A Story About Halfling Merchants

Imagine you are a glassmaker in Tyrwingha. Your glassware is popular, and you have regular contact with a Tyrwinghan factor to sell 500 wineglasses a season for a steady price. It is a decent living, but you aren’t going to be rich from this trade.

Then, one day, a halfling caravan shows up. You’ve never met them before, but you remind yourself they aren’t just humans who travel a lot. They remember things no one should, and they speak to each other telepathically. You never know what they are saying to each other, because they don’t talk out loud, except when they are talking to you. So maybe they are standing there quietly looking at your wares, and asking all their relatives if you are a good or bad person. How would you know? They are just standing there, silent, waiting. So you give them a good deal, in case your ancestors wronged them, and you need to balance the scales.

The next day you wonder if you made the right decision, or if you were cheated. But then you hear a tale from your neighbor the cheesemaker. She says as she is buying everyone in the tavern a round of drinks, because some halflings showed up a week ago, and offered her triple the usual price for nearly her entire stock. Apparently her great-great-grandfather did a favor for their great-grandfather, and they just hadn’t come around yet to repay the debt, always thinking they’d get to it eventually.

And then before the caravan leaves, they throw a party, telling tall tales of strange, far off places, singing songs, dancing late into the night. The ale flows, the company is good, and you go home happy.

So of course you’ll keep doing business with the halflings that show up. Sometimes maybe you’ll have good luck, and they’ll offer a great price; other times, bad luck, and you’ll find yourself selling low. But what can you do? You don’t want your descendants cursing your name for some slight you gave the halflings, and they bring stories and ale and music, and you have a great time drinking and eating with them, and every now and then they’ll have something strange and unexpected to sell, and you never know.