Aalek’s Oddities
Location: Sigil / Lower Ward / Marketplace
I found Aalek’s Oddities tucked away right in the smoky sprawl of the Lower Ward Marketplace, where the air stung with the acrid tang of smog and the occasional scent of sizzling street grub wafted past. In fact, you can’t miss this shop—half-sunken into the cobbles like it’s trying to escape to Undersigil, sandwiched between a dubious alchemical apothecary and a sweetmeat stall run by an imp with very questionable personal hygiene. The storefront’s a wild cacophony of colours, with a sign that winks at you, literally, thanks to an enchantment gone haywire. Even the door handle—a coiled iron serpent—hisses open when you grab it. Charming, eh?
Inside, you’re greeted by chaos that somehow works. The walls bend and bulge as if the architecture is trying to accommodate more shelves than should be geometrically possible, each one crammed with magical trinkets and charms of every kind. The smell’s a mix of ozone, hot metal, and a whiff of unidentifiable herbs that made my nose itch. An old, battered lute hangs from the ceiling, strumming itself mournfully whenever someone mentions the word “jink.” Quaint, but it starts to get on your nerves after the third verse.
Aalek, the shop’s owner, is a barrel-chested genasi with skin like smooth slate and eyes like burning coals. He has a voice like crunching gravel and a temperament to match. Word is, he’s descended from a magma spirit, which explains why his hair constantly smoulders at the tips—though it’s been known to flare up if he gets particularly excited about a rare find. He claims he spent his early years traipsing through the Elemental Chaos before he found his way to Sigil, where he decided extortion…er, honest commerce, was more his style. He has a habit of pausing mid-conversation to taste the air and mutter about “shifts in the magnetic field”—though, he could just be sniffing out the metal in a customer’s coin pouch.
Oddities on Offer
The shop specialises in charms, and oh, does Aalek have an affinity for them! Here’s what he had in stock when I visited (and don’t complain about the prices; Aalek claims inflation’s all the fault of the Fated).
- Adder’s Tears: A tiny glass phial containing venom that warms like fire when held. Supposedly brewed from serpents of legend, but it might just be sewer snakes. Pop this charm under your tongue and it lets you spit forth spiralling bolts of acid green energy.
- Blood Charms: Throbs faintly when touched. Aalek insists it’s “reliable for stanching wounds or causing them, if you’re clever.” They look like red pearly of solidified blood, and you’re supposed to let them dissolve in your mouth. Disgusting if you ask me.
- Bone Charms: Decorated with minuscule scrimshaw, these finger bones are said to protect from the clutches of death. You snap them in half to activate them, and they’re supposed to protect your bones from being crushed, for a short time at least. Apparently they can also be used as portal keys too.
- Cranium Rat Charms: These are small cranium rats that have been hollowed out and preserved with pungent herbs, then stuffed with papyrus inscribed with arcane sigils. They’re supposed to make you smarter and better at spotting hidden traps or something. Sounds like a load of nonsense to me.
- Charcoal Charms: These look like charred bone fragments, from berks killed by wayward fireballs, Aalek told me. Apparently they protect you from fire attacks. They smell of smoke and old curses.
- Displacer Ring: According to Aalek this was a rare find. Infused with the ichor of a displacer beast, he told me this ring is able to deflect some of the damage from the attacks of ordinary weapons.
- Sadistic Frame: Another rare item, I’m told. It’s a grim portrait that laughs in sinister glee when you gaze upon it. While some might call it cursed, it’s real use is in combat—when you break the frame, anyone who attacks you feels the same pain as they inflict upon you, returned back to them.
- Spider Bracelet: While this looked like a piece of jewellery, apparently this item is actually a living spider from the plane of metal. When attached to the wrist it sinks its fangs into your skin, bringing the benefit of making a cutter more resistant to damage, but at the cost of draining their mental facilities. Not sure it’s worth the risk, if you ask me. And I never did like creepy crawlies.
The last time I was here, a tiefling merchant tried to haggle over a ring of the traveller—an item perfect for plane-hopping without the usual nausea that portal and conduit travel can inflict upon those with more sensitive constitutions. Aalek bellowed a laugh so fierce that it set fire to a nearby rack of charms. It took three water mephits and a generous bribe to the Harmonium to sort out the chaos. Moral of the story? Haggle if you dare—but only if you’re fireproof.
Oh, and do mind the charms with more unpredictable mind-altering effects. I once got my rocky hands on a third-eye charm that made me see into a parallel dimension. It was beautiful and horrifying, but caused a multiversal migraine I couldn’t shake for the rest of the day. Aalek thought it hilarious, of course. Why one might want such a thing is beyond me! But if you;re a Sensate then perhaps you’d have a use for it, I suppose.
Canonical Source: This shop appears in the Planescape: Torment game. I’ve re-imagined it for this website, keeping the name of the shop and its proprietor and some of the flavourful items from the computer game.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt
