rehandle | 🏫 strange's school for gifted (mumble mumble)

👁 THE TRAINING GROUNDS

The training grounds, a training camp situated way out in the Pajak Woods, is a project headed by Stephen Strange as a place to offer sorcery training techniques (close combat styles, physical control honed through spellcasting drills, breath work and meditation) along with any martial and survival skills training taught by other Void-touched. He and those with the necessary skillsets also offer specialised training here for anyone with unique powers.

The school was conceived originally as a way to help boost VT reputation by providing a place for VT and Rubeans to train in valuable skills together while also helping those with volatile powers learn some control (VT powers have caused some Big Problems in the past.) It was also lowkey intended to give the VT and Blackguards a base to prepare for any future conflict with the Duchess and these days that key is considerably less low, but both are still important aims so the grounds are open to both the Void-touched and Rubeans and have been built through the collaboration of both groups (mostly Blackguard on the Rubean side.) Following the September 2024 event, Zlatniki and heavily Duchess-aligned PCs are no longer welcome on site.

The training grounds currently consist of:

large training pit
hewn into the forest floor, allowing a magical forcefield to be cast over the top to enable power use during practice without damaging the forest at large. Can also be set up as a sheltered range for weapons training when not in VT use for powers training.

large paved training area
for non-powers-based outdoor training as required by his practice. Martial arts, non-activated spell drills for focus and discipline/physical control, etc.

medium-sized indoor training area
for meditation, rest, other aspects of a holistic sorcery practice, and to allow for drills/training to continue in bad weather. Also a potential spot for meetings.

storage shed
for training weapons and anything else that needs storing.

shower room
with a few shower stalls and a couple toilet stalls. How do you have plumbing out here? Don’t worry about it.

clearing
between the building and paved training area with benches etc where people can gather, eat, rest, hang out between training sessions.

portal gateway
that connects to another built just outside of the town bounds, so attendees from town don’t have to make the dangerous trek through the woods.

The grounds are heavily warded, ostensibly against the threat of any creatures in the deep woods but also not not to keep certain somebodies out.

Note for the Duchess-aligned: due to Stephen's own political alignment, Zlatniki and Duchess-aligned VT are ICly unwelcome. Known and suspected Zlatniki will find themselves unable to pass through the portal or the ward at all, and while VT won't be automatically subject to this without being made ICly and/or OOCly aware, he can and will add them to his blocked list at his own discretion, rip. (This stance is only an IC position, I'm v. down for plotting up a storm with Zlatka-aligned characters!!) If you're interested in having a space for your characters to train/teach, might I recommend the fight club!

Note for attendees: events of the last six months have shifted Stephen's priorities wrt this project. He now seeks to provide a safe base of operations where those opposed to Zlatka's rule can share a consistent training regimen and combat style should they eventually need to… say… fight together for no reason whatsoever. That's not to say characters can't attend more casually!! But it is to say Stephen is no longer being remotely subtle about his alignment, and attending his school has the potential to come with some reputation fuzziness.

For more details/the background plotting on this, the original plotting thread is here.

STAFF/STUDENTS

As Stephen will be in the regular company of everyone attending the training grounds, it would be really helpful if anybody planning on having their character attend could fill out the form below and reply to the setting page comment. This'll make it easy for me and fellow teachers/attendees to keep track of who we have off-screen CR with so we can make sure to build in some familiarity in threads etc. Thank you in advance!

Anybody who wants to have their character offer to teach a class or help with existing classes is very welcome to! However, I'd ask that this is agreed ICly before it becomes official game canon, as Stephen will want to vet suitability and may not be open to everyone straight away. Please feel free to hit me up OOCly if you'd rather discuss there first, or hop straight into his IC inbox to see how things hash out there. Stephen's role at the training ground will be known publicly, so it's fine to have characters reach out even if they don't yet know him personally. He might want to get to know someone first/have someone vouch for them if the CR is new, but we can always steer things in the right direction.

The 'friends' category is also available for characters who might hang out on the grounds sometimes/are allies in the event of needing to fight together for no particular reason etc, but don't necessarily fit into either of the other two categories.

TEACHERS/STAFF

STEPHEN STRANGE / Founder & Headteacher / inbox

TAKESHI KOVACS / Gen. Maintenance Staff and Teacher / inbox
GABE RODRIGUEZ/FIFTY / Teacher / inbox
YENNEFER OF VENGERBERG / Teacher / inbox
REN O'NEILL / Teacher / inbox
LORNA DANE / Teacher / inbox