Sweets Shops
Today marks the end of Candy Week, and naturally that means you’ll be looking for something sweet. Rather than settle for ten delicious candies, however, let me offer you something even better: ten sweets shops, dripping with delicious flavor, saccharine dispositions, and, occasionally, evil dark enough to give you a toothache!
1. Sweet Embrace. This candy shop produces a variety of chocolates and hard candies, and its owner, Ted Hambleton, is a very devoted member of a local church community. So much so, in fact, that not only is the sign for his shop a clever combination of his deity’s holy symbol with various candies, but he regularly gives out free candy, in small quantities, to all active church members, and occasionally rewards good deeds with a whole bar of chocolate.
2. Gingerbread Menagerie. This bakery is, in actuality, a front for a rather insidious thieves’ guild. The bakery’s claim to fame is their gingerbread cookies, which come in a staggering variety of different shapes and sizes, most of which resemble fantastic and exciting creatures. Some of these cookies contain secret magic, however, which is placed in gumdrops that can then be added to any cookie just before it is taken by a rich customer. These cookies animate in the night (presuming they survive that long) and unlock the front door of whatever house they are in, allowing the thieves to get inside.
3. Edmee Bouchard. This little old lady lives in a small hut just outside of town. Each day, she bakes an assortment of pies, which she sells for a modest price of 2 cp, in order to sustain herself. She is very kind to visitors, and will often give a slice of pie to children who come to visit. Every once in a while, however, she gets the urge to make a very special pie, and she lures a child into her hut and bakes him into a massive meat pie, which she keeps for herself.
4. Bertha’s Famous Candies. This quaint little candy store is owned by a robust and garrulous woman named Bertha Heinrich. She offers only hard candies in spherical shape, but prides herself on the wide assortment of flavors she has available, and many of her candies have several different flavor layers. A canny businesswoman, Bertha often names particular flavor combinations of candies after local heroes and adventurers.
5. The Stolen Doughnut. This bakery’s sign features a caricature of a greedy goblin hastily feasting on a doughnut. The shop, run by Bosko Ilic, specializes in doughnuts, although it has plenty of other confections available, as well. Bosko’s hatred of goblins runs deep, and traces back to tragic events in his childhood, and he has a standing offer of one free doughnut (any kind you like) for each goblin ear traded in to him. During times when the local government also offers such bounties, he’s happy to provide the doughnuts in addition to any other reward.
6. Wattana Somsak. A reformed annis hag, Wattana is forced to live far out in the swampy wilderness, as few can bring themselves to trust a hag such as herself. Despite her appearance, however, she is earnestly good-hearted and always eager for company, and quick to make a batch of cookies (chocolate chip is her specialty, but she makes sure she has supplies for a variety, to suit her guests’ tastes).
7. Chocolate Bomber. Run as a side project by Corrinna Quincy, an alchemist with a slight weakness for sweets, this candy store specializes in “chocolate bombs,” which consist of a chocolate-covered cherry infused with a variety of sweet flavors. Unfortunately, however, one of the assistant cooks, Hector Lund, is secretly a cultist devoted to a dark god of poison and murder, and he regularly injects deadly, but slow-acting, poisons into candies sold in the store.
8. Delicious Dreams. This bakery specializes in cakes, and its wedding cakes are ordered by the noble and wealthy from great distances away, because in addition to making exceptional cakes, the bakery is known for its beautifully-crafted wedding toppers, with extremely lifelike and delicious depictions of brides and grooms. In truth, the bakery is operated by a disguised toegedaemon, who transforms past loves of the married couple into candy to make these dark decorations.
9. The Langenbergs. The honeymoon never really ended for this married couple, which live on a small farm just outside of town, and their property is always lively with over a dozen children running this way and that, playing in the fields. The couple enjoys visitors, and makes fresh toffee each day to give out to passersby, but you have to get there early to make sure that you get some before it runs out.
10. Sweet Solutions. This ice cream shop offers a variety of magically-infused flavors, and is especially prided for its famous potion-infused ice cream, which, in addition to being delicious, grants a variety of magical benefits to anyone who eats it. The process is surprisingly cost-effective, although admittedly not very portable.