The Glimmerfinger Trials

Saghla is a young gnome fighter and she wanted to begin her adventuring career. She lives with the Glimmerfinger Clan of gnomes, in a cave complex in the Tanil Hills.

Periodically the Glimmerfingers hold trials for any would-be young adventurers, with the winner of the trials gaining a small prize and the blessing of the clan to go forth and seek adventure. Captain Snork, an old and kindly gnome warrior, runs the trials. Along with Saghla, her competitors were Burble, Drooper, Fizzleplop and Gleeg.

Trial by Tiki Target

Each contestant was given a target dummy to destroy. Dummies were considered AC 8 and required 25 HP of damage to destroy. Saghla was using a longsword, Burble a mace, Drooper a flail, Fizzleplop a shortsword and Gleeg a pair of daggers.

Saghla won this contest, after seven rounds, rolling 9, 18, 12, 3, 9, 19 and 18, and doing 5, 4, 9 and 9 damage.

Trial by Treasure Collecting

Each contestant needed to collect a necklace from a booby-trapped building built into a large cavern. One at a time the characters needed to enter the building and avoid breaking a tripwire in the first room that would cause a collapse of the ceiling. The door to the second room would need to be opened by force of lock picking. In the second room were stairs leading up to the first of two rooms on the floor above. The characters would need to walk carefully around the edges of the room as the floor was almost completely missing. The door to the final room was trapped with a bucket of water balanced on the door. The necklace itself was on a hook over a fireplace at the far end of the last room. If there was no longer any weight on the hook, such as by removing the necklace, the wall would collapse onto the character.

Everybody went in reverse order from the results of the first trial. This meant Saghla went last, after Gleeg. Gleeg actually managed to get as far as removing the necklace from the hook, whereupon the wall crumbled to rubble, trapping her underneath. Saghla went in and negotiated the various traps in the house. She rescued Gleeg from under the rubble and took the necklace, thus winning the trial with bonus points for rescuing her friend.

Trial by Goblin/Kobold Target

This trial was like a game of whack-a-mole. A target would appear and the character would have to run to it and try to score a hit before it disappeared again. Targets were considered AC 8 and each hit scored a point.

Saghla rolled 8, 18, 7, 5, 11 (modified to 12 using one of her Luck Points), 16, 17, 5, 15, 5, doing 6, 6, 6, 9 and 5 points of damage. With a total of five targets hit, she was third in this trial.

Trial by Missile Weapons

A target was set for characters to shoot or throw missiles at. The target had five rings, considered AC 8, 6, 4, 2 and 0, requiring for a first level fighter or cleric a 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 respectively to hit. Rings were each worth 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 points.

Each player took five shots. Saghla rolled 12, 14, 20, 18 and 7 for four hits and a total of 18 points, winning the trial.

Trial by Emergency

Suddenly the alarm bells rang throughout the caves! A vicious gnoll had escaped its prison and needed to be dealt with before it caused devastation. The contestents ran to help and joined in the fray.

Saghla scored a hit against the creature in the first round of combat, and in the second rolled a natural 20, scoring a massive critical which slayed the escaped monster.

Conclusion

The overall winner of the trials was clearly Saghla. Her prize was a +1 Ring of Protection, engraved with the Glimmerfinger crest. She was invited to embark on an adventure and return whenever she wished to share tales of her travels and to train under Captain Snork.

As Saghla already had enough XP from the trials to gain level two, she spent a week training up under the guidance of the old Captain. At the end of the week, she was ready.

Saghla asked to take her friend Gleeg, who she had rescued from the rubble, along with her. Gleeg was delighted to be able to accompany Saghla, and the two of them set off for the capital city, Deraheib, on Saghla's pony.

Next: The Outcast's Redemption