Fort Snelling
The true story behind Fort Snelling actually rather simple; it is a failed attempt
at summoning an extraplanar being into existence. This summoning occurred one
night by a group of students that had agreed to watch the fort against trespassers
during the evening hours. The summoning was successful, but the binding of the
spirit was not. The result was a toxic spirit with the souls of all of the tortured
spirits form the Fort's past.
In a nutshell, a group of unpracticed individuals with very little magical talent attempted to do something even experienced mages should not have attempted. The only good they did before the spirit devoured them was to bind the spirit to a brick in the fort. Had the government been successful in its bulldozing attempt, the brick might have been destroyed in the process, and therefore the spirit.
The government has declared the fort off limits, except to their most powerful mages and other consultants. Unfortunately, these mages have only gotten as far as to enlist the help of the remaining ghosts in the fort. Originally the ghosts stood watch over the city, as they had for centuries before. These ghosts are not pleased with the intrusion of this spirit, and have agreed to help in any way possible. Although the end may be near, it might be years before the ghosts of the fort are allowed to watch over the cities again.
The Blackness also is attempting to free itself but recruiting magical support. It does this through an extended form of telepathy used to draw its victims to itself. If it can find a mage powerful enough to draw into its control, it will free itself and begin a reign of destruction on the Twin Cities area.
The Mall of America (aka The Citadel of
Archaric):
The group Archaric's Web is a large coven of vampires with a secret
agenda to create their own pocket societies around the world. The Web
also doubles as an initiate group for the vampires involved. The first
Citadel in their proposed new world was created from the Mall of America
because of its prime location next to a desperate population. Their
growth has been slow, but steady and although not at their original
projections, they have been very prosperous.
Archaric's web is run by Archaric, an elder vampire with ties to almost every large corporation and criminal organization within the world. He is a highly intelligent individual with centuries of experience behind him. His desire to control a society created in his own image is second only to his insanity. He rules Archaric's Web with an iron fist demanding the most stringent respect from it's members.
On the exterior there seem to be many changes. First of all there is a large moat with many large and hungry creatures (Archaric keeps them that way). The exterior walls are far too steep to climb, and are made of a sheer metal. There are gun ports at 50 meter intervals, and other traps and hazards on the interior grounds, many of which involve paranormals. Other than that, the outside of the mall has been overgrown with a magically active ivy that blocks all astral intrusions.
The inside of the Mall of America has changed little in its transformation to The Citadel of Archaric. The vampire coven transformed the top level into separate apartments, but left the layout of the rest of the mall unchanged for their "games." Unchanged is a relative term of course. The nature of the games have allowed some significant changes to the terrain, adding barriers, rubble, and other traps, but the floor layout has not changed at all. Once a month the vampires stage series of games for entertainment as well as for the capture of pot