Three more locations in Dust Town

The Trappers' Market (#13/30; #103/365)

The Trappers' Market is the main trading area of Dust Town, and lies in the centre of the town, flanked by various shops, the Sandworm's Tooth tavern, and the Citadel of the Autarch. The Slimepit Oasis and the various temples are all nearby. It is full of stalls and carts selling and hawking everything from rugs and carpets to brass and copper-ware, and food and drink to bales of textiles and piles of building material (timber is especially expensive). Wheelies are in abundance, using their skills to transport items around the market and load and unload various visiting merchant caravans and convoys. A Bays' Ball team, Thangard's Trappers, also have their clubhouse close to the market as well.

Stalls that are likely of interest to adventurers and Heroes include:

• A Wheelie Circle Cult Shrine: This circular building contains a polished stone idol in the shape of the Wheelie Circle Rune. The Wheelie priest, Kayaz-Sol (dexterous, suspicious), welcomes unbelievers and encourages them in philosophical debates as to the nature of the gods and a belief may be a better choice than slavish devotion to some uncaring deity or demigod. While most Wheelies are followers of the Trickster God Logaan, some resent this slavish devotion to maintaining 'The Balance' and are instead acolytes of the Circle Rune (see Titan, p. 73), universal symbol of the Dark Lords and Chaos Gods. These Wheelie Circle Cultists can be detected by the presence of an iron ring worn on one of their four hands; denoting their allegiance to the Circle Rune.
• Food and Drink sellers: A variety of different foods and drinks are sold here. Roll a die to see what particular delicacy has been discovered:
• 1. Sheeps' eyeballs: 5SP per eyeball, surprisingly nutricious (+1 STAMINA if at least 10 are consumed)
• 2. Pellod's Pride ale, 1 pint: 2GP per pint, after four pints, an imbiber will be drunk, with -1 to their SKILL rolls, until they sober up after 1-3 hours. Further pints do not have cumulative penalties.
• 3. Roast Aardwolf joint: 2GP. Restores 4 STAMINA points
  
• 4. Desert Rat on a stick: 1GP each. Restores 2 STAMINA points but 1 in 6 chance of contracting Baddu Belly
  
• 5. Sidiki (distilled spirits made from dates), 1 shot: 1GP per shot. First shot adds 1 to SKILL. Second shot subtracts 2 from SKILL, 3rd shot subtracts 4 from STAMINA as imbiber vomits everywhere, 4th shot sends imbiber unconscious for 1-6 hours.
  
• 6. Seaman's grog, 1 gourd: 1GP per gourd, restores 2 STAMINA points but -1 skill for 10-60 minutes.
  
• Flying Carpet Transporter:  A Desert Elf Wizard, Kharhanion the Competant (short-sighted, cowardly) owns a large Flying Carpet that seats three extra passengers (see Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1, p. 129), and will offer passage to various places for set prices as below per passenger (prices for other locations will have to be negotiated based on distance and danger):
• Pellod: 25GP
  
• Tavern of Tan-Kha: 25GP
  
• Sapphire City: 50GP
  
• Shazaar: 100GP
  
• Oyster Bay: 100GP
  
• Salamonis: 150GP
  
• Halak: 150GP
  
• Rimon: 150GP
  

A Merchant's Pass is needed if one wishes to sell things in the Trappers' Market - they can be purchased from the Autarch's mercenary militia for 5GP. Anyone new attempting to sell things without the correct paperwork will be reported by outraged nearby sellers to a mercenary patrol.

The main focus of the Trappers' Market however, are the trappers themselves. While it is true that the wilds of Allansia are full of powerful and deadly monsters, it is also true that many of these creatures possess ivory horns and claws, strange glands and organs, and beautiful pelts and skins, that are all intrinsically valuable to merchants, sorcerers and alchemists. Some monsters are even captured alive, for display in the private zoo of a southern noble or perhaps to be used as a fighting-beast in a gladiatorial arena. Hence a new profession has arisen, that of the dedicated Monster Trapper.

These are rough warrior types, usually ex-adventurers or soldiers, clad in leather armour, armed with swords, and mounted on fast horses. Monster Trappers also use nets, whips, and often coat the blades of their weapons with sleep-inducing venom (Test for Luck or fall asleep for one hour). They have no patience with time-wasters and are primarily interested in profit and getting their dangerous cargo (usually trussed up, manacled, or held in large box on a wagon) to the animal traders’ markets and then sold, as quickly as possible.

To determine how many monsters are in the market on any given day, roll one die:

Roll	No. of Monsters
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	3
6	4

For every captured monster, roll three dice on the following table. You may accept or re-roll duplicate results as you like:

Roll	Monster	skill	stamina	attacks	See also
3	Manticore	12	18	3	Out of the Pit (p. 79)
4	Cockatrice	7	7	2	Out of the Pit (p. 30)
5	Pit Fiend	12	15	3	Out of the Pit (p. 93)
6	Styracosaurus	11	10	3	Young form. Out of the Pit (p. 38)
7	Gretch	10	13	1	Out of the Pit (p. 63)
8	Dracon	9	14	2	Out of the Pit (pp. 39-40)
9	Clawbeast	9	14	2	Out of the Pit (pp. 28-29)
10	Tarator	8	13	1	Out of the Pit (pp. 112-113)
11	Nandibear	9	11	2	Out of the Pit (pp. 86-87)
12	Great Serpent	9	12	1	Beyond the Pit (pp. 117-118)
13	Shauca	9	14	2	Return to the Pit (pp. 166-167)
14	Griffin	10	10	2	Beyond the Pit (pp. 62-63)
15	Wyvern	10	11	2	Out of the Pit (p. 122-123)
16	Tyrannosaurus	12	12	3	Young form. Out of the Pit (p. 38)
17	Basilisk	5	8	1	Out of the Pit (pp. 18-19)
18	Chimera	12	20	3	Return to the Pit (p. 45)

There is a 1 in 6 chance that a monster may free themselves during the day. Freed monsters will attack trappers first, and may or may not attack Heroes depending on their intelligence, reactions and whether the Heroes helped them escape. They may also attempt to free any other captured monsters as well, and once some trappers are slain will usually flee back into the wilderness.

TRAPPER

SKILL: 8

STAMINA: 7

WEAPON: Sword, Whip or Net

ARMOUR: Leather Cuirass

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 2-7

REACTION: Unfriendly-Hostile (in wild), Neutral (in town)

The Scorpions' Den (#14/30; #104/365)

The Scorpions are the local Dust Town equivalent of a guild of thieves, and each member is recognizable due to a blue scorpion tattoo on the palm of their hand. They are loosely affiliated with similar but larger organizations further up and down the coast, especially the Rogues' Guild of Pellod. Visiting thieves, if known, will be expected to refrain from practicing nefarious activities while in Dust Town, unless granted permission by, or paying fees in advance to, the Scorpions. All local thieves pay membership dues and a cut of their income to the Scorpions; 'unfortunate accidents' have been known to happen to those that do not.

The head of the Scorpions is Skoba Shkarb Zhib (young-looking, unhappy), a heavily-tattooed Chervah who is always armed with a hand crossbow and a case of poison-tipped bolts. Skoba is the latest to rise to the top of the food chain in the unending struggle that is the internecine leadership dispute of the Scorpions. Skoba has smartly aligned the thieves with the Autarch, who employs them for clandestine missions such as spying and assassinations in Dust Town, Pellod and even beyond. Within Dust Town, the Scorpions collect 'protection fees' from most businesses as well as a cut of the winnings from the Arena, the Bays' Ball games and the Racetrack.

The Scorpions' Den is in a backwater street behind the Trappers' Market, above a leather tannery (Skoba's official 'business'). The Scorpions can be contacted by leaving a message with Kalin of the Inn of Yellow Lamps; the 'quietness' of that Inn suits the Scorpions perfectly for meetings and assignations. Currently, the Scorpions are searching for Skraybar Dooong Zubiel (see #66), who is fleeing creditors from both Pellod and Dust Town. Skraybar has addictions to both gambling and smoking Purple Lotus, and the Scorpions would very much like to know of his whereabouts.

Gem Street (#15/30; #105/365)

Outside of Sapphire City, this is one of the larger prospector enclaves in the area, give over to assayers, jewellers, gem merchants, rough taverns, a Dwarf shrine to Kerillim the Earth Mother (Throff), and even a clubhouse for the local Bays' Ball team (the 'Gem Street Prospectors'). 

Dust Town miners and prospectors strike out south, east, and particularly north, through the desert’s rockier wastes, looking for seams of gold and gemstone deposits. They have also been known to uncover ancient ruins from the earlier civilizations that once ruled the Desert of Skulls. 

These prospector gangs are small in number and not especially heavily armed, but they are fiercely protective of any finds they make and will attack immediately if they think they are about to be robbed. To determine the race and number of prospectors roll on the table below. Scores for human prospectors can be found at the end of this section; for non-humans you can use these scores as well, or consult the relevant entry in Out of the Pit:

Roll	Prospector Type	Number Encountered	See also
1	Goblin	4-24	Out of the Pit (pp. 60-61). Led by 1-3 Man-Orcs or Ogres
2	Black Elf	3-18	Out of the Pit (p. 46)
3-4	Human	2-12	See below.
5	Dwarf	2-12	Out of the Pit (p. 43)
6	Gold Rush!	10-60	Small fortified settlement of all races, frantically stripping a seam of gold

To determine what the prospectors have found (or not!), roll on the following table. Exact details as to whether the find is valuable, viable, or exhausted are left to the Director to determine as they see fit:

Roll	Find Type	Notes
1	Diamonds	Prospectors have found a small deposit of diamonds.
2	Ivory	Prospectors have found a monsters graveyard full of ivory tusks and claws.
3	None!	Prospectors are currently empty-handed and unhappy.
4	Sapphires	Prospectors have found a deposit of sapphires.
5	Gold	Prospectors have found a small seam of gold.
6	Ruins	Prospectors have found an ancient ruin or tomb they are looting.

DUST TOWN PROSPECTOR

SKILL: 7

STAMINA: 7

WEAPON: Pick-axe (as per Handaxe)

ARMOUR: Leather Cuirass

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 2-12

REACTION: Neutral-Unfriendly (in town or wild)