“There’s places where the Veil hums like a bad tune—this one sings. Horses died here thinking they were men, and men left with less soul than they came with.”
Description - Exterior
A weather-warped shell of its former glory, the Dexter Park Horse Exchange sits sagging beside rusting rails and weeds that shouldn’t grow in winter. The main auction hall’s roof partially caved in after a storm back in ’47, and what’s left of the redbrick facade is blackened by soot and time. The big iron gates are still chained shut—but never locked.Description - Interior
Inside is worse. The old stalls reek of mold, animal musk, and coppery rot. Rotting tack still hangs on warped posts. The bleachers in the center ring remain mostly intact, though slick with damp. Strange symbols are scratched into the concrete around the auction block. In the sub-basement—sealed for decades—the Crooked Horn now meet under lanterns that never seem to need refueling.History
Built in the 1880s to serve the booming Stockyards, the Horse Exchange was once the largest of its kind in the Midwest. City departments, private buyers, and even traveling circuses came here to trade in flesh and hoof. By the 1930s, the automobile made it obsolete. The building was shuttered officially in 1941—unofficially, it’s never really closed.Owned By
Unofficially claimed by the Crooked Horn, who use it for rituals, initiations, and unlicensed sacrifices.Employees
- None officially—only watchers and wards
- Brenna Knox – site warden and spiritual interpreter for the Horn
- “Tiller” Jack Danvers – groundskeeper in name only, lives in the east stall row
- Roe – mute boy who tends candles and relays messages
- Sister Halfrida – performs the Veil rites tied to the building's original stones
- Unknown entity sometimes referred to as "The Fourth Hoof"
Regulars
- Crooked Horn initiates in training
- Union boys who whisper about hidden tunnels under the floor
- Veil scholars who claim the Exchange is a “binding point”
- One-legged former jockey known as “Saddle Tom” who says he can still hear bidding
- Kids from Canaryville daring each other to step onto the auction block at midnight
- A blind beggar who appears on new moons and vanishes before dawn
Notes
- Crooked Horn believes this building sits atop a “sympathy fracture” in the Veil—where pain echoes and multiplies
- The horses traded here were often cursed by desperate owners—some say their screams still linger
- Blood poured into the auction ring drains somewhere no one’s mapped—and no one dares follow
- The Exchange’s foundation stones were quarried from a glacial shelf known for pagan rites in Wisconsin
- Certain crooks bring “problem assets” here—those who need to vanish without a trace
- The ghost of a Union Stockyards foreman has been seen walking the perimeter, muttering about missing weight receipts
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