The Lady's Ward

This ward is the center of power of Sigil's government and nobility. It is also home to the most temples of any of the wards. The buildings in this ward reflect the power and wealth of their owners. It is also the quietest and most orderly place in the city.

Armory
Home to the Doomguard, this headquarters is in the seediest part of the ward. All the windows are covered with stone grates, and razorvine covers the lower walls. The single entrance over which looms a gigantic sculpture of the faction symbol makes it clear that the Doomguard’s got the weapons and intends to keep them.

The streets around the Armory are quiet, but that stillness hides a lot of sinister activity. So close to the Lower Ward, this area’s a toehold for thieves and rogues seeking entrance to The Lady’s Ward. It’s also a popular area for the wealthy who wish to mingle with the lower classes, and for mercenaries and assassins to meet their employers.

City Barracks
Located at the opposite end of the ward from the Armory, the City Barracks with its surrounding quarter is a restful place, much quieter than the seething chaos of the other Wards. That peace is punctuated by the imposing presence of crushing granite: the City Barracks. There’s not all that much to see in the Barracks, but the guards are members of the Harmonium, and the City Barracks is their headquarters, so not just any berk can walk up, enlist, and take the tour.

City Court
The Headquarters of the Fraternity of Order (more commonly called the Guvners), the City Court and the surrounding quarter are the liveliest places in The Lady’s Ward, perhaps because the people in it are so close to death. Every crooked cutter, it seems, comes here sooner or later, scragged by the Harmonium. Whether he gets out of it again depends on the judges in the private halls of the Court. Because it has a public function, the Guvner’s headquarters is divided into public and private halls. In the public halls, a cutter can find knights, Cagers, witnesses, advocates, clerks, accusers, and Mercykiller and Harmonium guards. The crowds and bickering seem like disorganized chaos (unlike the organized chaos of most of the city), but the Guvners have a plan for everything. In the Court’s private halls, a body doesn’t find anyone but Guvners and their guests. There, the judges meet to discuss cases and reach their decisions, often referring to the immense library of laws the faction’s assembled.

The law library of the Guvners is useful for many things, the least of which is codifying all the laws of the City of Doors. A mage with any sense at all knows that the laws that govern the multiverse must also contain the laws that govern magic. In the Library of the Guvners, that’s literally true. Every spell known to man or mage exists somewhere in the library, though it requires a mage of great learning to find the strands that reveal a spell’s secrets.

Fortune’s Wheel
The tavern/inn called Fortune’s Wheel is where 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 Wheel also attracts a large proportion of fakes and sharpers, so a basher with a heavy purse would do well to consider bringing along a few bloods as guards to keep his money out of the hands of the Fated or the fiends who also make their fortune - in the streets just outside the Wheel.

The common room, known as Dragon's Bar is presided over by the animated skeleton of a massive dragon. In the back rooms is a gambling hall, its main attraction being the titular Fortune's Wheel, a massive roulette like wheel with terrible odds, but huge pay outs, most notably the mage's prize, a cache of magical stones, wands, and potions that changes every fortnight (minimum 10 gold bet). There's a certain nostalgia here, Fortune's Wheel has been an institution in The Lady's Ward for as long as anyone can remember. It's mostly a clueless trap these days.

Golden Bariaur Inn
Three streets beyond the enormous statue of some prime named Bigby, just a short walk from the Armory, 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. Prices are set accordingly, though an evening in the Bariaur is always money well spent.

The tension between the lawful and chaotic aasimar is always present, though both sides are usually polite about it; outright violence is rare. Disputes that can’t be settled any other way are resolved by duels conducted at dawn in the skies over the city, when shining champions of Law and Chaos fight to first earth - that is, until one celestial combatant is forced from the sky.

Palace of the Jester
Also known as the Court of Pain this is the largest building in Sigil. Covering as much ground as the Great Bazaar, the Foundry, and the Hive put together, the Palace of the Jester is a neutral gathering ground for the rich and powerful. The Palace is a ghostly place with echoing corridors and dead-end staircases. Rumors of a cranium rat infestation has kept these halls mostly empty.

Prison
Headquarters for the Mercykillers, this is an uninviting mass of grim stone and spikes. Street crime around the prison is non-existent and the nearby taverns and inns are quiet and orderly, as no one wants to attract the attention of any Mercykiller squads nearby.

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. It is governed by the High Priest Noshteroth and a legion of his followers, who function as both priests and tax-collectors. Services are held each night at antipeak; all the Lords of the Abyss are venerated, one each night until the entire list is exhausted, when the sequence begins anew.

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.

Temple of Hermes
Hermes has a large and varied following among Sigil's travelers and sojourners. It is said that this temple is a portal to Mount Olympus on Arborea, although the details of the portal key are a closely guarded secret. However, carts and wheelbarrows of succulent Arborean fruits and vegetables rumble over the cobbles near the temple each morning.

Tower of the Wyrm
Filled with inhuman cries and droves of well armed Mercykiller guards, the Tower of the Wyrm is the holding pen for thieves and other suspected criminals awaiting their day in court. It's close to the prison and rumored to have been part of the same structure before the explosion destroyed their link. It is named for the Merykiller faction symbol, a winged snake known only as "the Wyrm." Its venom acts as a sort of truth serum and feeding prisoners to the Wyrm is one of the three methods of execution in Sigil.

Traban’s Forge
Located in a side street near the City Court, downward from the Noble District, this smoke-spewing smithy produces fine nonmagical armor. Traban specializes in ornate, ceremonial armor, and many high-ups spend lavishly on his master craftsmanship.

Twelve Factols
Persistent rumors claim that the door into the realm of the dabus exists somewhere within the catacombs, what the dwarves from the Outlands call the Doorway into the Mountain. The rumor is a popular topic of conversation at the Twelve Factols, a restaurant and tavern underneath the city streets, near Dossy Street. The entrance leads down 88 steps from a dirty, swine infested courtyard into an arched and vaulted chamber called Storm Hall, after the loud and blustery singing from the Ysgardians who often drink and wrestle there.

Notable People
Below is a list of notable people that are most often found in The Lady's Ward:


 * Shemeshka the Marauder: Unsavory businesswoman
 * Mantello the Jeweler: Shemeshka's former partner
 * Duprak Jarneesh: "Lord of Wealth"
 * Wei Minh Lee: Made his fortune selling potions of longevity
 * Ramander the Wise: "Master of Portals"
 * Black Ogustus: Judge in the courts
 * Yivirron the Cloven: Judge in the courts
 * Kartina: Yivirron's clerk/prosecutor advocate
 * Goldenmane: doorman at the Golden Bariaur
 * Jeremo the Natterer: Self proclaimed Lady's Jester
 * Noshteroth of the Umber Scales: High priest of the Temple of the Abyss
 * Noxana the Unwilling: Noshteroth's assistant
 * Mad Moll: Assistant underpriestess and mural painter at the Temple of Hermes
 * Traban: Blacksmith specializing in ceremonial armor