October Entry: Latnos' Magical Market

[dragonwolf]

Port Tonbas lies on a peninsula stretching 20 miles out to sea. It has become a major port for inland commerce since the coastline following the land on either side of it for 1000 miles is sheer rock cliffs. Port Tonbas welcomes goods and services of all kinds in the city, except one. Magic is not allowed within the city under any circumstances.
This law wasn't created out of some spite of magic, however. The law was actually made to protect the people. Some force or property of the land itself prevents magic being used or as it stands today, it makes people not want to use magic.
When it was first discovered that magic couldn't be used in the area, many spellcasters tried finding ways around it. One mage in particular, Tonbas Dursk, came up with what he believed to be the solution. He surmised that if enough magical energy was channeled into the land that it could become accepting of magic and possibly even magical itself. His words were encouraging enough that he was able to assemble a group of nearly 100 spellcasters. The plan was simple. The spellcasters would channel their power to him and he would be the conduit to the land.
The day for them to try it finally came and after four hours of channeling magic into the land, the land itself finally started to glow. The spellcasters started cheering and Tonbas was overjoyed and knew that his plan would work. He couldn't be more wrong, however. As the glow of the land intensified, a single burst erupted beneath were Tonbas stood and he was vaporized instantly. The other spellcasters left the area immediately and went to the mainland.
It wasn't until several weeks later when the land stopped glowing that some friends of Tonbas' returned to see if there was anything left of Tonbas. A ranger friend of Tonbas' had some curing potions with him and when he stepped from the mainland onto the peninsula land, he was immediately struck by a burst of energy coming from the land. While he did not die, he became paralyzed from the waist down. It was determined that anyone who carried magical items or performed magic in any way while on the peninsula would get the same response. Tonbas Law, forbidding any magic of any kind on the peninsula, was put into effect and the peninsula became a thriving port in the following years.
Thirty years went by and only a handful of people had broken Tonbas' Law and suffered the consequences. A mage by the name of Latnos Pram saw an opportunity, though, and decided to take a chance. He started building a tower. He thought that if you could go from the mainland where you could use magic, to Tonbas Port where you couldn't, that there must be a limit to it's area of effect. So his tower grew level by level until it finally reached a point where he was able to freely cast magic.
Of course, no one is quite sure how he was able to determine where the area of effect ended since he was never seen to have suffered effects from attempting to use magic. The most plausible rumor is that he worked on the mainland to hire adventurers and would give them a fairly good supply of magical items and tell them he needed them to deliver them to his tower. He would also tell them he would teleport them there and so it was seen as easy money. Little did they know however, was that when they appeared in the tower, if they were in the area of effect of the land, they could end up with any number of things happening to them. It was usually death though as Latnos loaded them full up on magical items. This has just been a rumor, however, as who can truly believe the disfigured vagrants of the city.
Once Latnos figured out where he was safely out of reach of the effects of the land, he built three more levels just to be safe and then he set out to create a magical marketplace. Ten years later, he was finally finished. Latnos had created a marketplace in the sky. He made floating rock formations that were connected with huge chains to keep them in place. He carved runes into the rock formations so you could teleport from one the next. Since the tower rose 500 feet into the air, Latnos knew that climbing the stairs wasn't a very appealing option so he designed a pulley system that could bring people to the top in 5 minutes with very little effort.
It wasn't long until the word got out and Latnos had merchant's lined up to set up shop in Latnos' Magical Market. It became so popular and there were hundreds of merchants hoping to set up shop. Latnos decided the only way to determine who would get the chance was to hold an auction for each plot of space. A merchant would be rented the plot of space to sell their wares for a month. At the end of a month, a new auction is held and the top bidders get their turn for a month. Latnos also made a rule that a vendor could only bid once every three months. This keeps the supply of goods varied and fresh. Latnos' Magical Market has been very successful and extremely busy since it's doors first opened five years ago. Latnos is currently doing some expansion.

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