The Mortuary
Contents
Overview
Located in the Mortuary district of the Hive, wedged between Blackshade Lane and Ragpickers Square in one of the most drab areas of Sigil, sits the heart of the Dustmen. A sombre building in a shadowy neighbourhood, it is surrounded by innumerable cheap taverns and boarding houses, boasting the highest proportion of funeral directors in the entirety of the Cage.
From the exterior, it looks about as grim as one would expect: a large, menacing black dome surrounded by clusters of windowless vaults. Adorned with spiky black buttresses that radiate from its centre, the Mortuary is just large enough to process the sheer number of bodies that come out of the Cage on a daily basis. Despite this, it’s only 100 or so Dustmen who are working at any one time - making it one of the smallest faction headquarters in terms of housing (most of the work is done by skeletons).
Getting to the Mortuary is a simple case of looking for the giant arched front gate and following the streams of skeletons. You’ll find yourself in the Great Hall eventually - a cold, clean and clammy place that makes no effort to sell itself. Funeral parties are checked over here by the half-dozen guards on duty before being led through the central chamber and into the Memorial Hall. It is here that the bereaved may have a few moments with their corpse before it finally being processed.
The far side of the main floor is home to the Faction-only area, where the Dead store their records and libraries as well all manner of basic necessities - a refectory, sleeping quarters, kitchen and dormitories are all found here.
The Undead
Once within the Mortuary proper - especially among the upper floors - one can’t help but notice the sheer quantity of undead. Not only skeletons, but ghouls, wights, ghosts and the odd vampire all roam among the Mortuary freely; willing allies of the Dustmen if not Dustmen themselves.
Most of the workers here are skeletons, each a unique three-digit number inked into their skulls. These skeletons are the Dead's dead. Their members donate their corpses to the Mortuary in the event of their passing, should they not wish (or be unable) to be returned as the intelligent dead.
Visiting the Mortuary
"A building about as grim as you'd expect from something called 'The Mortuary". It lies behind an enormous arched gate; a large and menacing black dome, covered in spiky buttreses that radiate from its center. Wagons full of corpses rock up to the side entrance every now and then, immediately tended by a team of half a dozen bleached skeletons to unload in silence."
Key Areas
Corpse Processing
Once a corpse arrives at the Mortuary via the rear entrance, it is taken to the first floor by means of a complex series of floor-mounted slabs that run upon rails like trams. The corpses are inventoried and sorted, before being sent off for processing upstairs. Depending on if the Dead have anything on file for that individual, they may end up holding the corpse for collection by a third party, embalming it for the reanimation process, or simply incinerating it for those with no known plans.
The Roll of the Dead
Outside the main gates is a large, open-air memorial entitled 'The Roll of the Dead'. It's a goliath of a pillar, carved with hundreds of thousands of names. The Dustmen will add a name to this pillar for a nominal fee, usually done as part of the cremation process to leave a permanent mark of the deader’s legacy.
Thing is, the pillar’s pretty full. Scratch that - completely full. Each time a name needs to be added nowadays, the designated carver has to whip out a wand of stoneshaping and add a little space or move a couple of names around. Folks’re talking about a second monument being set up, but the Dead seem pretty set on pushing this pillar to its limits for the time being.
Records Chamber
All records from interments, autopsies, and any corpses that pass through their hands are stored within the Faction-only section of the main floor. It is here that the wishes of all those in Sigil (who care enough what happens after death) are stored. Prepaid messages and their recipients are noted here for those who require their corpse to be recovered. Those not on record are generally held for a few days to see if anybody claims them, before being incinerated in the Plane of Fire if not.
Library
Adjacent to the records room is the Library of the Dead. In here is held thousands of books, scrolls and treatises about the undead. Necromancy, burial practices, and the philosophy of death, are but some of the many topics that can be found here.
It is a large and musty old room that has the atmosphere one would expect of those who call themselves 'the Dead'. It is quiet and dust-laden, cobwebs clinging to the corners of the rooms that cannot be reached by the few Dustmen who care to maintain this place.
Skeletal labourers are forbidden to enter here ever since the incident a few years back, in which a number of irreplaceable books got destroyed in what is referred to only as "The Bone Shower Incident".
Central Processing
The central area of the upper floor is where the Dead perform most of their work: receiving corpses, inventorying them and sorting the corpses before sending them for embalming or autopsy. The small chambers that lead off of here are where bodies are prepared for burial.
The corpses are moved about with the help of the foul gutters and rail systems that litter the cold stone floors. These channel blood and other effluent off-plane for collection or disposal, as well as providing tracks for the corpse trolleys to move around more easily.
Upper Floor Faction Wing
Most faction meetings are held in the large council chambers on the upper floor, overseen by the faction secretary with a Mimir to take notes. Polished dark wood panelling lines the walls, interrupted only by a massive copper Dustmen symbol. A table of deep mahogany dominates the chamber, concealing a trapdoor that falls into the records chamber below.
The offices and private labs of the Secretary, High Priestess and Factol are all found near these chambers. Each is well-warded and defended round-the-clock by spiritual guardians. The rooms tend to put one in the mind of being locked in a coffin - claustrophobic, dark, and panelled in rich mahogany. Red-veined marble slabs serve as desks and tables. Bookshelves are lined with rare potions, scrolls and artefacts and often conceal secret alcoves and altars.
The adjacent armoury is able to equip close to a hundred members of the Dead. It is one of two - the second being found in the secret catacombs beneath the Mortuary. These secret tunnels link up all the various necropoli and crypts about the Cage, letting a berk walk all the way from the Hive to the Lady’s Ward if they can do it without being gobbled up by all the undead down there.
Overvault
The topmost floor of the Mortuary is known as the Overvault, and features a huge chamber that sits beneath the structure’s dome roof. Narrow galleries and catwalks lead to different elemental planes, and a well-guarded glowing portal heads straight to the Outlands town of Xaos.
Up here are the Factol’s personal quarters (kept mostly for appearances) and the faction laboratory. The lead alchemist here (Spills-No-Blood) is in a personal vendetta with members of the Thinkers, constantly trying to one-up their embalming processes and technological innovations in the field of morgue-equipment.
The Faction shrine is the final room of the Overvault - a small chamber used for the devotions to gods of death and anything related. An altar of black stone dominates the shrine’s centre, around which are scattered grey, black and purple tapestries as well as a number of dim braziers.