# Whip's Emporium ## *the only shop that has to be paid to be found* Whip runs a shop out of the basement of Phantom Delights. Shroomy and her staff know it is there and let it stand, and Whip deals with her on his own terms. No one else knows. He cannot leave Valoria while he carries Sunderbane, and the tavern's nexus is the one place he can still reach, which is why the only way through his door is a Wispin Coin. Spend the coin and the door opens. Close the deal and it closes behind the buyer. This is not a place the Fell stumble into. It is a place they pay to find. ## The Double Whip carries a magical talent that bends every bargain he strikes to twice its value in his favor. A price paid to him arrives doubled. A price he pays leaves him at half. The number spoken aloud is never the number that moves. Agree to hand him 2 Zurith and 4 leave the purse. Watch him agree to pay 2 Oro and 1 crosses the table. He can afford to agree to anything, and he does, smiling. ### Knowing it The Double defaults to a surprise, felt only when the purse opens. A Fell may roll Lore to recall the legend. On a success they know the bite before they agree, and can haggle or walk with their eyes open. The number still doubles. Knowing only means they were not fooled. ### What he will not do Whip never offers or accepts a deal a Fell cannot cover at the doubled price. He reads a purse at a glance. There are no debts and no instalments, only deals that close clean or never start. He pays half for anything he buys, and he rarely wants what a Fell is selling. The Emporium is a source, not a fence. He will not deal with anyone bound to an enemy that is hunting him. A leash on a Fell is a thread back to Sunderbane, and Whip did not last this long by being easy to find. If the Fell who flips the coin carries such a leash, the coin does not answer. The flip is wasted and no door opens. ## Drawing on Whip The Emporium is the worst room in the Sphere to threaten its keeper. Whip carries Sunderbane and is untroubled by being hunted, but he rarely has to lift it. Two things move before he does. First, Shroomy's Phantoms, the guardians of the sanctuary itself. Protection of the Emporium is written into Whip's bargain with her, and the tavern enforces it. The moment a weapon is drawn or a threat is made in earnest, the Phantoms manifest, the door seals, and the room stops being a shop. This is the warning. A party that stands down here walks out barred but breathing. If they press it, the Enlisted answer. Whip's band stands far above any party that would find him, leashed soldiers, a drowned paladin, the puppet of a dead queen, and the things he has collected since. They do not fight fair and they do not tire. If anyone is still standing after that, Whip ends it himself, with the blade that erased a god-queen. No one has reached this step and lived to be recorded. A Fell who draws on Whip is barred for good. The next time that Fell flips a Wispin Coin it does not answer, and it does not answer ever again. A man who collects people does not forget a face that pulled steel in his own house. ## What he carries Whip does not deal in cheap or mundane things. His stock is rare gear, hard knowledge, and the kind of lead a whole campaign can turn on. He carries a Remnant only on occasion, and never more than one at a time. To stock a visit, roll or pick 1 plus the flipper's Wit from the entries below. Set an asking price for each in Aurum, then remember the Fell pay double it. No more than one Remnant is ever present. **Leads and maps** 1. A map on cured hide marking where a named Transcendent Weapon went to ground. 2. The true name of a person the party is hunting, and the world they fled to. 3. A way into Pyranthia that does not wake what sleeps there. 4. The roost of a mythical creature whose remains are worth a Hunter's lifetime. 5. The location of an unclaimed Pale. 6. A sealed letter that opens one door in any court in the Sphere, once. 7. Coordinates to a battlefield where the dead still carry their arsenals. 8. The trade route a rival merchant uses to vanish between worlds. 9. The Brand worked in a world the party is bound for, and what it costs to wield. 10. Where a Calamiter was last seen, and who carries it now. **Rare gear** 11. A Transcendent Weapon from the campaign's pool, the LoreMaster's pick. 12. A single Tier 4 ability or spell on a tablet, the kind the Arsenal is not meant to hold. 13. A rare Infusion the party cannot yet craft or assay. 14. A rare Augmentation the party cannot yet temper. 15. A rare Aspect for a Lorebound. 16. A Glyph carrying an Affliction no monster in this Stratum can inflict. 17. A Potion holding a spell from a Brand the party has never touched. 18. A Tablet engraved with a weapon ability from a tree the buyer cannot reach. 19. A Zurith-tier utility of his choosing, such as a Skeleton Key, an Unbroken Seal, or a Palimpsest Stone. 20. A weapon already reforged to its final form, no Upgrade Kit needed. 21. A Resonant Tuner that opens two slots instead of one. 22. A second Wispin Coin, at a price that should make a Fell think twice. **Services and oddities** 23. One question about anything Whip knows, answered true, and he knows a great deal. 24. A name struck from an Enlisted somewhere, freeing a bound soul. 25. A name added to your side instead, a soldier talked out from under their officer. 26. A vial of something Shroomy cooked that the kitchen does not admit to. 27. The shrunken dragon-head off his leash, still good for one roar. 28. Safe passage through one Stratum for the whole party, no encounter Whip did not arrange. 29. A forgery so good it is legally you, for one identity in one world. 30. A favor owed by someone powerful, signed over to the buyer's name. **Curiosities** 31. A Lorebound egg of a kind not native to any world the party has walked. 32. A cage holding one creature asleep until the buyer opens it, contents known only to Whip. 33. A page from the Enlisted ledger naming who Whip himself is afraid of. 34. An Orb like his own, unbound, waiting for a hand. 35. The Double turned outward once, the buyer's side doubled instead of his. **The Remnant** 36. A single Remnant, chosen or rolled on the Remnants table. The only one he will part with, and he will not say where he got it. ## Prices Every price below is the asking price, what Whip names before his talent takes hold. The Fell pay double it. Treat these as guidance and scale them to the party, since Whip never names a price they cannot meet. - Low, around 1 Zurith asked: entries 8 and 9. - Mid, around 3 Zurith asked: entries 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, and 32. - High, around 6 Zurith asked: entries 1, 3, 10, 19, 20, 24, 28, 30, 31, 33, and 34. - Legendary, around 12 Zurith asked: entries 11, 12, 22, and 35. - The Remnant, entry 36, asks around 25 Zurith and is the most a Fell will ever pay him. A Transcendent Weapon, a Remnant, and anything else with no fixed worth are priced by the LoreMaster to the moment. The band is a floor, not a ceiling. ## How much a Fell can buy A Wispin Coin opens one visit for the Fell who flips it, and no one else may step through. The rest of the party waits on the other side of a door that is not there. Whip lays out 1 plus the flipper's Wit in wares, never more than one of them a Remnant. He shows a sharp eye more than a dull one. The flipper may buy as many of those wares as they can afford at the doubled price, all of them if their purse runs that deep. The party can pool their Aurum to fund a purchase, but only the flipper stands in the room and only the flipper chooses. Only one of any item is on offer, and a Remnant goes to the flipper. Selling to Whip does not count, though he pays half and rarely wants what a Fell is selling. When the deal closes, the door closes with it, and a Fell may return as often as they have coins to spend.