The Hive
Contents
Overview
The Xaositects barely have so much as an unofficial headquarters, let alone anything that could be considered ‘official’. When asked, most would simply point you to the Hive, or to one of the many buildings within the Hive. Truth be told, their ‘headquarters’ is whatever passes for vogue among Xaositects at the time of asking.
Course, by ‘Hive’ they don’t just mean the whole of the Hive Ward - that’d cause problems with the Dead and the Bleakers. No, they refer to a specific part of the Hive Ward referred to, confusingly, as: ‘The Hive’. A place of predominantly taverns, almshouses, kips and quarters. It’s a place of unregulated commerce and activity, free from the Harmonium.
Despite there being a few staples of this particular area, it’s one of the more ever-changing parts of the city; which is really saying something. Businesses rise and collapse over the course of hours, yet there are always a few family-run establishments that seem to have been around since time immemorial. A gang will often spring up overnight, only to be heads on a crime lord’s palisades by the end of the day.
Visiting the Hive
"A sprawling slum of decaying hovels, moss and razorvine. Yet, despite its decayed state, it’s more crowded than a cranium rat’s den. Graffiti and flyers can be spotted just about everywhere, from the garbled messages of the Xaositects to bits of Thieves Cant pointing the way to even seedier underbellies, or fatal traps. That loud boom is likely a few Sinkers practising their demolition skills on a foreclosed hovel. Any subsequent screams'll be the fatal curiosity of a local Xaositect."
Key Areas
The Hive Market
The central area of the Hive is an enormous, multi-tier, open-air market; built of crumbling walkways and wonky platforms stacked atop each other like blocks. The perpetual air of alcohol, street meats and cheap spices wafts upon torrid air currents.
You can find just about anything here if you blend in enough and know what you’re looking for. From cheap food to soup kitchens, second-hand tools, blackmarkets, back-alley tattooists, and places to kip; the Hive Market has it all. So long as its cheap.
‘Course, it’s not without its risks. Any berk who so much as looks like they’ve seen a gold piece is liable to a scamming at best, or a mugging gone wrong at worst. Anyone with any amount of architectural training is liable to a heart attack - the whole place is propped up against each other, just waiting for one domino to fall and bring the place crashing down. Yet somehow, Xaos willing, it doesn’t.
The Ditch
The Ditch defines one edge of the Hive, and for a long time marked Sigil’s only large body of water: a foul and reeking morass, where corpses seem to spring up overnight. The very waters of this sludge are corrosive, able to melt a body in a matter of hours after being dumped - making it very popular with the shady sorts nearby. Whilst most folks know a sod who’s claimed to have seen a devil sailing along this river - don’t believe ‘em. There’s no proof this is linked up to the River Styx.
In some ways, the Ditch resembles the idea of a river more than an actual river. It sometimes ices over, or has algae bloom up in it, but most of the time it’s just a reeking cesspit.
Every now and then though, a portal to the River Oceanus opens up and sweeps the river clean of muck, replacing it with silvery crystal-clear waters. The folks who live around here take the opportunity to have a good dip in the river, cleaning off and having a bit of fun playing water-Sportsball whilst they can before the pollution turns it back into a death trap.
Lately, it was revealed that the Harmonium are behind a movement to clear out the ditch and replace it with pure Oceanic waters for good. Turns out having such a convenient dumping ground for corpses was causing them a fair headache; so they’re teaming up with the Thinkers to try and figure a way to keep open a permanent portal to the Oceanus. ‘Course, this isn’t going over so well with the criminal elements of the Cage (and the Xaositects who just like the Ditch for Ditch’s sake). As such, there’s a rising amount of violence going on around here - the Hardheads overseeing efforts to establish permanent portals and filtration systems, and the locals pushing back with sabotage and increasing violence.