The Dark Bell Tolls
Location: Sigil / Lower Ward / Blackshade Lane
Treasures of Absence, Death, and Decay
There’s a horrid little shop tucked away in the shadowy backstreets of the Lower Ward, not far from the musty catacombs of the Mortuary, where the air always feels colder than it should. The sign above the door informs would-be customers that it’s called The Dark Bell Tolls, and if that name doesn’t chill your marrow, the wares you’ll find inside certainly might.
Run by a pale-faced tiefling called Lurqa Nullheart (tiefling sorcerer [she/her] / Doomguard / N) whose horns spiral like withered old roots and eyes are blacker than obsidian, the shop caters to those with a taste for the morbidly magnificent. With a wry grin and a voice like crumbling paper, Lurqa invites customers into her dark shop of void-born trinkets and deathly oddities from the Negative Material Plane. “Don’t touch that without gloves,” she’ll say, “unless you fancy losing a finger. Or your soul.”
Every inch of The Dark Bell Tolls feels like it’s been drained of life. The walls are slate-grey, and the flickering green candles seem to cast less light than they should. In the centre of the shop hangs the namesake bell: a brittle-looking instrument made from bone shards, glass shards, and what might be tiny skulls. It doesn’t make a sound that humans can actually hear, but every time someone opens the door, you’ll feel its vibration in your soul.
Ask Lurqa about why you can’t hear the bell and she’ll say “oh that, no that’s not for you. Not yet.”
Lurqa’s sense of humour is as dry as the plane of Ash, and she rather enjoys the dual sport of scaring the clueless, and overcharging the bold. As for the questionable legality of the items she sells, she’s quick to point out, with a smirk, that most of her items “don’t kill people—directly.”
Notable Wares
- Void Lantern: A black-glass lantern that gives off no light but rather casts a pall of inky darkness wherever it is pointed. Handy for losing pursuers, perhaps?
- Inheritance Powder: A mostly flavourless powder which can assist in the rightful acquisition of one’s inheritance from relatives who cling to life a little too stubbornly.
- Soul-Sap: A delicate vial filled with what looks something like dark smoke, apparently collected from the Great Void itself. This ephemeral gas acts like smelling salts for dhampirs and genasi of the negative material planes, reviving the unconscious and healing minor injuries. Not to be inhaled by the living who want to remain that way.
- Whispering Thread: A spool of thread woven from the frayed edges of a lost soul, spun in the Underlands. It’s perfect for stitching curses into garments or binding unruly incorporeal dead.
- Final Notes: A ‘whimsical’ music box that plays the last sounds heard by its previous owner. The models that scream cost extra.
- Shroud of Forgetting: A silken veil that erases memories—yours, theirs, anyone’s. Takes some psychic skill to actually choose which memories are affected. Best used with care and plausible deniability.
- Amphora of Nihil: A jar of absolute nothingness. Open with extreme caution.
- Void’s Mirror: This jagged shard of black glass reflects absolutely nothing—but stare into for long enough, and it might show you how you’ll die.
- The Oblivion Bell: A tiny silver bell that rings only when someone nearby is about to die. Quite the party trick.
Lurqa’s got a wicked sense of humour, claiming her shop is a “public service” to those “in need of a little existential dread.” And she’s always willing to barter, especially if you’ve got something with a bit of life left in it. Although it’s worth noting that above the counter hangs a painted sign, its letters chipped but legible:
“All Sales Final. Returns Accepted Only in the Afterlife.”
Source: Jon Winter-Holt. This location is a homebrew addition to the setting.
