May 27, 2008

The Last True Flea Market

Consumers requiring a finely maintained used magic carpet, carnivore cactus or any other magical antiquites of the old desert have only one place to turn to: the Flea Market of Potar. Here you see Trader Zeno riding in for the annual event from the dust gales. He rides a rare Indignant Dust-Flea. These majestic, sensitive creatures hide on the backs of wild camels until they are captured by travellers such as Zeno. The traders make use of irreverent insults to offend the noble creature until they swell to a great size with indignance and render themselves a fine and speedy flotation device. Without his beast, Zeno could not hope to traverse the Gales to the tiny and remote locales where the last original magic carpets were made or to the great cities of industry where emigrants would sell their old rugs for discount prices; it is thus out of necessity that Zeno berates his mount so incessantly. If they were to make any sort of amends, Zeno's ride would shrink in happiness and he and his rugs would be left alone and helpless in the Gales.

The mouse in the cage is the formerly great sorcerer Moze, stripped of his human form by an old rival and forever confined to the cage. The indomitable Moze overcame his small stature and the limitations of his confinement to open a pawn shop just outside of Potar. He is one of the few merchants who keeps his shop open year round. His maintains his livelihood by animating whatever stray objects traders sell him and selling them as oddities or companions to travelers or keeping them as friends and servants.