The Smiling Sphinx: A Magic Shop That Isn't a Magic Shop

I've never been much of a fan of the idea of a magic shop. I don't know of any fictional basis for it outside Harry Potter (which I read as a kid, but wasn't my favorite fantasy book), and it always struck me as a bit silly in tone. Plus, I've never run a game with a high-magic setting. Castle Xyntillan features a magic shop and a potion shop, but I ran both as specialty merchants with small stocks of expensive gear, and as a result, visiting them is rarer.

Then I watched this video by Taking20, which shifted my thinking and gave me some ideas. I now think a magic shop could work, in a medium-high magic setting, by switching the context from 'friendly neighborhood store that happens to have a Flametongue in stock' to a shop which maintains the mystique of magical items while allowing players some agency in choosing them for themselves, while offering a money sink.

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First off, it doesn't look like a magic shop. It looks like a restaurant.

The Smiling Sphinx

When the Smiling Sphinx first came into the city, the party heard a great deal of hubbub about it. Some foreign haute-cuisine to tantalize the nobility. It only got more attention after it opened, since it never seemed to be open.

It was built out of an abandoned manor house, remodeled at great expense in reds and golds, with stone friezes echoing ancient civilizations flanking the main doors. But there's no grand marquee, or even a visible sign. Just a framed pamphlet set on the door reading:

The Smiling Sphinx 

 Table by reservation only

Nobody you know knows how to get a reservation. Nobody you know even knows anybody else who knows. Of course, there are rumors about the clientele. A few days out of the month, a couple carriages full of elegantly dressed parties pull up at lunchtime. They are seen leaving several hours later, again by carriage, often with luggage boxes they didn't carry inside. 

The Smiling Sphinx is classy. It is elite. It is exclusive. You have to be in the know, high class, rich, famous, politically important, just to get a reservation. At least, that's what all the rumormongers say. None of them have ever been either.

Speculation about the Smiling Sphinx runs rampant, and nobody who works there has any interest in dispelling it. In fact, everyone who works at the Sphinx also seems to live there, coming and going from the old manor house by side entrances. 

The Smiling Sphinx may remain just an odd detail on the rumor tables, something for your party to idly conspire about, until they start making serious money. Once the party's purse has grown heavy with adventuring funds, say levels 5+, they receive a letter from a liveried courier.

You are cordially invited to dine at the Smiling Sphinx, with the full complements of the house, on the following date. Our establishment's dress code requires formal dress, and the surrender of all arms and magical tools prior to entry. A carriage will arrive at your residence at the appointed time.

- Ataxas Bloom

The party is fully expected to be dressed and ready once the carriage arrives. Tardiness or sloppiness is disrespectful, and will likely result in missing out on future invitations.

Assuming the party goes through with all this, they are conveyed in style to the Smiling Sphinx, where they are allowed entry. Inside is a stylish sitting room where the party is served appetizers and a decanter of wine. Everything is chef's choice. The proprietors of the sphinx have the best taste, and the sooner one accepts this the better.

The food is good, but hardly anything to get excited over. The service is polite, but not exceptional. Party members of noble birth will likely be miffed. And there's just 1d3-1 other parties there. 

Once the party is escorted from the sitting room to their private table in a private room, the hostess leaves them the menu. 

'But wait!' party members may say. 'I thought all the food here was chef's choice! And the invitation said all the food was complementary! What's going on here!'

The food is indeed, all complementary. The menu doesn't contain food.

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The menu lists various magical items, with corresponding illustrations and prices. The Blue Menu lists minor magic items. The Red Menu lists more powerful items, priced appropriately higher. The Gold Menu lists not just Greater magic items, but magical creatures and their offspring.

During their first visit, the party will just be given the Blue Menu. Just one, to share, so they have to pass it around. They will be subtly informed about the Red and Gold Menus. There will be notes in the Blue Menu that more potent varieties may be found there. The party will not be provided with them. Not yet. They haven't been approved to see them.

Anything you dream of may be purchased from the Smiling Sphinx, if you have the coin. Potions, scrolls, spellbooks, weapons, remarkable items of myth. Anything. 

But before the proprietor of the Smiling Sphinx is willing to offer these to the party, they have to be trusted. They have to prove they're good for the money, that they have the subtlety to maintain the shop's mystique. They will be made to wait. The proprietor keeps a close eye on who's who, who has the money to purchase his items and how many. The party will be exposed to many items they can afford, and many others they can't. 

Once the party have made their orders, the hostess notes them down, and returns with lunch. The party is encouraged to take their time while their order is filled. They can always ask for seconds. Entertainment, such as music, tricks and dancing, can be provided at request.

Within the several hours the party is likely to take with lunch, the hostess and her assistants return from the basement with their orders, presented at the end of the meal. They have already received payment from whichever institution the players keep their money with. Their items are loaded into the carriage that takes the party back home.

And like that, the party now has their Flametongue, or Wand of Cold, or Broom of Flying, or Bag of Holding. More to the point, the party is now viewed by others are people in the know, with access to exclusive levels of society. An invitation to the Smiling Sphinx transforms an adventuring party from a crew of wandering murderhobos into participants in important society, a force to be reckoned with.

What is the Smiling Sphinx Really?

The Sphinx is an enterprise by the archmage Ataxas Bloom. It's not just about making money, but about giving Bloom power by creating a sense of luxury and exclusivity alongside his ability to procure and sell rare and wonderful things. He seeks to cater to the wealthy and powerful, but in such a way that they come to him and not the other way around.

There are, in fact, many Smiling Sphinxes, in many cities. They are all made as similar as possible. It is a veritable institution unto itself, which status-seeking nobles will pay dearly in coin and favors to have in their own domains.

And a good thing too, because the Sphinx is very expensive to run. It's not the food and the carriages, those expenses are drops in the bucket. The problem is the security.

Every member of the staff has to be deeply trusted. They are usually magically learned themselves, apprentices to Bloom or his associates, using service at the Sphinx to pay for their apprenticeships and prove their dedication. The hostess that welcomes the party prepares spells and wears items to detect and deal with any subterfuge or ill intent from guests. The manservant at the door is tasked with putting any uninvited guests to sleep, or using more lethal measures if necessary.

And then there's the main event, the big feature which makes the Sphinx truly secure. Until the items are ordered, they aren't even on site. The basement of the Sphinx is the location of a long-range teleportation circle, built at enormous expense. It connects to a hidden vault at an undisclosed location, where Ataxas Bloom keeps his hoard, along with a zoo of magical beasts. 

All the Smiling Sphinx locations connect to the same central vault, and so pull from the same stock. That also means that if you want to break into the shop and steal their stash, you're going to have a hell of a time. Breaking into the Smiling Sphinx's vault would be a high-level adventure, with potentially massive payoff.

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Do you already use magic item shops in your games? Are you thinking about it now? Comment below. As always, if you liked what you read here, be sure to follow the blog. Until the next post, have an excellent week.