Markets: Riverside
Every color of the rainbow hangs in riverside market. Bright green vegetables, varicolored clothes, and translucent trinkets vie for your attention in the stalls by the river.
But more than colors, sounds draw your attention as well. You hear the growl of animals and the chirps of caged birds all around. Bears in bright ribbons dance at the end of ropes. Actors in heavy greasepaint compete with the bears for your attention and coins. Merchants cry the value of their wares. Everywhere is action, noise, and spectacle.
The riverside market on the river in the south side provides food for the tables of everyone in eastside and southside. It is filled with food, clothing, and strange trinkets. It has a circus atmosphere, and even has the occasional dancing bear. While magic is as feared by normal people in Fork as anywhere else, magical ingredients (at least for first and second level spells) are easily available at the market.
Markets: Westside
Barges, rafts, and sailboats line both sides of the river. Burly men carry boxes out to the docks, and load and unload cargo from the boats. Children dart around them and under them, kicking highballs and hitting the sides of buildings—and each other—with their bats.
Here a nervous merchant harangues a group of longshoremen carrying his goods. There a group of nobles head towards silvergate after passing their weapons to the bondsman walking beside them. Everywhere people argue, fight, and barter. Money exchanges hands—you can almost watch the silver flow down the docks like it was part of the river itself.
All boats disgorge their goods west of the wall. Trade here tends to be in bulk, as merchants jostle for wholesale bargains, buying and selling their cargo. From here, goods are transferred further down (or up) the river, or through the gates into Fork proper.
Markets: Outside
Dust clouds blow slowly across grey tents. The smoky odor of sour meat wafts by, alternating with stale beer and bread. The sheer volume of noise dulls your hearing as you walk through the cramped alleys of the market outside Fork’s tall stone walls.
Take the criminals who can’t make it in Fork, all the merchants who can’t afford to pay the fees, all the travelers who are easily convinced that the real deals are the deals unapproved by market officials. Mix a heavy dose of dust, mud, and noise. Toss in some brawls, murders, and brutal scams, and you’ve got the Fork Outside Market.
There are no paved roads outside of Fork. There is dust everywhere, and mud when it rains.
