# Avalon & Valley Locations > This section is written as stuff your characters would reasonably know. > Anything marked “DM ONLY” should stay out of player handouts. --- ## The Circle Fuel & Snacks **What students call it:** “The Circle”, “Circle 9”, “Circle” **Vibe (student-facing):** - Combo gas station / convenience store / low-key hangout on the edge of town. - Fluorescent lights, two flickering pump islands, and a sad little seating area with three metal tables and a claw machine that never pays out. - This is where kids meet up after school, before parties, or when they “go for a drive” and don’t want their parents to see who they’re with. - The staff mostly don’t care what you’re doing in the lot as long as you’re not obviously dealing, fighting, or summoning anything bigger than a cantrip. **What your character knows:** - Everybody’s been here. First crushes, first cigarettes, first “you are *way* too high to be at a gas station right now” moments all happen at The Circle. - After dark, there are always a few older kids / townies leaning on cars, playing music too loud from beat-up speakers. - Rumor has it there’s a corner of the lot that never shows up on the security crystal playback quite right – like the picture skips. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - Pip’s operation uses The Circle as an **exchange point** and as an anchor for a small, illegal tap feeding their little network. - The lot is built over a **minor junction** in the Academy’s distribution grid – enough that leyline “noise” bleeds into the pumps and cameras. - Future beats: - Surveillance footage that glitches when Root anomalies happen. - Confrontations between Pip’s crew and Oversight proxies. - A fight where spilled fuel + wild magic makes the whole place a hazard. --- ## Titan Lance Armory (a.k.a. “The Missile Museum”) **What students call it:** “The Missile Museum”, “Titan”, “The Silo” **Vibe (student-facing):** - About twenty minutes out of town: an old, decommissioned underground military site turned into a museum. - Officially, it’s a Cold War–era **“Titan Lance Strategic Armory”**, where they used to keep some kind of giant magical war-spear pointed at “whoever pissed the country off that decade.” - There’s a visitor center with cheesy educational displays, then a long elevator ride down into the silo where the “lance” used to sit. - Schools drag kids here on field trips to talk about “the importance of peace” and “responsible use of destructive magic.” **What your character knows:** - The actual weapon is *gone* – supposedly dismantled – but the empty silo is still there, with the big cradle, old consoles, and a huge circular blast door in the floor. - Tour guides love to tell stories about how the old crew could launch the thing in under 60 seconds. - Rumors: - Some nights, if you’re quiet, you can still hear something humming under the empty launch tube. - A kid once snuck away from the tour and came back white-haired and refusing to go underground ever again. - The academy has some kind of “special access” to the lower levels normal tours don’t see. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - The “Titan Lance” was a **colossal, one-use leyline weapon** that could rip a chunk of Root out and hurl it at a target – basically a magical ICBM. It was “dismantled,” but the **binding cradle and targeting array remain**. - The armory is now a **classified magical depot**: - University / Oversight stores decommissioned artifacts, unstable prototypes, and sealed warheads in the lower levels. - Access is strictly controlled through Root Oversight, which is why D’serris cares about this valley so much. - Possible uses: - Field trip episode where something in storage stirs when the Root is agitated. - Late-campaign job where D’serris wants to *repurpose* the Titan cradle as a last-resort weapon against Fouadriel / the Root. - A break-in by a rival faction trying to steal a specific relic or warhead. --- ## Avalon Adventuring Academy – Main Quad & Node **What students call it:** “The Quad”, “The Heart” **Vibe (student-facing):** - Big central courtyard surrounded by the main classroom buildings, admin offices, and the library. - There’s an ugly statue of the Academy’s first Headmaster in the middle, arm raised dramatically toward the hills like he fully expected applause. - Between classes, this place is chaos – students cutting across the grass, people sprawled under trees, clubs recruiting at folding tables. - The flagstones hum under your feet if you linger; most people chalk it up to bad foundation work and too much enchantment. **What your character knows:** - Everyone passes through the Quad. If you hang here long enough, you see practically the whole student body. - Sometimes, announcements are made here by illusion – a giant holographic Headmaster head, Estrada yelling through a full-courtyard cantrip, that sort of thing. - If you ever want to people-watch, gossip, or just skip class while technically staying “on campus,” this is the spot. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - The Quad sits almost directly above the **main surface node** that ties the Academy into the regional trunk. It’s basically the “junction box” for most campus taps. - Small anomalies manifest here first: odd echoes in speech, flickering illusions, Root whispers under particularly emotional scenes. - It’s a good place to: - Drop subtle foreshadowing when the Root is unhappy. - Stage big reveals where the environment literally reacts to the party. - Have D’serris do a full-school broadcast. --- ## The Wash / Riverbed **What students call it:** “The Wash”, “The River”, “The Ditch” **Vibe (student-facing):** - A mostly-dry riverbed that only really fills up during heavy rain, running just outside town. - Scrubby bushes, scattered trees, graffiti under the bridges. At night it’s either peaceful or creepy, depending on who you’re with. - Classic spot for: sneaking cigarettes, passing flasks, making out, or just getting away from parents and dorm monitors. **What your character knows:** - The cops and school security both know kids hang out here, but as long as nothing explodes and no one posts incriminating Sending-Stone stories, they mostly ignore it. - You can get from one side of town to the other by walking the wash if you’re patient and don’t mind your shoes getting dusty. - Rumors say some students use it for secret ritual circles because “the earth is thinner” here. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - The wash cuts across a **shallow leyline tendril**, which makes it a natural amplifier for Root whispers, especially when the ground is wet. - Soren’s “dead body by the river” can literally be at a spot where the Root’s attention is strongest. - Good site for: - Random Root anomalies (lights in the dirt, voices, sudden growth of weird plants). - A secret meeting with D’serris / Elias away from Academy wards. - Fouadriel-related events (something in him “wakes up” here). --- ## Madera Ridge Estates **What students call it:** “The Ridge”, “The Hills” **Vibe (student-facing):** - Gated hillside neighborhood perched above the valley, all terraced yards, huge windows, and old people who will tow your car if it's worth less than 20 gold. - Houses with three-car garages, outdoor kitchens, and views that end up on every real estate brochure in a 200-mile radius. - Most students never go up here unless: - They live there, - They’re going to a party with someone who does, - Or they’re taking the long way around to avoid being seen. **What your character knows:** - This is where Ben “I swear I’m from the block” actually lives. - Parents up here are the type to install very expensive arcane security wards and then forget to update them for ten years. - Rumors: - A Ridge kid threw a party last year that got so wild it shorted out half the neighborhood wards and lit up the Oversight logs like a winter festival. - Mageball coaches definitely scout the Ridge for “sponsorship opportunities.” **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - Madera Ridge is a **private sub-grid**: luxury homes have their own micro-taps and wards tied into the main trunk. - Pip’s boss absolutely sees this place as both a **lucrative market** and a **pressure point** for Ben. - Easy future beats: - Attempted break-in / “warning visit” from Pip’s people. - D’serris threatening to cut Ridge power if certain parents block his directives. - A house party gone wrong when a ward fails in a very Root-ish way. --- ## Spin Alley Lanes & Arcade **What students call it:** “Spin Alley”, “The Lanes” **Vibe (student-facing):** - Slightly run-down bowling alley with glowing rune-lanes, enchanted pins, and an attached arcade full of games at least ten years past their prime. - Carpet pattern is a crime against the senses; everything smells like old nachos and rental shoes. - Still, it’s where people go for birthday parties, awkward dates, and Friday nights when they’re too young to drink at real bars. **What your character knows:** - The lanes are lightly enchanted so the pins always reset and the balls return reliably. Sometimes the enchantments glitch and you get weird ricochets or sympathetic strikes. - The arcade tickets can be traded in for junk prizes, including a few very questionable magic items (like “shock gum” that’s a little too strong). - Local league night is a weird mix of retirees, blue-collar townies, and a couple of tryhard mages who treat bowling like ritual precision training. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - Spin Alley runs off a **small tap** that was spliced in cheaply; it’s prone to weird resonance when the main node is stressed. - Perfect venue for: - A low-stakes Root event (possessed claw machine, animated pins, time-looped frame). - Social sessions where the stakes are emotional, not lethal. - A place for Elias / Estrada to meet the kids off-campus without it feeling like “school business.” --- ## Mr. Magic Pizza Party Fun Time **What students call it:** “Magic Pizza”, “Mr. Magic’s”, “MPPF” **Vibe (student-facing):** - Think: fantasy Chuck E. Cheese that’s been around way too long. - Animatronic band of off-brand mascots, enchantment-powered ticket machines, a stage, and a dozen spell-scuffed birthday rooms. - As little kids, everyone in town had at least one party here. As teens, you mostly come back ironically, or because you’re babysitting younger siblings. **What your character knows:** - The food is… fine. The soda refills are unlimited. The noise is unbelievable. - The animatronics sometimes twitch or speak when they’re not supposed to; staff blame “old runes.” - MPPF runs lots of deals and coupons – including the infamous **“Mr. Magic Pizza Party Fun Time!”** voucher that gets you a party package if you somehow win one. **DM ONLY – Hooks:** - The whole place is wired into a **cheap, overworked tap** that powers games, lights, and the mascots. - When the PCs cash in their coupon, you can: - Have the Root bleed through the janky enchantments → animatronic horror episode. - Make D’serris furious because he has to waste Oversight attention on a cursed kiddie restaurant. - Tie one of the artifacts / subnodes into the basement (MPPF built on some old ritual site).