saurum
(town)
Character. Visit a great city whose culture has been perverted in the name of greater evil. See how it infects the settlements it trades with like a virus.
Ruler. Saurum is ruled by Missy's Tongue, a night hag named after a favorite organ. Mme. Tongue is said to be a very nasty customer, responsible for many acts of despotism. Saurum is a gloomy town with wiry towers, broad streets, and cool Stygian waters. Other areas are mazelike warrens nearly as confusing as Sigil's Hive. The previous rulers were driven out by Missy's Tongue and her yugoloth allies.
Behind the throne. Yugoloths infest most of the positions of power in Saurum. Missy's Tongue rarely makes a move without consulting her arcanaloth advisor, and most of the city's wards are controlled by yagnoloth "bosses" who ensure that things are managed to the general detriment of all.
Description. The contributions of Saurum to the culture of Oinos are great. Missy's Tongue, and her great Library, has provided this part of the Styx river valley with a common measuring system, a common currency, and common way of dealing with the problem of aesthetics on a plane where all passions die.
The Yugoloth Gallery of Evil is a- showcase of all things Evil, including torture and massecre choreographed in intriguing patterns. Of particular note is the Showcase of Vulgarities, a display of cutesy-wootsy puppies and children that even inhabitants of the Upper Planes admit does more to discredit Good than to promote it. Another series in this vein is Artificial Beauty, a succession of empowering and inspiring images filled with rot and decay.
The Wall of Heads is a pile of skulls that lies against Saurum's entire western wall.
The tower of silent bells.
Saurum's Mouth: a library.
hag canal, hag mount, hag ride. Hag tgable, hag dinner
Militia. Saurum is defended by yugoloth mercenaries with nightmare mounts. They patrol the land and skies with great regularity, ensuring that the town is not violated.
Services. The work of dark artisans without peer is available in Saurum. This is also a good place to get destroyed by critics. Knowledge is available here, but it is always twisted by the propaganda of Missy's Tongue.
Current Chant. The old leaders of Saurum, petitioners who ruled the town before their decadence pulled it into the Gray Waste long before the coming of the Tongue, still exist. They travel the city in secret and disguise. While Saurum seems to be fully under the control of the fiends, they have hope they can change things by instituting a new decadence; artworks and knowledge based on honest principals of good and neutrality. A growing underground of petitioners, tieflings, and diakka have indulged themselves in this "new" style, and Mme. Tongue's suppression of it seems to have actually improved its noteriety.