Melistrad's Market

Incomplete. Never  will be complete. Don't get too excited.

There is a town surrounded by crumbling walls. It is a town because the term city is too generous of a description. The town is partially in a swamp, and right next to a mountain. There are hills next to the town where fields grow crops. But few farmers grow crops these days. No one has the money to pay for goods or the goods to sell for money. Why? What happened? Thieves and pickpockets.

A general idea of the market’s decline is as through a demonstration of ore to crops. And crops are food. A miner sells his ore to the smelter, who sell his ingots to the blacksmith, who sells his tools to everyone and the farmer, which farmer sells his crops to everyone. But there are thieves who have no money because they have no jobs. So they steal for their food.

The thieves steal crops from the farmer. The farmer now has less crops to sell. The farmer has a net loss of money per harvest yield. They sell for less than the cost to produce their food. So they no longer have the money to pay for the tools of the blacksmith. The blacksmith, smelter and miner no longer buy anything but food as the farmer increases prices for crops as they have less to sell.

But since miner only buys crops, he cannot buy the pickaxe from the blacksmith to mine the ore. Without the ore, he cannot sell to the smelter, who would not bother buying as he is focused on buying food. The smelter cannot sell ingots to the blacksmith, who would not bother buying as he is also focused on buying crops. The problem becomes clear. The thieves must be stopped.

Pickpockets and thieves. They steal food and sometimes of coins. But they are not all apprehended. They are not all able to be stopped. Those who are caught must be fed while in prison. Those who are caught still benefit and do not pay. This constant drain causes disaster.

The disaster seen by Tilik. Tilik was a pickpocket in his youth. A thief, a burglar. He stole in stealth. He would never let himself be found out. But Tilik had grown out of that. He had gotten a job as a farmer. He would not let himself down that road again. Yet, he saw no other alternative than to join the thieves of Melistrad. So sometimes in day and sometimes in night, he would toil in the field to grow crops. But then when the thieves and the pickpockets went to steal, he would join them and learn again how to rob men blind.

Tilik, by his robbing, gained the tools and money to grow his crops. But he wanted to do more than make do. He wanted to do more than survive during this time of depression and crime. He wanted to help the town recover. But what could he do? He could sell at lower prices because he stole, but his stealing removed the supply for the blacksmith to sell, so the chain of commerce broke, disabling the financial ability of the blacksmith, smelter and miner. Only as a farmer, would he survive due to his crime.

So he devised a plan. It would be slow to take its course. He hoped he would live long enough to see it through. Tilik wasn’t particularly old, but he wondered if his plan could succeed in less than a century. It seemed like it would take too long. So he enacted it immediately.

Tilik went to the market and laid out his crops. He would sell all that he could. But few could afford them, and some would steal his goods. But due to Tilik’s robbing, he had a large amount of money in store. He would likely run out far before his plan was complete. During the market time, he stood at his shop, it was like a kiosk out in the square. Some people simply held their goods in wagons, carts, or wheel barrows. The customers came, along with the thieves.

Tilik watched until the people cleared away from his shop, they all knew his price. Those that could afford it had already paid. Without people nearby, the chance for thievery was over. But thieves would gain another chance soon enough. Tilik had purposefully placed only a small amount of crops at his shop. Very few would be able to afford them, this also reduce the amount that could be stolen.

So he walked away from his shop. And he entered the crowd by the blacksmith. People were there for the most simple of tools. There were very few tools, all for ridiculous prices. The blacksmith didn’t have much business or profit because farmers decided to make do with the tools they already had, no matter how rusted or broken.

Some people stole some tools, but Tilik would be different. Tilik stole a plow, but he also paid for it. He placed his money in the apron pocket of the blacksmith, he made sure to shake the pocket a bit before leaving, so the blacksmith would notice his work. Tilik smiled as he slipped back into the crowd.

The blacksmith stuck his hand into his pocket and took out a few coins and a slip of paper. Tilik knew what it said. “Tilik paid 125 pieces for your plow, paid through a pickpocket.” The paper was a key part of his plan. He needed to have people associate this paper in a pocket method of communication with pickpocket commerce.

From then on, this was the only way Tilik would buy his goods. But he needed to enact the second part of his plan in order to keep suspicion off him. For this to work, no one could know that the pickpocket was Tilik. This seems difficult, as he seemed to straight up say that he was the pickpocket. Right?

The blacksmith thought that Tilik had stolen his plow and paid for it through pickpocketry. But when the market hours were over, and the blacksmith went back to his house to count his coins and make sure that he really was 125 pieces for his plow, he found a small slip of paper by his door. It said,

“Pickpocket commerce: during market hours, put a slip of paper in your pocket, slightly sticking out, visible to those who are watching. This paper will name the product you are buying, the person you are buying from, and the amount of money you are paying. Make sure to fill that pocket with the amount of coins listed on the paper because pickpocket commerce will not double check your coin amount. Pickpocket commerce will take the money and the paper, take the good asked for if it is for sale at the price listed on the paper, place the coins from your pocket to the pocket of the target, and return the product asked for to you. Pickpocket commerce needs no payment. Pickpocket commerce can make their own coin.”

The blacksmith realized that Tilik must have used this service. He must have paid a pickpocket to perform a transaction for him, so he wouldn’t have to leave his shop. The blacksmith thought of it as paid, because he did not believe the pickpocket would do this for free. Yet, he did get 125 pieces. The amount he had listed as his price on the sign of his shop. Perhaps the pickpocket simply stole out of your wares or coins when you weren’t looking. It didn’t matter. The blacksmith decided he wouldn’t trust pickpocket commerce.

At market time, Tilik realized that he had a few problems. There was no way he could check everyone’s pockets during the market time without leaving his shop for a suspiciously large amount of time. During such an absence, thieves and pickpockets would be able to steal the crops from his shop.

So how could he accomplish what he planned to do? He decided he would close up shop. Certainly, this would bring suspicion as to why he suddenly closed up shop after paying for goods through pickpocet commerce. This would make it so nobody trusted pickpocket commerce. What could he do? It was simple. He would lie.

It was simple enough. He closed up his shop. He placed up a banner over his entire shop announcing that he would now only work through pickpocket commerce due to lack of a fee and ease of service. He no longer needed to personally deal with customers. People who wanted to buy his goods could simply use pickpocket commerce to buy his crops, and he could use it to buy from others. He would never even need to leave his station.

He covered his entire shop with large thick blanket or cloth, though it was more like a carpet due to how thick it was. This ostentatiously to keep the Sun off him and give him privacy. He clearly needed to be at the market in order for pickpocket commerce to operate, but he also needed to be out of sight so that nobody noticed that he was pickpocket commerce.

He laid down a banket and a bundle of clothes under inside the tarp-covered shop. And he made sort of a scare-crow wearing clothes and a blanket to imitate a person sleeping. Under the darkness of the opaque cloth tarp covering the shop, anyone who happened to peak under the cloth and inside should believe to have found him sleeping.

Obviously thieves and pickpockets would go about and try to steal his goods, and he needed to have his goods available for people to buy, even if only pickpocket commerce was able to buy them. So he placed a large wooden chest with a massive lock on it under the tarp of the shop. Anyone who found it, would see the chest and the lock and know it held his crops. But pickpockets and thieves might break in and steal his crops despite his lock.

How could he protect against thieves and pickpockets? Well, he didn’t. The lock would have to be enough for now. Either way, he was now able to perform his works as pickopocket commerce while assumablly being at his shop. But what if somebody recognized him? He wore drastically different clothes than his normal attire. Instead of dirty grey shirt and blue overalls, he wore a fine blue shirt under a brown coat. He still wore blue overalls, but the coat should cover the fact that they are overalls instead of pants.

Instead of his yellow sombrero made of straw, he wore a grey cap. On his head under his cap, he hid a tan-colored wooden mask. A thin veil in the form of a cowl spread from the mask down his neck, but the high collar of his coat should hide the veil around his neck. The string to the mask was around his head, but loose as the mask was over his head. Should he lift his cap off his head, the mask should fall to cover his face and the string should become taught and tight.

He should now be able to go around without being recognized. Hopefully, people wouldn’t notice how strange he looked. He needed to do more advertisement for pcikpocket commerce. His sign would be enough. But if everyone notices that Tilik is the only one who uses pickpokcet commerce, he might fall under suspicion. So he had to lie again. He also had to spend money of his own. If this didn’t work, he was going to run out of money quickly.

Wrote a message on a slip of paper. It said, “Faldaw paid 23 pieces for your green patterned with stripes of red and purple buttoned-up vest.” It was a lie. Faldaw hadn’t paid anything. Faldaw didn’t even use her pocket commerce. Faldaw was the innkeeper. He was at the market today. But as an innkeeper, he didn’t have shop. It was going to difficult to give him the clothes and convince him that pickpocket commerce had paid for it to show how service was done.

So after paying for and grabbing the green vest, Tilik made his way over to the blacksmith, where Faldaw was arguing about the price. Tilik didn’t listen to their conversation. He needed to focus. With another slip of paper he had written out in advance, he placed the paper in Faldaw’s vest pocket. Then for the hard part. He got out another slip of paper, he placed this one sticking partly out of the front pocket of the green vest he bought. Then he held the neck of the vest where the opening for the head is, so it would now face Faldaw. Then he thrust the vest up Faldaw’s arm then quickly backed off with the rest of the crowd. He watched, he needed to make sure this worked.

Faldaw dropped the vest, then he looked around, trying to see who could have done this. Then he picked up the vest and looked at all sides of it, trying to understand what had happened. He took out the paper, and his eyes widened. His hands went to his pocket where he took out another piece of paper, then he looked at the vest. Then looked at Tryata’s clothing shop. He walked to Tryata to made sure that his vest had been paid for.

Meanwhile, a passer in the crowd grabbed the slip of paper that Faldaw had dropped to the ground, the one that had been in the green vest. He read it aloud. “Check your pockets?” He read it like a question, but Tilik knew it was merely a suggestion to help Faldaw notice his first note.

Tryata and Faldaw talked together about pickpocket commerce and what it meant. The motives behind someone who would help perform market transactions in their stead and for free. They did not trust it of course, but they were more trusting of it than they were initially. Clearly, this was a business plan. Why else would pickpocket commerce offer to perform a service for free and even pay out of their own pocket to recruit you as a customer? Somehow, pickpocket commerce must be making money. The only way anyone could fathom that they made money is through pickpocketing and stealing. No one wanted to support a thief with opportunities to steal. No one wanted someone like that handling their money.

Tilik knew his plan was working. It was working slowly. But he needed it to work faster or he wuld be unable to sustain this practice. Nobody bought his crops anymore because he would only allow customers to get them through pickpocket commerce, which nobody used. He also needed a better method of delivery.

Placing coins and papers into a pocket is easy, but he can’t slip goods and products into people’s grasp without them noticing. Especially detrimental when he does it without their asking. So set up chests. He set up chests at everybody’s house. The chests were locked and named as the deposit of goods for the owner of the house the chest stood by. He couldn’t buy these chests.

He didn’t have the money to do that. So he had to make his own. He had to go to the swamp and cut down his own trees. He had to go the smithy and make his own tools. He had to go to the mine and mine his own ore. He had to go the smeltry and refine his own ingots. He had to go back to the smithy again to mold his own locks and keys. Each one had to be a unique pair of lock and key.

The process was incredibly long. So he didn’t actually place a locked chest by everyone’s house until over decade after he started the process. But to start with he began nightly expeditions to cut trees, make and fix tools, mine ore, smelt ingots, and make chests and locks. He did at night so no one would notice him using the smithy, the mine, the smeltry or the swamp’s trees.

Even if he had accomplished the task immediately, it wouldn’t have been good enough. So he exercised most of his efforts, not on the chests, which is probably why it took so long, but he focused on recruiting pickpockets. This was necessary because he was nrealy out of money and nowhere near his goal.

He knew how to look for pickpockets. And when he found one steal something, he would slip a piece of paper into their pocket. Preferably, a pocket where they’re hiding stolen goods or money. The paper simply said, “You want coin and pickpocket commerce wants you. Meet in the swamp with freshly chopped down trees past the lumberyard at twilight if you want to here more.”

Nobody showed up. That was fine. Tilik needed to chop some trees anyway. He wore all leather. Leather shirt, leather coat, leather pants, leather shoes, leather cowl, leather mask, and leather backpack. He would have to continue to invite pickpockets, they’d turn up eventually, right? Wrong.

He was so wrong. The majority of his problem was that he didn’t understand pickpockets. He was pickopocket in his youth, but he did that for fun. He pulled heists and stole in broad daylight because of the thrill. But these pickpockets stole out of necessity. They didn’t want money. They wanted to live. They didn’t consier themselves criminals because they only did what was necessary to survive.

Tilik didn’t know this until a pickpocket finally did show up. It was a child. A little boy maybe twelve years old. He asked the boy why he came. They boy was scared and near crying. The boy talked about the note he found in his pocket. How he was so scared that someone had been able to place something onto his person without him knowing. It didn’t matter that Tilik had intended to give a friendly invitation, it came across as a threat. A threat that said, “I can put things in your pockets without you knowing. I can be at your side at anytime and you won’t know.”

The boy continued to talk. There were tears now. He talked about how he didn’t want to go to the lumberyard. It was away from the city, it would be just turning night. He could be hurt and nobody would notice. He could be robbed and no one would come to help. When he follows directions of an anonymous pickpocket, he is putting himself at the mercy of whatever this stranger plans.

So why did the boy come? Why did he come when it was so scary and dangerous. He came because he needed money. The invitation hadn’t said he would get money, it had merely implied it. But the boy needed money, he knew he couldn’t continue to steal forever, he was going to get caught one day. That day, he had been seen pickpocketing and chased. He barely made it out without getting caught. Caught as in physically taken. Everyone saw him. Everyone knew. They knew what he looked like and he couldn’t go back tomorrow. That was why he came to the swamp past the lumberyard this night. He was desperate.

Tilik was in shock. He hadn’t realized how threatening his invitation seemed to others. He had merely wanted it to be a place where they could meet in private and away from the town. But it seemed obvious now. No one came. They were too scared, and they didn’t care for money. Most pickpockets probably didn’t like stealing, and everyday feared they would be caught. He needed a different approach. He couldn’t come at these pickpockets as if offering a money-making opportunity, he needed to come to them offering protection, shelter, and the necessities they desired.

So he helped the boy. He taught boy what he planned to do, and asked the boy for advice on how to approach others with an invitation. The first thing the boy suggested was to place the meeting area inside of the town, not in a creepy swamp. Tilik hadn’t considered that the swamp might seem creepy. Tilik then helped the child in ways the boy needed. He had originally planned to pay pickpockets to perform trading transactions for the people and punish them if they stole, but he saw now that he needed a different method.

He promised the boy that he had a method to save him from being caught tomorrow. He also promised the boy a way he can help that he will give the boy food for doing. The boy was very much grateful that this invitation was not a trap, but rather a genuine invitation and opportunity.

He instructed that the boy stay in Tilik’s shop under the tarp during market hours.