A Dresden Files Guide to the Twin Cities – Part One

Important locations are fodder for the city creation process for the Dresden Files RPG. So here are the first batch of  locations that have made appearances in the games so far. Where appropriate I will link to the home pages or Wikipedia entries of the places in question.

NAME:Summit Avenue

DESCRIPTION:Old money and big houses

THEME (OR) THREAT:Theme

THE IDEA:The home of old families of the Twin Cities, and all the baggage that implies

THE ASPECT: Old money and dark secrets

THE FACE: Martha Griggs – Protector of reputations and tradition.

NAME: Dinkytown

DESCRIPTION: A borough of Minneapolis surrounding the University of Minnesotacampus, populated predominantly by college students and townies.

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: The muggle origins of the name “Dinkytown” are unknown, but to the supernatural world, it is a central hub for pixies, brownies, dwarves, elves, sprites, and their related changelings, all of whom maintain a bustling Dinkytown Overcity of tiny homes and businesses atop the muggle-sized homes and businesses. The Dinkytown Overcity is, believe it or not, the center of supernatural commerce in the Twin Cities.

THE ASPECT: Fragglesque goblin-a-rific market.

THE FACE: Squeentyn McFarklerface III, the pixie mayor of Dinkytown Overcity, who is commonly seen to riding a massive rat that he insists is a mouse that he has named Lieutenant Bunderplum.

NAME: The Blue Door

DESCRIPTION: An upscale jazz bar owned and operated by supernatural creatures, for supernatural creatures, located in downtown St. Paul. Muggles need not apply.

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: The Blue Door is Accorded neutral territory and one of the only agreed upon safe havens in the Twin Cities. Owned, operated, managed, and staffed entirely by supernatural creatures, it is a true nexus where the disparate supernatural powers truly play nice.

THE ASPECT: Peace enforced by threat of gratuitous violence.

THE FACE: Valentine, the owner, manager, and primary vocal entertainer for the Blue Door, is a mysterious figure of unknown nature and origin. She is beautiful and dangerous, with honey-colored skin, striking violet eyes, and is rumored to be one of the oldest denizens of the Americas, and possibly the world.

Aiden Croft acts as chief enforcer and bouncer at the Blue Door. Tall, broad, muscular and strikingly Teutonic, he makes no secret that he is, in fact, a werewolf. His dominance is sufficient that he could easily take alphaship of any werewolf pack in and around the Twin Cities area, but he instead chooses a solitary life as a lone wolf. It is believed that he and Valentine were lovers once, but now their relationship seems strictly professional.

NAME: St. Thomas University

DESCRIPTION: A parochial university located on Summit Avenue in St. Paul.

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: Higher education with a very special library

THE ASPECT: Knowledge is a double edged sword.

THE FACE: Monsignor O’Malley – The Good Shepherd

NAME: First Avenue / 7th Street Entrance

DESCRIPTION: Aging music venue barely holding its market share. The walls have an amazing history of acts of all genres, home of the Twin Cities Sound.

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: Don’t like the music, come back tomorrow, really please, come back.

THE ASPECT: The Twin Cities sound… of desperation.

THE FACE: Steve McClellan – club owner at the end of his rope.

NAME: Magus Books

DESCRIPTION: Dinkytown’s finest magic bookstore.

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: The place to go for bits and baubles of a magical variety

THE ASPECT: A glimpse behind the veil

THE FACE: Derius DeWitt – the magic man.

NAME: Stardust Lanes

DESCRIPTION: South Mpls bowling alley with a sketchy reputation

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: The seedy underbelly of Mpls

THE ASPECT: Good old fashioned corruption.

THE FACE: Leo Marcone – Hungry crime boss

NAME: The Basilica of St Mary and St. Paul’s Cathedral

DESCRIPTION: Center of Catholic Faith in the Twin Cities

THEME (OR) THREAT: Theme

THE IDEA: The archdiocese of these two great institutions form the heart of Catholic worship in the entire

Twin Cities Metro Area. Behind the scenes, however,  the leaders of the church are reassembling a gnostic group that looks strikingly like the Templars. Whether or not this is done with the blessing of the Vatican remains to be seen.

THE ASPECT: Psalm 23:4 (Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.)

THE FACE:  Father Benedicte Christos, Peaceful Warrior

NAME: Saint Paul City Hall

DESCRIPTION: The police on the east side of the river

THEME (OR) THREAT: Threat

THE IDEA: Minneapolis has its trouble with mundane corruption, the SP-PD has more supernatural troubles.

THE ASPECT: Saintly halos are beginning to tarnish

THE FACE: Detective Cameron Baker – Remarkably savvy peace officer.

The Dresden Files: Faces of the Twin Cities Part One

City building in an important step in the start of a Dresden Files game. During that process the players and gamemaster create locations and important or noteworthy NPCs or Faces for those locations. What follows are the faces that have thus far come into play in the game I have been GMing the last few months.  We did some casting along the way finding appropriate images for the NPCs.

NAME: Martha Griggs 

IS THE FACES OF: Summit  Avenue

HIGH CONCEPT: Protector of reputations and tradition  

MOTIVATIONS: Protect the privileged.

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows Monsignor O’Malley  socially. She knows the business of anyone  who  is  anyone. Could be a powerful friend or enemy.

 

NAME: Monsignor O’Malley

IS THE FACES OF: U of St Thomas

HIGH CONCEPT: The good shepherd

MOTIVATIONS: Protect the flock from dark forces.

RELATIONSHIPS: Ray’s boss, knows Martha Griggs socially. Professional dealings with Thao Nguyen. Has met both Leo and George Marcone in roles both clergy and academic.

NAME: Big Wally Gunderson

IS THE FACES OF: North of 694

HIGH CONCEPT: Werewolf from up North.

MOTIVATIONS: Protecting his pack.

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows Leo Marcone, has done construction all over the Twin Cities, including UST

NAME: Squeentyn McFarkler III 

IS THE FACES OF: Dinkytown

HIGH CONCEPT: Pixie Mayor of the Overcity

MOTIVATIONS: Sing, sing everyone  sing for me!

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows Darius Dewitt  very well, and Valentine.

 

NAME: Valentine 

IS THE FACES OF: The Blue Door

HIGH CONCEPT: A song as old as time

MOTIVATIONS: Keeping  the peace

RELATIONSHIPS: Romantically  linked to her bouncer, she has a wide range of admirers. McClellan  has heard of her talents and tried to book her into his club, but she never returns his calls.

 

NAME: Aiden Croft

IS THE FACES OF: The Blue Door

HIGH CONCEPT: You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

MOTIVATIONS: Unknown.

RELATIONSHIPS: Has an intense on-again off-again relationship with his boss, Valentine. Seems to know most all the supernatural players on a first name basis. Charismatic and extremely dominant, he could easily unite the conflicting werewolf packs in the Twin Cities, and possibly beyond, but he seems to have no interest in doing so.

NAME: Leo Marcone 

IS THE FACES OF: Stardust Lanes

HIGH CONCEPT: Hungry crime boss.

MOTIVATIONS: Honor the family name, become a player.

RELATIONSHIPS: Cousin to Chicago’s own John Marcone. His son, George, goes to U of ST. Has dealings with Big Wally’s construction company. Leo has recently become the business partner of Tyrone Mayfield in a takeover bid of the First Avenue nightclub.

NAME: George Marcone 

IS THE FACES OF: The Obsidian Club

HIGH CONCEPT: Future crime boss

MOTIVATIONS: Honor the family name, become a player.

RELATIONSHIPS: Recently initiated Dylan Eldridge after helping George steal a trophy from the MSP admin building. Knows the Monsignor and has taken a class from Ray.

NAME: Steve  McClellan 

IS THE FACES OF: First  Avenue/Seventh Street Entry

HIGH CONCEPT: Club owner at  the end of his rope

MOTIVATIONS: Get the club on its feet again.

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows Marcone, has rented the club for private events to Mayor Dan Roe.Has tried to book Valentine into the club on numerous occasions but to no avail. He is desperate to hold onto some shred of control of his club

NAME: Father Benedicte Christos 

IS THE FACES OF: The Basilica of St. Mary and the St Paul’s Cathedral.

HIGH CONCEPT: Peaceful Warrior

MOTIVATIONS: To confront evil in all it’s forms.

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows most of the major league players in town by sight, is Ray King’s mentor and trainer.

NAME: Detective Cameron Baker 

IS THE FACES OF: The St. Paul Police Department

HIGH CONCEPT: Remarkably savvy peace officer.

MOTIVATIONS: Detective Baker is driven by the need to know the truth. She will stop at nothing to find it.

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows Albert Aberdeen, Eoin Murphy, Thao Nguyen, Steve McClellan, and Valentine in a professional capacity. Knows Father Benedicte Christos through reputation (and by the fact that she is a lapsed Catholic). Knows George and Leo Marcone by their rap sheets.

NAME: Derius DeWitt  

IS THE FACES OF: Magus Books

HIGH CONCEPT: The Magic Man

MOTIVATIONS: Knowledge and profit

RELATIONSHIPS: Knows all the supernatural players, has a difficult relationship with Mpls PD. He has sold Dylan a few books to aid in his mystical education

The Dresden Files: I fought the law part 2

Our cast of characters:
Dylan Eldridge – Teenage Wiz kid
Professor  Ray King – Soldier of God
Sean Hastings – Half breed warden
Tyrone Mayfield – Werewolf on the Rise

Things are a foot on the campus of UST. Ray King has been taken into custody as a material witness in the murder of Paul Carlson, and is brought downtown by Detective Cameron Baker of the St Paul PD homicide unit.

Meanwhile Sean is visited by members of the White Council, including the current Blackstaff Ebenezer McCoy to discuss the fate of Lizabeta aka Lizzie who is now under the protection of sanctuary in the Minneapolis basilica.

The wizards tell Sean that Lizzie had been manipulated by Sean’s mentor, Wells Locksley, in the 1600s to break the laws of magic for his personal gain. She thought she was acting under special dispensation from who she thought was the Blackstaff of the White Council.

After Sean’s disappearance Locksley’s plots were discovered and he fled the justice of the Council, successfully. The Council thinks there is a reasonable chance Locksley is still alive. They assign Sean to find him, and are willing do give Lizzie amnesty if she assists.

Sean having heard Ray was taken in enlists Tyrone and Dylan to assist him after Lizzie accepts the Council’s offer.

Lizzie as it happens ad managed to tuck away a piece of Locksley’s hair in case he came after her, and luckily it survived preserved and intact but with Lizzie in her doll.

The two practitioners make a circle in Dylan’s recently acquired brewery and do a tracking spell to find the renegade wizard. The ritual is a success, Locksley is found but according to the spell he is in Sri Lanka.

Back at City lockup after cooling his jets in holding and with council from the church at his side Ray and Baker have a contest of wills over what happened on Summit avenue at the Carlson estate a few days prior.

Baker let’s it be known that the brass are hot to put him away, and the legal hit squad from the church make her think they could be right.

Ray eventually makes a leap of faith to show Baker what’s really going on, and the two eventually make their way to the basilica.

Back in the brewery Sean is has decided that Locksley is to far afield to be gone after, Lizzie with her neck literally on the line has an idea, The Mayor of Dinkytown might solve their problem. He might do it for just a song, quite literally just a song.

The group makes their way to Dinkytown. Going down the alley past Magus Books where the owner waves a friendly hello to Dylan, and receives a withering look from Lizzie. They go further taking the stairs to the railroad tracks and the Mayor’s court.
After beckoning, his lordship he arrives riding his trusty rat. The Mayor is a wee pixie on a large rat. After some negotiations the Mayor agrees to grant passage via the Never-never to Sri Lanka, for a song that satisfies him.

The Mayor gives Tyrone an iridescent purple saxophone, and the quartet preform a mix of traditional Native American mixed with Jazz and a hint or two of Russia folk music that brings the pixies of Dinkytown to their feet. The Mayor opens the portal and tells Tyrone to play a song to reopen the portal for home when their task is complete.

At the basilica Ray takes detective Baker to a subbasement where a priest and a nun stand watch over a cell with what appears to be a young woman, but is soon revealed by Ray to be a Black Court Vampire. Ray’s cross and faith backing it into a corner it tries to dominate Baker, but she resists resealing the creature’s cell.

Ray and Baker then have a chat about what is behind the veil and the nature of reality, and come up with a solution to the Carlson murder that works with the evidence at hand. Carlson was a serial killer and one of his victims had turned the tables and fled.

Father Christos interrupts letting Ray know Sean had taken Lizzie from the building with her consent, but he had an acolyte trail them to Dinkytown, just outside of Magus Books.

On the other side of the portal the tropical heat and humidity hit the quartet like a sack of bricks. The scene the step into is no less jarring.

They emerge in the center guerrilla camp, or the remnants of one. Shell casings and mangled bodies litter the ground as do the collapsed tents of the soldiers who until recently occupied them.

They track the source of the carnage to swaths of broken foliage cut through the jungle by something huge and hulking. They also find a lone survivor.

She is injured and like the other casualties wearing the uniform of the LTTE, the Tamil Tigers. The woman, Lakshmi, is an officer, a captain in the LTTE.

She is a bit Leary of a band of Americans stumbling through the heart of the jungle, but shares that her brigade was attacked by cobras the size of elephants, and a crazed Englishman. She also fears they are still being hunted.

Soon enough her fears are realized. One of the massive snakes attacks. Sean and Tyrone.  In a flash of ax heads, fists and ice magic the  snake is dispatched, and the band get ready to make the trek to the abandoned Buddhist temple where Locksley is living.