strixhavenuniversity | The Journey to Strixhaven

MAKING THE JOURNEY

"You're Accepted!
We look forward to seeing you
at Strixhaven University
on September 19th."
This is the extent of information your character received after applying to Strixhaven, delivered to them in a mysterious wax-sealed envelope which appears in front of them in a dramatic puff of smoke, usually within six weeks. If they did not apply, this missive may still find its way to them in the early weeks of August.

Information that unfortunately remains undisclosed includes where Strixhaven is or how to get there. That will be up to your character to divine or discover. Also unmentioned is the fact that Strixhaven's pocket dimension is "closed" during the summer, and any attempts to reach or contact it before September 9th will automatically fail. While the campus opens early for the eager and nervous, returning students and faculty rarely make the journey to campus more than a day or two ahead of term starting, and the campus is a ghost town if you arrive promptly on opening day.

Your character may arrive to campus whenever you want. Characters are free to begin to meet and interact with each other outside of their pre-established connection in this IC/OOC!

Here is an overview of the sections of this IC/OOC:

❖ The Journey: For scenes set in your character's home realm, regarding their attempt(s) to reach Strixhaven. Additional information on each realm's relationship to interplanar travel is available below.
❖ Arrivals: Let us know when your character arrived to campus and what they're getting up to before term starts!
❖ Archway Commons: For scenes set in Strixhaven's "Quad", this park is where new arrivals are expected to camp out before term starts.
❖ Bow's End Tavern: For IC drinking games and scenes set in Bow's End, which is currently the only open dining establishment, as well as a social hotspot.
❖ The Delve: For seeing what your character can dig up from the magical thrift shop in the Central Campus.
❖ Around Campus: For scenes set anywhere else around Central Campus.
❖ OOC: GM Inquiries: If you need my input as GM for anything, please make your inquiries here! Feel free to request information, NPC interactions, or say "What happens if my character does this?".
❖ OOC: Planning & Plotting: Just a catch-all section for finding scene partners, pitching ideas, etc. Have fun!

INTERPLANAR TRAVEL

❖ Faerûn: There is a permanent teleportation circle to Strixhaven in the Yawning Portal, a famed tavern in the city of Waterdeep. Arkin Minexes, a dragonborn bard, is a regular patron of the tavern as well as a newly minted Strixhaven professor.

❖ Ravnica: The Izzet League, the Simic Combine, the Orzhov Syndicate, the Boros Legion, and the Golgari Swarm all have ties to Strixhaven and may have information or means of travel to the campus. Additionally, interplanar travel is exceedingly common in Ravnica, and a simple teleportation spell can easily be bought for a moderate price.

❖ Eldraine: Strixhaven has an ill reputation in this realm. Will and Rowan Kenrith, the twin heirs of the throne of Eldraine, famously left for Strixhaven three years ago and haven't been seen since. Mentioning the school in public often draws negative attention. However, general inquiries into realm-walking may reveal legends of a powerful portal in the form of a Magic Mirror, which is located somewhere in the depths of Castle Vantress.

❖ Ikoria: An Ikorian's best bet for reliable interplanar travel would be to capture a nightmare beast, terrible apex predators with the extradimensional ability of phasing. These creatures are cunning and exacting, and while it is possible to cut deals with them, they may come with consequences.

❖ Innistrad: Getting off Innistrad can be a real trick, because the vampiric aristocrats who run Thraben try to keep knowledge of interplanar travel privileged and secret. Because if the common folk of Innistrad were able to leave, they would. Strixhaven students may need to cut an unseemly deal with the ruling vampires, make a pact with a demonic entity in exchange for power, or read an eldritch tome full of forbidden knowledge to execute a one-time teleportation spell themselves.

❖ Kaldheim: The easiest way to leave Kaldheim is via the strange, alien forests of Littjara. The veil is thin there, and it's possible to tumble through realms accidentally. With a little luck and preparation, Littjara's natural portals may be utilized to travel directly to Strixhaven. The unlucky may find themselves in another realm before they reach their target destination.

❖ New Capenna: Interdimensional travel is possible via the use of halo, the angelic essence that keeps the magic in New Capenna powered. Halo is controlled entirely by the Cabaretti crime family, and they are extremely judicious about distributing it.

❖ Theros: Gods are able to grant boons to heroes who prove their worth, and will happily send their champions along to Strixhaven. The city of Meletis features several permanent teleportation circles, one of which connects to Waterdeep in Faerûn. Many pirate crews in Theros possess ships crafted from magical wood with enchanted cloth sails, which can be used to sail between realms with Thassa's blessing.

❖ Zendikar: Your best bet for getting off Zendikar would likely be to venture into one of the many magical ruins that dot the landscape. Powerful magical artifacts are found in plenty in these ruins, and can often be used for interplanar travel. Even those that don't allow this directly may be traded for something of more use in the Skyclave's marketplaces.

THE CAMPOUT

Any students who arrive to campus before term officially begins will find it largely shuttered and vacant. The pathways which lead to the College campuses are gated and inaccessible, as are many buildings on Central Campus. This does unfortunately include both the Biblioplex, the grand library at the heart of campus, as well as the housing for visitors and new students.

Luckily for you, helpful automatons have set up a temporary campsite in the Archway Commons furnished with dozens of bright, multi-colored tents. Each has a plush sleeping bag and a small trunk with a few complimentary pieces of Strixhaven swag, including sweatpants and athletic t-shirts. A bonfire has been built in the center of the park, and the tents are set up to ring it in a half-moon arrangement.

More information on the layout and facilities of the Central Campus can be found here.

Additionally, two of the many on-campus businesses are open early.

BOW'S END TAVERN

This tavern is a popular social spot for older students, although it is oftentimes empty this week. It is a squat but comfortable-looking building, its gleaming wooden exterior carved in overlapping Strixhaven star motifs. The interior is dim and cozy, featuring rich mahogany floors and well-worn furniture of oak and black leather.

Right now, it's the only place on campus to eat. Meals will run you a couple silver pieces each, and are hearty but simple dishes like stews and pot pies.

The tavern has a tiny library of its own: a library of games from thousands of cultures. There are a few leatherbound tomes which detail rules for various drinking games, as well as a large collection of boardgames.

The tavern is currently staffed only by Javenesh Stoutclaw, an incoming Lorehold junior. Javenesh is a very large owlin, and his surly personality make him difficult to get to know.

THE DELVE

The only other establishment that is currently staffed is The Delve, a thrift shop operated by a grey-haired gnome woman named Lorixi Ripplemapple. If you'd like to see what your character can find while rustling around in last year's overstock, leave a comment under the Delve header with their general sense of fashion, what sort of trinkets tend to draw their eye, or what kind of magical items intrigue them. Also include an Intelligence Check to see how well they do at investigating the crowded aisles and myriad backrooms.

(CODE)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So far, Strixhaven isn't what Helmine had imagined at all. Certainly, she'd at least expected to have a proper bed, early arrival or not, and she's already dreading returning to the Commons at the end of the night. Since this won't be the case much longer, she taps her glass morosely and huffs, "Never have I ever slept in a tent."

She can't be the only one, but many of her peers look like they've probably slept in (or perhaps even own) tents.

Edited (Immediately Bad.) 2022-09-10 02:52 (UTC)

Astra drinks, but seems more intrigued to further interrogate Helmine's life story than anything. "How about under the stars?" she asks (a rare treat for her, thanks to the lack of stars in Kaldheim).

Helmine doesn't seem to think of that as a 'treat' or even an option and she stares at Astra for a beat before responding in a clipped tone. "...Directly under them? No."

"What counts as a tent?" Cosmo has the drink almost to his lips. "Is a shack just a wooden tent? What's a lean-to?"

"You know what a tent is. Don't be pedantic!" Mid-complaint, Helmine reaches out, trying to tap the bottom of the glass and push it up to Cosmo's lips. Don't try to get out of this, goat boy!

Cosmo is forced to accept the drink, and obliges by tipping the whole thing into his mouth. Once he's done with swallowing his failure (literally and figuratively), he can finally retort. "I bet your tents are all fancy, they'd be called small houses where I come from. Complete with electricity I bet!"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Helmine responds absently. People in Ravnica use tents, of course. But not where she's from. Perhaps on the distant outskirts of civilization or in the most desolate corners of the city. She's never bothered to find out.

"But the wilderness is lovely sometimes," Annarrgeal says even as she sits in a gown made from countless crystals and unimaginable silks. "To look upon the stars, unfettered by city lights. You truly must experience it."

Unmoved, Helmine shrugs her slim shoulders. "I've seen paintings. There's no need to deal with... all that." She gestures toward nothing in particular with her gloved hand, lowers it, and then focuses a keen glance on Annarrgeal. Despite her advice on the matter, she's not drinking.

"Oh, no, paintings cannot possibly capture the depth of the night sky," Annarrgeal answers lightly, dismissing Helmine's statement with soft ease. And yet, there is an undeniable arrogance to her words. "After all, art is not meant to replace what we can see with our own eyes, wouldn't you agree?"

"No, I wouldn't," Helmine returns, still unswayed despite Anna's insistence, "No one can see everything in their lifetime anyway. Not even elves. If an artist is any good at their chosen trade, they should be able to replicate any experience well enough to share it with everyone else. What are we paying them for otherwise?"

Annargeal adjusts her very impractical gown, smiling as though she were speaking to naught but a child. "To reinterpret the world, of course. To show us something new. Their own perspective."

She takes a sip of her glass of clear, clean water. It still tastes wrong compared to the springs of Eldraine. This will be one of many sacrifices. "I am a patron of the arts, but I would also like to witness the universe with my own eyes. If I were satisfied with the reports of couriers and paintings delivered unto me, I would have stayed at home."

The condescending expression doesn't go unnoticed by Helmine and she rolls her eyes.

"Gods, you're pretentious," she retorts, "Witnessing the universe for yourself is all well and good but you can't force people to prioritize the same things you do. There are many things I intend to see and experience and accomplish for myself. Seeing the night sky, unfettered by city lights, isn't something I care about. A painting would more than suffice."

Rhodie gasps softly and passes his glass of water from hand to hand. Is he supposed to be doing something with this?? "This is going to be such an experience. If you're up at dawn we should explore your feelings on it."

Helmine huffs dismissively and pushes her own shot glass, still filled up with questionable liquor, toward Rhodie. "I can already tell you my feelings on it. And if you're expecting me to have some sort of epiphany about the grandeur of nature, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Drink up."

The Journey to Strixhaven

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

Re: NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)

NHIE: Slept in a tent (...until now!)