Tabernae Vagantes / Tabby's Chain Store

Description

Wandering shops are like something from a fairy tale, well, perhaps a housewife's fairy tale maybe. They are a product of stunning magic, but their practicality is rather mundane. The tabernae vagantes, commonly called Tabby's, seem to always carry what people are looking for, or at least part of what they are looking for, or something-they-are-looking-for-adjacent. Maybe something they were looking for but with a different function than expected even. It is a surprisingly flexible constant of these magical domains.
The contents can be nearly anything, ranging from food to weapons to tools to raw materials or potions. The strangest however are the books, which can range from local fiction to cookbooks to foreign texts to events and books that haven't ever been officially penned or published (yet). As a result some even end up never being written out of a concern that it would be meta-time plagiarism. Regardless of where they were written, they are always translated into the dominant host language of the region the shop is currently located in.
They appear in rarely-traveled side streets, looking as if they have been there forever, the front adjusting to match the local architecture and style (or lack thereof). Their time of appearance appears seemingly random, but if you were to ask the shop's manager they would look at their pocket watch and say they are on a very strict and uncompromising schedule. If you stay in the store too long, which means more than the three minutes allotted to each location, you will step out somewhere else entirely.

Tabby, the Manager

Speaking of the shop's manager, these always appear similar, and they all share the same name: Tabby. A female gnome that looks slightly more alien than her other kinsmen, with wider eyes and pointier ears than usual. She is, without exception, the only person present in the shop aside from any customers. Tabby is always friendly and doesn't mind if her customers stay a bit longer, but she will avoid talking about any personal details nor will she answer any questions about how the shop functions or where it came from, as it is 'against company policy'. Interestingly enough, when asked about local details like the weather, the time or who won the elections, she will often answer inaccurately but with full conviction, as if she isn't seeing the same environment or time. Unwanted customers or customers displaying aggressive behavior may be blocked off by an invisible wall or forcibly removed by the wooden spider-golem resting against the ceiling.
This has caused some interesting debates about what the traveling shops and Tabby herself are. Some think she may be a trickster God or Goddess like Larum or Lydia trying to experience different parts of the world or simply stirring the pot. Others think it may be a front for an inter-dimensional crime syndicate trying to whitewash criminally obtained goods, or secretly distributing dangerous weapons. While others think that Tabby may be a Lich cursed with a teleporting phylactery that became the shop.

Alternative Names

Traveling Shops