Niche

The Niche is a Hobgoblin Merchant Point that traps its customers in the position of the goblin vendor.

Overview
It’s literally as the name suggests: a small niche carved out of the Hedge walls, hacked out of the brush or eroded from the stone walls. It’s a small shop. The store is manned by a single hobgoblin. On the back wall wait a few weapons and rag-tag pieces of armor, hanging from pegs. Lush fruits cluster in hammock-nets above. Other odd baubles and glittery bits are strewn about. Inevitably, a changeling sees something he wants, or is willing to make an offer on.

The hobgoblin in-charge seems bored, and wants to get away from the store for awhile — so, the hob makes an offer. If the changeling will take over the store for “a little while,” so the goblin can go stretch his legs, take a piss, whatever, then the changeling can havethe item so desired, free-of-charge. When the changeling agrees — and shakes on it — the hobgoblin appears outside the store, and the changeling appears within the Niche. The changeling can’t leave. At least, not until she makes a deal to have someone man the shop for “a little while.”


 * A changeling who falls prey to this trap cannot leave the store. Every effort to escape the store earns her one lethal point of damage (her flesh shows terrible razor cuts and broken skin). She has only two ways of escaping: one, for someone outside the Niche to go get the previous storekeeper and drag him back; and two, for the changeling to make the same deal with another individual (hob, changeling, Fae, human, etc.), which is a sin against Morality 5. That being said, when the changeling escapes from the store, she does gain the item she bargained for, but no others.