Bang! I’m woken up from a deep sleep in the middle of my first night at Witcher School by the sound of explosions in the castle courtyard below. Witcher masters yell as they stamp up the stairs and open the heavy wooden doors to our dormitory tower to wake us. I find my uniform – rough tanned trousers and shirt, padded brown gambeson fastened over the top – and throw it on. It is freezing.
There is absolute chaos below. The princess, brought here in chains by a posse of Temerian soldiers, has turned into a werewolf and escaped. We all feared it might happen. A soldier writhes in agony on the floor; a guard sits dazed and confused by the door; and a trail of blood leads to the castle walls and beyond, out into the bitingly cold and black night. That’s where we’re headed, unarmed, to get the princess back.
We move out in a line guided by witcher masters and their fiery torches, nervously edging forwards. Then, a savage roar and scream, and torchlight streaming towards the source. It’s the princess – no longer the harmless young lady chained to a cold laboratory floor but a large, snarling monster, chest heaving for air. Grandmaster Swar steps forward and unsheathes his sword.
The werewolf retreats – and a trap is sprung. Master Dirk leads a group of adepts in casting the magical Igni Sign and flames flare in a circle around the monster. Dirk approaches from the side, mace in hand, and stuns with the Axii Sign before leaping to strike. Subdued, reeling, the werewolf is led by the mob back to the castle, the casualties of her escape carried behind. The man attacked in the woods was from our group. He doesn’t make it back alive.
I’m at Witcher School, all the way over in wintry Poland, living in a centuries-old hilltop castle for the weekend. We have the complete run of the place: we sleep here, take witcher lessons here, eat here and fight monsters here. We are learning to become witchers. All signs of modern life have been disguised or hidden, electronics outlawed (except in dormitories). For the duration the castle will be lit by torches and candles and by fires roaring in hearths. And everyone here – everyone – is in costume.