Acererak's Portable Shop of Wonders
Throughout the Multiverse, the archlich Acererak the Eternal has built numerous tombs to function as death traps for greedy adventurers, in a scheme to collect their souls to fuel himself and his vile experiments. Always trying to find new ways to collect souls, one of his endeavours is to simply allow exceptionally greedy adventurers to collects souls for him, with the reward of magic items; these items being the belongings of those who perished in his tombs. He does this by laying his Portable Shop of Wonders in places where these greedy adventurers are sure to find it, dungeons full of treasure and near monsters that hoard loot.
Acererak's Portable Shop of Wonders
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunemnt)
Acererak's Portable Shop of Wonders is a jade belt buckle that depicts a horned bearded devil's face, with his mouth gaping open in a circle. The inside of its mouth it magically darken to reflect no light, not even allowing light created by a 9th-level spell to illuminate its interior.
When one or more humanoids dies within 30 feet of you while attuned to this item, you can speak the command word deposit (no action required) to cause their soul(s) to immediately be sucked into the gaping mouth of the belt buckle, to be transported directly to the grasp of the archlich Acererak. A creature whose soul has been transported away in this way cannot be brought back to life by any means short of a wish spell.
When you "deposit" a humanoid's soul, you gain an amount of "soul credit" determined by its Challenge Rating; the exact amount being the amount of XP that would be rewarded for defeating a creature of that Challenge Rating.
As an action, you can speak the command word browse to cause a 7-foot diameter spherical portal made of pure darkness (appearing identical to a large sphere of annihilation) to appear in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of you. This portal leads to The Shop of Wonders, a small demiplane that can only be accessed through Acererak's Portable Shop of Wonders. Any creature small enough to pass through the portal is able to do so, and the portal remains open until you return from The Shop of Wonders, or if you close it before stepping into it (no action required).
Once you open a portal to The Shop of Wonders, you cannot do so again until the next dawn.
The Shop of Wonders
When entering the Shop of Wonders for the first time, read the following text to your players:
A sensation of pure nothingness washes over you as you step into the sphere of darkness; for the first time of your life you feel, see, hear, or otherwise sense absolutely nothing at all; you can only imagine that this what annhilitation feels like. This sensation is brief, however, and you promptly appear in a completely different space.
You are in, what looks like, a small antique shop, with shelves lined with various items of wildly different make and origin. Many of these items have blood on them, with various levels of freshness. Behind you is an identical portal embedded in the back wall.
The floor, walls, and ceiling are made of polished green marble, and each of the shelves are made of polished onyx. The room in warmly lit by an unseen source.
At the far end of the room is a desk, too made of polished onyx. Over the desk floats a humanoid skull, which has two large green gems embedded in its eye sockets and similar gemstones for teeth.
The skull opens its mouth and speaks loudly: "Welcome to my Shop of Wonders! I, Acererak the Eternal, will be happy to do business with you!"
The skull is the Shopkeeper of The Shop of Wonders, and speaks in a comically nasal and dramatic voice.
The Shopkeeper is a flameskull created by the archlich Acererak that lacks the Illumination trait and the Fire Ray action, as it is not wreathed in flames. The Shopkeeper is convinced that it is Acererak in the form of very powerful demilich. It refers itself as "Acererak, the Eternal", and corrects anyone who does not use the full title.
The Shopkeeper's only purpose is to explain the rules of The Shop of Wonders when asked (the rules are explained as to make the shop seem as wondrous as possible, without giving any outright lies or withholding important information), and to be a salesman to convince the players to spend their Soul Credit.
Rules of the Shop:
- The person attuned to Acererak's Portable Shop of Wonders has an account with an amount of "Soul Credit" on it. Anyone with an account of "Soul Credit" can learn how much Soul Credit they possess by asking the Shopkeeper.
- Any items on display can be purchased in the shop taking them to the desk and spending Soul Credit.
- The goods on display constantly cycle out; All items on display one day are replaced the next the day with something else.
- If someone were to take any of the merchandise without purchasing it through the exit portal, the exit portal would immediately turn into a Sphere of Annihilation, instantly destroying the thief, whisking their soul away to be consumed, while preserving any magic items on their person which would immediately appear on the shelves of the shop as merchandise (this fate is shared by those who die in the Shop by any other means). Anyone who isn't a thief of the shop is safe from this, even if they were stepping through the portal along with the thief.
- Anyone can inquiry the Shopkeeper about an item on display; the Shopkeeper can give a full description of the item, to the limitations of the identify spell.
Merchandise
Every item on the shelves once belonged to an adventure who met their death to a cruel trap in one of Acererak's tombs. They were not cleaned or polished before being sent to the Shop, which is why many of them are bloodied. Armor on display might contain severed body parts, revealing the cruelness and creativity of Acererak's traps.
To see what items are sold on any given day, this online tool is useful: https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/magic/shop.html. Select "metropolis" for the location, and "trader" as the type.
The price ranges for the merchendise are as follows:
| Rarity | Price in Soul Credit |
|---|---|
| Common | 50—100 |
| Uncommon | 101—500 |
| Rare | 501—5,000 |
| Very Rare | 5,001—50,000 |
| Legendary | 50,000+ |
Prices are halved for consumable magic items. For each item, choose an arbitrary value within the range listed to be that item's price.
Special Sales
Every day, there is one item on display on a shelf behind the shopkeeper's desk, this is the Special Sale item. Roll on Magic Item Table I (dmg 149) to determine what the Special Sale item is. The Special Sale item is sold at 50% off its normal value, and the Shopkeeper is very persistent to sell this item (even if the players don't possess the funds to buy it).
Further Details of the Shop
The Shop exists in demiplane crafted by Acererak, and such bares his unfailable magical. No magic (not even a wish spell or the direct intervention of a deity) can be used to see into the shop, travel in or out of the shop without using the portals that Acererak created, or communicate with creatures within the shop.
Any creature can leave the shop through the back portal. If the entry portal to the shop was closed, the creature safely appears in the space where was before closing.
The Shop is a square room 20 feet on a side with a ceiling 10 feet tall, and it takes up the entirety of the demiplane.
If a creature who possesses the Portable Shop dies while inside of the shop, the item is free for the first person to grab it within the shop. If there is not anyone in the shop to claim it, the jade belt buckle appears somewhere else in the multiverse to be found by greedy adventurers. If the Portable Shop is repossessed, either by the death of the owner, or the owner willingly giving it to someone else or otherwise ending the attunement, the next creature to attune to it will inherit the previous owner's Soul Credit account.
Cruel Tricks
Acererak is one of the greatest sadists in the multiverse, and takes pleasure at toying with every being at his mercy, even those who are helpful to him. As the DM, you are encouraged to make shopping in The Shop of Wonders to be a frustrating experience, while not being so frustrating as to scare the players away from doing business with the lich.
The following techniques can be used to make shopping here simultaneously humorous and frustrating:
- Have the Shopkeeper constantly interrupt any discussion the players wish to have within the shop, talking not only over the player characters, but the players themselves.
- If there are any magic items that you are aware that one or more of the players covet, have that item appear the next time the players enter the shop following a big purchase, at a price of exactly 1 Soul Credit more than they have in their account. (Of course, the player with the Portable Shop can easily get enough funds they need right then and there by slaying one of their comrades, be sure that the Shopkeeper brings this point up after seeing their disappointment that they do possess the funds at the moment).
- Play annoying music during the game, being the diegetic music plays in the shop (something along the lines of the Malo Mart theme would be appropriate).
- If you possess a copy of Tales From the Yawning Portal, the Shopkeeper could give the location of the Tomb of Horrors to the players, encouraging them to explore the tomb which contains untold riches. This is best done if the players are well below the suggested level to explore that dungeon.
- Since the Shopkeeper is only capable of describing items to the extent of an identify spell, he does not explain any curses that might be on an item. Be sure at least one of the items the players purchased contains an annoying curse. However, do not allow more than one of their purchased items to be cursed in this way, lest the players know to never trust an item from the shop.