Margaretta

"Keep your hands to yourself, you creep! I'm not selling that any more!"

- Margaretta, Girl of the Streets

A woman from the wrong side of the canal, Margaretta symbolises the hopes of every Marienburger to wheel and deal their way to the top. Once a common streetwalker, she peddles an ever-changing variety of goods from her cart, hoping to earn enough to get a shop and then buy into a cargo, becoming a real merchant with a membership in the 'Change. Tall at 5' 11",her blonde hair and blue eyes speak plainly about the unknown Norscan who must have been her father.

"Margi" was forced onto the streets when her mother died just before her 13th birthday. With no skills and no prospects, she had to do what she could to survive. Petty thievery, prostitution and begging seemed to be all that life held for her. Shortly after she turned 21, her life nearly came to an end when she was discovered holding out on her bawd, "Slick" Willi, hiding money that she was supposed to give him. Beaten and left in the gutter of an alley near Little Bretonnia, it was there amidst her tears that she came to the conclusion that she would either have to turn her life around, or die before she turned 22.

Taking what little she money she had saved and "borrowing" some more from a former client who didn't want Margiand his wife to meet, she paid what she owed her bawd, bought a run-down houseboat on Cattail canal, and bought the cart and goods of an old pedlar who had retired. Now she gets up before dawn almost every day and peddles household goods along the streets of Kruiersmuur and its foreign ghettos. On Marktags she goes to the docks in Suiddock and sees if there is anything she can buy from the sailors that might bring her an extra shilling or two. The trouble is, many often remember her from the old days and expect she's there to sell, not buy. With Margi, that's a quick way to a black eye.

For all she's been, one might expect her to be a hard-bitten hellion with a bitter hate in her heart. Far from it. Once she had set her life's course, Margi's naturally sunny disposition came to the fore. Always good at selling and putting people at their ease, she discovered a natural talent for business - some-thing she enjoyed. People look forward to her visits to their neighbourhoods and often find themselves buying something just because they've had such a good time talking to her. This same success has not made her popular with many of the established merchants of Kruiersmuur, who resent her success at selling the same goods more cheaply. Only her membership in the Pedlar's Guild has kept her from being hauled into court facing a civil suit.

But her ambition doesn't stop at owning a pushcart. She's seen the fancy houses of the merchants, their nice clothes and servants, and good food whenever they want it. She wants that too, but on her own terms, not marrying for it. Margi is husbanding her money carefully, waiting for the day when she can buy a shop and become a real merchant. She's even learning to read and do maths, with occasional lessons from a sympathetic Verenan priest. For no reason she can explain, she knows her chance will come.

Adventurers will often see Margaretta selling her wares when they're in Kruiersmuur. If they gain her trust, they'll discover that she's a valuable source of information. She knows a lot of dirt about supposedly upstanding citizens, and might let a tid-bit or two slip while doing business. However, she knows the value of everything and is unlikely to give away anything really worth knowing for free. As far as she's concerned, anything that earns her more money - well, almost anything - is good.

Margi knows many of the children who live in Tarnopol's clock tower and is on good terms with them. She's heard of the ghost, but thinks it's just a fairy story. She's one of the few who will stop to talk with old Pal Koster, and she's sure that some kind of illegal operation is run out of the cemetery. Margi also knows, but avoids, Dmitri Hrodovsky, who was a customer of hers in the old days. The way he looks at her makes her uneasy, and she's sure he's up to no good.

Source
[[Category:M]]
 * Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st ED -- Marienburg: Sold Down the River
 * pg. 118