Campaign:Legends/Arlonsville
Arlonsville Layout[edit]
(All numbers refer to the map)
1: This district is the middle-income housing, ranging from upper-middle class in the eastern section to lower-middle class in the north/west section. The housing in this area overlaps with the Park, as buildings overlooking the park are both high in demand and affordable compared to the ones on Mount Arlon. The area is a quaint mix of city life and sleepy suburbs (indeed, the exact cutoff towards the north and west between city and suburb is rather fuzzy), and crimes here are rare and, strangely, often far more bizarre and cutting than the simple murders in the slums. The area has several churches, each at least cordially cooperative with each other. Indeed, the small local mosque may have a small constituency, but the worst treatment they get is cool tolerance. Most of the private schools in the city are in this district, along with the upper end of the public schools.
2: The Parks district contains the remainder of the housing from the middle-class district, but Lily Park is most certainly the central attraction. With a large central lake, well-tended grasses and bushes, and a large concentration of local fauna, the park is one of the more beautiful sections of the city. Crimes here are extremely rare, and it's common gossip that the local criminal organizations have a sort of "Gentlemen's Agreement" about not conducting illegal activities here, or using the area as a dumping ground for bodies. Indeed, when the rare body or illegal operation is turned up in the park, the culprit is often found with astounding swiftness. The safety of the area, the view from the buildings around it, and the general air of hospitality all contribute to a lucrative real estate market in the district, and prices for homes here are only beaten by the manors on Mount Arlon.
3: The Entertainment district is an interesting quilt of diversions. Wedged up against the Parks district, the Projects, and the Business district, the area holds many different definitions of "Entertainment." The west holds the most movie theaters, dining halls, stages, and more 'refined' forms of culture, while the south and the east have the more working-class diversions such as cheap arcades, stand-up nightclubs, and a small, heavily regulated red-light district at the southern pinnacle. It's a common butt of jokes that the Business district seemed carefully planned so that it could have relatively quick access to the red-light district.
4: The general housing area of the city, the Projects district is the catchall term for this area, even though some lower middle class homes can be found here due to the ready access to both the Market and Business districts. There are indeed many high-rise apartments in the area, and the southern end of the area seems to perpetually be crumbling away into a new slum as the Industrial district expands and is filled up with yet more influence from the Slums. It's not a terrible place to live, but the occasional shooting doesn't rock the area to its core so much as it makes it shake its head sadly. The residents of the area are very much no-nonsense, hard working, conservative folks, though the youth of the area are the tellers of many of the city's urban legends and ghost stories. The region where it and the two commercial districts overlap is overflowing with Check-N-Gos, SpeedyTaxes, and other such establishments.
5: The Industrial district is where many of the working class people have their careers, despite its relatively small size. Most of the area is taken up by coal refineries, steel mills, asphalt factories and the like. The twisted, knotted freeways and roads in the district almost seem designed to keep people inside once they've entered, and the entire area has a very depressed sort of feel, covering a strong heartbeat of hard work for hard work's sakes. A common urban legend among the youth of the Projects and the Slums is that one of the many bridges in the south end has a secret door, which can only be opened on a half-moon by wearing three (and only three!) articles of green clothing, and knocking three times on one of the walls. The south end is covered in gang tags and plagued by vandalism, and the homeless in the slums often seek refuge in the factories, leading to several grisly accidents a year.
6: The heart of the city, the Business district is where deals are made, bargains are struck, and you can be stabbed in the back as readily as you can be in the slums. Several businesses have their homes here, and many more have subsidiaries based in Arlonsville. Stock brokers, middle managers, and executives spend most of their day here, with many spending their night in the red light district nearby, and others returning to their homes on Mount Arlon and in the Parks district. The Business district is the place to get things done in the city, and even companies outside of the Business district often have important meetings in one of the districts many 4- or 5-star restaurants designed to cater to such gatherings. The line between the Business and Market districts is often blurred, with several buildings that should seemingly be on one side of the road on the other, but such is city planning.
7: If the Business district is the heart of the city, the Market district is the soul. Storefronts stretch for as far as the eye can see, from toy stores to gourmet restaurants to Burger Kings and Subways. Street vendors litter the sidewalk, peddling wares either too cheap to be legal or too expensive to be considered. Nearly anything that you could want can be found in the Market district, especially if you look near the slums.
8: Those on Mount Arlon would call it a festering wound on the city, if they could see it. The city government views it as a sad necessity. The slums stretch for miles, sprawling across the shadow of Mount Arlon, and the city's worst dwell there. The police in the precinct often say that there's a gang for every roach in the area, and the numerous wars eradicating gangs on a nearly weekly basis may show that the saying has a basis in fact. The slums are slowly creeping northward, converting parts of the Market district and the Industrial district into unofficial slums, while building planning slowly wraps around the south side of Mount Arlon. Those who work either work inside the Industrial district or in one of the local stores, and those who don't either live on Welfare or more illegal activities.
9: The side of Mount Arlon is littered with large, illustrious homes overlooking the city, with prices reaching up into the millions. The rich of the city live here, enjoying the fresh air and forested seclusion. It's not so much a district or neighborhood than a collective of homes, as there's no real interaction between anyone on the Hill, on average, aside from trying to get a bigger yacht than the neighbors'.
Mount Arlon: The enormous hill that gives the city its name is densely forested, mostly untreated, and is the place to go to be alone. Aside from the north side, a few roads to the top of the hill for scenic views, and a road to an abandoned ranger outpost that is now used as 'Makeout Point', the area is almost entirely forests and forbidding terrain. The southeast side that touches the slums is widely known to be littered with bodies that will never be found.
Suburbs/Outlying area: The areas around the cities are small villages, suburban districts, and forested areas, and it's about an hour and a half or so's drive to the next major city. As such, the area is rather isolationist, and the suburbs lean heavily towards the right in public elections.
Changeling Lore[edit]
1: The area is peaceable because of lingering effects from the massive pact struck in the Parks district, along with the fact that genuinely nice people tend to live here.
2: The calm in the Parks is not natural. The City's Changelings aren't entirely sure if it was one of their own, one of the True Fae, or something else, but there's some sort of supernatural bargain of epic proportions struck with something in the Parks area to keep the place quiet, helpful, and bring swift retribution on those who disturb the area. Changelings avoid the area like the plague when doing anything remotely disruptive, knowing full well the horrific things that happen to those the Park catches before the police. The Lost often exploit this by hiding in the area when Privateers, Loyalists, and things from the Hedge chase them, as many refuse to enter as well.
3: There's nothing major of note in the Entertainment districts. "The red-light district was built where it is because of horny executives," one Lost scoffed to a new Changeling, "not because of any mystical bullshit."
4: The Projects are indeed where urban legends are told the most, and wise Changelings listen for new tales to see if anything has filtered down from the Hedge into mortal knowledge. A few Changelings live in the area as sort of mundane oracles, doing what they can to foster new legends and glean information from how they change as they move through the district.
5: The common legend mentioned has it both right and wrong. The entry is almost correct (the color and number changes on a set schedule), but the placement is wrong: it's the common password to get into the biweekly Goblin Market located in the Market district. The Changelings in the Projects started this one specifically to make sure dumb kids didn't stumble onto Changelings entering the Market and spread rumors about its existence. The Industrial district as a whole is rather devoid of Changeling influence otherwise, as the area holds little appeal to them.
6: The Business district is indeed where shit gets done in the city. In the basement of one of the landscaping business buildings is an entrance to the both the mundane gathering halls and the communal Hollow for the Lost of the city, and pledges struck in the district seem to have much more of an 'oomph' than when they are struck elsewhere.
7: Aside from the Goblin Market mentioned above, there is nothing to write home about in the district, aside from a trod or two.
8: Just stay away. The place is barely one step above chaos, and Changelings who settle here have their Clarity shattered to pieces in record time. Changelings who enter here tread carefully, if only because the place is deadly even to mortals.
9: At least one of the city's Changelings lives in a home here, and its well known that several other residents of the area are rather strange.
Mount Arlon: There's strange things in the woods, whether beasts of Faerie or something else is unknown. Changelings, for their part, stay on the roads on the mountain whenever they can, and generally only go on the mountain to either visit a home or to use Makeout Point's gateway to the Hedge. The ranger station closed due to the strange happenings in the woods, and a gateway was found by a local motley soon afterward.
Suburbs/Outlying Area: Not very much is known when it comes to the untrodden Hedge of the area further than a few miles out, as the area is isolated and entering such untamed Hedges is spoiling for the True Fae to find you.
Trods and Gateways: Goblin Market in the Market District; Communal Hollow in the Business District; Makeout Point on Mount Arlon (Base point for Trods to nearby cities); miscellaneous gateways, some with trods, some without.
Sin-Eater Lore[edit]
1: The ghosts of the district run the generic gamut, but with very few Torn. Death is inevitable, even in the nice neighborhoods. That being said, sometimes more malevolent ghosts follow people who are trying to hide...
2: The Sin-Eaters aren't entirely sure why, but none have ever seen a single ghost in the parks. Not so much as a frost-bitten hobo wandering around. The sheer lack of the dead clamoring for attention means the park is one of the favored places for Sin-Eaters looking for a little peace.
3: The entertainment district's rather nondescript, aside from an Avernian Gate down in the basement of a gothic-themed nightclub.
4: The Projects are the borderlands of the city's ghosts, where the ethereal starts to pile up from more and more deaths. While not on the catastrophic 30-ghost-pileup level of the Slums, it's harder to avoid a ghost pleading for help here than normal.
5: The Industrial district's ghosts are overwhelmingly Forgotten or Silent, victims of either industrial accidents or exposure. Some of the less lucid ghosts speak of strange cult-like gatherings of dead men beneath some of the factories, and there's constantly a persistent feeling of dread held by the ghosts of the district, as if they're all being watched.
6: The ghostly landscape of the business district cut-throat and merciless, just like the mortal part. Persistent mumblings say that an unmoored Geist lurks within the district, making Faustian bargains with desperate ghosts that inevitably end in the ghost's destruction and consumption.
7: Bog-standard, aside from occasional incursions from...
8: The Slums. Ghosts teem here like weeds, a seething landscape of desperate ectoplasm, preying on each other and everything they can find. The sheer amount of deaths here have lead to an Avernian Gate in St. Mary's Hospital's morgue.
9: Ghosts here are few and far between, due to the low population density, but scandalous deaths abound. In addition, there's SOMETHING here that scares the unliving daylights out of nearly every ghost in the city, but they absolutely refuse to speak of it, even under pain of oblivion.
Suburbs/Outlying area: Once again, it's the standard allotment of ghosts, though most of the Prey that wander into the city come from the outer wilderness, if they escape at all.
Mount Arlon: The rest of the prey come from unlucky hikers on the Mountain, and the wooded slopes near the slums are practically a breeding ground for the most vicious and hateful types of ghosts, since it's the dumping ground for most murder victims who are never found. Tread lightly.