Working for a Magic Item Dealer - Ideas

[Prisoner6]

So any thoughts on how could I make this idea cooler?

My thought was that maybe the trolls make off with a few really power/nasty/evil/bad artifacts that the happened to be in the shop. Sure, the PCs save the shop, but the last few trolls see that they are beaten and just grab a few things and make a run for it. Then you can run a follow-up adventure where the party has to track down the trolls and/or the missing items.

I can see it now: "By the Gods! Those trolls made off with the Pitchfork of Asmodeus! Of all the dumb luck, why did they have to take that! We have to get it back... no telling what might happen if THAT falls into the wrong hands...."

I know it doesn't seem like where the discussion is going, but you might be able to use this idea in addition to everything else that's going on...

 

[Sigurd]

Ran Across this Statblock

Magic Shop Wizard

Its a wizard for a magic shop.

Not detailed in terms of plot but some work done for you.

 

[Loonook]

Magic Shop owners should be quick, smart, and able to handle things on their own...

Yeah, having just read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, I could see Uncle Enzo being an excellent example of a magic shop owner. Been to the wars, extremely likeable person, high attention to detail, and quick with a blade, wand, or smile. A Halfling who wanders into the Feywild quite a bit could really make some dangerous friends and enemies there... telling the difference is also a huge problem .

Personally, when I think Trolls anymore, I think of Mab's elite trolls in Dresden Files. Big, hulking beasties who are brainy as all the Hells, wield fierce magics, and can get things done. Your everyday trolls exist, of course, but an intelligent warrior-prince who happens to top out around 12, 13 feet, has countermagic and other side benefits, and who may just be tired of a few too many harriers pulling prized treasures from his lackeys in the Near Feywild would be an intriguing villain to a halfling who runs such a shop.

Iron-sealed hidey-holes, tricky little traps, and lots of decoys... such a halfling knows how to get inside the head of a fey, and knows them well enough to get things done. I wouldn't have as many discounts as you seem to be proposing... bad for business. But services could be a useful tradeoff now and again, and favors traded and earned are always nice to have when the person you're trading with owns the closest cross between a military ammo dump/surgical hospital/intelligence depot in the setting .

Slainte,

-Loonook.