Forfeit's Pawnshop

[Reliant]

The squat, unassuming building sits hidden deep within the fringes of Abestat's primary market district, entertaining an unsteady trickle of customers any hour of the day or night. Nothing about it bespeaks affiliation with one of the great conglomerate trading houses which make their headquarters elsewhere in the city, but it persists there in its comfortable anonymity without them, never seeming to close even as its 'representatives' slip through the rear entrance to bring in a fresh haul of goods from the edges of Alleria or beyond.

Often the first word which comes to mind when viewing the merchandise of Forfeit's Pawn is "ecclectic," which fits just fine until more colorful terms come to mind. The old wooden shelves to either side of the proprietor's counter seem to curve outward toward prospective buyers, giving an uneasy sense of vertigo only broken by a pair of egg-shaped windows on each wall. The unpolished wooden surface of the floor is rough underfoot, though much of it is covered by a series of small threadbare rugs of both exotic and domestic make. The various wares which may be found throughout the shop are arranged on the shelves haphazardly, paying no heed to any kind of schematic or design.

On first glance one may spy a small assortment of common used weapons, an array of secondhand clothes, old maps and various other travel supplies. More miscellaneous objects include dice, decks of cards, tobacco pipes, a few musical instruments - both woodwind and stringed - strapped against the far wall behind the counter, a number of stuffed fish and animals still vibrant in ferocious poses, and a rack of well-polished bits of jewelry. All of the latter are quite eye-catching, some clearly intended for those of faith while others are merely decorative but have an enigmatic mystique about them.

The discerning consumer may catch some items which appear far too new and untouched to be the providence of a pawn shop, but in general there is such a wide assortment of things to see and such a lack of order that if one truly wished to find anything it would be recommendable to approach the shopkeep. Two pieces of paper are tacked to the wall in plain view of entering customers: one of them, framed, is a crisp white business license bearing the official seal of the city of Abestat. The other, a faded piece of papyrus marked in spidery but not illegible handwriting, reads as follows:

FORFEIT'S PAWN

Providers of new and used merchandise, adventurer's necessities, items of faith and enchantment. Can't find what you are looking for? Inquire with our clerk!

Beneath this a number of different names have been both written and crossed out, all of them appearing to have been scrawled in the same rushed hand of the rest of the announcement. Apparently, whoever is in charge of hiring in this establishment eventually gave up on trying to keep track of the employees, and ceased making any further additions to the sheet. Potential shoppers would have to ask after service to discern who was on duty at the moment, as the attendant is often found preoccupied with business in the back room.

OOC: Originally written by Cabbit, edited by Reliant.