The Airdocks
Contents
Overview
Sigil has always been a city of confusing alleys and shifting passages. Nothing is ever quite static here. Sure, the Mortuary is always found on Mortuary Lane, and the Prison is always in the Lady’s Ward… but the way from A to B is never quite the same from day to day. You might pass three blocks of ramshackle kips on your walk to work one day, then find your way home in an instant on your way back.
Such a transient nature was never made more clear with the appearance of the Airdocks. When the Fated formally rebranded themselves as the Consortium, a colossal shift within the very foundations of the Cage was already underway; where the Market met the Guildhall Ward, but a stone’s throw from the Bazaar, a vast open plain opened up. People rushed to put in bids on such a prime plot of land - but were rather surprised to find that it was already claimed by the head of the Consortium. No-one can be certain how they came to claim it, or be made aware of its existence. One thing is for certain though:
It changed the face of Sigil.
Visiting the Airdocks
“Three enormous towers rise above a huge marble hub of activity: airships being dragged around, boxes carried upon floating discs, and the shouts of merchants - all of which are overwhelmed by the whirring of an airship as it readies to leave. Twin talon blades pinch together at the top stand proud above each of the three towers. They hum with static and the cadence of the planes.”
Key Areas
The Airdocks
Despite having been in the works for well over a decade, it was only in the last two that the Airdocks officially opened for business. Its entire construction an enormous undertaking involving multiple supply lines, high level mages and close work with the League of Innovation. The place is highly secure, with plenty of capacity for goods and sleeping areas for faction members. The shipyard area itself is optimised and efficient - six years of planning in the architecture phase made damn sure of that.
Those with business in the Airdocks proper are required to go through two layers of security checks before being permitted into the shipyard itself. Any goods are given a thorough scan by both arcane and divine magics, checking for the presence of unlisted items of particular good or evil and any magic items not on the manifest. Any traders and passengers are also checked over for the presence of disguise, enchantment or transmutation magic, and any carried magic items must be subject to an independent Identify spell.
The Consortium pride themselves on the authenticity and quality of any goods that pass through their headquarters. Anything imported via airship is given their official seal of approval, and anyone who tries to cheat them finds themselves either blacklisted, beaten or disappeared entirely.
Skygates
Watching a Ship Arrive
“As the portals are fired up from the mechanisms below, the entire tower lights up with a brilliant green as a rippling sea of colours erupts within the gateway formed by the talons atop the tower. Almost immediately you see it. An airship arrives like the yolk of a cracked egg. The colours of the portal clinging to this beast of flame and metal like a sticky membrane. When the ship breaks through, the colours disperse in a dizzying light show.”
Come at the right time, and you might just catch one of the Skygates - artificial portals powered by powerful magic - in action. Atop the roofs of the three Airdock towers are enormous standing gateways, looking like twisted pylons that bulge outwards and meet in a point at the top.
The three portal gates go to the biggest, and most important, of trade destinations for the city. One leads to Tarsis in Krynn, one to Waterdeep in Faerun, and one to the city of Bazaar in the Outlands. Bazaar serves as something of a larger Nexus - more portals lead from there to the less visited destinations.
The Storefronts
Being located within a stone’s throw of the Grand Bazaar, the Consortium Headquarters are more than well placed for a massive commercial venture.
The Storefronts are an endless stream of regulation 10’ by 20’ shop-fronts, at which one can find just about anything their heart desires, from foods to crafts to adventurers for hire. It’s a barrage of smells, and the taste of charcoal and spice is pungent in the air. If there’s a language, you can guarantee some Trader here is calling out in it to hawk their wares.
Any Trader is eligible to rent out one of thebooths here, provided they can afford to pay the 1 gold piece monthly rent… and convince someone else to move out of a storefront so that one opens up. These places are in high demand - all the rich berks from the Guildhall Ward end up walking both streets on their way to the Grand Bazaar. The footfall - and thus profits - are immense.
Planar Ledgers
Two of the shopfronts are permanently retained by the Faction itself. In each of these rooms, one will find four Planar Trade Ledgers. Access to these books costs one gold piece (or is free to faction members). It takes one hour to read one of these books, and doing so grants complete fluency in the Planar Trade Language. This is an artificial language created long ago as a means of unifying the residents of Sigil and giving all residents a common basis from which to speak.
Business Quarters
It wouldn’t be a shipyard without a place for storage and bureaucracy. Two sides of the shipyard face onto busy streets brimming with merchants and tourists, each with its own entrance for the wider public. These ways in are large enough for two carts side-by-side, and guarded at all times. The Faction entrance is accessed from a much less-used road, and opens into a large reception area.
Herein lie two long corridors, each utterly straight and ending in a small living area full of snacks and drinks. The North Corridor marks the Records Wing, and is full of bureaucratic offices and old shipping manifests.
Multiple portals exist within these rooms that lead to extradimensional records storage, in which moneylending records, manifests and reports are stored for time immemorial. A good number of these records were salvaged from the Hall of Records after the Second Upheaval.
The West Corridor marks the Faction Quarters. In here are a number of public dorms for those needing a place to kip or just to crash after a long day of work. Most of the merchants who work the storefronts live most of their free time in this Wing. There are also a few public work areas, alongside the Factol’s office and private quarters, as well as the offices of the highest-ranking Bursars.
The words “No Truth Truer than Coin” are written in Planar Trade above all entrances to the Airdocks, with round-the-clock faction guards posted nearby. Those passing through here find themselves interrogated and their goods subject to inspection.