That is startling and given current context kind of concerning. Someone should check it out.

Such as this someone, heading home from archery practice. He's carrying a bow and arrows, but the bow is unstrung, which he figures is probably unintimidating enough for visiting a shop.

The interior is... Much bigger than the outside of the wagon. There is indeed a lot of food on display, preserved meats and a wide variety of bread and bread-like things and colorful fruit stacked in neat arrangements on nice painted metal displays. Off to the right, paint, rolls of cloth, leather, and metal tools for various trades. There's more he can't see in aisles going back.

There's another sign. "Shop rules. 1. Absolutely no stealing. 2. Absolutely no violence. 3. We reserve the right to eject patrons from the store via magic for any reason."

Nick finishes writing a sentence, sets down his pen, and smiles, "Welcome, first customer of the day! Looking for anything in particular?"

It's clearly magic. He's not sure whether to expect to get out of here and find the fruits are actually stones and so on.

"Hi! I was actually wondering what brought you here."

"Well, my store wanders, as the sign says. I'm always selling to interesting new people that way, though I'm never quite sure where I'll go next."

"Did you come from Niazon?"

"I've never heard of such a place, unless the word has been badly mangled. The Amazon, Arizona, Nissen." The smile falls away.

"Huh. They're just over the river. Well... have you got anything that would help us protect ourselves?"

"I don't carry weapons. After all, I know nothing of you or Niazon - who's to say who's in the right, there? But I'll sell to you none the less. I do have food, if you need food - much of which keeps and travels quite well compared to what I expect you have. And materials, if you know a smith or leatherworker to turn them into arms and armor for you. Some of it's magical itself."

"Magical how?"

"They do various things. Purely beneficial, I assure you. For example," He steps out from around the counter and looks through the food. "Where did it... Ah! Here, heartflame peppers will actually keep you warm for a few hours after eating one, either through a cold night or for hiking through the winter. Though they are quite spicy - an intense flavor you might not be used to. Or perhaps these deepwater mints," he holds up a shiny sealed bag full of bright blue circles. "A sweet candy that will induce calmness and help with fear, panic, and stress. Of course, my best items are my most expensive."

"Do you have any that protect people from injuries or heal them or protect them from fire?"

"Hmm... You might need my specials. I try not to sell too many of those at once. I have an Immortal Cake for sale. It doesn't make you immortal, but it - refines your body, for lack of a better word. You'd heal cleaner, see better, recover from exhaustion faster. Age more gracefully if you last that long. It's also absurdly delicious. I'd actually tone the taste down if I could without losing the rest of the effects! I recommend splitting it between many people, as the taste can ruin you for all other types of food if you have too much. Besides, there's diminishing returns. The Hell's Kitchen set gives you and anything you use immunity to burns while cooking, among other functions, but I wouldn't expect to be able to weaponize it very well... It's not meant for that, anyway. You could buy some power rocks. They give you a magic power for an hour or two after cracking one open with your teeth."

"Are people where you're from usually capable of cracking rocks with their teeth or are these unusually crackable rocks?"

He rolls his eyes. "They're candy. 'Jawbreakers', first called that way to challenge teenage boys who want to prove how tough they are, you know. You keep them in your mouth and suck on them for a while, and then they're pretty crackable."

"I've never heard of that and if I wanted to prove how tough I am I'd go kill a bunch of Azanis - you seem like you don't want to take sides here but they attacked us first and I'm trying to think of magic that would be more useful defensively than offensively."

He shrugs. "War's messy and I bet the Azanis think you attacked them first, or something like that. It's why I don't sell weapons. I'll sell you what I've got though. At normal rates. I'm not saying I can't be convinced you've got a just cause, but I'd need to talk to an Azani too, or watch them commit atrocities, at minimum... How about some pseudodrake leather? Damn hard to work with, but it's fairly absurdly tough. Also, fireproof. Could be good since you're on the level of swords and arrows - unless there's some wizards hiding outside I haven't seen. Or just some plasteel from my printer stock. Great metal, plasteel. Light, tough, and easily workable at a good forging temperature. You might need an arc forge too, though."

"I don't know what an arc forge is, or how I'd tell whether anyone here can figure out how to work with pseudodrake leather. I... guess the cake sounds potentially useful, and the materials if we can use them - how much are these things?"

"The Immortal Cake is precious. I can only make one, maybe two, a year. I'd want... At least four or five gold coins, I think. Big heavy ones. Plasteel- If you just want to put it in one shape and not reforge it later, can your people work with copper? It's fairly soft as I sell it, almost like a thick resin. Once you're done working it, heat it up to copper-smelting temperature then cool it rapidly, it'll get very hard and tough and stop being workable."

Nod. "We can do that. I don't suppose you sell books about how to make it, or how to make any of the other things...?"

"I have some manuals and cookbooks, but a lot of it would be quite hard to manage on your own, sorry to say. I'd have to check around to see what's useful."

"On my own like without an expert to learn from or on my own like without friends to recruit? Because I have friends."

"Without an expert. My shop only sticks around for a week or two. I have crafts in the crafts section that I think would usefully add capabilities to your society with a lot of effort, the thing that springs to mind is steel-making, steel being a particular form of iron and the precursor to plasteel, but I can't just magically teach you how to make everything I can make. It'd take someone who could become a master weaver, mason, smith, archer, and farmer in a couple of weeks."

"Well. Whatever works. And... the war's probably a lower priority than medicine, given how advanced your stuff is supposed to be."

"...Oh, quite. I sometimes regret my choices of stock, all sorts of wondrous medicines were an option, but I can't take them back now. I don't know where you're at in terms of medicine. I'd be happy enough to chat with a doctor for a while if one comes and visits, at least, see if there's anything obvious that's common knowledge where I'm from."

"I guess I can send one to you. Is there anything you could sell me that'd be a good proof of concept and harmless and ideally in itself beneficial to other people and cheap enough I'll still be able to afford more things afterward if it works?"