St. Augustine

St. Augustine is the fictional city my brother and I set our games in. At the time, we played the HERO System. The following text was written by my brother, and is the original history of the city.

Some History of St. Augustine

In the real world, St. Augustine would be located in the small city of Winchester Bay in Oregon on the west coast of the United States, where the Smith and Umpqua Rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean.

I’m still not sure why I chose the site. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to create the campaign city on the west coast in an area neither myself or my players knew anything about. After digging out some old Car Wars map sheets, my sister and I started to lay out the city, naming streets and points of interest like City Hall, various post-secondary institutions, sports arenas, and other typical components of a large metropolitan city of 2 million.

Here, for the first time anywhere, is background information about the cornerstone of the Quantum Universe, St. Augustine.

The Beginning

Until after the second World War, the area that later became the City of St. Augustine was a collection of small towns and villages. After the war, the prosperity that returned to the United States led to the amalgamation of the towns in the area to form a small city that the residents of the area decided to call St. Augustine. (I patterned this amalgamation on the city I grew up in, Mississauga, which was created by joining several towns together)

Following the same patterns of growth in the rest of the country, St. Augustine grew rapidly during the 1950′s and 60′s. However, it appeared that St. Augustine had one thing going for it that only larger cities could boast: a large Harbinger population.

Before I go into more detail, I’ve decided not to dwell hugely on the past 30 years of St. Augustine history for several reasons. Firstly, I’d have to make it all up and I really don’t have the time so I tend to simply provide snapshots from the past when the players need some info about the past. St. Augustine’s history is locked up somewhere in my head so I can always find what I need but not the whole thing. Secondly, my own players very rarely seem to care about the city’s past as well. Perhaps it’s a sad statement on my generation’s apparent apathy towards history. Oh well.

In the mid 1960′s, a young man named Nicolas Karmichael, the only son of a wealthy real-estate developer, revealed that he was a Harbinger, dubbing himself Quicksilver due to his super-speed abilities. In his famous Fourth of July speech in 1966, he recalled why he chose to become a “superhero”:

“Although everything around us appears to be good, there will come a time when things aren’t so good. A time when chaos will reign on the streets of our city. A time when people like you and me will need protectors. It was my concern for the well-being of the people of St. Augustine that led me to decide to become St. Augustine’s protector, a role I have enjoyed for the past year.”

“There will be other men and women who have these so-called Harbinger abilities like myself. Not all of them will be on the side of good. We must be prepared to deal with them. We can create a society where Harbingers and regular folks can live together. It’s just going to take a lot of work.”

As a result of Quicksilver’s efforts, backed by the fortune that he inherited when his father died in a plane crash in 1967, St. Augustine was the first major city to have a special unit of its police force, now known as SAART, that was specially trained and equipped to handle Harbinger crimes.

Just as he had predicted, Quicksilver was not the only Harbinger who appeared. The late 1960′s saw a flurry of Harbinger activity, some of it fighting for good, some fighting for evil and some fighting for themselves. None proved more enigmatic than the vigilante known as Shroud. Having the ability to absorb light and heat around him, Shroud fought both heroes and villains, committing crimes and helping solve them. Shroud hasn’t been sighted since the late 1980′s, shortly after Quicksilver’s death. His motives where never clear, but it was certain that he had an agenda of his own that didn’t often coincide with Quicksilver’s.

The death of Quicksilver is an interesting story in itself. In 1989, Quicksilver had been making noises about retiring to private life and passing his legacy onto the Harbinger group known as the Protectorate. The Protectorate, the first real hero group in St. Augustine, was funded by the Quicksilver Foundation, the non-profit company formed by Quicksilver to help his own efforts to fight crime

The group comprised of energy projector and leader Solar Burst, the mage Talisman, UK-expatriate Cruciform and the light-based Milky Way. With Quicksilver as their mentor, they formed an exciting and effective team, battling Shroud, preventing an extra-dimensional invasion, and battling with the powerful mystical cult known as the Keepers of the Broken Circle.

On July 4th, 1989, while Quicksilver was making his traditional speech to the citizens of St. Augustine, he was killed in spectacularly bloody fashion by the Harbinger assassin known as Carnifex Rex. To this day, who hired Carnifex Rex is unknown (except to me of course) but it was obvious that whomever was responsible wanted to make a very public statement.

At the funeral of Quicksilver, the members of the Protectorate vowed to track down Carnifex Rex and bring him to justice. This was not to be. During the next three weeks, Carnifex Rex managed to brutally kill all the members of the Protectorate, also killing innocent bystanders in each instance.

But the story took a strange twist from this point. Carnifex Rex was then killed by an unknown assailant. Rumors flew furiously as to who it might have been. Some say it was Shroud’s gesture of friendship towards Quicksilver. Other stronger rumors persist that Carnifex Rex was killed by the man who would become known as Haven for stealing mystical artifacts from him. Another possibility is that Carnifex Rex was killed by another assassin seeking his name, since another Carnifex Rex is still active today but using different methods and displaying different abilities.

Once the Protectorate was gone, Harbinger crime rose dramatically, stretching the SAART (St. Augustine Action Response Team) to its limit, creating the various operations that gave the SAART that nickname Team Overkill.

During the period of 1992-1995, a man known as Haven incited a vicious underworld battle for St. Augustine, a battle in which he emerged as the victor. Haven’s motives aren’t always clear since he seems to help the police as often as he goes up against them. It has been rumored that Haven is really Shroud, but their powers do not appear to be the same. Either way, he is a powerful force to be reckoned with both in St. Augustine and on the western coast of North America.

In present-day, 1999 St. Augustine, things are a little different. St. Augustine recently passed the 2 million mark in population, fueled by hi-tech industry and sound city planning and budgetary management. The future appears bright.

On the Harbinger side, there seems to be little in the way of organized teams. The current Carnifex Rex pops up once in a while but always eludes escape. The ultra-violent Riot, following in the footsteps of the famous crooked cop killer Vindicator, appears to have teamed up with a hero known as Noir, displaying strange abilities thought to be based on necromantic powers. They are waging war on the city’s drug dealers and appear to be gaining ground.

Another small group of criminals have appeared, calling themselves the Wolf Pack. A highly-trained group of mercenaries, they have pulled off several very daring robberies and kidnappings.

Asian street gangs are making their presence known by using Harbinger enforcers like the Green Dragon, but are opposed by the mystical martial artist Iron Fist.

Other less publicized heroes and villains have been operating in St. Augustine. As game play in the various campaigns continues, they will be written up in more detail.

If you have any questions or just want to learn more or even give me some ideas, feel free to e-mail me. I always am happy to hear from people on their suggestions for improving both the universe and my campaign.

Chris Hartjes May 1, 1997

St. Augustine Sites & Locations of Interest

Regions in St. Augustine

Corinthian Heights

The Corinthian Heights is probably the most exclusive place to live in all of St. Augustine. Named by the wealthy Italian crime families who built their homes on the spit that extends out into the Pacific, there is a long waiting list and intense scrutiny by existing residents for anyone wishing to make it their home. Dominique Franchiscetti, head of the Aldomo crime family, lives at the tip of the spit on a huge estate that is traditionaly the home of the head of the Aldomo clan.

Sarnstron Hills

The northwest area of St. Augustine is Italian in flavour, being the home to the “Little Italy” of the city. Where the Italian elite of the city settled, the working class Italian families followed to help build their own little corner of Italy. Originally established by the family of Guillermo Sarnstron, who has of Italian descent from Switzerland, the area still has it’s unique flavour and many street and store signs are in Italian.

Northside

Bucher’s Bay

Black Hills

Trinity

Grey Park

Clarkson Gardens

Winchester Bay

Beckwith

Residential, high middle to upper class homes, extensive gardens.

Collins Heights

Rossdale

Riverside

Also called “The Triangle”, lower class, rundown homes & businesses.

Cliffwood

Mount Clysdale

The Docks

Downtown

Twin Forks

Hellford

Malibu Lake

Rawleigh

Waverley

Flinghaven

Elmsdale

New suburban style homes, most less than ten years old.

The Forked Tongue Indian Reservation

Umpqua State Park

Specific Locations of Interest

# Location Address
1 City Hall & Central Library 1 Grant Ave. East (Grant & Main)
2 Bank of Oregon 600 Grant Avenue East (Grant & 4th)
3 Police Headquarters 350 6th St. S.
4 Winchester Hotel 400 Fandago St. E.
5 FBI Headquarters 400 Columbia St. E.
6 First St. Augustine Bank 2000 22nd St.
7 Bank of America Tower 1350 1st Ave. N.
8 Stock Exchange 2000 1st Ave. N.
9 Mutual of Omaha Building 1900 1st Ave. N.
10 Twin Towers (and Machiavelli’s – restaurant) 500 – 550 Proctor Ave.
11 Museum of Crime 1400 Steeles Ave. E.
12 St. Augustine Convention Centre 650 Convention Way
13 Pendleton’s 200 Grant Ave. W.
14 Hospital 860 2nd St. N.
15 Shopping Centre
16 Union Hall 1450 Fandago St. W.
17 Raleigh Smith Memorial Square
18 Gray Park
19 Flinghaven Polutechnical Institute 3400 Gray St. E.
20 St. Augustine General Hospital 400 20th St. S.
21 Centennial University Library 6350 11th Ave. N.
22 Doctor’s Hospital 2000 Dohrman Ave.
23 Union College 1600 Dohrman Ave.
24 Veteran’s Hospital 3220 Prinesville Ave. W.
25 Art Gallery 3300 State Ave. W.
26 Museum of Science & Technology
27 Cliffwood Centre for the Arts
28 Hotel
29 Opera House
30 Welsh College
31 Institute of the Arts
32 Beckwith Castle & Botanical Gardens
33 Atwater Medical Centre
34 Southside Hospital
35 Hyland Park Horsetrack
37 Hyland Park Hospital
38 Northside Hospital
39 Harbour Commission
40 Coast Guard
41 Stockyard
42 Centennial Stadium
43 Brockway Park
44 Sports Medecine Centre
45 Willson Memorial Hospital Address
46 Eco-Chem Pharmaceuticals
47 Federal Repository
48 Umpqua Hospital
49 Observatory 1400 Dohrman Ave.
50 St. Augustine International Airport
51 College Park
52 Clarkson Gardens Amusement Park
53 Metropolitan Zoo
54 EPA Headquarters 450 3rd Ave.
55 Grimwald Square
56 Our Lady of Redemption (Roman Catholic)
57 Harigishu International
58 Lazertek of Oregon
59 Robotix Technologies
60 St. Augustine Active Response Team
61 Cooks Market
62 Park
63 Park
64 Park
65 Park
66 The Concert Hall 1460 1st Ave. S.
67 Mendleson Square
68 P.N.I. (Pacific Northwest Institues For Research Into Science & Technology)
69 Centennial University
70 Centennial Park
71 Mercury’s 555 Grant Ave. W.
72 St. Augustine Gentlemen’s Club 1480 5th Ave. N.
73 The Blue Tattoo 1020 3rd Ave. S.
74 Adelaide’s
75 Riverside Mental Health Centre
76 Dryden Prison
77 Pacific Northwest Paranormal Detention Centre (“Devil’s Island”) Off-coast, 3 miles west of PNI.
78 Christiansen Hall 200 Grant Ave. E.
79 The Fun House 1155 11th Ave. N.
80 High Rollers 795 Grant Ave. W.
81 Kitty Klub
82 Crime Alley
83 Franciscetti’s 550 Grant Ave. E.
84 Malibou Lake & Park
85 Mercury’s House 49th Ave. N.
86 Don Franciscetti’s Personal Residence 770 Athena Crescent
87 Mayor’s Residence 1550 Lincoln Ave. W.
88 Main Railyard for subway system
89 North Yard (secondary railyard for subway)
90 Mount Clysdale Museum of History
91 Jason’s On the Lake 1260 9th Ave. S.
92 St. Augustine Herald 260 Market St. W.
93 Daily Tribune 115 Market St. E.
94 MegaCorp Communcations
95 National Investigator 795 Main St. S.
96 Tempest Communications 770 4th St. S.
97 Nuclear Power Station
98 Fort Augustine
99 Club 96 2190 Grant Avenue West.
100 The Golden Dragon 1662 Hood Street
101 Oregon Confection Company
102 YMCA Hostel 220 20th Street South
103 Gray Street Women’s Shelter
104 PAX Tower

Descriptions:

Adelaide’s: One of the top three restaurants in St. Augustine.

Beckwith Castle:

The Blue Tattoo: A notorious biker bar.

Brockway Park: Domed stadium, astroturf, football only. Home of xxxxxxxxxxxx

Centennial Stadium: Open air stadium, natural grass, baseball only. Home of xxxxxxx

Christiansen Hall: Movie Theatre and entertainment complex.

Crime Alley: club

Fort Augustine: Army base

The Fun House: Dance club.

Gray Park: The old zoo, now turned into a park.

High Rollers: club

Jason’s On the Lake: one of the top three restaurants in town.

Kitty Klub: #1 strip club

MegaCorp Communications: location of WMEG TV and the Business Times newspaper.

National Investigator: tabloid

Nuclear Power Station: built completely underground

Mercury’s: Bar, named after and dedicated to the original Mercury.

St. Augustine Gentlemen’s Club: High-class private club (not a strip club).

Tempest Communications: publisher of Tempest Magazine

Twin Towers: Owned by the Franciscetti coporate empire. Machiavelli’s, one of the most popular (and most expensive) restaurants in St. Augustine, is located on the top floor of the west tower.

Union Hall: Hockey arena, home of the xxxxxxxx