Merchants at Steppes Warlord

[KiheBard at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-05-21 15:24:10 EDT, you write:

>          This will be my first trip to Steppes and I wanted to know if
anyone 
>  could give me some info. as to the number and quality of merchants.  Also,

>  should I prepare to spend money?  As I said, this is my first one so any 
>  experienced info would be helpful.  Thank you much!

As of this hour, the merchant co-ordinator (hi, hello, that's me!) can 
report 25 merchants with *reserved* spaces. 

Come prepared to spend your life savings, and the merchants will
be *very* happy. Just make sure you leave yourself enough to live
on for the next month (or until your next payday, or whatever).

Quality varies year to year, merchant to merchant, event to event.
IMNSHO Steppes Warlord will present one of the best collections
of merchants and available SCA-oriented wares you will see 
outside of an SCA "war" or perhaps a RennFair.

Available this year (from my knowledge of the scheduled merchants
and what they have told me): clothing, trim, jewelry, blades, games,
mugs, tankards, pieces for heavy armor, rattan, carved staves /
walking sticks, woven goods, pysanky eggs, hats, books, other
pottery items, other feast gear, baked goods, FOOD, sculpture,
weapons and weapon parts (plus related goods) for the rapier
combat community, armor for heavy combat, trinkets, gee-gaws,
raw materials for other artistic and craft endeavors, and a good 
range of conversation, gossip, and opinion (most of the latter set
of communications comes free with browsing!)

Y'all come -- if we in the merchant community don't have it there,
we might just be able to give you directions on where to find it
elsewhere.

Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra
Merchant Coordinator, XXIV Steppes Warlord, THIS WEEKEND!
	currently residing in Barony of the Steppes, Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mike C. Baker					KiheBard at aol.com
Any opinions expressed are obviously my own unless explicitly stated
otherwise!