Obsidius Odde

THE MAN
Obsidius Odde was a magi of insignificance within the High Guild of Magic. He spent most of his time either in the Grand Archives, or visiting various other libraries throughout the world. He worked hard at being unnoticed and ignored by his fellow magi. That is until the backwater village of Blackstone was added to the Mirabex Kingdom and news of its incredible bridge to no where became all the rage among the scholarly. He was one of the first scholars to arrive in Blackstone and became very involved in the study of the bridge. After extensive scries of the bridge revealed that there were no signs of magic, he was the first to be disappointed. However, he by then he had fallen in love with the town life in Blackstone and decided that this was where he would spend the rest of his life.
THE SHOPPE
His shoppe was a simple thing built into the main floor of his two-story cottage. It took two years for the stone cottage-shoppe to be built, and in that time he strengthened his ties with the High Guild and Scribes' Guild in anticipation of what he would sell from his little shoppe. He also was very busy moving his things to Blackstone so that, soon as his cottage-shoppe was built he could move in and have goods to sell. He became the town's greatest source for writing materials and the occassional magical trinket.
When the kingdom's explorers discovered that gemstones could be panned from the rough fore-waters of the Dark Water River, prospectors flocked to Blackstone. Before long, people were able to afford the modest magical trinkets Obsidius sold in his shoppe, making him a modestly wealthy man.
THE TRUTH
Obsidius Odde was no mere magi. In fact, he was not a magi at all. Instead, he was a shadow troll who constantly drank polymorph potions to keep himself looking like an old human man. He had an impressive array of magical items he used to do spells while he pretended to cast them. Obsidius was also an agent of the Ministry of Clandestination who spent many of his years before the bridge to no where dealing secrets to various mortal folk, for not only a fee in gold, but also the promise of a favor. It was with these favors he made sure that the High Guild of Magic never discovered the existence of the shadow trolls. Whenever an incident happened, he would use memory dust to ensure there was no one who could remember it.
When the black bridge became interesting to the High Guild, he got himself involved with the first scholarly expedition where he cleverly and gently blocked all their scrying so they never suspected it and believed the bridge was not magical. The bridge, in fact, was heavily protected by cloaking spells to hide that it was actually the entrance to the Ministry of Clandestination. He spent the rest of his "human" years aging for another twenty years while he ensured his trickery held. When he "died", it was only cause he was confident the bridge was now safe. Never one to leave even a single thread out of place, he willed all his human possessions, including his shop, to another scholarly magi, a young journeyman magi he had known well during the young human's apprentice days. They had stayed friends and were pen pals until Obsidius "died". Obsidius was one to plan long, and he had planned this "friend" to inherit his human things from their first meeting. He was so successful, that, even to this day, no one suspects that Obsidius Odde had been more than an insignificant magi of the High Guild who became a shoppekeepper.

I am of the Never Known. And I am always watching.

— Obsidius Odde as he keeps his unending vigil from the shadows