First World Witchmarket

[Richard Pitt]

Dot for my use too. I'm thinking of replacing part 3 of Reign of Winter with a trip here. My players prefer stuff like this rather than long dungeon crawls. I plan on the PC's having to locate two keys hidden within the market. One can be under th dreaded gazebo guarded cave (love this idea!) and the other in the hands of Aggys who requires a night of passion (ending with her concieving) in exchange. I plan on using your map and lovelly merchant ideas. Hope you don't mind! I'll post details in a Reign of Winter forum later if anybody is interested.

[Eric Hinkle]

Oh there are such amazing ideas in here! Maybe there's a stand/trader who sells you the knowledge of who is your One True Love, as well as how and where to meet them?

Of course they might not bother to tell you that they're dead, or <i>undead</i>, or already married, or some monstrous species that likes to eat people, or live on some other world/time/dimension which would make meeting them in person difficult, or what have you.

[Zippomcfry]

Dot

[Mith'aj the Tactful]

Dot. Fantastic thread.

[Freehold DM]

How did I miss this?!

[Lilith Knight]

Price: Your Pain.

The player can no longer know how many hit points the character has.
The DM will track this in secret from now on and the player won't even be informed of when/how much damage the character takes.

Side bonus: pain effects no long affect the character.

[Mackenzie Kavanaugh]

This is an incredible thread, and now I have to steal all the ideas from here!

[Joe Hex]

I really think this witchmarket deserves it's own book...
Damn cool.

[CalebTGordan]

So happy people still find great ideas here after all this time.

Feel free to keep posting ideas and don't feel shy to use what is posted!

It won't cost you anything. I promise.

[Urlord]

This is such a good thread with great ideas, I am seeking your help with my First World Campaign. See the link below for details:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2s8wm?First-World-Assistance#1

[HyperMissingno]

Urlord wrote:

This is such a good thread with great ideas, I am seeking your help with my First World Campaign. See the link below for details:

link

[Duiker]

Dotting. I'm just starting a Mummy's Mask run and have some notions about being unable to sell for anything close to fair price in Wati (because of the Gold Rush effect of massive deflation of the loot, and proportionate inflation of external goods), and this sounds like a fantastic thing out in the desert that might get them full price. Maybe reskin from first world to some sort of Djinn thing.

[CalebTGordan]

I am blown away that this is still getting responses. I seriously need to keep my promise and do a fan-project that ends up as a free PDF of some sort.

That or become a Paizo freelancer and convince them to let me do a big Witchmarket product for them.

[LazarX]

James Sutter wrote:

Also, you've got the right idea, Caleb--in the Witchmarket, everything seems like a great deal, but the fey inevitably end up getting more than they give, and those who trade with them may come to regret it...

Ars Magica had a lot of treatments along this line and I think there was something simmilar in an Elminster article in Dragon way back.

[QuidEst]

Performer idea- a fire elemental who is a water-eater. Instead of spitting fire, he spews a cloud of steam. I used this in the opening description, and it set the tone nicely.

[Zavas]

Merchant:

Bltenzar (Name's kinda in the air.)

A fey that could almost be human, if it were not for the small details that would require a close examination to identify, Bltenzar always dressed in some suit, which seems to change whenever you look away. The suits vary from civilian to military, whimsical to formal, though the parts are always mismatched. The one constant is a flamboyant red hat.

Bltenzar's stall is filled with props for performing. Decks of playing cards that can pull off any trick are one of his most prominent wares. However, many of these are trick decks when you leave his shop, becoming an item similar to a Deck of Many Things.
Many coins also litter the floor. Don't pick up any of them, no matter how shiny (Will Save 12 DC to resist). The coins will activate a random plane shift, attuned to the plane that the coin comes from.

Performer:

Genius and Fool

A comedy duo performing a neverending improv act, the Genius, a burly clown wears a crying theatre mask works with the Fool who wears a laughing mask and carries an orange silk scarf.

The Genius, despite his name, provides physical comedy of the pair and the Fool tells tales about the nobles of every world imaginable and attacks the Genius with slapstick and japery. The Fool seems to have the ability of transformation at will as well as teleportation, and the Genius can summon seemingly any item, which tends to be stolen by the Fool to be used against the Genius.
Tips are expected, and a battered hat sits at their feet to deposit the payment.

[CalebTGordan]

The Revealing Storyteller
Harrigan, a broad mouthed man who looks like a purple skined dwarf was smashed down by an anvil to the head, wears a coat made of thousands of different types of fabric.

He goes around asking for beans, holding out a hat with the top worn out. When beans are placed inside they topple out and turn to gold, silver, platium, diamond, and other valuable metals or minerals. He will stand around and smile broadly, putting the hat back on, and asking if the person wants to hear a story in exchange for the valuable bean.

If the person says yes, he picks up the bean, calls everyone around, and tells the crowd (which will grow uncomfortably large,) a very personal story about the person who gave him the bean. Once finished he will command the crowd to share the story far and wide, while handing the subject of the story the bean.

The bean is worth no more than 10 gp, but if planted it will grow into a beanstalk that gives ten beans of the same type once a month.

Additionally, everyone the owner of the bean meets will know the story Harrigan told, though not all of them will know right away the owner is subject of the story.

[UllarWarlord]

Update, for all who are interested:

Statistics for the Witchmarket have been released, as well as Aggys' levels!

Stats:

WITCHMARKET
CN underbelly
Access DC 22
Corruption +4; Crime +0; Economy +2; Law +3; Lore +1; Society –1
Qualities diverse economy*, magically attuned
Danger +15
DEMOGRAPHICS
Government overlord
Population 537 (297 fey, 55 hags, 43 gnomes, 37 elves,
34 humans, 17 half-elves, 44 others)
Notable NPCs
Crone in the Cart Aggys (LE female green hag witchAPG 13)
Huckster Vitalion (CN male satyr bard 4)
MARKETPLACE
Base Value 11,200 gp; Purchase Limit 42,000 gp; Spellcasting 8th
Minor Items 8d4; Medium Items 6d4; Major Items 4d4

Unless my calculations are off, this makes her a CR 15 encounter...by herself. That doesn't include the defenses of the market, even, not to MENTION the fact that she can only cast up to 7th level spells. There's someone else, somewhere in the market that possesses more spellcasting power than her...and that's downright scary.

Dang, I love this place.

EDIT: Said stats are in the book Player Companion: Black MArekts.

[Simeon]

Performer:

Malqazar the Magnificent
This dwarven man would be the spitting image of a typical dwarf, if not for his eyes made of iron and beard that moves of it's own free will. He is a street magician who somehow manages to be on a fair amount of street corners in the Witchmarket at once. And while this might not be unusual in a city as strange as the Witchmarket, it is made far more disturbing by the fact that some people who inquire about it disappear, and Malqazar can be seen on one more street corner.

Merchant:

The Hungry Stone
This odd face that looks like that of a twisted human can be found carved into some of the stone walls or flagstones in the Witchmarket. If someone stands in front of it and addresses it as the Hungry Stone, it's eyes blink and one can speak with it. It asks for one to sate it's hunger, and if humanoid flesh is put into it's mouth, it can turn it into an item that the feeder desires.

[Pathos]

0.o?

I just ran into this here...
Loving it!
I'm currently running RotRL and the party is out running about in the Shimmerglens... this should provide a nice distraction for the party in this forlorn place... hehehe

[Myrryr]

Dotting this awesome thread of awesome!
Also, Idea!

The Blue Experimentress
A sign stands next to a pair of squiggly metal poles in the ground, a large orb at the top of both, lightning arcing between them constantly. Reading: "Experimentering! Arcane magic, the Scientist dwells within. DO NOT CORRECT SIGN, BEWARE OF EXPLODING RUNES", the sign is not an encouraging one. Large enough for a fully grown frost giant to step through the 'arch', you find yourself in an arcane lab. One with so much soot, ashes, acid burns and general hastily repaired destruction that even a goblin alchemist would be proud.

Inside this massive lab are dozens of caged creatures, each of them some strange amaglamation of two or more relatively normal terrestrial creature... though terrestrial is fairly meaningless to creatures that walk the planes as aliens are far more common here than just the relatively small number of combined animals from Golarion.

This is the demesne of the fey creature that calls herself Scientist and will ignore anyone that refers to her otherwise. The Scientist is a very strange creature. Her torso is that of a shapely female humanoid, complete with fairly large and uncovered breasts, though she has six tentacles each around five to six feet long protruding from her shoulders instead of arms. Her head is that of an octopus, smooth, bulbous and with two enormous eyes, though the eyes are the unblinking amber of a large viper in shape. Her face has no other distinguishing marks, no nose or mouth leaving you to wonder how she eats or breathes. Beneath her torso she's tauric, her bottom half looking like the abdomen of a giant hornet. Unlike her grey rubbery skin up top, her lower part is chitin and black and white. Her six insectile legs are each tipped, not with claws, but more 8 inch long tentacles that easily grasp at the floor or walls. She has no wings and where her stinger would be is instead a pulsating writhing ovipositor tube that doesn't seem to want to stay retracted.

The Scientist communicate telepathically and is highly intelligent with a dry, sardonic sense of humour and a love of the spontaneous. She will sell the knowledge of unique spells she's crafted, so long as the buyer can survive the spell being cast on them, and only sells harmful spells for this particular price. For other, non-harmful, spells, she charges unique creatures that she can use in her breeding experiments with other creatures she owns. Rarely, she'll offer to sell one of her trained amalgam creatures, but the price for this is much higher than most will pay, as the Scientist loves creating amalgams of her customers and herself or her other favorite pets. Only females can pay this price, but she will generously allow a male to use her stock of elixir's of sex shift for free in this case.

Despite the Scientist's... frightening appearance and obsession with creating combined creatures, she despises Lamashtu and is neutral good. Her lab is on the First World itself, in a relatively small zone that she keeps influence on, all of the effort spent on maintaining the area to be hospitable for breeding. No creature dies in birth here, and nothing is born with any debilitating conditions.

For those rare scholars of aberrations, rumours abound that the first Drakainia was a failed experiment of the Scientist's, an evil daughter that is a twisted perversion of what the Scientist works to do.
(It's a sort subject, don't ask her about that.)

[GM Aest]

Dot for future usage, mayhaps.

[CalebTGordan]

Hey everyone, a book I co-wrote was recently published. The Brass Drake is somewhat of a proof of concept for a larger piece down the line for a certain magical market for the fey. I may also end up needing help and feedback on certain details.

I can't give much more away now, but if this market line does well, and if people leave helpful reviews, it will make this future, related to this thread, book be even better.

Also, I believe that because things posted here on the forums are technically owned by Paizo I wouldn't be able to use them in any future books? I'll look into that, but if possible I will try to pull some of the best ideas (or people) from this thread into the project when it gets more serious.

[KingOfAnything]

I will keep an eye out for future publications, thanks!

[Haladir]

The Life That Never Was

This cottage at first appears to be a regular bookshop that sells mundane books: mostly novels and biographies. In addition to standard fare, customers often find an anonymously-penned title that somehow references something that occurred in their own life... often something not widely known. When opening the book at random and skimming a page, the reader will at first be astonished to notice that the protagonist of the story shares their own name, and that the other characters in the book share the names of friends, enemies, and loved ones. All of the characters in the book seem to be written to (mostly) match what their real analogues would do in that situation.

However, the plot of the book is unfamiliar to the reader: it tells a tale of something that the reader has not experienced... or does not remember. The eerie thing is that the tale is clearly something that could happen... or could have happened.

Once examined, the words of the book are fixed.

The proprietor of the bookstore is a well-dressed, bespectacled satyr who does not appreciate browsers who fail to purchase the tale of their life that never was.

[BLloyd607502]

Fears, Nightmares & Phobias (esq): Vintage Terrors & Clockwork Delights

A trio of Bogeymen run this entirely black and white tent, on its small patch of black grass, selling negative emotions of all kinds, from the slightest shudder caused by a house spider, to the terrors of one who dies from fright.

Along one wall is a wine rack covered in bottles, each filled with a different terror and in fine writing the age, location of its original collection and age of the person it was collected from, but never the exact contents. Across from it the Bogeymen maintain a small but cleverly crafted back room of wonders, all limited to shades of grey and black ranging from simple clockwork toys to entire mechanical wind up circus acts set off with the simple winding of a key. The back room is quietly maintained by a pair of children, one boy and one girl but never the same two, the pair changes day to day.

The trio of gregarious fear merchants never speak instead communing with their customers through hand gesture and legerdemain mixed with ever present hints of fears and half-remembered memories (Suggestion), eager to sell their vintage fears as a vintner might to the most discerning and rich of wine patrons, paid in turn in joy, hopes and happy memories, taken in either the solid form of items directly linked to them or directly tasted from the customers mind before being decanted into sparkling cordials that they then return to the rack.

All three are also eager to sell their back room stock, though are much more discerning about what kind of person they're traded to, preferring to barter them with those who move around less frequently and who come into contact with children.
While less eager to do so they can also sell bespoke clockwork equipment, tools made from solidified emotions and are willing to act as assassins, sneaking into the rooms of those they are hired to kill by night.
Outside of trade, Masters Phobias and Fears are incorrigible gossips as to recent trends on the mortal planes particularly those focusing on the great fortunes of large groups of people, while Master Nightmare shows more of an interest in simple social questions about their clients themselves, bordering on worryingly innocuous.

Their actual deal, spoilers

:

Fears, Nightmares & Phobias are a trio of TN Bogeymen who over time have found themselves addicted to positive emotion, enjoying them in the same way an aristocratic and functional alcoholic might enjoy their vast wine collection. The constant sousing of positive emotions has raised the three of them to TN, bordering on NG and their friendly, if slightly disturbing, ways can be put down mostly to being more than slightly snozzled most the time on their private stock, their own awareness of how disturbing their voices are and knowing the true value of a touch of showmanship to truly bring out the emotions in others, what sale is complete without a touch of wonder?

Their back room is merely a hobby and the children found in it are the would-be victims of other, now dead Bogeyman that the trio have hunted and robbed of their own fear-stores, their finest wines being made from the fears of their own kind, with their little contraptions a mix of a hobby and a way to put the children at ease (And delight them, siphoning off a little of the joy to fortify down later into the emotional equivalent of the kind of moonshine that can dissolve spoons) and their slightly ominous request that the clockworks be kept around children is simply because they find a strange, inexplicable delight, in the idea of others being happy at their creations, even if they don't get a chance to sip it themselves.

Their questions are fairly innocent as well, with the interest in more positive things coming down to the delight they take in hearing of the good fortune of others and the small talk being a result of Nightmare's secret dream, of disguising the three of them as mortals and becoming ringleaders of their own, mortal circus, traveling the world bringing delight to all and spending the entire time borderline paralytic on joy without having to trade in dark terrors for it.

Fears and Joys of course could take the place of bonuses and penalties, a short, sharp shock of fear might be enough to give a fighter a reroll against an enchantment spell, or to give the rogue that extra edge of speed when he feels the wolf breath on the back of his neck, regardless of if the wolf is there, while Joy (if they can be convinced to bottle it for others) is a good cure for what ails you in general. Of course, turning them against enemies is equally useful and their clockwork creations could be a wonderful gift to the right people.

[Lathiira]

Dotting for later reading.

[wabbitking]

prices
a hair that never grows back(for cheap things most likely)
a speech: after the character makes a big speech he suddenly finds himself at the exact moment before he started it and hears the sound of someone bottling something.
the trust of a friend: a friend no longer trust them plain and simple.
Buy
love potions: comes in a variety of flavours such a puppy motherly true and even yandere.
someone else's price: skill of a master swordsman, a moonlight night alone with the local dictator, the heritage of some poor shmuck of a beggar who unbeknownst to everyone else due to drunkenly selling of his heritage for a magic sword was the king and much much more!
ps. dot!

[Rayek]

Price:
-Your next life (Character cannot be magically resurrected)
-Nothing of importance (At some moment, directed by the seller, Character loses every posession, that isnt of vital importance to him)
-Your Hate (Character treat every enemy as a friend, Will save to attack, even if attacked 1st)

[KingOfAnything]

"Please, please, come to my humble wagon. I assure you, I'll only take a moment of your time. Does the little trinket catch your eye? It's yours!"

Price:
At some point in the future, at an important or pivotal moment, the player's character is shunted out of time for one round, and replaced by the shopkeeper. He's there to observe the occasion, and perhaps collect a trinket.

The trinket could have one of many effects, such as acting like a ring of delayed doom with a single charge, or providing insight from some other characters moment of time.

[Flynn Greywalker]

James Sutter wrote:

Also, you've got the right idea, Caleb--in the Witchmarket, everything seems like a great deal, but the fey inevitably end up getting more than they give, and those who trade with them may come to regret it...

It's a great reason to love the Fey. They speak in riddles, yet tell the truth most times. Their truth tends to be more complicated. They hate the simplicity that most mortals want. It is boring. They prefer a more entertaining approach. That is why buying from them is tricky. Everything has an ulterior price. And hidden cost. If the mortals are too simple to figure that out, then shame on them for being no fun.

[Volvagnos]

Dot for later reading and/or reference.

[Eric Hinkle]

The 8th Dwarf wrote:

When I first saw First World Witchmarket I imagined a place where the Seelie and Unseelie Fey would go to bargain for the souls of witches so that they might become their patrons.

This could explain where some witches get their power from. Might be amusing to have a witch PC show up in the Witchmarket, only to be asked by one merchant, an oddly friendly redcap: "Just how have you been getting along with your purchase, madam? I hope you're not here seeking a refund, we spoke about that as you'll recall -- on no, wait, you wouldn't remember at all, would you. That was part of our arrangement." Then they look at the familiar. "And you, finding life much simpler these days? You did want to spend more time with your daughter after all, now you're constantly together."

[OliviasEule]

Merchant: The Bodybuilder

This simple shop is full of glass jars in many different sizes and shapes, each and everyone containing teeth. The labels on the jars display every kind of animal one hat ever heard and a few which do not mean anything to you.

A minotaur sits behind a table which seems to small for him. He is hunched over the flat surface, a mirror replaces his left eye, and with delicate and neat movements he strings teeth onto a thin cord.

The Bodybuilder sells necklaces made from teeth, each especially made for the customer to his specifications. Upon death the necklace crumbles and forms a new body which the soul can immediately inhabit. This body is always chimeric, depending on the teeth used in the necklace.

The Bodybuilder requires all teeth of the customer and often sends them on errands to replace teeth which are running low in his shop. These quest are seldom easy and always dangerous, and the more rare the teeth the customer requests are the harder the quest will be.

Merchant: The Wishmonger

This cart is quite ramshackle. On the front is an empty counter, while in the back many different surgical tools can be seen, all neatly maintained and shiningly clean.

The proprietor of this cart is the Wishmonger, a bored looking Drow. From time to time he speaks (at normal speaking volume) into the passing crowd, also sounding bored: "Wishes, big and small, to improve yourself. Perfect for you and your friend".

When a customer shows interest in his wishes he informs them that he can only provide wishes if one comes with a partner. If two people show up, he asks them what improvement they want to make. Depending on their answer he tells them his price. Upon receiving payment the Wishmonger creates one Wishbone - a bone with two hooks, one on either side. He tells the pair that they have to break the Wishbone together to make their wish come true.

If big improvements (increase of status values, greater changes in skills or great increase in HP, etc) are requested the prices are more steep. The Wishmonger tells his customers that each must give one bigger bone in their body. For smaller wishes smaller bones suffice. He assures his customers that the taking of the bone will be painless and that upon fulfillment the bones will be returned.

No one gives away wishes for seemingly no cost. As soon as the partners break the Wishbone they both roll 1d20 (each) to break the Wishbone. The person with the higher roll holds the larger piece of the bone and gets their wish fulfilled, while the improvements in them are subtracted from the person with the lower roll. Both get the bones back from which the Wishbone was created.

[OliviasEule]

I compiled an updated PDF-document of all the great ideas about the Witchmarket in this thread. Please use it freely :-)

Link: Witchmarket.pdf

[steelhead]

There's a lot of really good ideas here! Thanks!