Book 2: Chapter 1 - Curse of the Lady's Light

[Trogdor]

"Indeed," Val notes. "That ioun stone is the only protection you'll have from the curse of Lust."

[Eilandor]

Fletcher reaches out and takes the pink and green ioun stone from Katrina, "We can figure out who should hold it when the time comes, for now I will stow it away as I have no intention of becoming lost." The warforged tucks the stone into a small pocket in his pack, then looks at the others, "I think it's time to venture out."

[Vardaen]

Fletcher takes the Ioun stone, and the group breaks up for the next forty minutes as you return to your rooms and gather your things. Armor is donned, weapons are collected, spells perfected, last minute items are bought, and before the waterclock strikes noon you are gathered outside the Tower ready to go find this Jasper d'Tharashk fellow. Katrina mentioned the man has no fix address but can be found in Rag's End in Marketplace District preaching his eccentricities more often than not.

So the trip to Marketplace begins.

Here broken arches and fallen columns are covered with awnings and surrounded by market stalls. The twisting, improvised streets are crammed with people, most of them visitors, making their way through the city and stopped at every turn by hawkers trying to sell them one thing or another.

Three great buildings loom over everything in this quarter: Falconer’s Spire, with airships docked against it; the bazaar, a gigantic tent sheltering the city’s great open-air market; and the Lorsmarch Palace, center of the Storm Lords’ power.

This is the heart of the city. Here all the city’s struggles, opportunities, and dangers are gathered and intensified. You can feel it in the air, and soon something is going to change.

The Marketplace is the natural center of this city sustained by legitimate and illegitimate trade. The Lorsmarch Palace, the seat of the Storm Lords’ collective power, is here, near the shops and stalls that are the foundation of the city’s economy. The district has always been the city’s most defensible, and the older parts of the palace date back to the age of the pirate kings.

Centuries ago, the Marketplace was not the center of the city. Coastal erosion has shifted the center to this point, which appears to have been a temple district in the Age of Giants. Remnants of those days are abundant: carved stone heads, a circle of visions, towering pillars, and ancient tunnels that have been turned into basements for many of the district’s buildings.

For adventurers, the Marketplace is the best place to resupply or to sell whatever goods they have discovered in the continent’s interior. Although goods can be expensive here, the Marketplace is the only place to buy or sell many things.

You head for The Bazaar, looking for Rag's End, an area of the bazaar that caters to cloth makers and the like. Patched and re-dyed again and again, the gigantic red tent that covers Stormreach’s bazaar dominates the Marketplace and can be seen from almost every part of it. Inside is a mess of walkways, smaller tents, and market stalls, all lent a reddish glow when sunlight shines through the tent overhead. Here the traders would sell their own mothers for a handful of coins and compete enthusiastically with one another for customers. Only the most wily vendors last in the bazaar, so while the merchandise is good quality, buyers can expect to pay more than usual and are sometimes fleeced.

Marketplace

Population: Mostly humans and dwarves.
Character: Lively, industrious, and thriving.
Businesses: Buying and selling almost anything. 6,000 gp limit.
Key Personalities: Calynden d’Lyrandar, the Storm Lords, and Valexa Von Ruthvek.

Rag's End is a area in the Bazaar where tailors, cloth makers, dyers, and other textile type merchants generally are set up and doing business.

If you want to browse some of the stalls and tents just say so, we can adds some flavor to the hunt and who knows maybe you'll find something interesting.

Map

Arial View (from DDO)

[JohnnyWeird]

Je marvels openly at the airships until they enter the Bazaar. Under the red tent, he scans the stalls for new books or any bargain curiosities. He converses with the others mentally, to avoid the buzz of the market drowning their words.

Have any of you ever flown? The Lyrander machines were the stuff of fantasy when I came from.

[AdamDaBomb11]

Oloven can be seen perusing the various stalls, partially ignoring the attempts to hawk wares in his direction. He does buy a backpack of exceptional quality though. A needed upgrade on the ragged and beaten one he has now. "I have not." Oloven replies back out loud, still not used to the whole mentally communicating thing.

OOC

Already Bought Masterwork Backpack, just Rping the buying it.

[ManWithDoor]

Zeevan just shakes his head. "No, flying on one of those is a bit beyond my purse at the moment. Regular ships do for me, although to be honest, I'd rather walk than any other mode of transportation. At least then I know I'm in control of where I'm going. Hard to say the same if you're surrounded by the ocean, or a thousand paces straight up."

[Vardaen]

The thoughts from Jay are in your head, and your thoughts can be send back to him, but its such a strange experience that most of the company just answers out loud. The group moves about the stalls, and Oloven buys himself a nice new backpack, of very fine quality with extra pouches and better straps on it.

The stall near to Oloven's backpack is rather packed. A famous designer from Sharn, the gnome Tyzian Davandi runs a place alled Far Davandi, which sells glamerweave outfits. The price tags hanging from them run from 105 gold up to 300 gold or more.

Jay is looking an other stall where a blind half-orc crone sells statuettes of her clients’ faces. She feels their faces with her weathered hands and then carves amazing likenesses of them in soapstone or wood. Each statuette costs 1 gp and takes the crone about 1 hour of work.

[Eilandor]

Fletcher looks at Je, "I suppose I should be careful if I ever think bad things about you?"

Not one to deter from a mission, the warforged is captivated by the fact a blind artist could carve the likes of any face. He scours his coin pouch for a single gold coin and presents it to the half-orc. "Soapstone if you would."

[AdamDaBomb11]

Oloven watches by eagerly as Fletcher surrenders his face to the Half-Orc womans hands. He wants to see the look on her face when she realizes she isn't touching flesh.

[Vardaen]

The blind woman reaches out and touches Fletcher on the face.

"Please take your helmet off," she comments.

There is some chuckling from nearby onlookers, and the woman reaches out again and touches Fletcher on the neck and chest and then reaches back up to his face. "Warforged? I should have guessed. Hold still please." She then massages his face for a few good minutes, her blind head tilted to the side as she thinks and feels.

"Come back in an hour and I'll have it finished for you sir."