Five items from Link’s Awakening you could find in the Grand Bazar.
Magic Powder: Link is by no means an accomplished mage so he needs this magic powder to cast even the most basic feits, such as lighting a torch without a spark.
The Grand Bazaar is a major nexus for the wealth of many countries and even a few planes. Many people come to the Bazaar looking to make their fortunes. Of course not everyone find their fortune. In fact, many people lose everything and end up having to find creative methods to earn their next meal. Some of those methods involve earning a living through pickpocketing and purse-cutting. Visitors to the Grand Bazaar are often warned to never carry all their coin at once and to always make sure to bind their purse with a stout cord or sturdy chain.
Honeycomb: I do enjoy that the trading sequence in Link’s Awakening includes such trade as exchanging a stick for a honey by hitting a beehive with a stick and then picking up the honeycomb after the swarm has flown off. That is some asymmetrical negotiating.
A small band of secretive people with chitinous skin and features reminiscent of bees has recently opened a stall in the Grand Bazaar offering visions of the future for any able to pay. The younger members of the group offer divinations through standard means, such as the casting of bones, dealing of cards, or interpreting tea leaves. These services are reasonably priced but can be vague or cryptic. The eldest offers to personally peer into the possible future of a customer. The divination process is highly ritualized. It is intentional convoluted to mask the true source of the visions, the specially prepared honeycomb found only in the hive homes of the oracle queens that lead the secretive people. The fortune tellers are unwilling to discuss their methods and refuse to answer any questions about themselves or where they came from.
Bananas: An alligator that collects rare and unusual canned food gives these bananas to Link in exchange for the can of dog food he got from the domesticated chain chomp. Sale, the alligator, runs the House O' Bananas which must be a nod to similar houses. I really love the trading sequence in Link’s Awakening. It is full of these silly moments that never cease to make me smile.
These strange pink bananas are known for their peculiar taste and their remarkable relaxing properties. Eating just one of these bananas help keep people calm and stops them from getting restless or fidgeting. They are often fed to pack animals entering the Bazaar to keep them pacified during the examination process all goods must pass through before entering the great market. The process is thorough to the point of tedium and most animals, and many people, become agitated during the wait and subsequent examination.
Pineapple: A bear chef,a bear that is a chef rather than a chef for bears, needs fresh honey for their next culinary masterpiece. It could be a honey glazed ham, rustic porridge, or simply honey de jar. They must have been experimenting with natural sweeteners because the Chef Bear gives Link some pineapple in exchange for the fresh honey. Again, this is another great moment in the trading sequence.
Most pineapples are grown for their sweet flavor or their ability to help break meat down. There is a small sour pineapple that is cultivated to make exquisite ink. This quick drying ink is remarkably durable. With those two qualities, scribes from around the world relish the chance to use this ink as they pen great manuscripts. So little ink can be created from just one pineapple that the ink remains prohibitively expensive. Scriveners beware, a lucrative black market has developed around the sale of counterfeit pineapple ink. The counterfeit ink dries so quickly it is almost impossible to leave a smudge, but the ink does not soak into the parchment. The letters will inevitably fall off the pages, ruining the work and often the reputation of the scribe.
Mirror Shield: Link’s reflective shield. The concept of the mirror shield reaches all the way back into antiquity so I went for a sort of Egyptian look for this shield. It could be the shield is almost entirely useless for blocking physical attacks but unerringly reflects any energy, including magical energies, back at their source.
The Shining Legion is the holy enforcers of the Bazaar’s rules. Each member of the legion is outfitted with a mirrored shield that is said to shatter if used by anyone outside of the faith. In service to only the tenets of the Gilded Scales, the local god of fair commerce and luck, the Shining Legion zealously patrols the entire marketplace to ensure the smooth operation of the largest market in the world. The central tenets of the Gilded Scale include edicts banning counterfeit goods, unfair exchanges of currency, and grand theft. Petty theft is not explicitly forbidden by the Gilded Scale. This provides a way for people to make their livings as pickpockets and charlatans without incurring the wrath of the paramilitary force. Such loopholes necessitate more affluent citizens of the bazaar to search out private security for themselves and their goods.
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I think the Grand Bazaar is one of the more interesting places an adventurer can find themself. Even if their entire career is spent within the boundaries of the Bazaar, there is a lifetime of adventure waiting to be discovered.
I inevitably make some sort of complicated market in my players’ path without detailing the entire place beforehand. I usually end up discovering the intricate details and hidden secrets of the market alongside my players.
I have put the links in last week’s post and should have my inktober post for this week up by Tuesday.
Please feel free to use these as you see fit in your personal life, but don’t profit off my work without my consent.
If you have an election coming up, MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!!!! We need to work to move the world back from the edge of a nuclear apocalypse, not inch towards it.
Get out there and be excellent to everyone.
-Ceph
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