Wine Magicians' Guild

In Vino Veritas says the sign over a very cozy-looking house in Harrowgate. Outside is a little garden with a couple of friendly tables, complete with matching sets of mugs. Vines cover the entire façade, and a raccoon is comfortably propped up against a wall, snoring gently. My dear wanderer, you have just seen the Wine Magicians' Guild during a working day.

The Guild was formed two years ago by the prodigious and in all respects great Magnificus, who had seen that there was way too little wine in this world. After his many adventures, he decided to set up shop in Harrowgate, since there was a great need for his services, and there were fellow drunkard magicians who desperately sought to learn the ways of wine magic.

Much of the research is experimental, and it's almost always taking place in late evenings and early morning hours. The Guild strives to invent excellent magically induced wine, produced at minimum effort. So far, the Guild has recorded success in one accidental (and unfortunately seemingly irreproducible) astonishing wine, twenty decent wines that can only be made after a week of rest, over three hundred types of mediocre wine and several thousand substances that only alchemists have a chance at identifying.

Twice per year, the Guild holds a wine tasting contest, which is a very popular event in Harrowgate. It's a small street festival with lots of drinking, carousing, imbibing, boozing, guzzling, swigging, toasting, quaffing, storming the tables, dancing on the tables, falling through the tables and falling asleep under the broken tables. In short, a quite memorable event. The Guild keeps a close eye (or in some highly inebriated cases, a closed eye) on the events to figure out how the different wines work with the public.

Lately, the wine magicians have resumed their journeys across Calabria, to establish new strongholds, or as it may be, wobblyholds. Finding friends, customers and new boquets is hopefully the key to a glorious flowing future.

Locations

Harrowgate is the main site for the wine magicians. It seems that they are insanely popular there, especially since they are researching alternatives to importing expensive wine from other houses. By-products of the intense experiments are in high demand by the alchemists of Harrowgate. The more successful results are bought by the inns... (q.v. Wandering Wizard)

Arguron is a small, almost forgotten house in the Paludestris region. On invitation of the princess Selena (Quicksilver), the wine magicians have opened up a small branch there, likely in order to boost (or rather, establish) some trade.

Triskellian was a major failure. Not even three days after the opening of the guild house, it was blown up, together with the entire liquid capital of the investment. It is rumoured that the explosion was a sabotage organized by the merchants' guild, but of course, such rumours are completely impossible to substantiate. Thus, wine in Triskellian is back to normal: Expensive or Just Bad.

Affiliations

Lutarists are really nice people... The Wine Magicians are currently trying to figure out the secret of curing hangovers. The Lutarists know the secret, but as it's a matter of divine intervention, the success has been less than overwhelming. Despite several cases of acute poisoning and an unfortunate guild member losing two stone of weight, the contacts remain friendly.
More info in the Doloreaux supplement, page 50.

Orchomenes are a bit strange according to the wine magicians, but they know better than anyone else how to throw a party. To these occasions, representatives from the Guild are always invited, as they provide entertainment that can be found nowhere else. Also, there are many who are interested in the concept of artificial wines, no matter how much they taste like drey water. Well, there's one born every minute...
More info in the Avoirdupois supplement, page 43.

Members

The Great Magnificus is the founder of this guild. He has devoted his life to wine, it seems, and obviously his mission in life is to cure everyone, but especially himself from sobriety. He frequently undertakes travels through Calabria to find out more about wine and its magical applications.

Dion D'Vine is a lifetime honorary member of the guild. His home (and lush vineyards) are always open to the occasional travelling wine magician, or for that sake, any other connoisseur of exquisite wines.