Sitting as it does over three branches of the River Tarr, the town of Three Bridges is divided into thirds. The northeastern third, now referred to as the Whispering District, or more commonly Ghasthame, was ruined in the Ghoul War and remains uninhabited. Connecting the still-occupied northwestern third to Ghasthame is the Summer Bridge, oldest and most storied of the town's bridges.
Whereas the town's other bridges were designed entirely to be functional, Summer Bridge is a marvel of Sinian engineering from the old empire's golden years. Easily fifty feet wide it crosses a point at which the riverway opens into a hollow in the ground which spans some hundreds of feet. Designed to be more than a mere road, the bridge is lined with buildings on both sides - dwellings and commercial - and ornately decorated. It was to all intents and purposes its own district of the town, whose residents were moderately wealthy folk such as successful merchants, famous entertainers and high-calibre tradesmen. In its glory days the bridge sported elaborate hanging gardens on either side of the street and grand planters which hung over the sides of the bridge. On summer evenings the bridge was closed to wheeled traffic and became a social gathering point, hence the name. The couple of taverns which sat on the bridge were allowed to open up into the street and residents of the town could enjoy long, warm nights under the gentle stars and the fragrance of jasmine and honeysuckle.
Were times less grim, the townsfolk would no doubt take pains to explain that despite its name the bridge was not just a place of merriment in summer. Winter saw the hanging gardens replaced with hundreds of lanterns - thanks to the combined skill of the local Metallurgists Guild members and the perfumiers of nearby Ghantorstin, these burned with a myriad of colours and delightful scents.
Regrettably, those days have passed and the bridge and its buildings now sit abandoned. During the Ghoul War, the town was evacuated for a short period before being reclaimed but in order to secure the surviving parts of the town against further incursion the bridge had to be sealed off at either end and a quarantine zone enforced on the inhabited side of the river. As a result of damage sustained during the war the bridge has begun its slide into dilapidation with buildings starting to collapse and the gardens at one and the same time being overgrown and withered.
While it was long known that Summer Bridge was the oldest part of the town, the original reasons for the bridge's construction were a mystery. Recently, however, the famed playboy scholar and treasure-seeker Zarathustra d'Jons discovered, whilst researching for a prospective venture, a forgotten Sinian scroll which described the bridge's origins. Presenting his discovery to the prestigious and influential Knowledgeable and Inquisitive Society of the Encyclopaedic Freethinksmen, he wrote:
"It would appear that the curiosity known locally as 'Summer Bridge' was built on the ruins of a far older dwarfish structure. While the scroll's author remains maddeningly ambiguous about a great many details, it seems that the dwarfs discovered a route to the Underland beneath the river which led to a great seam of gems, through which ran strands of a unique metal, light, strong and possessed of an unearthly emerald glow. With the mind-boggling ingenuity which only ever strikes a dwarf when there are riches just out of reach, they temporarily drained the river (via a cunning yet colossal mechanical device which I am led to believe still sits in the hills upriver of the town, although by now calcified into the very rock itself) and constructed a watertight tower over the entrance so that when the river was returned to its natural course the seam would still be accessible.
However - and the scroll's author is ignorant of the finer details here - it was not only surface dwarfs who were drawn to the strange metal and some terrible calamity befell the luckless miners, causing them to seal up the tower and abandon the area. Some time later, with the tower little more than an eroded stalagmite, human settlers decided to use its remains as the foundation for an overwater settlement - a decision which has proven to be wise since the town is reputed to have become a minor jewel in the Sinian crown, at least until the tragic events of the war."
News of d'Jons' discovery has reached the town and generated more than a little interest. The fact that someone of fame and repute has taken an interest in their town has caused an upswell in civic pride and, regardless of the fact that there are no records of him having ever visited Three Bridges, has caused d'Jons to become something of a cult hero. Tales of his swashbuckling and romantic exploits are currently very popular, although the claim that his motto is Vidi, Vici, Veni is probably just a local urban legend.
Recently a group calling themselves The First Bridge Privateers has presented to Meister v'Embersburg an ambitious plan to reclaim and reopen the bridge.
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