182 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
182 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# Avalon & Valley Locations
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> This section is written as stuff your characters would reasonably know.
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> Anything marked “DM ONLY” should stay out of player handouts.
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---
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## The Circle Fuel & Snacks
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**What students call it:** “The Circle”, “Circle 9”, “Circle”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- Combo gas station / convenience store / low-key hangout on the edge of town.
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- Fluorescent lights, two flickering pump islands, and a sad little seating area with three metal tables and a claw machine that never pays out.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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**What your character knows:**
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- 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.
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- After dark, there are always a few older kids / townies leaning on cars, playing music too loud from beat-up speakers.
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- 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.
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- Pip’s operation uses The Circle as an **exchange point** and as an anchor for a small, illegal tap feeding their little network.
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- The lot is built over a **minor junction** in the Academy’s distribution grid – enough that leyline “noise” bleeds into the pumps and cameras.
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- Future beats:
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- Surveillance footage that glitches when Root anomalies happen.
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- Confrontations between Pip’s crew and Oversight proxies.
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- A fight where spilled fuel + wild magic makes the whole place a hazard.
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---
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## Titan Lance Armory (a.k.a. “The Missile Museum”)
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**What students call it:** “The Missile Museum”, “Titan”, “The Silo”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- About twenty minutes out of town: an old, decommissioned underground military site turned into a museum.
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- 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.”
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- There’s a visitor center with cheesy educational displays, then a long elevator ride down into the silo where the “lance” used to sit.
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- Schools drag kids here on field trips to talk about “the importance of peace” and “responsible use of destructive magic.”
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**What your character knows:**
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- 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.
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- Tour guides love to tell stories about how the old crew could launch the thing in under 60 seconds.
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- Rumors:
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- Some nights, if you’re quiet, you can still hear something humming under the empty launch tube.
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- A kid once snuck away from the tour and came back white-haired and refusing to go underground ever again.
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- The academy has some kind of “special access” to the lower levels normal tours don’t see.
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- 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**.
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- The armory is now a **classified magical depot**:
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- University / Oversight stores decommissioned artifacts, unstable prototypes, and sealed warheads in the lower levels.
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- Access is strictly controlled through Root Oversight, which is why D’serris cares about this valley so much.
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- Possible uses:
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- Field trip episode where something in storage stirs when the Root is agitated.
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- Late-campaign job where D’serris wants to *repurpose* the Titan cradle as a last-resort weapon against Fouadriel / the Root.
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- A break-in by a rival faction trying to steal a specific relic or warhead.
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---
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## Avalon Adventuring Academy – Main Quad & Node
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**What students call it:** “The Quad”, “The Heart”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- Big central courtyard surrounded by the main classroom buildings, admin offices, and the library.
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- 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.
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- Between classes, this place is chaos – students cutting across the grass, people sprawled under trees, clubs recruiting at folding tables.
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- The flagstones hum under your feet if you linger; most people chalk it up to bad foundation work and too much enchantment.
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**What your character knows:**
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- Everyone passes through the Quad. If you hang here long enough, you see practically the whole student body.
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- Sometimes, announcements are made here by illusion – a giant holographic Headmaster head, Estrada yelling through a full-courtyard cantrip, that sort of thing.
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- If you ever want to people-watch, gossip, or just skip class while technically staying “on campus,” this is the spot.
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- 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.
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- Small anomalies manifest here first: odd echoes in speech, flickering illusions, Root whispers under particularly emotional scenes.
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- It’s a good place to:
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- Drop subtle foreshadowing when the Root is unhappy.
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- Stage big reveals where the environment literally reacts to the party.
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- Have D’serris do a full-school broadcast.
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---
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## The Wash / Riverbed
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**What students call it:** “The Wash”, “The River”, “The Ditch”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- A mostly-dry riverbed that only really fills up during heavy rain, running just outside town.
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- Scrubby bushes, scattered trees, graffiti under the bridges. At night it’s either peaceful or creepy, depending on who you’re with.
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- Classic spot for: sneaking cigarettes, passing flasks, making out, or just getting away from parents and dorm monitors.
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**What your character knows:**
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Rumors say some students use it for secret ritual circles because “the earth is thinner” here.
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- The wash cuts across a **shallow leyline tendril**, which makes it a natural amplifier for Root whispers, especially when the ground is wet.
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- Soren’s “dead body by the river” can literally be at a spot where the Root’s attention is strongest.
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- Good site for:
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- Random Root anomalies (lights in the dirt, voices, sudden growth of weird plants).
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- A secret meeting with D’serris / Elias away from Academy wards.
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- Fouadriel-related events (something in him “wakes up” here).
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---
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## Madera Ridge Estates
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**What students call it:** “The Ridge”, “The Hills”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- 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.
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- Houses with three-car garages, outdoor kitchens, and views that end up on every real estate brochure in a 200-mile radius.
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- Most students never go up here unless:
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- They live there,
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- They’re going to a party with someone who does,
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- Or they’re taking the long way around to avoid being seen.
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**What your character knows:**
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- This is where Ben “I swear I’m from the block” actually lives.
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- Parents up here are the type to install very expensive arcane security wards and then forget to update them for ten years.
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- Rumors:
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- 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.
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- Mageball coaches definitely scout the Ridge for “sponsorship opportunities.”
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- Madera Ridge is a **private sub-grid**: luxury homes have their own micro-taps and wards tied into the main trunk.
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- Pip’s boss absolutely sees this place as both a **lucrative market** and a **pressure point** for Ben.
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- Easy future beats:
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- Attempted break-in / “warning visit” from Pip’s people.
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- D’serris threatening to cut Ridge power if certain parents block his directives.
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- A house party gone wrong when a ward fails in a very Root-ish way.
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---
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## Mr. Magic Pizza Party Fun Time
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**What students call it:** “Magic Pizza”, “Mr. Magic’s”, “MPPF”
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**Vibe (student-facing):**
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- Think: fantasy Chuck E. Cheese that’s been around way too long.
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- Animatronic band of off-brand mascots, enchantment-powered ticket machines, a stage, and a dozen spell-scuffed birthday rooms.
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- 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.
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**What your character knows:**
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- The food is… fine. The soda refills are unlimited. The noise is unbelievable.
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- The animatronics sometimes twitch or speak when they’re not supposed to; staff blame “old runes.”
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- 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.
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**DM ONLY – Hooks:**
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- The whole place is wired into a **cheap, overworked tap** that powers games, lights, and the mascots.
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- When the PCs cash in their coupon, you can:
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- Have the Root bleed through the janky enchantments → animatronic horror episode.
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- Make D’serris furious because he has to waste Oversight attention on a cursed kiddie restaurant.
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- Tie one of the artifacts / subnodes into the basement (MPPF built on some old ritual site).
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