness to Morgoth's passing. In several places the steps are narrow, steep and difficult to scale for those heavily encumbered with packs and equipment; in other places, they are blocked by stone-falls and rock-slides, and a way must be cleared or an alternate path taken. The stairs climb high up the mountain to a flat, open shelf of rock before the gaping mouth of a cave. In ancient times, the cave was called Doom's Door, and its mouth was guarded by a Balrog. But for all its terrifying names, little now remains, its horrors either swept away or taken flight into the Underdeeps at Morgoth's downfall.

Beyond the door lies a great labyrinth of volcanic caverns. The caves are rough-walled and lifeless, save for an occasional Troll or wandering dragon. These caves gradually lead eastward and ever downward until the roots of the mountain are reached. Here the air is warmer, but fouled by sulfuric fumes and other poisonous vapors. As the caverns dive ever deeper, it grows increasingly hot and the way forward more difficult as paths are blocked by ribbons of lava, snaking across tunnels and through caves. These are part of the outlying borders of the Lake of Fire beneath the Naur Firnen.

The molten rock here glows white hot, endlessly bubbling and steaming; but there is little chance of an eruption ever again reaching the world above. Outlying channels of the Lake of Fire have broken through to the great, subterranean roads of the Underdeeps, which siphon off much of the pressure generated by the lake. Thus, the titanic forces that once sent molten lava spewing out onto Angband's Threshold and the Fire Tundra are now spent before they start and can no longer build up sufficient strength to force the lava upward.