Astoria Ley Lines & Places of Power

Old Town

• Gauntlet Rating: 4 (–2 to interacting)
• The Furthest Post: Locus ••• (Water Resonance) — The liminal spot where the furthest-out tip of Astoria touches the water of the Columbia is a locus of watery resonance. This locus is one of the old rotting dock-stumps that once held up a wooden dock. Now, it is merely the furthest-out post of rotting wood, which must be reached by swimming.
• Flavel House Museum: Locus •••• (Nostalgia Resonance) — The Flavel House Museum embodies and generates much of the Resonance that affects Old Town: a feeling of distinct nostalgia and longing for the past. Much of Old Town Astoria is focused on the past, which much of its tourism is based on, and that spirit finds its center at this museum.
• Hotel Regina: Hallow ••••• (Celestial Resonance) — An ancient and powerful Hallow, this sacred sites predates the construction of the Hotel. In its place once stood an arch of beautiful carved woods, with strange symbolism which even the local tribes left in peace. The first white men who came here called the area Babylon, after the arch, though politics changed the name to Astoria a short while later. The arches were torn down and the hotel constructed, but the Hallow remained, focusing itself into the upper corner room that overlooked the ocean and the sky above it. The Tass of the Regina accumulates in the form of stormwater gathered in the copper vessels on the roof and piped down to the Stargazing Room.

The Docks

• Gauntlet Rating: 4 (–2 to interacting)
• The Portway Street Pier and Marina: Barrens — The third of Astoria’s distinct docks and the marina next to it feature a tremendously thick Gauntlet (Rating 5; –3 to all interactions), lack of Resonance and generate no Essence anywhere within the area. For some reason, the entire place is spiritually dead. Werewolf powers and Spirit-based magics receive a –3 penalty to all activation rolls, and all other supernatural powers are performed at a –1. Emotional responses here are deadened, granting a +2 to resist frenzies, derangements and powers that cause emotional responses.
• The Port of Astoria: Locus •••• (Commerce Resonance) — The large plaque marked with the Seal of the Port of Astoria acts as the focal point for the Commerce Resonance that flows through this are. It is probably one of the oldest loci in the city yet existing and attracts both spirits of commerce and water elementals from the river, who’ve supped at this font often enough to be tainted with the Resonance that makes them friendly towards ships and merchants.

The Hills

• Gauntlet Rating: 3 (–1 to interactions)
• The Old Fire Pit: Locus ••• (Lust Resonance) — In the hills, shielded by the trees and away from the road is the Old Fire Pit. No one really knows how long it’s been here – every generation knows that the generation before it seemed to use it, too. For decades, though, it’s been the place where adolescents sneak away to at night. Someone lights a bonfire in it, someone else brings something to get drunk or high on, someone else brings something to make some music. In no time, kids are seated on the long wooden logs set up in a circle around the stone-lined pit, making out. More than one perfectly respectable citizen of Astoria was conceived up here, after a night of revelry.
• Hurricane Hill: Locus ••••• (Wind Resonance) — The kids who live nearby Hurricane Hill love this place. It’s always windy, seeming to catch just the perfect sea breeze coming in off the water at nearly any hour of the day. It’s an ideal kite-flying spot, as the top of the hill itself is devoid of trees (none can grow in the fierce winds here) and the wind is guaranteed to snatch up a kite and keep it in the air as long as you care to hold on to it.
• The Wellon House: Hallow ••• (Guardianship Resonance) — The impressive Victorian Wellon House has seen generations of individuals who have taken the protection of others as their main goal in life. Police chiefs, bodyguards, EMTs and even vigilantes have all lived here at one point in time; for a while, it even served as a temporary fire department for the houses in these hills until a real one could be constructed nearby. The Wellon House is currently occupied by the mage named Qurbani, who helps to watch the community against supernatural threats. The Tass of the Wellon House accumulates in the roses that grow around and against it, snaking in thorny vines up the side of the house.

New Town

• Gauntlet Rating: 3 (–1 to interactions)
• The Gate of Silver and Rust: Catalyst — Sitting astride the powerful Commerce- and Nostalgia-resonanced ley line that runs the circuit through Astoria is a strange sight: a pair of posts, seemingly grown out of the ground itself in Twilight, crafted entirely of gleaming silver and deep red-umber rust. This gate marks the place where two ley lines intersect, and the transformative powers of the Hill Ley combine with the thick Resonance of the Astoria Ley Line to create a catalyst: a place of spiritual transformation. Spirits who are pulled through the gate become reshaped to better fit the prevailing Commerce and Nostalgia resonances here, and even the local humans feel its effects: it is no accident that members of the chamber of commerce, local Better Business Bureaus and historical preservation societies make their homes here (anyone with Willpower of less than 5 who moves here takes on that theme). The Gauntlet is a 2 here (–0 to interactions).
• The Yokona Place Round: Locus ••• (Pride Resonance) — In one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Astoria sits a simple roundabout dead end, with four large, beautiful houses arrayed around it. The people who live here take a great deal of pride in their neighborhood and their houses, and are very careful to maintain the integrity of their Yokona Place street. In the center of this round stands a fancy lamppost, an antique preserved from Astoria’s earliest days, which has become the center of this potent Pride-resonanced locus.
• The Wild Place: Locus ••••• (Forest Resonance) — The children who attend Astoria Middle School know to avoid the woods just outside of their campus. They whisper to one another about the bad things that happen there, and each generation has its own ideas of what is hiding in the woods: witches, serial killers, Satanists, boogeymen. They all know that there is wildness beyond the edge of the woods, and they are right – not too deep into this forest sits a massive old sycamore tree of gargantuan size, which is the locus for the Forest-resonance locus found here. Its radius is large enough to encompass part of the school, and many of its children have dreams of wild green places, where the trees watch those who move beneath them.
• The Astor Column: Hallow ••• (Vision Resonance) — The Astor Column is based on the Column of Trajan, and is 125 feet tall, with an observatory at the top. The Astor Column is also a Hallow, with a resonance of Vision. To those with Mage Sight, not only does the power of the hallow burn brightly (as its resonance lends itself to being detected, in addition to being quite useful for sensing other phenomena), but the base of the column burns with Atlantean names, approximately a dozen or so, where generations of mages have Awakened and the Column played a role in the Mystery Play. Its Tass accumulates as pieces of paper that those who climb the steps accidentally drop, all of them with someone’s name handwritten on them, a piece of sympathy to the role the Column has played in Awakenings over the years.

Ley Lines

• The Astoria Crescent Ley Line: (Commercial - Nostalgia Resonance) In truth, this ley line forms a rough circle that encompasses Astoria and Warrenton, its power flowing in a clockwise direction. The Commercial resonance from the Port of Astoria flows along the main industrial areas of Astoria, beginning to blend with the Nostalgia of the Flavel House Museum in Old Town, mingling to create the perfect resonance for the growth of tourism in Astoria. This ley line intersects with the strange energies of the Hill Ley, giving rise to the Gate of Silver and Rust.
• The Hill Ley Line: (Guardianship - Vision Resonance) This ley line connects two primary sites: the Wellon House and the Astor Column, flowing down from the column to the Wellon House, and the cascading downhill until it meets with the Youngs Ley Line. The Vision resonance of the Column meets the Guardianship at the Wellon House, creating a cordon of resonance dedicated to the wise defense of Astoria, before being swept up into the raw elemental power of the Youngs Ley.
• The Clatsop Ley Line: (Mixed Resonances) An ancient line of power preserved by the Clatsop tribe, this ley line connects sites that were considered sacred before the coming of men. This line once joined with the Elemental Ley, linking the Hurricane Hill and Wild Place loci, until the development of the Yokona Place Round, which diverted its flows toward the mainland. This ley line flows in from the bay, with the Port of Astoria’s Commercial resonance mingling with the Lust resonance of the Old Fire Pit, creating a nurturing resonance along that line that has seen many generations of prosperous families raised there. That resonance is wholly subsumed by the Wind resonance of Hurricane Hill, however. Much of it diffuses, due to the nature of that energy, and when the line crosses through the Yokona Place Round, it carries much of that Pride resonance away down that line into the mainland.
• The Elemental Ley Line: (Water - Forest Resonance) Arcing off of the great Columbia Ley due to the Furthest Post, the Elemental Ley is a river of raw power, pure and elemental as its name suggests that carries potent Water resonance through Old Town and feeds the Forest resonance in and around the Wild Place before continuing onto the mainland to touch on several other loci of pure elemental power, culminating in the great Saddle Mountain, a place of power for the Clatsop Indians.
• The Columbia Ley Line: (Mixed Resonance) This ley line flows along the Columbia River. Its strong Water resonance is greatly mingled with Commerce and Travel resonances. This flows toward the ocean.
• The Youngs Ley Line: (Water Resonance) Though not as powerful as the Columbia Ley, the Youngs Ley, which flows toward the ocean, actually has much purer Water resonance than the Columbia Ley.