Fireball Throwing will be the only contest this year, under the judgement of one yet to be chosen. Following is an excerpt from last year's contest:
The three mages gather in the area that has been set out for the fireball throwing. There is a small crowd that has gathered for this first group of throwers. As you are scanned for any divination magic on you you are asked to line up facing west where there have been objects placed in increasing disances. Each object has a creature painted on it to give you an idea of how strong the object is. Each object is 50 feet apart, starting at 50 feet. The creatures painted on the objects in order of closest to farthest are as follows: Orc, Ogre, Griffon, Stone Giant, Ettin, and Cloud Giant. The objects are as large as the creature they are meant to be.
Flame speaks up: "Greetings to all that have shown interest in this year's fireball throwing contest. Each of the objects in front of you can take only so much fire damage before falling to pieces. Each has a creature painted on it to give you a feel for how much the object can take. You may ONLY use fireball, but you may use any enhancement spells, and only spells, to increase range or damage THAT YOU CAN CAST IN THE SAME ROUND YOU CAST YOUR FIREBALL. I will give you 5 minutes to ponder and decide which object you will target. When I say begin, all of you MUST begin casting. Are there any questions?
Flame watches the three mages and waits the five minutes. After that time, she removes a wand from her belt and aims it high. "When the ball of fire explodes you all must start to cast." She shouts the command word, 'gluzzzra', and a red ball streaks foward; seconds later it reaches it's destination and explodes. The three mages start to cast.
Malekith Amarillis throws his crimson cloak back over his shoulders. As he has done on countless occassions, the Qualinesti elf reaches down for his components. Steadying his breath, he clears his mind and embraces the flow of magic. He keeps looking up into the sky for something, and it seems like something is missing there for him.
Wrathgon's voice is steady and calm as he goes over the gestures of casting a fireball, even in his plate mail that he wears. As the spell finishes, an hour glass appears over his head, shatters, and the sands within spill over him; it then disappears as quickly as it came.
Falaris's musical voice rings out as he casts but a single fireball spell, unmodified by anything he possesses.
The three small balls of fire streak out towards the line of targets in front of each thrower. They are neck in neck until one hits the griffin, 3rd from where they stand. It explodes and falls to pieces but the other two keep going. Wrathgon smiles and gives a prayer to the goddess of magic. The other two balls of fire streak on. Falaris's ball strikes the stone giant and it too falls to pieces. The last ball of fire goes even futher and hits the two-headed ettin. The object rocks but does not crumble. The winner is Falaris! The crowd cheers and there is a great explosion above as a meteor swarm goes off from the judge Flame, making most in the fair turn and look.
After the long debate that raged before the throw the crowds were getting restless. Finally the throwers mount the dais and really themselves for the throw. When the call goes out all the throwers release their balls of fire.
Wildblade’s goes through the motion not of a fireball spell like the rest, his hands move in a totally different direction then the rest. When he finishes his spell there is a flash and a small ball streaks out towards the targets. Even though he wears the armour his hands and arms move as is wearing nothing more then a shirt. The ball is not the red colour of the rest, it is a white ball and as the crowd looks on it heads straight for the force wall…. Some of the other mages smirks but when the ball goes through the wall and hits the Cloud giant target their mouths drop. The ball explodes in shards of ice that rip the object to pieces. If you could see his face under his helm he wear that goes with the stunning elven plate he wears at all time, you bet he is smiling. Flame looks down at him with her fierily eyes, with the look of a promise of a yelling when they get alone. All he has to say is “thought it would be a nice change to use ice instead of fire.” You can tell Flame is trying to keep her temper under control as she looks out at the other throws.
Ren in his flowing mantle with the strange ancient writing on it goes though the motions of a delayed blast fireball. As he casts his spell bright lights of all the colours of the rainbow dance around him and disappears just as his ball of fire streaks away. His is in sink with another thrower, Cerdic ball and his race neck and neck until both reach their targets the 2 objects that are cloud giants. The wall is on another target by the time their fire gets there. 2 loud explosions are heard by all and cracks appear all over the 2 objects starting at the impact point. The spread over the object and both fall to pieces.
Cerdic pauses as he looks out over the targets. He waits for a moment after the call has been given, then a deep chant emits from his throat. The words are spoken with a voice beyond his, and the gestures seem almost like a puppet is making them. Still, they are sharp and precise, and when completed the perfectly formed sphere of energy blazes forth, easily bypassing the shifting wall of force to strike the cloud giant. When done, Cerdic collapses to the ground in a heap. He is sweating profusely. "Blast it all," he mutters, though the accent is different than before. He looks up to see if this tremendous effort has been worthwhile. The ball hits and explodes causing great cracks to spread across the object will falls to pieces moments after.
Chrysanthalas focuses his will upon his hands, he seems to be mumbling something under his breath yet it is certain that the tongue is not the language of magic.........the power focuses quickly between his outstretched hands, quicker than it should. With a movement of his entire upper torso he moves the focused energy into a ready position. Screaming.......ka....meh....HA....MEH....KAAAA!! With that releasing the energy as a focused ball of fire at the ettin. The ball almost hits the wall but it moves onto the next target a second before it hits. The object rocks but does not fall and is still stands after the hit.
Before the contest, Mordana, untrue to her generally
jovial personality, is acting very nervous. She has
never had the opportunity to perform her magic in
public in a display as this one.
Now, the day of, she seems to have an odd but faint
green sparkling aura around her. The magic doesn't
seem to be do anything, but it does register as a
wild-magic effect. Excitement grows as speculation
about what it will do goes off in strange and new
directions. In addition -- something seems very odd
about her hands as she moves -- and although it might
just be an illusion they seem to be speeding much
faster than they ought to -- as though only her hands
were hasted. As everybody, she gives both her word and
deactivates anything on her body which can perform any
type of divination. Then she ascends the platform...
looking fairly nervous... and on her way seems to
concentrate for the briefest of moments, releasing yet
another magic aura to surround her. That done, she
takes her stance. The counter says: "5 minutes!" and
flips over a glass filled with sand. When around 2
minutes remain Mordana begins to gather up energy for
her spell -- although no actual casting begins. Small
pieces of silvery green and purple dust flicker around
her, and bolts of static electricity rush through the
air to her staff from the ground. The gemstones
floating in the top part of Wildstriker begin to twist
and spin -- in the same manner that anybody else who
knows her casting is intensely familiar with. Magic
rushes, surges, and twists -- soon even her eyes have
lost their whites and their pigments to become bright
balls of energy. The counter says: "Cast!" and almost
immediately Mordanas hands whip around finding the
components around her body almost too quickly for the
eye to see, and the purple orb of the delayed-blast
fireball is formed -- magic flowing from Wildstriker
into Mordana's free hand. Perhaps there is a very
brief cry of confusion from somebody in the audience,
because Mordana does not appear to be using a standard
Delay-Blast Fireball but a custom one instead whose
casting seems slightly different from the usual. If
there is indeed such a cry however, Mordana does not
notice it at all. As well, people shout when they
think that her spell is about to go wild, and cause a
surge, but somehow it seems as though ther was not
even possible for it to do so. With a very loud break
like thunder the spells is completed the way it should
have been with nothing akin to wild magic even vaguely
reminiscent. Also, with another lightning-quick
gesture, she seems to wrap one of her magic auras
around the ball, and another, and another. The
purplish ball of flame dancing above her hand gets a
greeny-orange textured look, before becoming bright
white, and flying away towards the targets.
The iron golem rocks and falls over from the great
blast of the fireball. All watch closely at this
target wondering if this mage that started the heated
debate would still come away with the prize when asked
to play by the rules. The object starts to crack but
does not fall to pieces right away.
BUT after a few more moments the object crumbs to dust, unsure if the fire or the fall caused the final damage that did the object in.
Flame still fuming for many different reasons stands and proclaims “Mordana is the winner, thank you all for joining the contest and the next and greatest round will be held in the morning. Well Mordana you did not need any of your other tricks it seems and won despite removing your powerful magic.” And when a wave of her hand she disappears. You overhear Wildblade asking Ren if he had some time to waste, he did not want to go home just yet.
The last round of the fireball-throwing contest begins very soon. All the archmagi have come to the site before hand to get a feel of the field but even now there are no objects on the field. Some have asked flame where they are or when they will be brought in but she just smiles and stays silent. Even now as the great archmagi gather no targets are visible. The small crowd from the last 2 round has grown into a large group, but hearing there is a wild mage in the group they keep back even father then the allocated distance. As each mage is scanned for any divination magic they are asked to line up facing west in front of a raised dais.
Flame speaks up: "I greet my fellow archmagi today and hope you have followed all the rules I have set out. Just to remind those of the rules: you may use any spell as powerful as meteor swarm but the actual attack spell has to be a variant of either fireball, db fireball or meteor swarm. No magics that break the laws of reality like wishes are to be used. Any magic that effects any of the throwers themselves or their magic is not to be used. If that does happen the person that caused the effect will be kicked out of the contest and the person that is effected will be allowed another throw at the same target as the 1st throw. You may have multiply attack spells go off if you can do such things. You may use any enhancement spells that you know. You may only use spells to increase range or damage THAT YOU CAN CAST IN THE SAME ROUND YOU CAST YOUR SPELL. All casting must end in the same round as it started. I would not insult you by having ones such as yourselves shoot at targets that don’t try to run or dodge your spells and so these illusions have been programmed to act like the real things and fall when the right amount of dmg is done to them.” With that large creatures populate the field.
Each creature is 100 feet apart, starting at 100 feet, and 100 feet away from each other. The mages each stand 100 feet from each other as well. The creatures in order of closest to farthest are as follows: Stone Giant, Ettin, Cloud Giant, Arial Servant, Storm Giant, and a Old Red Dragon. Flame’s voice rings out again over the field “ There is a point system in place while destroying the target farthest away can still allow you to win, if you destroy more then one target you may beat out the others. The targets are worth as followes: Stone Giant 50, Ettin 75, Cloud Giant 120, Arial Servant 200 Storm Giant 220, and an Old Red Dragon 450.
I will give you 5 minutes to ponder and decide which object you will target. When I say begin, all of you MUST begin casting. Good luck to you all. Are there any questions?” She awaits the mages questions.
The contest will be divided into three sections, in ascending order of difficulty. Please sign-up PENDING prior to the event.
Entrance fees listed are minimums; up to double can be placed. 1st place in each category will win double their entrance fee plus the right to make all purchases at cost (ie, 100%) for objects costing up to 10 times their entrance fee.
How it works: There will be objects placed at increased distances from the fireball thrower. The closer the object is the easier it is to destroy; the farther away it is, the harder it is to destroy. The thrower chooses the target he wishes to destroy and fires off his spell. Whoever destroys the farthest object is the winner. All casters will cast at the same time to ensure fairness and no spells of divination will be allowed to be used on the person or be in effect in the area.
JUNIOR: No date set.
Junior (Month 0th) Participants:
INTERMEDIATE: No date set.
Intermediate (Month 0th) Participants:
SENIOR: No date set.
Senior (Month 0th) Participants: