Sick Minds
Current Chant: the Sign of One
There’s an assassin on the loose in Sigil right now. There’s many rumours flying round as to who he’s working for and why, but that’s half the problem. See, this assassin’s got a particularly deadly modus operandi, and so far it’s proved impossible to even pin a single death to the blood. He might not even exist, for all anyone can tell.
We’re going to have to tread very carefully here, and you’ll understand exactly why in just a moment. Firstly, though, if you’re a member of the Sign of One it’s absolutely imperative you stop reading right now. If you don’t you might be dead by tomorrow morning. Have they all stopped reading? Then I’ll continue.
“So belief is power, is it?
—Talamis, a clueless Prime showing how it isn’t done
In that case, I believe I’m an archmage!”
It seems the assassin’s got hold of a poison so insidious, so deadly, and so psychically-endowed, that a blood only has to think about it to be affected! ‘Course, you have to do more than just mentally glimpse it, but for the members of the Sign of One faction, who spend their lives creating the Multiverse in their heads, once they get an idea in, it’s hard to get it out again.
The chant goes that the assassin merely entered the Cage, introduced the idea of the poison and himself in casual conversation to a few Signer cutters, and left. Gossip did most of the work for him: By the following morning there were seven dead and many more seriously ill. Of course, news of this spread like wildfire through the Clerk’s Ward, and with the chant came more casualties. Anyone who tried to use magic to scry the murderer met with a noxious end, and it was only then that the full horror of the situation was realised.
A team of particularly hard-headed Harmonium were drafted in to cover up the incident, since a cover-up was deemed the best way to stop the rumours spreading throughout Sigil. It’s met with partial success – especially the tactic of rounding up Signers and quarantining them in the Council Chamber. Of course, they haven’t been told why they’re being kept separate (only that it’s for their own good) so some bloods have managed to escape.
Anyway, that’s the story as it stands. More information can doubtless be obtained from recent issues of SIGIS. Hypochondriacs beware!
Source: Jon Winter-Holt
