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Torch is a Gatetown in the Outlands, leading to Gehenna on the Lower Planes. Like it's lower planar counterpart, Torch is a miserable place populated by selfish, ruthless, grasping people willing to do anything to get a leg up on everybody else.

The town is built on the slopes of three volcanoes in the middle of a blood red marsh. Two of the volcanoes are extinct, but one is still active, and spouts noxious gases that ignite in the sky over Torch, casting a hellish red glow over the town every hour of the day and night. Occasionally the volcano erupts proper, showering molten rock on the homes and inhabitants of the upper slopes. The lower slopes fare no better… frequent flooding from the blood marsh and giant poisonous frogs make life miserable for them as well.

Torch is ruled by a number of gangs, none of which care for anything but their own power and wealth. Bloody street battles for supremacy punctuate periods of tense peace, and gangs rise and fall with such regularity that no permanent, stable government is possible. While anybody with a few friends in Torch usually gives themselves a name and symbol and tries to carve a piece of the town for themselves, there are a handful of large gangs that control the majority of the territory at any one given time. When the party first visited Torch, the three largest dominant gangs were the Gray Orb, Tiamat's Chosen, and Melif's Brand. But everybody in Torch knows it's only a matter of time before something happens to shift the balance of power again, and even the mightiest gang can be toppled. After all, it's happened before.

The Party has a mutually beneficial relationship one of the gangs, the Brotherhood Janko, run by Giovanni, which was the first gang they had contact with after arriving in Torch. They have fought to support them against The Gray Orb (who had been taken over by the Black Lotus), Tiamat's Chosen, and other gangs. ((18, 19,20,26)

Whenever an issue in town requires the attention of more than one gang, they usually gather at a crumbling amphitheater at the base of the three slopes called the Council of All. But few decisions are ever truly made their, and the results of multiple fruitless attempts at cooperation between gangs has given the place another nickname, the “Council of Brawl”.

In spite of the miserable population and constant violence, there are a few points of interest to visitors. The Marketplace at the top of Karal, one of the three slopes, is an excellent place to buy supplies for trips to the lower planes. Specialty equipment otherwise only available in Sigil is readily sold, though most merchants consider planeswalkers heading to the lower planes suckers running headlong to their own deaths. Blood War recruiters and press gangs roam the Marketplace as well, however, so visitors are well advised to make their purchases and move on.

Another popular spot for visitors is the Festhall of Falling Coins, the only neutral ground in all of Torch. Run by a stoop-shouldered Drow named Badurth, the Festhall is unaffiliated with any gang, instead offering the gangs a place to meet, drink, and enjoy themselves without the fear of being knifed in the back. Badurth is said to know everyone and everything in town, so many locals and visitors alike seek him out for information, paying hundreds or even thousands of gold for whatever secrets he's dug up.

The Party delivered a letter to Badurth from Giovanni during their first trip to Torch, and learned more about the Gray Orb from him. (19)

Later, Helga used the Festhall as a base of operations for some of her troops when she helped out Giovanni dealing with Tiamat's Chosen in an army training exercise. (26)

Finally, there's the portal to Gehenna. Suspended in the air just below the lip of the central volcano, it resembled a blood red orb that gleams like an ill-omened moon over the town. Being several hundred feet in the air, flight is the only reliable means of reaching it, but some foolhardy travelers try climbing the slopes above it and jumping down into it. Those with bad aim break their necks on the cobblestones below, much to the amusement of the locals. People in Torch claim the landing on the Gehenna side of the portal is safer, but some of them reportedly laughed to themselves when they said it.