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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="Once a Fool" data-source="post: 2565533" data-attributes="member: 35783">Chapter FourLo Chi opened the box.  She had to open the box.This guy, Warren, the Woodworker, had agreed to take her on as an apprentice -he's more than just an artist - that's for sure.  With his connections...  All she had to do was a favor.  Confirm a rumor.  Done.But when she got back, he was talking with someone, didn't see her, and there was the box.Her prairie dog had shown up again.  Chittering wildly.  Gnomes have the innate ability (with some effort) to speak with and understand such creatures, but not always the innate desire to do so.Lo Chi hadn't even bothered to try, this time.  Couldn't have been important.  Never was.He had found an underground stream when they needed water, but they couldn't get to it.He had found flakes of gold in the stream, but they couldn't get to it.He'd had some crazy dream when he fell off Cedric's horse and passed out (that was Lo Chi's fault) about some light at the end of a tunnel and some old prairie dog telling him to wake up and save the world and...He never had anything useful to say.He'd run off again on the top level.   Into the fields.  Who needs him, anyway?  Lo Chi had gone up there on that errand for Warren.  She had definitely spotted Lofton.  Rumor confirmed.  Same druid she'd gotten the gold-filled bunny off of.Curious pouch; apparently loved to gamble.  Of the original forty-eight assorted gold pieces in it (mostly from the human kingdoms, one from the Dwarven Empire, a few from elven lands), only twenty-two now remained.The bunny-pouch kept telling her she could win, but she had lost a whole lot more than she won.That ornery dwarf who ran the gaming house (conveniently located next to the barracks) - Talented Trenok? - must have been cheating, somehow.  Only explanation.Why was she always getting into trouble?Take this box, for instance.  Beautifully ornate long, narrow wooden chest.  A sturdy lock, but simpler to unlock than its appearance would suggest.How was she to know that it was filled with spiders?  Who keeps spiders in an ornate wooden box?Warren was terrified.  Furious and terrified.I don't think he knew what was in the box.  Surely, he won't hold it against me.The spiders were all white.  The climbed, they crawled and they jumped.  They were fast, fast.Several bit Lo Chi before she had a chance to coat herself in a magical greasy fluid.  Icky.  But the spiders had a hard time climbing on it.Only, it was very hard to move, now.  It was very hard to stand up after slipping to the ground.  And it was very, very hard to lock that box back up with the constant flow of spiders - far more than a box that size could actually hold - pushing against the lid.Somehow, Lo Chi pulled it off, but by now, the spiders were everywhere.Evangeline showed up and started spearing spiders with her shiny new rapier as she advanced into the shop.  She called to the two frightened humans:"This is no place for you to stay!"But they didn't believe her.  She tried a different approach."PUT THAT DOWN!"Warren clearly did not want Evangeline to throw his overpriced handiwork.  He loved his things."Come with me."Warren relented and the other took only a moment more to consider that this new turn of events would leave him alone with the spiders, if he stayed.Before they could get moving, something huge appeared in the doorway.Lo Chi couldn't be sure, but she thought it might be a magical construct.  No human could have a face that malformed.It walked right through the spiders, grabbed Warren, and picked him up.  Its voice was thick."I've been looking for you."Lo Chi didn't stick around to see more.Outside the shop, a white sheet of frost blanketed everything.  Only, it was climbing and crawling and jumping.  Spiders were everywhere and were headed for the stairways and out the massive front doors.Hope nobody finds out it was my fault...The entire level was dimmer than before; the spiders had discovered that they could crawl over the torches-with-no-flame without being burned.  Not that it mattered much to Lo Chi, but others were having some trouble.  There was a human in spiky armor wearing a scythe on his back (great.  A warrior-farmer) who had somehow gotten his spiked gauntlets stuck in the hardwood floor.A drunken half-orc staggered through the swarm.A few guards were swinging longswords around wildly, more a threat to themselves than to the spiders.In the center of the fountain (a hundred feet across, certainly magical!) Ororck frantically killed spiders as they jumped on him.  His hands were fast.Lo Chi decided to help him, even if he did eat her armadillo...Bastards.  That armadillo was trying to warn me about something.Lo Chi scrambled over the edge of the fountain (made out of a stump, made from a tree that must have been a mile tall).Guess the elfin exile has a thing for dead trees.  That's wierd.Magic licked at her fingertips as Lo Chi neared the center of the fountain, being careful to stay out of Ororck's way.Light flowed from her speech, winding its way down her arm as she crushed a lightning bug into the fountain's source.  It began to glow like a torch - and not a moment too soon; now the spiders blocked out the narrow windows set high in the walls.  The open doors to the outside and the fountain were the only two light sources remaining.I sure hope I don't get in trouble for this...</blockquote>

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