Whisper Coil Emporium

Start-class article · First seen: s07 · Last seen: s11
Whisper Coil Emporium
Whisper Coil · the Emporium
Whisper Coil Emporium — portrait.
Location
StatusActive
First seens07
Last seens11

The Whisper Coil Emporium is the dwarf-run healing-potion shop next to (not inside) Umbrafall’s Black Hollow Market [1], “opened just last month” before the party’s first visit [9] but already dabbling in experimental bio-gloom-tinged variants. The proprietor — named Alston in session 11 [5] — sells healing potions at 50gp and trades in volunteer-tested experimental potions. The party visited in sessions 7 and 11; the s7 visit ended when the party exited and were immediately drawn into the Nightwatch street fight over Risa’s urn that led to Vazquez being arrested.

Overview

The Whisper Coil Emporium is a small healing-potion shop adjacent to (but not inside) Umbrafall’s Black Hollow Market. It opened “just last month” before the party first visited in session 7. The proprietor, Alston, is a dwarf with one bioluminescent fungal-orb eye and a willingness to test experimental potions on volunteers in exchange for free healing potions.

Geography and appearance

A small storefront. Glass jars and shelves of red-vialled liquids. The dwarf works behind a counter; experimental brews are kept in a back area.

Government / control

Alston runs it.

Notable features

  • Standard healing potions at 50gp each (negotiable in bulk; Caelumn paid 49gp each in s11 for two).
  • Experimental bio-gloom-tinged potions of unknown effect.

History in the campaign

  • Session 7: First visit. Alston sells healing potions at 50gp. Vazquez volunteers to drink an experimental bio-gloom potion in exchange for cheaper healing potions (cost shrinking from 200gp to 150gp during negotiation); the effect is glowing-green bioluminescent meeping bubbles trailing from his skin every 5 feet for one hour, with no other detectable effect. Harvo separately trades the bio-gloom mushroom-cap-jar he looted from The Warrens for 5 healing potions; the dwarf accepts eagerly. The party leaves and is immediately ambushed in the street by two corrupt Nightwatch guards trying to take an urn from Risa.
  • Session 11: Second visit, roughly two to three hours from Umbrafall on foot [6]. Ruin volunteers to trial a thick bluish potion in exchange for a free healing potion; the potion paralyses him for roughly 10 minutes and leaves him with one level of exhaustion [7]. The proprietor proposes a follow-up bio-gloom-based potion which the party declines. Caelumn negotiates 2 healing potions for 98gp total (49gp each), down from the listed 50gp [8]. The dwarf signs off the conversation by inviting the party back: “feel free to give good old Alston a call” — the first on-screen naming [5].

Inhabitants

Status as of session 16

Active. Not revisited since session 11. Caelumn still has Alston’s untested black potion in his pack — though, as of session 15, it was lost with Caelumn’s backpack to the Aurelian chain-master.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 7, line 1093 — DM names the Whisper Coil Emporium and locates it next to (but not in) the Black Hollow Market.
  2. ^ Session 7, line 1115-1118 — "I opened just last month"; the dwarf does not remember Hugo.
  3. ^ Session 7, line 1197-1207 — Harvo trades the bio-gloom mushroom samples for five healing potions.
  4. ^ Session 11, line 534-560 — Party returns; two-three hours from Umbrafall on foot.
  5. ^ Session 11, line 672 — The proprietor introduces himself as "good old Alston".
  6. ^ Session 11, line 555-560 — Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 11, line 613-630 — Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 11, line 657-665 — Inline citation.
  9. ^ Session 7, line 1118 — Inline citation.