Welcome to Sigil, the City of Doors — a torus-shaped city floating atop an infinite spire at the center of the multiverse. Every doorway could be a portal to another plane of existence, and the mysterious Lady of Pain keeps even gods at bay. Your party navigates the philosophical factions that govern the city, explores the Outer Planes, and discovers that in a multiverse of infinite possibilities, belief itself is the most powerful force of all.
Story Arcs
The Cage
The party arrives in Sigil and learns to navigate the City of Doors. They become entangled with the city's factions, discover the power of portals, and realize that someone is stealing portal keys — cutting off access to entire planes.
The Gloom and the Glory
The party ventures to the Outer Planes to track the portal key thief. Each plane challenges their beliefs and forces them to confront philosophical questions about the nature of reality.
The Key to Everything
The portal key thief's endgame is revealed — they seek to collapse all portals, isolating every plane from every other. The party must stop them before the multiverse is permanently fractured.
Session Outlines
These outlines are for planning reference only. Actual sessions are not created by the template.
Through the Looking Glass
The party steps through an ordinary door and finds themselves in Sigil. The disorientation of a city built on the inside of a ring, where looking up shows more city, is the first challenge. A tout (guide) offers to show them around for a fee. Introduction to the factions, the cant (slang), and the rule of threes.
Faction Recruitment
Each faction tries to recruit the party. The Harmonium offers order, the Sensates offer experience, the Dustmen offer transcendence. The party attends faction meetings and debates. Meanwhile, a portal they need to use has stopped working — its key no longer functions.
The Portal Key Thefts
More portals fail. The party investigates and discovers a pattern — someone is systematically stealing portal keys, the specific items needed to activate Sigil's portals. They track a lead to the Hive Ward, Sigil's most dangerous district.
The Hive Ward
The party navigates the Hive — a labyrinth of poverty, crime, and desperation. They encounter cranium rats (psionic rat swarms), rogue modrons, and desperate citizens. A fence who trades in portal keys points them toward a mysterious figure called "the Locksmith" who has been buying keys in bulk.
The Plane of Fire
A surviving portal leads to the Plane of Fire, where the Locksmith was last traced. The party navigates a plane of elemental fire — negotiating with efreet, crossing seas of flame, and finding a burned-out safehouse. Clues point to the next destination.
Mount Celestia
The trail leads to the Seven Heavens. The party must prove their worthiness to ascend each layer, facing trials of virtue. At the top, they discover that even here, portal keys have been stolen. An archon provides information about the Locksmith's true identity.
The Gray Waste
The Locksmith's base is in the Gray Waste — a plane of hopelessness and apathy. The plane itself drains motivation and emotion. The party must resist its effects while tracking the Locksmith through a landscape of eternal gray. They encounter night hags who trade in stolen emotions.
The Locksmith Revealed
The party confronts the Locksmith — a former factol who believes the multiverse would be better if the planes were isolated from each other. They have powerful magic and a philosophical argument that is disturbingly logical. The confrontation can be combat, debate, or both.
The Locksmith Escapes
The Locksmith escapes through a portal, collapsing it behind them. The party must find another route while the Locksmith begins the final phase of their plan — a ritual to permanently sever all planar connections. Factions in Sigil mobilize, some to help and some to hinder.
The Faction War
With portals failing across Sigil, the factions turn on each other, each blaming the others. The party must prevent a civil war while continuing to chase the Locksmith. Allies from each faction can be rallied, but faction loyalties are tested.
The Spire
The Locksmith's ritual must be performed at the base of the Infinite Spire — the axis of the multiverse. The party races to reach it, navigating through the Outlands where magic grows weaker as they approach the Spire. Near the Spire, no magic works at all.
The Key to Everything
At the Spire's base, the Locksmith begins the ritual. The party must stop it without magic, relying on wits, mundane equipment, and the strength of their beliefs. The Lady of Pain may intervene — but her intervention is never gentle. The resolution determines whether the multiverse remains connected.
NPCs
Rule-of-Three
Cambion · Sage and Information Broker
A cambion who always speaks in threes — three sentences, three options, three prices. He knows nearly everything about Sigil and the planes but packages his knowledge in maddening trinities. Despite his fiendish heritage, he is a neutral party who values knowledge above all.
Fell
Dabus · Tattooist
A fallen dabus who was cast out by the Lady of Pain. Unlike other dabus, Fell can speak normally. He creates magical tattoos that grant minor powers. He has a unique perspective on the Lady's will and may provide crucial insights about her intentions regarding the portal crisis.
Annah
Tiefling · Tout and Guide
A street-smart tiefling who makes a living guiding clueless newcomers through Sigil. Sharp-tongued and cynical, she knows every back alley and hidden portal in the city. Her knowledge of the Hive Ward is unmatched. Charges premium rates but delivers premium service.
Factol Sarin
Human · Leader of the Harmonium
The stern, principled leader of the Harmonium faction — the self-appointed peacekeepers of Sigil. He believes order is the only path to justice and will impose it by force if necessary. During the faction war, his heavy-handed response may do more harm than good.
The Locksmith
Githzerai · Former Factol and Portal Key Thief
A githzerai who once led a faction dedicated to understanding the connections between planes. After witnessing the suffering caused by interplanar conflicts, she concluded the multiverse would be better off if the planes were separated. Her conviction is absolute, and her argument is compelling — making her a sympathetic antagonist.
Shemeshka the Marauder
Arcanaloth · Crime Boss and Power Broker
An arcanaloth who runs Sigil's most powerful criminal network. She deals in information, favors, and souls. Always impeccably dressed and infuriatingly polite. She opposes the Locksmith not out of altruism but because isolated planes would be terrible for business.
Locations
Sigil, the City of Doors
The city at the center of the multiverse, built on the inside of a torus floating above the Infinite Spire. Looking up reveals more city curving overhead. Every doorway, archway, and window is potentially a portal to another plane — if you have the right key. The Lady of Pain keeps gods out and keeps the city running through her enigmatic dabus servants.
The Plane of Fire
An infinite plane of elemental fire. The ground is volcanic rock, the sky is a canopy of flame, and the inhabitants are creatures born of fire. Pockets of cooled obsidian provide temporary refuge. The City of Brass, home of the efreet, floats on a sea of magma.
Mount Celestia
The plane of law and good, a single mountain rising through seven layers of increasing holiness. Each layer tests visitors with trials appropriate to its virtue. The air is pure, the light is golden, and evil creatures find it physically painful to exist here.
The Gray Waste
A plane of absolute hopelessness. Colors are muted, sounds are dull, and the very air saps will and emotion. Three layers of unending gray landscape drive visitors toward apathy and eventual absorption into the plane itself. Night hags rule this realm of despair.
The Outlands
The plane of true neutrality, a vast ring of land surrounding the Infinite Spire. Gate-towns at the edges connect to all Outer Planes. Magic weakens as one approaches the Spire, ceasing entirely at its base. This is where the Locksmith plans the final ritual.
Quests
Find the Portal Key Thief
Portals across Sigil are failing as their keys are stolen. Investigate the thefts, track the thief through the Hive Ward, and discover the identity of "the Locksmith."
Choose a Faction
Each faction in Sigil wants the party's allegiance. Choose wisely — faction membership grants resources and allies but also obligations and enemies. Or remain independent and answer to no one.
Recover the Stolen Keys
The Locksmith has hidden stolen portal keys across multiple planes. Recover them to restore Sigil's connections before the damage becomes permanent.
Stop the Faction War
With portals failing, Sigil's factions blame each other and violence erupts. Mediate, intimidate, or outmaneuver the faction leaders to prevent a civil war that would destroy the city from within.
Encounters
Hive Ward Ambush
Thugs and cranium rats attack in the narrow alleys of the Hive. The cranium rats form a swarm intelligence that coordinates the attack with disturbing tactical awareness.
Efreet Negotiations Gone Wrong
Negotiations with an efreet noble turn violent when the party cannot meet his demands. His fire elemental guards attack in the City of Brass.
Night Hag Coven
Three night hags in the Gray Waste attempt to steal the party's emotions and sell them on the planar black market. They fight with nightmare magic and soul-draining abilities.
The Locksmith's Guardians
The Locksmith has bound extraplanar creatures to guard the ritual site. These guardians reflect the planes they were taken from — fire, celestial light, and gray despair.
Faction Street Battle
During the faction war, the party is caught between rival factions fighting in the streets of Sigil. They must fight, flee, or mediate while avoiding being crushed between opposing forces.
Factions
The Harmonium
Lawful Neutral
Sigil's self-appointed peacekeepers who believe universal harmony can only be achieved through universal law. They patrol the streets, enforce rules, and suppress dissent. Well-meaning but authoritarian — their idea of peace often looks like oppression.
The Society of Sensation
Chaotic Neutral
Sensates believe that experience is the purpose of existence. They collect experiences of all kinds — pleasure, pain, wonder, horror — and store them in magical devices. Their headquarters is a palace of sensory delights and their members are the most well-traveled in Sigil.
The Dustmen
True Neutral
The Dustmen believe that everyone in the multiverse is already dead — this existence is a waiting room. They seek "True Death," a state of transcendence beyond the cycle of life and death. They run Sigil's morgues and cemeteries and are surprisingly practical.
The Fated
Neutral Evil
The Fated believe that the multiverse belongs to those strong enough to take what they want. They see charity as weakness and self-reliance as the highest virtue. They control Sigil's tax collection and property records — and take their cut of everything.
Recommended Characters
Pre-built characters designed for this campaign setting. Create them separately from the character templates page.
Jynx of the Cage
Tiefling · Bard · Level 4
A tiefling tout who knows every alley, portal, and back-room deal in Sigil, the City of Doors. Jynx sells information, arranges introductions, and navigates the Cage's deadly faction politics with a silver tongue and a bard's wit.
Kith'rak Vorzai
Githyanki · Fighter · Level 4
A githyanki warrior who has fought across the planes in service of Vlaakith's war machine. Disillusioned with the lich-queen's tyranny, Vorzai deserted to Sigil, where even the githyanki cannot easily follow.
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