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Ness' Hat of Tricks requires a d4 roll to determine which "Bag of Tricks" you're drawing from: Grey, Tan, Aquamarine or Rust. The d100 roll works as it normally does for the Bag of Tricks, except if the d100 and d4 are the same number, you pull a rabbit from the hat! Its color is similar to the color bag you draw from. The aquamarine bag gives you a white rabbit.
Ness tells Caledon about Nelman's Nightengale. "It was a whore house. My mother worked there, Manny's mother did, and they both got knocked up by customers around the same time. We were both around six when Sugarplum had a huge son of an orc in her belly. The belly-bump was named 'Bulge,' and when the mother died giving birth, the name stuck. "Boys born to Nelman's whores were called Nelsons. We heard that girls were called an investment. None of us were really related, but Bulge, Manny and I decided we'd act like true brothers and consider the girls sisters. Being half-orc, Bulge was already the muscle of our trio at the age of twelve. We wanted to wait for him to grow up a little more, but Manny had feelings for Clara, and as soon as she closed the door behind her to do business with her first, I figured it was then or never. "We were quick and quiet about Clara's john. All it took was my shoulders, a window, and Manny with a dagger at his hip. Bulge and I went straight to Nelman's room, me with a rope, and Bulge with his orcish muscles. I never did learn magic, but the way that whorehouse lit up, the way Nelman's ashen corpse looked after he burned alive in his own place... I do have a deep respect for fire." Ness almost seems apologetic for speaking of his part in a murder. But he goes on, "I thought the slave girls were going to be abused the way my mother was. The way many of my 'sisters' were. It looks like they were going to be used as mules carrying some sort of plague instead. "Can't say I follow the Prince's motive."
The girls are grateful for the food. Manny sees Cal's generosity toward the slave girls, and nods at the wizard's request. Ness replies to Caledon, "Sorry, I am not." He holds up his gloved hands, and a broken board on the ground floats up, then into the flaming crate. "My white gloves can do a few simple tricks. And so can my black hat. Observe." Ness removes the top hat from his head, reaches into the lining, which is gray and tan and aquamarine and rusty-red...
The slave girls gasp and instinctively shift back a step, then freeze. The lion just stands there, looking at Ness expectantly. "That's the fourteenth animal I've pulled from this hat, and still... no rabbit." He grabs the lion by the mane. It becomes a fuzzball. Ness puts the fuzzball back in his hat. "Are you?" Ness asks Caledon quite calmly, neither embarrassed nor amazed by his spectacular failure. "A student of the arcane, I mean. Because if you are, perhaps you can locate the rabbit." ... Caledon: If you try to pull a rabbit from the hat, make the same rolls I did: a d4, then a d100. You only get one try. Whether you try or not, you can roll whatever checks to try and understand the hat's magic.
Also, if you try the hat, Ness will tell you, "The command word is 'RABBIT,' and it must be used in a complete sentence."
Ness casts Mage Hand to remove very tiny shards (of what could be milimeter-wide diamonds or bits of broken glass) from the inside of the torn intestines dangling from Biff's body. He casts Prestidigitation to clean the collected shards. |
