Hopeless

Hopeless is a colorless pit of apathy. It’s a grey tinged spiral of depression down to the gate to the Wastes at the center of it. Located roughly 1000 miles from the base of the Spire in the Outlands, situated between the other gate towns of Torch and Curst, sits Hopeless, the gate town to the Grey Waste. The burg sits surrounded by land more akin to the Three Glooms than to the Outlands, with the terrain no longer flat, but corrupted with rocky hills and twisting ravines before rising into mountains beyond the town.

Government

Hopeless is nominally ruled by a masked female human who goes by the name of Thingol the Mocking. Her rule is enforced swiftly and harshly if need be, by a large number of armed and well-trained thugs, and most impressively by the seven beholders who constantly float over and patrol the spiral street of the burg. The town adheres to the rigid guidelines set out by Thingol for fear of her beholders and the slow, excessively cruel and very public executions she relishes in holding for any who disturb the status quo.

Infrastructure

The Screaming Gate At the top of the spire is the gate from Sigil to Hopeless. It is carved from a single block of brilliant, blood red stone, into the shape of a screaming humanoid face. The gate into Hopeless is the last chance to turn away before entering the gloom, and the sole mark of color in the entire city. Lines of erosion mark the face like lines of fallen tears, and the eyes are blank, blind orbs of smooth stone. The face appears to be in the throws of emotional agony. This harbinger of the gloom beyond stands in stark contrast to the colors beyond, but it matches the emotional gestalt of misery just the same.
Kip of Mealle the Just This gray building of worn wood planking stands two stories high a short walk from ‘The Open Tomb’. A pair of black longswords are cut into a wooden plaque above the doorway, but otherwise no indication is given of the building’s purpose or residents. Here, the tiefling Mealle the Just, a former member of the Bleak Cabal, runs the portion that passes through Hopeless, of an arms smuggling operation owned by Spiral Hal’oight, one of the lesser of the Golden Lords of Sigil.
Chapterhouse of the Sisterhood The chapterhouse of the sisterhood, contrary to the name, is an umbrella group of good aligned cutters who’ve come to Hopeless of their own free will to ministrate to the poor wretches who dwell in the city, unwilling or unable to leave the gloom. They are led primarily by an aasimar cutter by the name of Jerison Kasmat as well as Dianna Ormoland, and Arturus Fennisflame. The chapterhouse stands some three stories high, of smooth gray stone that stands out as soothing, whereas all the other buildings of the same construction seem depressive. The building is surrounded on all sides by high-buttressed walls, and the gate is constantly guarded. While the group abides by Thingol’s laws, they are hated by many of the citizenry for their actions, though Thingol makes no official comment. Inside the group provides healing, rest, food, and advice of most any sort by those willing to ask, and they patrol the burg’s streets, collecting the bubbers and the hurt and bringing them back for whatever aid they can provide the unfortunate. But they never leave the confines of the chapterhouse without their own heavily armed escort.
The Defenestrated Paladin Widely known as the rowdiest inn and tavern in the city, this long, two story building of soot covered wood and stone sits near the center of the third ring of the city. It is owned and run by Vrikus Mel’Ort, a dusky skinned tiefling of mixed or otherwise indeterminate fiendish heritage, who manages to keep the fights and spilt blood to a minimum, or at least keep it confined to outside the inn, where the troublemakers are as likely to be disintegrated on the spot by one of the High Cardinal’s beholders than settle their fight amongst themselves.
The inn caters primarily to non-residents of the burg, those with some sense of emotions and motivation enough to contribute to the atmosphere within. Fiends abound here, as much as they do anywhere in the city, but it seems a preferred spot for them and mercenaries traveling to the Waste to join with other groups bound for the Blood War in a circuitous route.
The Open Tomb Well situated in the middle of the 3rd ring of the city sits the low, one story, mausoleum shaped tavern called the Open Tomb. The mix of patrons tends to be half citizens of Hopeless, and half outsiders, but more the outsiders who don’t wish to cause trouble, or seek anything more than a meal and a room for the evening. The inn tends to be as silent as the namesake.
The owner is a silent, melancholic woman with a long swath of waist length silvery gray hair who goes only by the name of Ashen Sirah. While some remark that given the name of the tavern, its shape, and the proprietor’s disposition, she might have once been a member of the Dustmen, its more likely her lack of emotion and passion is simply the result of having lived within Hopeless for many years. Or as others rumors have it, that she was a former member of the Bleak Cabal who lapsed into the Grim Retreat and only the emotional sapping of the burg keeps still the more outward show of her insanity. She’s not one to hold much of a conversation, so while the ale may flow, her tongue does not and the truth remains dark.
The Castle of Bone This thin, three story circular tower of stone, carved to resemble a collection of piled and stacked bones, sits near the end of the first ring of the gatetown. Of all the inns of the city, it is rumored to contain the most rumors, chant and darks for those bloods who’ll spend the jink here for bub, a meal, and a room for the night. It caters mostly to travelers in the city, and more unusual kinds as well, from adventuring bands to graybeards and sages to, as the same rumors say, an avatar of the Torilian god Cyric who frequents the inn to torment the patrons.
The rather unique and rarely seen owner of the establishment is a rail thin but seemingly young tiefling by the name of Kestrin Ulket. The times he frequents his own establishment he makes a show of speaking with the night’s patrons and mingling with the crowd, likely seeding the floor with the very same rumors that make the establishment profitable. How he comes by those that happen to be true is another question entirely.
The Charnel House This shoddy stone kip just within the 4th ring of the spiral has lain dormant and empty for years. Shunned by both visiting bloods and citizens of hopeless alike. The chant goes that a decade or two ago the resident, a man by the name of Terlic Boevalt, had gone barmy and launched into a killing spree. Starting with small animals he gradually worked his way up to drunken bubbers, the homeless, and visitors of the town seeking lodging. Eventually his normally apathetic neighbors noticed the stench of his rotting victims and reported it to one of Thingol the Mocking’s patrols. Once they forced the door open, they found a literal charnel house within. Since then the house has been silent and avoided like a plague by the residents of Hopeless, the acts of its former owner having been above and beyond the level of evil the residents of the city would normally pass off as normal, inured to the insidiousness of the Waste in some measure as they are. The tales fail to mention the fate or condition of Terlic however, that remains as dark as the pit.
The Palace of Thingol the Mocking The palace of Thingol the Mocking, High Cardinal of Hopeless is a collection of towers, spires and manors that sprawl in a grand complex from the depths of the spiral courtyard out to, and over in colossal stone archways the 5th, 4th, and 3rd rings of the ever descending spiral road. The only public entrance to the Palace sits at the base of the spiral, abutting the Spiral Courtyard and is heavily guarded by Thingol’s soldiers and at least one of her seven beholders at all times. Several of the spires that rise above the Palace have open archways built into the stone, presumably for the beholders to enter and exit the domain of their mistress at their leisure. The palace can be seen from anywhere in the city, being a constant reminder of the desolate, and nigh unchangeable situation within the town that citizens come to accept as it is daily reinforced upon them if needed, and even if not.

Assets

The Spiral Courtyard stands at the lowest end of the burg’s single, descending road, paved in scuffed gray cobblestones that seem pitted and etched as if by acid. Here where the gloom seems thickest and most oppressive, in its center stands the gate to the Grey Waste that will deposit a seeking, or unfortunate blood onto the layer of Oinos. The gate takes the form of a deep, decrepit circular well plunging into the earth filled with a liquid best described as a cold, liquid tar. With the correct gate key, plunging into the well will send a cutter through the gate, or the liquid can be commanded to flood out of the depths and immerse most of the courtyard to enable the transport of larger numbers of people or items.

Architecture

All the buildings in the burg flank the single descending street, composed of weathered gray wood, and pitted grayish stone. No colors mark the town, save for the screaming gate, and the dreary, melancholic air that hangs over the town only worsens as one descends down the spiral road, deeper into the city. Everywhere the situation is the same: depression, gloom, and apathy to mirror that of the Grey Waste itself in fraction.

Type

Town

Population

20,000

Inhabitant Demonym

the hopeless