The Lantern Hollow Markets

• Original Purpose: A chaotic open-air bazaar.
• Current Purpose: Zalara’s primary center of commerce, socializing, gossip, and minor enchantment trade.

• Narrow streets lined with colorful awnings and towers of hanging lanterns, many of which change color with the mood of passersby.
• Hidden courtyards where performances or secret auctions unfold.

• Main entrances under delicate archways woven from driftwood and sea glass.
• Dozens of smaller side alleys spiral in from residential areas.

• Sight: Lanterns dance overhead, illusionary dolphins leap between roofs.
• Sound: Merchant cries mingle with soft chimes of ward-bells and the laughter of illusionary children.
• Smell: Salted caramel, strange spices, ink from freshly printed spell scrolls.
• Touch: Fabrics sold here seem impossibly soft, even those woven from kelp or eel hide.

• Merchants of every stripe — elven jewelwrights, halfling confectioners, human glassblowers, and visiting traders from inland.
• Illusionists who busk by crafting scenes in midair.
• A scattering of small sea spirits who slip through crowds unnoticed.

• Canopies of enchanted cloth that dim or brighten with the sun.
• Stalls piled high with enchanted shells, minor glamour rings, potions that taste like memories.

Lantern Hollow Goods

• Some illusions are designed to pickpocket or confuse outsiders, leading them into dead ends where cutpurses wait.
• Wards hidden in lanterns flare painfully bright if theft or violence erupts.

• The entire market is covered by a loose weave of illusions maintained by a silent pact of local mage guilds, enhancing its dreamlike appeal.

Certain alleys seem to shift location over years, possibly due to gradual magical “drift” from the constant illusions.

• Lightweight, airy structures with flowing banners, designed to sway gently with sea winds.
• Lantern towers act as both waypoints and subtle magical amplifiers.

Watchful illusionists and subtle wards — and, if needed, the Lantern Wardens, discreet but potent enforcers armed with spells that unravel hostile magics.

• Site of the first trade pact with surface merchants from Embergarde.
• Famous for the Night of a Thousand Lanterns, when the entire market floats illusions up into the sky, telling Zalara’s stories in living light.

A must-visit for any traveler to Virellia, whether to buy enchanted seashell charms, consult a seer, or simply lose oneself among drifting lanterns and whispered futures.