Ember Point (brainstorming city details)

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EternalPhoenix
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Captain Scorpion I)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Oh Captain, my Captain. Now that's a premier Golden Age hero, yessir. And worthy of a successor or two. :mrgreen:
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Count Conjuro)

Post by Commander Titan »

Couple false starts on this one, but I wanted to get it right. No brief introduction this time.

Count Conjuro

The Magician's Nephew

It all began on his seventh birthday. Little “Johnny” (John) Castro was already surrounded by family, food, and love, when his Uncle Ruperto brought something different…

He brought magic.

It was just the coin behind the ear trick, but Johnny’s mind was blown. He demanded that Ruperto stay with him and show him how the trick worked, trying again and again to get it right himself. And then Johnny asked his uncle to show him any other magic he knew. Ruperto was a bit overwhelmed; he’d only ever picked up a few things to impress the ladies, but he had a good heart. So as a belated birthday gift, he bought Johnny a book –- Magnus Eisengrim’s Magic for Beginners.

That well-worn book would stay with Castro through his childhood, teenage years, criminal career, prison sentence, and beyond.

John (he stopped being “Johnny” once he turned thirteen) was obsessed with stage magic. The wonder of illusions, and the science and technique behind them. The effort needed to make something look effortless. He spent his afternoons and weekends in the local library, checking out every book they had, and once he exhausted their supply, the librarians got more for him via interlibrary loan.

John started putting on shows for his friends, classmates, and his family. His parents were supportive, provided he keep his grades up, which he did. After all, he would need to master psychology and math and engineering and science to put together all the tools of his trade. He even began to fantasize about his stage persona – sketching a costume, and trying out different names.

Unfortunately, these dreams were cut short. In John’s second-to-last year of high school, his father Richard was laid off. And then his younger sister Barbara got sick. And his older brother Gregory was drafted to fight in Korea. John needed to drop out of school to support his family. He started picking up odd jobs, finding work as a repairman and builder.

The next ten years were hard for the Castro family. John’s father was injured, leaving him the only one able to work. And living in Ember Point for generations meant nothing to racists who saw the Mexican-American family as beneath them, leading to all sorts of prejudice.

It came to a head when John, having done important repair work for a department store, was stiffed by the client. The Castros were in a rough spot, but John’s employer knew full well he could get away paying less than the full amount, laughing in John’s face when he asked for the remainder.

John was fuming the entire way home. The job had spiraled beyond the initially agreed upon time and materials requirements. He’d turned away other work expecting a bigger payoff on this one. He knew every inch of the place, including the store’s safe where profits and high price items were kept. It would be the easiest thing in the world to walk in and make it all disappear…


The Fall

Indeed, it was a perfect crime. The EPPD couldn’t figure it out, and when the Hour covered the heist, they said it was “like magic.”

Those were the key words that gave John the idea. The money helped his family stay afloat, but it wasn’t enough. He’d planned his crime well enough, and given himself an alibi, that he wasn’t a serious suspect for the robbery, but he couldn’t rely on that again. The theft had thrilled him, and now he had an angle. He dug up his old sketches for his stage persona, and set to work.

Soon, Count Conjuro made his debut, taking the spotlight like he’d always wanted.

As a costumed supervillain, his mechanical talents, his magical skills, and a genuine charisma propelled John far. The public thrilled at his elaborate heists, rife with misdirection, and he ran circles around the police. The fact that he never killed anyone, and avoided direct violence, helped as well. However, the city’s banks, art galleries, and luxury goods stores were less thrilled with him. In his civilian life, John Castro was below notice and could scout out his crimes in advance. Then, the Count would sweep in with projectors and mist machines and stranger gadgets, like flash bangs and strobe lights in his “wand.”

While John was having the time of his life, loving every minute of his time “on-stage,” he was realistic about what he was doing. While he had a reputation for nonviolence, he did in fact keep a gun with him at his hideouts, in case any of his criminal counterparts came looking. He was lucky to never use it. Likewise, while he helped out his family, he had to be careful to bring in money in a way that was not suspicious to them, to say nothing of actually laundering his stolen goods.

There were a number of ways his house of cards could have come tumbling down, but ultimately, when Glorioso the Hypnotic Detective caught him, it had nothing to do with any of those.

The Hypnotic Detective had been clever enough to see through several of Count Conjuro’s prior heists, recovering the goods but never quite catching Castro himself. He was wily enough to understand the sort of ego that drove Conjuro’s crimes, and to exploit this. He staked out Castro’s most likely next target, and caught him by surprise with the Eyes of Eventide. Thus, Castro was made to turn himself in, confessing to all his crimes all the way back to the first department store heist, as well as accepting blame for a number of unrelated cases that Glorioso needed closed.

After a colorful, albeit brief, career, John Castro was officially unmasked and arrested in 1964. His accepted a guilty plea rather than go to trial, and was sent to Hallowhill Prison, the same year. His family was disgraced, ashamed, and further financially devastated. Many of them cut ties with John entirely.

Prison life was hard. The Count’s reputation won a little respect, avoiding the worst aggressions, but the fact that he had confessed, and had been taken in by the Hypnotic Detective himself, led many to worry that Conjuro might be a snitch. He was left isolated and unaffiliated with any of the organized groups among gen-pop. John’s only visitors were his mother, and Gregory (returned alive but wounded from his military service), the two family members still willing to talk to him.

With precious little else to do, John spent his time in the gym and the library, keeping his mind and his body sharp. Indeed, in some ways he improved himself. He received the GED he’d never gotten when he had to drop out of school. And as they say, prison can be a school yard in and of itself - John finally made something close to friends. These new associates taught him skills he’d never previously had a chance to learn, both criminal and otherwise. And all the while, he continued to scribble notes and thoughts into his Eisengrim tome.

Yet despite his considerable talents, Castro never made a serious attempt to escape. Perhaps a lingering effect of Glorioso’s hypnosis, or simply his own guilt. He was resigned to his fate…


The Rise

Five years into John’s sentence, the news came that rocked the city: Glorioso, Leonard George, was exposed by Marianne Hoffman. There was quite the celebration amongst the inmates in Hallowhill that night. But it paled in comparison to what was yet to come.

The scandal around Glorioso meant that dozens, even hundreds, of cases had to be reviewed, despite the EPPD’s resistance. Many cases were ultimately tossed out, and convictions vacated. After all - even where the convicted may have actually been guilty, their rights had been grossly violated.

John Castro was among those freed. And he was also among those who were able to join a civil suit by civil rights groups against City Hall, the police, and Leonard George himself. There was a substantial settlement. More money than Castro had ever managed to have at one time except for perhaps the apex of his criminal career. And this time, all of it was clean.

The money didn’t instantly fix things with his family, but the fact that John could afford a home, and food meant that unlike many former felons (records eliminated or not) he was able to put down his roots and start living as an honest citizen. Not many people were eager to hire a handyman with his history, but he started the long path towards reconciliation with the Castros. That was his only real goal - fame and fortune held far less appeal to a man who had all the money he needed, and had paid the price of his infamy.

One evening, John was walking to Barbara’s home - it was a major development, the first time his sister had (reluctantly) extended an invitation to have dinner with her and her family, which now included a husband and two young children. Nervous, John stopped at a corner store en route to pick up cigarettes.

As the cashier was ringing John up, a man with a gun entered the store. It was a robbery, but John noted the man had no mask, a sign that he didn’t intend to leave witnesses. Acting quickly, he distracted the robber by stealthily knocking over a magazine rack and then using an elementary lift to unload the gun. He finished with a right hook he’d learned from a boxing buddy in Hallowhill. The cashier applauded, but John fled, hoping to avoid being recognized and the resulting media circus.

At dinner with his sister, there was a tense moment where she asked him if he planned to make any contributions to society now, or to simply sit around spending his settlement for the rest of his days. It was out of line, as she would later admit, given that John’s time in prison wasn’t exactly restful, but it also was the right challenge at the right moment.

Glorioso was in prison. Goldilocks and the Banshees spent most of their time overseas. Grendel also wandered, and even when he was in Ember Point, he was hardly a conventional superhero. The city needed a real defender, in light of Glorioso’s disgrace. Lives had been ruined. People needed hope, some light and optimism.

It was a crazy, crazy idea, but after five years locked up, John was ready for a little crazy.

And so in 1969, less than a year after he was released, Count Conjuro made his grand return. But to the shock of the city, it was as a superhero, not a villain. He thwarted criminal schemes with even more convoluted counter-schemes. He offered consultation to the extremely reticent police, as Glorioso once did. He used the funds from his settlement to develop new gadgets, often contracted from the various clever tinkerers he had met in prison and who needed a good turn.

And he took on a number of supervillains. Glorioso had never managed to apprehend Orlando Pagan, the crime lord known as the Doctor of Delights, and Count Conjuro joined forces with Grendel to oppose him. He also helped catch and finally arrest the real Radioactive Killer, when Glorioso had put the innocent Graham Farnett behind bars for the crimes. He even took on new villains, including Christine Cagliostro, an honest-to-goodness user of real, no-foolin’ supernatural magic.

Castro was often over his head, but he was determined to do the right thing - far more driven by his need to atone and serve his city, and redeem himself in the eyes of his family, then he had ever been when simply driven by his ego as a supervillain. With great reluctance, he even consulted with the imprisoned Leonard George a few times, and the pair developed a strange, tense, but ultimately fruitful rapport. Castro could never forgive George, nor did the latter ask him to, but in some way even Glorioso was able to give back to society with Conjuro’s aid.

Prison had changed John - while Count Conjuro was as exuberant as ever in public, in private he was often cold and sullen, forever scarred by his time in a box. But for seven years, Count Conjuro was Ember Point’s odd defender. However, hero-ing took a toll on the unpowered man, and he retired in 1976, (a year after the first true super-powered team, the Battalion, made their own debut), this time of his own volition, before he pushed himself too far.

After all, he had his family to think about. While they would never fully have the same relationship as they did previously, there was a restorative effect to seeing John put his life on the line for far longer, and far less reward, than he ever did as a criminal. And, to the children in his family, too young to remember Uncle Johnny before he left prison, he was a hero.

And so, it would be that one summer evening, John Castro was finally invited to his niece Connie’s birthday. He showed up with a gift. A brand new copy of Magnus Eisengrim’s Magic for Beginners…

-

Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • In a game set in the 60s, Count Conjuro is a villain for your players to thwart! Go with any sort of Silver Age plot that fits a magician-themed villain. For example:
    1. The Black Pearl of the Borgias is to be shown off at a museum in Ember Point for a few months, and will be unveiled at a fancy gala. Naturally, it’s an attractive target for would-be thieves! Count Conjuro himself announces his latest trick will be to make the Pearl disappear! The heroes must attend the gala either as their heroic or civilian identities, and prevent the theft. Except, Count Conjuro isn’t the only one after it - a crew (or multiple crews!) or conventional thieves are there as well. The PCs must balance thwarting all of the various robberies at once!
    2. A series of crimes are robberies are being committed by the most unusual of perpetrators - doves and rabbits! It sounds like Count Conjuro has managed to train a whole pack of animal aides for his latest crime spree (or built convincing little robots)! There’s a parade coming up, and surely these fiendish feral felons will try to pick pockets and fly off with the valuables of onlookers! Can the players figure out a way to chase after and catch the animals, and put the rabbits back in the hat again?
    3. A glass box appears in front of City Hall. Inside it is Count Conjuro, who promises an incredible feat of escapism. He will get out of the box before it fills with water and electrifies, and before the police can break in and capture him! It’s a sensational event! Reporters and ordinary citizens camp out around the police cordon to see if the Count can pull it off. So this has to be a distraction, a feint, right? What is Conjuro really up to? Is it somehow a fake inside the box, with the real Count robbing another venue? Or does he have a gang of aides who will be on the other side of town? Actually, it’s a double feint - while heroes and police follow a false trail of clues towards the “real crime,” Count Conjuro will escape from the box into City Hall, where he’s learned some valuable old stamps are inside a records room!
  • As a hero, Count Conjuro had few allies. He can approach the PCs for help, of course with the usual misunderstanding based battle at first. He learns of some villainous plot that he alone is not enough to handle, especially if the plot involves superhuman powers. How do the heroes work with an infamous villain, now a hero, even if he was formally “pardoned?” And regardless of your PCs’ attitudes, John Castro isn’t exactly used to collaborating or sharing the spotlight, which can generate tension as well.
  • Years down the line, a member of the Castro family or their descendants could become a new Count(ess) Conjuro. John’s wealth and gadgets could be stashed somewhere, waiting for a new owner. Or if the legacy hero isn’t part of the family, they may have found John’s copy of Magnus Eisengrim’s Magic for Beginners’s at a yard sale or the like. John kept all his notes in the book, including case notes and ideas for various tricks and props, providing a blueprint for a heroic (or villainous?) identity.
  • Perhaps Count Conjuro’s legacy of a reformed hero is used, either in his lifetime or afterwards, for a Thunderbolts-style attempt at redemption. John, or his nieces or nephews (who he willed his money too), might create a fund to help other people who want to turn their lives around. If you want to move the timeline around, Count Conjuro could be the NPC “leader” / “sponsor” of a team of reforming villains at any point you need.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Count Conjuro)

Post by Davies »

Neat. There aren't nearly enough reformed villain stories out there.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Count Conjuro)

Post by greycrusader »

i really, really like Count Conjuro, and I'm in agreement with Davies about not seeing enough redemption stories in OC biographies, though there are plenty of face-heel turns. Nice work!

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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - Count Conjuro)

Post by Commander Titan »

Thank you both! After the random generators decided Glorioso would be a hero-to-villain, I knew that I wanted one of his villains to become a hero. Count Conjuro, whose name evolved from "Captain Conjuror" (fun, but already had a Captain) to "Count Conjuror" (better, but wanted a proper "name"), was a natural choice. I really liked the image of a man who realized he had a clean slate, all the money he might need, and no need to run, but also no need to risk it all by stepping up, deciding to do so anyway. And the image of the imprisoned fallen hero being consulted in prison by the redeemed villain. In that room, its not so simple as Batman talking to the Joker, or Clarice talking to Hannibal.

Next, a few notes about the costumes of the characters already revealed, and then I think some exploration of the city of Ember Point itself, probably an overview of the neighborhoods. After that, we probably move forward in time with some of the actually superpowered characters of the setting.
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Re: Ember Point (Bonus - Character Appearances)

Post by Commander Titan »

As mentioned previously, some notes on the physical appearances of already covered characters:

Bonus Content - Character Appearances

Goldilocks
Penny Patrick was an Irish-American woman. She was of medium height, and began pretty slim as a teenager but years of adventuring, mechanical work, and regular workouts gave her a good degree of muscle. Her hairstyle changed a few times, but was always at least shoulder length, sometimes longer, though always bound up when in the cockpit.

Her “costume” settled on a green pilot’s jumpsuit, with a golden “G” inscribed on the right breast (each Banshee had their own symbol in that place). She often wore a retro bomber jacket over it (the other Banshees had their own additions) and sometimes donned an old-fashioned leather pilot’s cap as well. Of course, some of these were calculated affectations - people expected the tomboy-ish but beautiful Goldilocks to look very noticeable. But when she needed to move about undetected she would downplay her looks and wear far more conventional clothing.

She always carried a pistol “in costume,” though what kind varied over the years. She favored automatics.

I don’t have a professional actor in mind to “cast” for her, unfortunately. Suggestions welcome!


Grendel
When Grendel first arrived, he was shirtless, with simple hide trunks and some bracers. He was a tall man with brown-bronze skin, and usually had long black hair. He was of course in great shape, though this wasn’t always as “six pack abs” cut as people might expect - he wasn’t a bodybuilder, he didn’t work out for appearance but for function. And in his later years, part of what pushed him to retirement was realizing modern life made carousing far too easy, and he was gaining a paunch.

Soon after he arrived, he would switch to wearing various kinds of athletic performance shorts under whatever his other outfit was, and in a very Tarzan-way would quickly strip down to them when danger arose. He tended to dress like a biker in his early years, but as his “career” went on, he started wearing tailored suits in the fashions of the time (now looking horribly dated, often in bright colors or patterns), and even eventually allowed a succession of famous stylists to work on his hair - to their constant disappointment as circumstances always messed it up again.

He sometimes carried small knives after Freddy Fleming nixed carrying a full sword around, but tended to lose and replace them with great frequency. He also developed an affinity for expensive watches and similar jewelry, but these too would be lost when he leaped into action. He had a tendency to see “treasure” as easy come, easy go, to Freddy’s consternation.

Casting would be Jason Momoa, somewhere between Khal Drogo, his take on Conan, and Aquaman, with the more “civilized” Grendel of later years looking like Momoa any time he wears a suit for Hollywood events.


Glorioso
Glorioso was a tall thin bald white man, who tended to wear large dark sunglasses to conceal the Eyes of Eventide and help with his light sensitivity. He had a preference for large coats of various kinds, particularly to help him cut a bigger, more intimidating figure than he did “out of costume.” This would be coupled with undercoats, scarves, vests, and gloves, trying to show as little of himself as possible, as weather permitted. The scarves were often the only splash of color - usually bright red or yellow or blue. Certain black market collectors still pay surprising sums for them decades later.

He never went around armed, but often had a black briefcase carrying all his crime scene investigation tools. Once or twice, it took a dent from being used to thwack somebody.

Casting would be Mark Strong, probably using his Dr. Sivana look from the excellent Shazam! film.


Count Conjuro
As a villain, Count Conjuro wore a dark blue magician’s outfit (the tuxedo and tails), with a purplish cape, and a vest/shirt that had a big stylized white “C” on it, rather than a conventional undershirt. The cape was held together with a black bowtie, and he had a matching dark blue hat. He also had a dark blue domino mask.

As a hero, he revised the costume. It was more akin to a standard superhero outfit - a black and gray spandex jumpsuit, with a red cape and belt. He still had a black top hat, but dropped the domino mask, since everyone knew who he was, and he wanted to show his face to emphasize that he had nothing to hide and was genuinely trying to be a hero.

In his private life, before prison, John Castro wore either a mechanic’s jumpsuit while on work, or a variety of bright, expensive clothing as a civilian. After prison, he inevitable chose drab, utilitarian clothing, often wearing heavy jackets that gave him a place to put his hands and shield himself.

He was a handsome Mexican-American man, with dark black hair that was always styled in a fashionable way before prison. Afterwards, he tended to keep it to a functional shortcut. As a villain he wore a variety of fake mustaches. As a hero, he grew a short one for real.

All his outfits, heroic or villainous, were deftly interwoven with a variety of pockets and pouches for his gadgets and tricks.

No casting in mind for John either, sadly.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Intro Fiction)

Post by Commander Titan »

Some introductory fiction to the next character I aim to cover - The Bronze Rider, one of the longest serving heroes in general, and a founding member of the Battalion, twice-over. (The Ember Point neighborhoods are still percolating in my brain and need more hooks to be interesting enough to post. I'm also still changing around how they're all located compared to one another).

Anyway ---

The Bronze Rider

Once Upon A Time in Ember Point

In 1974, a bronze statue is erected in Square Seven, within downtown Hartley (the central business and downtown district of Ember Point) as part of ongoing efforts to clean up and beautify the rundown square. The statue is of a cowboy, atop a steed - indeed, the statue is rather simply called “The Rider and His Horse.” Other than a brief review that notes its artistic merits, the statue goes unnoticed by the media and public.

In 1975, a year to the day in the dark of the night, three drunk businessmen harass a homeless man, a Black Vietnam vet, seeking shelter. They knock him off his feet, and are in the process of beating him, when they hear the whinny of a horse.

They expect, perhaps, a mounted officer of the EPPD. What they see, instead, is the metallic figure of the Rider, atop his horse. Both are moving, impossibly alive. And the horse stamps its hoof into the ground, leaving a mark.

“Who the hell are you?” demands one of the men. He’s met with silence. The Rider lifts one hand from the reins and points in a distant direction. The intent is clear. Leave now.

No one takes the hint.

The Rider dismounts, gently pats his metal horse, and it wanders off to the far end of the square. The trio are encouraged - malice and their own excessive self-confidence let them think this is just a street performer playing at being a costumed vigilante.

The brutal brawl that follows shows how wrong they are. They throw punches that the Rider dodges, until one connects. It’s like punching metal. One of the assailants clutches his broken hand in a panic. Another wises up and flees the scene.

The final attacker draws his gun. The Rider halts, for a moment, acts as if to raise his hands. But then with a sudden move, the Rider goes for one of the old-style revolvers on his own belt. The two draw. The Rider clearly pulls the trigger first. Yet nothing happens. He seems surprised, even moreso when the attacker’s own bullet pings harmlessly off the top of his bronze hat.

Undeterred, the final man fires again and again. But the Rider has discovered his invulnerability. So he approaches. Gets closer and closer, shrugging off the gunfire until the shooter’s gun clicks dry. The Rider grabs him by both shoulders and hurls him into a heap next to his friend with the broken hand.

The Rider turns, as if to say something to the homeless victim who saw all of this. When suddenly headlights burst to life. The third man fled to his car, and hits the gas, barreling straight for the Rider. There’s no time to do anything.

And then a noise like the rolling thunder of a storm emerges over the sound of the engine. Out of the darkness, the Rider’s bronze horse intercepts the car from the side, ramming it and sending it spinning, leaving the driver crumpled at the wheel.

No worse for wear, the horse trots back to the Rider, who pets it gently, before remounting it.

The homeless man, astonished to be alive, looks up at the Rider.

“Thank you,” he says, again and again. “Who are you, man?”

The Rider demurs.

“Just passing’ thru,” the bronze figure says, in a raspy voice with evident difficulty.

He tips his hat, and then the Rider and his horse are gone…
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Intro Fiction)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Looking forward to the next chapter.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Full Story)

Post by Commander Titan »

Happy New Year! Hope your holidays were better than mine. Gonna keep slowly plugging away at this thread. May revisit how I write up these characters though. Anyway, here's the full story of the Bronze Rider.

The Bronze Rider

Hitting the Trail

To most of Ember Point, the only “story” at first was the disappearance of “The Rider and His Horse” from Square Seven. It was expected, perhaps not without reason, that someone had stolen the statue or vandalized it.

Three hungover Hartley yuppies tried to explain their injuries with a wild story of being attacked by the statue and a “dirty hobo”, but they were ignored. The homeless vet himself kept his head down, but wondered what became of his savior.

The next appearance of the Bronze Rider was stopping a bank robbery in a small town a few miles outside of Ember Point. But this time he acted during the day. Word spread slower without cellphones or the internet, especially given the Rider’s tendency to move on quickly, but for over several months he slowly wandered eastward, helping folks as he went. He was the latest in an age of superheroes and villains, but unlike many of his peers, he stayed mum on his origins and “story.”

This was not merely out of some sort of heroic humility. It was because 1) the Rider may have been brought to life, but he was still mostly composed of bronze and speaking at all was difficult for him, and 2) he genuinely didn’t know.

From the Rider’s perspective, he had simply opened his eyes atop his horse with only vague memories of cattle driving and outlaw hunting. Then he saw an unfair fight and felt the need to jump in.

It would take decades before he learned anything more.

The Rider didn’t need to eat or drink (couldn’t, in fact - he’s not hollow), and while he could enjoy some shut eye he didn’t really need it either. So, for the first few months, he drifted.

His inability to just sit and watch when one person was picking on another made him some enemies along the way, but it also made him plenty of friends. And he was with some of these friends, young music fans traveling to see a concert in Chicago that notably featured Eduardo Curtis (aka the Troubadour).

The events in Chicago that week, of course, famously led to the formation of the Battalion. And the Rider was one of the founding five, alongside the Troubadour. But unlike the latter, who left early on, the Rider was in it for the long haul…


Tours of Duty

As one might expect from a statue, one the Rider sets his mind to something, he sticks to it. Other heroes came and went, but the Bronze Rider remained the core of the Battalion. He wasn’t at heart a loner, just a little reticent. But with his posse, he was in his element.

Bulletproof and hard as hell to hurt, he was also clever as all hell. And when atop his horse Stormy (named such by a friend he made on the road, on account of how his gallop sounded like a thunderstorm), he rode dang fast. His bronze guns worked just like real ones, but he did need to supply his own ammo (and his teammate Miss Terrific provided him a variety of trick ammunitions that let him shoot without worrying about killing anyone, via a whole variety of clever surprises). And his hat was also as indestructible as the rest of him, and while it was heavy as hell, he could remove it and give it to other people as a shield of sorts.

He did have other difficulties. He weighed a ton (metaphorically), making it hard for him to move quickly without Stormy, and impossible for him to swim (this would become a problem later). And given that whatever internal structure he had was mostly somehow mystically animated, without proper lungs he found saying more than a few words at a time to be a struggle. He became known as a monosyllabic grunter, though he would master American Sign Language as an alternative form of communication, and if absolutely necessary could speak or even shout.

Regardless, the Bronze Rider was an easy man to read. While he never took a formal leadership position in the Battalion, demurring whenever offered, he proved an adroit tactician. He kept a keen eye on the field and would often point his teammates where they could do the most good.

For over two decades, he was the glue that kept the team together. His team-ups with Bolt, the Electric Swordsman, amused many. And he continued to play, in private moments, a harmonica given to him by Troubadour before the latter’s departure from the team. He had few individual enemies, given that his entire heroic career was tied to the Battalion. That said, while based in Chicago he opposed the second Ma Cannon (named for the Golden Age bandit who opposed the first Captain Scorpion, using a sonic scream power instead of heavy firepower) and the slippery Hogwash (the less said about his multipurpose super-sweat, the better).

This distinguished career seemingly came to an end in 1997, however, when the Battalion undertook a mission to deal with a kaiju conflict in the Pacific Ocean. During the battle, the Bronze Rider was caught in an explosion and blown into the midst of the swirling sea. His teammates, despite heroic efforts, were unable to find him, even with aid from the Dolphins. Reluctantly, he was declared dead (as much as a statue could be), and the world mourned the loss of a great hero. The Battalion limped on for two more years without him, but without its heart, it would soon disband…


The Abyss

There is no hero in the world of Ember Point with more grit than the Bronze Rider. For you see, he survived the blow his teammates thought killed him. But he was knocked into the raging waters, and he sank. Sank, sank, sank. Like a rock. Like the metal statue he was.

But he didn’t need to breathe. And crushing pressures hurt, but they didn’t destroy him. It took more effort, more strength, then he’d ever had to summon before, but once he finally settled on the seabed, the Bronze Rider dusted himself off, stood back up, and began to walk.

Picture it. No light. Every movement is herculean. Whatever strange sense you have that passes for hearing doesn’t work. The beasts of the depths brushing past you at every turn. It would have driven any human insane. But, for all his human spirit, the Bronze Rider did not have a human mind.

He had no direction - he absolutely walked in circles, wandered to deeper and darker places. There was no map, no sense of direction to follow. But he wasn’t gone yet. So he kept walking.

For ten years.

Ten years under the sea. He doesn’t like to talk about it. Not at all…


Back in the Saddle

When the Battalion disbanded, the statue-horse Stormy eventually wandered, despite the pleadings of the Rider’s former teammates, back towards Square Seven. There he became a local attraction, mostly left alone and used for tourism.

Then, one day in 2007, he took off. Like a rocket. Like lightning. Headed west.

Outpacing cars and all attempts at pursuit, Stormy didn’t stop until he hit the shore of the Pacific Ocean. There, a media circus ensued as he promptly stood around, doing nothing all night but occasionally miming grazing on sand dunes.

Hours after he arrived, as the sun rose, the assembled spectators watched in shock as a figure emerged from the water.

Covered in seaweed and barnacles, his once sharp features and form now rounded and dulled a bit by the pressure, but still recognizable, it was the Bronze Rider, returned.

This was a sensation. Many wondered if the Bronze Rider intended to go back “home” to Chicago, but instead he set course for Ember Point once more. He had a mission in mind. While slightly sidetracked by helping to reform the Battalion, now based in Ember Point, he was not deterred.

While he’d been in the depths of the sea, one thought had kept him going. His light in the darkness had been a burning desire to find out who or what he was.

It was already obvious he had some magic to him. Science couldn’t explain how he came to life, or heard or saw or spoke. So he took a leave of absence from the new Battalion and sought out wizards, and witches, and warlocks, and sorcerers, and magicians, and all manner of mystics.

In doing so, he managed to thwart quite a bit of supernatural and human evils, as well as discovering that he was not a ghost, he was not a god, he was not an elemental, he was not a golem, he was not a homunculus, he was not an dimensional outsider, and he was not many other things either.

Ultimately, he found his answer when he stopped looking for magic, and instead looked at the very mundane records of the commissioning, creation, and placement of “The Horse and His Rider.”

The city records pointed him towards one Beulah Norman. A Black artist and sculptor, she was quite old when the Rider found her, and the two sat and talked. Norman, as far as anyone could tell, was no magician. The only insights she could offer was that she’d modeled the Rider’s likeness, and that of his horse, on a vintage photo of her Wild West ancestor, one Ramsay “Trouble” Norman. Family lore said Ramsay was never able to ignore injustice happening in front of him, no matter what trouble it brought him - hence the nickname.

Perhaps the Rider was Trouble’s reincarnation. Perhaps Beulah had somehow sculpted not just her great-grandfather’s physical likeness, but also his moral likeness.

“But it don’t matter what you are,” explained the wizened Beulah. “But rather, who?”
“Who am I, then?” murmured the Rider.
“A hero, you dang fool.”

And he is.

The Rider’s out there still today. Atop Stormy, with the resurrected Battalion at his side, older and wiser but still unyielding in his pursuit of justice.

-

Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • An underwater adventure between 1997 and 2007 could encounter the Bronze Rider, deep beneath the waves. What did he see down there? Monsters? Sunken Lovecraftian cities? Warps to other, weirder, watery worlds? It would change the timeline to see him earlier, but that’s up to you! Alternatively, maybe in the present he contacts the PCs, telling them he’s worried something he encountered beneath the waves is rising again…
  • While the Bronze Rider spent a lot of time with the Battalion, he also has wandered and adventured with ordinary people quite a few times. A campaign framework for non or low-powered heroes could be a sort of Scooby-Doo scenario - the heroes investigate mysteries and strangeness and the Rider is their backup / rides up as the calvary to save the day if they get in over their heads.
  • The Rider’s situation as a living statue is meant to be unique in “canon,” but you can always change that. What if another statue (perhaps one of stone or some other material) comes to life? It could be another hero, a PC, with perhaps a different “model” akin to Trouble Norman. Or it could be a villain to be opposed.
  • Obviously I haven’t shown much of the Battalion, new or old yet, but there is a canonical reunited Battalion in 2007. There doesn’t have to be though! The Bronze Rider is a veteran hero. He’s perfect as the gruff mentor to a new team of heroes taking up the Battalion name. His refusal to be the leader, and fairly limited powerset makes it hard for him to take the spotlight from the PCs, but his toughness means he doesn’t have to be babysat or treated like a video game escort mission.
  • Alternatively to the above, during his quest for his origins, the Bronze Rider dealt with a number of mystical threats. In “canon” he mostly journeyed alone, but you could build a team around the quest for his origins, perhaps each member having their own mystic mystery to investigate.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Full Story)

Post by Commander Titan »

As a side note - I'm not big into the "fictional publishing history" approach, but since it did shape The Bronze Rider's development: In my head, I see the Rider as the Vision / Martian Manhunter of the setting. Better known and best remembered as the key inhuman member of the major team. However, at some point, either actually in the late 2000s or more recently, a writer took a Tom King / Vertigo approach and gave the Rider the meditative, high quality solo series where he explores his origins and deals far more with the mystic side of things. A mix of Hellboy or Abe Sapien-style supernatural brawls mixed with philosophical musings and conversations, and the occasional highly stylized flashback to his decade underwater.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Full Story)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

I have a new favorite Ember Point hero. :D
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
The Archetype Blendarama!
You, Dear Reader, may comment on any build at any time. I will be happy regardless.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Full Story)

Post by Commander Titan »

Thank you! As I've said, a lot of the initial inspirations were randomly generated names / power sets / etc., which includes "Bronze Rider." I'm a fan of the Lone Ranger and similar expies in settings, so at first I almost did something like that with the name. But then a different approach occurred!
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Re: Grendel - The Warrior!

Post by Harnos »

Commander Titan wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 4:24 am Grendel

A Brief Introduction to Mount Alexandra

Perhaps THE most distinctive feature of Ember Point, at least to people who don’t live there, is Mount Alexandra.

Constantly in view from any part of Ember Point, Mount Alexandra is an intimidating natural landmark. In fact, it’s even part of the city - Port Roy technically encompasses an area about halfway up the mountain, though by and large these are airship docking facilities with no permanent residents.

But people don’t talk about it, mostly, for its economic impact.

Mount Alexandra, quite frankly, is weird.

Famously, the paranormal investigation and documentary show Threshold of Imagination devoted half a season to the mysteries of Mount Alexandra (the disappearance of Penny Patrick was covered in just one half of a single episode, for comparison). While Mount Alexandra is located within the bounds of the Cascades, it isn’t quite in alignment with the expected location for such a mountain. It’s geological history is confusing and frequently debated, displaying distinctive features of a mountain simultaneously older and younger than its speculated age, and of a peak located in a very different part of the Earth than the PNW.

It is confusingly volcanic - it’s occasional tendency to lazily leak ash is the reason for Ember Point being named as it is, and there is enough geothermal activity that the power company VE (Vondrák Electromatics) maintains a number of facilities up and down the mountain. Indeed, the strange properties Ember Point extend to the mineral water that filters down from its heights - the discovery of its beneficial properties for vampires helped prompt the creation of the Sanguine Sentinels and the modern vampire public relations campaign.

And there are even odder features - the indigenous Coastal Salish peoples who inhabit Ember Point a variety of stories about the “Visiting Mountain,” including an alleged tendency to disappear and “spend time elsewhere.” Trongolosits and paleontologists have noted that recent excavations of the mountain have shown that Mount Alexandra contains numerous buried megatrongorian skeletons (megatrongorians being the species of the famous kaiju Trongo!). And there are rumors of stranger things still, found by explorers in caves that go deep within the mountain…


Down From the Mountain

All this is to say that the appearance of Grendel, while undoubtedly strange, is hardly the weirdest thing to happen on Mount Alexandra.

The exact circumstances of his arrival were unclear, including to the man himself. Sometime in 1963 he wandered into the city, coming downhill from the mountain. Appearing for all the world like a well-built, strangely complexioned man with shoulder-length hair, looking to be in his mid-thirties, he might have been just another eccentric. But when he spotted a group of local toughs attempting to intimidate some women exiting a nearby bar, he stepped in.

Moments later, the toughs were laid out across the street, and an enterprising local hustler named Frederick “Freddy’ Fleming believed he’d found his meal ticket.

Treating the hero of the hour to a lunch at a diner, Freddy pieced together the new arrival’s story, as best as he could recall and present it:

His name was Grendel, and he was a roaming warrior of the realm of Ankore, a brutal and savage place with winged raiders, horned giants, evil sorcerers, and more. It bore little resemblance to the America of the 1960s, save for the presence of a towering mountain. Pursued by bandits and wolves, Grendel had ascended the mountain, before descending it and somehow arriving in Ember Point. Confused, but eager to prove his worth as a warrior and earn renown, Grendel ached for fame and battle.

Freddy took this to be a marvelous stage persona, but needed a proper name to sign for all of Grendel’s paperwork. Thus, he was legally dubbed “John Smith,” though he never answered to that name unless someone reminded him that certain formalities required it.

To Grendel, Fleming was “a bard,” a necessary part of any journey to legend and immortality. To Fleming, “John” was a meal ticket, but then, gradually, a friend.

To the public at large, Grendel was soon to be the third and final of the Three Gs, after Goldilocks and Glorioso


Treading the jeweled thrones of the Earth…

With Fleming’s assistance, “John” became a celebrity. He performed feats of strength and daring, whether it was weightlifting, acrobatics, or wrestling with a variety of willing challengers. Grendel became a wealthy man, and a notorious showman.

While Grendel did think of himself as a “hero,” it was in the Greek sense, of a figure with the power and will to seek glory– not as a selfless defender of the weak and thwarter of evil. Yet Grendel’s hatred of “bullies and tyrants” was so strong that he found himself involved in all sorts of adventures.

More than once, Grendel broke up the drug dens of the Doctor of Delight, Orlando Pagan, though as as a fighter and not a detective he was unable to bring him to justice. More successfully, he took down the boxer-turned-extortionist Mister Hogg (born Gunther Hogan). He also located and brutally beat the serial killer John Doe, targeting the “dead-and-missing man” to defend the otherwise forgotten people of the city late at night that Grendel felt a kinship to. The barbarian-out-of-time was even one of the first to face down the shadowy assassin known as the Infamous Owl, a feat now considered even more impressive given the Owl’s later outing as a vampire of considerable age. And that doesn’t even touch all the times he challenged cops, landlords, and more when they tried to lord their power over the little guy within Grendel’s line of sight.

Grendel spent many a night in a jail cell, but through a combination of public adoration and shrewd legal work and bribery on Fleming’s part, Grendel was never sent to trial. In some ways this fed a concerning attitude, as he continued to be a larger-than-life figure. He never quite fell in the way Glorioso did, his refusal to live within the bounds of modern society began to grate on the public…


From Warrior in the Field to King on his Throne

Grendel outlasted the other two of the Three Gs, and lived to see the rise of the truly superhuman age. No matter how skilled a warrior and brawler he was, increasingly superhuman criminals and villains outpaced him, and superpowered heroes surpassed him in terms of public fascination.

Fleming, for all his schemes, was actually a far better and fairer manager than most celebrities ever luck into having, even today, and made investments that kept Grendel a wealthy man. This helped make up a little bit for how his body began to fail him with age - he didn’t move quite as swiftly, more strike quite as strongly as he used to.

Thus, in 1978, Grendel announced his “retirement” from public life. He withdrew to enjoy the fruits of his career - copious amounts of food, alcohol, and other creature comforts. However, this proved insufficient to sate the appetites of the wandering warrior, and he briefly “unretired” in 1980 to join the Battalion for about a year.

He certainly pulled his weight among true demigods on Earth, but he was unable to recapture the thrills or glory he sought, and left the group after about a year (claims that this was also the result of losing a wrestling match to his teammate, the Volunteer, are ungenerous - even if true, the latter was half Grendel’s age).

Grendel returned to the privacy of retirement for two more years, until he released another, brief public statement in 1984: “I tire of Ember Point, of America, of this loud and exhausting and overbright world you call Earth. I will be going home now.”

Fleming would later confirm that last he heard, Grendel had started to once again ascend Mount Alexandra on foot. The once mighty warrior, dented but not broken, disappeared from history…


The Aftermath

Grendel proved something of a fitness idol for later generations - his “Warrior’s Workout” may have been a cash-in on his celebrity, but it also was a seriously considered regimen, for those able to keep up with it.

Furthermore, while Fleming eventually got Grendel to agree to stick to his fists and grapples, to avoid murder and assault charges, the barbarian hero had several famous photos taken wielding a sword, which Bolt would later admit were partly responsible for inspiring his own heroic career as “the Electric Swordsman.”

Fleming himself, after his friend’s disappearance, would become a talent manager and aid to a number of further celebrities - most of which were not “heroes” or other do-gooders, but some were. He used his considerable, if subtle, influence to push for the acceptance of such vigilantes. Whether this was for a profit motive or out of altruism, or perhaps even shame, brought on by Grendel’s career, is unknown.

As for Grendel himself, investigators have only managed to complicate the truth of his story. While he claimed to have descended Mount Alexandra immediately after climbing a similar mountain in his homeland of Ankore, years after his disappearance a small cabin was discovered on a high ridge. Evidence within the ridge suggested that a man at least resembling Grendel had spent some time there as a woodsman. Some think that Grendel was a mundane man, who had either a psychotic break or burst of inspiration before walking into Ember Point as a time-lost hero. Others think point out that the cabin did not seem long-inhabited, and a confused Grendel who had passed through spacetime may have spent some blurry weeks or months there before he managed to reclaim his identity.

Stranger still is the fact that nearly three decades after Grendel began his final ascent of Mount Alexandra, spelunkers found human remains in a cave high up the mountain. These remains were tested and dental records proved a near perfect match for Grendel’s, aged up to about his mid-eighties. Except the remains were also carbon-dated and found to be several dozen millennia old…



Possible Plot Seeds & Campaign Uses
  • Freddy Fleming contacts the strongest of the PCs, asking to arrange an exhibition match between the hero and Grendel. If they’re reluctant, Fleming agrees to make it a charity match. The hero gets to have a series of press conferences with Grendel, as the warrior acts the heel and gets in the hero’s face (though once backstage he quickly admits it is mostly play-acting for the press). Come the night of the big show, foes of Grendel and/or the PCs sneak into the audience, aiming to disrupt the show, or rob the box office, or otherwise cause a ruckus - the PC in the match must keep the show going while the rest of the players thwart the villains!
  • After a particularly impressive feat, Freddy Fleming reaches out and asks to rep one of the PCs! This is particularly appropriate for phyiscally impressive heroes. This naturally leads to associating with other personalities in Freddy's stable, like Grendel. "John Smith" is perfectly friendly with the PC, but perhaps too much so - they will be invited to all sorts of crazy parties, lasting long into the morning, and then expected to still make both their heroic and performing commitments, no matter how exhausted! Is the life of a celebrity right for the PC? What about when it becomes clear that Fleming has unintentionally gotten into debt with shady criminal figures, and Grendel is ready to cut a far-too-bloody swath through them to help his friend?
  • Generations after Grendel’s disappearance, a hero may be inspired by him. This is appropriate for any superstrong or fantasy warrior-themed heroes. However, this will mean that plenty of people (heroes, villains, and otherwise) will seek to challenge the PC in question, aiming to show they are the world’s strongest / deadliest / toughest.
  • The PCs are asked to help look for a hiker who went missing on Mount Alexandra (or it is an important NPC for one of the heroes, and thus they go looking themselves). Wandering through woods and caves, they emerge to an unfamiliar landscape where armored warriors on horseback come charging up, releasing a hail of black arrows. The heroes are aided in surviving this first battle by a muscular warrior figure. One or more of the PCs recognize him as the legendary Grendel (or he introduces himself) – but this is either a Grendel younger than when he arrived in Ember Point, or an older, more seasoned Grendel. If the former, there may be a risk of somehow damaging the timestream if the heroes interfere too much (but of course the missing hiker needs to be rescued!). If the latter, like Jonah Hex in the Justice League cartoon episode he appeared in ("The Once and Future Thing: Part 1: Weird Western Tales"), Grendel is all-too familiar with modern language, tools, and weapons. He’s the grumpy mentor to the heroes in the strange fantasy land of Ankore.
  • All manner of other strange things may emerge from Mount Alexandra - other lost warriors, wizards, and rogues from Ankore, or perhaps from even stranger times. Your PCs are prepared for any supervillain team, but are they prepared for a pastiche of the last D&D party they played, who wander out from a cave on Mount Alexandra and think Ember Point looks ripe for looting? Especially if these adventurers aren't really villains as much as people completely lost for context in the present day? Perhaps they be reasoned with - even convinced to be heroes like Grendel!
A nice Hyborian touch on the "badass normal" heroes and superhero culture. I liked "Warrior's Workout" especially.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Bronze Rider - Full Story)

Post by Commander Titan »

Thanks! As is probably obvious, the Three Gs are a bit of a play on various pulp archetypes, as the predecessors to superpowered heroes in Ember Point, but using some other influences given that they aren't in the classical 20s / 30s / 40s pulp era. I took some inspiration from Davies' A World Less Magical / The World in the Aftermath which had a later-than-usual start for a fanmade supers verse.
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Re: Ember Point (Latest Update - The Neighborhoods of Ember Point)

Post by Commander Titan »

(So! After a long, long struggle, I finally settled on a layout and neighborhoods for our fair city)

The Neighborhoods of Ember Point

First, some general direction-finding.

Ember Point is a city in the American Pacific Northwest. It is not coastal, being about two hours away from the Pacific Ocean.

The city abuts Carson Lake to the northeast, and Mount Alexandra to the southeast. It sits along the shores of the Goodwitch River, which runs south from the lake and then curves to run east to west, as well as a way down the east side of the Kildare River, a tributary of the Goodwitch that flows north, down from the mountain.

The city is broadly divided into three major regions - the Eastside sits between the lake and the mountain, the Northside sits north of the Goodwitch, and the Southside is nestled south of the Goodwitch, and west of the Kildare.

These regions are further divided into a number of neighborhoods. There approximately 14 “main” neighborhoods, but like any city, there are innumerable subdivisions and micro-neighborhoods, sometimes only a few blocks total.


The Eastside
  • The Lakefront
  • The Greco
  • BGH / Burnglenhurst
  • Cookchester
  • Port Roy
  • Summertide
  • Stadium Point
The Northside
  • Hartley
  • Tin Hills
  • Mulligan
The Southside
  • Barleford
  • Saint André
  • Fengate
  • Lowgrove / "Lowgrave"

The Eastside

The Lakefront
Lake Carson is a vast lake northeast of Ember Point. Early white settlement followed in the footsteps of trader and “mountain man” Mad-Eyed Arminio Carson, of whom a number of folk songs are still sung today. The Lakefront has long been home to a number of docks of varying size, serving fishing and transport fleets. The latter was a major early industry for Ember Point, located so ideally as it was along the route to the Pacific Ocean. However, the development of the airship industry eventually shifted the economic status of the area. The Lakefront suffered severe pollution, to the point that in the 1970s the area was nicknamed “Arson Lake,” due to credible accounts of pollution catching fire. However, environmental restoration efforts were pursued, and today the Lakefront is reclaiming some of its former glory, but this time as a tourist and vacation attraction.

Sample Location:
  • Carson Lake University (CLU)
    The early administrators of the University founded it in a then-undeveloped area near the lake, thinking that the region would be bereft of distractions for their young charges. Of course, college kids have always known how to find trouble, and many immediately became friends and patrons of the local fishermen and lake sailors. Over time, the University has embraced this connection. The university has cutting edge environmental science programs, as well as numerous carve outs and benefits for local Lakefront residents to attend for reduced or no tuition. Likewise, the school competes well in a variety of aquatic sports. It has a strong science background, and (controversial) ties to CAIRN. Students from CLU can be found throughout the city, and its surrounding environs, getting into trouble for reasons good or ill.

The Greco
Ember Point’s position as a hub of maritime trade meant that for many years there were a series of large warehouses and ship-maintenance facilities, running south along the Goodwitch past the “official” end of the Lakefront. As the airship industry took over, many were left abandoned. This was seen as a bit of urban blight, but proposals for urban renewal were constantly gridlocked. Eventually, in the great tradition of the PNW eccentric, a number of artist types moved into the area, paying dirt-cheap rent or simply squatting in the abandoned warehouses. This led to an anarchic history, and much opposition from the police during harsher years, but ultimately Ember Point city government recognized the historic and cultural importance of the neighborhood. It was formally recognized as “the Greco,” long the primary nickname of the area, derived from a large mural of El Greco painted on a warehouse. Of course, official recognition has slowly led to the area losing its “edgy” and “dangerous” reputation, and the historically low rents have shot up as the artists are displaced by young urban professionals forever seeking the hippest place to live.

Sample Location:
  • The Hall of Heroes
    When the Battalion reformed in 2007 in Ember Point, it was spur-of-the-moment. Their first HQ was a warehouse in the Greco, more of a meeting hall and rallying point than a formal base of operations. It was soon abandoned after a proper, defensible base was built, but as the Battalion continued to protect the city, locals began to treat it as a sort of shrine to the team, leaving tokens of thanks or graffiti of their exploits. This soon expanded to heroes, super and otherwise, outside the Battalion. Today, depictions and tributes to everyone from the Bronze Rider to Fred Hampton to Billy Jean King to Sally Ride and Kurt Cobain and beyond can be found here.

Burnglenhurst
First things first - unless you want to be immediately outed as an out-of-towner, it’s “BGH.” Nobody bothers with the full name here. BGH is one of the oldest parts of Ember Point, and a number of important civic buildings are still located here. Being almost directly central between Lake Carson and Mount Alexandra (a valuable spot for mining even before Port Roy was built) led to an explosion of growth as the settlements turned into a real city. However, in 1892, the Great Fire of Glenhurst (the city had renamed a section, smaller than the modern neighborhood, barely a year before, to “Glenhurst”) swept the region, nearly destroying the city. That many fled the formerly overpacked central settlement is part of what led to the city’s growth. The old downtown became known as “Burnt Glenhurst” and then “Burnglenhurst,” and then of course simply its modern initialism. The inhabitants’ determination to rebuild is in part what led to the 1902 Ember Point Exposition, celebrating the city’s 50th year and showing how they had recovered ten years after the fire. Its historical importance has also meant that the city resists building high-rises here, and most buildings at least maintain an outer facade of their historical appearances.

Sample Location:
  • The Museum of American Supervillainy
    Once, this ornate building was ‘the most robbed bank in Ember Point,’ the first target of every up and coming supervillain. Finally, they gave up after years of security upgrades failed to make a difference. Eventually it was closed and then the building sold to an enterprising mind who created the Museum of American Supervillainy. While some see it as glorifying supercrime, others note the educational value. The Museum goes to pains to paint a full picture of why different supervillains commit the crimes that they do, and how they differ from one another). The Museum is said to have an archive of items it has collected or donated (even by supervillains themselves!) that it will not display, instead storing them in the old bank vaults. But this just makes the Museum a tempting target once more…

Cookchester
As Crown Airlines and Port Roy expanded, the need for housing for the legions of employees grew greater and greater. Thus, the Le Roi family sponsored the creation of a vast housing development, a sort of unofficial company town, dubbed Cookchester. In the noblesse oblige attitude of the time, they went to pains to sponsor health clubs, libraries, and other creature comforts and attractions for the benefits of the inhabitants. In turn, however, the city infamously gave Crown Airlines a great deal of leeway over the local governance, and a number of corruption cases caused Crown Airlines and the Le Rois to officially divest themselves of any involvement. Since then, the area has grown from primarily residential to a secondary business district in many areas, with all manner of converted homes turned into doctor’s offices, small law firms, and more.

Sample Location:
  • The Songbird Fairgrounds
    Immense fairgrounds created by Crown Airlines, with “Suzie Songbird” as the mascot, this area has hosted a number of conventions and a variety of fairs. The classic image of “dating in yesteryear” was taking your sweetheart to a Songbird Fair and winning a giant stuffed animal. This partly derives from the Fairgrounds hosted the bulk of the 1952 Ember Point Centennial Exposition. In the present day, Stadium Point opened in direct competition, and the Fairgrounds are used for more oddball, outdoors-y gatherings, like Ren Fairs and livestock shows. There is still a large amusement park section, with a number of classic rollercoasters and a ferris wheel. These wide open spaces have made it someone notorious as a location for super-battles (especially with heroes trying to lead opponents away from more populated areas) and the Fairgrounds have a notoriously complicated, draconian, and thorough insurance policy as a result.

Port Roy
As the Lakefront’s star has fallen, Port Roy’s has continued to rise. Port Roy, at the far southeast end of Ember Point, is notable for being partly built onto Mount Alexandra. While there was some mining to be done in the mountain, once the Le Roi family realized the potential of the area as an airship staging ground, whole sections were rapidly turned over to one of the most complex shipping hubs in the world. Port Roy is almost entirely a business zone. Only in recent years, as technological advances have required less space to do the same amount of work, have parts of the neighborhood been turned over to development for residences.

Sample Location:
  • The Highyard
    Modern efficiency demands not every airship descend all the way to ground level to dock and unload. Instead, a series of high towers, with immense freight elevators, rise across a vast expanse. Ships dock above, and freight is unloaded and sent around at ground level. Local and federal authorities can only examine a small percentage, and practically anything might be inside them. Smugglers take advantage of this, and crates may be left in the Highyard for months or years, making some of them excellent places to hide things. Crown Stratotroopers are on call to respond to any threats, but the area is big enough any thieves might have a small window of opportunity.

Summertide
Along the north side of a stretch of the Kildare, the early expanding Ember Point elite built a sort of resort area, a series of natural parks and greenery. At the time, the approach to the mountain made for great views and left the area isolated. However, once the airline picked up, the area became less remote. It was increasingly visited, and polluted, until re-greening efforts took off. They were successful, and the area became highly desirable - to the point that a number of expensive high-rise condo buildings have been proposed for the wealthy of the city, and are actively opposed by environmentalists, who want to keep Summertide a model of green cities.

Sample Location:
  • The Serpentine
    Summertide, like other neighborhoods near Mount Alexandra, sits on an incline. The Serpentine is a series of hanging gardens maintained by the city parks department, and named for the long winding paths one takes to ascend or descend, by foot, bike, or golf cart. It’s proximity to the mountain means a number of strange plants and animals have been spotted within - and it was this particular approach that Grendel famously wandered down, and back up.

Stadium Point
As the 21st century and the new millennium neared, a proposal was made and accepted to redevelop a section of BGH and the small corner of technically-Barleford on the east side of the Kildare. This would create a new, hyper-modern arts / sports / entertainment / shopping megacomplex. The Stadium Point project was opened in time for 2002, and the Third Ember Point Expo (though the Hour had numerous reports about allegations of bribery and graft amongst the politicians and companies involved). Of course, famously, the fourth Captain Scorpion debuted at the Expo. This proved perhaps the best publicity for the complex, and it now receives visitors from across the country and even the world. It hosts concert venues, sports stadiums, art installations, and world-class restaurants. Located where the Kildare joins the Goodwitch, it is a shining beacon for how Ember Point would like to see itself, going into the 21st century.

Sample Location:
  • The Crater
    A vast music and theater venue (ala “impact crater”). The Crater hosts a constantly rotating list of famous musical acts, alongside the occasional public speaker. It also has a tendency to be used by egomaniacal villains to give their demands and evil speeches, and the incredible inherent acoustics are perhaps the product of superhuman architectural knowledge.

The Northside

Hartley
Also called simply “the Heart,” as in “heart of the city” (or at least center of the modern transportation hub), Hartley, nestled between curves in the Goodwitch, is the downtown of Ember Point. Unlike BGH, high rises are permitted (and are far enough from Port Roy to not cause concern about airship flightpaths) here. Originally known as Fort Hartley (after Union-side Civil War hero Thaddeus Hartley), a military base and trading post, it was the endpoint of the rail lines of the city, and thus was central to the city’s network of streetcars and its few subways. This, and new technology allowing the undeveloped land to support skyscrapers, caused an economic explosion. Numerous companies have their headquarters or at least their regional offices here. This in turn caused the neighborhood to host a thriving nightlife to cater to office workers after hours. Bars, restaurants, karaoke, night clubs, and more all jostle for attention here.

Sample Location:
  • Club Galaxy
    Infamously the center of operations for the so-called Doctor of Delights, the crime lord Orlando Pagan, CG (as it’s often called) was once the biggest and most exclusive night club in the city, and hosted all manner of famous musicians. It also was built like a fortress, and hosted all manner of illegal goods and criminal activity. It was shut down after Pagan’s eventual demise, but several years ago the spot was renovated, refurbished, and reopened. While reviews are fine, the place has lost much of its former splendor and illicit appeal. But what hidden chambers and goods may still be located inside, and if anyone else decides to use it as the center of their own crooked enterprise, remains to be seen…

Tin Hills
Like the rest of America after WWII, Ember Point found an appetite for suburbs. While several other neighborhoods had what might be considered suburb-style housing, the Tin Hills development was a whole new stretch of freshly built homes, targeted at the new class of businessmen going to work in Hartley. Thus, Tin Hills was built to the north, with road access for all those drivers. Indeed, the demand for backyards and driveways means Tin Hills is actually one of the larger areas of the city, even if the population density is relatively low by comparison. Infamously, the Hills were considered a bastion of privilege, with the car culture clashing with the public transit used in the rest of the city. Shifting demographics means the Hills are more diverse than they used to be, but there are still pockets notorious as “where the CEO who wants to mow their own lawn” lives. That said, a house in the Tin Hills are still the dream for many young couples working in Hartley or even the Eastside, and many of the schools are considered top-notch.

Sample Location:
  • August-Waters Academy
    Before Tin Hills was fully built and conceptualized, an elite private K-12 school was built on lavish grounds north of Hartley. This is August-Waters Academy, known for attracting the children of the wealthy and powerful from around the globe, with alumni who have become philosophers and prime ministers, authors and artists, economists and engineers. The school does make allowances to recruit some local scholarship students, as well. The students make naturally attractive targets for ransom and thus the Academy has extensive, if subtle, security, and several students are attending under aliases, meaning that even many of their peers may not know who they are connected to.

Mulligan
During the Great Depression, while Hartley was still building up, but after the rail networks had been constructed, a mass of dispossessed peoples began to congregate there, riding the rails in or arriving from elsewhere in the city. The police drove them West, to what was then largely a series of immigrant communities on the fringes. America lived up to its melting pot ideals then, and the hybrid of cultures led to the area acquiring (and later proudly adopting) the name “Mulligan” (from Mulligan stew). Over subsequent years, the neighborhood slowly rose from working to more middle class in many places, while immigrant enclaves would form in other areas of the city as well. But the neighborhood retains pride in its history as an accepting community, with a number of mutual aid and support groups, and the largest percentage of coops in the city.

Sample Location:
  • Dynamo Center
    Ember Point became a baseball town when Depression-era wanderers seeking out work arrived. A group started playing in whatever ratty uniforms they could find, and these “yellowjackets” were the proud precursors of the modern city’s MLB team. The Yellowjackets have played out of Dynamo Center since 1962, sponsored by the local energy company VE. The Center was built in Mulligan in part as tribute to the neighborhood’s die-hard loyalty to the team, and its historical role in baseball being played in the city. While not the most modern stadium, its well-loved and all manner of celebrities, superheroic and otherwise, have been invited to throw out the first pitch over the years.

The Southside

Barleford
The name comes from the fact that once, there was a stretch of the Kildare that was fordable, and it was forded by one Josiah Barley. “Barley’s Ford” collapsed with time to Barleford. While the fordable area was long since dug out to allow more sea travel, the area remains famous as “the most walkable part” of Ember Point. Or rather, it is practically only walkable, with streets too narrow for modern trucks and cars common. It’s a complicated mess of streets, never formally reorganized like other parts of the city. This labyrinth gives Barleford its own distinct subculture, and there are many Ember Point residents who resist going “into the maze.” Artists, musicians, criminals, and eccentrics call Barleford home and wouldn’t change a thing about their neighborhood.

Sample Location:
  • The Propaganda
    Barleford became famous around the world after the grunge band the Dead Mutants had their big break playing at this dive bar. While the Dead Mutants would go on to bigger and better gigs, it made the Propaganda a mecca for music fans and other superstars-in-waiting. The owners rigorously resisted giving into the urge to turn the place into a tourist dive, and it has survived remarkably unchanged from then to today. “The Prop” is still a popular meeting point for all sorts of people looking to go unnoticed.

Saint André
Saint André began as a separate community from what would become Ember Point, lying further across the river as a religiously motivated commune of sorts, formed in resistance to Protestant revivals and growth during the Second Great Awakening (hence the name). The area is no longer majority-Catholic now, but remains one of the more resolutely conservative regions of Ember Point. It was absorbed into the growing city in the late 19th century, and this often plays into perceived grievances held by those who live within and without the area. Regardless, it is home to a number of old clubs, churches, bars, and other institutions. And despite the reputation, and a clear history of redlining, the area continues to diversify like any other region of the city.

Sample Location:
  • The Particle Club
    The Particle Club is seemingly simply one of several old “gentlemen’s clubs” (in the sense of smoking lounges, not strip clubs) that populate the district, with simply slightly more opaque membership requirements and history than some of its peers. In truth, the Particle Club is a “birdhouse” - a lodge of the mystical Learned Society of Melampian Practitioners, better known as the Flock. This makes it a central hub of magical knowledge and activity in the city. But not the only center, despite the membership’s wishes. The Club has a vast arcane library available to its members, and the collection of trivia and tidbits that can be accessed over whiskey and cigars is even greater.

Fengate
Expanding out from Barleford, efforts were made to reclaim the surrounding marshy landscape. Fengate for many years had a reputation as being dirty and diseased, due to the marsh, and thus its not a surprise that the city began to build its penal facilities there. However, while even today many of the locals work directly or indirectly to support the prison, modern urban planning has cleaned up much of Fengate, and “the New Fengate” has shopping malls, restaurants, and art galleries. But older buildings have slipped underground, and the area is popular with urban explorers as a result.

Sample Location:
  • Hallowhill Correctional Facility
    Ember Point’s major prison is located in the middle of treacherous ground, and benefits even further from the claim that the “monsters” of Lowgrave are ready to devour any escapees. But even then, the prison is also (by necessity) at the cutting edge of containing superhumans. Whether this is done via technological, supernatural, or brute force solutions, however, fluctuates with public attention and funding. Hallowhill has a reputation as being haunted, like many old prisons, but supernatural experts claim that the prison’s is much more deserved.

Lowgrove
Lowgrove sits towards the outskirts of Ember Point, and for many years was mostly known as a little populated area, and some notable cemeteries. But that’s not why it’s better known today as “Lowgrave.” That is due to the area becoming the center of Ember Point’s open vampire population, attracted to the city by the fact that the unique properties of minerals within Mount Alexandra, flowing down through the Kildare River, mean that they can exist in daylight without complication (and somewhat cut down on their blood consumption). This shift is contentious, even though most of the vampires are simply trying to live ordinary lives (perhaps for the first time in decades). The EPPD refuse to go into the area without heavy support, and the vampires are both easy victims and recruits for criminal enterprises. But a new culture is beginning to form there, and who can say where this experiment might lead? Until then, the Sanguine Sentinels work to defend Lowgrave, and the rest of the city, to prove the possibilities of human / vampire cooperation.

Sample Location:
  • Blackwater Sanctuary
    Once Blackwater Manor, this old stately home has been turned into an outreach and resource center for the local vampiric community. Blood drives, cultural education, and group counseling sessions are offered, as well as safe housing for those in need. The facility receives aid from both religious and secular charitable organizations, but has also faced threats and vandalism. The Sanguine Sentinels have been called to defend it a number of times. Controversially among the vampiric inhabitants, the managing board of the Sanctuary recently elected to offer aid to humans in need as well, further raising the tensions of human-vampire cooperation.
Current Setting Projects:
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