Re: Postfest: Bral Businesses

Name: Al'Azan's Shop of Wonders
Type: Curio, Artifact, Pawn shop
Location:
Quality: 5
Prices: 2-4 (Some items are very cheap, others are slightly overpriced)
Danger: 2 (5 if the adventures attempt to steal from or rip off Sebastian)


Description: Al'Azan's shop of wonders is a tiny shop that sits in a 
quite, out of the way ally. It has a small storefront consisting of a 
window so crammed with odd statues, amulets and knick-knacks that the 
interior of the store cannot easily be made out. A small oval brass 
sign, speckled with mold reads "Al'zan's Shop of Wonders." A recessed 
oak door leads to the interior of the shop. The interior of the shop is 
warmly lit, with a slight reddish glow from wall scones that give of 
magical flame. The shop is always comfortably warm (or cool) and dry no 
matter what the outside weather is. When the door is opened a bell rings 
and the user is presented from a small shop stuffed to the gills with 
all manner of strange items. Near the door is a small counter with an 
old fashioned (By modern standards) and ornately decorated cash 
register. The shop is about 15ft wide and 25ft long with a 6ft tall 
ceiling. The shop is divided into rows of shelves each reaching to the 
low ceiling and spaced tightly together all filled with curios and 
idols. The shop is filled with objects of art from many different 
civilizations both grounding and spacer ranging from tapestries and 
paintings to statuettes, orbs, and jewelry. Most of the items in the 
shop are worth little except possibly to a museum or collector, but 
there is the occasional items that is of obvious value. The store does 
not sell weapons or obvious magic items (such as wands or magic carpets) 
and those magic items it does sell are not sold for their magic 
properties (if they are even known) but instead for the items artistic 
or cultural value. In the back of the store is a pair of shelves filled 
with maps, scrolls, books and other texts. While the shop does not stock 
spells books or magic scrolls as such it does carry the journals of many 
wandering mages which may have a spell or to copied down into them. The 
owner, one Sebastian Al'Azan is an elderly being whom looks human but 
several elves remember visiting his shop in their youths and him already 
appearing as an old man. He is either at the front counter of the store 
or somewhere in the rows of shelves, which he has a habit of emerging 
from with no warning. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything 
that has ever been in his store, and will often direct or show 
adventures items that they "should have" (ie an easy way for the DM to 
get items into the hands of the players). Other than that he tends to 
vaguely direct people to the section of the store the item is in ("yes, 
yes I have one of those....hmm...try the back of the store). He will buy 
any odd or artistic items the adventures have at reasonable rates, 
though he will not take cursed or 'hot' items or items which have been 
obtained through evil means (ie murder- note he does not count normal 
adventuring practices as murder). Items sold to him stay in the store 
for wildly varying amounts of time, with some items disappearing the 
same day and others being there years later. It is very unwise to 
attempt to steal from or rip off Sebastian as he is very old and has 
many friends, some of which have since gone on to achieve very high 
positions in a number of organizations (a number of items in the homes 
of IEN officers that where purchased for their loved ones 'while on 
campaign' are actually from Sebastian's shop (the items of course being 
more wonderful and exotic than anything that could be found while 
patrolling Greyspace) many adventures are also friends of his (who else 
will buy the black marble neogi fertility statue they took off that 
Deathspider they destroyed?). Additionally people who deal in bad faith 
with Sebastian are known to have extraordinarily bad luck immediately 
thereafter (smugglers getting searched by the IEN, merchants attacked by 
scavers or pirates, and other bad things). Sebastian himself is never 
seen outside his shop, and has little interest in happenings in other 
places (unless they are related to an item someone has brought him)



DM ideas:

- Al'Azan's Shop of Wonders is a great way to get plot items into the 
hands of PCs

-Sebastian should be played as an old mysteries man whom appears out of 
nowhere when the PCs turn around

-I’ve based this shop off of several shops I’ve seen in TV and movies, 
however the only one I can think of right now is the book shop in 
Neverending Story.

-I also drew inspiration from my Grandparents book store and how the 
books filled the backroom (shelves 1-2 feet apart, books on the floor, 
books on the walls, books under the shelves….)

-I was also inspired by some of the small shops I saw on my way to a 
gaming convention in Toronto where there will be this little store that 
no one ever goes into peeking out between too modern shops.

-Sebastian could be a disguised Arcane/Mercane that has grown tired of 
politics and what not and now has retired to his hobby.

-Sebastian could be an Archlich

-Sebastian could be some form of good aligned outsider formerly in the 
service of a good of art, secrets, knowledge or such whom has grown old 
and retired.

-Sebastian could be a Dragon whom likes to interact with mortals and 
uses Sebastian as his ‘front’ to purchase property and whatnot. He uses 
the store to convert his hoard into more pleasing forms as well as 
slowly increase it.

-I like the idea of a place adventures dump their old maps and keys 
after an adventure, and sort of started with that idea then made it more 
logical.

-The Spelljammer Works of Art page on Beyond the Moons is a good source 
for items in the shop 
(http://www.spelljammer.org/essays/flavor/art_objects.html) or my 
updated and reorganized list (I posted it a few years ago, I’ll repost a 
fixed version soon)

--
-Canageek

"There is no genius without a touch of madness."
-Vaslav Nihinsky