The Lady’s Ward is probably the most important ward in all of Sigil. It is filled with broad, open avenues, the architecture flaunting its spacious areas like its owners flaunt their wealth. Every main street is cold, broad and echoing, and a cutter can see huge swathes of the sky, more than anywhere else in the Cage.
Most Cagers don’t care for the view, ‘cause the view’s a bit too big. From the edge, some say a cutter can see right into that endless Void, and a smart cutter knows that that fall is infinite. You just see black, and you never hit bottom, you just die along the way. It’s a convenient way to get rid of bodies quietly in this part of town. Most cutters spend as little time as possible on the ward’s streets, under what passes in the Cage for an open sky.
It’s called The Lady’s Ward after the Lady of Pain. Not that she lives here more than anywhere else, it’s just that she keeps her tools here: the City Barracks, the City Courts, the Prison, and the Armory – all the things that define her power and enforce her will. Since power attracts power, bloods set their cases in The Lady’s Ward.
Most of the temples are located in the Lady’s ward.
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Areas
Armory District
The Armory District is the border between the Lower Ward and The Lady’s Ward, blending the industrial feel of the one with the clean, clear order of the latter. Residents of the district claim to live in The Lady’s Ward, and the Lower Ward denizens would agree, but the rest of The Lady’s Ward would like this district rezoned to be included in the Lower Ward.
Barracks District
The Black Sails tavern stands in the shadow of the Armory, the Doomguard headquarters, at the end of a dark alley
The Barracks District is the home and headquarters of the Harmonium faction, and for this reason, the district seems to stand as lifeless and dull. Nobody dares make problems for the Hardheads in their home turf, and so troublemakers and jesters tend to keep a wide berth.
The businesses in the neighborhood all cater specifically to Harmonium needs and obey a strict code of conduct. Business hours are from four to peak to six past peak, taverns are open only up until one to antipeak, and everyone hurries through the streets minding their own business and not making a lot of noise.
Courts District
The Courts are probably the liveliest district in The Lady’s Ward, with business humming and buzzing constantly so long as the Courthouse is open. Beings from all walks of life – from the upper crust of Sigil’s society to the lowest dregs of the Cage – mill about in ordered chaos,waiting for their chance to gain access to the Courts.
The Courts District encompasses the City Courts and its surrounding streets. Here, businesses have arisen to cater to all of the Courthouse needs – from advocates to scribes to taverns that cater specifically to those about to be condemned. The district is guarded by patrols of Harmonium and Mercykillers, on the lookout for street scragglers and criminals attempting to give the law the laugh on a final moment.
Noble District
This is where the well-lanned bloods of Sigil live. Mansions that are far too big for their owners surrounded by impenetrable walls make this place look like a dream that no cutter can touch.
The Noble District is the home of the Golden Lords, the Cager elite. This is where the power of Sigil lies in its entirety. In the noble district, no move goes unnoticed, no meeting is chance. Every move is coldly calculated and anticipated, as no one trusts their neighbor and is never content with what they have.
Bars
Fortunes Wheel
The high and mighty come to engage in the kriegstunz that makes their lives interesting – and to eat and drink the very finest while they do it.
The common room is called the Dragon Bar, a chamber that as much resembles most homey taverns as a factol’s audience chamber resembles most bashers’ parlors. The size of a great hall and twice as opulent, the Dragon Bar is named after an enormous carved dragon’s head that arches over the bar’s mirror and de- scends to the corner of the bar itself, where the head entertains the Wheel’s patrons with tales of its life on the Prime.
Most bashers who care guess that some necromantic spell controls the thing.
less-exclusive public chambers of the Wheel are the Dicing Cup, the Bear-Baiting Room, and Fortune’s Wheel itself. The Wheel began as the iron rim of an enormous cartwheel, decorated with nails and gilded with payoffs right on the weathered iron.
The whole wheel is mounted vertically and spun until a clicking strip of boiled leather brings it to a stop, indicating a square between two of the nails; bets placed on the wooden table before it are then paid off. The odds are terrible, but a unique golden square pays 1000 to 1, so there’s always a bubber or a prime at the table, des- perately trying for the long shot.
The Golden Bariur
The Golden Bariaur serves a clientele from the Upper Planes, from Arborea to Mount Celestia.
Soothing music, subdued lights, and heavenly dishes make the Golden Bariaur popular with the richest and most refined citizens of The Lady’s Ward. The doorman gives this place its name, a tawny Bariaur who appears to have leonine blood.
Temples
Temple of the Abyss
A cross between a portal to and a celebration of the plane of the same name, the Temple of the Abyss soars menacingly into the sky in the heart of The Lady’s Ward.
The temple’s exterior is simple black stone embellished by the tarnished silver blades with which Cagers enjoy decorating nearly every building. What’s more, in the gray morning light those blades are sometimes festooned with sacrifices from the previous antipeak’s rituals. The executioners ravens usually finish off these victims before they expire. Those leatherheads who try to help the victims usually are found on the blades the next day.
The interior of the temple is a gloomy sanctuary of evil, with dark marble columns and 12 stone columns in the shapr of semi reptilian griffons with deep emerald eyes. Iron chandeliers hang, encrusted with the drippings of thousands of black candles that that have burned throughout the centuries. Purple flames emanating from their wicks.
The faces of the the lords of the abyss are etched into the walls, watching all of those that wander the halls.
It is governed by the High Priest Noshteroth and a legion of his followers who function as tax collectors and priests.
The temple has a reputation for getting things done. The price is always blood and spirits. Those who ask for help are never unmasked and who comes to get help can rest assured that their secret will remain just that.
The Bells of Baphomet hang from the temples central tower. Only those that have broke bargains with the fiends of the temple can hear the bells. Eventually they will become mad as the ringing will never be the same again. You can see these poor sods walking around the temple muttering to themselves, a husk of what they once were.
Temple of Hermes
The portal to Mt Olympus can be found at the temple. No one knows how the portal is opened but every morning a berk can see carts and wheelbarrows coming out of the temples doors loaded with the most succulent Arborean fruits and vegetables. Some say that they come from the other side of the portal.
Shops
Trabans Forge
Located next to the City Court. This smoke spewing smithy produces some of the best armor in the city. The ancient Traban is known throughout the city for making highly ornamental plate mail. All work costs 200x the normal cost and a PC can roll to what enchantment will be infused.
The chant is that he brought his forge to Sigil from Krynn and expects to die in his forge as it is the love of his life and he smiles whenever his hammer hits a piece of raw material.
He is a member of the Harmonium and Paladins from all planes make the trek to have armor made by Traban.
Other
The Prison
The mercy killers headquarters are located in this area.
A mass of grim stone and spikes surrounded by broad avenues with faint wails emanating from within the massive building, everything that a berk might fear.
Street crimes are non existent. The taverns quiet and well ordered. The markets are honest and a leatherhead can find the best items at the lowest prices.
Once inside, a body knows for sure this’s a fiendish watering hole. The common room’s dark – not just romantically dim, but outright dark. The glimmer of a single candle illuminates the taps. Voices whisper to each other in the blackness. Cold, dry, snake-like skin brushes a cutter’s side.
The tavern’s run by Zegonz Vlaric (Pl/d githzerai/ F4,WGIBleak Cabal/CE),an emaciated and scarred gith- zerai with one arm frozen into a claw.
Rule of three – Tanari who frequents the bar and will give answers to questions in the form of three answers. He has answers to any question. He poses as a gapped tooth old sage. He is motivated by chaos.
Court of Pain
Covering as much ground as the Great Bazaar, the foundry and the hive put together, the court of pain is a neutral gathering place for the rich and powerful. There are not enough to fill the halls and the Palace is a ghostly place. The real power in the city some say comes from Jeremo the jester. He is found wandering the halls, talking to and making fun of anyone that will stop and listen. How does he have the power a berk might ask. The chant is that he knows when and where the portals will pop up throughout the city and uses this knowledge to pull the puppet strings of the most powerful and wealthy in the city.