[Aryeonos]

In this case it's a toxic shaman, specifically a radiation shaman who venerates the power of the atom. Anywhozit, he's running around a quarantined city of Ostrava trying to find a big irradiated foci. One of my players earlier in the campaign managed to get a hold of the truck carrying the foci early and park it on a southeastern border going out of town before they really knew what it was, they still don't know what it is or that there is a connection.

In addition to the shaman, there are numerous "ghosts" from catanom that flock to the object that are currently causing Metro level paranormal panic inside the city. The shaman is trying to get the rock OUT of the city and back to the SOX, thus restoring balance

Meanwhile the party (Who are mostly office workers, with a couple not so legitimate types) are going to a meet with a smuggler who had prior acquaintance with the parties crooked character. He's going to ask them to get some valuable mcguffans (haven't decided what they are yet) out of the city before the COV (Czech CDC) can get them.

How would you go about making the party meet the shaman on at least neutral grounds where he can tell them his story and they don't run scared at first sight of him?

[Reaver]

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No idea for you.


In my mage's case, anything that I assense as being "corrupted", "tainted", or "toxic" is usually on the receiving end of some high force combat spells.

(Can't trust anything of them you know. They are all bat shit crazy!)

[Pixie]

In most situations, a runner group that finds a toxic artifact is NOT going to deliver it to a toxic shaman.  Your best bet is to revel in the antagonistic role of the shaman and have him attempt to steal the relic.  There's no sane runner team in the world that will willingly give a toxic shaman more power, and there is no such thing as a toxic shaman that is "good."  The best case scenario I see from this is that the shaman kidnaps the team and appeals to them to help him out.

As interesting as it is to take traditional villain roles and reverse them, toxic shamans are generally so far down the paths of insanity that they are unreasonable.  I'd suggest reading up on the paths of toxic magic, and toxic traditions in particular.  There's nothing "good" about someone that wants to irradiate the planet because the voices in their head say to do so.

[Vibral]

Typically taking a villainous concept and making them endearing to the Players is easiest to do during dire circumstances. If you present them with something that is a near insurmountable challenge and requires them to team up with someone who is normally a foe.
(Think Fantastic Four teaming up with Dr. Doom. Does it happen? Sure but only under the absolute worst case scenario and usually only when the Fantastic Four has run out of other options.)

Having the toxic Shaman provide the team help in subtle ways where he leaves weapons, gives them information, food and water, advantage creating items (think grenades) or general supplies and a note signed "From a Friend" a few times will heighten the characters suspicion but, begins to create that trust you can ultimately betray.

He could send them secure commlink messages pointing to areas where they can get around an obstacle or give them a tip about someone looking for them and he will only take payment of help the next time he needs it.

Otherwise the old classic is the enemy of my enemy. Having the toxic shaman suprise assist them in combat is likely a way to allow them to at least talk to him before fragging him.

[Aryeonos]

Good point Vibral. The mane thing here, as I've read in Target Wastelands, is that toxic shamans aren't insurmountably evil right off the bat, allot of them were from green war or terra first, trying to fight toxicity, and started using that power to fight the evils they saw. This particular character believes, truly, that the world will end in nuclear fire and reaching enlightenment before hand is the only thing important. Kinda nihilistic zen Buddhism. Now the characters DO know that something bathed in nuclear fire is out and about, but he's kinda spindly and frail.

The important thing to know here is that the characters aren't shadowrunners or experienced sorcerers, two are adepts, but not not magically versed. But yeah, I think Vibral is on the right track. Just gotta figure out how to make their goals intersect...

[Reaver]

Keep in mind though, there is a difference between "Walking a dark path" and "Toxic/tainted" shaman.

The primary difference is that mentor spirit.

A Toxic Shaman ONLY follows a Toxic Mentor. (They can not have a regular Mentor Spirit. If they do, it leaves them and a Toxic Mentor finds them in short order.)

There is also an implied link between the living environment, mages, and Spirits, that basically says "its pollution that twists them" (although rules are never given, making this wide open for GMs like us to use...)


A good rule of thumb is, "if the players can detect corruption in the Aura, or the suspect summons toxic/twisted spirits, it is evil. Kill it with fire. Put ashes in urn. Add acid to ashes and urn. Burn again. "

If the characters can't sense corruption in the aura, and the suspect summons normal spirits, then he MIGHT be saved. (Keep an eye on at all times. Have ignition source and acclerant at the ready. An urn too, just in case...)"





edit:
Fixed a word...

[Aryeonos]

Good point, I'll make sure he's not actually detectably evil. So far though they've found that the police that are supposed to keep them safe get itchy trigger fingers when scary things show up, so maybe convincing them might be a little easier. Add the fact that none of them can asense they're just left to their gut feelings...

[Poindexter]

If you're worried the team will fight/flight the toxic shaman if they meet, don't have em meet yet. This shaman can drop burner comms with messages on them, spraypaint things on walls, leave spirits behind with single sentences to speak. Give the players just a LITTLE bit of the story, that way they'll be more curious about hearing the rest of it. Once you get em to that point, THEN have em meet the shaman.

my 2 cents.

[Kincaid]

I have a recurring toxic shaman from Glow City in my campaign (I saw page 148 of the Second Edition book and needed a way of getting that into my game--her name is Shelby).  He's a terrible person who dabbles in gun running and weapons testing on the side.  Awful.  But also strangely personable and, if you happen to be unfortunate enough to live in Glow City, occasionally helpful. 

Which is to say, he's evil and more than a little insane, but not incapable of social interaction.  If you have a toxic looking for something, have him ask nicely and/or recruit people to help him look.  The runners get word from the intermediaries that there's this guy spreading nuyen around looking for something.  That's a common enough hook that it won't immediately cause them alarm and they may agree to a meet with the hopes of cashing in.

[psycho835]

If you're worried the team will fight/flight the toxic shaman if they meet, don't have em meet yet. This shaman can drop burner comms with messages on them, spraypaint things on walls, leave spirits behind with single sentences to speak. Give the players just a LITTLE bit of the story, that way they'll be more curious about hearing the rest of it. Once you get em to that point, THEN have em meet the shaman.

my 2 cents.

No spirits. Nothing with even a trace of aura. Use tech or go old school.

[Leevizer]

One thing is to have the players meet in a situation where they cannot just kill him instantly. You need to be subtle about it though or else the players will be pissed off. Simple things are a commlink call or trideo. They can see him, they know what he's up to, but they cannot harm him beforehand. I ASSUME the point is that he will convince the players to help them, right? The less-subtle approach is to have him surrounded by force 8 spirits of napalm that he has binded whilst he's running enough Foci to give him an edge over the players they cannot win. You can easily paint a toxic shaman into a tragic hero or villain, which, depending on your player groups knowledge of toxic shamans, your explanation of his situation and the character itself can work.

...Or just, you know, GM fiat.

[brasso]

It's like this you see, one of the runners has an old friend, perhaps a smuggler, who he's known for years. It's no big secret that this old friend has spent alot of time with Terra First, blowing things up for ol' Mother Earth. He gets in contact with the runner friend, and explains that he's heard about the "item" they have, and has a friend who'd like to buy it, and he tries to broker the deal. It's at this point maybe that the runners take a closer look at the "item" and see that it's more than a little corrupted. If confronted with this fact, the old friend flips out and starts arguing in favour of the toxic shaman, putting his case, and giving the runner a real guilt trip about how's this toxic shaman is "different" to the rest. Maybe he storms off.

A little later they get a comm call from the friend, saying that they were right - he's tied to a chair, and he's going to be killed unless the shaman gets the "item". Maybe he's lying for the shaman, maybe not, but does the runner want to play roulette with their friend's life? A complicated drop and exchange ensues which the runners may be able to get ahead of - if they're smart. Look out for the Force 8 toxic spirits, which are spying on them from astral and reporting back their conversations. Ghost help any mages who go astral to try to find the missing friend...

A bit of legwork might pay off enough for them to contact some other members of Terra First who are not so naive, and who may know where the shaman hangs out.