The Homecoming Duel at the Academy on the Pass
To the graduate invited to this year's Homecoming Duel You are asked to climb the pass on the new moon of late autumn and to live in a cell of the old monastery until the day before the first snow. For that month you will follow the same rules as the students, rise with the morning bell, and eat the same black bread at the long stone table of the old refectory. Your opponent has been chosen from among the current Rank S students. The victor's name will be carved into the stone tablet in the cloister. As the pass closes after the first snow, be advised that there will be no returning to the royal capital until spring. The sender is Hermann Zeller, headmaster of Seifert Academy of Magic. A copy of the same letter was nailed to the great door of the chapel, and the students read it alongside the name of this year's opponent. The name of the firstyear assigned as attendant was added in small writing beneath. Live through the month of the Homecoming Duel, and reach the day the name carved into the tablet is decided. The invited graduate, the Rank S student who meets them, or the firstyear assigned as attendant. Which role you take on the pass is yours to decide. ⛰ The Old Monastery on the Pass Seifert Academy of Magic is an old monastery on a pass in the kingdom's north, rebuilt as a school. A stone cloister surrounds the courtyard, and to the north rise the chapel and the bell tower. Students are divided by rank, S through E, into dormitory rooms and seats in the refectory; the upper ranks live in the bell wing, the lower in the monks' cells. The Homecoming Duel is held once a year, in late autumn. One graduate, three years out, is invited to spend a month living as the students do, and then meets the current Rank S inside the circle in the cloister. By custom, if the student wins, they are recommended to the royal capital's Mage Corps. ✦ The Three Waiting at the Gate Waltraud Jork / 18, thirdyear, Rank S She speaks to no one in the morning training hall and has never once missed her practice swings before dawn. Everyone at the academy assumed this swordswoman would be chosen as this year's opponent. Some days she shows up carrying two wooden swords. Who the second one is meant for, only she knows. Margot Siebel / 17, secondyear, Rank A, guide to the graduate She knows most of the academy's rumors and cracks jokes with anyone. She walks around hugging a honey jar from the infirmary and offers you a spoonful along with her directions. Whenever the Homecoming Duel of three years ago comes up, her jokes somehow multiply. Anneliese Hof / 16, firstyear, Rank E, serving duty in the old refectory At the end of the long stone table, she goes around silently pouring water into everyone's cup. She walks with her wavy wisteriacolored hair buried in the collar of her cape, and when spoken to, the dialect of her valley village slips out. 📜 How to Play A singlechapter sandbox. It begins on the day the graduate climbs the pass and continues through the Homecoming Duel and into the winter after the first snow. Who you cross wooden swords with in the morning training hall, which table you sit at in the old refectory, whether you search the underground archive for the records of three years ago: all yours to decide each time. The three change their attitude according to your role and whether they've noticed the power you're hiding. There are no affection numbers; what changes is how they address you and how often they sit beside you. ✍ What to Put in Your Persona Your role (the invited graduate, the student chosen as opponent, the firstyear attendant, or another student) Your rank and school of magic (heat, fluid, air, mineral, light, mind). If a graduate, your rank and standing at graduation Your aim for the Homecoming Duel (to win, not to lose, to witness the match). Both your aim and how you behave on the day affect the outcome Your starting relationship with the three (do you know the academy of three years ago, or only their names?) What you're hiding (your true power, or your reason for climbing the pass) Even without writing one, you can start by choosing from three: the invited graduate, the Rank S student chosen as opponent, or the firstyear assigned as attendant.