Dante's Casino

**Dante's Casino**

## Inroduction

**Dante's Casino** is a hell themed casino in Las Vegas, and at the start of the series, it's one of Tony's new places. Jimmy the Rat—who planted the bomb for Tony that killed Cassandra Palmer's parents—manages a bar there.

As the series progresses it becomes Cassie’s current place of residence. The casino was originally owned by Tony and taken over by Mircea Basarab—as Tony's Vampire Master—after Tony vanished into Faerie, hiding. Dante's is managed by Carlos Casanova, a vampire inhabited by an incubus.

## Description

✥ Modeled on the Divine Comedy, it has nine different areas, each with a theme corresponding to one of Dante Alighieri's nine circles of Hell. Visitors enter through a set of huge wrought-iron gates decorated with basalt statues writhing in agony and the famous phrase ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE. They are then rowed across a shallow river by one of several gray-robed Charons and deposited in the cavelike vestibule, where a red and gold layout of the place is painted mural-sized on the wall.

A guy dressed like King Minos—with a convenient name tag explaining that he was the guy who assigned sinners to their punishments—was handing out paper copies of the map when I arrived, but I didn't need one. The layout was kind of logical: the buffet, for example, was in the third circle, where the sin of gluttony is punished. It wasn't difficult to figure out where to look for Jimmy; where else but circle two, where all those guilty of the sin of lust are chastised, to find a real, live satyr. — Touch the Dark

✥ gloomy opium-den interior and dragon's-head bar, complete with an occasional wisp of steam emanating from its carved nostrils;

✥ Dante’s Casino stood at the end of the Strip in Las Vegas. It was large and deliberately been designed to look old. The faux stone monstrosity of Dante’s stood out even in Vegas with fake mold, fake turrets, fake everything except for the monsters. The interior was designed to look like an Old West ghost town with ghosts. There were fake wood buildings or the fiberglass tumbleweeds or the dancing neon skeletons. ~ *"Shadowland"*, ch. 2

## About

### Location

* Las Vegas, on the Strip, near the Luxor

### Owner

* Tony
* Mircea Basarab, by default after Tony left

### Nine Circles of Hell

* **Circle Three**: Sine of Gluttony — location of Buffet
* **Circle Two**: Sin of Lust — Location of Pan's Flute bar
* **Seventh Circle**: Sin of \_\_\_\_ — Voodoo Bar wiht shrunken heads.

### Characteristics / Attributes

* There are numerous hidden doorways and corridors—escape paths.
* There's a hidden **portal**—used it for Slaving and importing of illegal alien Dark Fey—Gargoyles.

### Illegal Activities

* Slaving
* Illegal alien fey

### Magical Defenses, Wards and Devices

* Hidden doors and corridors
* Magic Mirrors—metallic surface spelled to act as surveillance equipment.
* Knights—empty suits of armor—animate when there is a threat.

### Employees, Shop Owners, Residents, Bosses, etc.

Employees, etc.

* Carlos Casanova
* Augustine
* Miranda
* Jimmy the Rat
* Francoise
* Chavez
* Randy
* Zombie Elvis
* Tony
* Mircea Basarab
* Danny

Residents:

* Cassandra Palmer
* John Pritkin
* Francoise
* Graeae
* Marco Carales
* Jules
* Rico
* Misfit Mafia
* Consul
* Fred

### Businesses, Bars, Restaurants, Places

* **Pan's Flute**: in the Second Circle of Sin: Lust—the bar that Jimmy the Rat manages
* **Headliners**: zombie bar—Live entertainment consists of once-famous humans turned zombies  has Shrunken Heads that take drink ordershas
* **Voodoo Bar**: (name not given) in the Seventh Circle — features Shrunken Heads that take drink orders
* **Demon bar**: (name not given) Incubus bar—a brothel for ladies — features Satyr waiters and Incubi lovers and Dragon's head bar with wisp of steam emanating from its carved nostrils.
* **Augustine's Shop**:
* **The Ring**": in the basement—where Tony can punish people via anything-goes fight
* **Portal**: magical passageway into another dimension—in htis case it's Faerie

### Supes at Dante's

* Vampires
* Incubus
* Satyr
* Satyr-Were Hybrids
* Gargoyles
* Zombies
* Bokors
* Necromancers
* Witches
* Dark Fey
* Shrunken Head
* Zombie Elvis
* Danny

### Other Details

* Passwords are created for restricted areas that are changed every few weeks by Jimmy the Rat.
* Half the payroll are demon-possessed.

## Other Associated Characters, supes, groups, places, objects, etc

* Cassandra Palmer
* Carlos Casanova
* Mircea Basarab
* Marco Carales
* Tony
* Gæae
* Gargoyles
* Miranda
* John Pritkin
* Augustine
* Vampire Senate
* Augustine
* Satyr
* Satyr-Were Hybrids
* Wards
* Mages
* Fey
* Magic Mirrors
* War Mages
* Dark Mages
* Witches
* Slaving

## Events in the Series

*This section may have **spoilers**. If you want to avoid spoilers, please don't read the summary for a book that you have not read yet. Think of the book title as a "Spoiler Warning"*.

### 1. Touch the Dark

Billy Joe informs Cassie that Jimmy the Rat is at Dante's on the strip—he manages a bar, Pan's Flute, there. Cassie finds Jimmy in a cage in the basement, waiting to fight a werewolf in The Ring. Cassie also finds: the Pixie, Danny the shrunken head, and three witches tied up to be slaved to the Fey—Francoise is one of them. There is a battle in the parking lot between Jimmy the Rat with is group of were-rats and Cassie, Louis-Cesare, John Pritkin and Tomas, plus Billy Joe. The weres are down, they are still surrounded by Dark Mages, and Pritkin's sheilds are close to failing. The Dark Mages want Cassie.

### 2. Claimed by Shadow

Cassie goes there to talk Casanova into giving her information on Tony's location. He refuses, Cassie finds Gargoyles in the kitchen—she didn't know they existed. they are Dark Fey, illegal aliens from Faerie hiding and working at Dante's. In the corridor, Cassie and Pritkin are confronted by two War Mages, **Andrew** and **Stephan**, sent to capture her. They triggered the automatic defenses by drawing arms inside the casino.  The Circle closed Dante's to search for the sybil Cassie who they accuse of the murder of two mages that the Gargoyles killed in self-defense. Cassie takes the portal back there from the Dark Fey King's court in Faerie. She's hiding from the War Mages with Kit Marlowe at Headliners. Casanova sent the Graeae to Headliners as a distraction for the Mages trying to capture Cassie. The fight between the zombie line of defense and the War Mages heats up, eventually she gets Billy Joe back, and shifts out.

## See Also

* Magic Mirrors
* Wards
* Vampires

## Book References

1. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 6
2. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
3. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 2
4. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 4
5. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
6. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
7. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 3
8. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 2
9. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 13
10. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 6
11. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
12. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 5–6
13. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 6
14. ↑ *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 32, p. 379
15. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 5
16. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 6
17. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 7
18. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 8
19. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
20. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 3
21. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 6
22. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 13

## External Links

**Content Refs**

* Inferno (Dante) - Nine Circles of Hell - Wikipedia
* 9 Circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno) - History Lists
* Nine Circles of Hell - Dante's Inferno Wiki - Circles of Hell, Characters, Creatures, Weapons and more!
* The World of Dante
* King Minos - Wikipedia
* Bokor - Wikipedia
* Zombie - Wikipedia
* Necromancy - Wikipedia
* Haitian Vodou - Wikipedia
* Shrunken head - Wikipedia

**General Links**:

* Take A Chance: Gallery
* Cassandra Palmer series - Urban Fantasy Wiki
* Cassandra Palmer Series ~ Shelfari
* The Cassandra Palmer series - Wikipedia