Quillnib’s Handle

Overview

Quillnib’s Handle is a sprawling goblin metropolis built atop and around the legendary Book of Doors, a sentient tome that serves as both the city’s heart and its passageways. The Handle is a city of narrow corridors, suspended bridges, and stacked buildings that spiral into the sky, all interwoven through a vast labyrinth that would be impossible to navigate—if not for the Book.

At first glance, it appears to be a chaotic warren of twisting alleys and clustered towers, but beneath the disarray lies a methodical network of pathways, maintained by an order of goblins known as the Rift-Sniffers. They alone understand the shifting pages of the Book, using it to open doorways to every district, shortcut, and hidden vault within the Handle.

The Book of Doors

At the center of the city, resting on an immense stone pedestal, lies the Book of Doors—a colossal, ancient tome that governs the city’s pathways. Each of its pages is a portal, allowing access to a different part of the Handle. By carefully flipping through its enchanted parchment, Rift-Sniffers and scholars can step through and emerge in the corresponding location.

The Book never forgets a place, no matter how small. A lost alley, a forgotten market stall, even a misplaced room—all can be retrieved by those who know the right page to turn. However, not all pages are safe. Some contain faded passages leading to places that no longer exist or that were never meant to be reached. Few dare to test those pages.

The Rift-Sniffers

The guardians and navigators of Quillnib’s Handle, the Rift-Sniffers, possess an innate ability to sense anomalies in space. Their noses twitch at the presence of hidden doorways, lost artifacts, and unstable passages. Trained from youth, they learn to interpret the shifting script of the Book, ensuring that the city remains functional and that no one is swallowed by its more unpredictable pages.

Their role extends beyond navigation—Rift-Sniffers are also the city's historians, collecting knowledge stored within the Book's pages. They track lost texts, recover forgotten vaults, and even negotiate with the Book itself, which sometimes refuses to reveal certain locations until it is "persuaded."

Districts of the Handle

The Quill Market

A bustling district where merchants sell magical inks, enchanted quills, and spell-bound paper. Scribes and enchanters barter for rare tomes, and Rift-Sniffers frequently visit to decode the Book’s more stubborn passages.

The Section That Reads You

A forbidden archive deep within the Handle, where books do not contain stories until they are opened. Instead of being read, these books read the reader—inscribing their thoughts, fears, and even glimpses of their future. Only the most daring goblins venture here, hoping to learn their fate… or rewrite it.

The Archivist’s Vault

An underground chamber filled with locked scrolls and chained grimoires, some too dangerous to be read. The vault is guarded by sentient paper constructs and quill-armed automatons, all programmed to protect the city’s most perilous knowledge.

The Inkspire Spire

A towering structure where the city's finest calligraphers and magic-weavers work to transcribe shifting texts into stable records. Messages between powerful factions and lost knowledge from unstable pages are carefully rewritten here.

The Glimmering Shelf

A district suspended in the air, composed of floating platforms stacked like bookshelves. Lanterns glow with bottled starlight, illuminating bridges that vanish and reappear with the turning of a page.

The Alley of Unwritten Tales

A quiet, mist-shrouded district where unfinished stories linger. Here, restless ideas take shape as whispers in the fog, and those who enter may find themselves stepping into a tale that writes itself as they move.

The City’s Stability

Unlike most labyrinths, Quillnib’s Handle is entirely navigable thanks to the Book of Doors. Every street, tower, and alley is cataloged within its pages, allowing residents and visitors to traverse the city without fear of getting lost. Rift-Sniffers regulate access to unstable pages, preventing the city from collapsing into unreadable chaos.

However, rumors persist of missing pages—entire sections of the city that were once written but have since been erased. Some say these lost pages still exist, waiting to be found within the depths of the Book.

Conclusion

Quillnib’s Handle is more than just a city; it is a living archive, a labyrinthine metropolis bound together by knowledge, ink, and the will of the Book of Doors. Its Rift-Sniffers serve as both guides and scholars, ensuring that no story is forgotten and no path remains truly closed.