KZM
The Call of the Wilderness
KZM
The Call of the Wilderness
KZM
This ostentatiously green shop houses some of the most rare and novel instruments found on Mizahar. That's the line anyway, and the two owners expend vast amounts of wealth and calculation ensuring the people of Mizahar believe it. The means by which the owners acquire their wares range from benignly amusing to outright villainous. Many a craftsman has been offered paid trips to the city, prestigious workshop positions, and small fortunes in exchange for their work. But many other, less powerful craftsmen have been intimidated, blackmailed, stolen from, or even murdered in the Call of the Wilderness' eternal quest to have the most rarefied instruments in existence. Their attention is as dangerous as it is complimentary, but there are places to create rare instruments safely in Mizahar. Currently the Call of the Wilderness only has talent agents stationed in Alvadas, Lhavit, and Syliras.
The store began as a specialty shop, and is still known for the taxidermied instruments produced by Corvin Hunter, one of the owners. Some of the creatures he puts on display are so rare they don't seem quite real, and some, when played, emit sounds disturbingly similar to their living counterparts. Shoppers have occasionally reported getting bit while perusing the wares, or instruments squirming in their hands on high notes. But The Call of the Wilderness is much more than that now, and houses instruments of every kind--even ones that can scarcely be imagined, that produce music too beautiful to bear, or so they say. Whether this can be true is another question, but the owners go out of their way to collect the most impressive instruments they can find and cultivate an awesome reputation because of it.
There is little semblance of organization in the shop's interior. Instruments are piled and scattered more or less randomly on the first and second floor, although the rarer (and hideously expensive) items are generally found on the second floor. The interior is musty but well-kept, however. On the ground floor is a desk just next to the impressive wooden front doors, where Evanty stands to serve customers and keep an eye on the cheapskate timewasters who filter in through the door to look at their 'lesser' stock. Upstairs, Corvin keeps an eye on customers, and deals with the sales of their more important stock. Connecting the three floors are a set of elaborate wooden stairs, with a stair-rail decorated with all kinds of animals, birds and beasts, covered with dust for the most part. On the top floor is Corvin's living quarters, as well as a well-lit space for workshops from visiting craftsmen and musicians.
The ground floor is home to the most basic and unremarkable of the Call of the Wilderness' merchandise--low-cost instruments suitable for beginners and "unadventurous performers". Though the co-owners depend on the reliable revenue coming from these ordinary items, they are extremely resentful towards the buyers. In an effort to "spice things up," they have become known for mixing a small percentage of "duds" in with the first floor merchandise. These seemingly normal instruments can be incredibly annoying the potential buyers. For instance, there's the flute that is impossible to play no matter how good you are, the lute where every string is broken and tenuously glued together again, and the fiddle that is riddled through with woodworm, that turns to dust the moment a note is played. Poor, novice musicians often wander the ground floor with a look of trepidation, for there's always a small chance that the very act of purchasing an instrument will ruin their career before it even starts. The owners never give refunds.
The Call of the Wilderness doesn't only sell instruments, however. In the courtyard in front of their doors they host biannual concerts, where performers either volunteer or are commissioned to put on free music using the store's instruments as an advertisement. The store also hosts workshops every first and last day of a season, where various guest craftsmen describe some of their process, offer music lessons, and advertise their products for a fee.
Occasionally there have been scandals alleging The Call of the Wilderness forges money, or that they've stolen their produce from someone better, but so far the accusations have done little to curb business or hamper the operations of its two owners.
Corvin Hunter
Race: Human
DoB: 20 Fall 455 AV
PoB: Alvadas
Title: Co-owner of The Call of the Wilderness
Skills: Malediction (Expert); Enbalming (Expert); Persuasion (Competent); Carving (Competent); Painting (Competent); Tactics (Novice); Carpentry (Novice)
Gnosis: Hapchance (3 uses left as of Fall 516 AV)
Corvin spent much of his early years attempting to become a bard. He was enchanted by the sound of songbirds and the skittering of rats in the unkempt hovel he lived in, and wanted to recreate the joy he felt hearing those sounds for an audience.
Unfortunately, he was terrible at composing music. No one would allow him into shops or taverns to play, and people avoided streets he played at because of the sound. Starved for recognition (and food), Corvin began considering crafting instruments instead of playing them. Yet he couldn't quite convince himself to until one fateful morning--the morning of The Breakthrough.
That morning, delirious from hunger, he grasped a rat and, intending to eat it, crushed its head against his bedroom wall. Afterwards, holding the broken corpse in his hand, he moaned, "Now I'll never get to hear your music again!" That's when it occurred to him. There was no reason why he couldn't hear that music again. With a little creativity and magic, it could be his forever. And if he kept the magic under wraps, he could make money with it!
He spent the next few years feverishly taking in all the magical knowledge he needed to begin his craft, and eventually opened up a small shop to sell his wares. He was successful as a novelty music shop for several years and was growing bored with the drudgery of his niche product when he attracted the attention of Evanty Bottomfeeder. Once she proposed expanding into rare instruments of all kinds, he was hooked. Over the past thirty years, she helped him turn The Call of the Wilderness into the infamous shop it is today.
Evanty Bottomfeeder
Race: Human
DoB: 2 Summer 466 AV
PoB: Alvadas
Title: Co-owner of The Call of the Wilderness
Skills: Forgery (Expert); Mathematics (Competent); Larceny (Competent); Subterfuge (Expert); Persuasion (Expert), Interrogation (Competent)
Gnosis: None.
Born in the Gibbets with the name Bottomfeeder, Evanty had two choices in life: prove her name right, or prove it the hell wrong. Being a contrary child by nature, she made that choice easily. Reaching the top of the food chain became her mission. By the age of twelve she'd amassed enough of a fortune through a combination of theft and sheer business acumen that the Gibbets spat her out and refused to take her back again. She didn't feel overly sentimental about her hellhole of a home though, and relocated herself to the Bizarre without a backwards glance.
There, she made a small name for herself investing in start up costs for businesses in return for a portion of future profits. At first it was rocky, and half of her ventures failed terribly. Yet over time, she gained a sense of what attracted customers and what didn't, and while she made more money, she also began clashing frequently with the businesses she sponsored for not following her marketing advice. The solution was obvious: go into business herself. With her own shop she would have the authority to do as she pleased!
Evanty's only problem was that she was (and is) deeply uncreative. She could recognize a good idea when she saw it, but was too methodical to have the flights of fancy necessary for a lucrative business in Alvadas. So she went on the prowl for a partner--someone malleable enough to let her handle marketing and expansion, yet intelligent and creative enough to offer her good ideas. She found her match in Corvin Hunter and his novelty music shop. Together, they turned the shop into a musical powerhouse, and along the way discovered a mutual love for the rare and the strange.
Prices: First floor instruments cost the equivalent of their instrument on the price list. However, when you traverse the stairs to the second floor, instruments vary wildly in price, from as low as 30 GM up to 100 GM or more, depending on the instrument in question.
Mod note: Purchases of 2nd floor instruments require moderator approval- please PM the Alvadas storyteller for this.
Major location credits go to Hanen. Thanks!
