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Odd NPC Vendors for Your Magical World: Tibbernick Wigglefuzz, Purveyor of the Ultimate Familiar

Looking to add wonder and weirdness to your campaign’s marketplaces? Odd NPC vendors can become memorable side quests, strange allies, or long-term world fixtures that pull your players deeper into your setting. Lately players love adding pets and companions to the parties ranks. Even among veteran gamers, when you offer up something new and interesting they just can’t seem to pass it up.  Today’s featured vendor: a gnome with too much hair, too many secrets, and way too many tiny animals, running a shop known as:

The Ultimate Familiar

Meet Tibbernick Wigglefuzz

If there is one thing Tibbernick has in abundance (besides hair sticking out from every seam of his vest and tufts shooting from his eyebrows like startled caterpillars), it’s confidence in his claim:

“I can get you any animal… in perfect travel size.”

Tibbernick is a hyper-excited, babbling gnome who proudly displays a rainbow of squeaking, chirping, purring, and occasionally growling creatures, each roughly the size of a guinea pig. His favorite companion is a mini hippo, who gives a mighty hippo smile whenever asked. Tibbernick loves this hippo dearly and will never sell it, no matter how much gold your players offer.

What’s Really Going On?

Tibbernick cannot actually shrink large animals. Instead, he stumbled into master transmuter powers (don’t ask how, he certainly won’t tell you) that allow him to transform inanimate objects into animals of the perfect size. He believes that if he ever reveals his secret, he will lose this magical gift.

His cluttered back room is an extra-dimensional space filled with squeaks, tiny cages, and a faint alchemical glow as he tries to meet the odd requests of customers who want a pocket pegasus or travel-sized tarrasque.

Whenever players request something impossible, he will grin beneath his fuzzy mustache and say:

“Let Tibbernick see if Tibbernick can do it!”

He always asks for a down payment, promising that if it proves impossible, the gold will be returned (and he keeps his word).

Using Tibbernick Wigglefuzz in Your Campaign

Players love weird pets and familiars.

For Players:

• Acquire a tiny pet for flavor or a modified familiar option.

• Request strange creatures (“Can you make me a micro displacer beast?”) and discover what Tibbernick requires to try the transformation.

• Uncover Tibbernick’s secret and decide whether to protect it, reveal it, or trade it for power.

For DMs:

• Price requests based on rarity, magical usefulness, and how weird the request is (10 gp for a mini chicken, 500 gp for a squeaky pseudodragon).

• Let these familiars function as flavor companions, familiars, or low-power magical pets with quirks (the mini hippo needs daily mud baths, the tiny chimera is dramatic).

• Use Tibbernick’s fear of losing his powers as a larger plot hook (a rival wizard wants his secret, or a strange entity wants to take back the power he stumbled upon).

• Turn the shop into a recurring location players love visiting for silly and heartfelt moments.

Possible Adventure Hooks:

🪐 Mini Hippo Kidnapped! Tibbernick’s beloved hippo is stolen, and he offers free familiars for life if recovered.
🪐 The Living Spoon. One “familiar” regains the memory of its original form—a silver spoon—and seeks its lost set.
🪐 Guild Trouble. The local wizard’s guild is investigating “illegal transmutation,” and Tibbernick needs the players to hide or protect him.
🪐 Exotic Essence Hunt. To fulfill a bizarre request, Tibbernick sends the party to acquire the “essence of a starling’s song” or “the shadow of a manticore’s tail.”

Why Add Tibbernick Wigglefuzz?

Never trust wizard’s familiar

Vendors like Tibbernick:
✅ Give players fun, non-breaking options to spend gold.
✅ Add colorful, joyful NPC interactions to your world.
✅ Offer hooks for low-stakes side quests and repeat visits.
✅ Make your world feel truly magical and alive.

While adding any potential animal miniature sized could add some fun into your game, here is a quick chart with some options and what Tibbernick might ask for payment. If that cost is too steep feel free to alter to what your party could afford:

The Ultimate Familiar Selection Table

Notes for DMs:

• These creatures function similarly to familiars but come with non-combat flavor features and can be re-flavored for the Find Familiar spell or homebrew rules.

• You can tie quests to acquiring the requested items or charge extra if players don’t want to gather them.

• If a player chooses to investigate the familiar’s origin, they may discover it began life as a spoon, acorn, or button.

Final Thoughts

The next time your players wander a magical city’s marketplace, let them stumble upon Tibbernick Wigglefuzz’s Ultimate Familiar. Whether they leave with a mini owlbear napping in their backpack or just a story about a gnome with an eternal smile and hair that moves when he laughs, they will leave your table with a memory worth keeping.

Thanks for reading. Until Next Time. Stay Nerdy!!