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Message: <blockquote data-quote="alsih2o" data-source="post: 1072827" data-attributes="member: 4790">gnomish ant gun (with apologies to die kluge)  in the voice of tavania whitehawk, retired ranger and amatuer anthropologist- "nearly everyone involve in the adventuring lifestyle knows that gnomes can talk to burrowing mammals, but how many of oyu youngsters know why only mammals?  long ago gnomes could talk to any animal that made its home in the ground, but one young gnomes decided to take advantage of that, and caused her peoples to be cursed by the earth goddess.  this gnome, silasia, was fond of holding long discussions on group psychology with ants and burrow owls, comparing and contrasting the two varied opinions. she often spent great amounts of time engaged with the ant colony in her herb garden, and even more with the brrow owls who lived in the grassy plain near her burrow. her father, an avid alchemist, wished she would be more studious, and tempted her closer to her studies with promises that he would one day teach her the forbidden and lost art of smokepowder if only she would bring home a few good marks from the gnome academy. silisia buckled under and studied all she could. (some say she went frequently for help to a wise owl who lived far out on the flat plain. his name was gorriguard and he knew many secrets from his time spent in church steeples and the 3 years he nested in the unused chimney of the kings chemist, but i digress) when the end of term came silisia proudly took her father her mark card and showed him the 6 stars she had earned. she was proud of herself and boldly called for her lessons in smokepowder. her father enver thought she owuld match up to his requests, and thought her far to young to be trusted with a secret that could one day make it to humans, who were far too immature as a race for such magnificent toys, so he told her that she must be of a mature age to learn such fantastic secrets, and soon as she reached thois unnamed age he would surely share with her. silisia felt hurt by her father, she had been mislead and possibly betrayed by his words. so silisia gatherer her fathers firearms and set to sabotage them. she went to talk with her friends the ants, and under the guise of bringing a sweet piece of honeycomb for a favor lured the queen to the surface for parley.  when the queen came forth silisia, using a scroll stolen from kolindra the bard, charmed the minute royalty abnd convinced her the only true place for an ant of her stature was in the barrels of her fathers short guns. the queen heard the truth in the tiny gnomes words and moved her entire colony into these barrels after dark.  this provided great access the kitchen for the ants and good shelter from any moisture or predators, and the ants thrived- soon filling all 7 of silisias fathers short guns.  many moons passed and poor fate befelled he gnome village when a scavenging party of bugbears happed upon the collective burrow. blocking doors and harrassing the gnomes regularly the bugbears laid a siege of sorts upon the burrow. 9 days passed and food supplies held out well, but a gnomes belongs with his feet in short grass and with sun on his fine nose, and the gnomes demanded action. 12 went forth to do battle, but only 8 returned, speaking of the bugbears size and strength, but mostly complaining that their unpracticed weapons could not penetrate the tough armor of the bugbears. slisias father had not raised a hand for violence on over 30 years, but was best experienced in the ways of battle so he lead a party that sallied forth to deal with the upland brutes. unsuspectingly he he grabbed his guns and moved ot the surface emerging from a secret burrow whole with intent to drive the bugbears away.  the bugbears, upon seeing hi, began to mock him with crude recipes for gnome stew and gnome pie. silisias father stood his ground though, luring the bugbears ever closer to him, hoping that with a single shot he could kill one of the hideous, hairy beasts and put the fear of gnomes into the rest for a good long time. a their leader sauntered close fafafferter (silisias father) raised his pistol and fired pulled the trigger.  *psfffstsfstt* said the gun. small wisps of smoke wafted from the breech. fafafferter began to panic and the bugbear chief laughed loud and har at the foolhardy gnome and began to close in on this scrawny but sweetmeated morsels. faf squinted his eyes and waited for the worst never doubted he was now bugbear food. as the chieftain closed to within 4 paces *PAPOW!* went the small arm and ants and dirt launched at the bugbear chief, lodgning deeply into his thick coat of coarse fur and infesting his eyes. the bugbear began to kick and dance and curse, the ants lodging themselves under his amor and the dark earth filling his eyes. he screamed the scream of panic and threw homself to the ground, struggling to free himself of his confining armor as quickly as possible. when his cohorts saw his situation they too panicked. they had never seen such a loud and potent weapon and form the reaction of their incapacitated leader they assumed it was a powerful magic and soon they were fleeing into the thick woods." (tavania kept rmabling here, but that is the part of the story needed for our purposes.) gnomish ant gun small weapon. takes 7 days to laod, and requires a druid to learn and cast   charm vermin once for each weapon loaded. range is 20 feet requires one full round to fire (handler must pull the trigger, at which point the process cannot be stopped, they may choose their target at the beginning of the next round) dmg is 1d4-3, dc 18 will save or target must spend the next round blinded and 3 rounds attempting tom remover their armor.</blockquote>

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