Located in scenic Khalas, the first layer of Gehenna, the Teardrop Palace and the accompanying bazaar occupy a broad terrace on the slope of that layer's large (infinite?) volcano. The soot and smog, combined with the dim nature of the ever-present lighting, ensure a lack of panaramic vistas, but that may be just as well. This is a Lower Plane. How much of it do you really want to be able to see at once? The smoke and the lighting both rise out of the fissues in the ground - ground which, it should be noted, only rarely has a walkable grade. The slope is quite steep, and the ledge where the Palace sits is clearly artificial.

The palace itself is a pagoda-like structure in the shape of an enormous sea-shell, some miles across. A pair of shrines of similar size sit to one side of it, and in the triangle formed by the three is one of the most notorious black markets of the Great Wheel. Comprised mostly of tents, with scattered permanent structures, the layout fo the bazaar itself is mutable, but the nature of the thing as a whole is constant even as the component shops and vendors change.

No bazaar would be complete, of course, without a chance for visitors from vastly different places to get drunk, remember they hate each other, and start a brawl. That need is ably (if, almost by definition, dubiously) filled by...the Friendly Tentacle. In actuality, there was not a single brawl during the several hours we spent drinking bad (but non-lethal) ale in this, er, establishment. For the most part, the other patrons seemed to instead be spending their time on discovering how much they had in common. Despite radically different physiologies and reproductive methods. I leave the remainder of /that/ thought to the imagination of the reader. Notwithstanding the potentaially mind- and stomach-twisting nature of what was going on in the shadowy (and not-so-shadowy) corners of the bar, however, the food was edible, and no one tried to kill us. While it's not going to win any awards, I have to admit that under the circumstances, this does constitute a recommendation.

(Amber says I should mention that the ploughman's lunch was a good choice.)

Though it's a phrase which has often been used before, at the risk of committing cliche let me say that in the Bazaar of the Teardrop Palace, ANYTHING can be had for a price. Including, in some stalls, the shopper standing next to you - but bargain quietly, or they buy YOU, first. The kyton food vendor was...well, the less said of that the better. Among the merchants, there were more yugoloths than any other group, of course, this being their home, but many devils and mercanes were also in evidence. Few demons were offering goods (one might imagine they have little interest in trade...), but they were present in some large number as customers. As were most everything else. The variety of the goods was rivalled only by the variety of the patrons. The tension between them was quite palpable at some points as we moved through the crowd, but violence was very limited - whether from native caution about the abilities of the others in the crowd, or because of the iron fist of the yugoloths who would have punished a disruption of the business of the bazaar itself, I cannot say. It was a very unease sort of peace, however.

Jeremian found something interesting in one of the shops - staves that are powered through the wielder's own casting ability, rather than using finite charges. Neither of us had ever seen something like that before, but the possibilities are interesting...it would effectively mean he wouldn't need to prepare certain spells, but could still have them available. The added flexibility could be quite an advantage.

The bazaar is home to dozens of temples - most of them permanent structures, though some of them are tents or just open spaces ringed round with talismans. Most of them seemed dedicated to variations on either Fire or Death, though there were shrines of Earth as well. None of Water that I recall noticing, unsurprisingly. None of these were from the churches of our own world. Most seemed to have come from other Lower Planes and to cater to outsiders, but a few were from material worlds other than ours.

A most helpful guide, with a particular interest in offering her services to those newly come to the bazaar. Yes, that DOES sound suspicious, doesn't it? Endorsement of her services will have to wait until after we learn whether or not she's betrayed us to horrible deaths in the underworld. Still, I'm hopeful that we can trust in her self-interest to keep her on our side. That, and the knowledge that if she betrays us and we survive, we /will/ come looking for her. She appeared human, but in this place...who knows? She provided her own introduction and letter of recommendation by impaling a pickpocket who was running away with Amber's pouch.

A priest of Death, from a church of a material world though not, I suspect, our own. A goblin, we're told. Apparently, he's a powerful enough priest to be able to offer to restore someone to life without even a piece of the body to aid him, but he's unpleasant enough that even the other residents of Gehenna are reluctant to deal with him. I don't know exactly what price he exacts that has given him his name, but the other denizens are largely unwilling to pay it. Supposedly, he's also going to be willing to turn a blind eye to our attack on Byzonios in the midst of his temple, so long as it's timed such that he still receives his payment. On the whole, I don't believe I can recommend his services to a discerning traveller.

I'm distressed to have to confess that I neglected to inquire as to the origin of the bazaar or how long it's been in operation. I'm also entirely ignorant of who built the palace, who occupies it now, and to what Power the shrines outside it are dedicated. In my defense, the place does not encourage questions that would reveal one as being there for the first time. Not, apparently, that refraining from questions managed to hide that fact.

The story we are most interested in here - our vengeance upon Byzoneos in the name of Rielle Ar Calen - has not yet had its ending written. The thousand other stories doubtless under way at the same time, we're striving to have as little to do with as possible....