{ "id": "market", "label": "Market", "forgeStageType": "village", "schema": 2, "placeNameStyle": "own", "_model": "Settlement kernel, but the place is a transaction rather than a community. The appetite belongs to the market itself; the claimants are its offices; and everything it did to people it did by contract, which is why none of it can be undone by force.", "facetProgression": { "approach": "institution", "complication": "ritual", "turn": "demand", "descent": "wound", "threshold": "anchor", "ending": "demand" }, "claimants": [ "Clerk of the Market", "Piepowder Court", "Company of Weighers", "Toll House", "Guild of Chapmen", "Lord of the Fair", "Standard-Keeper" ], "appetites": [ { "id": "open", "want": "never to close", "lack": "closed", "purpose": "the trading would never have to stop", "motif": "crowd", "prize": "bell", "conscript": "the stallholders", "asks": "\"Are we still open?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "sell something, to anybody, for anything at all", "attribute": "Flair", "successes": 2, "why": "the market is trading again", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "square", "want": "that every dealing here should be exactly fair", "lack": "cheated", "purpose": "nobody would ever be wronged in it", "motif": "weights", "prize": "standard", "conscript": "the false dealers", "asks": "\"Is that a true measure?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "settle one dispute honestly, out loud, against your own interest", "attribute": "Wits", "successes": 2, "why": "it was dealt fair", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "dealt", "want": "never to have a slow day", "lack": "slow", "purpose": "there would always be something moving", "motif": "bargain", "prize": "handsel", "conscript": "the hagglers", "asks": "\"What will you give me for it?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "strike a bargain here and shake on it", "attribute": "Flair", "successes": 2, "why": "business was done", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "paid", "want": "never to be owed anything by anybody", "lack": "owed", "purpose": "every account would come out clean", "motif": "credit", "prize": "bond", "conscript": "the debtors", "asks": "\"And the rest?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "pay something you owe, in full, in front of it", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "the account is clear", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } } ], "accommodations": [ { "id": "tolled", "text": "tolled {conscript} at every gate until they had nothing left to sell", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "paid", "open", "dealt" ] }, { "id": "outcried", "text": "had {conscript} cried down in the square so nobody would deal with them", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "square", "dealt", "open" ] }, { "id": "bonded", "text": "took a bond off {conscript} that could never be redeemed", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "paid", "square" ] }, { "id": "stalled", "text": "gave {conscript} a stall they could not leave and could not give up", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "open", "dealt", "paid" ] }, { "id": "weighed", "text": "weighed everything {conscript} owned on a beam that was never true", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "square", "paid" ] }, { "id": "credited", "text": "extended {conscript} credit until leaving would have been theft", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "paid", "dealt", "open" ] } ], "prizes": { "bell": { "label": "the bell that opens the market", "function": "the only thing that ever started or stopped trading here" }, "standard": { "label": "the standard weight, sealed and true", "function": "the only measure here that was never adjusted" }, "handsel": { "label": "the first coin of the first day's trading", "function": "the only bargain here nobody regretted" }, "bond": { "label": "the bond that was never redeemed", "function": "the only debt here that was written down honestly" } }, "placeNames": { "first": [ "Cheap", "Corn", "Cross", "Shambles", "Wool", "Beast", "Candle", "Salt" ], "second": [ "Market", "Fair", "Row", "Chipping", "Staple", "Cheaping", "Mart", "Charter", "Green", "Yard" ] }, "areaNames": { "approach": [ "The Toll Gate", "The Beast Pens", "The Approach Road", "The Weigh-House", "The Cross" ], "complication": [ "The Shambles", "The Corn Row", "The Cloth Hall", "The Booths", "The Drapery" ], "turn": [ "The Market Cross", "The Piepowder Court", "The Standard", "The Charter House", "The Great Stall" ], "descent": [ "The Cellars", "The Undercroft", "The Middens", "The Back Rows", "The Debtors' Yard" ], "threshold": [ "The Counting House", "The Strong Room", "The Toll House", "The Clerk's Room", "The Last Booth" ], "ending": [ "The Empty Square", "Where the Bell Hangs", "The Last Bargain", "The Sealed Room" ] }, "factions": [ { "id": "market", "name": "the Market", "kind": "undead", "essence": "still trading, still crying its wares, still expecting to be dealt with", "handledBy": "trade" }, { "id": "chapmen", "name": "the chapmen", "kind": "living", "essence": "came for the fair and have not managed to leave", "handledBy": "courtesy" }, { "id": "weighers", "name": "the Company of Weighers", "kind": "undead", "essence": "will not pass anything that does not measure true", "handledBy": "proof of right" }, { "id": "pens", "name": "what got out of the pens", "kind": "beast", "essence": "was bought and paid for and never collected", "handledBy": "force" } ], "triggerGlossary": { "announced": "came in through the toll gate and paid, as traders do", "seenTwice": "passed the same stall twice without buying", "loud": "a raised voice in a square built to carry one", "lingering": "stood in one row long enough for the criers to work out what you want", "disturbed": "handled goods, moved a weight, or opened a shuttered booth" }, "rosters": { "skirmish": { "line": "3 Bandits working the back rows", "foes": [ { "n": 3, "name": "Bandit", "atk": 3, "def": 3, "grit": 4, "nerve": 3, "note": "cutpurses; they want the purse, not the fight" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "show them you carry nothing worth taking and they move on" }, "fight": { "line": "4 Bandits and a Hobgoblin Soldier collecting toll", "foes": [ { "n": 4, "name": "Bandit", "atk": 3, "def": 3, "grit": 4, "nerve": 3, "note": "scatter if the sergeant drops" }, { "n": 1, "name": "Hobgoblin Soldier", "atk": 4, "def": 4, "grit": 6, "nerve": 4, "note": "holds them together" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "they are collecting a toll — pay it and they let you through" }, "battle": { "line": "1 Necromancer of the Company and 4 Skeletons in weighers' aprons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Necromancer", "atk": 3, "def": 3, "grit": 8, "nerve": 4, "note": "raises one Skeleton per round from the pens" }, { "n": 4, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "anything — the Necromancer is alive and bleeds", "avoid": "it stops for a true measure; put the standard weight on the beam and it must check it" }, "nightmare": { "line": "1 Wraith of the Clerk, 1 Necromancer and 5 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Wraith", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 10, "nerve": 5, "note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour, drains 1 max Grit" }, { "n": 1, "name": "Necromancer", "atk": 3, "def": 3, "grit": 8, "nerve": 4, "note": "raises one Skeleton per round" }, { "n": 5, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the rest", "avoid": "do not run this without an appeasement route open", "beforeInitiative": "Say so before initiative." } }, "motifs": { "bargain": { "danger": "the deal", "dangerLine": "everything here still wants to be haggled with, and it will hold you to what you agree", "trigger": "lingering", "facets": { "institution": [ "a square laid out in rows, one trade to a row", "a court that sits while the dust is still on your feet", "stalls numbered and let by the day" ], "ritual": [ "a hand spat on and struck before anything moves", "the first coin of the day kept back and not spent", "a price cried three times before it is a price" ], "demand": [ "a hand held out, open, waiting to be struck", "goods set out with no price on them at all", "a stall with the boards down and nobody behind it" ], "wound": [ "a hand struck and then withdrawn, in front of everybody", "a row of stalls with the goods still on them and no sellers", "a price cried a fourth time, into silence" ], "anchor": [ "the first coin of the first day's trading", "a book of bargains struck and honoured", "a stall let in perpetuity to somebody who never came" ] }, "features": [ "a hand held open, waiting", "goods set out with no price on them", "a first coin kept back on a string", "a price cried into an empty row", "boards down on an empty stall", "a book of bargains left open" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a hand held out open, waiting to be struck", "cost": "striking it makes the bargain, whatever it was", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you settle the terms before you strike, and the market honours them exactly", "failure": "you strike first and find out the terms after: +1 Bane", "orElse": "do not take the hand; the row closes to you and stays closed" } }, { "cue": "goods set out with no price on them at all", "cost": "naming a price is an offer you are held to", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you price it fairly and the Market deals with you as a trader from here on", "failure": "you price it low and the seller accepts, and expects the difference", "orElse": "offer nothing; you go through the market as a customer, and are treated as prey" } }, { "cue": "the first coin of the day kept back on a string", "cost": "spending it opens the day; keeping it does not", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you spend the handsel properly and the whole square begins trading around you", "failure": "you pocket it and nothing here will deal with you again", "orElse": "leave it hanging; the day never starts and the square stays dead" } }, { "cue": "a price being cried three times into an empty row", "cost": "answering the third cry closes the sale", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you answer and get the thing, and the crier owes you a hearing", "failure": "you answer late and the sale goes to somebody you cannot see", "orElse": "let it lapse; whatever it was is gone for good" } }, { "cue": "a book of bargains struck and honoured, with a blank line ruled", "cost": "entering a bargain in it makes it binding on both", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you write terms that bind the Market as much as you and it must keep them", "failure": "you write loosely and it keeps the letter of what you wrote: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave the line blank; nothing here is bound to you at all" } }, { "cue": "a stall let in perpetuity to somebody who never came", "cost": "standing behind it takes the lease", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you take the stall and have standing in the market — the Court will hear you", "failure": "you take it and cannot leave it while the market is open", "orElse": "walk past; you have no standing and the Court will not sit for you" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a crier", "doing": "calling a price three times into an empty row", "onArrival": "it pauses on the third cry and looks at you", "because": "the lot must be sold and nobody has bid", "offer": "bid anything and it will cry your business through the whole square" }, { "occupant": "two of the Market", "doing": "holding a bargain half-struck between them", "onArrival": "both hands are open and neither will close", "because": "the terms were never agreed and neither will speak first", "offer": "name the terms and both will thank you, and owe you" }, { "occupant": "a living chapman", "doing": "laying goods out on a stall that already has goods on it", "onArrival": "they ask whether you are the one who has the pitch", "because": "they arrived for the fair and the fair was already over", "offer": "help them clear the pitch and they will tell you what sells here now" }, { "occupant": "the Lord of the Fair", "doing": "holding a purse open with nothing in it", "onArrival": "it asks what you have brought to sell", "because": "the fair cannot be declared over while anything is unsold", "offer": "sell it anything at all and it will declare you under its protection" }, { "occupant": "a stall", "doing": "standing with the boards down and the goods laid out", "onArrival": "the goods are arranged fresh and the dust is off them", "because": "the stall is let in perpetuity and the tenant never came", "offer": "stand behind it and the market treats you as one of its own" }, { "occupant": "the Guild of Chapmen", "doing": "weighing a purse against a ledger, over and over", "onArrival": "one of them slides the purse toward you", "because": "the account will not come out and they cannot stop trying", "offer": "balance it for them and they will open the counting house" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "handsel", "cue": "the first coin of the first day", "benefit": "once, make a deal go through that should not have", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the market's luck goes with it and the square knows", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Greed" } }, { "id": "bargainbook", "cue": "the book of bargains", "benefit": "hold anyone here to what they agreed", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you are in the book too" }, { "id": "pitch", "cue": "a stall's tally-stick", "benefit": "standing in the market, and the Court will hear you", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you owe the day's rent, and it accrues" }, { "id": "crier", "cue": "a crier's bell, hand-sized", "benefit": "once, be heard by everything in the square", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "everything in the square then knows where you are" }, { "id": "purse", "cue": "a purse that is never quite empty", "benefit": "once, pay what is asked", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the coin comes from somebody, and they notice" } ] }, "weights": { "danger": "the true measure", "dangerLine": "the Company is still checking, and nothing you carry will pass", "trigger": "disturbed", "facets": { "institution": [ "a weigh-house on the square with the beam in full view", "every measure in the market stamped and sealed once a year", "a company whose only work is checking other people's scales" ], "ritual": [ "a beam swung empty each morning to prove it hangs true", "seals cut off and restruck at the same hour", "the standard brought out, shown, and locked away again" ], "demand": [ "a beam hanging with one pan lower than the other", "a measure set out beside a thing that has not been measured", "a seal pressed into wax that has not set" ], "wound": [ "a weigh-house with the beam bent and left bent", "seals struck onto measures that were never checked", "the standard gone from its case and the case still locked" ], "anchor": [ "the standard weight, sealed and true", "a book of seals and what they were struck on", "a beam that has never been out of true" ] }, "features": [ "a beam hanging with one pan low", "a seal in wax that has not set", "a measure set beside something unmeasured", "a bent beam left bent", "a case locked and empty", "a book of seals open at a page" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a beam hanging with one pan lower than the other and nothing in either", "cost": "balancing it is a claim about the world", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the fault and true the beam, and the Company will vouch for you anywhere here", "failure": "you weight the light pan to fake it and the Company finds out: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it hanging false; every measure you are given here is short" } }, { "cue": "a seal pressed into wax that has not set", "cost": "the seal can still be lifted or spoiled", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you lift it clean and can reseal something the Company will not question", "failure": "you smear it and whatever it sealed is now unsealed and known to be", "orElse": "let it set; it seals something against you" } }, { "cue": "a measure set out beside a thing that has not been measured", "cost": "measuring it settles what it is worth", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you measure honestly and the market prices everything for you at true value", "failure": "you measure short in your own favour and the beam remembers", "orElse": "take it unmeasured; you will be charged whatever they like" } }, { "cue": "a locked case with the standard weight gone out of it", "cost": "the case says who had the key last", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you read the case and learn who took the standard, and where they went with it", "failure": "you force the case and the Company treats you as the thief: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it locked; nothing here can be proved true or false" } }, { "cue": "a book of seals listing what each was struck on", "cost": "one entry does not match the goods it sealed", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the false entry and can hold the Clerk to it", "failure": "you are found reading it by something that struck those seals", "orElse": "close the book; the false measures stay in circulation, including yours" } }, { "cue": "a bent beam left bent in a weigh-house that is otherwise kept", "cost": "straightening it undoes a great many old bargains", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you straighten it and every dishonest thing in the market is exposed at once", "failure": "it snaps, and the market has no measure at all: roll the clock", "orElse": "leave it bent; the Company will not pass anything you carry" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a weigher", "doing": "swinging an empty beam to prove it hangs true", "onArrival": "it stops the beam and offers you the pans", "because": "the beam is proved each morning and the morning has not ended", "offer": "put something in a pan and it will weigh anything else you ask" }, { "occupant": "the Standard-Keeper", "doing": "holding a locked case and turning it over", "onArrival": "it asks whether you have seen the weight", "because": "the standard was taken and the case never opened since", "offer": "tell it where the standard is and it will unseal any door here" }, { "occupant": "two of the Company", "doing": "checking a measure against another measure, endlessly", "onArrival": "they hand you a third and wait", "because": "neither will serve as the standard and both know it", "offer": "give them a true measure and they will pass anything you carry" }, { "occupant": "a living tinker", "doing": "filing at a weight, carefully, in a doorway", "onArrival": "they stop and grin rather than hide it", "because": "nobody has checked anything here in a long time", "offer": "let them finish and they will file you a weight that passes anywhere" }, { "occupant": "a beam", "doing": "hanging with one pan lower and nothing in either", "onArrival": "it swings level as you come near and then tips again", "because": "it was bent once and nobody trued it", "offer": "true it and the Company vouches for you across the whole market" }, { "occupant": "the Clerk of the Market", "doing": "stamping seals onto measures without checking them", "onArrival": "it holds a seal out to you, ready struck", "because": "the sealing must be done and the checking cannot be", "offer": "refuse the seal and it will tell you which measures are false" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "standard", "cue": "the standard weight, sealed", "benefit": "once, settle any dispute about what is true", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "nothing else here measures true while you hold it", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "seal", "cue": "a weigher's seal", "benefit": "once, make a thing pass as sound", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the Company checks everything you have sealed, eventually" }, { "id": "beam", "cue": "a pocket balance, honest", "benefit": "know when you are being cheated", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you know exactly how badly, which is worse" }, { "id": "filedweight", "cue": "a weight filed light", "benefit": "once, buy at your own price", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the beam it was used on stays wrong" }, { "id": "sealbook", "cue": "the book of seals", "benefit": "know which of anything here is false", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "so does whoever notices you reading it" } ] }, "crowd": { "danger": "the press", "dangerLine": "the market is full and there is nobody in it", "trigger": "loud", "facets": { "institution": [ "a square built to hold four thousand people", "rows wide enough for carts and worn narrow by feet", "a cross where the crowd is supposed to gather" ], "ritual": [ "a bell rung to open the trading and rung again to close it", "the same rows filled in the same order every day", "a crowd moving one way round the square and never the other" ], "demand": [ "a gap in the press, exactly one person wide", "a cross with the steps worn and nobody on them", "a row that stays empty while every other row fills" ], "wound": [ "a square emptied in an afternoon and the goods left standing", "a bell rung to close and never rung to open", "boots and baskets trodden into the mud in one direction" ], "anchor": [ "the bell that opens the market", "a plan of the square with every pitch marked", "a crowd that has never once dispersed" ] }, "features": [ "a gap in a press of nobody", "baskets trodden into the mud", "a bell rope hanging still", "an empty row between full ones", "worn steps at a market cross", "goods left standing on a pitch" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a bell rung to close the market and never rung to open it", "cost": "ringing it starts everything again", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you ring the market open and the square fills, and the crowd carries you where you ask", "failure": "you ring it and cannot stop it ringing: roll the clock", "orElse": "leave the rope; the square stays shut and so does everything in it" } }, { "cue": "a gap in the press exactly one person wide", "cost": "stepping into it joins the crowd", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you step in and move through the market unseen, as one of the crowd", "failure": "you step in and cannot step out until the crowd does", "orElse": "push through instead; you are seen doing it, by everything" } }, { "cue": "a row that stays empty while every other row fills", "cost": "there is a reason nobody stands in it", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you learn why the row is avoided and can use it to cross the square safely", "failure": "you go down it in ignorance and something in it takes an interest", "orElse": "go round the long way, costing a Turn" } }, { "cue": "a market cross with the steps worn and nobody on them", "cost": "the steps are for whoever will be listened to", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you speak from the cross and the whole market attends you, once", "failure": "you are shouted down and cried through the square as a fool: +1 Bane", "orElse": "stay off the steps; nothing here will hear you out" } }, { "cue": "baskets and boots trodden into the mud, all pointing one way", "cost": "the direction says where everybody went", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you follow the direction and find where the square emptied to", "failure": "you follow it into the press and are carried the wrong way entirely", "orElse": "ignore the mud; you will not know where the crowd went" } }, { "cue": "a plan of the square with every pitch marked and one crossed out", "cost": "the crossed pitch is still let to somebody", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the crossed pitch and what is still standing on it", "failure": "you stand on it and the crowd forms around you: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave the plan; you will walk onto it by accident later" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "the crowd", "doing": "standing shoulder to shoulder in an empty square", "onArrival": "it parts, exactly one person wide, in front of you", "because": "the market is open and the crowd has never dispersed", "offer": "walk the gap and the crowd will carry you anywhere in the square" }, { "occupant": "a bellman", "doing": "holding a rope that is not moving", "onArrival": "it asks whether it is time yet", "because": "the market was closed and never opened", "offer": "tell it to ring and the square comes to life around you" }, { "occupant": "a living ballad-seller", "doing": "singing to nobody in a full row", "onArrival": "they break off and ask if you know the second verse", "because": "they will not stop until somebody buys a sheet", "offer": "buy a sheet and they will sing you the truth of what happened here" }, { "occupant": "one of the Market", "doing": "standing on the cross steps with its mouth open", "onArrival": "no sound comes out and the crowd waits anyway", "because": "it was crying something when the square emptied", "offer": "give it words and the whole market will do what you say, once" }, { "occupant": "a press of the Market", "doing": "moving one way around the square, endlessly", "onArrival": "it slows where you stand and does not stop", "because": "the crowd goes round this way and always has", "offer": "go with it once round and every stall opens to you" }, { "occupant": "a child", "doing": "holding a basket of something nobody bought", "onArrival": "it holds the basket up without speaking", "because": "it was sent out to sell and nobody came", "offer": "buy the basket and it will show you the row nobody uses" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "bell", "cue": "a hand-bell from the cross", "benefit": "once, gather or scatter everything in earshot", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the market opens when you ring it, and does not close", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Sloth" } }, { "id": "plan", "cue": "the plan of the square", "benefit": "know every pitch and who holds it", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you are marked on it now" }, { "id": "basket", "cue": "a seller's basket, never empty", "benefit": "once, have exactly the small thing you need", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "it was somebody's stock and they want it back" }, { "id": "sheet", "cue": "a ballad sheet about this place", "benefit": "know one true thing about what happened here", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the ballad names you in the last verse" }, { "id": "cloak", "cue": "a chapman's cloak off a peg", "benefit": "once, be taken for part of the crowd", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the crowd expects you to move with it" } ] }, "credit": { "danger": "the account", "dangerLine": "the market keeps accounts, and yours is open", "trigger": "announced", "facets": { "institution": [ "a counting house with a window onto the square", "tally sticks split and matched, one half to each party", "a court that can distrain on goods before the dust settles" ], "ritual": [ "accounts read out loud at quarter-day", "a tally split in front of witnesses", "a debt cried in the square before it is enforced" ], "demand": [ "a tally stick with only one half present", "an account ruled off and left unsigned", "a hand held out for a payment nobody has named" ], "wound": [ "a strong room with the boxes open and the tallies burnt", "a debtors' yard with the gate off its hinges", "accounts ruled off in the middle of a quarter" ], "anchor": [ "the bond that was never redeemed", "a full set of tallies, both halves", "an account book that balances" ] }, "features": [ "a tally stick with one half missing", "an account ruled off unsigned", "a hand held out for payment", "burnt tallies in a grate", "a strong-room box standing open", "a bond with the seal intact" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a tally stick with only one half present", "cost": "the other half is somewhere and matching them settles the debt", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the matching half at {priorCue} and the debt is discharged in your favour", "failure": "you match it wrongly and the debt is now yours: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it unmatched; the Market treats the whole sum as outstanding against you" } }, { "cue": "an account ruled off and left unsigned", "cost": "signing it closes the account for good", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you sign it correctly and one thing here stops pursuing you, permanently", "failure": "you sign without reading and take on what it says: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it open; the account keeps running and the total keeps growing" } }, { "cue": "a hand held out for a payment nobody has named", "cost": "paying settles something; asking what for does not", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you make it name the debt first, and it is smaller than you feared", "failure": "you pay blind and have settled somebody else's account, not yours", "orElse": "refuse the hand; whatever it was owed is now owed by you" } }, { "cue": "a strong room with the boxes open and the tallies burnt", "cost": "somebody destroyed the record rather than pay", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find whose tallies were burnt and can hold the Clerk to the theft", "failure": "you are found in the strong room with burnt tallies in your hand", "orElse": "leave it; nobody here can prove anything, including you" } }, { "cue": "a debtors' yard with the gate off its hinges", "cost": "what was held here got out, or was let out", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you work out which and can bargain with what is loose in the market", "failure": "you go in and the gate is back on its hinges behind you", "orElse": "stay out of the yard; something in the market is owed and unaccounted for" } }, { "cue": "a bond with the seal still intact, unredeemed", "cost": "redeeming it ends the debt; breaking the seal voids it", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you redeem it properly and the Market considers the whole affair closed", "failure": "you break the seal and every debt it stood against comes due at once", "orElse": "leave it sealed; the bond is the ending's whole leverage and you will not have it" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "the Clerk of the Market", "doing": "holding out half a tally stick", "onArrival": "it does not speak; it waits for the other half", "because": "the account cannot be closed with one half missing", "offer": "give it any matching half and it will discharge one debt of yours" }, { "occupant": "a living debtor", "doing": "sitting in a yard with the gate off its hinges", "onArrival": "they ask whether you have come to collect", "because": "they were distrained on and nobody came back", "offer": "tell them the debt is settled and they will show you what is in the strong room" }, { "occupant": "the Piepowder Court", "doing": "sitting with an account book open at a ruled line", "onArrival": "it turns the book toward you and offers a pen", "because": "the account must be signed off and there is nobody to sign", "offer": "sign it and the Court will find for you in anything, once" }, { "occupant": "two of the Market", "doing": "passing a purse back and forth without opening it", "onArrival": "they stop and hold it out to you", "because": "neither will accept it and neither will keep it", "offer": "take the purse and both will owe you, and pay" }, { "occupant": "a bond", "doing": "lying sealed on an empty table in a locked room", "onArrival": "the seal is unbroken and the wax is still soft", "because": "it was never redeemed and never destroyed", "offer": "redeem it and the whole market considers its accounts closed" }, { "occupant": "the Lord of the Fair", "doing": "reading an account aloud to an empty square", "onArrival": "it reaches your name in the list and stops", "because": "the quarter's accounts must be cried before they are enforced", "offer": "let it finish and it will strike your name off with its own hand" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "bond", "cue": "the unredeemed bond", "benefit": "once, call in a debt from anything here", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the Market opens an account against you at the same moment", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Greed" } }, { "id": "tally", "cue": "a matched pair of tallies", "benefit": "prove any debt here settled or outstanding", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "tallies work both ways and yours is one of them" }, { "id": "purse", "cue": "a distrained purse from the strong room", "benefit": "spend freely, once", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "it was distrained off somebody who is still owed it" }, { "id": "ledger", "cue": "the counting-house ledger", "benefit": "know what everything here owes and to whom", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you know your own line, and it grows" }, { "id": "gate", "cue": "the pin off the debtors' gate", "benefit": "once, hold something where it is", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "whatever was in the yard is not, and knows you have the pin" } ] } } }