Pawagan, Manitoba

In northern Manitoba, there’s an empty black circle, about a mile in diameter, in a forest of tamarack trees. This is a mystical phenomenon created centuries ago by Cree and Ojibwa medicine elders when the smallpox epidemic that devastated the First Nations was blamed on bad dream spirits. Pawagan is essentially a dream catcher as geographical feature; from here, spirits visit people across North America, and attempt to lure nightmares away from dreamers and let them chase them into the circle.
Sleepers who’ve experienced a huge sense of relief when they suddenly wake from a nightmare, probably have the spirits of Pawagan protecting them.
The circle has been used as a prison for greater dark spirits related to the First Peoples, so much so that the Freedom League calls it a “native American Zero Zone.” Unfortunately, the more it’s used, the more strained its wards become, and many of the mightiest spirits are breaking free to torment North America. Popogusso the Devouring Abyss is a conglomeration of these escaped spirits, but there are worse to come. The circle might be repaired, but it would require a dangerous vision quest into the heart of the nightmares to hold them at bay while the medicine elders perform the necessary rituals.
To make matters worse, Popogusso has attracted the corrupted thunderbird Stormwing, drawing him away from the west coast and allowing him to make his nest in the heart of the circle, which makes the enactment of such a ritual even more difficult.