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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="Celebrim" data-source="post: 743987" data-attributes="member: 4937">The principal teaching areas of the school are clustered together in a seemingly haphazard fashion on the side of an extremely steep slope (75 degrees) of a large hill (roughly 1200' vertical elevation above the surrounding area.  The whole school gives the appearance of preparing to slide down the slope, and students are prone to thinking that the entire school is made of staircases.The school is run much as one would expect a self sufficient monestary, with a fratery, dormitories, a chapel, a buttery, workshops of every sort, an extensive library, a scriptorium, and large numbers of retreats for contemplation and study.  Unique to such a facility are of course various chambers specially dedicated to various forms of conjuring and sorcery.  There are a number of small walled courtyards containing gardens and even occasionally a fountain. Various minerets and small towers are reserved for the exclusive retreat of the more senior members of the faculty.  The complex is walled, or else relies on the steep slopes of the hill, the high placement of windows, and  the thickness of the walls for security.Rumor has it that worked into the side of the hill, safe from the prying eyes of eavesdroppers and junior students are secret laboratories, armories, mortuaries, and catacombs.   Below the university proper is a large communal garden which supplies the university with foodstuffs.   Labor is believed to focus the mind, and students for the the first seven years (seven through fourteen) spend most of thier time learning the discipline of hard work rather than magic.   Also carrying for the garden are various failed wizards, certain magically maimed individuals unable to perform powerful magic, other individuals the college feels obligated to care for, and certain individuals who earned the ire of a faculty member are serving an extended punishment.   It is often difficult to determine who falls into what category, and questions about the past or fratenizing with any of the laborers is strongly discouraged. At the pinacle of the hill is an ancient cluster of stones, believed to predate the university and the subject of much rumor.   Students are expressly forbidden from ascending to the height, but senior faculty members are known on certain astrologically auspicious occasions to ascend to the height for secret rites.Defenses for the university are varied.  In addition to roughly 20 faculty members of 9th-17th level, and perhaps twice that number of lesser mages, and perhaps four times that number of apprentices, there are known to be extensive magical wards about the place.  Students are strongly cautioned not to try teleporting, moving about invisibly, or scrying anywhere in the campus except in areas designated for those purposes.   More than one student is known to have died horribly for failing to heed those guidelines.   The steepness of the slope and the broad view of the easiest approaches makes it difficult to move an army to the sactuary of the school.   Wizards would likely block off critical areas with walls of stone, disintigrate bridges and staircases and other act to make progress through the school difficult.   It should not at all be surprising if a large number of magical creatures are found to be charmed or bound to service of the school.   These could include invisible stalkers, tasked geneii, golems, and various undead.   A number of the gargoyles decorating the school are known to the students to be real, and have on occasion been used to retrieve errant students out after curfew.   It is not impossible that the school could call on the services of one or more liches of very high level enterred in secret chambers beneath the school.If attacked in force, the faculty will probably respond by summoning a large number of elementals and directing them in mass against the thier foes.  A number of items for augmenting summoning and extending its duration are known to be in possession of the school.   The spell guards and wards will almost certainly be employed on any portion of the school which is breached.  Stealthy attack is somewhat easier, especially against students in the fields, but it is likely that the faculty would employ various kinds of divination to foresee such attacks.  Also, they would rely on sympathetic townsfolk in the nearest villages to ferry word of any unusual visitors approaching the school.   Would be assassines might also find some of the abilities of the non-apprentice laborers in the fields startling to say the least, as not everyone is who they appear to be.As noone that hasn't evidenced some magical ability is generally allowed into the school (there are a few exceptions made by senior faculty members for unusual reasons but all of these are long known and certain it would take the most unusual circumstances before the rule would be relaxed again in such a time of crisis), the biggest danger the school might face would be betrayal from within and this is much harder to protect against.</blockquote>

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