Mind Market

A large open-air market in Pindrop.

A curious vista:
a set of flat rocks, big and small, which serve as platforms for the items on sale.
These pillars, which somehow seem to match their owners in colouration and size, allow buyers to observe the goods from all directions with a simple glance. Some of the pillars are sculpted, others have runes carved in them; the majority are made of unworked stone.
The distance between pillars seems to change and adapt to the number of people in the market. When a crowd starts gathering around a specific pillar, the other pillars start to gradually, and ever so slowly, shift.
Silence is absolute, yet people's faces and hands indicate they are having lively exchanges, one way or another. A great deal of bargaining seems to be common.
Money rarely seems to exchange hands. A lot more common is the sight of two fey creatures joining parts of their bodies, such as pressing their foreheads together, clasping their hands to each other, or even sharing long, unblinking stares.

Pindrop is, at its heart, a Mimih settlement. Given their telepathic abilities, the permanent silence that is kept in Pindrop does not hamper their trading. Members of other species who live in Pindrop permanently typically know sign language in sylvan and keep parchment and ink in their person to communicate with those that are not able to speak sign language.

You can get better deals at the Mind Market than at The Burst, but many folks are not so keen on the telepathic communication and bargaining, so a lot of newcomers prefer to go to the market outside the city, where the silence is not kept.

— Yilgwa, a member of the vendor's guild

by Samuel Egan

Mind Market for
non-telepathic creatures

Enterprising individuals who want to sell at the Mind Market but who do not have telepathic abilities have a few options.

Some use sylvan sign language, but not everyone is fluent in this language. Often, when this happens, vendors will make use of pantomime and written language to finalize the sale.

A few go to great lengths to obtain artifacts that allow them to communicate telepathically. The mercane family living in Pindrop all make use of such items.

Common stalls in the Mind Market

Food

By far, the most common type of stall. Aside from raw ingredients, they also sell already prepared food. The following are some of the popular items sold:

• Tarrabah tail stew with reed tubers spiced with eucalyptus oil
• Jelly ants (honey-pot ants fed with different fruits' jelly, rather than honey)
• Barramundi in fig sauce
• Frosted macadamias

Magic Items

The presence of a mercane "family" over the generatinos has lead to giving Pindorp a fame for its magical item trade.
Aside from the highly specialized trade undertaken by the mercane "family", the most common magic item traded is rainbow powder.
Nowadays, quite a few vendors make their own items or take commissions to craft simple magical items.

Rocks and Gems

Mimihs love rocks and gems. They love creating them, taking care of them, and bringing them to life. Eventually, they need to part with some of their creations.
The gems found here are often found in strange cuts, not normally found in other planes. Similarly, rocks sold in the market often have animal shapes.
Very rarely will a Mimih agree to create a rock pet for an outsider, however.

A few rare trinkets for sale at the Mind Market

Trinket	Effect	Side effects	Rarity
Snowflake diamond	Provides DR 3/cold and reduces the DC of cold environmental effects by 3	Skin is always cold to the touch	Common
Gold eucalyptus leaf	It dissolves when placed in the tongue; provides a re-roll against a poison or infestation effect with a +3 luck bonus	All food tastes like eucalyptus until poisoned or infected again	Uncommon
Onyx wattle flower crown	The user is hidden from undead for 30 minutes per day	Undead are particularly interested in the individual when the crown is not active	Rare