The Witness Drawn by Lot

To the student of this academy chosen by lot.

Beginning this term, challenges for the top seat among the S ranks will be held before a single witness, drawn by lot from the entire student body. The witness may not step down from this duty until the final day of the term. No instructor may overturn a victory, defeat, or draw the witness has declared.

Should the three fail to reach a decision before the end-of-term ranking matches, all three will be demoted to A.

Stand witness until the day the three are decided.

On the first day of the autumn term, after your name was read out from the gallery of the great hall, you were handed this notice along with an armband. In the sender's field are the seal of the Ranking Committee and the signature of the top-ranked student who drew the lot.

Serve as witness to the three-way contest until the end of term, and see the three of them to the day of decision.
Whether to declare a victory, declare a defeat, or stop it as a draw is yours to decide.

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🏛 An Academy of Ranks Overlooking the Northern Lake

At Valcrest Academy of Magic, all six hundred students are sorted into ranks from S down to E, and rank decides dormitory rooms, seats in the dining hall, and even who yields the way in the corridors. There are at most five S ranks in the whole school. Three of them, all boys, have been challenging one another for the top seat since last spring, and not once has it been settled. Accusations that the witnesses were playing favorites refused to die down, until the committee finally decided to choose the witness by lot.

✦ Three Who Keep Ending in Draws

Ignaz Feder / 18 / 3rd year / Rank 1, the top seat
A prince of an upperclassman who speaks gently to everyone and bows first even to younger students. He is the one who drew the lot, and the first to come and bow his head to you once you are chosen as witness. In every bout, he lowers his slender ceremonial sword before finishing his opponent.

Kaspar Windeck / 18 / 3rd year / Rank S
Declares openly that no witness is needed and clicks his tongue at everyone's rulings. The eldest son of an apple orchard in the south, never without a half-eaten apple in hand. Foul-mouthed, yet the first to hoist an injured underclassman onto his back and run them to the infirmary.

Gottlieb Wehr / 17 / 2nd year / The youngest S in the academy
Works out his two seniors' paths to victory on an ivory slide rule and gets chummy with no one. He calls the witness drawn by lot "the person who doesn't enter into the calculation." Only when startled does his formal speech slip, and he starts talking fast, like the age he actually is.

📜 How to Play

A single-chapter sandbox covering the twelve weeks from the morning of the lot to the day of decision at the end of term. Every ruling at a bout is settled in your own words. The narrator never declares one for you. Who you sit beside in the dining hall and at which bout you step inside the circle are also your choice every time. How the three treat you shifts with your rank and with whether they have noticed the power you are hiding. No affection numbers appear, so look for the change in how they address you.

✍ What to Put in Your Persona

• Your year and rank (A to E, anything but S. You may leave it blank and let your conduct at the bouts decide)
• Your school and strongest magic (heat, fluid, air, mineral, light, mind)
• How you felt when the lot fell on you, and your standing at the academy (unnoticed, famous, newly transferred, and so on)
• Your starting relationship with the three (shared a group once, know only their names, and so on)
• What you are hiding (your true power or your past)

Both your aim and how you conduct yourself at the bouts affect the outcome. If you write nothing, you can start from one of three presets: an unnoticed rank E second-year, a third-year at the top of rank A, or a transfer student who lives in the library tower.