Welcome to the Adventurers’ Market! This collection of businesses sits just far enough from the largest dungeon in the world to be mostly safe, but also close enough to be convenient for anyone heading into the depths.

While these shops were created with that setting in mind, they are also isolated enough to work on their own, plopped down in whatever town your party happens to be in this week.

Art’s Discount Potions

Art’s Discount Potions is a ramshackle booth whose shelves are lined with potions of every color, in bottles that range from ornate elven glasswork to dented hip flasks. Art himself sits in the middle of the booth, striking up conversation with anyone who comes too close.

Anyone with experience making potions can determine whether they are what they’re advertised to be.

Arthas Miller, human entrepreneur. Art is a short man with blonde hair. Art is a washed-up alchemist who uses his knowledge of potions to evaluate what adventurers bring back from the dungeon and resells it for profit. He points at whoever he’s talking to, with varying degrees of subtlety.

Roll 1d10 for each of your players to see what Art has in stock today. Reroll duplicates.
1. Potion of Invisibility. 100 GP. This potion is yellow with an iridescent blue layer on top and needs to be shaken until it’s green. It tastes like pine needles slathered in butter. The invisibility wears off after 10 minutes, or just after they finish whatever task they drank it for.
2. (Mislabelled: Potion of Fear) 50 GP. Blood! It’s just a glass jar of partially coagulated blood.
3. Potion of Bees. 20 GP. A round glass jar, cold to the touch. Inside are 100 wasps, hibernating. Opening or smashing the jar wakes them up, causing them to attack the nearest living thing.
4. (Mislabelled: Potion of Climbing) 20 GP. Sweetened apple juice. It tastes good!
5. Potion of Bookbinding. 50 GP. Azure with flakes of silver. Uncomfortably thick. Proficiency on checks related to the construction of books for the next three hours.
6. Salve of Claws. 100 GP. Bright green, reeks of ammonia. Creates claws on whatever body part it is rubbed into. If somebody rubs the salve on the inside of their mouth, it creates vampire-like fangs. It tastes absolutely disgusting.
7. Dwarven Potion of Healing: 40 GP. A thick-walled glass jar half-full of a thick, dark green syrup. It is meant to be mixed with alcoholic spirits and shaken up to make it drinkable, but however you manage to consume it, it functions as a normal healing potion. It tastes like sugar and ash.
8. (Mislabelled: Potion of Heat Resistance) 100 GP. Potion of Cold Resistance. This bright blue concoction tastes like peaches. It’s quite pleasant. This potion is stored in a hip flask and makes a loud “pop” sound whenever you open the cap. The effect of this potion lasts for one hour.
9. Potion of Counter-Gravity. 150 GP. This gray, shiny liquid sits at the top of a square glass bottle with a cork stopper. As the name suggests, this potion wants to “fall” upwards, which makes it quite hard to drink. Fortunately, if you do manage to drink it, you will have the same advantage. Or problem. It’s a matter of perspective. Either way, the effect of this potion lasts for 10 minutes.
10. (Mislabelled: Potion of Forgetfulness) 100 GP. Potion of Four Arms: Drinking this potion causes you to grow a second set of arms, which sprout out of your torso just below your normal arms. This is surprisingly painless. The effect wears off after an hour.

The Blacksmith Collective

The Collective is an organization of blacksmiths selling their wares through a single storefront. Weapons and armor from less-renowned smiths sit on the shelves or in crates on the floor where adventurers can examine them, but the really expensive gear is kept safely behind the counter. Each piece of equipment is signed by its creator.

Sometimes the creators stop by the Collective shop, especially if they hear someone is buying a lot of their equipment. Most of them are willing to do custom work.

Despite the name, bowyers, leatherworkers, and other creators in adjacent trades sell their wares here, too.

Anything weapon or piece of armor in your core book of choice can be found here, so instead of duplicating one of those lists, I’ve opted to profile the blacksmiths and other crafters responsible for them, along with the quirks of their art.

Clarissa’s Concoctions

Clarissa’s Concoctions is a shop with a counter at the front and shelves of healing potions behind it. Each potion is held in a square glass bottle with a “CC” logo molded into it. These potions are well-regarded and considered to be the standard for adventurers.

Clarissa can make specific potions on request, but her bread and butter is her line of healing potions.

Goldfall Rations and Rope

Fodur’s Rations and Rope is a small stand filled with exactly what the name suggests: Coils of rope and rations of varying quality. The rations are baked by the rest of the Goldfall family, while elderly Fodur minds the shop. All of their rations are wrapped in brown paper, stamped with the family’s name in dwarven script.

Izharr’s Grimoires

Dusty tomes sit in piles around the desk of Izharr the Studious. The woman herself sits in a plush chair, drinking strong tea and writing out her grand thesis on the Sources of Magic.

Izharr begrudgingly identifies magic items, translates books, and answers questions about arcane lore for money. She would rather be working in a university, but she lost her tenure after an ill-advised attempt to amplify the traditional fireball spell.

Kidulo Clothiers

Kidulo Clothiers is an elf-run clothing shop, where many rich adventurers and nobles get custom clothing. Their garments are durable and flashy.

Slatescaler’s Climbing Supplies

Slatescaler’s Climbing Supplies is little more than a shelf and a chair, but it is the business place of accomplished rock-climber Ivan Slatescaler. Here, you can buy equipment to make climbing safer, something that is quite valuable deep in a dungeon.

The Temple of Z’nii

The Z’niir are a religious order dedicated to the worship of Z’nii, God of Wealth, Healing, and Change. They gather wealth as a tribute to their god, and two of them have set up shop in the Market, offering healing services for a price.

Blessing: 1 GP, thrown into the Blessing Bin. This does not do anything for the person paying.

Consecrated Holy Symbol: 5 GP, put into a coin slot on a machine. The symbol drops into a cubby hole, where it can be retrieved.

Basic Healing: 10 GP.

Curse Removal: 100-200 GP, depending on severity.

Limb Restoration or other major feats of healing: 750 GP.

Raising the Dead: 2000 GP.

Afterword

Did you know that the first vending machine dispensed holy water? Thanks, Ancient Greece!

Pitons, as you may know, were not invented until the 19th century as far as I can tell, but I’m sure the dwarves would’ve figured it out.

This article was inspired by media like The Tower of Druaga, Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (still waiting to find that out) and old dungeon crawler games like Wizardry and Final Fantasy Legend. Slatescaler’s comes from chats with my friends who are into bouldering, and the many afternoons we’ve spent watching IFSC competitions on YouTube.

If you want more of these mini-shops, let me know!

-Garm

Map & Asset Downloads

We recommend these maps and assets…