If any town in existence can be said to have a chip on its shoulder, Windglum is it. Its founders were folks who had been banished to this plane, and because of that their descendants have a dim view toward all outsiders.
Windglum is a city set in a cavern several miles wide and long, with enormous natural columns that hold up the cavern's ceiling. The cavern is always ablaze with light, provided by hundreds of magical globes created when the town was young. At the center of the town stands a fortification known locally as the Citadel of Lords, home to the ruling family and center of government. From that point, streets radiate outward at even intervals, with cross streets winding between them as dictated by the natural rises and depressions of the cavern floor.
Beyond the citadel, the city is a disordered sprawl of individual homes. There's no apparent plan to what buildings stand where among which streets. Each family just builds where and how it sees fit. Consequently, there's hovels standing next to mansions, bathhouses next to abattoirs, temples next to gambling houses, and even buildings that straddle streets. By royal decree, no existing street road may be blocked off or diverted. Most of the wealthier buildings are surrounded by a hefty wall, however, both to provide security and to block the views of their squalid neighbors.
Windglum's cavern provides the town with some natural security. It has five openings into the rest of the layer, and all are small enough to be easily defensible. Each is closed by a strong gate, but the gates and gatehouses are entirely different in each case, having been built and staffed by separate families. The large size of Windglum's cavern and the relatively small size of its gateways combine to make this one of the calmer, quieter locations on the entire plane of Pandemonium.
Windglum is also a very diversely populated town, nearly as much so as Sigil, though there are fewer races from the lawful side of the Great Road. But the locals don't typically think of their citizenry as different races. Rather, they think in terms of families. When the town was originally established, each person brought a par- ticular skill to be used for the common good, as necessity demanded. As time progressed, these services came to be associated with the person's family and descendants. Even though its no longer that way of necessity, the Windglummers are so used to the system that they'd be hard pressed to understand another.
Windglum is characterized by an aura of suspicion. The locals are unlikely to trust strangers, and many of Windglum's citizens are mentally unstable. Windglummers feel that the rest of the universe looks down upon them. Because of this, visitors to the town tend to feel they're being given the cold shoulder (and they are). Conversations stop when they enter an inn, locals glower suspiciously at them on the street, they're charged unreasonably high prices for services, and every coin they offer is weighed and inspected to make sure it's not counterfeit or shaved. In short, they're treated as unwelcome guests - or worse, as invaders.
However, one inn in Windglum welcomes strangers. Called the Scaly Dog, it's a place where a planar traveler can meet other wayfarers, hire mercenaries, gather information, or seek employment.
Places in Windglum
| Name | Site Type |
|---|---|
| Scaly Dog | Tavern |