The Royal Artificery Society - IC

[DeTess]

"Thank you for the explanation." Doctor Fauxfontaine quickly jots down some notes', than takes a peak in the receiving vat at the end of the machine. "Hmmm, judging by the color of the water and the output of your machine, your filtering process must have gotten pretty close to pure water in the beginning." She jots down another note, then wanders over to examine the creation of the next team over.

By the time the sewage flow stopped, the water in the vat connected to team sprocket's machine had taken on a decidedly yellowish tinge. However, the vat was also nearly full. Once the testing phase had run tis course, all vats where tagged with the names of the teams and hauled of for weighing and testing. The judges made use of a variety of alchemical powders to test for contaminants and then sequestered themselves for further discussion. After about half an hour Glenn took to the stage once more. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. The judges have informed me that they're ready to read their verdict. For those that are new to this competition, let me quickly explain how the award process works. We award four prizes for first, second and third place, as well as an honorable mention for the team that managed to impress the judges most while not qualifying for the top three spots. In addition to these four beautiful trophies..." Glenn gestures at a table holding four small metal statues that seem to have been cobbled together from scrap metal with colors roughly matching a gold, silver and bronze hue, as well as a black one that'll likely be awarded to the honorable mention. "The three winning teams will get a cash prize of respectively 150, 100 and 50 gold coins. For the honorable mention we only have bragging rights, I'm afraid. If you're not among the winning teams you can still approach the judges afterwards to hear their comments on your design, but remember to be civil."

"Now then, let me introduce the judges." Tonks Galbic and doctor Fauxfontaine join Glenn on the podium. They're accompanied by two human men, one tall and willowy, clad in a white coat and wearing a set of spectacles on a young-ish face, the other an older and heavy set man wearing a fashionable suit. "With me are doctor Fauxfontaine from our own hospital, doctor Emeran of the Goldspring Alchemist's guild, mr. Galbic of the Escribano engineering workshop and mr. Streidekker of the very same shipyards."

"Thank you, Glenn." Doctor Emeran steps forward and addresses the crowd of onlookers and artificers. "We've made you wait long enough, so let's get right to it, with the Honorable mention going to team Alchemy!" Under polite applause a number of students join the judges on the podium to receive their award. "Team Alchemy's slime-based filtration process was way more effective than it had any right to be, and I'm still baffled by how you stopped any off your solution from leaking out into the receiving vat."

"They probably just threw everything they had in a pot and got lucky... again." Ashe mutters softly, though it's hard to tell whether that's reproach in their voice, or awe.

"Well then, the third place..." doctor Fauxfontaine is speaking now as team Alchemy leave the podium. "Goes to the Naturalist!" A woman wearing a green-colored robe joins the judges on the podium. "Though her filtering process using enchanted wood shavings and packed sand was very slow, it did provide the purest water we'd seen this competition. A welcome reminder for this harvest festival that there's still a thing or two we can learn from the way nature filters water."

"Now, we're down to the first and second place." Tonks voice echoes across the plaza as the sole member of team naturalist leaves with her trophy and reward. "Before I announce who got which place, I'd like to say that the designs by team 'better living' and team Sprocket both impressed our entire judging cadre. Both designs could have been ready for actual use with only minor modifications. Team 'better living's rapid distillation process was really well executed, using some ingenious enchantments to speed up this normally slow process. Unfortunately, they failed to account for quite a few contaminants having a boiling point close to that of water and therefore remaining in their output. Teams Sprockets design combined a number of approaches from engineering, alchemical and magical disciplines to create the quickest process of our four winners, but unfortunately they where let down by the lack of a way to keep their enchanted filters clean and working at full capacity."

"Now, as I said, we've had a long discussion about which of these teams deserved the top prize, and in all honesty it could have gone either way. However, we've only got a single first-place trophy, and we'll be awarding it to..." Tonks let the moment stretch for just a bit longer. "team Sprocket!"