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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="Lazybones" data-source="post: 9828083" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the praise. After so many years of writing D&D stories, I think combat scenes have become a specialty of mine. I think it helps with my narration in the tabletop game as well.I have finished writing the story, though I still have a month's worth of posts. Once it's done I'll see about posting a PDF version or something similar.* * *Chapter 36“I think we could all use a breather, after that,” Leana said, as she came over to check on Greghan. The warrior was rolling his shoulders gingerly, as Folgar tended him with his new healer’s kit. The dwarf was preparing a draught using a couple of powders that he mixed in a vial with some water. “You sure you’re going to be all right?” she asked Greghan.“Yeah,” Greghan said, but the effect was somewhat spoiled by the nasally sound of his voice; his nose had been broken by the minotaur’s initial charge. Folgar had reset it, but it still looked like he’d picked a fight with a brick wall, and lost. “Save your magic, priestess.” He made a face as he drained the mixture Folgar gave him; the stuff tasted terrible, but it did seem to make his breathing a bit easier; he suspected that when he took his breastplate off he’d find a complex landscape of bruises. The thought of what might have happened had he not been wearing the Castellan’s armor was something that he quickly pushed into the back of his mind; no doubt it would return once they were out of danger.Leana looked at him with sympathy, suggesting she understood the direction of his thoughts. “Why don’t the two of you stay here and keep an eye out while Ravani and I check out this place?” she suggested.“Are you sure it’s safe to split up the group?” Folgar asked, cocking an eyebrow.“I’m more concerned that the cult will follow up with an attack, hoping to catch us weakened by the minotaur,” the halfling said. “But we need to be certain there aren’t any surprises lurking here. I don’t expect anything major; surely the minotaur would have killed any potential rivals long before now. But we might need to know if there’s an avenue of retreat behind us.”“If I was the cult, I wouldn’t want anything to do with this cave,” Ravani said. “But they sent that guy on a suicide mission, so who knows what they’ll do. Just keep watch and give a yell if you see a bunch of guys in red coming this way.”“Yeah, sure,” Greghan said, grimacing as he settled back against the wall of the cave near the entry. He looked over at Folgar, who was packing up his kit. “Do you have a spell that can warn if we’re about to be attacked?” the warrior asked.“Such a spell does exist, but it is not within my repertoire at the moment,” Folgar said. “That is one reason that wizards travels; we are always looking for new spells to add to our books, so we can be prepared for any situation that presents itself.”“What was that thing you did earlier, touching the stone? Another spell?”“No, not a spell,” Folgar explained. “We dwarves call it stonecunning.” He took up a position on the other side of the entry, sitting on a broken block of stone that gave him a clear vantage of the southern approach to the cave. “It is an inherent talent, a form of tremorsense.” At Greghan’s blank look, he continued, “Most dwarves are sensitive to vibrations that are passed through stone. The sort caused by a creature walking, for example. It requires some practice, and the sense doesn’t extend very far. It’s limited in utility in situations like this,” he finished, gesturing toward the floor. “Packed earth doesn’t carry vibrations as efficiently as stone.” He tapped the floor. “Had this been solid, I might have sensed the minotaur before it attacked.”“I can see where that might be useful,” Greghan said. “How long have you been with Leana and Ravani?”“Not that long,” the dwarf said. “We all arrived here at around the same time, and met on the road. We had all heard enough about the dangers of this region that it seemed logical to team up.”“What brought you out here?” Greghan said.The dwarf didn’t answer immediately, considering. “I seek to improve myself,” he said. “Both my Art, and my other skills. I suspect it is the same for each of us.”“I think Ravani just wants treasure,” Greghan said.“The accumulation of wealth is a form of improvement,” the dwarf counseled. “Ultimately, we only get one life—barring extreme options like resurrection, of course. For most, living that life in comfort and safety is ideal. But for others, testing one’s limits is the best way to find their true self.”“When you say it that way, it makes us sound not crazy,” Greghan said with a laugh. “Coming out here on the frontier, taking on monsters and violent humanoids for a few gold coins. Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t lost my mind.”“There have been times over the last few days when I have had doubts on that front myself,” Folgar acknowledged.A scuff of footsteps on stone caught Greghan’s attention, and he quickly straightened, hefting his sword just in case. But it was only Leana.“Where’s Ravani?” Greghan asked.“He found something—a secret door,” the cleric reported. “He’s checking it for traps. The rest of the place seems empty save for a few fire beetles; they won’t hurt you as long as you don’t provoke them. No signs of trouble here?”“All quiet,” Greghan said.“Okay,” Leana said, coming over and choosing a stack of loose bricks to sit on. “Let’s finish our rest, and we’ll check it out.”“Assuming Ravani doesn’t trigger a trap that collapses the whole place down upon our heads,” Folgar said.Leana leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and smiled. “Yes,” she said. “Assuming that.”Game Notes:Technically I could have leveled the group after the minotaur, as they sort of cleared the hobgoblin cave, but I decided to wait until after they were finished with the next cave, since it was connected to this one. As is so often the case with this crew, they found the secret door leading to more danger and failed to find the one that led to an unguarded treasure.</blockquote>

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