Chapter 7: The Hub of the Multiverse
Author's Note: I checked up on my lore knowledge and realized that Wildspace and the Astral Sea are two different places, which I had been treating as the same previously in the story.
The difference is that Wildspace forms the planets, solar systems and their boundaries in the Spelljammer campaign setting, while the Astral Sea is interstellar space, the vast empty void between stars, where there are no celestial bodies for countless trillions of miles in all directions. Spelljamming ships have to cross the Astral Sea to visit other systems.
Think of it this way: A Wildspace solar system's theoretical boundary lies just beyond Pluto and the Kuiper Belt in our real planetary neighborhood, about 100 Earth-Sun distances, while voyages in the Astral Sea are measured by light years, each of which is worth approximately 60,000 Earth-Sun distances. A spelljamming ship can travel around 20 light years, or 120 trillion miles, in a single day.
Now that you know how interstellar travel works in DND, we can get on with the story.
Our last episode saw John Henry, Thianna Frostborn, Zephyr the Otter and a bunch of other fugitives turned unlikely heroes escape from the clutches of the Imperium of Man, a tyrannical world-hopping empire that had lately begun to ramp up its conquest of the DND multiverse.
And their modus operandi of running away was surprisingly goofy- a bulky, clumsy spacecraft built to resemble a turtle.
Solomon, the blue Tiefling martial artist and veteran of the Adventurer's Guild, was put in charge of the crew by everyone else, because he had the most information regarding the Imperial menace, and he had an ideal destination in mind for the turtle ship's voyage- Sigil, the City of Doors, capital city of the multiverse and DND's largest metropolitan area by far, it was so incomprehensibly vast that it used supermassive black holes to provide electricity and power to its residents.
Sigil was under the rule and protection of the Lady of Pain, an enigmatic divine entity who was perhaps the biggest obstacle to the Imperium's crusade, seeing as she controlled all the doors between worlds allowing for safe travel.
Due to the Lady's influence over the portals, which she could open and close at will, the Imperium instead had to rely on the Warp, which was a hazardous form of realm travel with considerable risks and dangers involved, like getting raped by demons or being sucked into a black hole. (Although certain ships using Dark Age of Technology hardware were generally more stable in the Warp.)
The most important fact, however, and the whole reason why Solomon recommended traveling to Sigil, was because it was home to the headquarters of the Adventurer's Guild- the legendary league of heroes which recruited its members from all across the multiverse, and the main opponents and adversaries of the Imperium.
It was a time of crisis like never before, so there was a good chance the Adventurer's Guild was calling an emergency meeting and gathering all its agents and supporters in one place. A mission briefing on the upcoming campaigns and battles would be especially useful and important.
It took 30 days to travel to Sigil from the Rock of Bral, and on the way, our party was lucky to find out that the turtle ship was already packed with provisions- there was a pantry and kitchen inside that had fresh water and liquor to drink, as well as boiled turtle meat, dried salted fish, and citrus fruit, all part of a traditional pirate's diet. The taste of the food and drink on board quickly became repetitive, but monotony was better than starvation.
As Zephyr said, "Turtle meat is one of my favorite foods, but even I can't handle a whole month eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Then, after that long and boring excursion, on the 31st day, the party finally arrived at the City of Doors. The arrival was made readily apparent by the sudden external transition from the bluish-purple cascade of the Astral Sea, to a seemingly endless, physics-defying ecumenopolis boasting thousands of layers, while also brimming with all manner of architectural styles.
"We're here, my fleshy friends!," Uxas announced. "Do we know where the Guild's headquarters is, though?"
As expected, Solomon provided a simple solution to that question.
"Look for something very big and very green."
After a few minutes of flying at hypersonic speeds high above Sigil's sky traffic, the turtle ship's crew spotted exactly what their leader was referring to. A gigantic tropical kapok tree, almost 6 miles high, growing on top of an even more colossal castle the size of a volcanic island, with roots hundreds of meters thick wrapped around the turrets, towers, bridges and walls.
"That's the biggest motherfucking tree I've ever seen," John Henry exclaimed.
"According to my re-sssearch, it's called Yggdrasil, the World Tree," Tarmon explained. "Its branches lead to portals that can reach potentially anywhere in the multiverse."
"We can go anywhere we want using the tree?," Thianna said, interested in the prospect. "That might give us a huge advantage over the Imperial scum."
The complete structure looked like it could house tens of millions of people, and teleportation spells and technology were probably mandatory for getting around. Soon enough, Uxas spotted a flight deck holding all kinds of airborne vehicles, including spelljamming ships, Starfinder spacecraft, and Shadowrun military aircraft, and proceeded to land on it, taking the utmost care not to accidentally scrape someone else's vessel of travel.
Oddly enough, the flight deck was devoid of cargo managers and air crew. Everyone seemed to have left their vehicles behind and headed somewhere else in the stronghold.
"Hey, where'd everyone go?," Desstra asked, clearly confused as the rest of her group.
"They're probably in the Motherboard Room," Solomon told her.
"Is that referring to some kind of arcane computer device?," Charlie said, trying to paint a picture in his head of what the rest of the base would look like.
Tarmon tried his best to simplify it.
"It's a place where the Guild assembles to plan out its exploration campaigns and strategies for world-hopping wars. So, not a complicated mechanical device."
"Alright everybody, follow me," Solomon ordered. "There's a teleporter stationed for every 150 steps you take in the HQ, which means we don't need to walk very far. And from a teleporter, you can go anywhere you want in Sigil."
"Let's hope we don't miss out on whatever the Guild has to tell us," John Henry suggested. "On the other hand, maybe the news might be too horrifying even for hardened troopers like us."
Once they were at the teleporter, which was installed in the space between a Hammerhead pirate cargo transport and an Aztlan VTOL Gunship, Zephyr took note of the most conspicuous trait of the apparatus:
"SO MANY BUTTONS! Which ones do I push?"
Solomon shook his head, amused at the space otter's desire to toy with something that could be dangerous if misused.
"Look, numbskull, if you push too many buttons at once, your body and soul will shatter, then scatter, across space and time. So just push ONE button, and use the holographic screen to look through a list of destinations."
Zephyr didn't feel like doing this, he was too tempted to spam the keyboard.
"Well then, Charlie, can you get us to the Motherboard Room? You have more experience with this sort of thing than me."
The Warforged got to work, and after thirty seconds of using his metal fingers, a bright flash came out of nowhere, blinding him and his comrades. When the party opened their eyes, they noticed that they were deep inside the castle, standing behind a huge door designed to resemble a futuristic computer circuit.
"Let's go through," Charlie said, gesturing to the door.
What was on the other side was mind blowing... but also a sign that the recent time of peace in the multiverse was OVER.
Thousands of heroic soldiers, explorers, activists, travelers and protectors from every race imaginable in the countless settings of tabletop gaming and roleplaying, were standing in an auditorium surrounding a central stone table where the headmasters of the Adventurer's Guild sat, discussing the current situation of the so-called "Neckbeard Wars."
Most notably, everyone was bristling with weapons, (including the wicked cool transforming ones you'd normally see in RWBY,) so Solomon told his gang to arm themselves so they would fit in. Desstra pulled out her katana and grappling gun, Thianna held her halberd in both hands, Zephyr carried his box of grenades, and Tarmon juggled some unstable alchemical concoctions, you get the point.
The party squeezed into the legion of adventurers, and Solomon was greeted by two of his old friends: A Hobbit cleric, Romulus "Remy" Littlefoot, and a Minotaur barbarian, Asterion Achilles.
"Long time, no see, Blue Bomber!," Remy said, clearly happy to see Solomon even though it wasn't the greatest time for fooling around.
"Guess who wants me up there on the Stone Table?," whispered Asterion. "Headmaster Drizzt himself!"
Desstra overheard this, and got involved in the conversation as well... for good reason. Just like the legendary hero of the Forgotten Realms, she was a a dark elf who turned her back on her messed-up society, one that idolized cruelty and hatred, and tried to redeem herself.
"Lord Drizzt is here? I'VE BEEN LOOKING TO TALK TO HIM MY WHOLE LIFE! He's my idol... the very reason I chose to be who I am today."
"Quiet, the big rallying speech is gonna start!," John Henry told everybody.
And just like Asterion told everyone, the Forgotten Realms' greatest champion stepped up to deliver his message.
Drizzt Do'Urden was about to unite the righteous, and lead them to fight.
Author's Note: Yggdrasil is a kapok tree instead of an ash tree because I wanted to make things different.
Also, my interpretation of Sigil, the City of Doors, is like a cross between Coruscant from Star Wars, a Hive City from Warhammer, Sharn, the Clockwork City of Towers from Eberron, and the floating realm of Skylands from Skylanders.
I wanted to blend the best elements of all these places in fantasy and science fiction to make the megacity to end all megacities. So, yeah, Sigil is vast beyond definition. It needs the power of multiple supermassive black holes to provide all its inhabitants with electricity and energy needs, which I said before.
How big is a supermassive black hole, though? The average one is about 1 billion times the size of the Sun.
Center of the multiverse indeed, puts the scale of Warhammer and Star Wars to SHAME.
Next time: Drizzt Do'Urden's rallying speech, for VICTORY! Like fantasy DND Winston Churchill, prepare for your finest hour!