NPC Spotlight: Crazy Eddies Discount Magical Items and Relics

Now that I've crested over the triple digits in articles I felt like doing something a little excta and offer up an NPC that has come to life in one of my more recent campaigns and who I thin might stick around for quite a while, Crazy Eddie.  On the surface this is one of those go to NPCs that is simply a merchant to drop in when my players are looking to sell off they plunder or stock up on supplies, but then I realized he could be much more.  I realized that by adding some flair and mystery to him I could actually say a lot about the world without spelling it out.


The first thing to now about Crazy Eddie is that he travels around buying and selling magic items out of a collapsing shop, often at amazing deals.  This actually came about by chance as all of the items my players tried to buy ended up haggling to only 10% the value of the items.  That's a steal and it made me think why someone would be willing to sell items that are still fairly rare at such a discount.  That's when it hit me, to Eddie he isn't selling items he's just renting them.  Either the heroes will come back to this guy with great prices and try to sell off what they already bought while "upgrading" or eventually they will die in their adventuring exploits.

This segways into the second thing I quickly realized about Eddie, he used to be an adventurer.  It only makes perfect sense that someone who has magical armor and weapons that they are willing to trade for cheap either didn't pay for them in the first place or doesn't care much about the money and being a retired adventurer fits both of those bills.  At this point the character started to really shape in my head and that's where things got really fun.

Eddie isn't just an adventurer, but he's an adventurer that reached legendary status.  Sure most people that go and save the world become characters of myth and legend, but that's only if that heroes wants his story to be told and that isn't Eddie.  Instead I started to see this small shopkeeper as somewhere between a rogue or monk (Someone that wouldn't be big about boasting himself as a hero while also being able to fully defend himself while not looking like a threat) that is a master at his craft.  Years of adventuring means he would have access to magic, either learned or through treasure, that would let him travel all over the lands which just made him even more useful to me.

Sure for now the players have met him in the city market, but they might start wondering just who this guy is when he steps out from behind a boulder in a volcano as they discuss how to cross a river of lava.  Even better is when he mentions he might just have what they and, but this time he will have all the leverage and the price tag will reflect this. I know, I know, I just said he doesn't need the gold, but to Eddie this is more of a tax for being unprepared than to make a profit.

In the end I now have a way to keeps things interesting by adding some mystery, make it so my players don't ALWAYS have to return to civilization, and in more subtle ways inform the players that they not only aren't the only heroes out there, but also not the first.

To me Crazy Eddie is a wise old hero that through his adventures achieved immortality (Something D&D Players can earn once epic), he knows his story is done and has stepped aside for the next guard to take their place, and finally most important of all he is someone who wants to see the heroes win, but still force them to earn it, but the basic concepts can fit into all sorts of motivations.  Maybe he is a mad sorcerer looking to play heroes like pawns or the interventions or a god or dragon taking humanoid form.  No matter how he's used I hope this NCP might be of use to you guys our there and maybe Crazy Eddie will pop up in more games than just Ashen Grey.