Wild Roses

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Where the Wild Roses Grow

The Wild Roses have grown for as long as anyone can remember. Well, for as long as any Lost can remember. The market has been serving the local Lost community for generations, and in all its existence, has never proven a major issue for the Lost of Tamarack Falls. Of course, it is located on the East Bank trod. Getting to the market and leaving is always a risk. But once inside, so long as the rules are followed, safety is nearly assured. At least, safety from briarwolves. More than a few traders have came through and lost something far more precious than the skin off their back.

The Market is run by a single family of hobs, though not all of the family is related by blood. Some married in, some were ‘adopted’ in. There is fierce loyalty within the family, and they’re intensely protective of each other and their family’s interests. They’re also highly protective of their status as the ONLY decently sized permanent Market. They will deliberately and with great prejudice go out of their way to sabotage any other markets which try to pop up.

There is a Market truce in place, where those entering agree to abide by all Market Laws and to not attack anyone, whether friend or foe. To this end, all weapons must be tied with a white ribbon, string or something similar, as a symbol of this acceptance.

The Wild Roses actually live in the Market. It’s their home and territory, so there are parts of the Market that are closed off to the public, and that hold the residences for the Marketeers.

Location

Located on the very north end of the East Bank Trod, the Wild Roses Grow in a clearing surrounded by thick trees, impossibly thick thorns, and a wall that no one has ever managed to approach to say what might be on the other side.

Broad, tangled bushes of pink wild roses delimit the edges of the market proper, aided by a sparkling stream on one side, towering trees upon another and a tall, meandering fence toward the back behind which the off-limit hob village hides. The sun always shines Where the Wild Roses Grow, and so the market never closes, the grand bazaar open around the clock.

Serpentine avenues, some wide and others narrow, wind around permanent structures, ambulatory carts and make-shift stalls thrown together at a moment's notice. The availability of goods and services at any given moment depends entirely upon the whim of the marketeers who operate the various booths and businesses. Though the hobs of the Wild Roses come in a variety of shapes and sizes, they all possess an odd family resemblance in their pixie-like features, their elongated limbs and their earthy skintones.

Every path filters eventually to either the exit back out to the Woodheart Fork or the open green in the center of the grand fair. The stage in the middle of the clearing plays host to odd musical or theatrical acts, bizarre burlesque, demonstrations of goods and services and, at least once a week, a slave auction.

H18 is redirected here.

Rules

  • No Violence: No fighting of any sort is to occur on Wild Roses property.
  • No Refunds: No refunds will be given once a deal is complete. If you wish to renegotiate a completed deal, you will need to initiate a new deal.
  • No Competition: No one but the Wild Roses may conduct commerce on Wild Roses property. Marketeers wishing to work in the local area are Strongly Encouraged to discuss arrangements with the Wild Roses before setting up shop.
  • No Roses: No one but the Wild Roses are permitted to wear roses or rose-colored clothing. This color--shades of pink ranging from fair to deep--and these flowers are reserved for staff and security.
  • No Welching: No backing out of a deal once a deal is done. Failure to honor a deal, either by client or merchant, will be dealt with harshly.
  • Truth in Advertising: Everything spoken about a particular good or service must be true to the letter. Everything sold by the Wild Roses is as advertised; we expect the same of our patrons and will not look kindly on those who speak untruly about their half of any given deal.
  • Honor the Lady: Always offer tokens of respect--whether in word, deed or goods--to the Lady Day should you cross paths.

Punishments

  • For minor offenses (i.e. mild brawl that doesn’t result in death), punishment may be as simple as being made to leave the market, if it’s the first offense. Repeated offenses may result in banishment.
  • Those trying to operate as merchants within the Market without permission of the Wild Roses will be banned immediately.
  • Those wearing a rose or rose-colored clothing will be ejected from the Market the first time. The second earns a month-long ban, while a third offense earns a lifelong ban.
  • Those failing to honor a deal either face permanent banishment from the Market, or will be enslaved, depending on the severity.
  • Those who lie about a good or service will be evicted from the Market, and if a Merchant, have that status revoked permanently. In either case, they receive a year long ban.
  • Those who don’t honor the Lady will be evicted from the Market and banned for a week. Those who actually attempt to harm the Lady will be enslaved.

FAQs

  • What is a troupe? A ‘troupe’ is a term used to describe a group of merchants. It could refer to the Marketeers of the Wild Roses, or wandering merchants who have banded together into a traveling Market.
  • My PC is a merchant at the Market, am I a Wild Rose/Marketeer? In short? No. You’re tolerated, but you’re not part of the family. You may receive the protection of the Market, but you are not one of them. So wearing roses in the Market is still a Bad Idea.
  • How do I become a Merchant? OOCly you put in a +request (and +xps to take the Goblin Merchant merit will open a job as well). ICly, you must approach the Lady Day and receive permission to operate within the Market, and upon receiving permission, will swear a Pledge to the Lady (see below). For those wanting a stall, the Lady will discuss selling one, and price haggling begins. A Market Stall is a Value 4 item, so it won’t come cheap. After an agreement is reached, all Merchants must take a pledge to uphold the Market Laws. For more information, see: PC Merchants
  • What are the benefits to having a stall? You’re allowed to sell within the Market and have a better understanding of who sells what. You can store goods there that are protected by the Market (-4 to attempts to steal while the Market is open, and impossible when it’s closed. Items on display are exempt from this however.). You can also buy/sell abstractions (skills, memories, dreams, etc) as though they were physical property.
  • What are the drawbacks? You can’t access your wares when the Market is closed. It’s just impossible. Stalls are also, as mentioned, not cheap. And you are bound by the rules of the Market.
  • I’m a Merchant. Can I have my hollow linked to the Wild Roses? No. Again, you’re a Merchant, but not part of the family. You’re tolerated, but they’re extremely territorial. Only Wild Roses can have hollows within the Wild Roses.
  • I’m a Merchant. How do I handle my stall’s inventory? Does it need to be on my sheet? It doesn’t, no. Each merchant should let staff know the type of thing they plan to sell (hedgespun, tokens, hedgefruit, information, etc), but most of the physical things that can be bought/sold need to go through staff in any case, such as Hedgespun and Tokens getting approved by staff. So essentially, a merchant having these items is hand waved, within reason. If there’s ever any doubt (largely for extremely rare items such as Rare ungardenable fruits or 5-dot Tokens/Hedgespun, as the latter are supposed to be nigh-legendary) please ask staff before assuming you have something.
  • Is there anything I can’t sell if I’m a Merchant? Yes/no. In theory you can sell anything. However, there are a few things that you cannot be assumed to sell without staff’s permission. When setting up your stall, you will be asked for rationale on how you get your goods, regardless; do you have suppliers? Do you craft them yourself? Et cetera. The current list of items you MUST contact staff before selling contains only two items: Hera Pear and Pedicle Velvet.
  • Great! Anything else I need to know? Yep! After a scene where you’ve sold something, don’t forget to +request to get your/your customer’s +activity for this. When you do, also include anything (such as goblin fruit, Hedgespun, Tokens, etc.) that needs to be set. For Hedgespun and Tokens of any kind (other than gewgaws/trifles), the customer is required to have the item’s stats approved BEFORE THE MARKET SCENE. For trifles, staff will need to know how many to add to the customer’s +inv, as they are a disposable item and must be gotten rid of with +inv/use when used. For fruits you do not actually have, staff will need to manually add them to the player’s inventory. For fruit that you already have in your inventory, you can +fruit/give.

Merchant Pledge

This is the pledge that everyone must pledge in order to operate in the Wild Roses. There are no exceptions.

  • Type: Vow
  • Tasks: Medial Forbiddance (-2, Don't Break Market Laws)
  • Boons: Glamour (+2)
  • Sanctions: Greater Curse (-3)
  • Duration: Year and a Day (+3)
  • Text: For a year and a day I will be a Merchant at the Wild Roses Market. For this honor I promise to never break Market Laws except in self-defense, and I will receive glamour from the Lady of the Day. But if I break these laws, in addition to my lawful punishment, the Wyrd will curse me to fail at my endeavors.

WildRoses.jpg
"Do you know where the wild roses grow
so sweet and scarlet and free?"

Notable Folks

See also PC Merchants

Lady Day

Role: Matriarch, Leader, Baroness of the Lesser Ones
About: The Lady Day is more rumor and legend than she is reality. Her presence in the market is fleeting and infrequent, and when she does pass through, she comes with a certain radiance that makes it hard to focus on anything but the awe that comes with her. Few have met her directly, fewer yet have dealt with her, and the rumors state you'll need to do something for her to so much as to get an audience, to ask for what you actually want. All the mystery is made worse by the rumor that she is, supposedly, not actually a hob, but Lost.
Appearance: Long, lean, and radiant, she is truly the Fairest in the land. The Lady Day glows, so much so that it's hard to tell where her flesh ends and the light begins. And it is flesh (or whatever it is) that is on display, for the lady's only clothes are sheer garments that hang from her form so perfectly. She also sports ephemeral wings, with glowing fairy dust perpetually falling away from them.
Wares: Impossibilities.
Wants: Favors, in advance.

River Roses

Role: Security, Enforcement
About: The River Roses grow along the banks of stream and in a perimeter around Where The Wild Roses Grow. These seemingly innocuous rose bushes are anything but, tasked with not only dealing as marketeers but also defending the market. They can speak, they can barter, and they surely can thoroughly lacerate anyone that tries to cross them with ill-intent. What they are exactly - hobs? sentient plants? something else? - remains a mystery.
Appearance: Each rose bush is unique. Some are a mere foot high, while others climb to twice the height of a normal human. Their leaves are a wide variety of greens, and the flowers that grow range from the absolute palest of pinks to the darkest of reds.
Wares: Death; disposal; roses; bones; perfume.
Wants: Safety; sugar; water from far away sources.

Rose Wardens and Pink Ladies

Role: Security, Enforcement, Merchants
About: Helpful market security! They want well-behaved guests to feel comfortable and come back. They always wear a smile, even when dispensing justice.
Appearance: Hobs who are, wear, paint or dye themselves the same pink as the roses. All shapes and sizes. They share the same pixie-like family resemblance with the rest of the Wild Roses.
Wares: Information, assistance; slaves (competitors, people who broke the rules or broke deals).
Wants: Obedience, compliance; information, power and resources which will benefit the family; favors.

Badb Catha

Role: Merchant, Warrior, Wise Woman
About: Badb Catha is far too old to hear another foolish story. Whatever it is, she's heard it before, she's seen it before, and she's uninterested. That means anyone seeking to deal with her is going to have to do something to get her attention. Prepare for griping and complaining and an ill-temper.
Appearance: Withered, bony, spindly limbs, beak-like nose, with black feathers in her wild green-white hair.
Wares: Weapons, especially bladed; games of chance; games of skill; contracts involving games, luck, battle.
Wants: Eyes, bones, especially knucklebones, sinew, dice, bladed weapons, sharp and shiny things.

Suzy Two-Eyes

Role: Merchant
About: It would be that one must lose an eye to gain an eye. Suzy Two-Eyes surely learned that. That is, at least, the story told around the Market. She sold that eye - the one is now foggy white and useless - to gain the one above it, the one that lets her see into the future. Supposedly. She is generally good-natured, and usually eager to deal. She needs someone to hear her prophecies!
Appearance: Actually three-eyed, third eye on her forehead, but her left eye has been injured and blinded. Brown-skinned, youthful, spry.
Wares: Secrets, information, blackmail material, incriminating evidence, memories, divinations.
Wants: Secrets, blackmail material, evidence, memories; weird quests to satisfy her foretellings.

Wanda'a

Role: Merchant, Pawn Broker
About: Functions as a pawn shop. Will purchase anything on a temporary basis. Pledges to hold items for a certain period of time before reselling. Means of gaining temporary access to contracts/goods.
Appearance: Tall and thin with a very deep, masculine voice. Brown-skinned, round-featured. Plump cheeks. Old and possibly wise. Tall pointy hat.
Wares: Anything and everything. Temporary access to powerful items and contracts.
Wants: Anything and everything.

Gorge

Role: Merchant, Food Vendor
About: Gorge is easily the most friendly of the Wild Roses, and a frequent stop of anyone visiting. Go see Gorge, trade some strange food, and you'll surely get a feel for the state of affairs at the Wild Roses. Just don't ask for too many details, because he doesn't have them.
Appearance: Large, furry, one-toothed, brown-eyed, friendly-faced, horned, laidback, fairly clean.
Wares: Gewgaws, trifles, occasionally hedgefruit and unusual foods.
Wants: Fast food, junk food, beer, soda.

Prickle & Spitz

Role: Merchants
About: The pair - brother and sister, it's said - deal in things lost and things found. The result is a near perpetual drifting to and from reality, speaking in cryptic language, and more than occasionally, making no sense whatsoever. Simple deals with the two are easy, but things more complex, things only they could possibly have, is usually a great strain.
Appearance: Prickle is long-nosed, long-eared, brown and spiny-backed, like a hedgehog with human limbs; Spitz is pink-skinned, blue-eyed, web-toed, tatter-winged, finned and small.
Wares: Lost things, tokens of all sorts, trifles, component parts, random junk. Goblin contracts.
Wants: The most valuable thing the buyer is currently carrying.

Knobgobler

Role: Mercenary
About: He's the captain of the Roaming Roses, which is a mercenary band attached to the market.
Appearance: He has a very goblinesque appearance; short, stocky and very strong
Wares: Primarily exploration and violence. The occasional combat- or exploration-related goblin contract.
Wants: Favors and valuable trinkets

Rigl

Role: Courtier and merchant
About: He is a courtier in favor with Lady Day, but also sells things when the whim strikes him.
Appearance: He is tall handsome and dark, with a roguish look to him, but he is also sadistic.
Wares: Worn tokens and deadly adornments.
Wants: Favors and information ONLY.

Rythe

Role: Merchant
About: He's a hedonist, who uses that nature to benefit himself.
Appearance: He’s a slimy looking Lost with dark hair and eyes, slender to the point of being stick thin, and claws for nails.
Wares: Vices. Of any sort. If he can't help someone indulge themselves, he generally knows who can help.
Wants: Memories or dreams primarily, but also favors, indentured servitude and occasionally tokens.

Lord Snipperton

Role: Doctor
About: Snipperton isn’t a merchant in the traditional sense. Rather he’s more a back-alley surgeon. He’ll replace limbs with tokens, replace any part of the body with something else (Don’t like your eyes? Think your feet look weird? Want animalistic hands? He can do it, and is a midwife and does, on occasion, sell medical tools, gadgets and curiosities.
Appearance: He is a short, round hob, with long spindly fingers and large eyes.
Wares: Back alley surgery of all sorts
Wants: He only accepts things to help with his ‘practice’. Fresh body parts, medical tools, rare fruit which can be helpful in surgery, or specimens to study or experiment on.

Logs

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