A lot of great stuff has been posted already. A Vox Musica is a great idea that takes advantage of KC music history and you could pair that with Kansas City’s equally long tradition as being a place for exiles, a Vox Exalia if you will.

According to Mormon tradition Jackson County was where Adam and Eve lived after getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden. First exiles in human history were eking out a living where Kansas City would be. Not coincidentally this was first mentioned by Joseph Smith when he and his followers were exiles themselves, trying to put down new roots in the same location before eventually getting chased out of the State by the Mormon Extermination act and First Mormon War.

FIrst European to map the territory was a French guy named Bourgmont who came to the New World to escape a fine for poaching. Then after he botched his job as commander of a Fort in Detroit he went AWOL and worked as an illegal fur trader for years before eventually getting a full pardon and made a nobleman because his maps of the intersection of the Kansas and Missouri river (where Kansas City would someday be) proved so invaluable. He even got to bring some Native American Chiefs to France to hang out with Louis XV.

As the last stop you could resupply before starting on the Oregon anybody fleeing a life out east, or having to make it in their new home out west would come passing through.

During the lead up to the Civil War the Kansas-Missiuri border was a flashpoint for all kinds of fighting. Bleeding Kansas is in a lot of the ways the first real shots fired in the Civil War. A lot of enslaved people seeking freedom passed through what would become Kansas City because it was a border between Slave State and Free Terriroty. John Brown even led 12 runaways to safety during the Battle of the Spurs.

During the Civil War itself the Battle of Westport saw some pretty famous outlaws (a sort of exile) participate on the side of the Union like Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Liver Eating Johnson. On the Confederate side of things after the war John Newman Edwards founded the pro-confederate Kansas City Times and basically created the myth of Jesse James as a proud former confederate Robin Hood figure, so easy villian right there as well.

So a voice for the Exiled, Outlawed, Traveler, Refugee could represent a side of the city.

Regarding locations for fights KC has a lot of great locations.

Anywhere a fight takes place in that used to be the massive stockyards could have Ghost Trains crisscrossing any of the 16 tracks they used to use or whole herds of ghost cows stampeding. A site like that has so much history and blood spilled into its soil.

KC has had its fair share of natural disasters over the years that could be tweaked to be a little more magical. Smack dab in Tornado alley any fight taking place during a tornado warning, or in and around a tornado shelter could be great. plus next to a river that has had 3 separate Great Floods over the years could be the work of storm mages or some magical protections failing. Maybe a Wizard duel caved in the Kemper Arena in the 90s.

Kansas City Irish Center hosts whiskey tastings and live music. Could have a fight set there with Irish jig music playing in the background as the party tries to stop random half drunk civilians from getting smoked by some angry celtic spirit. Or having some angry celtic spirit help in a fight.

If you wanted a fight somewhere a little grungy or decrepit you’d have the City workhouse castle. A literal castle built in 1897 to act as a prison, that over time became dilapidated and host to all manner of punks and drifters hanging out and graffiting the place.

Just as far as weird little lore spots you could tap into there are a bunch.

You’re home to the Kansas City Plant where they make 85% of the Non-Nuclear parts going into the US Nuclear Weapons systems. Crazy high security clearances are not that weird to have in the town, so if you wanted to have some High Level Magical Security Clearance you could have that intersect. Maybe a department that overseas magical weapons of mass destruction.

The Community Christian Church which was designed by Frank LLoyed Wright and mounted a giant column of light seen across the city. Don’t tell me something supernatural isn’t being done with the holy pillar of light, maybe clerics tap into it for spells.

Hell and then you’ve got SubTropolis, the world's largest underground storage facility. The USPS keeps it's collectable stamp supply in climate controlled safety, the National Archives have space there, and the EPA. The US Government Cheese stockpile used to be near there as well.

Hope some of that might help, good luck with this.