I was (re)reading In The Cage: A Guide To Sigil and came across the story of Imel, how was ordered to obtain a "squid" and accidentally ended up buying a squidSHIP: an Illithid Nautiloid (a Spelljammer). What caught my attention was the reference to this ship being on a loading platform in the Great/Grand Bazzar. Now, these ships are pretty big, so I am wondering HOW they got it INTO Sigil. Did they use one big humugous portal, or did they ship it piece-by-piece and assemble it on the spot? If the latter, how's it going to LEAVE Sigil? (It ended up being sold to a couple of Doomguard who wanted to be pirates...) If we assume it came intact via portal, how many such portals are there in Sigil? It would be interesting if Sigil had some kind of port for Interplanar ships... (Obviously the Lady would prevent the use of said portal(s) to invade Sigil, etc...)
Illithid Nautiloid for sale in Grand Bazzar? How'd they get it in...?
Also, a portal forms in any bounded space. It's theoretically possible to fly it in through a big arch or somesuch (highly unlikely, of course)
They just need to find a portal that's more than 30 feet high (which is how high a nautiloid is), and get a nautiloid on the other side of one. That shouldn't be too hard in Sigil. If I were a Sigilian merchant, I'd build as many tall arches as possible, counting on the Lady of Pain to create portals in them. There might well be hundreds in the Market Ward alone. Of course, where they lead, and whether they're permanent or temporary, is anyone's guess (most will be temporary), but that's what being a planar merchant is all about: identify the portals and their keys, and figure out how to use them to most efficiently get from point A to point B. If you build enough portals, chances are at least one of them will lead somewhere where a nautiloid can be shipped (especially if there are mercanes on the other side). While mercanes can't enter Sigil for some mysterious reason, it's in their interest to set up shops on the other side of Sigilian portals whenever they can be located. And they can send their representatives into Sigil, like the rastipedes or the dohwar.
Or they could take it apart and put it back together again (both to get it in and out). The important part isn't the hull, but the helm (which can be only created by mercanes, and is thus extremely rare and valuable).
I did not know that Mercanes can't enter Sigil. Thanks for that!
I don't know if they can't, but they don't.
Apologies, I think that's how wide they are; I think they're considerably taller.
And it's physically possible for mercanes to enter Sigil, but if they find themselves there they leave as quickly as possible through the first portal they can. They seem frightened of the place, or of its guardian (the source for this is the "arcane" entry in the second Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix).
Sigil gets light from portals to the plane of radience in the middle of Sigils ring. Any ship capable of making it to the plane of radience can enter the middle of Sigil through them. Presumably they can leave in the same way.