<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Locations]]></title><description><![CDATA[Points of Interest in Chicago]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/category/19</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 14:43:59 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://forum.tgrpg.com/category/19.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:43:51 GMT</pubDate><ttl>60</ttl><item><title><![CDATA[Hellpit - South Side Chicago Industrial Area - Abyssal Verge]]></title><description><![CDATA[Perception Across the Worlds
To Mages (Mage: the Awakening 2e):
The things at the center, seen through Mage Sight, it is an anti-symbol, a void where Supernal resonance collapses. Death mages feel its pull like a black hole dragging their souls forward; Matter mages see the world’s lattice corroding around it. To gaze too long upon it risks Wisdom degeneration—the mind rebels against the idea that this could exist.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/276/hellpit-south-side-chicago-industrial-area-abyssal-verge</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/276/hellpit-south-side-chicago-industrial-area-abyssal-verge</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:43:51 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Buck&#x27;s Diner]]></title><description><![CDATA[Buck's Diner - The neon sign over the door just says BUCK’S—no apostrophe, one tube burned out so it flickers like it’s thinking about quitting. It’s the kind of place you only find if you need it, or if you’ve been coming there for twenty years.
The diner straddles the edge of downtown and the Near West Side, close enough to the Loop to catch cops, hospital night staff, and insomniacs, but far enough out that no one’s trying to impress anyone. Buses hiss past the fogged windows, the L rattles somewhere overhead, and at night the place feels insulated from the city—like the noise hits the glass and just… stops. Dante wants to make Buck's neutral ground, a blind spot in Chicago’s supernatural geography, where secrets stay put as long as you finish your coffee and don’t make trouble.
NPC: Buck - Large, broad-shouldered man with a permanent pot belly, balding, greasy dark hair clinging to the sides and back, five o’clock shadow that never quite goes away, dirty white T-shirt under a stained cook’s apron, smells faintly of bacon grease, burnt coffee, and cigarettes, and a thick Chicago working-class accent.
Mean by default, not cruel — sharp tongue, zero patience, treats customers like they’re inconveniencing him personally, hates outsiders: suits, college kids, tourists, anyone who looks like they won’t finish their food, once you’re “his,” though, he’s fiercely loyal. Will lie to cops, cover for regulars, and remember favors forever.
Runs the grill himself on night shift, knows every regular’s order without asking, keeps the coffee bad on purpose — “keeps people honest”, and has an uncanny safe for when trouble is about to walk through the door.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/274/buck-s-diner</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/274/buck-s-diner</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:05:07 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[House of Shadows - The Greathouse [Mage Sanctum outside of the city]]]></title><description><![CDATA[House Shadowman – Overview
Herman the Shadowman's estate
Location: Secluded estate outside Chicago, hidden within dense woods and magically veiled from mundane detection. Accessible via a hidden road or magical portal.
Purpose:
Central hub for supernatural trade, research, and teaching.
Hosts monthly Goblin Markets and occasional arcane auctions.
Serves as a laboratory and spirit-binding sanctuary.
Acts as a secretive network node linking Chicago mages and outside supernatural contacts.
Physical Layout
1. Outer Grounds
Magical Wards: Multiple layers of concealment wards, illusion fields, and spirit guardians to obscure the estate.
Sentinel Spirits: Patrol the perimeter and report intruders to Herman’s students.
Grove &amp; Gardens: Used for experiments with life magic, creating unusual plants, hybrid creatures, and ritual spaces.
2. Main House
Entrance Hall: Grand, deceptive in simplicity, lined with mirrors and sigils to confuse uninvited guests.
Library &amp; Archives: Hundreds of rare books, grimoires, and magical manuals; also serves as a repository for artifacts traded in the Goblin Market.
Laboratories: Separate labs for alchemy, life magic, and spirit experimentation. Each is enchanted with protective wards.
Spirit Sanctum: Circular chamber for binding and communing with spirits. Protected by powerful barriers and complex ritual circles.
Private Quarters: Herman’s personal chambers, heavily warded, with artifacts and experimental lifeforms.
Council Room: Where Herman occasionally meets trusted students or visiting mages for negotiations.
3. Goblin Market Areas
Market Square: Open, magically reconfigurable courtyard that hosts stalls and displays. Layout changes slightly each month for security.
Trade Vaults: Underground chambers where rare artifacts, magical ingredients, and forbidden items are stored for secure transactions.
Auction Hall: Hidden chamber beneath the estate, only accessible by trusted participants. Features a magical appraisal system that evaluates the true value of items (sometimes intangible, such as favors or secrets).
4. Student &amp; Staff Quarters
Dormitories and offices for Herman’s students who run day-to-day operations.
Students are specialized: some handle trade, some research, some magical security, and some spirit management.
Secret passages allow them to move without being seen by outsiders or market visitors.
Operational Network
A. Students / Lieutenants
Tess “Wraith” Donovan – Oversees Goblin Market operations and maintains the illusionary protections during events.
Elias Vorn – Auction master, handles appraisal, bidding, and trade enforcement.
Mira Kael – Spirit liaison, manages bound spirits for intelligence and security.
Juno Fahey – Life magic specialist, maintains experimental gardens and hybrid creatures.
Rafe Carrow – Artifact and information broker, negotiates favors and obscure trades with visiting mages.
B. Trade Network
Monthly Goblin Market: Public-facing, allows interaction with mages, spirits, and supernatural beings for small items or favors.
Special Auctions: Invite-only, high-stakes trade for powerful artifacts, lifeforms, or secrets. Payment can be rare objects, magical energy, personal promises, or even memories.
Information Brokerage: Herman maintains connections across Chicago and beyond, exchanging intelligence, magical secrets, and supernatural rumors through his students.
C. Magical Security
Wards &amp; Illusions: Multiple layers protect against intruders, divination, and magical spying.
Sentinel Spirits: Patrol estate grounds and report breaches.
Hidden Exits &amp; Portals: Secret escape routes and teleportation points for emergencies.
Student Oversight: Students act as both managers and security enforcers, ensuring the estate’s operations run smoothly and safely.
Flow of Operations
Visitors arrive via hidden paths, checked by wards and illusions.
Market &amp; trade activity is monitored by students; Herman only intervenes directly if critical.
Auctions require personal clearance from Elias or Herman’s trusted intermediaries.
Research &amp; Experiments continue largely out of sight, feeding discoveries back into the trade network.
Spirits &amp; Lifeforms provide surveillance, protection, or assistance during transactions.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/81/house-of-shadows-the-greathouse-mage-sanctum-outside-of-the-city</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/81/house-of-shadows-the-greathouse-mage-sanctum-outside-of-the-city</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:07:54 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Major Locales - Influence Nodes]]></title><description><![CDATA[Area	Influence Type	Notes
The Loop / Downtown	 Political, financial	City hall, banks, corporate HQs; Marcus Calder manipulates campaigns and deals here.
Magnificent Mile	Media &amp; commerce	Leila Nguyen’s media offices; shopping districts used for surveillance.
University of Chicago / Hyde Park	Arcane research	Obrimos and Thyrsus research teams; magical libraries and labs.
West Side / Industrial District	Industrial &amp; trade	Control over shipping, warehouses, and local unions.
South Side / Bronzeville	Intelligence	Surveillance network and recruitment for magical operatives.
River North / Nightlife District	Vampire interface	Neutral zones for vampire-mage negotiations; subtle influence over night economy.
O’Hare &amp; Midway Airports	Travel &amp; mobility	Magical portals for secure travel; wards against tracking.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/77/major-locales-influence-nodes</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/77/major-locales-influence-nodes</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:50:06 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Edgewater Penthouse - Vampire Meeting Place and Elysium [safe place]]]></title><description><![CDATA[Diplomatic HQ
Vampire &amp; mortal negotiations
Neutral zone; designed to impress visiting dignitaries and vampire emissaries. Managed by Marcus Calder.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/76/edgewater-penthouse-vampire-meeting-place-and-elysium-safe-place</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/76/edgewater-penthouse-vampire-meeting-place-and-elysium-safe-place</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:49:22 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[South Side Loft – Bronzeville - Mage Location open to Pentacle [shared sanctum]]]></title><description><![CDATA[A large apartment on the South Side that the New York mages have set up to surveil the city and many of its denizens. Pentacle mages to visit and ask Cyrus to watch specific areas or targets for them, or to set up temporary bases for their own operations.
This is a sanctum created by one of the previous denizens of the city who has been missing since the Blackout. The current Concillium uses it as a shared sanctum and demense that those in need can use.
Covert Operations
Surveillance, intelligence collection
Packed with scrying devices and mundane cameras; Cyrus Blackwood’s primary base.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/75/south-side-loft-bronzeville-mage-location-open-to-pentacle-shared-sanctum</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/75/south-side-loft-bronzeville-mage-location-open-to-pentacle-shared-sanctum</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:49:04 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[West Loop Vault – Riverbank]]></title><description><![CDATA[A group of offices in the west loop mid way up one of the massive business buildings squatting in the area.
The primary offices are used by Selene and the Silver Ladder to manage the banking and investment in the city, and to investigate the finances of the missing mages to try and protect them. There are offices here for rent by any Pentacle mages or friendly visitors who may need access to the downtown.
The Elevator has a spirit that when properly addressed will take the riders to the 13th floor where the offices reside.
Rize - technology spirit - Rank 2 - an electronics and elevator spirit fed by the local mages who has become a pet. Rize is intelligent to a point, but like most greater gafflings, is still very animalistic and instinctive.
Financial HQ
Magical banking, funding campaigns
Hidden in a corporate high-rise, access only via enchanted elevator. Managed by Selene Martinez.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/74/west-loop-vault-riverbank</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/74/west-loop-vault-riverbank</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:48:52 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[North Side Mansion – Lincoln Park]]></title><description><![CDATA[Secondary HQ
Residences for senior mages
Ward-protected, secluded gardens. Safehouse for Adamantine Arrow Rowan.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/73/north-side-mansion-lincoln-park</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/73/north-side-mansion-lincoln-park</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:48:37 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Veil Tower – Downtown Loop]]></title><description><![CDATA[Main Headquarters for the Mage Concilium
Arcane labs, council meetings, political planning
Modern skyscraper with magical wards, hidden floors, enchanted elevators. Symbolic seat of power.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/72/the-veil-tower-downtown-loop</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/72/the-veil-tower-downtown-loop</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:48:16 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Navy Pier &#x2F; Lakefront]]></title><description><![CDATA[Neutral ground — or so it seems.
--- Haunted by drowned whispers and reflective shadows.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/61/navy-pier-lakefront</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/61/navy-pier-lakefront</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:28:46 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[University of Chicago]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ordo Dracul research hub.
--- Rationalism meets heresy; mortals vanish in experiments.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/60/university-of-chicago</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/60/university-of-chicago</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:28:25 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Logan Square &#x2F; Wicker Park]]></title><description><![CDATA[Crimson Dawn territory. (Carthian faction)
Hip, restless neonates staging underground rallies.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/59/logan-square-wicker-park</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/59/logan-square-wicker-park</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:28:07 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[South Side (Near the River)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Circle of the Crone territory.
--- Abandoned factories repurposed as ritual grounds.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/58/south-side-near-the-river</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/58/south-side-near-the-river</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:27:42 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bronzeville]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sanctified center — old churches and crypts.
--- Faithful mortals unknowingly serve as thralls.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/57/bronzeville</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/57/bronzeville</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:27:22 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Loop (Downtown)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Invictus stronghold — Prince’s haven in a restored high-rise.
--- Cold, corporate, eerily quiet after midnight.
]]></description><link>https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/56/the-loop-downtown</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.tgrpg.com/topic/56/the-loop-downtown</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaimuund]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2025 01:27:03 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>