Description - Exterior

Limestone blocks rise like vertebrae, scarred and yellowed from a century of soot and weather. The Chicago Water Tower looms tall and narrow like a castle left behind by a retreating army. Its turrets claw at the sky, and the windows—too small for modern use—glint with distorted reflections, like the building remembers different skies. The ground around it is always slightly warm, even in winter.  

Description - Interior

Tourists see a clean little gallery with brick walls and city maps. That’s a skin. Below, spiral stairs lead deeper than the blueprints admit. Past the locked gate is an old maintenance level no one's owned up to in decades—cracked stone, humming copper tubes, iron runes etched in rust. The pressure gauges still twitch, though no water flows. If you touch the central pillar, the world fuzzes at the edges. Some say it pulses with your heartbeat—but off-tempo.  

History

Completed in 1869, the Water Tower famously survived the Great Chicago Fire—but rumors say it wasn’t by chance. Built over a major Veil ley line mapped by French mystics before the city existed, the Tower served as both reservoir and ritual anchor. The original architect, William Boyington, went mad before it opened, whispering of “anchors in the burning flow.” Over the years, it’s become a magnet for odd phenomena—fluctuating Veil readings, spontaneous possessions, sudden disappearances.  

Owned By

Technically: The City of Chicago (Department of Water Management). Practically: guarded under quiet agreement by the Arcane Division of the FBI, who monitor all Veil surges in and around the site. They maintain a fake HVAC access permit and a fake tenant in the adjacent pumping station.  

Run By

No formal manager, but Special Agent Miriam Shale of the Arcane Division makes weekly visits. Locals know her only as “the woman with the green gloves.”  

Employees

• Tour Guide “Tommy” – Knows the script, not the truth. Doesn’t want to know.
• Doris Fielding – Old historian who lives nearby, has keys that don’t match modern locks.
• Marcel “Mouthpiece” Denet – Blind Veil-dowser who occasionally sets up shop nearby.
• Agent Miriam Shale – Handles disruptions and inquiries. Keeps her visits quiet.
• Randall from Maintenance – Swears the foundation vibrates like a tuning fork every full moon.
• Ghost of a fireman seen only during August heatwaves, always climbing the stairwell downward.

 

Regulars

• Tourists with cameras that fail inside the stairwell.
• Stregoni who sit across the street and “listen” with chalk and string.
• Journalists who get too close, then drop the story.
• A boy who appears only in winter, sketching the tower with ink made of ash.
• Members of The Choir, watching for tremors beneath the city.
• The Whispering Man – never the same person twice, but always carries the same tune.

 

Notes

• At the base of the tower is a hidden hatch. Beneath it: a ley node, pulsing like a living thing.
• Veil spells cast nearby surge in strength—but at a cost: unpredictable side effects are common.
• Multiple factions (Arcane Division, The Choir, select Outfit lieutenants) claim some tie to the site.
• Crows refuse to land on the Tower’s roof. Owls gather there instead—dozens at a time, silent.
• A woman burned during the Great Fire appears in cracked mirrors near the site during heatwaves.
• A perfect place for Veil rituals, awakenings, or a final showdown over hidden powers beneath Chicago.