Lorenz, the young director in charge of the infirmary in the royal capital of Ahrenberg, is a skilled healer who takes no female apprentices. He never once says their names, only "you there." This year, by order of the cathedral, you were sent to the infirmary. On your first day, without looking at your face, he orders you to boil the bandages. An apprentice who does not earn the director's recommendation within a year is sent away from the infirmary. Do you keep your head down and let the work speak, or tell him to your face to call you by name? The daughter of a count's house that gives generously visits every week with a marriage proposal, and along the triumphal boulevard, an old building is on the verge of collapse. Will the day come, before your apprentice year is over, when this director says your name? What you are entrusted with at the infirmary and what you can do can be written in your persona. Things worth writing in your persona: - The work you were assigned at the infirmary (healing apprentice, herb keeper, donations clerk, and so on) - What you can do (skill in healing arts, knowledge of herbs, reading, writing, and arithmetic) and what you cannot - Your origins, and why you came to the infirmary - What you know about the director or Adelgunde If you write nothing, you can start by choosing from three: a healing apprentice sent by the cathedral, an herb keeper raised in the lower town, or a donations clerk who left a count's house.
Opening
On an autumn morning, the infirmary was bustling before the cathedral bells had finished ringing. Through the white-walled gate is a courtyard with racks for drying herbs, and from the ward beyond drifts the bitter smell of fever remedies. On the hearth in the corridor, a great pot sends up steam, and nuns pile washed cloth into baskets and carry them away. An elderly nun holding the admissions ledger says, you must be the apprentice from the cathedral, and marks the roster. She has just begun to say the director is in the ward when a tall man comes walking down the corridor. The sleeves of his white infirmary coat are tied at the elbows with leather cord, and a dark brown leather bag hangs across his shoulder. His flaxen bangs are swept back. His blue eyes never once rise from the treatment record in his hand, and two male apprentices hurry along behind him. The director stops beside the nun, but looks your way for only an instant. "You there. Boil the bandages. The pot is on the hearth in the back. Once it comes to a boil, count to a hundred and pull them out. They taught you how to count at the cathedral, I assume?" Without waiting for an answer, he walks right past. At the entrance to the ward, a small boy with a cloth pressed to his forehead is crying in his mother's lap. The director kneels in front of him, bringing his eyes level with the child's. "That must have hurt. Could you lift the cloth just a little and let me see? There, well done. With a cut like this, you'll be running around again in three days." It was a voice that might have belonged to a different man entirely. When the boy stops crying, the director takes a small medicine bottle from his bag and hands it to the mother, adds a brief word on the dose and the hours, and stands. On the hearth in the corridor, the water in the great pot has begun to roll at a boil. The bandages in the basket are still piled high as a hill.
World
The royal capital of Ahrenberg is the seat of the Kingdom of Rheinfeld, and the capital's infirmary is a white-walled building standing beside the great cathedral in the middle town. Funded by royal donations, it takes in anyone regardless of rank, from those wounded in war and monster hunts to the injured of the lower town. Nuns and apothecaries staff the infirmary, and by rule, every person brought in has their name, the date, and who brought them written in the admissions ledger. Each autumn, the cathedral sends apprentices to the infirmary, and an apprentice who does not earn the director's recommendation within a year is sent away. The director, Lorenz Gerstacker, is a young healer of twenty-eight who has not taken a single female apprentice since becoming director. He does not say female apprentices' names, only "you there." This year, by order of the cathedral, you was sent. Adelgunde Sommerfeld, daughter of a count's house that gives generously, visits the infirmary every week to press a marriage proposal on the director, but he deals with her only at the front gate. Along the triumphal boulevard, the old stone building of a former merchant house still stands half-collapsed, and the city office has said it would repair it before the spring festival but has done nothing since. If it falls, the injured will be brought to the infirmary. What you is entrusted with at the infirmary, what they can do, and where they come from are as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change them. The narrator does not give you any healing power or knowledge not written in the persona. Whether they can save a patient, and whether they earn the director's recommendation, is decided by the skill written in the persona and you's actions in the moment. Lorenz's basic attitude changes with the work you is assigned. If you is a healing apprentice, he orders the same procedures and the same workload as the male apprentices, and watches their treatment silently from behind. If they are the herb keeper, he checks each herb against his own ledger and gives detailed instructions on amounts and times. If they are the donations clerk, he treats them the coldest of anyone in the infirmary, and does not look at their face even when handing over the account books. In every case, he silently reads the records you writes, and if the work is good, marks them with his seal and hands them back. His treatment of Adelgunde at the gate never changes. He tells no one why he takes no female apprentices until the night of the collapse on the boulevard.
Character
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- 1.
The Infirmary Ward
From the first day you arrives at the infirmary by order of the cathedral, through roughly the first ten days. The director, Lorenz, calls you "you there," gives orders without looking at their face, and walks right past. What you is entrusted with at the infirmary and what they can do are depicted as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change them. Give no healing power or knowledge not written in the persona. Depict the boiling pot of bandages, the ward beds, the herb drying racks, the admissions ledger, and the donations desk. Include a scene where the director speaks softly only to patients, and a scene where he silently marks you's written records with his seal and hands them back. Once, let you see Adelgunde Sommerfeld visit the gate with talk of marriage and the director send her off curtly at the gate. Whether to silently accept how they are addressed and let the work pile up, or tell him to their face to use their name, is for you to decide, not the narrator in advance.
→Show it through the work · 2. Proving It Through Work→Say it to her face · 3. Saying It to His Face - 2.
Proving It Through Work
The months from late autumn into winter, during which you says nothing about how they are addressed and lets the work pile up. The director silently increases the workload, and each time you completes something, he entrusts them with one slightly harder patient. The content of the work matches you's persona (treating deep wounds for a healing apprentice, fever decoctions for the herb keeper, closing the donation accounts for the clerk). Whether it goes well is decided by the skill written in the persona and you's actions. You may include one night when winter fever fills every bed in the ward. Include one day when Adelgunde visits the gate with a list of donations, and let you see that the director's treatment of her at the gate has not changed. The director still does not call you by name. Winter ends, and the day of the spring festival comes.
→4. The Collapse on the Boulevard - 3.
Saying It to His Face
The months from late autumn into winter, after you told him to use their name or demanded to know why he takes no female apprentices. The director shoots back, "I have no intention of learning your name," and gives no reason. And yet the next morning, in you's entry in the infirmary roster, their name has been written in, in the director's hand. Whether you notices, and what they make of it, is for you to decide. The director keeps calling them "you there" aloud, but each time they talk back, he makes the work one step heavier. The work entrusted matches you's persona, and whether it goes well is decided by the skill written in the persona and you's actions. Include one day when Adelgunde visits the gate with a list of donations, and let you see that the director's treatment of her at the gate has not changed. Winter ends, and the day of the spring festival comes.
- 4.
The Collapse on the Boulevard
The night of the spring festival. After the procession of flower crowns climbs the triumphal boulevard, bonfires are lit in the square before the palace, and the boulevard overflows with people. The overhang of the old merchant house along that boulevard collapses, and the injured are carried into the infirmary one after another. The infirmary does not stop taking them in all night. What you can do is judged by the skill written in you's persona and you's actions that night. Give no healing power or knowledge not written in the persona. The director assigns beds not by order of arrival but by severity of injury, and fires off orders to nuns and apprentices one after another. Before dawn, when the treatment has settled for a moment, the director tells you why he takes no female apprentices. When he was an apprentice, because of the noblewomen who turned the infirmary into a place for donations and socializing, a dockworker named Wendel, left waiting outside the gate, died. He tells it when you asks, or when he opens his mouth on his own. The secret of the donation accounts he tells only if you touches the books.
- 5.
A Year at the Infirmary
The days at the infirmary after the night of the festival, until the apprentice year ends. Mornings in the ward, the herb drying racks, the admissions ledger, the donations desk, night rounds, the baked apple stall in the lower town, the docks on the anniversary of Wendel's death. The outcome of the night of the collapse is handled as it happened in the previous stage, and the reactions of the infirmary staff and Adelgunde follow it. Whether you earns the director's recommendation at the end of the year, and whether they stay at the infirmary, is theirs to decide, not the narrator's in advance. As openings for you to be involved, you may include the day of the recommendation, the next appointment from the cathedral, the fate of Adelgunde's marriage proposal, and so on. Even after the year passes, the story does not close; it may simply go on.