Undersigil and the Cakers

The Cakers 

Let’s address the Coterie of Cakers before we dig into the changes and recommendations. This new faction is quite a tonal shift for the Planescape setting, and their stated philosophy is quite thin as written.

Even as a comedic device, the Cakers push things so far they come off a bit too corny for my tastes. While I don’t want to make broad assumptions about most players, my groups have no trouble bringing their own silliness and humor to the table.

In short, the Cakers don’t really work for me, so I’m dropping them from the Sigil of my campaigns. There have been some other efforts to make sense of them, like tying them to the fey, but I don’t think this particular adventure needs another faction to sort out.

The other knock on this section is the journey through Undersigil is incredibly truncated for such an evocative place, and the Undersigil encounters in the Sigil and the Outlands book don’t quite mesh with fugitives on the lam. My money says this is an area that was cut short to fit the page count of a less than full length adventure. That gives us the opportunity to add some flavor to this part of the journey under Sigil.

In the Muck

We should embrace the feeling of the characters being on the run in a dirty, dangerous place. We’re going to take them to Nowhere and do it in style. Here’s some expanded description:

Farrow leads you down endlessly twisting, dank tunnels. You can only make out that you are headed down, whatever “down” means in Sigil.

Suddenly the tangle of pipes and claustrophobic brick work opens up onto an immense vaulted tunnel split by a wide flow of polluted water. Trash and debris from the city above litter the banks of this noxious river.

Farrow crouches near a raft of lashed-together crates and makes a clicking sound. A moment later a scaly, finned face with a wide mouth and beady eyes bubbles up from the water. Farrow hands the creature a sack of coin and beckons you onto the raft.

This is a sahuagin ferryman who pilots the raft from underneath and will take the characters to Nowhere. Give everyone a quick breather and allow them to ask Farrow a question or two, but don’t take too long before getting them to their destination.

You hear the forlorn wails of madness before you see it. The raft navigates a bend and a ramshackle community emerges from the immense vaults of the sewer. Sunken buildings are linked with piers made of flotsam and jetsam. Dim lights give glimpses of silhouettes that move about in the darkness. Farrow says in a soft voice, “Welcome to Nowhere.”

Farrow says they are near the safe house where they can wait for word from up above. Farrow makes more clicking sounds and the sahuagin pulls up to a small dock.

The safe house is a derelict basement, nearly buried by a cave in, and hidden behind a crumbling wall. A crack in an interior wall bears a ladder that disappears into a dark tunnel. This will take the characters out of Undersigil where they can emerge in front of Fortune’s Wheel. They will need to wait for about an hour, during which time the characters can get a short rest and question Farrow.

Squeaking By

After a brief respite the most perceptive character sees two tiny eyes peering from a dark corner of the room. Then another set and another. Soon there are a half dozen cranium rat squeakers surrounding them in the darkness. A multitude of tiny voices whisper into their minds:

“The shiny bing-bing place has no pointy crab-men. No smash. No poke."

The swarm begins to disperse, but one of the rats lingers. It licks what looks like pastry off its jaws and adds, “A horn-man waits. The horn-man says for ‘par-lay’. The strawberry is yum-yum.”

Farrow is puzzled, but says to keep their guard up and ushers the party toward the ladder.

If the characters have unresolved business elsewhere in Sigil the squeakers are an opportunity for them to send a message out.

Interested Party

Instead of running the Twisted Tea Party with the Cakers, let’s build on the intrigue of the Blood War and the effect the characters are having in the outer planes. An emissary of the fiends has come to parley.

Have the characters enter the tunnel with the tea party but insert our fiendish representative.

A large table with a strawberry cake stands in the middle of a damp chamber lined with sluice gates. Four human bakers in grimy attire grin at you. Near the head of the table is the striking figure of a pale, horned man dressed in sleek leathers chased in silver.

“Welcome. I am Velios, and I would like to have a little chat.” His deep amber eyes never leave you as he holds out his hands in a welcoming gesture.

Velios, the Veiled Fire. This is Velios, a cambion and the son of a human king that put his firstborn up for collateral in a fiendish contract. He is a charismatic and ruthlessly pragmatic agent of the Hells. He uses charm, deceit, and coercion as his primary weapons to manipulate people to Asmodeus’s ends. He primarily works his ends in Sigil, and he frequently uses his mixed heritage to create a cover of neutrality.

Velios takes on disguises, but currently he is using his alter self ability to appear more humanoid and put his targets at ease. If he is driven to anger he will show his true form–a crimson fiend wreathed in hellfire and malice.

Velios has tracked the characters down through their interactions with the tainted celestial weapons and the Fiend’s Ichor, if they have that in their possession. He now seeks to bend the characters to the agenda of the Nine Hells and learn all he can about the plot to disseminate the weapons.

A Modest Offer

Velios offers an exchange of information over some cake. People like cake, or so he’s heard. He wants to know everything the characters have discovered, and in exchange he can tell them the following:

• He’s well versed in Koe’s weapons dealings, but neither side of the Blood War is receiving these particular weapons.
• Unusually, the weapons are being used against them, particularly in the Outlands. This obviously does not sit well with the archfiends.
• The ichor comes from a demon lord who escaped from an Abyssal prison. We can’t in good conscience allow that, can we?

If the characters missed any of the details about the weapons trade found in the Cuckoo’s Corner study or in the Frostfell Cache, Velios can provide which Outland gate towns are affected by their meddling.

Velios will push for the characters to give up their contacts and to swear off meddling in the Blood War. He will actively use his Fiendish Charm ability to get the information he wants. Ultimately he wants to take over this trade and divert the weapons to the Hells, and his superiors may also deem some of the conspirators need to be eliminated.

If the characters agree to not interfere any further, Velios will demand that they sign an Infernal Contract at the Temple of Asmodeus in the Lady’s Ward. In return the characters will receive up to 5,000gp or a rare magic item. Any action that violates the contract results in the character’s old wounds reopening on their bodies, giving them disadvantage on all attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws until their next long rest. This also prompts an unfriendly visit from Velios or a greater fiend if the infractions don’t stop.

Refusal

If the offer isn’t accepted or the characters attack then the encounter proceeds as written. The bakers were charmed by Velios, the cake was poisoned with vargouille blood (but without the dead-giveaway bat wings), and they did eat the tainted cake. They will fight to the death and the vargouille reflections will emerge.

Velios will command a charmed character to fight for him and throw a couple of Fire Rays from high in the air. If he takes any damage or on the second round of combat he will plane shift away.

From here the characters can safely proceed to the exterior of Fortune’s Wheel and onto the next chapter of the adventure.