Hopeless

Estimated Population: 20,000

The Town

The best thing about Hopeless is that it's easy for a body to find her way around. It's a walled city with just one entrance, and from that entrance a single long road spirals down into a deep pit, ending in a courtyard at the bottom. A traveler can always tell when she's reached Hopeless, too - the entrance gate is a screaming human face carved in red stone, its eyes blank and blind, red tears cut by erosion running down its cheeks.

That red stone of the Screaming Gate (as it's called) is the only bright color in the whole town. The rest of Hopeless is built of gray stone and gray, weathered wood that becomes gloomier the farther a body goes beneath ground level.

The Gate

At the base of the pit, where the road finally runs out, there's a flat courtyard of gray stone, with a low, gray well in the center. The well's filled to the brim with a thick, black ooze, similar to molten tar. Want to go to the Gray Waste? Just jump in the well. Cutters can also summon the gunk out, and a few folks in Hopeless know the dark of spells to do that. This method makes sure that a whole group ends up in the same place on the other side. (The blackness spurts up out of the well and covers the courtyard in a heaving bubble of tar. Those who've tried this compare it to bathing with a black pudding.)

The Populace

The people of Hopeless are like depression on legs. Most drifted into town over the decades, having nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. The poor sods barely have the energy to be nasty. There's no chance of things being better - not here or anywhere - so why bother?

The nearness of the Gray Waste also takes its toll on the locals. After a few weeks of bunking here, a body takes on a grayish pallor (known in the Outlands as a "wasting tan"), and her eyes, comfortable with gloom, are hurt by bright colors. Fact is, a town law forbids bright or contrasting colors in the heart of the pit, and the natives have the right to tear colored things apart. Travelers who aren't sure exactly where the law takes effect usually find out the hard way when the natives attack, tearing at their garbs and hurling thick, wet balls of mud.

The Hoi Polloi

The High Cardinal of Hopeless is a masked human female who calls herself Thingol the Mocking. She claims to have been a wizard who escaped the destruction of her prime-material world. As the ruler, she garbs herself in heavy chains and a fullsized metallic mask in the shape of a black wolf.

Thingol holds her position thanks to her strongest supporters, a pack of seven identical beholders. They float throughout the pit in a constant patrol, keeping an eye (or ten) out for bashers who might harm their mistress. Their loyalty is absolute, and some think that Thingol traded her spellcasting ability (and her humanity) with dark powers for their service.

Thingol's goal is to keep the people in their place and very aware of the hopelessness of their situation. If nothing else, a body's got to admit she does a good job. Berks who cross her can look forward to long, painful executions, often lasting days. (A quick death might raise the bloodlust of the mob, and, besides, a slow crushing or garroting is much more painful.)

Travelers should know that Thingol's currently experimenting with performance art such as painting a body bright blue and letting the crowd rip the poor berk's flesh off. Her most recent work, "Sonata for Songbird and Hammer," pulled in some wonderfully depressing reviews.

Local Sites

Having only one street in town does make it a bit easier to find places, but it's a real pox if a body needs to hide or flee. With foot patrols of Thingol's bodyguards and flying beholders looking every which way, things can get rough. This adds to the feeling of helplessness in the city, which, of course, is the whole idea.

The lone bright spot is the Chapterhouse of the Sisterhood, a collection of good-aligned cutters (of all genders, despite the name) who provide aid and healing to the populace. 'Course, a lot of folks hate 'em for it, and members of the Sisterhood travel with armed bodyguards when outside their citadel. Their garb is always the same shade of light gray, which meets the requirements for color, but they keep their gowns and blouses spotless and seem to shine against the background.

For the traveler, the best inns - the least depressing ones, anyway - are near the top of the spiral. Of these, the Defenestrated Paladin is the rowdiest, the Open Tomb is the quietest, and the Castle of Bone has the best rumors (including one that Cyric, the Prince of Lies, drops in regularly to torment the clientele).

Thingol's own complex is a large sprawl of manor houses and towers that start in the depths of the pit and rise up, crossing the spiral road three times. Near the uppermost entrance, she cleared space to provide a stage for executions and performances. (Visitors who've been here before may remember the orphanage that used to stand on the site.) Many criminals scragged by Thingol's "justice" get the chance to perform, told that they'll be set free if they can make her feel an emotion. But even with all the sods she's hauled in, she's never had to make good on that offer.

Current Chant

The people of Hopeless tend to keep their eyes open and their bone-boxes shut. That is, unless they'd enjoy being telekinetically suspended between two beholders while a third disintegrates their skin one layer at a time. But even still, there's some buzz about the well down in the courtyard.

Locals expect the well to overflow someday, filling the pit and taking all of Hopeless into the Gray Waste. But now stories tell of humanoid creatures, made of the black tar of the well itself, pulling themselves loose and stumbling into the city. A handful of sods in town say they've seen it happen, and one or two swear they've even been attacked, or watched the creatures meld right into the stone of buildings. 'Course, Thingol's not too pleased with these reports, painting them as the lies of drunken bubbers. As a public service, her thugs track down anyone who spreads or listens to these lies, showing them how such rumors can be bad for their health.

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Important Sites:

1. The Screaming Gate
2. The Chapterhouse of the Sisterhood
3. The Defenestrated Paladin
4. The Castle of Bone
5. The Open Tomb
6. The Palace of Thingol the Mocking
7. The courtyard and Gate to the Gray Waste