April 2010
So here I am at last.
Chicago. The Windy City. Second City. The origin of the orignal cast of Saturday Night Live. The background locale for The Blues Brothers, Elliot Ness, The Fugitive, and Harry Houdini Blackstone Dresden.
That last one's kinda funny when you stop to think about it. The world's third most reknowned wizard of fiction (after Gandalf and Harry Potter) took up work-in-residence here. Did you know he was portrayed on television by an English actor? And here I am, an Irish lad from Boston being sent here. Ironic. Fateful? Hmmm.
The Boston Consilium - or at least my Order, the Adamantine Arrow - thought I could gain useful "cross-training" and teach others. I really think they wanted me out of the dark quiet racks of books, tomes and manuscripts and get some real world experience. Lend me out as a "research resource" to the Mages of Chicago in exchange for getting my feet really wet in combative Magick. Not that I'm not versed in combat. All those years in the Marines took care of that.
Chicago's Consilium is hidden within Union Station. Its Heirarch goes by the Shadow-name of Ba'al. It seems he has a really strange way of running things. In particular, he does not subscribe the ancient method of Mage Meritocracy with its Status. But regardless of his style, he has been effective - six years of little trouble in this Midwest City of Mages.
The Adamantine Arrow of Chicago is lead by one called Michael. I'll report to him now that I'm off the train. (Perhaps if I had sufficient Space Magic skills I might have just 'stepped' here from Boston; but the train ride, though long, was restful, and I spent my time reading up on 'local culture'.) Fortunately, the Arrow Barracks is immediately nearby so I won't have any trouble with the meager luggage I carry - some clothes and tools of the trade. The majority of my research books I can send for later once I am settled.
For now, hello Chicago! Home of the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Musuam of Science and History, Sears Tower (wait, it was sold a few years ago, wasn't it?), the Cubs (boo!), the Bears (hiss!), and - do they even have a hockey team? And if it doesn't have an ocean, at least it does has a major Lake.
So I have to wonder, what possible kind of trouble will I land into here?
