“As you traverse the wilds you see a wooden caravan that travels on legs made of tree roots, rather than pulled like your standard horse and cart fare. […] Almost as soon as it is within a few metres of you, it comes to a halt, the roots burrowing themselves into the earth. The hatch on the side opens up, and a sign drops down. The Rootless Boutique, it reads, in swirling letters, for all your magical needs.”
The Rootless Boutique is a drag and drop shop compatible with 5e from The HomeBakery. I was asked to check this out months ago, and finally got to reading it earlier this year! What struck me most about the shop is the shopkeep themself: The Magwitch, a fey being with absolutely no interest in bearing the responsibility of knowing your name. With dozens of interesting (sometimes fairy tale inspired) items, a loyalty program for return customers, and a series of blessings and curses that may be bestowed upon the party, The Rootless Boutique offers an easy way to expand your world with minimal prep.
I enjoy how the name and description of the boutique complement each other, and how with the sensory descriptions provided specific mention is made of the scent of damp forest. It’s a small thing, but that the boutique travels on roots and evokes the deep earth they’d be buried in if not rootless is quite satisfying. As the shop is able to shift between planes, there is no reason it cannot appear in the material plane or in the Feywilds. What remains constant is that the Boutique will not be found in the same place twice, which I enjoy. It also allows for the party to run into the shop multiple times throughout the campaign. I’m a fan of recurring NPCs, especially ones where additional incentives, like The Rootless Boutique’s “Card of Continued Loyalty,” come into play.
The Loyalty Card is both an example of a charming addition this supplement offers, and a strong item to offer insight into the character and interests of The Magwitch, the boutique’s proprietor. The Magwitch themselves is a ten foot tall Magpie inspired witch who trades in items and stories. I enjoy their design immensely, especially the claws hands, feet, and the wing-like cloak. That they care deeply about the stories players can trade to them, and not the storyteller themselves, is very fun to me – you don’t matter, but your stories? Those are important. There’s a lot of lore about the Magwitch included in this shop, and it left me with more questions about our feathered friend, like, for example, why they aren’t in the good graces of the fey courts. Something for GMs to decide over the course of their games, should it come up! I think it could be an interesting plot point for people looking to tie things in further.
But going back to The Loyalty Card! Much like in real life, I’m a sucker for a loyalty card – especially when there are rewards along the way to completing the card in full. A fair question here might be “why does this Fey shopkeep have loyalty cards?” Because they think they’re a quaint mortal trinket. The Magwitch having loyalty cards is even funnier when you consider that their shop is never in the same place twice and so repeat customers might be somewhat of a rarity!
I deeply enjoy the potential for relationship events as parties complete their loyalty cards, and developing bonds as you see the Magwitch more often. It’s a concept I often used in games I was running, where on visit X, Y, or Z, the NPC’s “trust level” would unlock a little bit more – they’ve seen you a few times and, in the case of my players, interactions usually went well so they’re more willing to give you more information, cut a little bit of a discount, and just generally be more friendly. Seeing this included by way of a loyalty card with additional rewards thus pleased me greatly. It could also give players additional motivation to try and seek The Rootless Boutique, and The Magwitch, out.
If loyalty cards aren’t motivation enough, maybe the blessings available from The Magwitch would be? There are five possible blessings The Magwitch might impart, ranging from Uncommon to Very Rare. My personal favourite was ‘Dealmaker’ a rare blessing allowing you to know the moments any deal you’ve sealed with a handshake has been broken. I immediately thought of how useful this could be in political campaigns, can you imagine the power of this? I love it.
I spent some time thinking about how many times players would need to have seen The Magwitch, what help they might have provided, stories told, etc. in order for the Magwitch to consider imparting a blessing. And, on the opposite end, the very real consequence in the form of a curse to those who break a deal made with the Magwitch.
Maybe it was purely mercantile, and the player had an excellent trade offer but, I don’t know, that didn’t really strike me as the Magwitch’s style – especially not when they have so many interesting and unique items to trade those stories for.
Speaking of items, let’s get into some of my favourites – for all the time I’m spending talking about the NPC who runs this shop and how much I enjoy them and the mechanics relating to them, The Rootless Boutique is a drag-and-drop shop and functions really well in this capacity. I think there’s plenty on offer to appeal to a whole range of party members, with some items being more obviously helpful while others might require a bit more creativity while allowing for memorable storytelling opportunities.
The first is the Amber Helm, which puts any leaf or flower you pick in stasis. One, I thought that was a cool use of amber as a material, and two: imagine the flower crowns you could make? You could have the freshest flowers from all over your adventures and make some of the most eye-catching displays with blooms some people might otherwise not have an opportunity to see! My first thought, however, was actually about brewing potions and poisons and how, with this helm, you’d always have fresh ingredients on hand. I can imagine games where after X amount of time an ingredient you’d previously collected can no longer be used (this makes sense, even though I would not enjoy this ruling in the games I’m in), and this helm offers an elegant solution!
I was also a fan of the Cloak Stone, which allows you to turn invisible on the use of a bonus action to activate the stone. Imagine giving this to a rogue? Finish stabbing one person, flip the stone, move towards your next target unseen and get ready to do it all again! It’s also a neat way to mitigate disadvantage in certain situations where, if you have disadvantage for whatever reason on a given target, you can use the invisibility offered by the stone to make it a flat roll instead. These are the two that came to mind for me, but I’d love to hear other opinions!
The last item I’ll mention is the Nettle Coat, which immediately made me perk up due to the obvious reference to “The Wild Swans” fairy tale – “The Twelve Brothers” and “The Seven Ravens” are both similar if you know those renditions instead. In it, Elisa knits stinging nettles into shirts to break an enchantment put upon her brothers by a witch. While working on the shirts, she cannot speak a word. Mid-length fairy tale short, she’s put on trial for witchcraft and set to be burned at the stake when her brothers – still as swans – come to rescue her. She tosses the shirts over their heads and the curse is broken, though because she didn’t fully complete the last shirt, one brother is left with a swan wing as an arm.
I’ve always liked this fairy tale. I also think about how long it takes me to knit a hat (we’ve hit the three month mark on this current one, though most of that time has been me not working on it) and kind of shake my head thinking about how long 10+ shirts would take me. Especially made of stinging nettle? Sorry siblings, you might be stuck for a while! The item, incidentally, gives you advantage on saving throws against curses and spells cast by hags which is thematically appropriate and gave me a great deal of joy. It’s worth noting that this is not the only item inspired by fairy tales! There’s a number I recognized immediately when leafing through, this one is just my favourite.
To sum it up, I recommend picking up The Rootless Boutique! There’s pages upon pages of interesting items and I think The HomeBakery does an interesting job of creating a memorable NPC and storyline around The Magwitch. It is honestly more than I expected from a drag-and-drop 5e shop, and makes me interested in checking out another of the publisher’s supplements, The Skeleton Closet, in future. You can pick up a copy of The Rootless Boutique for about $5.00USD on Itch, or find your copy on DriveThru RPG. Happy shopping!
Want to follow along with more of what The HomeBakery is doing? Check out the rest of the Baker’s work here, and consider a follow on social media!
That’s all for this week! Until next time, stay cozy, and if you want to join your companions around the cauldron, signup for email updates below!
The Cozy Cauldron 