MUNICIPAL to RAVENSGATE

MUNICIPAL to RAVENSGATE

Municipal History & Industry Museum (Old Throckmorton Hall):

This stately, cathedral-like building at the corner of Broadway and John Quincy Adams Parkway was the original City Hall. Now, it houses a plethora of curios and oddities—including “BOTTLE BILL” d’AMBROSIO’s gold-trimmed armored limousine and the “time machine” the poor demented JERICHO THROCKMORTON attempted to build before he was institutionalized. Most of the exhibits center around how timber, steel and beer built Ravensgate—and how steel, timber, beer and high technology are maintaining it.

Muth, Ross Davidson (1955-):

Great-grandson of the founders of the ROSS-MUTH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, he was the chairman of the Ross-Muth Charitable Trust until 2003. An Exalted Pillar of Wisdom in the AL-AMARJA SHRINE TEMPLE until the FOREST CREST raid, he’s now guest of the Federal government on racketeering, murder, rape and kidnapping charges.

Muth, Throckmorton Phineas (1957-):

Great-grandson of the founders of the ROSS-MUTH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, he was the chairman of the Ross-Muth Charitable Trust until 2003. An Exalted Pillar of Wisdom in the AL-AMARJA SHRINE TEMPLE until the FOREST CREST raid. Now, he’s a guest of the Federal government on racketeering, murder, rape and kidnapping charges.

Nash, Associate Justice Jennifer:

Mother of JACK NASH, Jennifer Nash was a trial attorney in the Willamette Valley town of McMinnville until she was elected to the Oregon State Supreme Court in 1998. She is very protective of her family, and it is believed that the damage done to the family farm by Jack’s friends prompted her to pull him out of COLLEGIUM CAINE.

Nash, Jonathan Crane:

Father of JACK NASH, Jonathan Nash is a high-level executive in NEHALEM AMALGAMATED PLASTICS. He is an Executive VP and General Manager of their Vernonia plant.

Nash, Jonathan Crane Jr. (Jack):

Son of JONATHAN and JENNIFER NASH, Jack was a student at Collegium Caine until June 2002. After a wild party he and his schoolmates held at the family farm near McMinnville, his parents decided to pull him out of the school. He is now a freshman at Linfield College.

Nehalem Amalgamated Plastics:

Founded in 1947 with THROCKMORTON STEEL war revenue, this is one of the cornerstones of THE THROCKMORTON GROUP. It has plants in 17 states and 11 foreign nations.

Ninth-Dimensional Man:

A mysterious “hero” with mysterious displacement powers, he was exposed in 2002 as an accomplice of THE SOMNAMBULIST and currently awaits trial in the Sedation & Power-Damping Ward of the SHERIDAN FEDERAL REGIONAL STRONGHOLD.

O’Muir, Samuel Solomon (Whiskey Sam):

This “labor organizer” and “human resources ombudsman” for d’Ambrosio Shipping and Distribution is a teetotaler, hence his odd nickname. He’s a key business partner of GIUSEPPE SPANNO, ALPHONSE TORCHIA and PAUL VINCENSE, but his exact function has yet to be ascertained. He is known to poke fun at his Irish-Jewish heritage: “The reason I don’t drink anymore, Paulie, is that I once got so drunk I burned a cross on my own lawn.”

Oregon Journal MediaCorp (1016 Broadway S.W.):

JEAN-PIERRE d’AUBAINE formed this company in 1979 for the sole purpose of purchasing Portland’s Oregon Journal and moving it to Ravensgate to sink the muckraking Ravensgate Mercury News. He succeeded. Now, the company supplements The Ravensgate Oregon Journal with KOJ-TV, KOJ-AM and –FM, RGCN (Ravensgate Cable News) and Nehalem Bay Cable. This company owns or prints three-quarters of the media outlets in Ravensgate.

Paladin:

A co-founder of TEAM HYPERION, Paladin was a second-generation superhero. The flying brick was killed in the 1993 explosion of the team’s airplane.

Paladin Noir:

This is the former Brother Knight, a flying energy-projecting brick of such power that he is only a part-time member of TEAM HYPERION. He’s now spending half his time with JUSTICE FORCE ONE and the War On Terrorism. He can bench-press 65 tons, has a punch to match, can go orbital at Mach 48, has some control over energy in the cosmic-ray spectrum, and can shrug off a direct hit from a surface-to-air missile. Carrying a commanding presence, PN acts as the conscience of the team and its city—when he’s in town.

Palomar, Margaret:

A mechanical savant, she is the Maintenance Director and Machine Shop Instructor for COLLEGIUM CAINE.

Parkins, Marvin (Sergeant Safari):

Parkins is a patrol supervisor and RAPID ARMED INTERVENTION DIVISION reserve in Mid-North Precinct under Captain GEORGE DIEM. His integrity is debatable, and his history of officer-involved shootings is spotty. Nearly every other sergeant of his seniority level moved up the command chain after the POLICE STRIKE OF 2002.

Paulsen, William (Guillermo Pagliacci):

Billy Paulsen is the thoroughly looped leader of the RAVENSGATE KLOWN KOLLEGE—also called the Pagliacci Gang and the Insane Klowns. They are a force to be reckoned with in the Inner Canal, and they may be enforcers for the RAVENSGATE CRIME COMMISSION. Paulsen was captured in February 2002 after THE FOUNDRY and SIMON ETIENNE LEGBA stopped a Klown Kollege raid on MARLEY’S. He is in the SHERIDAN FEDERAL REGIONAL STRONGHOLD, awaiting trial on charges he killed a federal prosecutor with a potato gun.

Phase ALPINE:

ALPINE stands for Accelerated Learning Program in Networked Enforcement. It is a facet of COMETPRO whereby the FBI and Office of Homeland Security train metahuman agents. Over two-thirds of the metahumans in ALPINE are (a.) operatives of other local, state or federal police agencies or private superhero groups and (b.) have no idea they are in this highly-classified program.

Pickett, Samuel Houston (Hoss):

A former Delta Force commando and El Paso-area school administrator, Pickett is the Chancellor of Public Instruction for the RAVENSGATE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Pizza Dojo (five locations in the Nehalem-Tillamook Metroplex):

This odd pizzeria-Asian restaurant is popular in middle-income neighborhoods. The original Pizza Dojo served only Chicago-style pizza until the late 1970s, when the Shinmen and Ishii families took over and added Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian cuisine.

Our advice: order the Mongolian Beef pizza but eat it there. The crust gets soggy real fast.

Police Strike of 2002 (April-May):

See also APRIL FOOL’S DAY RIOTS, CITY HALL MASSACRE, RUST CITY MASSACRE. In 2002, a data disk thought long lost resurfaced courtesy of THE FOUNDRY. The disk implicated hundreds of Checkerheads in thousands of acts of corruption, and it resulted in the RBPS reorganizing and trimming one-third of its ranks due to the violent Police Strike of ’02. It also resulted in some Checkerheads attempting to assassinate Superintendent Philip Snow:

In March 2002, the RAVENSGATE POLICE GUILD threatened Snow and Mayor SALOME THROCKMORTON-d’AUBAINE with a general strike unless the city (a.) disbanded the SINCLAIR COMMISSION, (b.) reinstated the VIGILANTE REGULATION LAW, and (c.) allowed the RPG to conduct its own investigations into local corruption.
Snow and the mayor, who were election opponents at the time, refused to give in. The RPG set a strike deadline of April Fool’s Day, and the mayor countered by threatening to use her money and power to put striking cops “into General Population” at the state pen in Salem.
One-third of the police force walked off the job at the stroke of midnight 1 April 2002, just as Anarchists were rioting Downtown. Some strikers began making fake 911 and radio calls, and others went as far as firing on the STREET CRIMES UNIT as it attempted to search the Rust City Union Hall. The latter touched off the firefight that would become known as the RUST CITY MASSACRE.
Seventeen rogue cops joined in on the assassination attempt against Snow, which occurred near Brewers Field. THE FOUNDRY rescued Snow but were too late to save three of his bodyguards.

In the end, nearly 1100 Checkerheads—one-third of the force—ended their police careers in April 2002. Nearly two-thirds chose to resign or be fired rather than face criminal charges from corruption and/or walking off the job. More than two hundred are in legal limbo, pending their testimony before the Sinclair Commission. Another 150 are awaiting trial for state and Federal charges including racketeering, extortion, theft, bribery, assault, civil-rights and/or murder. The Ravensgate Police Guild was dissolved under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970.

‘Porter:

Member of THE FOUNDRY, this superhero’s exact powers and likeness are unknown.

Purloined Letters Bookstore (1200 W. Campbell Avenue):

This new-and-used independent mega-bookstore attempts three things: (1.) It tries to cash in on the mistaken belief that Ravensgate founder JOSAS POE THROCKMORTON was a distant relative of Edgar Allan Poe. (2.) It is a Powell’s City of Books wannabe. (3.) It also wants to be a coffeehouse. It almost succeeds at all three.

Purvis, Wilhelmina (Willy), M.Ed.:

A Golden Age superheroine as Freedom Girl, the sexagenarian is now the cook and humanities instructor for COLLEGIUM CAINE.

Pyro:

Member of THE FOUNDRY, this superhero’s exact powers and likeness are unknown.

Rainbow Serpent Books (602 N. 9^th Street):

Located adjacent to Marley’s, and connected via a common side-door, Odette Daviele’s bookstore is a treasure-trove of occult knowledge.

Rapid Armed Intervention Division (RAID):

RAID and its offshoot, ECM, are the Checkerheads’ SWAT teams. One handles generalized paramilitary-level threats to public safety, the other is a COMETPRO-trained anti-supervillain team. Sean Thomas “Tommy” Gunn, former RAID commander and current RBPS Chief of Operations, founded ECM. He also is responsible for the division’s controversial “Kills Perps Dead” T-shirt.

Raven Park (Commercial Blvd. & US Grant Avenue):

The home of crappy baseball since its gates first opened as Brewers Field, Raven Park is now home to the National League’s cellar-dwelling Ravensgate Ravens. A Canadian import, hailing from a place where there is no French word for “Selig,” the Ravens began play in April 2003 and were mathematically eliminated from the National League West pennant race in July.

The City of Ravensgate built this landmark in 1994 with the aid of the brewers’ consortium that owned the minor-league Ravensgate Brewers. It had been named Schludwiller Field, but that brewer had its name removed when the other owners refused to cut off alcohol sales after the seventh inning. Whenever opposing outfielders leap at the wall to rob homers, they get faces full of beer—-or a similarly colored substance-—from the Blitz Bums in the bleachers.

Ravensgate Crime Commission (RCC):

The Ravensgate Crime Commission first existed in the Roaring Twenties as a means to regulate the local bootlegging business. Despite the times, very few territorial disputes were settled violently in Ravensgate. It is widely believed that local bottling-plant tycoon, and Mayor of Ravensgate, GUILLERMO “Bottle Bill” d’AMBROSIO was its first chairman and that EMIL “THE SOMNAMBULIST” KERGILLIAN was its most recent.

Any modern-day incarnation of the RCC is believed to perform a similar function, and, when captured, EMIL KERGILLIAN, The Somnambulist, boasted of being its chairman. Whether the RCC is a separate entity from the 12 or 13 local crime families, or their regulating body, is unknown at this time. It is also unknown as to whether the Ravensgate Police Guild had a seat on the commission, or whether the Throckmorton family is or was involved as well.

Also unknown is the true function of the RAVENSGATE KLOWN KOLLEGE within the RCC: Is it the enforcement arm, a crime family unto itself but allied with the chairman, or both?

Most in Ravensgate doubted the RCC continued to exist after Prohibition ended, but recent revelations show that the RCC never went away.

Ravensgate Klown Kollege (Pagliacci Gang, Insane Klowns):

See RAVENSGATE CRIME COMMISSION and WILLIAM PAULSEN.

Ravensgate Police Guild (RPG):

See also DANIEL SWILL, POLICE STRIKE OF 2002 and PHILIP SNOW. The Guild has been dissolved under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 2002, but it was a force to be reckoned with in its heyday. It stymied every attempt for police reform for 30 years until THE FOUNDRY discovered a long-lost data disk implicating a large portion of its membership in criminal activity. Although the RPG is defunct, its alumni are forming a new crime family as private citizens.

Ravensgate Public School District:

More than seventy thousand Ravensgaters attend schools run by the District, which is overseen by the City Assembly’s Public Education Policy Committee, headed by FORREST LEWISTON, and its appointed chancellor, SAM “HOSS” PICKETT. The city boasts 93 elementary and middle schools, and 13 high schools: d’AMBROSIO (Rust City), Central (Downtown), Maximov (Chaykin Hill), Martin Luther King (The Bottoms), Tom Lawson McCall (Sunrise Ridge), Industry (Industry Hill), Josias Poe Throckmorton (South Reservoir), Herbert Hoover (Emerald City), John F. Kennedy (North Ravensgate), Chief Joseph (Dravenville), Linus Pauling Polytechnic (Everett Hill), Union (Cometville) and Nehalem (Crescent Ridge).

Ravensgate Union Station (corner of Miller and Moore):

This is the city’s oldest building, pre-dating incorporation by six years. The city maintains it well, having spent $100 million over the past 15 years for restoration and seismic refits. It is the terminus for Amtrak, NT Elevated Train Lines, NT Metropolitan Express buses, Greyhound and Trailways.