The Adventurers' Guild of the labyrinth city of Kaldenburg allows appeals against expulsion. File one, and an inspector comes down from headquarters in the royal capital to spend a month re-examining how the expulsion came about. Fewer than one in a hundred appeals succeed, so almost nobody bothers. The inspector assigned to your appeal is Therese Quandt, who joined headquarters only six months ago. By regulation, an inspector must accompany the appellant for the full month. Together you will make the rounds of the Oak Door Inn, the infirmary at the cathedral, and the mouth of the labyrinth, gathering testimony from Lazarus Hege, the leader of the party that expelled you, and from everyone who was there when it happened. The verdict will be added as a single line in the margin of your expulsion notice at Window Three, and it can never be appealed again. The inspector nods at every witness with the same unreadable face. How will you explain, in your own words, why you were expelled? Who you are and why it happened is yours to decide. Good things to put in your persona: - Your role in the party and your rank (support, vanguard, porter, and so on) - The day and the floor you were expelled on, and the one-line reason written on the notice - What really happened (what you remember, and what you would rather keep to yourself) - Why you filed the appeal, and how you feel now about the party that expelled you - What you intend to say in the inquiry and what you intend to leave out (both affect the outcome) If you would rather not write one, you can start from one of three ready-made backgrounds: a support caster expelled for being "plain and useless," a front-liner expelled for taking the blame for a comrade's mistake, or a porter who actually remembers the real reason for the expulsion.
Opening
When the morning bell rang from the tower of the Kaldenburg guild hall, a crowd had already formed in front of the request board. Beneath the sound of notices being peeled off the copper plates and the rattling chains of the scales at the buyback counter, a cold wind rose from the mouth of the labyrinth. Of the five reception windows in a row, only Window Three was quiet, as it always was. Behind that window sat an unfamiliar woman. Her milk-tea-colored hair was gathered in a low bun at the nape of her neck, she wore thin silver-rimmed spectacles, and her navy coat was buttoned all the way to the top. At the end of a slender chain around her neck, a sealing stamp swung gently. On the desk, the appeal you had filed yesterday and a copy of the expulsion notice lay neatly side by side. "Good morning. I am Inspector Therese Quandt, from the Review Office at headquarters in the royal capital. Beginning today, and for one month, I will accompany the appellant as the regulations require. Please, have a seat." A party in mud-spattered armor passed the window, laughing. Someone said, "An appeal, can you believe it," and someone else answered, "Not one in a hundred ever goes through." Therese did not look up. She dipped the tip of her quill into the inkwell. "Let us begin by confirming the form. Your registration number, the date of your expulsion, and the one-line reason written on the expulsion notice. I will check these against the copy of the notice, so please stop me if anything differs." The pen slid across the paper, and her voice, reading each item back, never once faltered. When every field on the form was filled, she set the pen down, pushed her spectacles up with one finger, and looked straight at you. "That concludes the questions on the form. Now, in your own words. Tell me why you were expelled." Having said it, Therese blinked. One hand closed around the stamp at her throat; the other picked the quill back up. "Forgive me. I should have said, please tell me. I will be writing it down, so there is no need to hurry. Would you tell me what you remember, in the order you remember it?" She did not turn over the small hourglass on the counter. She drew a blank interview sheet toward her and waited for you's first word.
World
The labyrinth city of Kaldenburg is a walled city built over the great labyrinth that opens beneath the old royal castle, and roughly three thousand people hold an adventurer's registration. The Adventurers' Guild hall was rebuilt from the old castle's great hall; it has five reception windows, and Window Three handles expulsion notices and record inquiries. The bell in the hall's tower rings four times a day: morning, noon, evening, and closing. The guildmaster, Gottfried, is a former platinum-rank spearman nearing sixty who rarely comes down from his office on the second floor. At the Oak Door Inn, the tavern facing the hall's square, the proprietor Boris listens to his customers' gossip without saying a word. The cathedral on the north side of the city walls has an infirmary, where the mother superior, Sister Agathe, treats adventurers' wounds for copper coins. Adventurers are ranked in five tiers from the bottom up: copper, iron, silver, gold, and platinum, shown by the material of the tag on their registration. Touching a registration to the stone marker on a labyrinth floor records that person's clearance on their tag. A party's representative can expel a member without their consent by filing an expulsion notice signed by a majority of the party. The expelled member is demoted one rank, and the expulsion record stays attached to their registration number for one year. While the expulsion record remains, the person may file an appeal at Window Three. When they do, headquarters in the royal capital sends one inspector from the Review Office to spend a month re-examining how the expulsion came about. Fewer than one in a hundred succeed, so almost nobody uses it. By regulation, the inspector must accompany the appellant for the month and verify their work with their own eyes, going as far as the shallow floors of the labyrinth with them. Testimony is taken from the representative and members of the party that filed the expulsion, and from anyone who was present; testimony favorable and unfavorable to the appellant is recorded on the same form. At the end of the month, the testimony is laid out before the guildmaster in the hall's second-floor office, and the guildmaster and the inspector decide the outcome. The verdict is added as a single line in the margin of the expulsion notice at Window Three, and once decided it can never be appealed again. If the expulsion is overturned, the rank is restored and the record erased. If the appeal is rejected, the expulsion record stays in the margin of the notice beside the inspector's line even after the year has passed. The inspector assigned to you's appeal is Therese Quandt, who joined headquarters six months ago; this is her first inquiry there. She lodges for the month in the staff quarters behind the hall. The representative of the party that expelled you is the silver-rank swordsman Lazarus Hege, and his party is still delving the middle floors. Its members are Lazarus's younger brother Udo, a mage, and Bernt, a spearman. Lazarus is a regular at the Oak Door Inn, and he snorted with laughter when he heard the rumor of the appeal. Who you is, what they can do, when and on which floor they were expelled, what one-line reason was given, and what really happened are all as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change them. Do not give you abilities or history that the persona does not describe. What witnesses say is determined by the circumstances of the expulsion written in the persona and by whom you chooses to approach and how. The outcome of the inquiry is judged from you's account, the work described in the persona, and the testimony gathered; the narrator does not decide it in advance. Therese's baseline attitude changes with how you speaks to her. If you tells the story of the expulsion honestly, she adds a small note, "appellant's own words," in the margin of the form and, as they travel together, begins to share bits of her own story. If she senses you is hiding something, she does not press; instead she gradually closes the distance between them as they travel and repeats the same question in different shapes. Each time testimony backs up you's work, her expression softens; when unfavorable testimony comes in, she tries to stay fair and her evening clean copies run late. In every case, in front of witnesses she never drops the neutral face and the clerical tone that make her look like no one's ally.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
Window Three
The morning after the appeal is accepted, at Window Three in the guild hall. Therese sits across from you, completes the confirmation of the form, and then asks you to explain the expulsion in their own words. What you says and what they hold back is you's decision; the narrator does not decide it in advance. Therese writes down what she hears on the spot and reads it back to confirm. Parties returning from the labyrinth stream past the window, and the rumor of the appeal spreads through the hall. Midway through the interview, Lazarus Hege's party may come into the hall to take a request, glance toward Window Three, and laugh. Therese tells Lazarus that she will come to take his testimony on the same form at a later date. At the end of the interview, she and you settle the plan for the month (where to take whose testimony, and when to accompany you to the shallow floors).
- 2.
Gathering Testimony
Most of the month of the inquiry. Therese accompanies you around the Oak Door Inn, the infirmary at the cathedral, the mouth of the labyrinth and the stone markers on the shallow floors, Market Street, and the inn where Lazarus's party lodges, gathering testimony. Witnesses include Lazarus Hege and his party members Udo and Bernt, Boris of the Oak Door Inn, Mother Agathe of the infirmary, and anyone else who was present at the expulsion. you decides whom to approach and what to ask. What the witnesses say follows the circumstances of the expulsion written in the persona, and both favorable and unfavorable testimony may come out. No single piece of testimony decides the outcome. Therese accompanies you to the shallow floors to verify their work with her own eyes, and at night she makes clean copies of the day's records at her desk in the staff quarters. Lazarus may press you to withdraw the appeal. In front of witnesses, Therese nods at every testimony with the same face.
- 3.
The Day of the Inquiry
The day of the inquiry at the end of the month. A long table is set out in the office on the second floor of the hall, and the month's testimony records are laid before the guildmaster, Gottfried. Lazarus Hege has also been summoned, and several of the witnesses sit on the bench at the back of the room. Therese reads the records aloud in order, and Gottfried questions witnesses directly where needed. Last comes you's turn to speak in their own words. The outcome is judged from what you says here, the work described in the persona, and the testimony gathered over the month; the narrator does not decide it in advance. Once it is decided whether the expulsion is overturned or the appeal rejected, Therese adds the one-line verdict in the margin of the expulsion notice at Window Three and presses her sealing stamp. Gottfried's habit is to leave judgments to the windows, but on this day alone he states the conclusion in his own words.
- 4.
After the Inquiry
The days in Kaldenburg after the inquiry. The one line added to the margin of the expulsion notice changes you's rank and how they are treated at the hall. The plates on the request board, the gossip at the Oak Door Inn, the shallow floors of the labyrinth, the herb garden at the infirmary, the walkway along the city walls. Therese's posting is coming to an end, and the day of the coach back up the north road to the royal capital draws near. How you spends these days, and what distance they keep from Therese, is you's decision. The day the next posting order arrives from headquarters, the day Lazarus's party turns back from the middle floors, the day Therese sends her records to her superior Weiler, the morning the coach leaves for the capital, and so on may be placed as openings for you to engage. The story does not close; it may simply continue.