Festival of Merit

The Festival of Merit is an annual annual holiday celebrated in Jigow, seemingly during autumn.

Description
The festival involves a variety of contestants: warriors, artists, arcanists, and athletes. There are eight competitions, each rewarding the distinguished with seven Medals of Merit and a special prize for the last and final competition.


 * Pie eating contest in the Unbroken Tusk inn (entry fee of 5 silver).
 * Maze Puzzle (entry fee of 3 silver ): A wooden, four-foot-tall maze specifically constructed for this festival. Sharpwatch is an aarakocra judge who has great vantage point from above, picking up anyone who will fail the contest by reaching a dead end. Anyone can try again paying the fee every time they enter.
 * The Ifolon Plunge (entry fee of 5 silver): Contestants gather on a pier to race the Ifolon river. To win, one required to swim 75 feet upstream, fighting off hungry sharks, reach a wooden post with a rusted spear, sticking out of it, and bring the spear back.
 * Arm wrestling contest (free to enter): Vars, the contest host, accepts betting. Anyone can place their bet on the winner, giving five silver to Vars, and, if the bet was successful, gives back nine silver, pocketing his share of one silver.
 * Rice harvesting contest (free to enter): On the most north-western side of the city, contesting teams consisting of two members operate on their farm section of twenty-by-five feet in length and width. One member is cutting down the crops, when the other gathering them together and preparing for drying.
 * Tortoise Race: Adan trains horizonback tortoises to be the mounts or mobile building for the clans of Jigow. However before he can begin, the tortoises are to be moved from the paddock in the middle of Jigow and beyond the city's gate. This task is given to each of the contestants.
 * Riddles (entry fee of 2 silver): Before participants presented three riddles: a wooden box with four keys of distinct metals, a star map of Exandria, and a row of colored bottles. To win the contest, one must unravel at least two riddles.
 * The Race through Emerald Grotto: With dusk, the last contests of the Merit Festival begins, gathering curious folk around the paddock, which was earlier cleared out of horizonback tortoises. Elder Colbu Kaz and elder Ushru choose two teams who gathered the most medals during the festival. Starting on the Black Islands in the south-east direction from Jigow, they must dive in the depths of the Emerald Grotto and find the Emerald Eye, that symbolizes the competitive spirit of the city. Each team is granted with one Potion of Water Breathing. The winners receive 100 gold and the praise as city's Champions of Merit.