Merchants, Idols, and Bounties

As the period of mourning for al Kayl minal Muluk comes to an end, the Dual Cities begin to return to the usual busy atmosphere--Cothon in particular, main center of commerce for the Ten Cities and farther abroad, begins again to resemble the excited busy-ness of a sekeker colony, its members quickly shuttling stray coins and oddments into their regimented hive, as the merchants and captains of the ships in the harbor offload their goods and send them into the warehouses and markets. (Han, captain of the trading ship Min al Uburun, has a list of goods for sale in the market below the image)

The taverns too are abuzz with both gossip and anticipation as wine is once again poured freely from metamphorae in their courts--and as wine flows, so do tongues wag. And there is much to talk about, for not only does it seem that much is afoot in the cities and their balad-hinterlands, but preparations are also underway for the Procession of Locor, in which the priests of that Hero of Old take up his idol from its heroön, and with clash of timbrel and scattering of tetel blossoms along the way, will thence carry the idol to the harbor to be washed in the waters there and adorned with fresh garments, while the garments of old are ritually burned and a common liturgy of sacrifice is made on the fire there, and hmela meat shared out.

The Procession of Locor

Preparations are underway for this festival, which will occur before the end of the month (either of the next two weeks, according to the asupices of the priests). Just as in previous festivals in the Cities, there will be a way for barbarian-inhabitants of the city to participate by spending gold on costumes and or offerings.

There is an undercurrent of tension to the anticipation of this Procession; for those with a keen ear for gossip when drinking at the harbor holes-in-the-wall, it may be recalled that there was some tension between the Guild of Longshoremen and certain merchant-proprietors up-town from the harbor, and not a few sailors and longshoremen now voice an uncertain apprehension at the prospect of this year's Procession.

Rumors and Bounties

Certain outstanding bounties remain unclaimed and talked about, while new rumors of happenings and upsets in the surrounding lands have filtered into the taverns of Cothon-Gadeed:

1) The Kantor Kabljauhof's bounty on a rogue alchemist rumored to have a secret laboratory in the sea caves of Ocean's Throat remains unclaimed, several months after first being offered. The alchemist is alleged to be producing and selling counterfeit sakkra blood potions, a product held under monopoly by the Kantor; the bounty originally offered as 1000 dinars has accordingly been increased by Zaytar to 2000 dinars for capture of the alchemist, preferably alive ...

2) At least one ghar, if not a mated pair, has dug a nest into the fertile banks of the Gana Delta west of Cothon, destroying crops there and threatening fishing boats and barges that pass by; Tolwan, the iqtadar of the holdings in which the ghar nest is found, has posted a bounty for their elimination, namely that successful hunters are to keep the valuable shells of any slain ghar, which are worth up to 1600 dinars each

3) Kzin Hero the Red Cloud continues harrying the balad-hinterlands south of Gadeed with his band of Kzinti braves; "retired" general Dalinar al Khalid is rumored to have sent for commanders loyal to him to activate retinues of soldiers, as well as reaching out to some of the barbarian-adventurers with some quiet goal of his own. These rumors are at once reassuring to the iqtadars of the south, that Dalinar should concern himself to defend them, and yet looked on with apprehension by the Soufets who fear the general's popularity, worried that he might try to make himself some kind of tyrant-Sâr ...

4) Disparate messengers, both human and not, come bearing similar messages of raids and attacks by increasingly bold bands of Sakkra: to the Confraternity of Issa have come Alkari hawkmen of the Gao tribe, flying in from the sea cliffs north of the city, who say they are under attack by the saurian Sakkra and beg aid; meanwhile, messengers have come to the Soufets and other great houses in Cothon-Gadeed of attacks against the human valley al Agahdrein even further north along the coast. Though the Sakkra are traditionally protected by treaties with the Hanse, Zaytar at the Kantor has agreed to rescind protection of any Sakkra attacking settlements outside Sakkra territory, while the Soufets have issued a bounty of 50 dinars for the head of any such Sakkra

5) Lastly, following the offer of the Sakkra bounty, the Heroic Companions of Hrrl-ra (a lesser adventuring band than the Survivors of the Tel) have found themselves afoul of the Barcidae tribe's new toll for those attempting to cross the beach beneath their Migdol; following a recent court case (Survivors v. Barcidae), the Companions nevertheless have refused to pay the toll, and one of their champions will face off against a champion of the Barcidae in the Coreguyi Arena next week; bookies are alive with excitement at the prospect of a Kzin v. Bulrathi combat, and there is much chatter throughout the taverns as to who the champions might be, and how the betting should go

Han, Captain of the Min al Uburun

Before he could even get his goods to his stall in the Souk, Han was sought out within the last week by one among the various barbarian-adventurers come to Cothon to make their fortune. Indeed the fighting-scholar Arngeir, who claimed to have encountered a strange water-being on a recent expedition into the Tel, had heard that Han might have a charm of protection against such a thing that he intended to bring to market. So Arngeir, intercepting Han on the quays, invited the captain to the Herm & Stone for wine, and there, after some good-natured banter, seems to have speedily made the purchase! And his sometime comrade too, one Dehuhada was able at the same time to buy the Solweyi arrows that Han had meant to offer at his stall.

Well, despite the quick actions of these adventurers, nevertheless Han has a few more items to present in the Souk. Chief among these is a faience figurine of a ghar that Han affectionately calls "al Lyam", rather similar in style to the faience river-horse pictured above. His wares include a number of other such faience objects--shay services, dishes, goblets, etc.--and his ship's cargo includes the ingredients to mix to create custom such objects, as well as a kiln in which to fire them.

The price of any such custom orders are on a case by case basis, of course.

Otherwise, Han's wares are as follows:

Price	Items for Sale
10 gp/amphora	6 amphorae of spiced and lagered beer (55 pints ea.)
5 gp/jug	18 jugs of sweet-wax wine (3 pints ea.)
120 gp/amphora	6 amphorae of Misri shajr wine (55 pints ea.)
50 gp ea.	2 black-glass bottles of ida-berry wine (1 pint)
25 gp ea.	9 chlen-hide ingots of tin (behold the setting-suggested term-change!)
7 electrum ea.	17 jars of cetacean lamp oil, which burn 2x so long as normal oil
10 gp ea.	2 jars of rouge
800 gp ea.	2 colorful keschchal plumes
50 gp ea.	11 golden sahulen plumes
5 gp/tooth	48 large haqel teeth
6 gp/horn	8 tsi'il horns
250 gp ea.	4 fine services of faience (decorative blue ceramics)
1250 gp	"'al Lyam", a blue faience figurine of an armored ghar, purportedly magical
750 gp	a rough dna-paper scroll, understood to hold a charm against the nshe
500 gp ea.	3 ald-wood arrows cut with Solweyi runes of seeking

Please note any purchases from Han in the comments of this post for the purpose of tracking items sold. All sales are on a first-come-first-serve basis.