Pocket Full of NPCs for 5E D&D — The Fence

Salutations, nerds! I’m back with another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons NPC for you, something to keep in your back pocket for when your 5E D&D players need them. Last time we spent some time with a lycanthropic barbarian and this time we’re looking at something a little bit more utilitarian and subtle. I’m sure you’ve been in a situation where your rogue characters stole something and needed to get rid of it, right? Well, you’re in luck. That is the very situation this NPC was geared toward.

Defense against getting caught in 5E D&D

Here’s the game: I’m going to give you a name, list what 5E D&D stat block you should be using plus an extra ability or two to make things feel more mechanically unique. Then we’ll touch base on what this person wants, how to make them a nuisance to the party, how to make them an ally and finally a concept for a side quest they can offer.

“A fence, also known as a receiver, mover, or moving man, is an individual who knowingly buys stolen goods in order to later resell them for profit. The fence acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the behavior of the thief in the transaction. This sense of the term came from thieves’ slang tracing from the notion of such transactions providing a defense against being caught. The term remains in common use in all major dialects of modern English, all of which spell it with a “c” even though the source word in some dialects (particularly American English) is now spelled defense.” — from Wikipedia

Olivia Gaunt

Steeped in the criminal underworld, this halfling knows more than a guy — she knows all the guys. If there’s a party she’s going to be there whether she was explicitly invited or not and she’ll do it with a smile on her face showing off a set of dimples that could not possibly be in any sort of trouble, right?

Olivia dresses in pretty gowns and wears the kind of tiny hats you have to pin into your hair. Her hands are usually sheathed in lace gloves and her manners are impeccable. If you find her in her office she’s likely to offer you tea and cookies from one of the ever present tins on her desk. Most of them aren’t even poisoned! Promise!

If you’re looking to buy something black market, she probably has it or the connections to acquire the object. Olivia doesn’t deal in flesh trade but poisons, illegal weapons, codebreaking services and all that good stuff are entirely in her wheelhouse.

Mechanically

Use the spy stat block from the free 5E D&D Basic Rules. Change the size to Small. Add the following trait:

Mithridite. Olivia has advantage on saving throws made against poisons.

Replace the Shortsword attack with the following:

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 +2) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, or take 7 (2d6) poison damage and be poisoned for 1 hour. The poisoned creature cannot be healed by magic for the duration.

Olivia is CR 3 (700 XP).

What Drives Her

Olivia likes to know people and often knowing adventurers is useful. Politicians, career criminals, the city watch — anyone who can make things happen is good to have in her back pocket and she’ll take the opportunity where she can get one.

She’s going to play this smart. She’ll wait until a group knows how useful she can be to them before she asks for a favor, and the first favor will be a very small one. If they need something, she can get it. If they need to get rid of something, she can get it into the right hands and make them a tidy profit in the process.

And then maybe she needs something small. A package dropped off, a reminder delivered to someone who owes her and seems to have forgotten about it and the like. You get the picture.

After all, not everyone with power is flashy about it. And those who aren’t usually live longer.

Olivia as an Enemy

She’s more the kind of person to pull strings behind the scenes. If a group has earned her ire, which isn’t easy to do — you’d have to really betray her or make it evident you’re never going to repay your debts — she’ll make things difficult in subtle ways.

A party finda themselves more frequently stopped by guards, mugged in inconvenient alleyways or specifically targeted by more pickpockets, but only as a distraction so someone else can slip contraband into their bag and they can take the fall for it later.

Olivia can, however, be more of a momentary pain in the butt in the form of haggling. She’ll always start off asking an outrageous price for something just to see what she can get away with and giving in to her first number is just going to make that worse going forward.

Of course, wizards with fat purses are some of her favorite clients.

Olivia as an Ally

She’s not a woman whose going to go on adventures with you but knowing her can open doors — particularly in the underground.

If you’re looking for a particular bit of information or access to an area otherwise off limits then she can pull some strings. Want an invitation to this noble’s fancy party? No problem. Want to skip the line and get right into the high stakes three dragon ante game? It’ll take a down payment but she can make it happen for you.

A Potential Side Quest

Those who pull strings from their holes in the wall aren’t usually beloved by the masses. Of course Olivia has people who want to see her fail or worse, and in this case she needs someone to help her take care of business.

Once she’s earned a little bit of goodwill she might ask the party to stay a little later because some thugs are going to be breaking down the door right about any minute now. She’d seem pretty cool about this but a successful DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check shows her actual amount of worry, which is a considerable.

Fight some thugs, save your halfling and life goes on.

That’s enough of that for the day, thanks for sticking with it and reading along, and hopefully this little lady can be of use to you in your own games. If you’re digging this content, I’ve written a lot of NPCs that can be found in the supplements over in the store, and if you’re just digging my wordplay, head on over to twitter and say hi @pyrosynthesis! Regardless, have fun gaming and stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A halfling adventurer as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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