Faction War: A revised timeline

This is a revised and changed version of the Faction War that I posted on the Realms Of Evil forums a long time ago.  In it, I tried to address many of the problems that I had with the original module, to fit better with what I thought was the spirit of the setting.

Faction War:

A (revised) timeline of the war

Previously: The Hall of Speakers denies the requests of both the Signers, the Godsmen and the Dustmen for their faction to be given a complete control of the Fourth Door. The Harmonium is tasked with guarding the door until it shifts away. Secretly, Factol Ambar makes a deal with the Harmonium to allow the Godsmen to use the door despite the resolution. Both the Athar and the Signers plan to seize the door come the eighth week.

Factol Pentar of the Doomguards is arrested for setting fire to the Hive (again). The Harmonium refuse to set a date for her trial, handing her over to the Mercykillers for safekeeping in stead. Factol Nilesia has Pentar stored in the Vault, in Carceri, without the Harmonium knowing it. The Doomguards protest loudly.

Day 0: The wizard Vadelisu realizes that he’s stumbled upon the dangerous knowledge of the long-hidden Sigil spell. He buys passage to Nowhere in order to gain time to figure out what to do next.

Day 1 (prologue): Rowan Darkwood finally obtains the ebony gem in which the spirit of the ancient wizard is imprisoned, and he begins to study it. At last, he can kick off his plan to set the factions at each others’ throats.

Factol Rhys of the Ciphers, in touch with the cadence of the planes, realizes that something bad’s about to happen in Sigil. To safeguard herself and her faction, she leaves the Cage and takes refuge at a Cipher base in Elysium. Only a few of her most trusted advisors know this.

Advised by her deity that a time of turmoil is about to hit Sigil, Qaida sets her plans to pull the Dustmen under the control of Arawn into motion. Knowing how the Lady of Pain might react, she advises Factol Skall to be aggressive in case of a war. Skall, having long prepared to write all the inhabitants of Sigil into the dead-book, fails to spot the trap and eagerly starts moving his undead army into Sigil.

Factol Lhar enters the Grim Retreat, and Scruce takes over as the leader of the Bleakers (at least for now).

Day 5: By this time, Darkwood has all but peeled the Doomguard and the Harmonium into suspecting each other of imminent attack. He has also convinced several Revolutionary League cells to join the Doomguard and strike while the iron is hot. Naturally, the Sensates also make fine targets. No actual fighting takes place yet – just simmering tensions.

Factol Erin Montgomery discovers (through Factol Sarin) that Pentar has been hidden away in Carceri. To prevent a war, she sends a capable group of bloods (the adventurers) to set her free. Unfortunately, Pentar has already escaped. When the bloods show up to rescue her, she realizes what is going on and takes her own life – to make sure the entropy of war once again rules Sigil.

Ely Cromlich, Pentar’s lover for many years, feels the bond with her break. The fiend loses any residue of sanity he had left. Less violent Doomguards, the ones belonging to the Sinker and the Guardian fractions, start evacuating Sigil in secret. Elite Destroyers from the Inner Planes flock to the Armory.

Factol Darius buries the hatchet with Pristine, the leader of the Will of One. Together, they plan a raid on the Shattered Temple, should the Fourth Door escape their grasp. Darius know very well that the Bois Verdous easily holds as much power as the Fourth Door, and they’d much rather land into conflict with the Athar than the Godsmen.

Shemeshka the Marauder learns of Vadelisu’s disappearance, and of the rumored Sigil spell he may have found. She pays little attention to this minor detail, but sells the information to the yagnoloth Incarus.

Icons of the Lady thorough Sigil weep blood.

Day 7: Darkwood secretly marries Alisohn Nilesia in a private ceremony. Neither of their factions knows of their wedding.

The Harmonium, concerned with the buildup of Doomguard forces, demand that they vacate the Armory and turn all weapons over to Hardhead control. The Sinkers tell the Harmonium to pike it. The Harmonium start moving elite forces from Ortho to the Barracks in Sigil.

Erin calls a meeting with Darius and Sarin and asks them not to do anything that will start a war in Sigil. Both of them agree, Sarin even promising that the Harmonium will not be the first to strike against the Doomguards. He does not inform his underlings of this deal. Darius, however, has no intention of canceling the raid on the Shattered Temple.

Day 8: Darkwood gets a word that a barmy up at the Gatehouse has feverishly demanded to see him. The Duke couldn’t care less and pays no attention.

Day 9: Darkwood manipulates Nilesia into escalating the Indep harassments in the Market Ward, in hopes of stirring them up against the Harmonium even further. An unfortunate accident during an especially brutal arrest results in the death of the wemic Lethea.

Shemeshka the Marauder, having realized that the factions are at the brink of war (and thereby giving her a chance to consolidate her power in Sigil even further), has Adamok Ebon assassinate Lysander, and make it look like the Harmonium did the deed. Qaida has Ly’kritch steal Bria Tomay’s spirit and hide it, to remove her calming influence and leadership over the Indeps.

The Free League eat it up, and completely blame the Harmonium, though they also accuse the Guvners and the Mercykillers. Small riots start popping up in Lower and Market Ward.

Hashkar and Sarin set their best people on the case, to investigate who is behind the murders. A divination reveals that Bria’s spirit is locked inside a soul gem somewhere in Sigil. Sarin calls on Erin and her resources to locate the gem, but time is running out.

Nilesia orders her most loyal Mercykiller troops to follow Darkwood’s word as if it were her own.

Day 10: An apocalyptic group known as the Eschaton surfaces in Sigil, proclaiming that the missing Factols and the growing tensions are portents of impending doom.

Darkwood overpowers Nilesia and uses a portal in the bowels of the Prison to sell her as a slave to fiends of the Lower Planes. With her disappearance, the Mercykiller faction starts to splinter.

Skall starts to suspect Qaida of mutiny, and has her followed wherever she goes.

Day 11: The Godsmen move the newly reconstructed Focrux to the site of the Fourth Door. The Athar somehow find out, and appear in force to stop them. There is a brief skirmish, but they quickly stand down once both Harmonium and Signer troops appear in the area. The Athar interception turns into a protest.

Ely Cromlich starts distributing Sinker-forged weapons to anyone who swears to use them against the Harmonium.

Day 13: Darkwood visits the Civic Festhall and arrogantly preserves the details of his scheme in a recorder stone.

Gifad the barmy tries (and fails) to escape from his keepers at the Gatehouse.

Factol Ambar, using the lightning-staff from the First Door, releases the power of the Fourth Door and absorbs the last of Aoskar’s energy to ascend to godhood. The Focrux barely holds, but the former Factol manages to leave Sigil before it bursts from the strain.

Ombidias is proclaimed the new Factol of the Godsmen.

The Signers attempt to destroy the Bois Verdous and store it’s power in the rogue linqua Omott. The tree is destroyed, but the Signers are caught before they finish the job. Furious, the Athar drive the Signers out of the Ward and start preparing for war. The Lady consigns Darius and Terrance to the Mazes during the struggle. The Signers quietly claim that their Factol has ascended. The Athar, on the other hand, blame both the Signers and vengeful priests of Sigil.

Day 16 ( act I: Guarding Rr’ka): The adventurers are hired to protect a Factol Karan lookalike who turns out to be the real thing.

Arwyl Swan’s Son announces the splintering of the Mercykillers into the Sons of Mercy, the Sodkillers, and a third group that retains the faction name.

Factol Sarin is killed by a mixed group of Doomguards and Anarchists led by the Doomguard Nerstrom Jaranda (a marilith), who call it a victory for Anarchists and Sinkers everywhere, and a righteous revenge for the death of Factol Pentar. The Harmonium nearly riot in fury, but the level-headed remaining leaders emerge to shepherd the faction and plan a coordinated attack on the Armory.

Jemorille the Exile, masquerading as a Harmonium officer, infiltrates the Barracks and murders Factol Karan, who was being held in custody, to maintain the balance of Factols in the City of Doors. Not surprisingly, the Xaositects blame the Harmonium.

Day 17: The Sons of Mercy begin releasing unjustly jailed sods from the Prison, meeting little opposition from the confused bashers who still call themselves Mercykillers. Darkwood uses this opportunity to secretly set a few dozen vicious killers free as well.

Anarchists attack a Sensate bar in the Guildhall Ward, sending everyone inside to the dead-book.

Day 19: The Harmonium officially (and unexpectedly) allies with the Sensates against the combined forces of the Doomguard and the Revolutionary League. The Lady banishes Erin Montgomery to the Mazes. The Sensates keep it quiet, though they blame Darkwood.

The Doomguard asks the Bleak Cabal to join their battle against “the oppressors of Sigil.” The Bleakers refuse – fighting in a war has no more meaning than anything else in the multiverse.

Skall turns his horde of undead loose on the City of Doors. Just as the mindless undead start to pour out of the Mortuary, the Lady throws him into the Mazes. The undead, suddenly deprived of their drive, wander aimlessly through the Hive, many of them attacking anyone in sight.

The Dustmen keep Skall’s disappearance quiet, and Komosahl Trevant silently orders the faction to herd the undead out of Sigil.

By communing with the spirit in the gem, Darkwood finally learns how to free the powerful blood. Before he can act, though, the Lady throws him into the Mazes. The gem remains in Sigil.

Day 20: The Indeps decide they can no longer sit by while the Harmonium decimates their ranks. They call for all Free Leaguers to help the Sinkers and the Anarchists bring down the Hardheads.

A bubber finds the Duke’s gem in a gutter and trades it for a stiff ale. The barman then sells it to a friend, and over the next few days the gem passes through many hands.

Qaida tries to seize control of the Dustmen by poisoning Trevant. Unfortunately for her, the Guvners finally discovered that she was behind the spirit-snatch of Bria Tomay, and sent a bunch of cutters (the adventurers) out to apprehend her.

Unknown to anyone, Skall manages to possess Trevant’s dead body from the Mazes and reestablish his control over the Dustmen. Not wishing to anger the Lady further, he promptly declares the Dustmen neutral in the war and puts any thoughts of conquest on hold.

Day 21: With the Red Death (and various offshoots) distracted, the Mercykiller Wyrm escapes from the Tower of the Wyrm and randomly attacks berks on the street until put down.

Unity-of-Rings, the enigmatic movanic deva, tries to soothe the angry minds of Sigil. He claims that the City will return to normal when the Factions have come full circle...whatever that means.

Day 23: The Sons of Mercy, led by Arwyl Swan’s Son, agree to back the Harmonium and the Sensates.

One of the killers released from the Prison puts Factol Hashkar in the dead-book, fulfilling a threat made years earlier. He’s the last factol to fall. Because the murderer is a Xaositect, the Guvners blame the entire faction.

Eager for an excuse to commit violence upon anyone they dislike, the leaderless Sodkillers drift to the Doomguard side of the war.

Day 26 ( Act II: the Battle at the Armory): In the first major battle of the war, the Harmonium lead the Sons of Mercy and the Sensates in an attack on the Armory, which is defended by the Doomguard, the Anarchists, the Indeps, and the Sodkillers. The battle results in the Armory’s utter destruction, and most Sinkers end up scattered or dead.

Using the Nightmare Shaft, the yagnaloth Incarus watches the battle. When he sees the armory fall, he arranges for Ely Cromlich’s escape, in order to implant in him the need to summon fiendish allies.

Day 28 ( Act III: The Eschaton): The Xaositects join the war on the side of the Doomguard. In direct and immediate response, angry members of the Fraternity of Order pledge support to the other side.

The Duke’s gem ends up in the hands of Alluvius Ruskin, who’s sought the prize for a long, long time. But she can’t figure out how to release its mysterious power.

Shemeshka learns of the existance of the gem through her spies. She doesn’t quite make the connection between it and the Sigil spell but is eager to do so as soon as possible.

The PCs are asked to investigate the Eschaton to determine if the doomsayers might try to bring about the very destruction they prophesy.

Day 29: The Sign of One joins the Harmonium, the Sons of Mercy, the Fraternity of Order, and the Sensates in their quest to “put down the enemies of peace”.

Day 30: The Athar, refusing to side with the Sign of One but unwilling to support the Doomguard, declare their neutrality, but support the Free League and the Xaositects behind the scenes.

Day 31: The Eschaton hears false rumors that the Harmonium plans to raze their Guildhall Ward headquarters just as they tore down the Armory. As a result, the group steps up its campaign to spread the word of imminent doom.

The Believers offer their support to the Sensates and Signers, looking upon the destructive Sinkers and Anarchist forces as a test to be overcome. They, much like the Athar, decide only to support the war behind the scenes.

Day 32: To provide further distraction for a possible yugoloth takeover of Sigil, a yagnaloth named Incarus manipulates Ely Cromlich into setting up a tanar’ri invasion. Meanwhile, Incarus leaks word to the baatezu.

Suspecting fiendish involvement, Estevan hires a large number of mercenaries to protect the Planar Trading Consortium’s interests in Sigil. His mercenaries quickly surround Shemeshka the Marauder in her lair, grounding (with various magics) her there for the rest of the war.

Shemeshka finally makes the connection between the gem and the spell, but is powerless to act on it. She trusts this information with Incarus, but secretly hopes the yagnoloth’s plans fail.

The Anarchists manipulate the Xaositects and the Indeps into preparing to attack the Civic Festhall in retaliation for the destruction of the Armory.

Day 33 ( Act IV: Darkstorm): The Harmonium, Guvners and Sensates gather in the Lower Ward to prevent the Xaositects and Indeps from ever reaching the Festhall.

Tanar’ri and baatezu forces invade the Cage right in the middle of the opposing faction armies. From this day, until the end of the war, open warfare rages on the streets of Sigil nonstop.

While the battle rages in the Lower Ward, the Civic Festhall comes under attack by joint forces of Indeps, Fated and Sodkillers. The Fated forces involved seem to have planned the attack a long time ago, but there are far less of them than Darkwood had originally planned. Only about a third of the forces he intended for this are still loyal to him. A mis-matched group of tanar’ri joins this attacking force, seeking to put Erin Montgomery in the dead-book for some forgotten slight.

For a time, things look grim for the Senates…their ancient headquarters catch fire and they are forced to fight both it and the attackers. Then, the Sign of One come to the Sensates aid, managing to hold the attacking forces off long enough for the Sensates to play an ace of their own: Using the secret tunnels between the Civic Festhall and the Hall of Records, they collapse a large part of the Fated headquarters. The Fated forces finally withdraw to protect their base, and the rest of the attackers slowly ease off.

Day 34: The Lady of Pain closes all portals leading into or out of Sigil. Two reasons seem obvious: First, so that the factions will settle their conflict once and for all, with no chance to flee or call in reinforcements; and second, to halt the fiends’ incursion into the city. The third reason remains dark.

Day 35: Madness grips the Cage and a citywide riot erupts as the denizens realize all the consequences of the portals closing. The uprising threatens to destroy the city until virtually every Cipher in Sigil appears on the streets, urging calm and lending stability to bewildered sods.

Day 37: The Anarchists take it upon themselves to punish the Bleak Cabal for refusing to aid the Doomguard against the Harmonium. Revolutionary League spies pose as Bleakers and infiltrate the Gatehouse – the first stage in a plan to cause havoc by setting many of the inmates free.

Day 39 ( Act V: Magic Uncaged): The wizard Vadelisu leaves the safety of Nowhere and tries to cast the Sigil spell. Various forces try to stop him and get the spell scroll for themselves. Vadelisu completes the spell, with no apparent result.

The End of the War

At some point after Vadelisu tries to cast the Sigil spell, the PCs play through the events of Act VI: The Unity of Rings . They receive an important clue from the editor of the Factol’s Manifesto; talk to the barmy Gifad at the Gatehouse; recover the ebony gem from Alluvius Ruskin’s shop; and (hopefully) use its power to end the war.

Incarus the yagnaloth (if he survived the previous encounter with the PCs) will carefully monitor the PCs activities, using the Nightmare Shaft, and attempt to ambush them once he knows they are attempting to cast the Sigil spell, trying to make Gifad and his gem work for himself.

These actions must take place after everything listed previouslyin the Timeline, but because the PCs are unpredictable, the events can’t be assigned to any particular days.

After the End of the War

Events transpire mostly as described in the Aftermath in the Faction War book. A notable difference is the flaying of Komosahl Trevant (actually Skall), who protests the Lady’s Decree.

Return to status quo?

At least factol Erin Montgomery will escape from the Mazes in the fullness of time, but no factions are official in Sigil for about a year after the war. After that, a few declare themselves factions once more, without the Lady acting. When nothing happens, several factions return, and also a number of sects. As soon as the number of factions reaches 16, the Lady reissues her old decree…no more than fifteen factions in Sigil. After more than a year, the City of Door reaches a full circle, with new factions, factols and powergroups once more fighting a philosophical battle (with clubs) for the beliefs of mortals across the planes.