Someone who claims to be various folkloric, long-lived figures. The Wandering Jew, Merlin, the Devil, or their regional equivalents.
2
A poltergeist haunting the store. Its unfinished business is getting rich.
3
A luminous being from a higher reality, slumming it.
4
Offended by any direct references to commerce. Trades must be performed obliquely.
5
A treacherous ogre wrapped in heavy chains. They can’t leave the store or harm anyone who isn’t touching the chains.
6
Asleep, and a powerful psychic. Their store’s strange staff are projections from their dreams.
7
Blind and covered in sensitive, twitching fingers. They can pinpoint the slightest air movements.
8
A sharply dressed skeleton animated by the magic coin rattling around in their skull.
9
Only heard and never seen. They always seem to be behind a curtain, or just behind you.
10
A woman with a nest of magpies for a head. When she talks, each magpie says a word in turn.
11
Afflicted with technicolour buboes which have unfortunately spread to the goods and customers they’ve touched.
12
Trying to pawn off goods stolen from perhaps the wrongest possible party to steal goods from as quickly as possible.
13
Cursed to operate their shop until the next fool purchases the deed off them.
14
A half-liquified person who inhabits a system of tubes and hydraulic prosthetics built into their shop. They’re a former adventurer who’s turned to selling their loot off to afford the alchemical treatments that keep them from totally losing cohesion.
15
A lizard-man who aspires to be a dragon, though they must acquire their hoard through trade rather than tribute.
16
A little god of greed, all silks and shimmering gems, carried around their shop in a palanquin-temple by their devotees.
17
A stitched-together geriatric who’s extended their life by taking the vital parts of their debtors.
18
A tremendously fat person covered in gold dust, with symbiote-slave fungaloids living under their rolls.
19
An expertly crafted, life-sized puppet, indistinguishable from a person at a glance. It’s unclear how they’re being puppeteered, or who’s doing the puppeteering.
20
A trio of goblins in a trenchcoat. Their competent merchant-identity only exists while they’re together. If separated they become merely three crass yet somewhat shrewd individuals.
D20
This Merchant Sells...
1
Incredible, implausible weapons.
2
Unique and bizarre potions.
3
Barely tamed warbeasts.
4
The right words for any situation.
5
The bones and belongings of burned witches.
6
A hundred different kinds of ice and fire.
7
Time. Good times, bad times, fast time, slow time, any kind you could want, but it doesn’t come cheap.
8
Pet golems.
9
Keys that open portals to other worlds.
10
Maps that lead to lost things.
11
Memories.
12
Enchanted replacements for your body parts and bodily fluids.
13
Pardons for any crime, indulgences for any sin.
14
The services of exotically effective assassins.
15
Grimoires, tomes, and manuals.
16
Goods possessed by spirits, ghosts, and demons.
17
Legitimate claims to other peoples’ land and titles.
18
Every imaginable luxury, and a few besides.
19
Luck.
20
Masks and faces.
D20
This Merchant’s Store Is...
1
In the shell of an enormous walnut.
2
Much bigger on the inside.
3
Accessible only with the right invitation.
4
Currently a hot topic of discussion among the trendy and elite.
5
Decorated with fake coins.
6
Made from other shops’ signs.
7
Built on a scale that’s not conducive to human navigation. You’ll need some rope and ladders at the least to get around it.
8
Temporally suspect. An hour spent haggling inside might mean a week has passed outside.
9
Built on unholy ground.
10
Alive, and will act to defend the merchant and their wares so long as it’s kept sated.
11
An illusion created by a djinn.
12
The first sign that a goblin market is coming to town. This is generally not very good for the town.
13
Willing to part with a few choice items for free in return for some political favours.
14
Aggressively normal.
15
Under assault by mercenaries hired by a rival merchant.
16
On fire. 50% it’s always like that, 50% chance it isn’t and the merchant is desperate to save their wares.
17
Grossly overpriced, even for the goods they have for sale.
18
Under surveillance by secret police.
19
Protected from theft by ushabti animated by the ghosts of failed robbers.
20
Infamous for its yearly clearing sales, which always escalate into bloodbaths among deal-hungry customers.
D20
This Merchant’s Store Can Be Found...
1
Wedged in an underground crevice.
2
In a crooked alley off a crooked street in a crooked town.
3
At the back of a tavern’s pantry.
4
In a bazaar which gathers in graveyards during the new moon.
5
Within a cave in the side of a hill.
6
On the other side of a door which stands alone in a forest clearing.
7
Only during the witching hour.
8
Down the throat of a talking crocodile.
9
Behind a brass-ornamented door that appears in random places underground.
10
In a howdah atop a giant elephant.
11
At the base-peak of an inverted mountain.
12
Scuttling around on its millipede foundation-feet.
13
By ordering the right dish at an exclusive restaurant and being invited to the back.
14
By spending a special coin at any other shop.
15
On the underside of a glass floor disguised as a pool of water in a park.
16
By anyone following a white cat.
17
By getting lost in a place you’re familiar with.
18
Hidden in plain sight in a market square.
19
Tangled in the roots of a tree that matches no known species.
20
In a circle of mushrooms as wide as a castle’s walls, invisible from outside the circle.
D20
This Merchant Prefers To Be Paid...
1
With slaves, the more unusual the better.
2
With monster corpses. Parts of monster corpses are also accepted at a discounted rate.
3
In blood. Quantity matters more than quality.
4
In dreams, the sweeter the better.
5
In shameful secrets.
6
In favours and fetch quests.
7
With the icons of saints.
8
In difficult but not unsolvable riddles.
9
In fear, anger, and desire.
10
In food and drink they’ve never sampled before.
11
With stuff that’s flammable, which they burn immediately after receiving.
12
With things that have never before been bought or sold.
13
With the tears of other merchants.
14
In songs. If someone else then tries to sing the song sold to the merchant, their throat with seize up and their tongue will cut itself on their teeth.
15
In the breaking of your bones, the longer and deeper the better.
16
In names. The name has to be one of yours for you to rightly sell it. Names you might call your children or pets fill the place of copper pieces in this shop.
17
Beautiful things.
18
With things from far away. The further away its origin is from the shop, the more valuable it is to the merchant.
19
A price that’s been gambled on. Double or nothing, or the like.
20
With things that have been used to commit a crime.
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