The Weather Tower
Location: Sigil / Guildhall Ward / Off Turtle Lane
Today’s Predicted Weather:
Rain pelting down vertically, stinging the eyes and exposed flesh; the sort of weather you'd expect from a plane like Acheron, not in Sigil.— thanks go to the Harys Hatchis’s handy spells and the co-operation of the Weather Tower (for a 2% royalties fee) for the new up to date weather forecaster
Standing above the rooftops of the Guildhall Ward, a tower stretches into the Cage’s sky. Spinning at its top is large windmill that is powered by a nearby air portal to the Boundless Blue, one of the closet to ground level in the city. The towers composed entirely of stone imported from Pandemonium for its high resistance to winds, and it was built stone by stone on top of the roofs of the buildings below in order to reach the height of the air portal. Half of the tower rests on top of a ancient alehouse and spa, and the other side leans on tall arched columns. The owners of the surrounding buildings don’t mind the intrusion on their roofs, as the windmill causes them to always have fresh weather around the tower. A staircase reaches up three storeys from ground level to the base of the towers stones, where a large iron doors opens into the towers interior.
The Tower serves both as Sigil’s only weather service, at least the only reliable one compared with Hive fortune tellers, and also as a de facto temple to Chan, princess of good air creatures. The Tower’s high priest and owner is a Spirit of the Air called Erish Soufflé (proxy of Chan spirit of air [they/them] / N) who after being sent through one of the air portals to Sigil by Chan to see where all her precious air creatures where getting lost, hit on the idea of the weather tower. See, the blood has plans to turn their lowly fate of being a servant of the air powers around and start having the power do what Erish wants.
Using the tower as their Sigilian base, Erish started charging for weather forecasts, pulling in the jink that a power needs to grow in power. The priests might tell you Divine Will raises armies for a power’s cause, but really, loads of jink helps a lot too. Also, with the air portal and windmill blowing air over the cage, and the tower’s priests casting purify air and such around the Cage, more and more bashers are starting to worship Chan, who is catching on quite well as the new in power among Cagers. Erish also had brahmin from the plane of Air, hook up clockwork devices onto the waterspout, so the windmill now also generates magical power in inverted spheres.
With jink and worshipers pouring in, Chan was hard-pushed to refuse her servants offer, and making Erish a proxy settled their deal. They’d get Her more power, and in turn She’d give some power to Erish. Now, this trick might not have worked on say Zeus or Odin, who would have just left an Erish-shaped scorch mark, but Chan’s an Archomental of Good—some would say maybe a bit naive too—and so Erish is calling the shots.
“Like we need Erish to tell us it’s sodding miserable outside”
— Alro Kerson, Guildhall Ward merchant
To find out the weather forecast, a berk’s got a couple of options. First you can go directly to the Tower and inquire of one of the priests there. There’s also at least one of Chan’s priests in each of Sigil’s Wards, and one at many of the faction headquarters too. Garnishing them will get you the latest weather report for the next hour or even the next week, though the farther their predictions ahead are usually a bit unpredictable. See, they pray to Chan to see what the weather’s gonna be like coming in from the portal at the Weather Tower, but between her changing her mood—which happens quite often—and any other weather variables from the many other air portals in Sigil’s skies, especially those in the Lower Ward, can make long-range forecasting sketchy at best. Once a berk’s got the chant, they’re meant to keep it dark—start spreading the forecast around to cutters who haven’t paid the tithe and a couple of aerial servants will come and ‘talk some sense’ into you.’ This can be quite alarming, when a berk’s walking down the road and invisible hands start beating him up.
See Also: Brix’s Guide to the Weather
| Weather tower services price list | |
| Next hour | 1 jinx |
| Next day | 10 jinx |
| Next week | 50 jinx |
| Cast purify air | 10 jinx per yard radius |
| Bottle of pure air | 5 greens for a small bottle |
| Services of an aerial servant | 1 jinx an hour |
Though the towers main income is its weather forecasting, Erish has about a dozen other services too; anything to pull in the jink. These include selling bottles of purified air, having priests cast pure air for high-ups to freshen out out their courtyards, and even hiring out aerial servants.
Brix Recommends:
Garnishing the Tower’s usual doorkeeper and guardian of the inner sanctum, Altezza (planar sylph priest of Chan [she/her] / CG) can get you an hour in the ‘bird’s nest’. Here at the very top of the tower, thanks to the wind venting out from the air portal, you can always get a clear view of the city, all the way to both sides of the Cage. The vista is simply breathtaking.
Source: Jeremiah Golden and Jon Winter-Holt
