NORTHAMPTON — The new coffee and chocolate shop on the corner of Main and Old South streets appears as a minimalist, trendy coffee shop, but there’s magic hiding in plain sight that requires a bit of investigation to discover.

A sneaky sword mounted to the wall waits for a brave adventurer to embark on the new quest, guarded by little video game-like critters perched on the tops of speakers. The cartography on the wall illustrates Massachusetts alongside the magical lands of Narnia, Gaia of “Final Fantasy” and Baldur’s Gate of Dungeons & Dragons fame. Icons of potions, castles and dice decorate the corners of menus and logos.

The classic culinary coupling of chocolate and coffee compliment each other’s flavors of bitterness, sweetness and fruitiness, but Tunic Coffee adds a splash of Tolkienist imagination into the mix, embracing the background and interests of Firetype Chocolate owner Dan McKenney and coffee shop expert Josh Wood-Triplett to create drinks and confections for the local coffee-lover and seasoned adventuring party.

“When a general customer comes in and they’re not familiar with fantasy stuff, they just see this is a really pleasant space to be in,” McKenney said. “But if you have the reference point or two to latch onto, suddenly a whole new world kind of opens up around you in space, and you’re discovering all of these little touches along the way.”

The concept for Tunic Coffee started as an ongoing joke between Wood-Triplett and McKenney riffing about the potential of combining the former’s coffee expertise with the latter’s confectioner concoctions.

Eventually, the idea was no longer a joke: Wood-Triplett had worked throughout the coffee industry as a barista, coffee shop manager and wholesaler for years, and McKenney was looking to expand his successful Firetype Chocolate stand in Thornes Marketplace to include coffee and drinks.

“As we started coming up with more of the concept and stuff, it kind of made sense for the nerdy, fantasy side of our interests to be part of it too because we played (Dungeons and Dragons) together and video games and board games,” Wood-Triplett said. “We wanted a space that catered to the things we love and the stories we grew up reading and games that we grew up playing.”

When the storefront became available after Meriyem’s Café closed, the business partners knew it was time to make their vision a reality.

“All of these pieces started to click together in a way where it was like, the puzzle is coming together, and it’s making sense in a really exciting way,” McKenney said.

Tunic Coffee became the playing field for Wood-Triplett and McKenney’s imagination, testing out years of brainstormed concepts for experimental drinks and chocolates. Firetype Chocolates, for instance, is known for dainty designs and pretty packages, but McKenney sends chocolates to Tunic that are less polished and more bold in flavor, like his version of a Twix bar.

The seasonal specialty drinks called “Side Quests” take inspiration from Wood-Triplett’s interest in the cocktail and coffee world, mixing Matcha passion fruit and lime into a bright summer soda or enriching a shaken espresso with banana-horjicha cold foam and smoked salt.

In addition to food, drinks and decor, Tunic Coffee offers space for patrons to play table-top board games, card games and role-playing games. While many tables outline the store, larger parties can reserve the back room with a large tile-decorated table for games that require maps or rolling sets of dice.

“When we started talking about this, (we) were talking about the idea of the third space for people in between work and home, and sharing a cup of coffee, sharing chocolate,” McKenney said, “To share that over a table, over a game, it all kind of naturally goes hand in hand.”

Customers without a game to play can purchase artistically-illustrated board games or zines and instruction pamphlets for role-playing tabletop games on a shelf across from the coffee counter. Free crossword puzzles from entertainment media outlet The AV Club are available for visitors who enjoy a good coffee and a nice chocolate.

On the first and third Thursday of each month, Tunic hosts a board game night for all types of games, and hopes to expand event offerings to role-playing game nights and video game challenges. So far, the community has responded with excitement to the cafe’s ideas: a regular customer offered to bring a tarot event to the shop, and another local game designer will play-test a game on Aug. 15.

“I didn’t think that the reception would be bad by any means, but it’s gone above and beyond what I thought it would be like,” Wood-Triplett said. “People have gone out of their way to make sure we know that they really like this thing or that thing.”

Just as chocolate and coffee compliment each other, so does the collaboration between Wood-Triplett and McKenney. The partnership and business is miles ahead of where both men originally planned to be three months after opening. After all the hard work of setting up the retail space, the two men are ready to keep playing.

“I think it’s all very comforting. The ritual around having a coffee or preparing a coffee is a comforting act, and chocolate is a wonderfully comforting treat.” Wood-Triplett said. “I find a lot of comfort in these fantasy worlds: it’s something to get lost in and sitting down and playing board games with your friends.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.