The Bramblewick Traveling Emporium of Necessities, Curiosities, Luxuries, Oddities, and Things You Didn't Know You Needed
Boddle Bramblewick is a large, round-bellied old gnome who seems to appear wherever the roads are worst and the settlements are smallest. He travels in a brightly painted, heavily weathered wagon drawn by his shaggy mule, Duchess, selling whatever odd collection of goods he happens to be carrying at the time. Pots, lanterns, bundles of rope, cheap jewelry, old books, tools, bottles, charms, cookware, and secondhand clothing hang from nearly every available inch of the wagon. Most of it looks like junk, though every now and then something surprisingly valuable, unusual, or completely out of place turns up among the clutter.
Boddle himself is difficult to ignore. He has enormous gray sideburns, bushy eyebrows, a broad grin, and the cheerful confidence of a man who has never once doubted his ability to make a sale. He talks constantly, changes subjects without warning, gives nearly everyone a nickname, and argues with Duchess as though the mule were his business partner. His prices seem to change according to his mood, the weather, how much he likes you, and whether he thinks you are paying attention.
Most people throughout the region consider Boddle a nuisance. Merchants complain that he undercuts their prices, guards are suspicious of where he gets some of his merchandise, and farmers tend to find sudden work to do when his wagon rolls into view. Children, however, adore him, and travelers quickly learn that Boddle has been almost everywhere. He knows old roads, forgotten trails, isolated homesteads, mining camps, river crossings, ruined towers, and places that rarely appear on any proper map.
Those who spend enough time around Boddle occasionally notice something else. For all his rambling stories and foolish jokes, very little seems to escape his attention. He remembers who passed along a road weeks ago, which caravans never returned, where soldiers have recently been posted, and which frightened traveler was asking strange questions three villages back. Whether Boddle is simply an unusually observant merchant or something more useful is difficult to say—but experienced folk tend to listen carefully when the old gnome casually mentions that he has “heard something interesting.”
