Caravan Court

A marketplace has sprung up surrounding the boarded-up water well in the village square. This colourful collection of caravans, wagons, canvas tents, and makeshift stalls is the hub of commerce for adventurers, scavengers, and prospectors looking to make their fortune in Drakkenheim. Dozens of canny merchants have set up shop here to cater to the needs of the factions and explorers. Traders and new goods arrive here daily, and the market is constantly abuzz with explorers looking to sell relics and treasures unearthed in Drakkenheim, or buy equipment needed for a dangerous voyage into the city ruins. Amongst the bustle, heavily armed and armoured thugs load ponderous wagons with locked and leaden chests filled with delerium shards for trade in distant cities. Activity carries on through the afternoon, but most pack up shortly after sunset to head to the taverns and bars for drinks.

Marlowe’s Provisions

Eren Marlowe, a human commoner, sets up a small makeshift stall with a few wooden tables displaying jars of dried fruits, packages of cured meats, jugs of water, mead, and bags of assorted nuts. Adventurers often come here for provisions that won’t rot or spoil during their treks into the contaminated ruins.

• Any food, water, and rations can be purchased here for five times the market price

Gainsbury Expeditionary Supply Company

This caravan is loaded high with boxes and barrels of goods. Laid out on a small table are samples of climbing gear, cartographer’s instruments, goggles, heavy leather gloves, mining picks, torches, tongs, and assorted tools for navigation and survival in the ruins.

• Armin Gainsbury, a bespectacled and beanpole-shaped human commoner, carries all manner of adventuring gear which they sell for twice the market value.
• Gainsbury is especially well stocked on mining and prospecting equipment, and sells a pamphlet detailing the correct methods for safely handling and extracting delerium crystals. A copy costs 1 gp. The information inside is filled with hyperbolic (but correct) warnings. The instructions are overly detailed and rather long-winded, but reasonably accurate.

Fairweather Trades and Exports

An iron-bound stagecoach is parked here flanked by two massive flat-bedded wagons with stacks of leaden and steel studded chests, overseen by a dozen armoured men.

• Orson Fairweather (a human gladiator) is among the most prolific exporters of delerium operating in Emberwood Village. The stout man has a heavily scarred and aged face, a leather eyepatch, and a mouth of gold teeth. He speaks little of his own history or exploits, but entertains rumours about his past life as a pirate and adventurer.
• Fairweather has a security force of a dozen veterans, and has paid the Amethyst Academy to create arcane locks and glyphs of warding to protect his wares from thieves.

Fairweather is among the few merchants in town willing and able to purchase delerium in vast quantities. He offers half the list price and doesn’t make deals. He furiously rebukes anyone who questions his motives or asks prying inquiries about his buyers. Countless folk in distant lands purchase delerium for unknown reasons, and in the grand scheme of things, Fairweather is just a middle man.