A Rogue Jeweler at the Forum

From FiranMUX

Anarinuell - Forum.

Karish is perusing market wares. He looks like he wants to buy something, but hasn't really decided what he's after. Perfume? No... Weapons? Not here. He is aimless and wandering.

Ladonna also wanders into the forum, pausing at the sight of something particularly shiny. The merchant almost falls over himself to make a sale, calling to Ladonna as she begins to pass by. "Come back, come back! Look, it has a real, honest-to-Uf stone of pure, glittering mumblemumble!" he calls, holding it out to her. "It's just the prettiest thing you'll see in the marketplace!" Startled by the aggressive sale, Ladonna /does/ stop. She stops and looks at the merchant blankly. "A real ... if it's real, maybe," she says, drawn into the jeweler's stall like a moth to a flame. Oooh. Aahhh. *Firan*

A few of the cheering folk get polite nods or waves from Rianna as she makes her way through the market towards the bathhouse. As the weather is fairer than it has been in recent days the hood of her cloak is pushed back and her face with its myriad of faint scars is visible. Her blue eyes drift from one stall to another and she stops near someone selling tarts when she realises that she is hungry.

Karish continues to wander through the market. A merchant selling meat stew catches his attention and he wanders in towards him. He agrees to take a taste, but wrinkles his nose and waves the man away. "I don't like the smell of it, frankly... Not for that price, but thank ya." He wanders off towards the beverage merchants. *Firan*

Ladonna looks over her shoulder when the cheers go up. Rianna is in another part of the forum, Ladonna on the edges of those cheering masses. She gives a little clap but her attention is redirected back to this 'jewel' of a bracelet. "See how the edges are tinged with green? It's a new fashion, it is!" the merchant continues. Ladonna looks somewhat dubious, but she reaches for the jewelry and holds it up to her eye level. "It looks like someone stepped on it," she concludes hesitatingly, offering it back to the merchant. A stall or two over, she hears a somewhat familiar voice chattering about meat stew. Ladonna leans out of the jewelry merchant's stall (to his vast chagrin!) and looks for the source of that voice. "Oh, no, now, don't go! If you don't like it, I have lots more - lots more!" the merchant cries desperately. *Firan*

Rianna frowns as the merchants refuse to sell her some cherry tarts. "But I...oh blast." She mutters under her breath and stalks off. "Keep your bloody tarts, I'll get some wine instead." She grouses and grumbles and kicks a loose stone in a rather good imitation of a petulant child. *Firan*

Karish is wandering in the direction of the jewelry stalls, but stops at the tea stalls. He takes a sip of Yarrow from a particular merchants kettle and nods appreciably. "That's acceptable. Not perfect," Karish smiles. "How about a deal, huh?" Cue the pearly white smile and a wink. "Shiny coin." *Firan*

The merchant reaches out for Ladonna's wrist and pulls her back into the stall. Her hair flutters out behind her in a mass of delicate curls. "Oh!" she cries, the movement startling. The jewelry guy dude fellow holds up a necklace and places it on Ladonna's throat. "See?" he asks, gesturing her over to a mirror. "Look at those - green gems! Pretty!" Ladonna looks over her shoulder to see Rianna kicking stones, but the merchant still has her pretty firmly gripped. "Eme..ralds?" she asks somewhat pitifully. Oh, to leave! Perchance to go! "Better!" /Better/?

Rianna puts her hands on her hips and stops a stall or so away and looks at Ladonna and the over eager merchant. "That necklace is ugly and those are probably glass." She crosses her arms beneath her chest as if daring the man to correct her. The corner of her mouth twitches - perhaps a nervous tick or maybe she sometimes likes being rude to merchants. *Firan*

The merchant starts to sweat. CALLED OUT?! He looks Rianna over, eyes pausing at the Teranzik ring. Recognizing the signet, he pulls out all the stops. He bows, he scrapes, and he pulls Ladonna aside. Screw that! There's a Teranzik in the room! "My Lady, I assure you, that this is a fine piece of jewelry - a fine one indeed! But not so fine as the one /you/ deserve." The merchant digs around in his 'chest o treasure' and pulls out something that looks like gold encrusted with diamonds -- a bracelet. If it's real, it's surely worth a fortune! Ladonna's eyes go wide, not from the rather egregious slight of being thrown aside in the booth, but from the shinysparkly bracelet. "This, my lady! This is for a woman of your familial name!" Ladonna tears her gaze from the bracelet, looking at the item on her neck. Tap tap tap. She taps it. To see if it is glass. "Glass, my lady?" she asks, staring at her necklace. "Do you think?" The merchant shoots Ladonna a GLARE. GLARE GLARE. quiet, you!

Karish glances up to the side, some sharp movement catching his peripheral vision. It's not so much the people he notices as the salient details. Woman. Hand. Grabbing. Karish walks across the marketplace and enters the stall himself, but it appears he has arrived a moment too late to be needed. He glances at those assembled, and takes a step back.

Of all the things he could have shown her a supershinysparkly wonder bracelet is the one thing most likely to make Rianna cringe in horror. As it is displayed before her she almost physically recoils. "Do I look like that is the kind of thing I would wear?" She gestures to herself, her simple mourning clothes, her unornamented - save for the family ring - jewelry. "Tell me, peddler, does anything about me make you think I should like to wear something so clearly overblown and...' oh yes she goes there, 'tacky?" She sniffs disdainfully and nods to Ladonna, "Yes, I do think so. Merchants often try to by pass poorly made reproductions to commoners, they think you cannot tell the difference I suppose."

Ladonna removes the necklace slowly, prompting the merchant to look her way and frown. "Begging your pardon, my Lady," he says to Rianna, "but my items are neither tacky nor fake! Just take a look for yourself!" He would go show Rianna, but Karish now stands in his way. The merchant gives Karish a polite incline of the head. "Come to see the goods?" he says, eyes twinkling with friendliness. "Buy something for your wife! Go on, my boy, go on!" With two people in the stall, the merchant hesitates to leave and show Rianna the bracelet, so he bows several times and holds it out to her. "Forgive me, I thought you would like something to show your station! Perhaps if you come to the booth, my lady, you will find something more agreeable?" Ladonna holds the necklace out and stares at it; when she looks up, she spots Karish standing just outside the stall. "Oh, I thought I heard you, mer," she says pleasantly; on closer examination, however, she looks less pleasant, more exhausted. The merchant stands between Ladonna and the exit; she cannot leave. *Firan*

Karish gives the Merchant a blank stare that ends only when Ladonna speaks to him. He turns, nodding pleasantly to her with a smile. He gives Rianna a more pronounced bow of the head, but otherwise remains mostly out of the way in this interaction between nobles and merchants and women about jewelry, a subject about which he cares little. "I don't trust this particular merchant. He seems... Grabby," Karish offers to the general public. *Firan*

Rianna snorts. "Grabby for stenis." But then what merchant isn't. Rianna shakes her head at the jeweler's offer and says, "I don't buy off the stand." How gauche! She turns her head and looks at Karish then and nods then looks at Ladonna once more, "If it's not glass it won't break if you tap it against the table." She says it with some authority as if she knew ways to spot a fraudster. *Firan*

A few marketgoers turn their head when Karish announces that the merchant seems 'grabby'. Said merchant attempts to laugh it off. "Oh, mer, don't be -- don't be silly! Friendly, yes, but grabby? Oh, never! Such joking, mer! Come in, come in, and see what might please you - I'm sure you have a mother, a sister, a wife who would appreciate something sparkling, lovely. Something with a brilliant opal, perhaps?!" He steps back into the safety of his stall, just in case the unwashed masses start to get mad and in order to keep Ladonna inside -- one customer is better than no customers! "Mes, wouldn't you like something to make your face sparkle?" he asks her. Ladonna glances nervously from merchant to Rianna to Karish. Uhhh. Such aggressive sales! "I... I would have to ...think ... on it. My husband's ... health is ...poor." The merchant is about to reply; he begins to say, "All the more reason to have something pretty," but Rianna's 'bang it on the table' line permeates through the market, toward Ladonna. She looks at the necklace in her hand and then at Rianna. "Oh, that sounds--" the merchant's eyes widen and he darts for Ladonna, ripping the necklace from her palm. "We shall not be banging my wares on tables!"

Karish reaches up and grabs the merchant by the scruff of his tunic, giving him a quick steer and shove away from the women. "See what I mean? Grabby. And not selling very much in the way of jewelry worth buying. I mean... Really, who sells jewelry from a stall? Not a reputable jeweler, I'll tell you that much.' He folds his arms across his chest and gives the merchant a dark and foreboding look. *Firan*

"If it were well made it wouldn't fall apart," says Rianna. To prove it she knocks her platinum ring against the table. "See. The gemstones are real and stayed put." She clearly doesn't see why anyone would object to such a test. "And he's right you shouldn't be so snatchy. Its rude. I believe I might tell all the ladies I know to avoid your stall." She huffs to make herself sound even more pompous and nods to Karish, "Good man. Put him in his place."

The merchant's arms go up, hands out. The necklace falls to the ground, smudging itself in the dirt. "Oho, there, friend! No need to get upset!" he cries, stumbling backwards. This man is no match for Karish. "I think it's about closing time anyway! Closing time for the day, back another time!" A few of the other merchants, the other jewelry merchants, with actual wares give Karish a rather grouchy glare. One calls, "You sayin' I'm not reputable!?" Ladonna takes the opportunity to step around the merchant, behind Karish, and pick up the necklace. She looks over her shoulder at Rianna banging her signet ring and steps toward a table. The merchant calls, "Stop her!" He cannot do anything; Karish has him firmly grasped. If no one /does/ do anything to stop her, Ladonna bangs the necklace on the table. Once, nothing. The merchant breathes in relief. Twice, nothing. Another relieved exhale. But thrice, the third time, the entire necklace falls apart -- jewels shatter, metal unclasps, and Ladonna cuts her hand! A gasp from the crowd. It /is/ a fake!

Karish turns his back on the merchant. "Well, I think that settles that. Don't buy jewelry from the market." And Lo, a rash decision is made and declared. "Go rent a shop if you want to fleece people properly and get arrested the right way." *Firan*

If smugness could look smug it would look as Rianna does now. She is the epitome of smugness, the poster child for 'Neeneer Neener'ing and 'I Told You So'ing as she looks at the merchant. Her head turns towards the small crowd that has gathered around and she says, a finger going into the air, "You can never dupe a Teranzik."

People clap! No one likes a cheater. They clap for Karish, they clap for Rianna. What smart, daring people! Oh my! Ladonna, now with a slice in her hand, holds her palm and does /not/ clap. She steps out of the stall, away from the scrambling merchant, and stands near Karish. The merchant packs up -- packs up FAST. Time to bolt! "Do you think," she whispers innocently to Karish, "that the stalls with healing items are fakes too? Can you make fake bandages?" She shows him her hand.

Karish furrows his brows. "No, no, I don't... I think bandages are quite safe. Perhaps I should walk you home, Mes Harror, there's bound to be some fresher bandages there." He bows his head slightly to Rianna again, anticipating no disagreement. *Firan*

Rianna looks at Ladonna and frowns, "Yes, do take her home." She glares at the merchant, "See what your shoddy goods did. Disgraceful." She huffs and heads towards the bath then. Her work here is done. *Firan*