Mini Quest: A step by step plot that could be used as a side plot.
The gauntlet is more of a series of independent challenges than a true gauntlet. Very little of it involves physical danger, though the challengers rarely know that. The myths that have grown to surround this thing…but my apologies, you came here for facts. Well, the facts of the matter are that no one has successfully completed it in centuries.
The last person to undergo the gauntlet barely made it. The puzzles seem mysterious and are beautiful in their complexity. They also turn the immediate vicinity into a glorified escape room. The poor man did not notice the fence raising around him. There are plenty of bones still littering the area from failures who found themselves stuck.
But not him. He had a determination that wouldn’t quit. He ran from the area, straight into a troll. Trolls are not that complicated, though very few know how to handle them. I know not if the man knew what he was doing, or if he was simply lucky. He sat on the floor, in front of the troll. He must have known the troll would not attack first. Almost every other challenger attacks the beast. This has a 50/50 shot of succeeding. This man simply waited. More likely he waited for an answer, but I want to believe he was waiting for the sunrise. As amber light crept up the walls the troll solidified where it stood. The man strode around the stone to the next trial.
A series of connected rooms, each with a different savage animal lurking within. These ones require a bit more strength to get through. The savagery of the animal heightens the further you go. They are not, however, wild. They can be tamed, which is of course the key to the trial. Can you tame five types of savage? Most think you are meant to kill them all but that is too crude for a gauntlet of this style. He knew though. He was so gentle with all of them, and patient. They took to following him as he passed each one. By the end of this phase, he had a group of the most savage animals of all time following him as his personal entourage.
The last room is the hardest. No physical strength is needed, but you might break mentally. In the center of a room is a well pond. From this pond comes a being that is a copy of you. Your facade, your voice, mannerisms and wit, copied in exact detail. You see, your final challenge is to convince yourself to hand over the key. The man struggled here. Your doppelganger will test your conviction and path. It will make you question your motives, even outright argue with you. Its sole goal is to make you give up.
But he didn’t give up. First, he waited for sunrise, but a doppelganger is not a troll. Then he set his new furry friends on it, but they simply wouldn’t attack him, even when it wasn’t him. Frustrated, he did what very few challengers have ever done. Not everyone has the gumption to kill themselves. Homicide is a very different to suicide, it generally undoes people to have that definition blurred.
Kill it, however, he did. He stopped talking after that point. The experience had definitely taken more of a toll that he had prepared for. But he had won. Armed with the key, he let himself and his animal entourage into the ritual chamber.
C.M. Wellsmore 