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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="James McMurray" data-source="post: 253404" data-attributes="member: 743">The following Story Hour came out of my wife having to stop gaming on Sundays. She is the only player in this one, everyone else is an NPC (except Gundarag, her husband / cohort). It starts up after her last excurion into the Tomb of Horrors (the other Story Hour in my sig).----------------After the third search into the Tomb of Horrors, Amastacia noticed she was feeling "different".  Often, in the morning, she would be sick and her nausea would last, off and on, throughout the day.  Not only was she extremely exhausted all the time, she was also very moody.  And, there was the main "tale-tell" sign of being pregnant that all women know.  She suspected there could be a little one on the way, and was not about to risk their lives for any adventuring party.The parties' fame still lingered after the arena battles, and quite a following decided to take on the cause of Amastacia.  She felt, given her suspicions on her condition, that it might be prudent to stay in town and work from the "information-gathering" angle.  The group certainly needed more information on Orcus, Moil, and demi-liches in general.  She decided to throw a picnic for her followers and get to know them better.  What a mixed crowd!  Everyone from lawyers to warriors, glass blowers to tavern-owners; it was a nice range of people.  Of course, the entertainers around town were interested in learning a trick or two from Amastacia, so they came around as well.  Thinking ahead towards the day the party would be awarded the Duchy of Bloodstone, Amastacia decided to see if her group would like to work towards that goal with her.  In the spirit of unity and with the intentions of making them feel "part of a group", Amastacia had her head craftsperson make amulets or charms (depending on gender) for each of her group.  They were silver, with a stylized 'A'.  She asked her sages and librarians to help her research information for the fight the actual party was making against Acererak, while the upper level entertainers worked with her each morning to increase their skills.  Then, the upper level entertainers would go back to the lower level ones and teach them.During this time, Amastacia’s husband, Gundarag, took a deep interest in chariot battles at the arena.  He decided to take up this skill, because it could someday come in handy.  After seeing his fighting techniques in the arena, a few warriors passing through town wanted to learn from Gundarag.  They were on their way to assist Gran March in its fight against the undead.  Seeing her warriors and some commoners getting a little restless with nothing to do, Amastacia decided a great deal of them, if interested, might want to also train for charioteer fighting.  She invested a great deal of her adventuring money in purchasing horses and having chariots made.  Another sector of her warriors began training in the art of siege, to better protect the keep once it is obtained.  Ballistae and catapults have interested Amastacia for a long time.  Her thought is "If you're going to battle, you might as well show up with big toys."  She has had a ballista built and will eventually have one heavy catapult and two light catapults built too.  The smallest sector of her troops are training on the aerial assault weapons.Never shying away from magic and alchemy, Amastacia put her two head alchemist on making tanglefoot bags and Alchemist Fire for her troops. It appeared that the training and plans for future battles were going well.  The troops were getting a little anxious to use their improved skills.  Sensing the desire to go into battle, the group of young soldiers that were going to fight the undead began speaking of the need for even more soldiers to defend Gran March.  Some soldiers approached Amastacia with this idea.  Yet, another group of warriors told her of a job offer circulating around town.  The details were rather shady, but contact information to find out more about the job were easily available.  The three dwarfs who told her about the opportunity were on their way to find out more about the job, so she decided to wait until they returned to see if it sounded like something of interest to her party.Her preliminary thoughts were to secure a percentage of the profits from this diamond mine, so that it would be a long-term, steady source of income to put into her troops and followers.  Also, the adventuring party that was in the Tomb of Horrors was having trouble finding diamonds to use to get res'd, so it would also be to the entire party's benefit to keep contacts in the diamond mine circle.  When her dwarf friends did not return, she started getting a little worried.  One of her followers, who had become friends with the dwarves, also expressed concern at them being away so long.  Amastacia decided to look into this matter herself. Using her connections and skills, she arranged a meeting with the mine owners.</blockquote>

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