Chapter 9 : First Trial of Heroes (September 17th 2006)
Sir Melot and Lady Thea watched from afar as brave warriors gathered to prove their might in the Trial of Heroes, a contest held every month for the heroes of this land.
All aspiring heroes had to register and pass the check-up test that would insure they did not hold any illegal items, once that was out of the way and the entry fee was aquited, they were fit to start the trials.
5 trials lay before them; the pvp trial, the monster fighting trial, the item trial, the trivia trial and the mass battle trial. The trials tested their skills, courage, will, force and last but not least their patience! (The event lasted over 6h!)
PVP Trial:
6 contestants would face each other to test their skills against one another. There was heated battles, some ending by courageous victory and shameless defeat while others ended in surprising ties. A late arrival and some technical difficulties made for a change of location for the trial, but it did not affect their will to fight and defeat each other.
Item Trial
Warped into a room full of monsters, the 4 contestants who chose to participate in this trial had to react fast. They only had 15 minutes to read the list of items to get, understand how to get them and gather as most as possible. All of them did remarquably well with the time given to them.
Monster Trial
Patience and calm were in order for this trial which probably lasted longer than all others combined. All 10 participant in the ToH had chosen this trial. After a rocky start (some reloading involved) we were finally ready to start. A brave priestess volonteered to go first and experienced each of the phase I had ploted for my aspiring heroes.
The creepy crawlers : 3 Ancient Worms and their summons of Argiope trying to sting you with their poison!
The dead army: 12 angry dullahans hoping to bring you to their side!
Demonic rage: 8 wanderers, dex anyone? if not miss miss crit miss miss miss XD
Wingged mischief: 3 little false angel, but don't get fooled by their angelic appearance, they meant business and tried to kick our heroe's behinds.
Gold digger's grave: 1 mvp, Golden Thief Bug and his annoying swarming male thief bugs!
Most players at least crawled to the end of the corridor even if they could not destroy all the ennemies. Some did very good (ranged class mostly) and if I recall well, 2 contestants even managed to kill the MVP!
Trivia Trial
10 questions were asked to our 10 contestants in a battle of mind that involved quick reflexes as well as versatile RO knowledge. The high priestess Melody Vilente managed to snatch 4 correct answers first which earned her a much needed 20 points, while Wired, Cream and Ehaltar got 2 each which gave them an extra 10 points.
Mass Battle PVP
The final trial, but not the least involved a battle between good and evil! 3 Light players opposed 5 Dark ones in a very challenging and interresting fight. In the end the light shined on the darkness as the team comprised of Edward Elric, Cream and ZabaZa ermerged victorious having managed to kill their dark opponents (Melody Vilente, Sir Aun, Ehaltar, Wired and Krimlin).
The prize Ceremony
Each participant had tried to reach the mark of the hero (scoring 75 points). Out of 10, 7 of them did reach it.
Cream (105 points)
Edward Elric (95 points)
Wired (95 points)
ZabaZa (85 points)
Ehaltar (80 points)
Sir Aun (80 points)
Melody Vilente (77 points)
They were rewarded with their hero gear, all favored wings over helms. The light ones fluttered with their angeling wings, while the dark ones wore their stoic deviling wings (sorry no fluttering for the dark side!)
All in all, I think it wasn't too badly balanced, no one scored perfect in the individual trials, the most people got is 45/50 points and only one person scored over 100 points. It was hard, but it was meant to be, if it wasn't a challenge it would be boring and it would not be for heroes. I'll review and re-ajust each trial however and all items and monsters will change in the next trial, some maps too.
If anyone has cool screenshots, please post them!!
Next ToH: Saturday October 21st at 1 PM (EST)!
So, until next time!