The Dispute of the Sigil Contracts is a gesta (campaign-cycle) set in Sigil, the City of Doors, in which a mixed company is caught in the struggle over fragmented contracts that are keys to at least two portals: one to the elven lands of Alfheim, one to a plane known only as the Labyrinth.
| Type | Gesta |
| Chronicle | BWP |
| Spanish entry | Disputa de los Contratos de Sigil |
Overview
Two threads drive it: a corrupt factor of the Harmonium, whose attack sets off a political trial against the Fated and Guvners ending in tie and exile; and the murder of the revered healer Mother Gabriela, whose remains are moved to raise a temple. Behind both stands Sagittarius (unstable name), vassal of a vampire noble ruling from the shadows, identified as Vladimir von Korsakov. A cosmic threat, “the advancing shadow”, menaces Sigil and Alfheim and is left unresolved.
The contracts
Usually split in two or three pieces. Who drafted them is unclear; every faction wants them. At bottom they are lease contracts for land in Sigil, of the same lineage as the one behind Korsakov’s perpetual ownership of Sea Hill.
Characters
Reconstructed and unconfirmed; some names have uncertain spellings.
- The hunted assassin: flees the law after Mother Gabriela’s death; creed: “I will not be subjugated by anyone.”
- The elf of royal blood: possibly of the Alfheim court; a thwarted romance with an elven singer betrothed to a vampire noble.
- The Elf King’s son: at odds with his father and brother; seeks both contracts for the crown. Possibly the same figure as the previous one.
- The dwarf artisan: master artificer with a cat.
- The Medici banker: wants a bank on land coveted for its portal.
- The half-elf sorcerer: of an arcane brotherhood; kills Sagittarius in a magical duel.
- The elf scout: sent to a distant tower amid a coup; appears once.
Antagonists: Sagittarius dies burned by white magic at the end. The vampire noble, “Dark Lord” of a domain mentioned in passing, survives with his domain and his pact with Arian intact.
Factions and places
Factions named: Harmonium, Fated, Guvners, Mercykillers, Sensates, Doomguard, Dustmen. Sigil’s Mortuary and the Lady’s Ward appear. Alfheim keeps a different time from Sigil. Mount Celestia, with a dwarven kingdom, is the goal of a mission for a “universal solvent”. The March of the Modrons (Automata, the Infinite Staircase) covers a late mission-exile.
Course of events
- A dispute over a saint’s body; the first portal to elven lands.
- Inquiry into the murder; journey to Mount Celestia; contests of will over a scepter of subjugation and in a covert trial. Then an ambush, a revenge blood ritual, a ritual murder tied to a miracle, a corpse chased through the city.
- Climax: final dispute over the royal elf’s body and contracts; a Fated factor vanishes; battle against thanatist guardians at a portal; an Extraordinary Meeting of the factors ends in tie and exile.
- The mission-exile; the contracts delivered at the Elf King’s court.
- An isolated episode: a body sought after an ice catastrophe, a guardian wolf, a coup against an “inoperative” king.
- A bank built on disputed land; Sagittarius killed; a victim of demonic experiments rescued from a magic academy; an alliance against the Harmonium factor.
- Journey to Alfheim; funeral rite for the royal elf; the elves cede land in Sigil to a human for the two Labyrinth contracts.