"How Wisdom Came to the Maimed Wizard" is a short story by Ed Greenwood set in the Forgotten Realms and published on the Wizards of the Coast website in 2002.[2] It was later reprinted in The Best of the Realms II.[1]
Summary[]
Eirhaun Sooundaeril, the eponymous Maimed Wizard, wonders about the fate of the spellfire wielder Shandril Shessair on Flamerule 28, a week after her doom. He remembers before her supposed death, a deflected torrent of her spellfire bounced from Hesperdan's wards and tore his hideout to shreds. As a watchman against internal Zhentarim betrayals, he is naturally suspicious that she may actually not be dead as reported: the seekers after spellfire may have not looked too closely, simply not to be sent after her again. He decides to try scrying on her personally in order to verify.
His prying reveals Narm Tamaraith to him, however briefly, as Alustriel Silverhand shuts down his magic and puts Narm to sleep. He comes to the conclusion the Seven Sisters transformed Shandril into the shape of her husband, and laid her mind into sleep as a measure against her running wild and to thwart any seekers after her.
Resolving to snatch spellfire for himself, he prepares a spellweb and attempts to teleport her to himself. Instead, the Seven Sisters, one by one, appear at his hideout, all of them wielding spellfire. When they warn him he's about to be slain by it, he attacks them; rather than striking back at him with spellfire, his own spells rebound from the spellfire-wielding Seven and into him.
He wakes some time later, blind, limbless and in pain, after having been found by Zhentarim apprenticing under Hesperdan, the Old Man of the Zhentarim. Hesperdan gives him a healing potion which regenerates him slowly and asks him how he came to be in such dire shape; Eirhaun explains that spellfire is not to be sought after. Hesperdan seems satisfied by this answer, and walks away. For a moment, Eirhaun wonders why the man smells so much like familiar pipesmoke.
Index[]
Characters:
Referenced only
Bane • Elminster • Larloch • Manshoon • Shandril Shessair
Appendix[]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ed Greenwood (July 2005). “How Wisdom Came to the Maimed Wizard”. The Best of the Realms II (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 213–224. ISBN 978-0-7869-3760-8.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (2002-09-02). How Wisdom Came to the Maimed Wizard. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2006-03-25. Retrieved on 2022-10-24.