The Midnight Market (Location)

The Midnight Market is a location of uncertain nature, cut off from reality but able to be reached from darkened corners all throughout the Demiplane of Dread. The Market may be a domain, fey dimension, or something else entirely. Regardles of the Market's nature, the creatures of the night view it as a safe neutral ground and refuge to conduct business or simply to linger and scheme. (To bring in violence is to invite the wrath of the Market's ruler, the Minister of Fear).

Gaining Entrance

Normally separated from the rest of reality, entrance to the Midnight Market is normally restricted to those with invitations given to them by the Market's domesticated ravens. Each invitation specifies a hidden portal to the Market. A portal temporarily interposes itself upon a normal door or similar gateway and admit the invited to a parlor. Passing by this parlor requires the invited to donate a drop of blood. =Would be return visitors can petition ravens for new invitations, but to receive invitations for new visitors requires speaking with the Minister of Fear. On any given night, the Market only manifests between midnight and 1:00 am. Time flows quite strangely in the Midnight Market.

On rare occasion, the Market may interpose itself onto a location in the outside world in a similar fashion to that of a floating pocket. In such rare events, the normal requirement for visitation to enter is waived.

The Law

The mysterious and frightening Minister of Fear both rules the Market and acts as its judge, jury, and executioner. Thought to be a Fey Lord and personification of fear, the Minister nonetheless enforces three laws: all debts are to be paid, contracts and oaths are to be upheld, and no violence is permitted.

Although the Minister is the Market's ruler, he is not its darklord, if the Market is a domain at all. In the dread possibility that the Market is a domain, that would fall to Jeremy Carter, whom ironically holds no power in the realm.

Inhabitants

Beyond visiting beings (merchants, customers, and other visitors) from other domains, the Midnight Market is host to a multitude of strange and deformed shopkeepers resembling goblins but staying barely within the realm of human appearance. These seemingly fey beings are hard to distinguish from one another but nonetheless endlessly scheme to line their own pockets. The goblin-men shopkeepers offer all manner of services and items, including many esoteric or rare things difficult or impossible to find elsewhere.

In addition to the Minister of Fear and the goblin-men shopkeepers, the Market normally hosts about a hundred other beings at any one time. Notable frequenters include:

• Sodalis, the News Cat
• Clan Karkar, weapon merchants
• Araignée Veuve Noire Grissoie, broker and "problem solver"
• Athené, Dementlieuse revolutionary and sometimes mercenary
• Greysilk, the Fence
• Kasim al-Darwish, the Alchemist
• Conall, the Killer
• Mercator Melanchthon, the Astrologer
• Marie Tempest, the Maestro
• Black Huiarnviu, the Púca
• Eric Finnsen, the Master Boatman
• Abernathy, Abernathy, and Chevrier, Attorneys-at-Law
• Inkeri Halvari, the Witch
• Grandmother Thorne, the Seller of Dreams
• Monsieur Dior, the Slaver
• Jeremy Carter, the Beggar