Zaromex's Studio

Zaromex's Studio lies in the Clerk's Ward in Sigil, three blocks from the Civic Festhall. To reach it, one must descend a steep flight of stone steps into a courtyard whose floor lies a clear eight feet lower than the surrounding streets. As you look across the courtyard, you see ahead and to the right a large abstract mural resembling those painted by the Xaositects. In fact, the mural depicts part of a fractal set, known to the Xaoticians as the Mural Set (if you know chaos theory, use a Mandelbrot or Julia set), and is quite exquisitely detailed, at least as far as painting on a plaster wall can be. The mural is approximately 20 feet square.

To the right of the mural, on the right-hand side of the courtyard, is the studio. About 35 feet wide, the studio is an unusual building. Two storeys high, it posesses an open roof over much of the upstairs, with tarpaulins that can be pulled across in inclement weather. Built of unknown stone and covered in yellow plaster, the studio is probably the least impressive faction or sect HQ in the multiverse.

Key

Entrance: The entrance is a plain, unmarked wooden door. On some days, sect members can be found sitting on the doorstep studying the mists overhead.

1: Front Room: The front room of the studio is badly lit and dusty, with footprints in the dirt leading to the doors out. People very seldom stop here, and it is mainly a glorified passageway. Faded portraits of high-ups from times past hang under the cobwebs on the walls. Now and again one falls down, but no-one notices.

2: Kitchen: The kitchen used to be almost as much of a mess as the front room, but Etheldreda of Waterdeep (Pr/ human female/NG/XC/Bard 6), a recent initiate of the sect, has cleared it all up a lot. Wine, bread and cheese can always be found in the cupboards here, along with whatever else the sect members fancy at the moment.

3: Back Door: The door at the back of the main room leads out to a small yard, beyond which lie a number of sheds, used by the sect's artists and chemists (often at the same time). Essentially, these sheds can contain anything the DM needs, within the budget of a small sect. There may be a portal to Ecstasy in one such shed.

4: Stairs Up: A small iron-bound door opens onto the foot of a steep wooden staircase. The staircase, unlike the front room, is well swept, if dark. Another door stands at the top. At the DM's option, there may also be a set of stairs down to a cellar (the wine in the kitchen comes from somewhere!) beneath this flight.

5: Upper Chamber: This is the heart of faction business. Zaromex the Artist (Pl human male/NG/XC/Bard 3), who nominally owns this kip, may be found here most days. He is a small, thin man with greasy black hair and a small, well-waxed moustache. He usually wears shabby clothes with puffed-up sleeves and trouser-legs and a paint-spotted beret. He and Anacoluthon both sleep in this room, usually both using the same hammock that hangs in one corner. The two have been experimenting with quasiperiodic sleep patterns, and one or other of them will usually be up. If they both need to sleep at the same time, whoever kips down last has to use the floor. This room is open to the sky, save for a net to keep pigeons out, and is usually alive with small knots of chattering sect members discussing the latest progress in their research. Several card tables stand in one corner, and they are used for just about everything tables can be, but especially for interviewing new members.

6: Anacoluthon's Office: This small dusty chamber is home to some of the most intense scientific thought in Sigil. Factol Anacoluthon works here when not lecturing, and uses his paper-smothered desk as a pulpit from which to harangue visiting Guvners and sect members about to be given dirty jobs to do. Nothing useful can be found in this room, which reminds most people of the Hive.