1. Setting History

Originally founded in the mid 1800s, Polaris Pass served as one of the last stops for miners hoping to make their way to California. Little more than a few hastily constructed buildings, it likely would have been abandoned if not for the discovery of a particularly large nugget of gold. An enterprising businessman named Monroe Maurice provided supplies and helped people stake claims in the area. The town attracted a huge amount of interest, quickly becoming a booming settlement. However the effect was short lived: the discovery of the nugget was revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by Maurice himself and he was subsequently run out of town in short order. The creek, then Maurice's Creek, was hastily renamed to better match the town's sentiments towards him.

Despite the nugget being a fraud, there was at least some gold in the surrounding area, leading to a surplus of mines that tended to crop up all over but none seemed to produce enough to stay profitable in the long run. The last mine in Polaris Pass closed in 1904, after a deadly collapse of one of its larger mine shafts. The town became all but abandoned almost overnight, as the last of the miners moved on to seek their prospects elsewhere.

The town saw a resurgence in 1917, when the land was snapped up by a real estate broker hoping to sell it as an escape from the violent and unsanitary conditions of nearby Portland. The remaining buildings in Polaris Pass were demolished, and now the oldest standing buildings all date to this period of rejuvenation. The town was initially small but grew extensively in the following decade, and also gained its most enduring reputation: that of a supernatural hot spot. The story is that a small group of people witnessed what they believed to be a sea monster rising out of the lake, leading to a surge of interest in the area and a reputation for the unknown. To this day, it's not clear whether this was an actual sighting or perhaps yet another hoax but it continues to fuel interest in the area.

As Portland grew, so too did Polaris Pass, with sustained growth through the fifties and sixties. With Portland no longer considered the most filthy city in America, Polaris Pass' focus shifted. The town began to welcome more and more tourists every year. Some tourists come for the sandy beaches and unusually warm waters of North Star Lake, while others come to search for something more unusual. Cryptid sightings and other unexplained events have persisted throughout the decades, although most savvy consumers suspect that anything of the sort is just a marketing stunt to draw more attention to the town.

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While reports of the supernatural in the area date back a century, the majority of Polaris Pass' supernatural reputation is more recent. East of Fool's Creek lies the Aurum Heights Residential Area, a private community for those wanting a home away from the hustle and bustle of the town itself. Access to the community is limited.

Of course, the truth is a bit more unusual: Aurum Heights was originally founded by a coven of witches to be a place where the supernatural could live without fearing exposure. Those who live inside are largely supernatural, but even those few who are more mundane are at least aware of the supernatural existence of their neighbors.

While not the only supernatural community, Polaris Pass does have a reputation for being a safe haven for the supernatural looking for a more relaxed existence. The majority of Veil breaks are simply dismissed as being the product of easily excitable, cryptid-hunting tourists, and Aurum Heights draws very little attention as a result.