Sigil: The City of Doors

Name: Lady of Pain
Gender: Assumed Female
Race: ??? (Not Publicly Known)
Class: N/A
Age: ???
Alignment: ???
Faction: N/A
Height: Can vary, but usually 8-10'

The Lady is often seen as a floating, robed, monolithic, and gargantuan woman, with an expressionless face surrounded by a mantle of blades.

The high-up man in Sigil, the one who ultimately watches over the Cage, is the Lady of Pain. She's not a woman and she's not human – nobody's quite sure what she is. The best guess is she's a power, probably a great power, but there's also a theory that she's a reformed tanar'ri lord, if such a thing's possible. Whatever else she is, she's the Lady of Pain, and given that, most other facts are extraneous.

For the most part the Lady (as she's called) keeps distant from the squalid hurly-burly of the Cage. She doesn't have a house, a palace, or a temple. Nobody worships her, and with good reason: Those that say prayers to her name get found with their skins flayed off – a big discouragement to others.

Sometimes she's seen drifting through the streets, the edge of her gown just brushing over the cobblestones. She never speaks. Those who try interfering with her erupt in horrid gashes at the touch of her gaze. Wise bloods find business elsewhere on those rare times she passes down the way. Eventually her image fades and she vanishes into nothingness. Natives of Sigil view her with fearful awe, as she's the uncaring protector of their home.

The Dabu represents her voice and her will within the city, and are to be ignored at your own peril.

Name: Fell
Gender: N/A
Race: Dabu
Class: N/A
Age: ???
Faction: Sign of One
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 6'


Fell is a rare sight in Sigil, a dabus whose feet never leave the ground. He was once like all the other dabus - silent, unapproachable, busy doing the Lady’s work, but he joined the Lady’s rival, Aoskar. That was Fell’s undoing. Some say that when he declared himself a priest of Aoskar, it was the straw that broke the baku’s trunk and caused the Lady to finally take action against the Keeper of Gateways. When the name of the portal god was written in the dead-book, Fell was banished from the dabus warrens and forced to live as the regular Cagers do.

The defrocked dabus runs a tattoo shop in the Market Ward, using his special ability to permanently graft his picture-symbols to smooth surfaces. The Lady of Pain leaves Fell alone, but most other berks keep their distance just in case that situation were to suddenly change. Most, that is, but not all. Some gather in secret to watch Fell’s vivid tales of Aoskar’s glory. The audience always consists of those Signers who follow the Will of the One. They seek to restore Aoskar to life through the sheer force of thought so that he might take his place as Sigil’s ultimate high-up.

Name: Saleera
Gender: Female
Race: Lillendi
Class: Bard
Age: 415
Faction: None (Friendly with Society of Sensations and Free League)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Height: 20' in total length, about 5' when standing upright.

One of the many guards on the Infinite Staircase, Saleera tends to spend her off-duty time enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of Sigil, and can mostly be found at the Red Lion Inn, due to their ability to accommodate her gigantic form. Like other Lillendi, she is a muse and enjoys the company of artists off all stripes, hoping to give them proper inspiration to create their next big work. To that end, due to her bountiful wealth made within the city by publishing a translation guide to those wishing to understand the heavily symbolled language of the Dabu, she spends her profits from the book on sponsoring her fellows of the arts and often puts on competitions in the city to promote the need of it.

While her duties to Selûne prevent her from joining formally, the Society of Sensations considers her an ally and welcome guest in their festhall to perform when she is able to do so. In addition, she is known to have a soft spot to the Free League and their unofficial leader, Bria Tomay, and would often provide her and her fellows of the League her wisdom and knowledge during their weekly meetings if she was staying there for the small fee of a Tomay performance.

Name: Kylie
Gender: Female
Race: Tiefling
Class: Rogue
Age: Early 20s
Faction: Free League
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 5'5"

The flamboyant tiefling is never a mundane sight as she walks through the streets of Sigil. Kylie appears mostly human, with only the leather wrapped and spike ended tail hiding behind her to give her away as a Tiefling. But to give her a more exotic look her brilliant red hair is tied into a tail at the top that blossoms up like some sky-seeking flower to cascade out and slightly down. A small, thin white scar extends over her left cheek and eyebrow, next to a small ring piercing the same. But aside from her own personal appearance, her clothing attracts just as much attention, being an exotic ensemble of blue-black leather that tightly hugs her slim body and generally leaves little to the imagination. Despite the garish and tempting appearance, the spiked tip of her tail is typically ready to lash out at any berk with too audacious a hand.

Usually riding atop Kylie’s shoulder or trotting along beside her is her pet, companion, or some say familiar, known as Dib. Dib is an ethyk, one of a species hailing from Arborea that appears somewhat like a spider monkey with one eye and a long tail somewhat like a black and white raccoon. As far as creatures go, he’s smart and utterly loyal to Kylie, and she’s been known to use him to get leatherheads off her back, divert them from her trail, or distract them long enough to bob them for their jink. As an ethyk, Dib has the ability to incite sudden blinding anger in a blood, usually in such a manner as to get a group to quarrel amongst themselves rather than attack him, or Kylie, and he uses this ability with remarkable discretion and ability.

Kylie is renowned as perhaps the most knowledgeable and sharp tout in all of Sigil, and has cultivated for herself a reputation of knowing a vast number of contacts, and even a secret method of communication to them when she wanders around the streets of Sigil. Her movements, from the sway of her tail to the twitch of her hands or expression on her face at times can go through a remarkable dance of gestures when passing by a random cutter or meeting another. Perhaps they have a meaning, or perhaps it’s simply a way of cultivating the idea that she’s in touch with far more people than she actually is.

Dib

Name: Shemeshka the Marauder
Gender: Female
Race: Arcanaloth (Yugoloth)
Class: High-Up
Age: It'd be rude to ask
Faction: None ("King of the Cross-Trade")
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Height: 6'

At the center of a far-flung web of spies and informants, Shemeshka the Marauder sits like a hungry spider. She’s a vain, ambitious, and incredibly powerful Arcanaloth, the picture of dignified grace— except when her temper snaps and she erupts in a verbal tirade or deadly violence.

Unlike most Arcanaloths , Shemeshka takes pride in her true form and rarely adopts a disguise. Her coppery fur is soft and clean, with thin white streaks fanning out from the end of her canine snout to the edges of her face. She wears a spidery headdress made of razorvine— some say in imitation of the blade-like appearance of the Lady of Pain. Beads, bracelets, hoops, and rings adorn her neck, arms, ears, and fingers, and a cloud of sycophantic tieflings flits around her constantly, clearing her path, combing her fur, brushing her robe, and arranging her headdress.

Shemeshka knows something about everyone in Sigil, or so she would have everyone believe. She has an unnerving habit in conversation of casually mentioning an incriminating or embarrassing secret of the person she’s speaking to. She smiles and continues the conversation, leaving her conversation partner flustered, terrified, and inclined to give Shemeshka whatever she desires.

Name: A'kin the Friendly Fiend
Gender: Male
Race: Arcanaloth (Yugoloth)
Class: Honest Merchant
Age: Old Enough to Make a Fair Trade
Faction: None, Owner of The Friendly Fiend
Alignment: Friendly & Honest
Height: 6'

A'kin is an Arcanaloth who runs a magic shop called "The Friendly Fiend" in Sigil's Lower Ward. He gives every appearance of being just what the name of his shop would suggest. Naturally, given that he's a 'loth, this leads everybody to suspect that he must be up to a very large number of well-hidden dubious things.

The Friendly Fiend is a bit of a one-stop shop for scrolls, potions, wands and other magical doodads. A'kin is also known to give small trinkets to any customers whom he takes a liking to, even earrings pulled from his own furry ears. It's also quite openly known that he has a sort of "friendly" rivarly with Shemeshka the Marauder, but, at the same time, a lot of the trinkets she wears comes from his shop, seemingly purchased honestly. Whatever is going on between them, only a Arcanaloth could possibly understand the complexity of their relationship.

Name: Balaka
Gender: Female
Race: Erinyes
Class: Greater Devil
Age: Unknown
Faction: None, Assistant Shopkeeper of The Friendly Fiend
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Height: 6'

Balaka has for some time been in the working company of A'kin, helping to run his magical shop. Why would a greater devil spend her time doing this? It's never been made clear, and no berk has the sense to really ask; this only leads to the people not really trusting A'kin. However, she does the job diligently and her abilities do help keep things nice and orderly and able to find things quickly in the store. She is rather shy about dealing with customers, however, which is a rather odd trait for a Erinyes to have.

She does not normally wear her plate armor during working hours, nor her longsword, but she always keeps a rope wrapped around her legs, just in case.

Name: Dabu
Class: None
Age: Immortal
Faction: None, Personal Servants of the Lady of Pain
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 6'

Unlike Fell, Dabus in general do not have names, nor do they display any sense of personality to make them unique, although their appearances can vary between them. They do not seem to possess the means to speak in a understandable language, though they do appear to understand all languages spoken to them. They do, however, show sigils above their head called Rebus pictures. They are, by all accounts, the voice of the voiceless Lady of Pain, and implement her will and her wishes across the city.

They also maintain the city; not only paving over the roads and buildings to create new ones, but deal with the overgrowth of Razorvine that occurs on the regular, and maintain the Portals of the city. While it is apparent they are not hostile and rather patient with the citizenry of Sigil, to interrupt or hinder their work is a risk that may call upon the Lady's wrath.

Name: Artifact #339-H, "Buckethead"
Gender: None
Race: Armor
Class: Clerk
Age: ????
Alignment: Lawful Good
Faction: The Fraternity of Order
Height: 6'7''

An animated suit of armor, disocovered shambling in the hive attempting to break down a foundation with just it's rusted iron fists. It had apparently been at it for a while, judging by the state of it's fists and the rust that had accumulated on it's plates.

The Artifact is a rusted suit of armor, filled to the brim with small paper or vellum notes containing apparent instructions, many of them in common, but Abyssal or Celesital or other languages have also been found. It is animated by some ancient sort of magic, and the Guvners' best attempts to place the date of it's creation have raised... Disconcerting results. It is old. So very old a number large enough to describe it is still being written by a magic quill into a ledger somewhere deep in the Clerk's ward.

The Guvners approriated Artifact #339-H from a questionable merchant in the Lower Ward, having observed it's strange golem-like nature. Any direction written and placed into the cavity of the armor is followed to the letter. Of course many of these directions are contradictory, due to the many eons the suit of armor has spent collecting them. So far it only appears to follow the latest direction placed into it.
The Guvners' investigations into the rules and laws governing the artifact's function are still ongoing, but for the time being it is working in the Clerk's ward as a minor notary for the Guvners, having proven apt at tasks requiring minor skill in bureaucracy and papercraft. You can find the Artifact working in the Hall of Information as an assistant to the Department of Arbitration. Many a Cager has been frustrated and stumped in their legal proceedings and struggles by the sad, rusted and silent edifice of the non-plussed suit of armor.

It's coworkers have named it, affectionately, as Buckethead. They say it's got a personality of a sort, a wry humour that comes out in it's stampage and sorting habits (that are never incorrect, but sometimes rather creatively implemented). Which would have to be impossible in a simple golem-like automaton, correct? Though some inquisitive minds in the Guvners and others do wonder, maybe it's not just following it's latest directions... What other orders might govern the old pile of scrap?

A minor celebrity in the Clerk's ward, many inquisitive young Guvners, Artificers and magical investigators tend to take time out of their day to pay the suit of armor a visit...