Technically speaking, that's not entirely true. When we say that our special materials aren't available in the Bazaar, what we really mean is they aren't easily available.

The Bazaar is made up of dozens of shops. It has outdoor stands and indoor warehouses, emporiums of bric-a-brac and high-end retailers. It is only logical that somewhere in this hodgepodge of specialty shops and wholesalers there might lurk hidden jewels and treasures for the intrepid.

The Bazaar is, in some sense, not only a service we offer. It is also a place to roleplay. If you would like to purchase adamantine, you could start a quest in the Bazaar in which you follow up leads on a strange merchant that you've heard about, one who appears only at certain times and in certain weather conditions and who offers the finest goods to those lucky enough to catch him.

If you play through this with a moderator, you might need upwards of 20 good posts -- that is, 10 posts from each of you -- just to purchase the material. If you decide to do the quest entirely free of mod input, you could make it a solo quest or find some people to share it, say "no moderator necessary" at the top of the thread, and go for it (you can submit it under normal requirements for length in cases not involving moderator input). When done with your thread, submit it for judging using the normal system.

In threads outside the Bazaar, we tend to require pretty good scores to just get these materials. In these threads, though, your discount will be equal to your score. So if you score a 50, that's 50% off. Most of these items are extremely costly to begin with, though -- 20,000 GP or more -- so 50% off is still expensive. But score a 90, and your discount makes the item 2000 GP.

But buyer beware! Just because you do these threads does not entitle you to an item you can't afford. If you have 100 GP, you can't use the Bazaar to buy adamantine even with a 95. Be sure you check with the moderator before conducting this sort of quest to find out the absolute base cost for the item, and if you don't think you can afford it you might be better off either saving up or looking for the item outside of the Bazaar.

One final note: you are not banned from writing a thread in the Bazaar which has nothing to do with purchasing an item (or even obtaining one). You could write a rollicking adventure story in which you save a merchant from a horde of bandits. In cases where a thread is not designed to exchange gold for an item, they will be treated normally. You will be rewarded normal GP, and could even request a special material item as a spoil. In these cases, spoils will be rewarded exactly as they would outside of Althanas: based on score and storyline justification.