On page 73 of the World Builder PDF, in table (WB) NI - NEW ITEMS, at the end of the S footnote, there's a "The " after the final period.

I've only been playing for a week with the base rules + world builder so maybe I'm missing something or misinterpreting it. My adventurer has completed the 5 training quest and his first WB quest and proceeded to scout around his home city. He stumble upon the Den of the Goblinoids Side Quest and two rooms in, stumbled upon a green dragon. So... first house rule: when spending a life, automatically fail the quest and respawn in the hex. After recovering from that ordeal, my adventurer continued scouting and was attacked by a blue dragon... So... addendum to the first house rule: when spending a life, also exit combat and remove the monster from the combat track. Now my adventurer has 2 life left and is quivering from fear, unwilling to explore or do anything that would provoke an unmodified roll on the encounter table.