The Tri-Wizard Tournament
Every month — on a schedule the committee insists is scheduling and everyone else insists is recidivism — the champions' tent is unshuttered, the forty-one new safety regulations are read aloud, the evacuation route is indicated with a trembling laser pointer, and the Tri-Wizard Tournament begins anew. There are three tasks, one cup, a folding table of grief-counseling pamphlets, and a standing committee that administers all of it with the haunted, paper-heavy diligence of people who have each been personally named in an incident report and would prefer not to be again.
When It Runs
The Tournament is a recurring monthly event: a season begins on the first of the calendar month and runs until the next month turns over, at which point champions are crowned, the books are closed, and a new season begins immediately — no gap, no off-season, no waiting for the tent to reopen. The committee wishes it clearly understood that the monthly cadence is a matter of scheduling and emphatically not a direct consequence of last time.
It also requires an administrative master switch to be set, so that even mid-month nothing begins until the committee has confirmed, in writing, that it is ready to be held responsible.
Where to Find It
While the Tournament is live, a "The Tri-Wizard Tournament" nav appears under Special in the village (specifically the location the committee has designated as the tent's address; by default this is the main grounds). Step inside to reach the registration desk.
Registration
Entry is a desk, a liability waiver countersigned in triplicate, a second waiver that waives your right to contest the first, and an emergency contact filed under "optimistic." A clerk slides across a leaflet titled So You Have Survived Registration. Nothing dramatic happens at the desk, which the committee — gripping its edge — notes with audible relief is historically the best possible outcome. Registration is per-season: each new season requires fresh paperwork, and your Tournament Points start over at zero. The committee cannot stress enough, and would rather not be liable for you a moment before it has to, how much paperwork registering correctly the first time saves everyone.
The Three Tasks
| Task | What you face | Base Points |
|---|---|---|
| The Dragon | A nesting dragon, hastily re-classified by the committee from "hazard" to "feature" to forestall a lawsuit nobody is certain she could file, who holds firm and non-negotiable opinions about her eggs and a blast shield the committee insists is decorative. | 10 |
| The Black Lake | A cold, patient lake that has confiscated something you value and operates a lost-property desk staffed by a clerk who explains, regretfully and in triplicate, that the lake issues no receipts and accepts no appeals. | 7 |
| The Maze | A hedge maze that has failed its own risk assessment by relocating the exit since the assessment was filed — stamped APPROVED anyway, because re-filing it would require re-entering the maze. | 15 |
Each attempt is resolved by a skill-and-dice check: your standing as a wizard (drawn from your level and dragon kills) plus a roll, measured against the task's difficulty. Succeed and you earn the task's base points plus a bonus scaled to how comfortably you cleared the check; fail and you survive — which the rules count as partial credit and the committee counts as a win for everyone involved — taking home a small consolation. Either way the points are added to your running total by a system nobody on the committee fully understands and no one is willing to be the one to question.
Choosing an Approach
Each attempt now begins with a choice the committee insists on having in writing: Brawn (meet the problem head-on), Cunning (out-think it), or Stealth (avoid it entirely, which the committee regards as the single most survivable option on record). Every task favors one approach — the Dragon rewards Brawn, the Black Lake rewards Stealth, the Maze rewards Cunning — and matching it grants a skill bonus on the check. Mismatch if you like; the committee has forms for that too.
Bank, or Press On
Clear a task and the points are provisional: you may bank them, or press on for a single further roll that doubles the haul on a success and forfeits it on a bust. The committee considers banking sensible and pressing on "statistically alarming," and keeps a spreadsheet of people who got away with it. You will not be made to decide forever — an undecided result is quietly banked when you next attempt a task.
The Champion's Path
Glory is no longer reserved for the four crowned champions. The Champion's Path is a personal reward track that every entrant climbs using the very same Tournament Points — so a failed attempt, which still earns consolation points, still moves you up it. Reach a rung and claim its reward (gold, gems, or a commemorative badge of escalating rarity). The Path resets each season along with your points.
Entry Streaks
Enter a task on consecutive days and your entry streak grows, paying a bonus of Tournament Points the first time you compete each day, up to a daily cap. Miss a day and the streak resets to one, an outcome the committee describes as "instructive."
House Wars
Every Tournament Point you score also counts toward your House's tally on the standings board — but these are Tournament Points, not House points; the House Wars board is a running preview, not a live House-points feed. At season end, the highest-scoring House — counting all its entrants, not merely the leaderboard — earns a genuine bonus (75 House points by default) to its House Cup standing. The committee tallies this with the grim diligence of people who have watched a House Cup dispute escalate.
Notes from Prior Entrants
Entered champions may pin a short note to the tent for those who come after — advice, warning, or commentary the committee has reviewed for liability and, on a good day, allowed through. A handful of the most recent are always on display.
Daily Attempt Cap
Each game day you may make a limited number of task attempts — three per game day by default. The cap is not cruelty; it is grief management. The committee arrived at it after observing that entrants permitted unlimited attempts trended, over time, toward fewer entrants, and it would rather not draft another condolence template. An entrant who stops on schedule is, by regulation, a successful entrant.
Attempts that earn points also pay a small gold sweetener on the spot, so even a season spent quietly accumulating consolation points is not entirely unrewarded.
Standings
The committee posts provisional rankings, stresses that they are non-binding, and reminds entrants that the points predate everyone currently serving. Standings show the season's top entrants and their Houses, and — once a season has concluded — the names of the reigning Champions, who have completed all required paperwork and remain, as of the last audit, alive.
Champions & Rewards
At season end, the top scorer in each House is crowned that House's Champion. Ties are settled deterministically and without drama. Each Champion receives a deposit of gems (25 by default) and contributes House points (50 by default) to their House; an owl confirms the honor, the news is posted to the realm, and the season then advances, requiring fresh registration for the next one.
There is, of course, a cup. It is a trophy of considerable legend that has, on prior occasions, been tampered with by parties who really ought to have known better, and is therefore now displayed behind glass with a small sign reading "Do Not Touch Carelessly." The relevant form is long. The last person who skipped it is referred to internally only as "last time."
Not Yet
The committee has reviewed several proposals and tabled them, pending regulations that do not yet exist:
- Live brackets between players — not yet.
- Spectator betting — not yet, and the committee would prefer you stop asking.
- Task-specific mini-games — not yet.
- Cross-server play — not yet.
- Persisting champion titles on bios — not yet.
The Tri-Wizard Tournament: three tasks, one cup, and a points system that has outlived every committee assembled to oversee it.