Author: Rachel February 4, 2015

A short preview of what you’ll get in the Settings section of CampFire Tales, due for release by the end of this month!

 

Magic Noire: An Urban Fantasy Setting

The city – a place to blend in, a place to hide, a place to build power and discover the unusual. You can find anything in the city… including a semi-hidden fae court, the local werewolf pack, and a circle of urban shaman defending their home from supernatural threats. In Magic Noire, figures out of myth and legend live side by side with the mundane and ‘normal.’

 

Places of Interest

Nan’s Diner: A twenty-four hour diner, Nan’s serves more than just pie and coffee. Nan has been doing business since before the war (though no one seems to know quite which war), and takes special pride in accommodating the unusual requests of some of her favorite patrons. As a result, Nan’s has become a de facto meeting place, hangout and neutral ground for supernatural critters of all types. Troublemakers are quickly shown the error of their ways by Nan’s grandson Mikey, a vet who’s shown remarkable resistance to persuasion of any type.

Triskelion Investments: A shining skyscraper in the middle of downtown, most people assume Triskelion is precisely what it says on the front: a company specializing in financial services. Even those who make regular use of Triskelion’s services see no reason to believe differently. However, Triskelion has a secret list of services for unique clientele… such as those who may require a new identity every few decades and see the value in very long-term investments. And Triskelion regularly offers its penthouse to clients in need of a secure midnight meeting place, complete with complimentary valet parking and refreshments.

Spencer Park: A sprawling park, featuring a baseball diamond, playground and wooded jogging trails, Spencer Park is a beloved community fixture. Though records have Spencer Park mapped out as taking up approximately fifty acres of city land, the place often seems much larger from the inside. More than one jogger or cyclist has stumbled onto a party in the heart of the park, a group of impossibly beautiful people dancing and feasting. Most of the human guests to these fae parties return the next morning… but every so often, someone disappears forever.
People of Note

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A resident of Spencer Park, La Belle Dame sans Merci is the title of the local Faerie Queene. To speak her True Name is a terrible insult, so she is only ever referred to by her title. She is, as her title suggests, impossibly beautiful and inhumanly cruel. La Belle Dame is also quite powerful, having a near-godlike control over the natural elements in the city. She can summon a storm with a thought or banish all disease with a wave of her hand, should she so wish. Those who seek her favor take a grave risk, however, as La Belle Dame never gives anything freely. She has no need of material possessions, but enjoys poetry, dance, music and other creative expressions – often trying to “keep” the mortals she discovers who are especially talented in these areas.

Marion About Town: Marion Greene is a popular local blogger, writing anything and everything about her city. What started as a way to occupy this single mother of two in between jobs has now become a career. She’s got dozens of contacts and VIP access to the most exclusive bars and clubs. And Marion’s a savvy journalist – she knows when to write, and, more importantly, when not to write. As a result, Marion’s cultivated a stellar reputation for discretion, which has in turn granted her higher-level access to more rareified parts of the city. There may be no one more informed about the hidden goings-on in the city than Marion. Getting her to spill the beans, though, is another matter entirely. She does have her kids to look out for, after all.

Danny Yu: Danny’s a working class fellow, helping run the family convenience store after getting his discharge from the Navy. Ever since returning to the neighborhood, however, he’s noticed how wrong a few things are… how people tend to vanish in Spencer Park or near the Blue Kitty. And Danny’s decided to do something about it. He’s founded the plain-sounding Neighborhood Watch Association. But it’s not thieves and burglars which Danny pursues – he and his compatriots defend their homes from a very different sort of peril. And they’re very, very good at it.
Trouble Brewing

Nan Versus the Developers: Nan’s Diner has come under a unique threat – a Triskelion-backed real estate developer wants to turn the whole block into live/work buildings for rich Millennials to inhabit. Nan’s got a chance to keep her diner, but only if she comes up with nearly half a million dollars by the end of the month to outbid the developer. Can a few of Nan’s friends fight gentrification with crowdfunding? And what might potential donors ask in return for their contribution?

Streetlight Vigilantes: Danny Yu is looking for new recruits to the Neighborhood Watch Association. After a perfunctory interview, he likes to take candidates on a midnight patrol through town, visiting all the known hotspots. Sometimes, established members of the Association will stage encounters to test a recruit’s potential. However, things spiral out of control in Spencer Park, when Danny, the Neighborhood Watch Association and the potential new members find themselves thorougly losing control of the situation.

Video Inaccessible: Marion Greene has started a new series on her blog, focusing on the city after midnight. Not only does she visit the late night hotspots, she’s started to augment her writing with video. Marion was filming herself at a taco truck when she caught… something in the background. Marion’s used to the wierd and unusual, but this a few orders of magnitude beyond that. And now the thing she filmed wants to erase not only the data, but Marion herself. She’s gone into hiding while trying to figure out how to get herself out of this mess.