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Oranna watched in suspense and awe as the large stone monolith appeared on the Top of the World at the end of Fall Solstice. The shamans and witches felt the Hallowed Day or the Eve of the last day of the Autumn season had mystical powers. The large building with a single mist shrouded opening was a good indication the prophecies were true. Now, would she be up to the test?
Looking up at the monolith, Oranna took in a deep breath. This was her chance, one that she had earned with blood and sweat. A fire inside her ignited. She knew this would make or break her.
She began to walk forward, nude as the day she was born(are they nude terminator style?), "Time to get to work," she said to herself.
You enter through the doorway, and find yourselves in a dimly lit room with a robe and underclothes on a hangar, and table with a dagger upon it. Across the room from you is an old man, well worn and calloused all over, he wears a simple loin cloth and close fitting shirt.
"Welcome. My first lesson to you is a simple dagger is the a great weapon and tool for all. This well made dagger is your gift for trying to enter the Hall. If you can defeat me, you may move forward. Put on your garments, grab your dagger, and come and get me when you are ready."
The old man has a set of well made manacles.
"I am going to put you in these manacles and shove you back outside if you are not up to the task."
Above you, you notice there is a set of chains running over the ceiling with a winch by the old man. Anyone manacled to the chains hanging from the ceiling should be easily winched back outside through the fog shrouded doorway.
"If it must be done, so be it," Oranna says while going over and donning the simple cloths that would be her clothes. When fully clothed, she quickly grabbed the dagger, making a few practice strokes before turning to face the old man.
"My name is Oranna of Cold Rock tribe. I ask of your name before we battle."
The old man looks somewhat confused. "I was once someone of great import...I think. Now I am supposed to provide instruction."
He looks up: "I will not be taking it easy on you."
"Neither shall I," she readies the blade in hand.
The old man motions for you to come to him. He seems to have patiently waited for you to get dressed and arm yourself.
"Whenever you are ready."
"READY!!!" she yells as she moves forward for an attack on the old man.
Oranna moves forward, and before she swings, the old man reaches out with a grip to hold her.
Although he grabs Oranna, her strike cuts the man deeply in the torso.
He tries to tighten his hold.
The old man grabs Oranna in a tighter grip, making striking with the dagger impractical. Breaking free became top priority.
As you struggle with the old man, he seems to talk between grunts.
"Aye, wrassling around. Who would have thought I could use it to help people and turn it into a career. Once you wrap up a wizard, it makes casting spells a bit hard."
"Get off me!"
Oranna escapes, and the old man attempts to grab her again.
His grasp misses the enraged barbarian.
She slashes out with another strike. Controlled anger being used to power her attack.
The old smiles and holds up his hands, shrugging as the dagger cuts deep.
"I think you can pass. The first of many tests is over. Well done."
Oranna takes a step back from the man, hold her knife out still, ready to retaliate if his words were a trick, "O, too much for ya, I was just having fun. Gave a damned good fight."
After the encounter with the old man, he waves you through the door. The next room smells of burning wood, sweat, and smoke. The sound of hammering can be heard. A large dwarf with a ruddy face is there to greet you.
"You need weapons and armor if you are to be warriors of any account. Pick from the armor on the rack here, you can get one. It all depends on whether you are after light, medium, or heavy armor."
There is a mithral chain shirt, an enchanted breastplate (+1) and a suit of masterwork full plate.
"I am going to make you three weapons for your journey here. No exotic ones, but I can make pretty much anything. I already made three light hammers and three javelins, you never know when you need them.
Oranna grabs the Breastplate inspecting, "I'll have you forge me a good great sword if you will, and a strong war hammer to split skulls. If you may, low weight steel shield will be of good aide.
She goes off to the side a bit as she fixes her clothing to don her armor, tearing it places to make proper adjustments. She watches the dwarf as he crafts, speaking to him in orcish tongue.
The dwarf seems oblivious to the orcish tongue as he prepares the weapons. The weapons are made with sheaths or slings so they can be easily stowed when not in use.
You prepare to enter the next room.
After selecting a weapon to carry, and slinging two backup weapons as well as the javelins and light hammers, you move to a dimly lit sanctum. There the icons of the great heroes are depicted on the wall in large tapestries. On a large, wooden mead table are laid out necklaces corresponding to all the heroes.
Gerund, the stout dwarf warrior, was famous for the amount of damage he could take and not fall. Cyndi, the elven ranger, was renowned for ability to dodge and evade the blows of her attackers. Grond, the half orc barbarian, delivered the most lethal blows. Harold, the human gladiator was known for the exotic combat maneuvers he would perform; he preferred to drop, disarm, or hold his opponent helpless before he finished them off. Theris, the true, it was said his strikes never missed his opponents and with an economy of motion demanded every strike be true.
You now have five necklaces with a medallion corresponding to each of the heroes. Besides what you have in your hands, I need to what necklaces your are wearing.
An acolyte explains: "Wearing a necklace is an attempt to seek favor from one of the heroes. Their relationships are complex, and gaining the favor of one may cause problems with another. For example, Cyndi and Gerund are rivals. It would unlikely, but not impossible, to gain the favor of both of them."
Roan takes a moment of thought. The heroes of old, legends and tales passed down from generation to generation. A choice had to be made, so she chose the one taught to her since her arrival into her village.
She picks up the necklace of Grond, "May my opponents and enemies feel my wraith, and the sting of defeat."
She looks down at another necklace, the one of Gerund. She had heard little of his exploits but was drawn to him slightly. She had heard once that a viper had bitten him, and after three excruciating days, the viper died. Such was a testament to the strength of such a warrior, and so, she picked his necklace up as well.
With your totems on, you are lead to the next door. "There will be a difficult fight, best of luck."
As the door is opened, you are confronted by four skeletal goblins holding long spears. You try to get a jump on them.
With quickness in her step she rushed the one to her left and swung at the undead goblin with her great sword.
But seems to miss her attack.
The sword misses, and the goblins each jab with their spears. Two hit, one narrowly missing a vital spot in the neck.
Oranna takes the hit hard, gritting her teeth as a fire ignites in her eyes.
"Bastards!" She yells attacking again.
Oranna takes a single bite from a charging goblin after she shatters a skeleton, her sword doing less damage than expected (9), but enough to put it out of commision.
Oranna continues to face down three goblin skeletons. One of them is open to a counterattack, having charge blindly to bite her (-2 AC for a round).
Oranna takes the hit but swings to deliver her own on the charging one.
[ooc]Not sure if crit[/dice]
"Back in your hole!" she yell in orcish.
Oranna destroys another goblin, leaving only two up. Their weak attacks fail to connect.
"And dead again. Was that all you got?!"
She lunges to attack again.
Oranna smashes a skeleton leaving one up.
After two fruitless attacks, Oranna feels she has the upper hand.
And with another blow she takes the final undead goblin out. She checks her side, clutching it for a moment. No medical supplies or nothing, she thought, this wasn't going to be fun. She stabbed her great sword into the ground and breathed in relaxation.
After her victorious fight with the goblin undead, Oranna is ushered into a room that look like an alchemists lab by the old man she met at the door. The old man explains:
"Warriors need to accept that we live in a magical world. We can easily use magic by imbibing simple potions. The most useful typically is the minor cure potions, but we have others here. You can have Grimaldi here make you three potions. He knows the following recipes: Cure Light Wounds, Oil of Magic Weapon, Enlarge Person, and Protection from Evil. You can get multiples of one if you like."
He adds with concern. "You definitely want some healing."
As you get your potions issued to you in an adventurer's sash (see main thread: discussion), the old man comes to you to explain to you what comes next.
"You are going into the arena. Each of the heroes in the test will have their own bugbear to fight. He is basically just a big goblin. In the center is the blind ogre waiting to attack whoever comes to get him on the center platform. The bugbear assigned to fight you will stand down when you go unconscious. When the ogre is incapacitated, the trial is over, and whoever the judges deemed contributed the most to defeating the ogre is declared the winner."
The old man winks and adds: "There is a slight wrinkle. You can't hit your rivals when they are knocked out or after the ogre falls, but if you want, UNTIL the ogre falls you can go after your competition if they are standing."
The old man looks at your amulets. "I heard Harold was a pretty good hero. He wrestled the minotaur of Ugin into submission. I think he defeated Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger too."
"And, you did prove your worth by wrassling an old man like me." He gives Oranna a slight wink.
After taking two vials of the healing potion, and one vial of magic weapon, she downed the a body immediately downed a healing potion.
"Yea, my tribe back home taught me a good deal," she returns the wink, "Any time, I'd be happy to do it again."
She realizes about old Harold as he spoke, "Damn should have grabbed that necklace, gaudy things anyway but damn. Give me a while to psych up for this one, get my strength back.
Oranna selects her potions, decides which ones to drink before his next challenge and steps through the door.