Cermak Crater

There are plenty of places in Chicago that are deadly, but none is as certifiably lethal as the Cermak Crater is. This concave depression is all that’s left of the Cermak Blast: ten thousand years (at last estimate) of atomic waste. Th e crater is still “hot.” It’s much more radioactive than it should be, and you can get a lethal dose of radiation if you get too close or stay too long. There were plans to cap it with a warded lead seal, but the federal government was afraid any metahumans getting too close might wake the thousand or so bug spirits said to rest in torpor there.
On the astral, the Crater is like an inverted hurricane, with the absolute stillness and sterility of the mana ebb surrounding a terrible, malefic eye. Astral space is horrifi cally warped here, and nothing comes through in one piece—not FAB, not an insect spirit, not the crazy Radiation magicians that astrally project into it and are torn apart.