Assistant Headmaster Christopher Larkvale

DM-facing NPC writeup. Students only know the “public” bits unless you show them more.

Role

Title: Assistant Headmaster for Discipline & Compliance
Age: early 40s
Public Image: The rules guy. Handles detentions, suspensions, parent meetings, and all the “By Order of Administration” notices.
Real Job: Primary liaison to Avalon Factions#1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array") (Kalen D'Serris ), keeper of the Academy’s ugly secrets, and the man who signs off on anything that might look bad in a headline.

He’s the one you get sent to when shit gets serious.
His office is where:
- Phones get confiscated,
- Parents get called,
- Future prospects get “discussed” in ominous tones.
He has a way of talking down to people that makes you feel like you’re six, even if you’re taller than him.
Rumors:
- He “used to be fun” before he went admin.
- He spends more time talking to that weird Oversight projection than to actual students.
- He has dirt on every teacher and will use it if they cross him.

A calm, orderly school with minimal magical incidents.
Good statistics:
- Low injury rates,
- High graduation rates,
- No “Avalon Node Disaster” trending on spell-media.
To keep funders and parents happy enough that nobody asks too many questions.

To stay indispensable to both:
- The Academy (as the guy who keeps crises contained), and
- Oversight (as the man on the ground who can make their directives happen).
To control the narrative of what Avalon is:
- “Prestigious, safe, well-managed,” not “that place where the leyline almost ate some kids.”

Soft pressure first:
- “I’m disappointed,” “Think about your future,” “Let’s involve your parents.”
Procedural violence second:
- Detentions, disciplinary files, loss of privileges, quiet black marks on transcripts.
Uses bureaucracy as a weapon:
- “The forms say…” is how he wins arguments.
Handles external actors (Oversight, law enforcement, parents) by:
- Always having a plausible story ready.
- Always having a scapegoat in mind if things get too hot.

Officially: Kalen D'Serris ’s trusted point of contact at the Academy.
Unofficially:
- Resents being treated like a subordinate by a projection in his office.
- Thinks Oversight overreacts and doesn’t understand “real school realities.”
Still, he will absolutely:
- Enforce Root lockdowns,
- Argue for extra monitoring,
- Sell the faculty on “temporary safety measures” that never quite get rolled back.

Initial view:
- They are high-risk, high-profile headaches.
- “If you were just normal screwups, I’d suspend you. The problem is, you keep being in the room when the grid hiccups.”
He does not like them, but he does see their potential PR value:
- “Reforming delinquents into heroes” plays well if it works.

As examples:
- “Even after what happened in B2, we’re working with them. We believe in second chances.”
As unpaid labor:
- Safety committees,
- Peer mentoring,
- Helping staff monitor “at risk” zones—really just keeping them where he can see them.
As lightning rods:
- Dumping blame on them if he needs to deflect Oversight or angry parents:
  - “They were acting without permission.”
  - “We took swift disciplinary action.”

He knows more about the B2 incident than he has admitted to the PCs:
- Kalen D'Serris briefed him on the Coherence patterns.
- He’s under pressure to keep any talk of “emergent minds in the Root” buried.
He has personal skeletons:
- A history of blurred boundaries with students after graduation – nothing officially proven, a couple of complaints quietly buried.
- A strong incentive to keep his position, because if he falls, a lot of buried files might surface.

Voice: Calm, patronizing, professional. Never yells; weaponizes disappointment.
Body language: Neat, precise, uses folders and papers as shields; rarely out of a suit.
Key Lines:
- “You are not on trial. Yet.”
- “Your feelings are valid. They are also irrelevant to the safety report.”
- “You are very fortunate that we are handling this in-house.”
Pivot: If the PCs ever do something undeniably heroic in public, he’ll try to spin it:
- “This is what I’ve always seen in you” (lie),
- “Let’s make sure people hear the right version of events.”