Halflings and Gnomes - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Halflings and Gnomes. Creatures of many races and cultures are embroiled in struggles that flare up across the multiverse. Other folk survive in the face of all this turmoil by keeping a low profile and avoiding the wars and other depredations that keep the outside world in a state of flux. Halflings and gnomes are two groups that have survived by remaining largely unnoticed by the aggressive powers of the cosmos. Both races are exceptions in a multiverse wracked by conflict-peaceful folk who have found niches for themselves away from the battles and rivalries that fill the lives of the larger folk. Halflings I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the times I saw our little rogue cheat death, but I remember them all. Let's see... there was the enraged roper, the flaming lava stream, the catapulted gelatinous cubes, the Ten Tilting Corridors of Death, the exploding toad trap, the Hall of the Spinning Scimitars... Anyone who has spent time around halflings, and particularly halfling adventurers, has likely witnessed the storied "luck of the halflings" in action. When a halfling is in mortal danger, it seems as though an unseen force intervenes. If a halfling falls off a cliff, her britches will snag on a root or a sharp outcrop of rock. If a halfling is forced by pirates to walk the plank, he will catch a piece of flotsam and use it to stay afloat until he is rescued. Halflings believe in the power of luck, and they abide by a great number of superstitions that they believe bring good or ill fortune. They attribute their unusual gift to the favor of Yondalla, believing that, now and then, the divine will of the goddess tips the balance of fate in their favor (or gives it a hearty shove when the occasion warrants). Naturally Innocent Scholars, wizards, druids, and bards of other races have different ideas about how halflings escape peril, suggesting that by virtue of something in their nature, they occupy a special place in the multiverse. One such hypothesis...