We came through the portal, together, and alive. For this I was grateful, but I was not exited about where we ended up. We found ourselves in a strange place with all manner of demons, angels, lizards, cat people, and other indescribable creatures. It was a city without end, lit up by seemingly nothing during its "day". This place, Sigil, was a godless place, and a dangerous one.
Mara beckoned us to follow her through this strange city, and proceeded to goad us through an acid filled river, which did quite a number on our crew.
Upon arriving at the Hive, Mara shoved us off on Jacob Sharp, a wizardly looking fellow who revealed that we were in Sigil, a world of doorways. We recanted our story, and our visions. Jacob explained that Camoy is dead, and the god we're trying to keep contained is something else, likely related to the illithud (mindflayers).
Jacob explained that this "Hive" in "The Lower Ward" was actually the headquarters of "The Lost". After chatting a while about the nature of Gods and the death of Camoy, we agreed to go grab a drink.
We came across a strange floating creature of blinking lights. They are called "The Dabos" which are some of the only creatures that are actually from Sigil. They move streets in the night, and communicate with no apparent rhyme or reason.
In the bar, Spooks ordered us a round and Jezebel raised her hand to grab the glass, and realized that there was a mark that hadn't been there before. Naturally, she was quick to show it off, bragging about her latest battle scars. I grabbed my medicine kit and tried to treat the wound, and as Jezebel told me to stop, the wound itself started hissing at me! I released her hand and backed up. This mark is clearly magical in nature.
After Spooks attempted to learn about her demonic overlord by transforming into him and succeeding in only flirting with some of the other demons in the room, Jezebel, Filber, and Spooks all managed to become entangled with an amorphous blob creature that was otherwise drinking alone. Jeph appeard to accidentally kill it and we made our escape from the pub. Unlikely we'll be invited back in.
Jacbon escourted us out of the bar and down the catacombs of the city into "The Library". The place was immense, easily larger than the main halls of my belove monestary. Dozens of acoleyts bustled about, carrying books to and for. What a curious place this was. We existed outside the material planes, yet it
The book we were given, did not mention anything about a war between the gods. Instead, they were apparently fighting something else... Most curious...
We brought forward the cube that Spooks retrieved from the trapped room in the cave, and after bartering with the acolytes, they agreed to identify it for us. This item is a "cube of force".
Ava took a pass through the book, and she learned that the plane we came from appears to have a name in celestial, and is called "Ill-sin-seen", or so we think. Additionally, the book claimed that the Gods fled our world, and cut off access to their celestial planes.
The librarian came back from his private quarters with my prayer book Araynaya, Calen
We left the library, following Jacob. As we made our way down the twisting alleys, Jacob made a sudden flight to the right... Then, they were upon us.
Two spiked creatures emerged and made an assault on Filber and myself, they landed a hit on Filber but I was able to shrug off the other's assault. Before we knew it, Jezebel and Spooks dispatched the two without breaking a sweat.
Without a moment's notice, a mindflayer and some sort of eldrich horror of tenticles and a single eye lumbered forward from the alley. Clearly this was a planned assault, and our squid faced friends are on to our motives here.
I raised my holy bastard sword and we joined battle, making blow after blow on the mindslayer. Jezebel and the crew decendd upon the eye creature, taking hits just as heavily as dishing them out.
The mindflayer turned its attention to me, but I managed to dodge each attack and land a volley of blows of my own in return. Jezebel leaped to my side during the melee, and again the illithud creature grappled her in is tenticles, attempting to devour her mind entirely. I feel into a deep rage, and
Jacob revealed himself from a nearby rock, covered in the eyemonster's innerds.
As we entered into the Wayfairer, we noted that there was a second, impossible entrace from another section of Sigil. Jacob explained that this was a special sort of center, with many stable portals.
We negotiated for beds and went to sleep.
Long Rest
We awoke in our room, and took a look out the window. Laborers moved on to their worksite
Spooks gave us a rilling speach over the morning's breakfast, inspiring us to get up and go find a way home! With that, I triumphantly marched over to the statue I detected magic on earlier and said "Hello!". To my amazement, it replied!
"Hello traveler, I am the Ubiquitous wayfairer, every week I have a riddle for you!"
Confident in my wisdom, I entertained its challenge
"The river that flows when death is near, my arrival bringith fear."
After some deliberation with Jezevel (very one-sided, I was mostly debating the worthiness of this entire venture) I declared "Blood!", and out-spilled a tiny piece of paper which was itself a coupon for free drinks! I handed it to Jezebel after Jacob explained that it might be a key, although it was likely a trick or sarcastic remark.
Then, we were off to the markets! After I shrewd negotiation with one of the common magical item vendors for some reigents required for "Identify" and "Find Familiar", we traveled to the magical weapons shop, where Filber offered to negotiate down the price of a "Mace of Smiting" with the dwarven shopkeeper. However the negotiation quickly transformed into a shouting match and many alarming insults were exchanged. Filber left the shop, stamping his feet and I was informed the price was now doubled. Jeph and Spooks offered to pick up the tab for me and I now weilded a mace of smiting! Automated evildooers beware!
Back in the magic shop, Ava leared of someone named "Ora Holland" who is known to have escaped from the mazes, and might be the only mortal to have done so in recent memory.
After concluding our somewhat successful round of shopping, we retired to Cinder's Bakery for a delicous set of donuts.
While munching on our sugary treats, we spoke with Jacob about finding this "Ora" to see what we can learn about this seemingly inevitable punishment that would befall us given our current hunted status in the city. He lead us to the bridge between worlds where portals are known to open randomly, and without need for key.
We walked down the path through the hive and the buildings grew taller, and more strange. This new market area seemed to contain all sort of machine and magic, none of which we had ever seen before. At the end of one market stall we found a tiefling, guiding a group of people into a store front.
We approached this tiefling and Jacob introduced us, and she informed us that Ora might be a vampire, clad in black and is known to be something of a bard.
Spooks decided that we might need to check with the guild hall to determine if there is a centralized organization of bards and musicians. Unsurprisingly, there was no such guild. We left to the nearest bar with the sound of music.
We found our way into a pub named "The Red Pony". Upon entering, we found a massive dwarvish brawl! We quickly made an escape and planned an entrance. We disguised Spooks as a dwarf and they made their stealthy entrance. I wasn't sure what transpired after this, but they came back with information that Ora and only some small bruises from thrown chairs and bottles.
We went to "The Hooded Lantern" where we were served glowing mushrooms, red, blue, and orange. Jeph and I were able to eat the mushrooms without issue. Filber however, had to make a rather rude insisted entrace into the nearby outhouse
With daylight still in abundance, we decied to make our way to the Lady's Ward. Immediatly, and unfortunatly predictibly, began an attempt to pickpocket the first person they met. With a double spell of bad luck, this was no standard civillian, but the head of a guard! And one infront of the courthouse at that!
After a series of botched negotioations, I offered my divine intervention into Jephs pleas, and we successfully staved off imprisonment and fines. We were informed never to enter again, and promptly made our escape
We made a retreat back to "The Ubiquitous Wayfairer" and stole a table to await our musical guest. After a cheese plate or two, we found success, and a band of mechanical musicians and a mysterios elvish woman took the stage. She was wrapped in winter's clothing, all black, with long black hair and stunning features. Ava made her way to the stage inbetween sets to have some sort of discussion with (who we suspect is Ora)
Ora made their way to our table, and we shared stories about or battles and of Ava's resurrection. After sharing some details, Ora revealed that she became a vampire and was prolific with the blade. Ora revealed that Limbo has subsection controlled by an archfey that will prohibit entrace to this area for anyone who is not of the fey.
It was at this point we brought up the business of the mazes.. Ora was surprised to hear this, and initially became a bit vague about her response, and as we pressed her further Spooks managed to get her to reveal that Aoscar, the god of portals, used to live here and had a temple in the lower ward (now occupied by the Aethar, the very group we barterd by books with), but they were yet banished. Ora at one point fell in with Mira, the woman we certainly killed, who had a dangerous play at immortality, and demi-godhood... Ora explained the nature of "the mazes" which appeared to be some kind of shadow dimension of the current one you're in, but there is only one exit..
It was a this point, I asked Jeph to reveal the book bindings from the cabin. Ora revealed that these were in fact books from Mira's hand and made us an offer. Ora suggested that if we bring her a mortal soul to feed upon, she would lead us to Miram in the maze and then left to return to the stage.
"What a ridiculous fausient bargain." I declared. No trip, to a maze or otherwise, is worth exchanging our mortal souls to go visit. After a brief discussion, it was agreed. The night was still young however, and I was eager to begin studying my new spells. The group wanted to continue exploring Sigil, so we agreed that if they were to stay away from the Lady's Ward, we could split up for the evening... I made my way up to the room and set about the practice of spellcraft.
Nearing the end of my spell practice, Ava entered the room, and asked me if I was alright. A strange question to ask, but then the reason why appeared shortly thereafter. The body of a tied up barbed demon was tossed into the room, with the crew following quickly behind them.