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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EternalNewbie" data-source="post: 4758767" data-attributes="member: 6489">Thanks.  It's always nice to hear from new readers......and old ones <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />* * * * * * * * * * “Ah, I don't think I want to watch this,” Khalid said, but overcome with morbid fascination, he couldn't force himself to follow through on the words.  Like the others, he watched as the scene below unfolded.  Bells tolled out from the section of town closest to the breach while the Dwerro regiments continued to reposition, forming up for the advance.  Row upon row of infantry clad in glittering mail were soon supported by a contingent of crossbowmen, firing relentlessly at the disorganized defenders who were rushing to blockade the crumbling defenses.  The siege engines unleashed another barrage of stones, most of which sailed over the wall, demolishing houses and buildings in plume of smoke and dust.  The sound of drums signaled the start of the Dwerro advance and the infantry moved towards the wall in lockstep to the steady beat.  From the wall, the besieged soldiers fired a volley of arrows down into the massed soldiers.  Here and there among the ranks, a Dwerro tumbled down and lay unmoving as the archers found targets, but it seemed a pitiful effort in the face of overwhelming odds.  “Well that was a waste of two weeks,” Gorak growled callously.  He turned to Khalid, his eyes narrowing.  “Any more bright ideas?”Khalid knew Gorak's belligerence was likely a cover for his concern but had to admit he didn't have an answer.  He hadn't thought past Caer Morag, pinning all his hopes on its library.  “Ah, well, maybe,” he stammered.  “I guess I don't really...”“What the...” Shayla interrupted.  “Look at that!” she exclaimed, pointing at the city below.The Dwerro host broke into a deliberate jog, still holding their lines as they approached the gap.  They were within ten yards of it when the earth in front of the wall erupted and a huge slab of stone rose up, sealing the breech.  Instantly the number of archers on the wall seemed to double and the shouted command to fire reached their ears seconds after the mass volley slammed into the advancing soldiers.  From hidden positions within the city, catapults flung baskets of fist size stones high into the air, smashing into the panicked troops at the rear of the attack.  The front ranks of the advance began to break and stall, while the archers on the wall drew back for a second barrage.“Guess we know how they've managed ta hold off the Dwerro so far,” Gorak grunted in surprise.Chaos reigned within the Dwerro ranks as they tried to recover from the deadly attack.   Trapped between the newly repaired wall and the soldiers moving up from the rear, those in the lead of the advance bore the brunt of the defenders rage.  Only the legendary discipline of the Dwerro kept the troops from being routed.  Those in the back ranks raised their shields overhead, moving up to cover those ahead of them, while those in the front fell backwards in step, presenting a steel shell to the defenders on the wall.  Arrows and stones still found the gaps within the formation, and occasionally a hole would appear as a Dwerro soldier fell.  Another shield always rose quickly to take the place of the fallen and methodically the Dwerro regiments retreated back out of range of the defenders.“The wizard Nargamon?” Shayla asked.“Ah, yes, quite,” Khalid replied.  “It would appear that Zarum has not yet discharged his task.  Unchecked, the presence of a skilled magi within the ranks of the defenders could present a formidable, yes, formidable obstacle.”  Shayla frowned at the mention of the Dwerro they had rescued, still not completely at ease at having returned him to his people, in light of her ancestry.“Alright, so it doesn't look like we're gonna be dining with Dwerro in Caer Morag tonight,” Shayla said.  “But there's still an awful lot of them between us and that city.  How are we gonna get inside?”“Ah, Gorak can take care of himself obviously, and I will make arrangements for the three of us.  It will consume, yes, consume most of my ability for the day, but we should be able to fly over the army undetected.”  Khalid frowned in though as he eyed the distance to the walls.  “We'll need to get closer, yes, much closer to the city however, or we risk landing in the middle of a horde of angry Dwerro troops.”  He turned to Azarek, “And, ah, yes, I won't be able to do anything about your horse.”“Jes great,” Azarek muttered.  “You gonna buy me a new one?”“Ah, well, should the need arise, I can conjure one up for you.”“I promised that stupid nag she was going inta my stew pot when I was dun wit her. Yer gonna make a liar outta me.” Azarek muttered darkly.  Khalid chose to ignore that.“In any event, I can't do anything about it this evening.  We will have to proceed tomorrow.  Yes, quite.”Saying he was going to fly them over the Dwerro army and actually doing it were two completely different things.  Gorak roused Khalid before dawn and he groggily flipped open his spellbook, forcing his sleep fogged mind to focus on the arcane words.  An hour later he was prepared, and they dropped down out of the portal into the early morning gloom.  Staying low, Gorak led them quickly through the sparse brush, their efforts to hide aided by the thin wisps of fog rising up from the damp ground.  After several nerve wracking minutes, Khalid finally judged them close enough.  Tugging on Gorak's sleeve, he gathered them close around and whispered a few last minute instructions.“Ah, yes, you will not be able to see each other, but you can see Gorak, and I can see you.  Follow him, and I will keep either of you from straying.  Do not climb higher than you need to in order to clear the walls, it will only slow you down.”Without waiting for Khalid, Gorak shimmered into the form of an eagle and launched himself into the air.  Always cautious, Khalid began by bending the light around Shayla and hiding her from view, before moving on to Azarek and them himself.  As he prepared the spell that would grant them flight, a Dwerro challenge rang out, startling him and almost causing him to stumble over the complex intonations.  Trusting his magic to hide them, he hurried as much as he dared, and finished weaving through the gestures of the spell.  A few seconds later, the three of them flew into the dawn sky, leaving a somewhat bewildered Dwerro scout behind.Even though he knew he couldn't be seen and was fairly sure he had calculated the distance correctly, flying over the Dwerro army was more than a little unnerving.  They passed over orderly row upon row of tents and wagons piled high with stocks of weapons and shields.  Beneath them, the first signs of activity were appearing as the army prepared to take up the siege for another day.  They flew over the scouts patrolling the perimeter and finally crossed the trenches and breastworks that surrounded the Dwerro enclave and into the no man's land in front of the city wall  Feeling the weave of his spells beginning to unravel, he glanced up and spotted Shayla hovering just on the other side of the wall.  Picking out Gorak circling overhead, Khalid steered Azarek towards her, and guided them both away from the wall towards the burned out shell of a building, close the edge of the city.They floated through a hole in the roof, down to the rumble on the ground, apparently all that remained of the second floor and most of one of the walls.  As they landed, Khalid dismissed the magical invisibility with a wave of his hand.  Almost immediately he was overwhelmed by a stench that rivaled his most potent magic.   When they stepped out through the gaping hole into an alley and onto a main street, it wasn't hard to see why.Khalid had survived the siege at Knolton but the situation in Caer Morag was beyond anything he had ever witnessed.  Knolton was a fortified town of hardy hill folk, accustomed to rubbing elbows with unruly neighbors.  From what he could recollect, there hadn't been a true war in the East in well over a hundred years, and these villagers and peasants were wholly unprepared for a determined, well trained and superbly equipped enemy.  Caer Morag bulged with refugees.  They lined the streets and huddled in doorways.  Some camped in the ruins of their houses, sheltered from the foul spring weather underneath sodden blankets and patched tarps.  Most didn't even bother to beg as the group walked passed.  Nobody in the wretched city had anything to spare.Khalid, absorbed by the misery around him, almost bumped into Gorak, who'd stopped to allow a weary looking group of men to trudge past.  Covered in soot, they were obviously part of a bucket brigade, returning from the wall. Save for them, Khalid noticed, most of those living in the streets were women and children, which came as little surprise to Khalid, having heard any number of unsavory rumors about the habits of the Dwerro army.  He started playing closer attention at the defenders of the town as they continued through the winding streets and the more he saw, the more his estimation of the wizard Nargamon grew.  It was painfully clear that the defenders were over matched by the Dwerro.  Not one man in five wore a uniform and even then, not all bore the same crest.  They carried whatever arms they could find and as many held ancient, rusty weapons as did hastily and crudely crafted new ones.   Armor for most, consisted only of as many layers of cloth as could be stitched together, with only the regulars wearing cuir bouilli or chain.  Khalid pulled his cloak tighter, trying to ward off the feeling of fear and despair.“So where are we gonna find this Nargamon?” Shayla asked Azarek.“Whar else?” he gestured with a nod of his head towards an imposing looking tower rising up from the center of town.  It lacked the threatening beauty of the Ivory tower, but it was immediately clear where the true power lay within the city.“Another tower,” Gorak grunted, clearly unimpressed.  “On of these days yer gonna have to explain that to me,” he growled at Khalid.“Ah it's simple.  Magi enjoy looking down on people,” Khalid replied. Seeing Shayla's raised eyebrow he added somewhat lamely, “Ah, well, most of them anyhow.  Yes, quite.”Gorak snorted in amusement and led them further into the maze of crooked cobble stone  streets, following glimpses of the tower caught between buildings.  Emerging from the warren near the walls, they came across larger, more prominent avenues, but the grim mood in the city changed little.  Near the tower, they passed a group of new recruits, mostly young boys and old men, training half-heartedly under the stern watch of a wounded veteran.  As he cursed at them for falling out of formation, his hand fiddled absently with the bloodstained bandage knotted around the stump of his left arm.  Turning a corner, they left the square behind and turned on to a huge boulevard that ran through the center of town.  As it was in all cities, proximity to power denoted to wealth, and Caer Morag was no exception.  The street that led to the gated confines of the tower was lined with large, expensive looking shops and well appointed homes.  In times passed it had no doubt been impressive, but now the huge trees that lined either side had been cut down, scavenged for the war, and the bronze statues that stood at each intersection had been removed at the base, no doubt recast into something more useful.Khalid spoke up as they approached the gates. “Ah, I should probably do the talking,” he said, somewhat unnecessarily, since only he and Azarek could speak the Eastern tongue.   Two weary looking guards, with  flat expressions and resignation in their eyes, stepped out of an alcove near the gate and challenged them.“What do you want?” the soldier on the right asked brusquely, casually shifting the grip on his his spear, lowering it, but not quite leveling it at them.“Ah, yes, quite,” Khalid replied, “we wish to speak to the wizard Nargamon.”“Nargamon's busy.  He ain't got time to meet with every refugee that wandered in off the plains.  There's a shelter over on Lion street,” he gestured vaguely.  “They might have food or blankets or something.”“You misunderstand,” Khalid said, raising a hand and mumbling the words to a spell.  He floated a gold sultana out of his belt pouch and over to the guard, not so much as a bribe, but simply to prove a point.  “We have recently come over the wall, and bring news from the north and west.  We have crossed Dwerro held lands, and eluded their patrols.  There is much information we could share.”The two guards exchanged a long look, before the silent one leaned his spear against the wall, and unlocked the gate.  “Wait here,” he ordered and then turned and jogged back into the small courtyard.  A few minutes passed until he returned, trailed by a young man in a dull gray robe.“My name is Kaleb.  If you would follow me,” he gestured at the four of them, “I will show you to quarters where you can wait.  Nargamon will speak to you in a short while.”  He nodded to the two guards, who stepped back into their posts and held the gate open for them to enter.  Khalid studied the young man carefully as he locked the gate with a key on a chain around his neck.  He couldn't have been over twenty judging by the length of his beard, but the wand on his waist and battered book, held at his hip by a strap over his shoulder, showed the source of his confidence.“Ah, so Nargamon,” Khalid asked as they stepped into the shadowed halls of the tower, “he is training apprentices?”“Save your questions for Nargamon,” the young man replied.  “It's not for me to talk about.  These are your rooms, he said as he led them through a wing of the building extending off of the base of the tower.  By the dust on the floor, Khalid guessed that if Nargamon was training apprentices, it was far too few.   The each had their own room and despite the somewhat uncertain situation, the opportunity for some privacy overwhelmed them.  Khalid retreated to his room, and quickly began shrugging off his gear.  Glancing in a polished bronze mirror, he was somewhat taken aback with his appearance, having had no need to concern himself with it over the last few months.  Weeks spent hiking through the snow under the harsh winter sun had darkened his normally tanned skin by several degrees and the relentless  wind had weathered him.  A thick black beard, prematurely shot with gray, bloomed from his chin, and his hair, now shoulder length, was ragged and matted.  With the wave of his hand, he used a minor spell to clean himself up, but still felt somewhat under dressed for a meeting with the de facto ruler of the city.    An hour later, Kaleb returned and, with a polite knock on the door, summoned them to a meeting with Nargamon.  Shayla, Khalid noticed, had taken liberal advantage of the amenities and looked as though she had just stepped out of the Sultan's court, rather than the high peaks of the northern mountains.  Gorak of course, looked exactly the same, save for being slightly more annoyed at the long delay.  They followed  Kaleb to a broad staircase that spiraled upwards into the center of the tower.  As they climbed they passed doors and landings, and occasionally met others coming down from higher levels.  Just as Khalid began to break out in a sweat, they reached the top of the tower, and a small landing before a broad oaken door, bound with heavy steel bands.  Symbols, etched in white, bordered the frame, but didn't prevent Kaleb from reaching out and knocking on the door.  Opening it without a word, he gestured for them to enter, and shut the door behind.As it turned out, Khalid needn't have fretted over his attire.  Stepping into the huge square room at the top level of the tower, he was  almost overcome with the smell of old food and stale sweat.  Shelves lined each wall from floor to ceiling, crammed with books.  Half a dozen tables were spread out around the room, which wrapped around the staircase in the center.  Each table with covered in a mound of books and alchemical equipment.Behind a enormous desk, sat the wizard Nargamon.  He didn't look up as they entered, but stared silently at the book before him for a few long minutes, before dipping his quill in an ink pot and scratching out a few words on a scroll of parchment.   Khalid was forced to quickly abandon any preconceptions he'd had about Nargamon.  The man before them was hardly the regal commander.  His shoulders were thin and hunched; his skin sallow and pale from lack of sunlight.  His chin seemed determined to reach the floor, and was slowly pulling the rest of his face down after it.  He closed the book and turned his rheumy gaze on them, peering over the spectacles that dangled precariously on the tip of his long nose.  Brushing back a stranded of lank, greasy black hair, his breath wheezed through the numerous gaps in his teeth as he asked in Western, “Well?  What do you want?”“Ah, yes, well,” Khalid began, “we come bearing information.  We have traveled from the west, through the Dwerro army recently.  We thought maybe some of what we learned might, yes, might be of use to you.”“Maybe,” Nargamon snapped.  “But that didn't answer the question.  The question was: what do you want?”Seeing little use in dissembling, Khalid replied, “Ah, yes, well what we would like, is access to the library.”“The library.” Nargamon echoed flatly.  “You want access to the library.”  He placed the quill in his hand in an small bronze holder.  “Alright then.  I'm training apprentices, anybody that has ability, to help fight.  You swear allegiance to the city and then maybe we talk about what it is you want to find in the library.”“Ah, yes, well, I am afraid we could not commit ourselves to something like that.  We are presently engaged on a separate task.  Perhaps when we have found what we seek, we will be in a position to aid you.”“You've heard my offer.” Nargamon replied.  “This is not a negotiation.”“We have information,” Gorak growled, his patience wearing thin.  “About the troops out there, we can tell you where they're located, what they're doing.”“I already know that,” Nargamon said with a sneer.  He gestured at a map tacked up across the bookcases behind him.  The city was etched out in detail far beyond the ability of any human hand to create, and as Khalid looked carefully, he could see the individual Dwerro regiments moving slightly.  “The books in this room are but a fraction of the knowledge stored in this place.  You think I can just allow you to browse through that.  Who knows what you will deliberately or accidentally unleash?”“Ah, yes, well, “Khalid interrupted, trying to calm down the situation, “surely there is some accommodation we can reach?  What we seek is not dangerous.”A little of the belligerence seemed to seep out of Nargamon.  “So little time,” he muttered, almost under his breath.  “There's so much to do and so little time.”“Ah, pardon me?” Khalid asked carefully.“There's no point in lying to you.” Nargamon said finally, his cross eyed gaze focusing on Khalid.  “Do you know what this is?” he asked as he picked up an open book on his desk and tossed it to Khalid.  He studied the images on the page below him, but couldn't make any sense of what appeared to be Dwerro runes etched around the strange images pressed into the thin sheets of bound bronze.  “Ah, no, I don't” Khalid was forced to concede as he set the book down.“I didn't think you would,” Nargamon said somewhat condescendingly.  “It is a type of siege engine called a bombard, and it makes those trebuchets out there look like slingshots.  It uses a potent alchemical mixture of crushed stone and metal that the Dwerro call...well, I guess the closest translation would be “sun smoke”.  This book predates the Dwerro isolation and trust me when I say that they have improved upon the design in their absence.  The ones pictured in the book could throw a ten pound ball five hundred yards with enough force to kill a knight.  The three that approach the city are five times the size.  My divinations have revealed that the Dwerro preparations are almost complete and soon the devices will be assembled outside the city walls.  When that happens...”“The Dwerro will pound the city walls ta dust faster than you can patch em up again.” Gorak finished for him.“Precisely.”  Nargamon smirked, the edges of his smile tinged with desperation. “In a little less than a week, Caer Morag will fall.”</blockquote>

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