Cromwell Street and Murkwater Way, Market Ward
The large house on the corner with the appraiser’s shop on its first floor is no ordinary shop; it has two unique proprietors. I’ll tell you what’s unique about this place but I cannot do so without telling the story of its owners.
Rumvarax is a rust dragon whose life took a rather unusual turn. It seems the old rusty spent his early life digging tunnels for the acherai (as most of the more social rustys do) but Rumvarax was different in the fact that he had an insatiable curiousity. It was this curiousity that made him go through the portal just to see what was on the other side. That temporary portal never returned but Rumvarax made the best of it. He wandered the streets of Sigil nibbling the metal blades on the building and swatting aside all the panicking people and the annoying red armoured fellows that got in his way.
That was until a charismatic berk explained to the inherently lawful critter that it’s unlawful to eat property and swat aside berks. Rumvarax considered this a while (and also realised he had to den down for the night somewhere) so he went to the nearest house large enough to fit him, opened the roof and asked if he could live there. The poor sods who lived in the kip went running and never returned. This was fine until Rumvarax got hungry — unable to eat the architecture and unable to afford any of the tasty morsels the blacksmiths sell — old Rumverax taxed his simple brain trying to find a solution. After a couple days he carefully scratched the word “Appraiser” above his door.
From the following day, Rumvarax took advantage of miners who set out on the planes to strike it rich. From a quick taste he could tell one metal from another and how pure it was. He was a born natural. But using his service has a cost; the dragon keeps the sample as payment (and dinner). It’s a small cost when you bring him a gold nugget from the mother-load of all treasure troves. “Old Rumvy” as they call him spent many a month living off his meagre pickings until Niloticus entered Sigil.
Niloticus was a xorn exiled from the plane of Mineral for unauthorised gorging on the plane’s natural wealth. Niloticus realised that Rumverax was losing a profit by not appraising gems so he decided to be of some help and a try and get in on the free meals. A skilled taste tester in his own right, the xorn fit right in, making this one of the strangest partnerships in Sigil. It was Niloticus who named the shop the Silver Tongue (a pun …. odd since most think those of the earthen planes are dour serious fellows.) Niloticus also got Rumverax a stone bracer (he’d eat a metal one, and if you are wondering yes it shifts to fit his size) that allows him to take human form once per day. This allows him to walk about Sigil without disturbing folks too much.
What’s the inside of the shop look like? Well there’s a narrow shop itself with a big hole in the wall where the door was, just big enough for the rusty to poke his head through. If by the odd chance you can get into the rest of the house you will find the floors removed to fit the dragon comfortably. The xorn is contented to sleep in the corner of the shop itself. Hard surfaces are most comfortable to earth critters after all.
Source: Joshua Jarvis
