14 Hammer, 1371

Dear Master Zorthaster,

You may not believe this, but . . . I've been to Sigil! There and back again as the halflings say. It was amazing! Forgive me if I go on about things you already know, but everything there was so strange and alien that I must describe it.

We entered the Planar city of Sigil through a gateway in the rear of the Tooka's shop. We did not know it then, but there was a reason he handed us the jar we were to carry, took it back, and handed it to another of us. When we stepped through the back door, we found ourselves in an alleyway in Sigil. The city is enormous. Even more amazing than the size is the geography. The city is built on the inside of a colossal ring that hangs above the spire at the center (as much as there is a center) of the multiverse. As we arrived the temperature was comfortable and the smells and bustle and sound told us that we were indeed in a large city, far from the cold, northern frontier town of Daggerfalls.

Behind us, in the archway we just came through, a pattern of swirling white energy was rapidly fading. It was a gate obviously, but at that moment, we had no idea where we were or how to return home. The buildings are made of many different types of materials and designs. Most were dark colored and protected at the top with sharp blades. They appeared to be defenses against flying creatures.

The street was busy when we made our way out of the alley. A reptilian creature deliberately tried to knock Oskar down but the paladin avoided the confrontation and was verbally rebuked by the beast to stay out of the way. Almost immediately after that, we were approached by someone who appeared human. He smiled and I noticed that he had fangs. He introduced himself to us as Etain the Quick. I got the impression that he was a shyster and a confidence man. He told us that he was a "tout" or a city guide. He offered to guide us in the city as it was so clearly obvious that we had just arrived in town and did not know a thing about where we were. He said we were "Berks standing there with our bone boxes hanging open."

While this may have been true, I did not trust him. The others agreed to hire him as a guide, though so he started going on about the planar city of Sigil. He told us that the place is known as the Cage, or the City of Doors. There are doors to everywhere from here. The chief power in the city is the Lady of Pain. Etain's advice was to leave her alone in every way. She is said to be able to keep even the Gods from entering Her town. Even so, the creatures we saw here nearly rivaled the Gods in power.

Our guide also warned us away from some guys in red armor that looked dangerous. We moved quickly away from our alley in the Clerks Ward as Etain led us away from the armored figures. While we were headed out of the Clerks Ward we were nearly trampled by a fellow with the build of a centaur and a set of goat horns. He introduced himself as Tarin and, after sizing us up, asked us to help him with a problem. He wanted us to retrieve some papers from a person named Gadwick in the Town of Curst. Curst is a gate town to the planes of Carseri. The papers would prove that Gadwick was innocent of the crimes for which he was accused. The papers need to be brought to Tarin at the Hall of Records. We were non committal about helping because we really did not yet have enough information about this place. We went past the Hall of Records where the Guvners make the laws of Sigil.

Oskar asked Etain if he knew a person called "Fall from Grace." I was shocked to learn that our paladin knew the name of someone here, but Etain said we would be traveling near the headquarters of the Sensate Faction and we could find her, for Fall From Grace was a "Factol" with the Sensates.

We found her at her own place. An establishment called the "Hall of Sensual Delights." She is a succubus! And Oskar went off with her! Alone! Other "Ladies" came in to the parlor and asked if they could provide us with anything. I just blushed terribly and declined. When Oskar returned, we had a chance to talk to him and Fall From Grace. Holly, a paladin in Daggerfalls, sent Oskar to see Fall From Grace. Holly had spent time here with the succubus. Several years in fact. Oskar told us that Fall From Grace had talked to him the importance of a broad and generous view of behavior. She wanted to help Oskar learn that a narrow-minded path of law and order can lead to pain and evil. The paladin left the hall very puzzled, I think.

We finally told Etain that we were looking for a person named Daragool. According to our guide, we could find him at the Dustman's Bar in the Hive. The Hive is a seedy ward that looked like it was going to be trouble. Our first stop was to talk with a beggar called Benno. He was selling parchments with definitions of the strange slang used so freely by Etain. I was suspicious, though because Etain's use of some of the words did not appear to match up with the definitions on Benno's scroll.

From there we headed deeper into the Hive, and into Etain's trap. He had a few thugs waiting for us. Fortunately for us, his thugs had become bored and jumped another guy while waiting. We came on them as they were killing this other person. I immediately took aim with my new crossbow and yelled at them to step away from the man. Unfortunately, in my excitement, I forgot about watching Etain. As a fight broke out I stepped up to help my companions. Etain slipped in behind me and tried to knife me from behind. He cut me badly, but was unable to do more as Shane was right there to help me. Shane kicked the traitor's knees out and as he was falling, landed a kick to the head that killed the guide.

Meanwhile the fight with the thugs continued. I tried a summon monster spell that failed because of where we were. My other spells seemed to work fine. Cedrik tried in vain to save the old man, but she was too late. Before he died though, the man gave Cedrik a box containing a Mirmar, a recording device with tales from planewalkers. The dying man pleaded with the elven priestess to find his daughter and heal her. She could be found in a walking castle with a green eye. The other five thugs had fallen in battle but one more remined. He was hiding and was going to take a shot with a cross bow. A man named Dreel discovered him and finished him off before he could fire. Our new friend introduced himself as a ranger of the outlands. We learned later that he was an assimar, one of the people touched by powers from the upper planes.

Dreel looked at Etain's body and told us that he was no Tout. All the Touts, the official guides of the city wear green scarves and are chartered. Dreel also knew of how to find Dragool, so we followed him first to a meeting with Ebb Creakknees, a retired member of the Harmonium. Thanks to Ebb and Dreel we were able to arrange a meeting with Daragool. Daragool is a proxy of the god Odin. He was obviously a very powerful entity, with a robust, outgoing nature. I felt better just sitting next to him. What an amazing force of personality.

He took the jar from the Tooka with a look of sadness. It took some questioning from us before Daragool explained just what it was that we were delivering to him. In this jar, the Tooka had gathered the living spirits of fallen paladins. Holy warriors who had died serving evil. Without his intervention, these spirits would go to form the beginnings of new demons or devils. These two types of evil creatures have been fighting the Bloodwar since forever. They are always on the lookout to spread their evil ways and to recruit new forces to fight the Bloodwar. Daragool did not know how the Tooka collected the spirits, and while it was unpleasant to have to deal with them, He was grateful for the Tooka's help in preventing more fodder for evil.

Daragool also told us how to use the Tooka's gate. The key is a jar that had recently been handled by at least two people. We also opened the box containing the mirimar and asked it about walking castles. We heard a recorded voice of an unfortunate planewalker who apparently died when he found himself in a walking castle. I am not really sure what happened. I'll have to listen to it again because I was too distracted by the man's terror to pay close attention to his tale.

Before we headed back to Daggerfalls, Dreel gave me a scroll with a Summon Monster I spell on it. He explained that some types of spells need a special key or a special understanding of the forces of the plane where the spell is cast. This spell was scribed especially for casting in Sigil.

We returned to the Clerk's Ward and found our archway. We had an empty jar from Daragool that we passed around a bit. The gate came alive in a swirl of white energy and we passed through to the Tooka's shop. He gave us 600 lions as promised and refused to accept that he had done a good thing by sending the spirits on to Daragool. He did not want it getting around that he had done a good deed. The Tooka also wrote us out an appraisal for the now inactive, apparently non-magical mirimar. He called it a silver curio worth 60 lions. A magical sword we had taken from the thugs had also lost its enchantment. When I did a bit of research, I discovered that taking magical items across planar boundaries usually weakened their enchantments. It is generally a function of increased distance from the plane of origin equating to decreasing magical power. This made it a little less painful to calculate our local tax burden.

The Tooka explained to us that his trouble with the Guvners and the Harmonium resulted from a disagreement about how to calculate taxes due. That is why he no longer has a shop in the City of Doors.

When we found Captain Briggah we paid our taxes and learned that the watch had found a dead wizard of Thay in town. Their investigation led them to believe that this was our would-be assassin. While the Captain looked as though he wished we had died in the explosion just to make his job easier, he told us we were again free to travel outside the city. I was pleased as this would let us finish our job for Gadlyn Brightblade. We are hoping to wrap that up in the next few days, find a cave and hidden cache of books for Master Wands, and still have time to hook up with Sgt. Potulus on the 21^st. Our adventures are certainly keeping us busy.

Until next, I remain your faithful student,

Cedar

p.s. At last I have assembled the needed spell components to allow me to summon my own familiar. I spent the entire day yesterday working the spell. Late in the evening I became acquainted with a beautiful mink who wished to be called Ciercie. She is lovely and warm and very smart. I can hardly wait to introduce her to you. We spent the entire night together in the library reading everything we could find about the planes. It was a wonderful night, but now I need a little rest.

p.p.s. One last thing . . . Last night, after we had arrived back from Sigil we saw a strange sight. It appeared as though a colossal manta ray passed between us and the face of Selune in the night sky. If you have ever heard of anything like this, I would be very interested in learning about it. I am quite curious about it. Xan seemed very agitated by the sighting but did not appear to know what it was that we saw.