Students of Adventure — Chapter 1: Welcome to Pinewood (Part 1)
The Great Hall at Pinewood Institute of Magical Persons was loud. End of the first term, House Manticore already running away with the House Points race, and none of our characters cared. There was food on the table, noise bouncing off the walls, and the kind of energy you only get when a bunch of students know they've survived their first stretch of classes. That's where we started.
Sitting together at the House Foxtail table were Arden Hemlock, Sandre Lehartel, Hibby, and Spruce Burrows. Spruce had something on her mind. She'd been spending her free time hunting for hidden rooms left behind by Elinor Foxtail, the founder of their house. Rumor, old records, gut feeling. She was convinced something was still hidden in the school, and she wanted the group to help her look. Tonight. After the feast. They were in.
Over at the teachers' table, Hazel Felide was watching. Hazel had graduated from Pinewood not long ago and taken on a role as House Foxtail's advisor. Sharp eyes, sharper instincts. She noticed the four of them leaning in a little too close, talking a little too quietly for a celebration dinner.
Before anyone could sneak off, Headmistress Lavendari stood and announced The Battle of the Houses. A month-long series of contests during the winter to determine the superior house. The students went wild. Then they were dismissed.
Our group made their move. They slipped through the portal door into House Foxtail's wing and headed down a corridor most students ignored. Hazel followed. She didn't stop them. She wanted to see where this was going.
After some investigating, they found a hidden door behind a portrait. Behind it, a long winding staircase that didn't feel like it wanted visitors. Rickety steps, the kind that make you question every decision that brought you to this point. At the top, a locked door.
Having some difficulty unlocking the door, the group eventually managed to pick the rickety lock and found themselves inside. The room was filled with fox statues. Dozens of them, all shapes and sizes, arranged like someone had been collecting them for years. Hazel stepped out of the shadows at this point and openly joined the search. No pretense. Just "I'm here now, let's see what we've got."
This is where things got interesting at the table. One statue stood out. Something about it felt different. Magical. The group zeroed in on it and Hazel, with her particular skill set, managed to undo the enchantment holding it together.
The statue wasn't a statue. It was a person.
Vin Roseknight. A Tiefling Druid who had been cursed into that form almost sixty years ago. She broke down the moment the magic released her. Sixty years frozen, sixty years of a life gone. Everyone she knew, gone or aged beyond recognition. She grabbed onto Hazel and didn't let go.
The commotion brought professors running. Professor Snow Hemlock, Professor Charlie Hammers, and Headmistress Lavendari herself arrived and took control of the scene. Nobody got punished, just reprimanded. I think the professors understood that what the students had done was more important than the rules they'd bent to do it.
The moment that hit hardest? When Headmistress Lavendari saw Vin's face and recognized her. They'd been friends. Sixty years ago, before the curse, before everything changed. That reunion was quiet and heavy and exactly the kind of moment you can't plan as a DM.
Vin was taken to the hospital wing and made a full physical recovery. For now, she was allowed to rejoin House Foxtail and stay with the group under Hazel's watch. A girl out of time, surrounded by strangers who just decided she was one of them.
And that's where Chapter 1 ends. Five students who went looking for a hidden room and found a person instead. One advisor who followed her gut. And one Tiefling who just woke up sixty years too late.
Chapter 2 drops next Friday.
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