Minerva's Mansion: A competition of sorts.

On this day, February 21st, year 745 of the Age of Myth, a very special competition was held. I had acquired an old mansion about half a day's travel west of Ollscoil renovated not long ago, and I decided to make good use of it. As many are well  aware, My name is Merrick Minerva, Cartographer, and Wizard of Farvion, and I've been looking to aspiring young adventurers for assistance for some time, and recently I have been searching for a Thief to help me with a mission for which I searched for assistance. For a magical experiment, I require a very special item known as a Blazing Ruby. This item has several properties which I intend to exploit, none of which can be used without actually owning this rare gemstone. It is located in a dungeon on the far western side of the Camber mountains, and as it does involve exploring a dungeon, I have searched for an adequate Thief for many months to go find it for me. After I got tired of waiting, I decided it best to hold a very special Thieving competition in this mansion I had refurbished, one involving many skills I imagine to be required in exploring the dungeon. Firstly, I rigged the entire place with poisonous (but non-lethal) traps. The poison used is a very special substance designed to induce paralysis in it's recipient, which could easily be mistaken for death. Now, I'm obviously not about to go around killing people, and I'll return the "deceased" party members to their respective groups after the competition is over. I also intend to test the mental endurance of the Thieves, waking them up unexpectedly in the middle of the night in order to see how they function while needing to think on their feet. Of course, the doors to their bedrooms are all locked from the outside, along with most doors in the mansion. I expect my Thief to be highly skilled in the picking of locks in order to survive a dungeon. The mansion is also filled with secret doors, specially concealed portals which will be very hard to find normally. Perhaps an Elven sort might have an easier time with these. Of course the goal is to find as much of the gold I've hidden throughout the place and get out "alive," though I  expect a truly talented Thief to explore the mansion extensively. A Thief should know his limits of course, but if my Thief is to explore a dangerous dungeon I'll need to make sure those limits are not so easily met. I promised the competitors gold and treasure in the hidden basement of the house, and I promised them knowledge and items of rarity in the study of the manor on the top floor. If someone reaches either, that's a good sign of a worthy candidate.

There are many more things I could get into, but I'll leave those for another time. For now, I'd rather document the results of this competition of mine. Firstly, I should have expected more of  Thieves turning on each other. Many people actually died this night, which I find to be most unfortunate. I will however say how impressed I am with some of the survivors... In one of the bedrooms I had a secret door hidden behind a dresser. This room was especially prepared for a well known pirate of Farvion known as "Edvard the Black," who I'd been following the adventures of for quite some time now. He thoroughly investigated his bedroom, taking him nearly an hour to finally decide to venture through the secret door. This door led through a passageway and into a special greenhouse room in the eastern side of the property, requiring a large window looming over the garden to be broken for entry. He awaited someone to enter the garden, and he leapt through the window in order to surprise his prey. My guess was that he intended to take for himself the treasure someone else had already gathered, which is very disappointing. The person he descended upon was ready, however. Not only was he an accomplished Thief in his own right, but he was accompanied by a Cleric and a Druid who fought alongside him. The battle between the two was fierce, and Edvard had used many of his own personal magic items throughout the fight, but the other Thief eventually wounded him badly enough to the point of Edvard needing an escape. He used his magical pair of boots to leap through the glass roof of the greenhouse, escaping into the night. This was not before dropping one of his magical longswords, dropped when the opposing Thief skewered his arm from behind. I guess all is fair in a duel between Thieves. Regardless, I was very intrigued by the victor of this battle. He's a young adventurer who goes by the name of Arthur Higgsbury, perhaps related to Wilson P. Higgsbury, an old colleague of mine. I don't know too much about him, but he was sent here on recommendation by a close friend  of mine. Cao Sun, a Paladin from up north in Yggdrasil  sent this boy as his "champion," attending as representative of himself. I expected high things from him, yes, but to best Edvard the Black in combat? I don't care if he had help from two others, that's quite a feat. Edvard is both a renowned Thief and a skilled Illusionist, so seeing him lose even with his access to magic is rather astounding. I guess Cao Sun knows how to choose a Thief.

As for the winner, a member of Arthur's group was the first to discover the secret door leading to the basement. He returned with a healthy reward of gold and treasure, after which he managed to reach the study soon after. Having reached both victory locations first, it was very clear that he was the sole winner of my little contest. Apparently, he himself had slain 4 different Thieves during this competition, and had defeated Edvard the Black while he was at it. Upon getting to know this man, it was revealed to me that he shows interest in constructing some form of base of operations in the west, and he requires funding for such a project. I promised him the reward I had listed for the publicized version of this quest, in addition to the gold reward gained from reaching the treasure room. I've also promised him I'd assist him in constructing his stronghold at a later date.

I'm eager to see how this adventure of his turns out. It could end in disaster, or it could lead to a successful experiment. Perhaps this "Arthur Higgsbury" will be more useful to me in the future.