Wizards Research Contest

[BlueHero45]

*posters can be found hanging around The Gate, and Doron Amar.*

"Wizards, and friends of history and lore. The Arcane Academy of Doron Amar will be holding research contests with prizes for the winners. The rules are simple, I will give you a topic and you will have a week to research it and write me a short essay with as much lore on the topic as you can, you must state your sources at the button of the essay. I will then read the essays and pick a winner and a runner up.

The first topic is Firewine Bridge. The reward is 10,000 gold coins, the runner up gets a ring of magical defence. Send your answers to Rhys Feivra in Doron Amar."

//Here's the deal, PM me all answers. You do not need to be a wizard to enter but I expect you to have at least a decent lore skill. State your sources with your essay, either OOC source books, or in game people or items. Rhys holds the right to exclude people from the contest if the situation calls for it. Ask any questions you may have here. The first contest ends next Friday.

[BlueHero45]

///BTW there is no answer to short or too long, the idea is that you take a moment to look up a little lore, then describe it in your characters voice.

[BlueHero45]

"The first entry is in, and its written with the grace that only a bard could muster"

[BlueHero45]

"More essays have come in, who was the most love of history and lore?"

[koningtiger]

Master Rhys, i know i wont win, but perhaps a few wizard items sponsored by the Academy would spice the contests...

[BlueHero45]

*New posters can be seen on top of the old ones*

"We have a winner for the first Research Contest, Alison, here is her winning report


Little is known of the destruction of the elven village of the Firewine. The lore is scarce on this point, but some facts can be gleaned by an examination of the area. Fortunatley there is also Bardic lore, which, although rarerly written down, is passed from Master to Apprentice in the form of song and poetry.

What we know from the halflings of Gullykin, is that the barren swath that lies nearby is rich with wild magic. There are ghosts stories and such, but these seem more to scare children or entertain the neverending stream of adventurers that pass through the village on the way to Durlag's tower.

The locals speak of the village of Firewine fairly casually. They say that the village was destroyed in a sorcerous duel nearly 200 years ago. The power unleashed was so great that it changed the course of the stream that once flowed through the area. It also created the areas of wild magic, and presumably killed all of the inhabitants. Interestingly, the halflings have tales that some of the elves did not die, but were transformed into lizards, frogs, turtles and other small creatures. True or not, the Gullykin villagers make it a point to never kill small animals. . . just in case ((Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast)).

I also recalled an old song about a "Firewine Bridge", and so I travelled about from Baldur's Gate to Beregost, and to many of the outlying villages in search of someone who knew this song. I finally found my mark in the small village of Ulgoth's Beard. An old fisherman, not much of a Bard, but he was all the village had in the form of a storyteller. He learned this song from a traveling Minstrel in his youth, and he remembered most of it from his love of the sad ballad. Below I have finally put to paper the song that only resided in the head of the fisherman.



The Firewine


South of the Sharp Teeth on the road to the North
Lay a town that spanned river and ridge.
A hamlet well built on barter and craft
The village of Firewine Bridge

unknown to the elves of this halcyon span
Their fate lay in Bethsheba's sphere
As pride would lead to the village's fall
The pride of the spell-casters near.

-
The Sorcerers of Calimshan were hardy and bold
And quite unaccustomed to fear.
But the bravest of all, and most seasoned by far
Was Abu Suldophor Meneer.

There were wizards a-plenty, good men known to fame
In the army of the Waterdeep Lords.
But none of more fame than an elf by the name
Of Timon Alessand'e'vodor.

One day this bold Tel'quessir had shouldered his bow,
And donned his most truculent sneer,
Southward he went where on a bridge he met
The great Abu Suldophor Meneer

Vanity rides with disdain at her side
When North and south meet far afield
As neither magician would yield up the path
The fate of the Firewine was sealed

As the first spell was cast in a fiery blast
The wood and stone trembled in fear.
At a stone's throw apart did the stubborn foes stand
both Timon and Abu Meneer.

With world-shaking might and legerdemain
The weave they did twist and pillage
On that Summer's day it's said Mystra did weep
For the hamlet of Firewine Bridge.

The river it boiled with wild surging weave
And the forest with Unseelie spawn
The fabric of land, and water and flesh
Transmuted beyond recognition.

The Tel'quessir blood of the Sharp Teeth is gone
From the barren and marred vestiges
And all that remains are the echoes of pain
From the ghosts of the Firewine Bridge."