Continuing on with Whistleleaf City’s important individuals and groups, we come to the topic of…
Big Business
“Men make it such a point of honour to be fit for business that they forget to examine whether business is fit for a man.” – George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, “Moral Thoughts and Reflections,” Complete Works (Oxford:1912), p. 231.
Big money-spinners are prime targets for schemers both in The Scene and out of it. A typical conflict can grow out of two or more factions feuding with each other over who gets to take the biggest cut of the profits.
Graf-Sano Metropolitan Bank
This two-story gleaming smoked-glass modern building is owned by a very wealthy local. The bank’s staff are all normal humans ignorant of the occult, the place has 30 white collar employees, it hires 8 security guards (half that are patrolling when banking hours are over) which are modelled as Generic NPCs, assume 15-25 customers are in the bank during normal work hours. The main features of the bank that are relevant to adventures are the safety deposit boxes and the vault. (Any sort of treasure or MacGuffin can be stored inside them.)
Tellers are protected by bulletproof glass in an enclosed area accessed via security desks. Every teller desk has a panic button under the counter for the silent alarm. Response time from the police is rapid, only 1d minutes. Security cameras are in almost every room, the feed going directly to the security centre and backed-up to the network mainframe. The vault door is extra heavy (and the surrounding wall is reinforced), locked with extremely secure systems, and carefully guarded. Roll down gates with excellent locks are also installed and used by the security staff to foil robberies. Other internal doors are less sturdy and their locks are easier to bypass, but they still boast decent quality on both fronts. The external doors are even weaker, but they don’t really need to be, as any further intrusion into important parts of the bank are more secure. A standard trick for dealing with armed robbers is slipping an exploding dye pack into bags of money being stolen.
(There is an useful map of a large metropolitan bank in the D20 Modern book Critical Locations, I recommend using it if you can get a hold of that book.)
December Trucking Company
The highway that goes by Whistleleaf City is a major trade route reaching all across the state and beyond. Hauling freight up and down those midnight roads and across the state borders is the business of December Trucking Company, which hires 2500 local people, makes a lot of profit and thus wields a lot of clout as a respectable “job creator”. (About 25 of those employees are involved with The Scene on some level, perhaps using their job as a cover for some sinister activity.) The business is owned by a local millionaire investor, it is operated day-to-day by a completely mundane board of directors. (None of the company’s leadership are be Clued-In about the occult, even if any of them are crooked.) The trucks used by the company have the same stats as per the 2 ½-Ton Truck on B464, drivers have the skill Driving (Heavy Wheeled) at a level of 12-14. Truckers can be involved in smuggling (both in and out of Whistleleaf), hired by criminals to transport illegal cargo. They might traffic drugs, human beings, magical artefacts or bootleg sportswear merchandise. Busting one trucker making a criminal delivery can provide a major lead to a wider conspiracy or crime network. The company’s office and depot, where the cargo is loaded, unloaded and stored in a warehouse, is located in an industrial district near the edge of city limits.
Carlyle Logging Co.
One of Whistleleaf’s most controversial and prominent businesses, Carlyle Logging Company is owned by the powerful Carlyle family and employs 15000 people living in Whistleleaf. It is constantly struggling with the city’s government, the state government regulations and the loggers’ union over its business practices, taxes and profits. (If anyone ever managed to fully open the books on the company’s internal workings, it could land a bunch of rich people in hot water,) The company’s board of directors handle running the business from the top-down, reporting to the Carlyles on matters of crisis or notable successes. None of the company’s leadership know anything about magic or monsters. That being said, the workers on the ground have brushed up against the unnatural during the course of their job; there are plenty of monsters who lurk in the woods and have decided that the loggers make for easy prey. Not many have survived their encounters, or figured out what exactly they were attacked by, but the stories are still whispered in the blue collar bars.
(GMs who have the Action 5: Dictionary of Danger book can reference the “R is for Resource Extraction” section for logging sites.)
The Julian Hotel
This 5-story hotel with attached restaurant, 2 ballrooms, gift shop, mail room and kitchen is a 4-star establishment catering to the richest visitors to Whistleleaf, located in the heart of the upscale central business district. The security system is state-of-the-art, surveillance cameras watch over all the entrances and most areas. The lobby has 4 desk clerks, 6 bellhops and 4 plain-clothes security (stat as Security Guard Generic NPC) working alongside the concierge and manager around the front desk. The lobby’s restaurant has chefs, hostesses, waiters, and bus boys attending to diners. There is ATMs, decorative fountains and marble sculptures in the lobby. Elevators and stairs allow guests to go to their rooms after check-in.
Although none of the staff are involved with The Scene or even mundane illegal activity, it is certainly possible a guest of the hotel could be checking in as they prepare to play a part in a conspiracy or crime.
(There is an useful map of a hotel lobby with fancy restaurant in the D20 Modern book Critical Locations, I recommend using it if you can get a hold of that book.)
River Cruises
Whistleleaf City’s nearby freshwater fronts are Lake Piquetta, Siskiyou River and Crescent River. Aside from the usual trading shipments by boat done through these waterways, locals have set up successful tourist businesses in the form of voyages up and down the rivers and around the lake, shoving off and stopping back at the Whistleleaf docks. Most river cruise businesses are owned by members of the Whistleleaf upper crust, some are done by small time middle class. The bigger cruises offer features like fully stocked bars, music concerts, restaurants and gambling. The river cruise boats carry from 10 to 100 passengers per outing depending on the exact cruise line. A Whistleleaf river cruise costs $300 to $400 per person per night. A given cruise may be on the water for 30 minutes to a full day. It is a popular leisure activity for the Whistleleaf up-and-coming (Wealth from Comfortable to Very Wealthy), so anyone trying to arrange a meeting with a mid-level mover-and-shaker should take a look at them. Any monsters lurking in the lake or on a nearby island might decide to attack a river cruise for various reasons.
Club Peppermint
Separate from the river cruises, another freshwater-borne notable business is Club Peppermint, an upscale nightclub based on a watercraft (the ship itself is named the S.S. Berry) doing shore excursions. The ship docks at Whistleleaf and takes patrons on at late afternoon, shoves off at about 8 PM, goes out onto the lake for the night, and returns to port at about 2 AM. The business has 2 smaller boats bringing patrons to and from the nightclub while the S.S. Berry itself is off-shore. Entrance is moderately exclusive, requiring not just a door fee but also a pat down (with metal detectors) by bouncers and “meeting standards” (the right Contact, Ally or Status 1+). The business is owned and managed by a rich but shady Whistleleaf local who has connections to The Scene and a few criminal enterprises. (At least some of the club’s security staff are magicians working for them.) The overall atmosphere and flavour of the club is a cutting edge and sleek modern establishment with the latest music played loud and fast, lots of drinking and discrete Scene machinations (powerful occultists often hold meetings at Club Peppermint) going on in the background. The fresh air and quiet dark nature out on the lake at night just makes the club’s liveliness stick out that much more.
The S.S. Berry is a small cruiseferry vessel that’s been lightly customised for nighttime entertainment. Club Peppermint features a central dance floor (with full music system and stage for a band), a bar serving alcoholic drinks, restrooms, a private meeting room, a manager’s office and other standard amenities seen in nightclubs. The entire venue is 2000 square feet big, allowing for a maximum of about 1200 patrons when the club is open.
The staff and regulars of Club Peppermint can be modelled with the templates found in Encounters: The Harrowed-Hearts Club pages 7-10, and the Generic NPCs for Security Guards, Occultists/Magicians and Crooks given in a previous blog post.
TO BE CONTINUED
Three Hundred and Thirty-Three 