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"Hammer to Fall" (c) Queen 1984
NOTE: there is a lot of secret information here for the Narrators' eyes only. This information reveals many of the things that actually happen in this chronicle, thus if you will play it and won't run it, it will ruin you great part of the emotion of discovering it for your own. And so I have written that secret information with the same text color that the background.. If you are the Narrator or you want to see it anyway, select the whole text and you will be able to see it without any problem. I will also mark in a visible way every time there is any confidential information.
Ah! And there are still many things to tell about this Chronicle... of course!
Chicago, in times the second city of the United States, and in many dark aspects still the second, it is located in the state of Illinois, in the Southwest end of the lake Michigan. It is a great city of about 3 1/2 million people, a mixture of neighborhoods of offices, high class neighborhoods, residential middle class neighborhoods and multitude of miserable neighborhoods of low class grouped by race or nationality. Some parks encased among the blocks of housings refuse to disappear under the asphalt and concrete in the populous city, although their sad destination seems marked. The river Chicago crosses the city, being navigable for small crafts. There are several airports and important communications by train in this old agricultural and industrial nucleus.
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It is a cold city and frequently whipped by the wind, thus known in the USA as the Windy City.
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Since Chicago began to grow its glamour began to decrease. Since their inhabitants were stacked in miserable neighborhoods, the city became darker. Since the vampires settled definitively in the city, it became corrupt...
It is no longer known since when that's been that way. The vampires have dominated the city for too much time. Their domain is absolute, or at least that's what they want to believe. The only certain thing is that their number and force and banality are startling and practically invincible for the whole changeling population in the hypothetical case they united against them. And would be worse if the rumors that are attributed alternately to both the sluagh and the Eiluned are true... that several old vampires use Chicago as a place of rest... or as a chess board?
Before 1969 and the Resurgence the city was a bastion of the Unseelie Court, anarchical and chaotic. But since causing an uproar in a city clamored by the undead wouldn't be too healthy, no faction tried to take by force the control of the changeling local society local.
It all changed after the Resurgence and the Accordance War. Chicago only experienced the havocs of the war in an indirectly way. No faction wanted to claim for themselves such a sterile and dangerous territory. Mainly it served as "refuge" (poor refuge) to reduced groups of commoners, not having the area enough resources to help in the effort of the war.
After the ascension of High King David to the throne of Concordia, the city and their surrounding territories remained calm for a while. It continued without being claimed by changeling nor secret society. But after the tumultuous years that continued the Resurgence the city was more chaotic and more dangerous. The people were quite fed up, dejected and angry and the few changelings of Chicago faced the risk to vanish by fighting each other for the scarce crumbs of glamour that they could find... this way up to 1982.
In 1982 the queen Mary Elizabeth ni Dougal granted the control of from the territory to an almost unknown sidhe knight of house Liam, Liath Maldrake, an upstart according to the unseelie court of Chicago and an unworthy oathbreaker for the scarce seelie court of the same city. Apparently the at that time young sidhe knight had demonstrated his value in Europe helping to establish cordial relationships with the local commoners and to found a new home for house Liam, and then he had returned to Concordia after having finished his work. Nobody else volunteered for such an arduous mission except the dedicated and persevering Liath. And in an act that was hardly criticized by the Traditionalist of their court the queen granted him Duke's title and the control of the territory of Chicago and their surroundings.
Poor gift, anyway...
The first years were very hard, trying to impose the order in the territories of the duchy with moderate success. But the recently noted appointed duke had the necessary courage to persevere and to keep trying. A few years were enough for, though not to transform the duchy to an idyllic place, at least transform it to an ordered, defined territory, not so chaotic and in definitive much less dangerous for the whole changeling population. The small seelie court of Chicago was relatively happy with the duke, but the unseelie one complained repeteadly about "the fascist sidhe that imposed norms for everything" (although actually they enjoyed the relative stability of the duchy).
Everything changed in 1990, when the duke was enjoying some short vacations out of Chicago. His quick trip of one week lasted for longer than a month and when he came back everything changed...
The duke spent two months more without making public appearances, assisting sessions in their court neither any other government task. Two months in which the unsteady duchy began to crumble, the two courts exploiting the weaknesses of the duchy for its own profit without nobody made anything to impede it.
After those two months the Queen Mary Elizabeth reacted to that chaos and she forced the duke to react with a severe corrective that almost cost him his title (many people said that the duke had a powerful patron that interceded in the whole matter and s/he avoided that the punishment were too severe). The duke recovered his post and his work again, but since then his proverbial energy and perseverance seemed to have fallen into olbivion... this way until now. The local changelings speculated with a change of court of the sidhe... quite removed from the truth...
Every supernatural being of Chicago knows that the city is territory of the prodigal undead, the vampires. They control almost the whole city although after the war with the werewolves by the middle of 1994 and the vampire prince's definitive death the situation has become more chaotic and more unstable. The different factions struggle to get the power while they cling to their territories and controlled peons, in a local way, which impedes a global control that allows to other supernatural factions to try to take out a slice of the cake.
The dark and gloomy city of Chicago is the center of the Duchy of the Icy Wind, although it is an almost inhospitable city for changelings. A city filled with prodigals, where the dreams are dark, the nightmares intense and the banality oppressive in too many occasions. The duchy is located in the Kingdom of Grass, governed by the Queen Mary Elizabeth of house Dougal, a serious sidhe grump, practical and competent who granted in 1982 the control from the duchy to Liath Maldrake ap Liam who in turn has governed that chaotic territory since that year.
<SPOILER> Although Chicago is governed by a seelie sidhe, the Unseelie Court is much more powerful in this city. And the Shadow Court is even stronger here, continuing its sinister conspiracy without nobody noticing it... apparently... <END SPOILER>
Being a city so banal and little glamourous, it presents one of the highest concentrations in Autumn People and dauntains of Concordia... the price that the faerie population of the city pays to remain in such an sterile and unproductive territory.
The ruling changeling of Chicago is a sidhe grump of house Liam, duke Liath Maldrake ap Liam. Although it is very not very common that a sidhe of house Liam can govern the case it is that any sidhe worth his kith name would never volunteer to govern such a chaotic, sterile in glamour and dangerous city as Chicago. Maybe some sidhe of the dark houses, but as typical they weren't given that possibility and neither were they bothered in taking it with subtle political maneuvers or vile backstabbing (or even worse tactics).
Duke Maldrake governs with little energy and almost null passion. Many fae affirm that he belongs to the unseelie court, given the decadent and melancholic style of his court, but in truth few are sure of its affiliation. His motivations are a mystery for all, but the truth is that melancholy and passivity seem to be his general course of action.
There are two counts under duke Maldrake's control. Lady Selena Flann ni Fiona, and Lord Laigen Recard ap Gwydion. Lady Selena is a vital and passionate seelie wilder, who doesn't suffer the effect of the unhealthy ambient of Chicago and who is able to take out the best of life, living to the maximum whenever its position allows it to her. She possesses a small freehold (2 points) to the south of the city known as Caer Willows, not very far from the duke's court.
Lord Recard is a serious seelie sidhe grump, very unhappy of duke Maldrake's government, but that accepts the established order <SPOILER>, while he conspires in the shadows to create a strong and orderer government as it should be (at least as him he believes it should be, to the well-being of all changelings). We could say that he is an Enlightened tyrant.<END SPOILER> His headquarters are located to the northeast of Chicago near lake Michigan, being a well-known freehold (of 2 points) called Caer Falcon.
Both counts are skilled swordmen, although fortunately there haven't been conflicts for a long time in Chicago which required of their ability (Lord Recard wanted to help the werewolves in their war against the vampires, but duke Maldrake stated quite clearly left the neutrality of the changelings in respect to that prodigal matter).
Duke Maldrake is also quite good with the sword, but thats is not very well-known. His domain of the arts is also superior to the norm, but he doesn't demonstrate it very often (and with his government stylem, it is not necessary).
The duke also has under his control a small number of knights, in charge of different points of interest of the city. Many watch over the few valuable freeholds, while others protect the even less places with natural glamour of the action of ravagers. It is necessary to say that the glamour in Chicago is very scarce, the freeholds weak and also not very numerous (Note: the background of freehold in Chicago has a maximum rating of 2 for a commoner, unless s/he shares it with its motley reaching a maximum of 3 in that case; for a noble the maximum freehold will have a maximum rating of 3).
The representatives of the commoners participate of the meetings in the duke's court, but as it suffers of a 'Laissez-faire' attitude, it doesn't matter much. It seems that the duke allows all the changelings of Chicago to follow their own dreams. Many seelie changelings complain about this politics, but as most of the population belongs to the Unseelie Court nothing happens.
The duke has his headquarters in an old Victorian mansion in the outskirts of Chicago, in lupin territory, which makes the vampires of the city avoid that place. Tthe duke doesn't have ties nor treaties either with the werewolves, but instead the mobility of the territories of each supernatural faction has made it happen by chance.
The house seems old and inhospitable, but to the fae it is a great elaborate fortified mansion with banners and other chimerical decorations. A great lobby with red carpet leads to the room of the throne, where the duke assists the political matters. A room to note is the dance room, in the past used for courteous dances of the nobility, but now closed and covered with powder and cobwebs... Caer Victoria, as it is known this freehold, it is one of the biggest in all Chicago, with a rating of 3, and it cost a lot of work and personal glamour to the duke to strengthen a small flame in the balefire which gives its power to the freehold.
After the High King's David Ardry disappearance, the things have become very complicated in Chicago. The Unseelie Court proclaims that with the High King's disappearance the nobility will try again to repeat the abuses of the past. Many propose a new king that belongs to the Unseelie Court. Other many would want to remove the seelie rulers completely. And another more reduced part wants total anarchy... The Seelie Court is not very sure and actually is awaiting to see what happens next, although most of them belong to the reformist faction that follows the cause of the High Queen and the rest want to reform the monarchy to democratize it.
Although the campaign of the High Queen Faerilyth trying to maintain united Concordia while her husband the High King appears is still going on, the differences are growing more and more irreconcilable. The war in all Concordia seems unavoidable, and Chicago in itself is a magazine about to explode.
<BIG SPOILER> Actually duke Liath Maldrake was sponsored to his position by High King David itself, in a secret maneuver only known by the queen Mary Elizabeth, the own Liath and some few trusted changeling more. He was placed there in the first place to try to recover that territory and in second place to be able to learn as much as he could about the Shadow Court in a place where it moved so openly. Although we should add, with not too much success... Eventually, and after the incident that motivated his change of politics, the duke became more apathetic to pretend to be a puppet who didn't direct the destiny of the duchy, when in fact he investigated, spied, and gathered information for the High King.
Lady Selena is in fact the duke's main agent. She is the one who makes all the serious works, like spying, controlling other agents, etc. This way she distracts the attention from the duke itself. And privately, although he doesn't know it, she's in love with him. Selena doesn't even knows all what the duke hides with his masquerade... for her own safety.
What did motivate the change of the duke's politics? The week of vacations the duke spent before that change it was actually an escape with his mortal wife. Yes, the duke was married with a mortal woman who ignored his husband's faerie character completely. In spite of all the difficulties and the displeasures of not being able to reveal to her what he really was, he loved her. She was his inspiration and strength.
After returning home after that week of vacations she disappeared. The duke's agents almost took one month to find her. The mortal wife of Maldrake had been embraced by a malkavian vampire... (the duke continues thinking that it was a maneuver of the Shadow Court to damage him... and for it he hates them to the core although he continues being loyal to his King).
The duke needed two months to be able to recover of the shock. He could not gather the necessary courage to destroy what had become his wife, although he had the occasion of doing so (thus she knows that her former husband is a fae, because as malkavian the Mists don't affect her... also as a malkavian the vampires of the other clans don't believe her)... she still wanders on Chicago, spreading her particular madness...
Since the High King's disappearance the duke is very worried. Now more than ever he investigates the actions of the Shadow Court, in this cloudy period of preparation for a new civil war. If necessary he would offer his support to the reformist faction personified in the person of the High Queen Faerilyth, in an intent of stopping the war. From his point of view he hasn't the slightest doubt that the Shadow Court is the one behind the High King's disappearance, but he can only wait and hope everything will be okay. <END BIG SPOILER>
Now we will introduce a few sketches of other characters from Chicago, eternal secondaries with their 5 minutes of glory. At this moment we won't detail then numerically. Each Narrator should fill in the details.
Arthus (Arthur): pooka rat grump, one of the oldest grumps of Concordia, and for an unseelie pooka, one of those most respected ones of all the kithain, given his wisdom and knowledge. Also he possesses great quantity of contacts in all the layers of society, and it is said that he's a walking encyclopedia of the Arts.
Ash: the existence of a tremendous faerie sorcerer called Ash is murmured in Chicago, although nobody knows anything about him/her. In the Shadow Court some voices proclaim that s/he exists and that s/he is a mastermind in the Shadow Court. The rest proclaims that it is a legendary figure, but the only thing for sure is that the Shadow Court is powerful in Chicago and somebody (or some people) move the threads from behind... if all the rumors are certain, s/he could be the most powerful sorcerer in all Concordia... although the rumors can be only that... rumors.
Bob Banner (Baeth): a pooka rabbit grump, pupil of Arthus since he passed his chrysalis not too long ago. With fixation for toys, especially for plushes, this pooka refuses to let his childlish innocence and capacity to dream fade away using the toys like a defense. Thanks to his relationship with Arthus he has learned a great deal of Arts in little time, thanks to his sharp mind. He pretends to slightly silly and and happy-go-lucky, but it is a whole mask. He tends to exaggerate a lot and to use the humor a lot in his pooka-ese. After the incident in which he got involved with the legendary treasure The Box of Secrets his behavior changed a little, making him behave from time to time in a lightly more serious way.
The Black Knights: a gang of unseelie redcaps grumps who live as wild bikers and mind their own dark business, without nobody interfering in them. At least nobody that doesn't regret such action... they are almost idolized by the youngest redcaps. The oldest redcap and with more status nicknames 'Sandman', because his specialty is to make of your life a nightmare...
Chrys(oberyl): a nocker wilder whose specialty is to making jewels and to carve gems. It is possibly the most beautiful nocker in Concordia, with the look of porcelain doll with white skin and the cheeks and nose blushed, and a long silver mane, in a small woman body not very voluptuous but very well formed. Her great appearance and her initial shyness are counteracted by her terrible language... every time she opens her mouth! She's been able to expel redcaps wilders just with the help of insults, swearings and mere verbal intimidation.
Edgar Toolmaker: a nocker grump that proclaims that in a previous life he was a sidhe Scatatch and that he was cursed (or maybe blessed) to be reincarnated in a nocker to learn humility and to rely on the help of others. He also proclaims that his legendary enemy, someone called Fresno, is still tracking him with terrible plans that will threaten to all the changelings of Chicago. Many think that it is in Bedlam... his specialty is to manufacture weapons and armors, either medieval or nocker devices like automatic crossbows of multiple pivots...
Leeam ap Fiona: a pooka lynx grump, very tall (almost 2'10 meters) and great musculature, almost a troll in a pooka's body. His only flaw is blindness. In his youth he participated in the Accordance War, acquiring great dexterity and skill, but died chimerically near New York at the end of the War at the hands of the famous sidhe general Lord Dafyll. It proclaims openly that he was the best opponent that he has ever had and that he would give anything to face him again in a duel (and that this time he would win). After the war he worked in a local league of wrestling, as the "Crazy Jester", but he suffered an accident when falling of the ring breaking his skull. Due to that wound, he almost died and became blind, and as he was healed with mundane medicine he couldn't recover his sight. With great courage he made a maximum effort to overcome himself and to be able to continue being a great warrior, and not much later he joined house Fiona, although he refused any title (not even as squire) adducing that "what a blind squire would be for". Although blind fighting there are few opponents that can overcome him... he works as bodyguard (although not a lot, he has a small pension of his previous work for the accident) and he uses a small mouse chimera that hides in their hat like a guide, forming a great team given their current coordination. <SPOILER>In secret he acts as the main agent of Lady Selena, putting some loyal motleys of changelings in charge of smaller missions like if he were the organizer, or in occasions on behalf of the countess's name, but it is not informed about the true intrigue of the rulers of the duchy. <FIN SPOILER>
Leyla: a fox pooka wilder chick with terrible reputation (it is popular among the satyrs) besides unseelieness, that has ruined enough reputations as much among humans as among changelings with her histories of adultery, sex and hard core... some of them are even true!
Puck: another pupil of Arthus, a young pooka rabbit childling almost a wilder, and who is enjoying his last moments as childling maybe subconsciously trying to continue being always a child. At the moment his mentor is one of duke Maldrake's knights, a troll selected by Arthus, since his mortal family moved to another area of the city where Arthus could not go with assiduity. Recently a pair of chimerical bird wings grew from his back... and Arthus says that the boy has a great destination awaiting for him... (the troll knight doesn't know if to believe him or not, of course). His favorite friend is a grotesque redcap childling that makes him laugh a lot, although the troll knight doesn't like any that he has such friendships and he's making an effort to avoid he sees him again.
Sam and the Goldpot: an unseelie boggan grump, owner of the Goldpot, a cafeteria of old and welcoming style, with a great menu of coffees, teas and pastry. Sam is one of the most artful gossipers in Chicago (even in the boggan scale), it nails you some brutal bills if you don't get on well with him and if he can he takes advantage of the circumstances to take out profit, without going too far to avoid scaring the clientele. He is allowed to do so because the Goldpot even without being a mew it is a lighthouse in the cold night of banality of Chicago for all the changelings, a sure port in the storm. It is an encounter point for many changelings motleys, located in the intersection of the Michigan Avenue with Roosevelt (in the map, Roosevelt is the horizontal street to John's height G. Shedd Aquarium).
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Sandman: the nominal leader of the Black Knights, a redcap grump with the temples of dirty silver due to his age, not too tall but he gives fear just with his ice cold glance... surprisingly for a redcap he's a refined gourmet, preferring the specialties of the Goldpot among other delicious dishes. In fact the Goldpot is territory under the undeclared protection of the Black Knights... they wouldn't tolerate any uproar in the local that caused its closing no matter if it were only momentary.
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