Information
Faction Tier Mythic Arcane Crafting Cabal & Planar Mercantile Syndicate World Eraedal / The Dimension of Dreams Physical Front Handled exclusively through designated third-party intermediaries (e.g., Danbury’s Tavern, Midtown) Guildmaster Unknown (Communicates solely through shifting dream-avatars) Primary Specialty Bespoke High-Tier Magic Item Commission, Dreamland Planar Delivery, Cursed Item Cleansing Prime Rule Absolute Physical Anonymity (The Apothecary never meets a mortal client in the waking world)
🌙 Overview: The Craftsmen of the Waking Slumber
The Dreaming Apothecary is the most legendary, elusive, and prestigious syndicate of magical craftsmen on Eraedal. While ordinary wizards hammer out enchanted blades over forge fires and alchemists brew healing draughts in street stalls, the master crafters of the Dreaming Apothecary forge high-tier artifacts, tailored staves, and legendary wondrous items within extradimensional workshops suspended between the waking world and the Dimension of Dreams.
The defining characteristic of the Apothecary is that they do not exist as a physical storefront. No shop displays their sign, no guildhall bears their seal, and no mortal in Ptolus has ever shaken the hand of an Apothecary master in the waking world.
Instead, all commerce with the cabal is conducted through lucid dream contact: contracts are negotiated in the sleeping minds of buyers, payments vanish silently from bedside strongboxes, and finished masterwork items materialize out of thin air upon waking, wrapped in shimmering violet silk.
💤 The Commission Protocol: The Dream Transaction
Acquiring a customized magical treasure from the Dreaming Apothecary requires adherence to a rigid, centuries-old protocol:
┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│ Step 1: The Waking Token │
│ • Visit [[Danbury's Tavern]] │
│ • Pay the Contact Fee (50 gp) │
│ • Receive the Slumber-Tincture │
└─────────────────┬─────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────────▼─────────────────┐
│ Step 2: The Dream Audience │
│ • Drink tincture before sleeping │
│ • Enter lucid planar dreamscape │
│ • Negotiate price with Envoy │
└─────────────────┬─────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────────▼─────────────────┐
│ Step 3: The Payment │
│ • Place gold in bedside lockbox │
│ • Coin dematerializes at dawn │
└─────────────────┬─────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────────▼─────────────────┐
│ Step 4: The Delivery │
│ • 1d4 to 2d6 days later... │
│ • Item appears beside sleeper in │
│ pristine violet silk wrapping │
└───────────────────────────────────┘
- Securing the Audience: A prospective buyer must seek out an authorized mortal intermediary in Ptolus—most famously the proprietor of Danbury’s Tavern in Midtown. The buyer pays a modest retainer (typically 50 to 100 gp) and receives a sealed phial of somnambulist draught or scented lotus incense.
- The Lucid Negotiation: Upon ingesting the draught, the client enters a vivid, stable lucid dream. A masked, velvet-robed figure—the Dream Envoy—steps out of the silver mist. In this private psychic sanctum, the buyer specifies the exact enchantments, runes, materials, and cosmetic aesthetics desired. The Envoy quotes an unyielding, non-negotiable price in gold or raw platinum.
- The Transmutation of Wealth: The client must leave the agreed-upon coin in a designated container beside their sleeping pallet. The following morning, the container is found unlocked and empty; the coin has been transmuted across the planar veil into the Apothecary’s extradimensional treasuries.
- Delivery: Depending on the item’s complexity, the client wakes days later to find their requested treasure resting beside them on their bed, perfectly attuned and carrying the faint scent of night-blooming jasmine.
⚠️ The Retribution of the Dreamers
Because the Dreaming Apothecary deals in tens of thousands of gold pieces and some of the most powerful relics in Eraedal, fools occasionally attempt to swindle, ambush, or trace them:
- Counterfeit Coin: If a buyer deposits fool’s gold, illusion-cloaked lead, or attempts to steal back their payment, the consequences are immediate and horrifying. The Apothecary does not send bailiffs; they dispatch Nightmare Stalkers into the offender’s mind. The thief suffers horrific waking nightmares, gaining the Doomed and Drained conditions, unable to recover Hit Points until the debt is paid tenfold.
- Ambush Traps: Anyone attempting to physically ambush the delivery agents finds only empty air. Deliveries utilize instantaneous 10th-rank Gate or Apparition conjurations that bypass physical wards, anti-magic fields, and private locks.
⚔️ Pathfinder 2e Remaster Mechanics
The Dreaming Apothecary is the primary campaign vector for players seeking custom, high-rank, or specific magic items not readily available in surface shops:
- Item Commissioning: Any common or uncommon permanent magic item up to 15th level can be commissioned through the Dreaming Apothecary at standard Price + 10% (for bespoke rush delivery). Rare items require a special favor, unique formula, or rare planar ingredient retrieved from the undercity or the Banewarrens.
- The Sleep-Draught (Alchemical, Consumable): Cost 50 gp. When consumed before sleep, the user automatically succeeds at entering a lucid state and is immune to nightmare effects, psychic intrusions, and the Dream spell from hostile casters for 8 hours.
DREAM ENVOY (PLANAR AGENT) CREATURE 10
RARE | MEDIUM | ASTRAL | HUMANOID
Perception +21; truesight, dream-sense 60 ft.
Languages Common, Celestial, Aklo, Telepathy 100 ft.
Skills Deception +23, Occultism +22, Diplomacy +21, Arcana +20
Str -1, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +4, Wis +3, Cha +5
AC 29; Fort +16, Ref +20, Will +22
HP 160; Immunities sleep, paralyzed; Resistances mental 15, physical 10 (except ghost touch)
Dream Displacement (Reaction) Trigger: The Envoy is targeted with an attack; Effect: The Envoy flickers between the Material Plane and the Dimension of Dreams, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and the effects of Concealment (20% miss chance).
Speed 30 feet, fly 30 feet
Melee [one-action] Phantasmal Touch +22 (agile, finesse, magical, mental), Damage 2d10+9 mental plus Stupefied 1
Occult Innate Spells (DC 30)
5th—Synaptic Pulse, Nightmare, Shadow Walk
4th—Sleep, Dimension Door (at will), Invisibility
3rd—Mind Reading, Dream Message (at will)
🧭 Story Hooks for Adventurers
- The Interrupted Dream: A party member commissions a vital protective ward against chaotic corruption. During their dream audience, a violent nightmare entity belonging to The Tolling Bell invades the dreamscape, threatening to sever the buyer’s mind unless the party protects the Dream Envoy.
- The Stolen Commission: An eccentric noble paid 10,000 gp for an enchanted Dawnsilver Rapier to fight the cults, but woke up to find the delivery hijacked by a thief wielding a phase-door device. The Apothecary contracts the party in the waking world to recover the blade before their pristine reputation is tarnished.
- The Banewarren Ingredient: Lady Rael informs the party that crafting a permanent counter-tether for their Runic Birthmarks requires the Dreaming Apothecary’s aid. The Dream Envoy agrees to forge the relic, but demands a single vial of primeval quicksilver harvested from the inner wards of the Banewarrens.