The Court
General Info
The Court is one of the longest surviving gangs in the Denver area. While the full extent of their operations is currently unknown, it is speculated that the number of unpowered gang members is somewhere in the low hundreds. However, of those, only around a dozen armed gang members have ever been spotted at one time.
The Court keeps its assets well hidden, and as of this time, there are no known locations that act as a headquarters or similar for the gang. However, public speculation as well as photographic evidence points to the local high-end Italian restaurant, La Corte Regale, being a Court-owned or supported business. A public statement from Sovereign denied this claim, instead stating that the restaurant is a neutral location for capes to meet, and that the Court will enforce this neutrality with their full strength.
Known Members
As of this time, there is only one confirmed parahuman member of the Court. This is, as most citizen of Denver know, Sovereign, a shaker with control over the effects and strength of gravity within his shaker range.
Known Operations
Over the years, a handful of Court operations have been uncovered through joint police-PRT action. The most well-known being the discovery that a handful of city officials were on the Court's payroll, using their access to cover up the Court's less subtle activities. Since then, most of the Court's known criminal activities revolve around their extensive smuggling network. Attempts by the PRT and Protectorate to shut these networks down have nearly always resulted in Sovereign himself taking the field.
PRT Information
 | Warning: Restricted Information. The following content is not subject to public release, and may contain information subject to Parahuman Response Team classification restrictions or other proprietary measures. Unauthorized release of information is a violation of Federal Law under 18 U.S.C. § 798, as well as state and local laws as applicable. For more information, please contact your department PRT-InB officer. The following information is known to the PRT, but not necessarily to the general public. If you are not playing a Protectorate cape, please ignore this section! |
RP Information
The Following information is for any heroes, villains, or others to use as event hooks, actual services, or for lore building purposes:
The Court has a number of low to medium level operations running at any given time. These operations are focused around the Downtown area of Denver, but reach out to the surrounding area as necessary. Each type of operation is carried out by unpowered gang members and managed by either parahuman or unpowered lieutenant. The operation types, starting with the most important, are as follows:
1) Money Laundering - This takes place in a number of small, legitimate businesses that Court affiliated gang members either own or are employed within. The money laundering operations are functioning nearly constantly and are spread out throughout the entire city.
2) Smuggling - The Court uses a handful of different methods to smuggle any number or type of good/material/object/etc into the city. These happen less often, but when targeted by heroes or villains, warrant a response in strength from the Court's combat-capable gang members and parahumans. Most smuggling is somewhat smaller in scale, but occasionally much larger or more important smuggling operations will begin (generally based on approval of equipment posts).
3) Blackmail and Bribery - The Court is always looking for any way gain greater influence throughout the city, and as such, often tries to engage in blackmail and bribery of those in important positions (government, PRT, police, news, transportation, etc). They may also use bribery to make the police look the other way during important operations, and extend this service to villains willing to pay for access to such a thing.
4) "Asset Protection" - The Court extorts money from a number of smaller businesses in the area around the downtown region in return for protecting them from other gangs and villains. Each week, a handful of collectors make their rounds, collecting protection money from each of these businesses.
5) Asset Protection - The Court also provides actual protection of assets for a cost. This includes providing temporary guard services at specific locations for high value clients as well as protecting high value equipment or goods that a client may otherwise be unable to protect by themselves.
6) Counterfeiting and Forgeries - The Court uses well trained unpowered minions to provide quality forged documents as well as counterfeit goods for those willing to pay for the service.