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	Ascendant Court Market: Avenue of the Hopefull This winding street is packed with booths, carts, and blankets like a busy market, except what is “sold” here is faith. Those planning to someday take the Test of the Starstone often camp here to build a cult of personality about themselves, promising to reward their early devotees once they pass the Test. Some hopefuls have lived here for months or even years on the charity of others, and while there are scammers and pickpockets in the midst, an equal number truly believe they are worthy and will someday achieve divinity. This street is always busy, filled with hopefuls, charlatans, worshipers, and those trying to make money off of everyone else. Merchants sell holy symbols, holy water, relics (such as hair, fingernails, or drops of blood), faith papers (something like a ballot to determine which hopefuls are the most popular), and stranger things. One long-standing booth is owned by the cult of the Masked God of Secrets (presumably another hopeful), which is actually a front for an organization that collects information and secrets about patrons and sells these things to others. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	Ascendant Court Market: God's Market This broad street is where many of the established religions have set up shop to sell items of the faith (holy symbols, holy water, religious texts, clothing, and so on) and minor magic items (mainly potions and scrolls). Various expert craftsmen ( jewelers in particular) sell their wares here, and several moneylenders conduct a thriving business, often licensed in the name of a local temple. The area also supports a small amount of illicit Business. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	Ascendant Court Market: The Black Mask To casual observation, the Black Mask is a high-end costume shop, offering ornate masks, double-sided cloaks, and unusual attire from common disguises to ornate parade costumes of bamboo and silk that allow a dozen men to play the part of a sea-serpent. However, it is an open secret that the shop is truly a temple to Norgorber, and that when it closes business at the end of each day, the black-and-gray-clad faithful of the Reaper of Reputation come to worship the second Ascended God. (For More Information look at Guide of Absalom page 17.) Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	Azlanti Keep Market: Open Quartering (First Guardsmen only) Anywhere else, this would be called a market, but in Azlanti Keep the Open Quartering (also just called “the Open”) is where the surplus goods and material acquired by the Quartermaster are sold at reasonable prices by rasars (soldiers working in supply houses for the Quartermaster). The Quartermaster and his rasars sell everything with very little eye for profit, which keeps prices very low (10% to 25% lower than the normal market value). However, only members of the First Guard or the various district guards may shop in the Open Quartering, and none may buy more of something than a rasar determines could be used by a household of four (to prevent reselling on the open market). Thus merchants and common citizens are cut off from the cheap goods of the Open and guards can often find things more cheaply than merchants can get it wholesale, which is a point of mild friction. Though it’s not common, the Grand Council can grant individuals honorary commissions within the First Guard. Such ceremonial ranks grant no right to enforce laws or wander the secure areas of Azlanti Keep, but they do grant the right to buy in the Open. Lord Gyr grants such rights more often than previous primarchs did, usually to young spellcasters who have taken some risk for the benefit of the city without being hired to do so. The Quartermaster recently ruled that the Muckruckers (unpaid guards of the Puddles) did not qualify for Open Quartering, though few made the trip to try to take advantage of it. This has become a popular cause among merchants, who claim it is a violation of the city trade laws. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	The Coins Market: Grand Bazaar It has been said anything can be found in the grand bazaar of Absalom, and that claim isn’t far from wrong. Under the watchful eye of Bwutuzu the Panther, merchants sell everything from Qadiri carpets, dwarven axes, elven bows, and Tian silks to minotaur-horn drinking cups, harpy-feather cloaks, and Osirian papyrus. Very few permanent buildings exist, but hundreds of pavilions, carts, portable stages, and merchant wagons cram together with little rhyme or reason to sell anything a buyer’s heart might desire. The colors and styles are bright and garish, as every merchant tries to catch the eyes of potential buyers, with scantily clad dancers, gnome illusionists, and exhibitions of every imaginable skill also used to bring crowds close enough for a trader to cry out the value of his wares. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	The Coins Market: Hackamore House Operated by its owner Aetris Thunderhoof (a centaur), and her paramour Glenair of House Jefreet (a shapeshifting druid born in Diobel), this is the premier steed and carriage shop in Absalom. Aetris arrived in Absalom penniless, took over a failing cul-de-sac of businesses selling meat and leather, and managed to convert it to its current purpose. Once an open-air market, she has sectioned the massive wooden storage bays and tent roof into a series of stalls for steeds of all kind, and brought several independent crafters to set up their shops under her aegis. Thus, any needed steed, gear, or wheeled transport is likely already available, and if not can be designed and ordered from her single location. Aetris even allows other centaurs to be shod in her establishment, though she requires they be muzzled the entire time they are on her grounds. This last point is nonnegotiable, and the only troubles Aetris has ever had with the Token Guards has always involved a centaur refusing to put up with such treatment, and Aetris violent response to any attempt at an exception. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	The Coins Market: Misery Row Running the length of the eastern edge of the Coins, bordering the Merchants’ Quarter, is the street on which the purchase and sale of slaves is always legal—Misery Row. Off icially part of the Coins, no member of the Token Guard or District Council ever shows his face in the Row, avoiding the accusation of supporting slavery. However, the captain of the guard and all the Council receive a portion of the price of every slave sold. The Row is elevated from street level, making it a wall between the Coins and the Merchants’ District, with access to its top found in heavily guarded stairs every few hundred feet. In places Misery Row is as much as 500 feet wide, making it a long, elevated platform rather than a simple street or wall. This means that the auction stages, where slaves are sold to the highest bidder, are elevated and easy to see. It also means getting to the Row to cause trouble is difficult without magic. While such magic is plentiful, anyone using spells to harass the Row is in direct violation of the rules set down by the first spell lord, who also happens to be primarch. Lord Gyr ignores subtle, mundane efforts to free slaves (though he also ignores anyone killed by slavers on the row in the attempt), but comes down like an iron golem on anyone who flaunts the laws of Absalom with magic. However, most slaves are not bought at auction; only the most attractive, strongest, most exotic, and most skilled are worth the effort it takes slavers to run a complex sale. Most slaves are bought in lots, often sight unseen, from their holding chambers. Buyers needing just one or two slaves can wander along the chambers, even talking to prospective slaves to judge their skills and willingness to be owned without causing trouble. These chambers are almost always sunken into the wall of Misery Row, accessed only from above at wall-height, resulting in the term “The Slave Pits of Absalom.” Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	The Docks Market: Sea King Shipyard Dominating the only dock still functioning in the Precipice Quarter, the Sea King Shipyard is a small operation that builds a single oceangoing vessel at a time. However, the yard builds ships to a high degree of precision and sturdiness, creating vessels that can sail the most dangerous waters in the Inner Sea. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0
	Ivy District Market: Flower Street Market This is a lively open market, specializing in fruits, f lowers, fine clothes, and objects of art. It is also a popular venue for people who don’t require a street performer’s license to ply their trade, including fortune tellers and paid courtesans. Moderators: GM Bloodkiss, CoH GM DX	0	0