Expedition Outfitters

City Guide I

Shop Description:

Shop Exterior

A large, unobtrusive warehouse looms before you. It is easily the size of one of the grander noble homes on the other side of the city. A simple wooden sign hangs above two sliding metal doors. The sign reads “Expedition Outfitters: Essential Goods for Adventuring and Survival.”

When they retired, Gareth and Bazz bought a large warehouse by the docks. They intended to stock the large building with goods for sale at another location, but the practical Bazz suggested they merely turn their storage house into a shop itself. He saw no need for a fancy storefront, after all they and their customers were men of action not prone to being impressed by fancy window dressing and upscale amenities. The warehouse has no windows, and the only entrance is through the sliding doors in the front. These thin metal doors are sturdy, but they are locked from the outside by a chain and padlock, which is rusty from age and easily bypassed. Shaking the doors causes a major ruckus as they bend and bow back and forth.

Sliding Doors: Hardness 8, Hit Points: 15, Break DC 30, Open Lock DC 18.

1) Main Showroom

An outfitter’s shop of awe-inspiring proportions lies beyond the sliding metal doors. Two stories of goods can be seen from the doorway, with a huge vaulted ceiling from which hangs a variety of boats, pontoons, canoes, and rafts. The walls are covered with large adventuring gear such as tents and sleeping bags. To your immediate left is a glass case full of fishing gear with a wide assortment of fishing poles and nets hanging on the wall behind it.

Shelf upon shelf of adventurer’s clothing is massed on the main floor of the place. A long display table to your right bears a great variety of tools for underground travel, and a rock wall behind the table stands ready to demonstrate their effectiveness. Two staircases stand at the far end of the room, leading up to the second floor of the building, an open area that rings the room about 15 feet off the main floor.

Note: Finding items without assistance is a pain, and Bazz is rarely in the mood to help people locate that perfect red hunting cap. A Search check (DC 22) is required to find particular items in less than ten minutes, and failure can mean up to a half hour per item. A Diplomacy check (DC 18) will get Bazz’s attention enough for him to direct the PCs to what they are looking for, but he is liable to charge them extra for his time!

Expedition Outfitters

2)Second Floor

The second floor is filled with unique items from the native races of many different types of terrain. Signs offer tools used underwater by merfolk and ingenious inventions of subterranean races such as troglodytes and dwarves. Some of the tools look truly bizarre, and divining their purpose is difficult at best.

These items are often very expensive as they are hard to acquire, and any customers that appear to have a fair amount of gold will be quickly shuffled in this direction. Gareth loves to show his customers the stairs while he climbs an empty hanging rope up to the next level. He feels it adds flavor to their shop and lets customers know that he knows what he’s talking about. Also found on the second floor is a magically sealed and

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locked display case stocked with unique items imbued with magical abilities. They empty this case each night and lock its contents in a concealed pit underneath the floor of the shop.

Goods

All items found on the adventuring gear table in the PHB can be bought at this shop, and prices will be between 10% lower and 10% higher than the standard cost listed, depending on Bazz’s mood. All items are available in normal or masterwork if applicable. They even offer rare and expensive items such as the two spyglasses they have for sale. One of the spyglasses is an old captain’s glass, still green with the brine and salty sea spray it was subjected to. The other is a smaller glass used by dwarven surveyors during a large building project. The following items are also for sale:

Class Tools

Climber’s kit Hourglass Magnifying glass Merchant’s scale Thieves tools Water clock

Clothing

All standard clothing can be purchased in a variety of styles and colors. Cold weather outfit Explorer’s outfit Traveler’s outfit

Food

Standard trail rations can be purchased. Exotic meats and trail mixes can be purchased for a premium price (3 gp per day).

New Items Lantern, head 35 gp 4 lb. Lantern, everburning head 150 gp 4 lb. Ink bead 200 gp 2 lb. False wall 40 gp 3 lb.

Expedition Outfitters

Gareth Oesendraz: human male; Rgr7; CR7; medium sized humanoid; HD: 7d10+14; hp: 52; Init: +1; Spd: 30 ft.; AC: 16 (touch 11, flat-footed 15) Atk: +10/+5 and +9 (1d8+4, long sword and 1d6+3 hand axe); AL N ; SV: Fort +8, Ref +4, Will +5; Str 17, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 10.

Skills: Climb +9, Heal +4, Hide +5, Intuit Direction +6, Knowledge (nature) +6, Listen +10, Move Silently +8, Profession (merchant) +7, Spot +10, Use Rope +3, Wilderness Lore +7.

Feats: Alertness, Dodge, Run, Weapon Focus (longsword)

S Q: Favored enemy +2 (beasts), Favored enemy +1 (aberrations), Track.

Spells Prepared (2): 1st - read magic, speak with animals Possessions: studded leather armor +2, long sword +1, masterwork hand axe, cloak of resistance +1, ring of minor elemental resistance (cold)

Appearance: Gareth is a strong-looking fellow with barely an ounce of fat on his body. He still looks to be in adventuring shape, and will often climb the walls of his shop barehanded in order to retrieve an item hanging far above the ground. He has short brown hair, a thick moustache, and plain brown eyes. He wears the muted colors of a commoner at most times, an off-white tunic and trousers sometimes accented by a brown leather vest.

Personality : Gareth speaks in very short sentences and gets right to the point, but will talk for any length of time when the discussion turns to outdoor adventuring or wilderness survival. He is quite knowledgeable about adventuring and wilderness lore and is quite the salesman. Although he treats customers with far more respect than his partner, when night falls and it comes time to hit the taverns he can be as obnoxious as his belligerent partner.

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City Guide I Expedition Outfitters

Bazz Thundershield: Dwarven male; Ftr8; CR8; mediumsized humanoid; HD: 8d10+32; hp: 76; Init: +2; Spd: 15 ft; AC: 20 (touch 12, flat-footed 18) Atk: +13/+8 (1d10+6+1d6 electricity, dwarven waraxe); AL: CN; SV: Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +2; Str 17, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 9; AL: CN.

Skills: Climb +10, Handle Animal +2, Jump +10, Profession (merchant) +4, Swim +12

Feats: Blind-fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (dwarven waraxe), Power Attack, Sunder, Weapon Focus (dwarven waraxe), Weapon Specialization (dwarven waraxe)

Possessions: masterwork scale mail, large shield of arrow deflection +2, shocking dwarven waraxe +1, gloves of swimming and climbing

Appearance: Bazz is a sturdy dwarf and is built like an ox. He has a long grey beard, knotted into two intricate braids. He always wears his trusty chain shirt, but will usually remove his horned helmet during business hours.

Personality: Bazz is much less a businessman than Gareth, often being downright rude to customers for no apparent reason. He is much closer to losing his mind than Gareth and has trouble distinguishing between customers and untrustworthy party members. He will often respond to questions about merchandise with accusations of cheating or lying. When the accused parties express confusion or shock at his behavior, he comes back to his senses and apologizes, blaming the harsh realities of adventuring life for his lapses. He will then pursue this line of reasoning to try to sell extra gear to now paranoid customers.

History: Gareth first met Bazz during a barroom brawl at the Lucky Maiden tavern in a city they’ve both forgotten. They were there answering an open call for brave men to wrest the Dagger of Jalintha from the clutches of an illithid who had taken up residence in the cavernous tombs beneath the city’s graveyard. When the dust settled, they and two others were selected to accompany the newly formed Men of the Brazen Wood to complete the task. Their benefactor, the church of the city’s patron deity, did not care how the dagger was retrieved, only that it was taken from the hands of the lich. Little did the church know that the group’s plan was to reroute an underground water supply to flood the tombs. After they put their plan into action, there was little left to do but waltz in and take the artifact home. Or so they thought. The company wasn’t expecting the vast number of undead their trick released into the tombs, and the ensuing battle was almost more than they could handle. Two of their members were killed and several others had their life energy and strength devoured by their gruesome foes. When the surviving members arrived back at the surface, they found the town hostile and the church elders ready to send them prematurely to face their gods.

Their next mission was no less a spectacular success. Hired by a town to clear out a kobold infestation in a nearby silver mine, the Men of the Brazen Wood hatched a plan that would defeat the kobolds once and for all. They procured some bodies from a local cemetery that had recently fallen victim to a terrible illness that was just being eradicated from the city. They located the stream that fed the underground spr ing used by the kobolds for water and dumped the bodies into the stream, infecting the kobolds’ water supply with the disease. Unknown to the adventurers, the stream also fed a waterfall where many of the town’s women did their wash. Within two weeks the mine had been cleared, but the city was undergoing an intense relapse of the disease. The party left town quietly, never revealing the method they used to cleanse the mines.

Over the course of the next few years, the membership of the Men of the Brazen Wood changed frequently. The survival rate for members was just below the average leper colony, mostly due to their ineptitude and laziness. The plans they hatched never seemed to work out quite right, and Gareth and Bazz were witness to nearly three dozen gruesome demises. Finally they decided that their luck couldn’t hold out forever and they cashed in their adventuring gear for shopkeeper’s uniforms. They tend to leave out many of the details of their missions, and most times won’t even name the group they used to travel with.

Traveler Knowledge: There is no better source for expeditionary and adventuring gear than this shop, owned by two former adventurers who know their way around a dungeon better than most. Gareth One-Eye is a shrewd ranger known for his ability to size up a party and give an honest appraisal of their chances of success.

Resident Knowledge: Gareth and Bazz are both old adventurers that still have too much of that life in their blood. They are known to belittle customers into thinking they aren’t going to succeed at their current mission, and then to use that

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uncertainty to sell more goods. They don’t interact much with the rest of the town, except to drink heavily at local taverns and dare the other customers to start a brawl (apparently they were involved in an extraordinary amount of tavern brawls during their adventuring days).

Hidden Knowledge: During their travels as part of the Men of the Brazen Wood, a group of tomb robbing mercenaries more interested in gold than adventure, these two men saw more than they could handle. After years of facing gruesome undead and watching their fellow party members get turned into meals for spiders and worse, both of these men are teetering on the brink of insanity. After nearly the entire group was slaughtered by a rampaging behir, the men decided to call it quits and open a shop in the nearby city. They both would love to strap on the adventuring gear for one last run, but each man knows it would push him over the edge.

Plot Hooks:

1. The family of one of the Company of the Brazen Wood’s

“incidental victims” has sent an assassin to take revenge upon the only two surviving members of that particular band: Gareth and Bazz. After one close call in which their dark-cloaked assassin escaped, they call on the PCs to find out who wants them dead and why.

2. Gareth and Bazz receive word that a member of the

Company of the Brazen Wood has been captured by an ogre mage, and they wish to see him freed. Not having confidence in their old adventuring group they contact the

PCs in order to hire them for this job. Of course, with the

Company also looking to rescue their comrade, the PCs are in for the wildest ride of their lives.

Item: Head Lantern

Head Lantern: This modified bullseye lantern is fitted with a strong cloth headpiece that allows it to be worn on the brow, leaving its user’s hands free for other tasks. It illuminates a cone 40 feet long and 15 feet wide at the end. It can only hold enough oil to burn for an hour at a time, after which time it must be refilled. The everburning version of this item does not use oil, rather its interior surface is magicked to always stay lit. A metal shutter can be closed to douse the light. Its illumination radius is the same as the standard version.

Expedition Outfitters

Caster Level: 3rd; Prerequisites: continual flame (no feat needed); Market Price: 150gp; Weight: 4 lb.*

*For everburning version only

Item: Ink Bed

Ink Bead: These glass beads have a wax stopper that prevents the contents of the bead from spilling. They are filled with a thin, black liquid that, when released in water, spreads quickly to form a shroud of darkness in the area.

The cloud is 20 ft. wide by 20 ft. high by 40 ft. long, and provides total concealment to those behind it. Creatures within the cloud are considered to be in total darkness.

Item:False Wall

False Wall: This device is made of thick paper reinforced by extremely light wooden thatch. It folds down to the size of a small book when not being used. When unfolded, it resembles a rough cavern wall in texture and appearance. The false wall is square-shaped with each side being approximately 8 ft. in length. Only one large, two medium, or four small creatures can hide behind a single false wall at any time.

It would fool no one in full daylight, but in the sparse light of the underground world it can be a valuable survival tool. Those attempting to locate a creature hidden behind a false wall by sight incur a penalty to the resulting Spot checks. The penalty is –5 for torchlight or its equivalent, and increases to –10 for anything less, including the use of darkvision.