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"What other one? I have a proposal for you if you'd like my amulet. It's a very good proposal, if you'd like to listen to it."
"See, all you need to do is accept my proposal. I'll give you one hour of good luck -- that's right, you get a boon of good luck. However, if you die during that hour, I get your soul. That's right -- your soul travels to Hell and can only be raised or resurrected by a Wish spell (or something like that). So how about it?"
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The imp considers Loompecker's offer and acquiesces. Loompecker is now the proud owner of an amulet and the imp disappears.
You return to Kreighton Shaine. He notices that Ashun is also carrying an amulet.
"You pass the trial but I need to deduct one point for not collecting the amulets in order. Please don't try to conceal these things from me in the future."
Kreighton Shaine returns you to the Grand Lodge but takes his leave of you to prepare for his next class.
You find Sorrina Westyr in her office. She greets you and leads you to the training area.
An odd array of magical fixtures fill this spacious chamber: a wooden platform floats in the air halfway down the hall, a fountain spewing violet water sits in one corner, a wooden scaffolding holding fake walls in place creates a miniature room within the larger chamber, and several doors leading out the sides of the hall have glowing runes upon their surfaces. "What I have here for you is essentially an obstacle course," says Sorrina, sounding rather proud. "Each part of the course represents a different sort of challenge you’d possibly encounter in an actual mission. I’ll only award your final scoring for this trial when everyone has overcome the challenges. So, think of this as a group assignment." Sorrina gestures to a long table holding several closed satchels. "You aren’t expected to take on all the tasks we have available here. I’ll be assigning you three of them. Your group can also pick one of the supply satchels. Each satchel contains a different set of tools, including some magical items you would otherwise be unable to access from our storerooms. There should be an item or two in each that can help overcome all of the possible challenges. Your task is to decide which of these tools suits your group in besting the challenges you’ve been given. Some tools might be more appropriate in certain challenges than others, and some might seem useless for your particular tasks, but there’s no ‘correct’ answer here. I’m observing and grading your creativity and success, not seeing if you’d do something the same way that I might in the same circumstances. Any questions?"
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All three satchels contain the following: 100 feet of rope, four vials of lesser alchemist’s fire, a standard-grade adamantine dagger, two scrolls of sleep, and a decanter of endless water.
The other satchel you choose contains:
boots of elvenkind
cloak of elvenkind
infiltrator thieves’ tools
scroll of blink
scroll of dispel magic
scroll of glitterdust
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"You pass the trial but I need to deduct one point for not collecting the amulets in order. Please don't try to conceal these things from me in the future."
Bee grumbles a bit. "I don't remember anything about the order being important. And it isn't like we had much choice. The thing threw the amulet at us and disappeared as soon as we walked through the portal."
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Kreighton Shaine frowns. "The creature did ask if you were after its amulet, did it not? The quasit may have shoved the amulet at you but only after one of you said that you were after its amulet."
Sorrina smiles mysteriously. "I will inform you of the tasks once your companions inform me that they are ready. You must learn patience, my green friend."
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"Don't feel bad, Ashun. No wonder the little demon was so eager to give it to us," Bitty sighs. She looks over the scrolls, and hands the Dispel Magic one to Ashun and then asks Loompecker and Konbu, "Can you either of you cast Sleep, Blink and Glitterdust from these scrolls? I've heard that some thaumaturges can do that."
Her tail perks up as she checks out the other items. "Cath, Konbu, Loompecker and Bee... You're all trained in how to throw bombs, right? I think we should split the alchemist fires amongst you. Cath, will you also take the rope?"
She hands Ashun the decanter of endless water. "Be creative with this." Then she looks at the adamantine dagger. "I think either Bee or I should take this one, since it will help us hit things that are hard."
She looks at the boots and cloak of elvenkind. "Does anyone have objections if Bee wears the boots and I wear the cloak? Or if I take the infiltrator tools?"
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Bee walks away muttering to himself. "Well, it was still a cheap trick to cheat us out of a perfect score. But whatever. We still won, and I guess that is more important."
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As Bitty pulls out new toys to play with, Bee answers the questions directed at him. "I can throw bombs fine. Nothing special though. The cloak and boots look like they are a set, but I'm not sure on that. I would like that dagger."
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”There is no reason we can’t reallocate resources after the briefing but it doesn’t hurt to assign them now so that Sorrina sees that we are ready.” Bitty speaks calmly, but her tail twitches slightly as Loompecker criticizes her initiative.
She still holds up the boots and cloak. ”They don’t have to be used as a set, but Grandma Beryl has these and uses them both together.” She holds up the boots. ”These make you able to balance and tumble better. The cloak makes you sneakier.”
She turns to Loompecker. ”If you want to allocate them differently, let’s hear your thoughts.”
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Bitty's tail droops as she feels her hard won self-confidence begin to deflate. Still she looks to Egg for strength, and then takes a deep breath. "You don't want to distribute the items because we have not heard the briefing yet. But us not having heard the mission briefing is exactly why we should distribute those items now."
Bitty looks at Loompecker. "I arrived here earlier in Absalom, and I've been listening the to Pathfinder gossip in the dorms. And they keep saying that Pathfinders need to be ready from the moment they step into a mission briefing. You don't always get a chance to reallocate your items, because what if you enter the mission briefing and your lodge gets attacked right away? Or what if the mission briefing is misleading because the VCs don't know the full story of what you will face in the field? The VCs do their best, but sometimes the mission briefing is one thing, and what the party actually has to do is another."
Bitty looks at Loompecker, and points to the bag. "Those items will do us no good if they stay in the bag. We were given them to use them." Then she takes a deep breath. "Pathfinders are supposed to explore and report, but in the middle they have to cooperate. So to break this deadlock, do you want to flip a coin? Or does what I say make sense?"
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Dumbfounded while following the group around, Cath shakes her head and looks at Bitty and Loompecker, "Distribution of items is a good idea, as I've heard that those in work for the Society, that agents should be at the ready. Though, Mister Loompecker also has a point to wait for the briefing. While I think are both good ideas, I would say a coin flip [i]could[/c] help us decide what to do before the briefing, and we can reallocate afterwards."
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Ashun just brushed what happened earlier with Shaine, agreeing with both Bee and Bitty. But assuring it was his own fault instead of Konbu's to Konbu.
And right now, he just looks confused. "Do we have a time limit of some sorts? While I can indeed see your point, Loompecker, we do not have to hurry up our preparations in this specific case." raising one eyebrow and slightly tilting his head to the side, "I want to mean, were we in a haste, yes, I would agree with you. But since we were given the option to pick and choose and prepare ourselves, I think it is best we try to distribute the items amongst us in case we can not later." sighing and slouching his shoulders a bit, he agrees to take the Dispel Magic scroll.
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Sorrina steps in. "Pathfinders! Let's not argue! If you can't get along in training, how much more when blood is actually flying. The items may or may not help you in the trials but it's how you deal with the trials is what counts."
Sorrina leads you to a section of the room where a wooden platform sits overhead, suspended by four pillars of wood. She explains that the challenge is for the entire party to make it on top of the platform, using their own skills and the tools they have drawn. The platform is 15 feet off the ground, 10 feet below the room’s ceiling, and no walls of the room are closer than 15 feet to any of its edges. It is surrounded by a railing on all sides.
"For the first challenge: sooner or later, you’ll need to ascend somewhere you can’t climb, or battle a flying opponent. Test your skills on a tall platform."
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Well nothing says the platform must stay where it is. Let's take it down. It will be easier to step on it then.
Simply that if I need an item I will require it. I already played several times this scenario. It's the first time someone pushes to divide the items. Once we used nothing from the satchel.
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Bitty claps as Cath tosses Konbu and Bee and they fly like dragons. Once Ashun climbs up, she turns to Cath and Loompecker and says, "Meet you at the top!"
"C'mon, Egg, let's show them how we can climb!" Sticking her tongue out and using her tail for balance, she climbs up the rope.
She then high-fives everyone already on the platform. "Hey, the view is great up here!"
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After some grunting and heavy breathing you all manage to make it to the top of the platform. Sorrina applauds you and your innovative effort to get to the top.
Sorrina leads the group to a door off the side of the hall. On the other side is a small antechamber, approximately 10 feet wide by 20 feet long, with an open doorway on the opposite end.
"All you need to do is walk from one side of the room to the other. Scattered around the room are light puffball mushrooms that I made invisible. Touching a mushroom causes it to burst open and release spores. The spores are also invisible. While these spores do little more than cause sneezing or mild rashes, most invisible threats are far less merciful. Therefore, if you are exposed to the spores, you fail the challenge."
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Bee lays down on his belly and looks carefully at the room from ground level trying to see anything that would indicate even the existence of invisible mushrooms.
"I didn't check those scrolls very closely since I can't use them. But would any of them help? Maybe blow all of the mushrooms to one side of the room or something."
"Or," he looks back at the others with a grin, "do mushrooms catch on fire?"
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"Do you think the hurling tactic would work again?" he looks at Cath, Bee and Konbu with a silly smile.
Ashun then sits cross legged and starts thinking,
"Most fungi would eventually catch fire if exposed to enough heat, I guess it is a viable option to mark them..." he fades out his sentence, his gears turning, "To mark them... Does the glutterdust work on them? Or even better, I guess I could try this? and he draws a sigil in the air using the same motion as painting with a brush.