Magic Merchant 3: White Bear's Den
Magic Merchants 3: White Bear's Den in a pdf product from Clockwork Golem Workshop, the third in The Magic Merchants series. White Bear's Den features a detailed magic item trading post, including a handful of new magic items and spells, located in the frozen wastes and run by a bugbear shaman called White Bear. Magic Merchants 3: White Bear's Den is a 15 page pdf of which 12 pages are devoted to the description of White Bear's magic item trading post, 2 pages are devoted to an appendix giving reference material, while one page is devoted to OGL declarations. This pdf normally retails on RPGNow for $1.50.
Initial Impressions:
Magic item trading and selling is often a much debated topic amongst players and DMs alike, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this pdf when I started reading it. I was pleased to find a well written pdf, giving all the details one would expect to find on magic items available, replenishing of said items over time, and willingness to craft and sell custom items.
White Bear's Den is a very complete and detailed package, well thought out and constructed, and the few new spells and magical items are useful and a good addition to this solid pdf. The layout is decent, and there are a few scattered bits of mundane artwork in between. On the slightly negative side, you have to be a fan of magic trading posts and stores to really appreciate this, but I thought this found a good middle ground, just as the pdf stated it was intended to do. Also, it would've been interesting to see some more details on, for example, White Bear's willow tree that extends his life and the shaman background he descends from, but that's an aside to the topic of this pdf.
The Details:
White Bear's Den details the magic item trading store of a bugbear shaman that lives in the frozen wastes. It includes details on the stock items he's likely to have, what his items costs, and what other services he's capable of providing. Some detailed background information is also given on White Bear himself, on how his store originated, and the general region his trading post is most likely to be found in and his relationship to creatures and civilizations or tribes living in the same region. It's amply filled with everything you'd need to run an encounter smoothly, including buying and selling items, notes on White Bear's interests, personal touches to various items such as sealskin potion containers and weapons crafted from whale bone, and descriptions of the cave he lives in. It's nice to see these little touches that provide flavor to a product.
There are several new magical items included in this pdf, such as the Cloak of the White Bear, a cloak providing polar bear-like abilities, Elixir of Cold Mists, allowing creatures imbibing it to breathe a concealing mist, and the Spirit Sack, an interesting item whereby the spirits trapped inside the sack grant certain abilities and spells on release from the sack. In addition, there are a few new spells, variants mostly of existing spells to adapt them to the cold environment White Bear lives in. These include Freezing Ray, a cold-based version of Scorching Ray, and White Bear's favorite, Cold Curse, based around the spell Bestow Curse but with the bugbear shaman's personal touch. The bugbear shaman also crafts a number of new and novel alchemical items, such as frost-viper ichor, a poison, and Ghaar, a concoction from the bugbear tribes in the frozen wastes that protects somewhat against cold dangers.
In addition to full details on the items he regularly keeps, the pdf includes lists of spells that White Bear can cast on request, as well a list of items where the DM can choose one or two from as additional trading items that he may have acquired and have in stock at any given time. These come complete with descriptions of their appearance, and often details and background about legends or histories that accompany these items. The pdf closes with some good advice on how to use the pdf, White Bear and his trading store, and also offers some plot hooks related to White Bear that might offer passing adventurers some additional challenges to sink their teeth into.
There's not a lot on the negative side that can be said about this pdf, particularly if you're prepared to accept magical item trading posts or stores in your game. I did, however, do a quick tally of the value of items in White Bear's store, and was surprised that given the number I came up with that the trading post itself wasn't better protected than just by White Bear himself. Presumably the venerable shaman would need to venture out of his cave to look for new materials, leaving his place very vulnerable to thieves. It's also probably not the kind of place to insert into a campaign with an evil party, as they might have a field day if they can manage to overcome White Bear in his cave. Although the topic is touched on briefly in discussing White Bear's relationships to nearby tribes, I still found it slightly strange that a tribe would not see the benefit in trying to oust the old shaman.
Conclusions:
If you like magic trading stores, this is a solid and handy, well-detailed pdf to insert into your campaign in the artic or sub-artic climates. There's a lot of roleplaying opportunity in using White Bear particularly for low-level parties venturing into colder climates for the first time, and being unaccustomed to the dangers. It's very possible to scale down the amount of magic in White Bear's store, and simply use the shaman himself and the details of his background and history as a means to feed information on the frozen wastes to parties new to the area. Overall, it's a good and well written pdf, offering some fun opportunities for those DMs willingly to insert White Bear's Den into their campaign. Based on that, I'd grade this pdf with four stars, although it's closer to three and a half.
