Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Opti on <08-01-13/1237:39>
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Doing research, I came across some things I can't get answers to. Care to take a stab at answers (if possible, provide sources).
1) According to the 6th World Almanac, on June 2, 2042, Damien Knight was reinstated as chairman of Ares. I can't find any source that says that he was removed from this office in the first place or why.
2) According to the same almanac, on December 8, 2041, Veil agents intercept and destroy all data from the Cydonia Mars probes. What are Veil agents? Where do they come from? Why the destruction? Is this related to the Pyramids and Bones? Any source material for mars?
3) Are Spider spirits considered Bug spirits? Do they show up at all after Sam Verner kicked Spider's hoop?
4) Of the 3 Mars pictures that are on the end of Big D's will, I have read that the UFO one is fake. But I haven't read anything about the other two. Presumably, two are from Operation Discovery (the Pyramids and the bones), and the UFO one was planted on Cydonia. Is this correct?
5) Was there ever any "actual" data that survived from Cydonia?
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
7) Kenneth Brackhaven "goblinized" in 2023, but went into "remission?" He was cured of his ork-ness? How did this take place? and how/why does it say that his father brought in the best scientists to "cure" him? And it seems to have worked. What is the deal here?
8 ) is there anything known about the "fine old fixer traditions" that Charlie Tarrow was a part of with Wyrd back in the 30's? The only thing I can find is that they were doing and setting up "Shadowruns" before the term was popular. Does this group come up anywhere in the fiction or in a sourcebook?
9) Was there ever any significant storyline surrounding Thomas Roxborough and his strange brain-in-a-jar condition? Is he still an Azzie shareholder? Is he still in a vat? Has he ever caused problems for runners? I was able to pick up that he was a Decker... does he have an online name?
10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
11) I seem to have gotten the idea in my head that Dodger was the best decker around in the 50s. Yet I keep seeing other places people refer to Fastjack as the best decker ever. Since it appears Dodger is back (or never left), has there ever been a comparison between the two? Is there a reason everyone says Fastjack is the best, other than people saying he's the best? Or is it apples and oranges?
12) The Bot' Kham seem to be popping up all over the underground these days. They also seem to be a pretty violent and unruly gang (even by OU standards). Kham himself seemed to be a pretty decent and down to earth dude. Is there some record of how we got from one to the other after "Never Trust An Elf?"
13) I know that Horizon had a rep as a "good" corp, until recently, but what was the event (or events) that pulled the curtain back? In other words, we all sortof "knew" that their "goody-two-shoes" act was BS, so what happened that proved us right? Also, sources would be aces.
14) Can someone point me to some reading on Neon Samurai and Night Fire? Something about a feud?
15) where can I find some good source material for what Shiawase was up to from 2072 to 2075?
16) Arthur Vogel - from what I can find he was an environmentalist. But Dunky tells him in his will to give up the Toxic stuff. Seems to contradict. Anyone have source material or explanation/story for Mr. Vogel?
17) Regarding EVO's Yuri Shibanokuji, does anyone know how he REALLY overcame his Methuselah's disease in 2065? I have heard plastic surgery, cloning, leonization, spirit magic. Nothing seems to add up...
18) Looking for info on the "D-Team," Dunklezahn's shadowrunner team. Who are they, what did they do? Sources?
19) Also, looks like something went down in 2054 when the Elves put Crater Lake on Lockdown. Big D and Harley seem to have had something to say about it on Shadowland, but can't find anything concrete. Thoughts?
20) Anyone clear on how to pronounce Wuxing? Is it Wu-ZING? or Wu-SHING? Or Wu-KSING?
21) Anyone have current info on the Jade Dragon of Wind and Fire? I know it had been used around '62 to re-align mana geomantically (any source for that info?), and that at that point was still at the skytower, but what about since then? Still in the same place? Has it done anything of note?
22) What is a "shallow" in the context of mana?
23) I can't help thinking I heard that the head of Wuxing, Wu Lung-Wei, was awakened somehow, but I can't find the source. Any help?
24) having solid difficulty tracking down info on Fu-Peng. Is that because there is none? Or because I am looking in the wrong places? I can see he has some sort of mystical influence on Wu, and is mysterious (terribly mysterious), but other than that... I am coming up empty...
25) I keep seeing a reference to some sort of magic or magically caused earthquake in Richmond, Vancouver, Salish lands. Can't find the details. Anyone point me to a source or info?
26) Big one. The shadows have been connecting Damien Knight, David Gavilan, Fuchi, Lucien Cross, and Big-D for some time. The info is spread all over. Is there either a paragraph run down or a consolidated thread/upload about this, laying out the pieces?
27) Further, what specifically has Ares been up to (what have they learned) regarding Vogel and Daviar? What have they been doing from 2073 to present?
28) Any bleeding edge current info on Damien Knight/Ares' Excalibur project?
29) ANY info on Mag Mell? Source would be appreciated.
30) Anyone know what happened to the Decker "Jack the Ripper" from the Whitechapel Rose story in Into the Shadows?
31) Is there any confirmation regarding the relationship between King Berthold of the Troll Kingdom and the Great Dragon Kaltenstein? Further, does anyone have any insight as to the reason why Lofwyr and Nebelherr fought Kaltenstein to prevent him from rescuing Feuerschwinge? The accounts are vague on the why...
32) any updates on the Church of the Undying Light since the year of the Comet? Did they end up being pawns for DEUS? Legit charity?
33) Noticed that Ares finally landed a probe on Hally's comet in 2062. Any lead on what they found?
34) Is Magicknet still up and running in 2075/6?
35) Halley's comet, according to different sources, became visible to the naked eye on two different dates: September 5, 2061, and in March of 2062. Was it BOTH, because of the nature of Halley's orbit, passing by twice? Or is this a mistake/difference of view/unreliable narrator issue? Thanks!
36) I am having trouble with the Proteus AG/Ares War. What could have caused Ares to want end the war with a Thor strike, and why would striking the Arcoblock be the target? I just feel like my lack of German language understanding is preventing me from getting the nuances. A summary of the war, please? Or a primary source? much obliged.
37) Can anyone give me a brief rundown of the Rose Croix storyline?
More to come, I'm sure.. Thanks.
opti.
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Doing research, I came across some things I can't get answers to. Care to take a stab at answers (if possible, provide sources).
1) According to the 6th World Almanac, on June 2, 2042, Damien Knight was reinstated as chairman of Ares. I can't find any source that says that he was removed from this office in the first place or why.
There was a power struggle with Leonard Aurelius for control of the company. For a time, Aurelius was able to boot Knight from chairman, but Damien got it back.
2) According to the same almanac, on December 8, 2041, Veil agents intercept and destroy all data from the Cydonia Mars probes. What are Veil agents? Where do they come from? Why the destruction? Is this related to the Pyramids and Bones? Any source material for mars?
Per Missions, p. 52: "...the jurisdiction of Veil, a covert black-ops agency within the Defense Department that enjoyed the highest existing security clearance. Few people in or outside the Defense Department knew that Veil existed, and even fewer knew of its mission."
3) Are Spider spirits considered Bug spirits? Do they show up at all after Sam Verner kicked Spider's ass?
More to come, I'm sure.. Thanks.
opti.
Spider is much like Mantis, in that they are bug spirits and bug hunters. They are still very alien to the Sixth World, still aren't to be trusted, but they do kill other bug spirits...
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Woo-hoo, a reply from the man himself. Thank you sir. Is there any sources I can look into for the Aurelius vs. Knight stuff?
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Spider is much like Mantis, in that they are bug spirits and bug hunters. They are still very alien to the Sixth World, still aren't to be trusted, but they do kill other bug spirits...
Where is there more information on Spider? I played a spider shaman back in 2nd/3rd, and I'm just curious to know more about my old charachters totem. Especially since charachters from that campaign will likely make cameo's in a campaign I'm trying to get going.
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Further rabbit holes I have jumped down caused me to ask these questions:
4) Of the 3 Mars pictures that are on the end of Big D's will, I have read that the UFO one is fake. But I haven't read anything about the other two. Presumably, two are from Operation Discovery (the Pyramids and the bones), and the UFO one was planted on Cydonia. Is this correct?
5) Was there ever any "actual" data that survived from Cydonia?
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Woo-hoo, a reply from the man himself. Thank you sir. Is there any sources I can look into for the Aurelius vs. Knight stuff?
Stuff is interspersed through a great many books since Leonard's father was the one that really built Ares Macrotechnology into the Triple-A we all know and loathe. Nicholas retired, putting his son Leonard in charge. Damien did the nano-second buyout of Ares, putting himself in charge. Then Sakehisa Tajika took over control of the company, Damien then reclaimed the chair. All the while Leonard has been working to get him removed (preferably permanently) from the board.
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Spider is much like Mantis, in that they are bug spirits and bug hunters. They are still very alien to the Sixth World, still aren't to be trusted, but they do kill other bug spirits...
Where is there more information on Spider? I played a spider shaman back in 2nd/3rd, and I'm just curious to know more about my old charachters totem. Especially since charachters from that campaign will likely make cameo's in a campaign I'm trying to get going.
Actually, scratch what I said before. Spider shaman I always viewed with a personal bias that's not matching what the rules say. According to the material (most recently in the SR4 book Street Magic), Spider is a valid totem, not associated with the Insect spirits like Fly, Roach, Mantid, and others. Whereas those spirits and their shaman are typically toxic, Spider is beneficial (much as I dislike spiders and their ilk :P ). They aren't discussed much beyond the entries in books like Magic in the Shadows and Street Magic, with their only major turn taking place in the aforementioned Secrets of Power trilogy.
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Further rabbit holes I have jumped down caused me to ask these questions:
4) Of the 3 Mars pictures that are on the end of Big D's will, I have read that the UFO one is fake. But I haven't read anything about the other two. Presumably, two are from Operation Discovery (the Pyramids and the bones), and the UFO one was planted on Cydonia. Is this correct?
5) Was there ever any "actual" data that survived from Cydonia?
Check out the Missions book for that info. There's is an entire Adventure hook that talks about the photos and those "in the know". Of course, being and adventure hook, it leaves the big questions unanswered, allowing you or your GM to fill in the blanks.
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Corporate Shadowfiles
President/CEO: Damien Knight
Chairman of the board: Leonard Aurelius
Blood in the Boardroom, page 54
Leonard Aurelius remained on the board of directors and tried to reclaim his position as chairman and CEO by fair means or foul. His complex maze of shell corporations and skilled proxy manipulation enabled him to gain a partial success in 2041, when Knight was voted out of the chairman's seat. Unfortunately, Aurelius didn't have enough leverage to get himself voted in, and the board elected former CEO Sakehisa Tajika as the new chairman. Knight remained CEO and took over the chairman's eat again in 2043 amid increasing evident of Tajika's senility. Several more years passed before Aurelius tried again. In 2049, he successfully voted Knight out of the chairman's position again and took it over himself. However, Knight held on to his position as CEO through the intervention of Dunkelzahn, who voted his shares of Gavilan Ventures in such a way as to keep Knight CEO and Leonard Aurelius as chairman. Whatever his motive, the effect was to prevent either man from gaining full control of the corporation.
Corporate Download, page 34
Riding the wave of the buyout, Knight usurped control of Ares from Leonard Aurelius and became the megacorp's chairman and CEO. Bitter rivalry ensued between the two men for the next two decades, leading to countless internal conflits and shadowruns. Knight managed to keep his edge over Aurelius for most of this time, although Aurelius did snatch away the chairman position in 2049.
Sixth World Almanac, page 61
[2043] June 2-UCAS: Damien Knight is reinstated as chairman of Ares.
[2049] March 4-UCAS: Leonard Aurelius ousts Damien Knight as chairman of the Ares board.
I'm not sure there are other sources on that topic. As a reminder, Leonard Aurelius left Ares Macrotechnology in 2059.
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There's a larger and powerful gang run by Spider shamans in the Redmond Barrens. They are very big on hunting insect spirits and shamans, but they are far from nice. They are notorious for enslaving others against their will to go and fight insect spirits and shamans, using mental magics. They are mentioned in the Redmond section of the 3rd and 4th edition Seattle Guides.
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Excellent, thank you Nath!
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here is another:
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
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Check out the Missions book for that info. There's is an entire Adventure hook that talks about the photos and those "in the know". Of course, being and adventure hook, it leaves the big questions unanswered, allowing you or your GM to fill in the blanks.
The Missions book was excellent. Just what I was looking for. Thanks, FastJack.
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here is another:
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
Think Initiation, except on a scale* beyond the knowledge of Metahumanity.
*Yes, it's a pun. I couldn't resist.
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just saw the pun. i lol'd
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here is another:
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
Think Initiation, except on a scale* beyond the knowledge of Metahumanity.
*Yes, it's a pun. I couldn't resist.
Makes you wonder if Drakes, and in particular True Drakes, since they were created in the image of their makers, will ever undergo a metamorphosis into something more powerful. If so, I guess that would send any player character into NPCdom.
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here is another:
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
Think Initiation, except on a scale* beyond the knowledge of Metahumanity.
*Yes, it's a pun. I couldn't resist.
Makes you wonder if Drakes, and in particular True Drakes, since they were created in the image of their makers, will ever undergo a metamorphosis into something more powerful. If so, I guess that would send any player character into NPCdom.
I could see it happening, but it would take longer than most games would last, I think.
Maybe when you hit the Magic 20 point.
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The Clutch of Dragons, pg 121 'The War Room' (fiction):
In this story, featuring Lofwyr, Lung, Arleesh, Aden, and a whole room full of younger dragons the text mentions that three of the younger dragons were within a few years of becoming Greats.
Same book, pg 137 'true drake' (character quality):
The book describes these true drakes as drakes who are closer to the original blueprint of drakes that Ghostwalker put together way back when. The book does not (that I could see) show any way for a normal drake to become a true drake, but rather gives the information for those GMs who might be touched in the head enough to allow one as a PC or to give them the ammunition to take on PC normal drakes).
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As far as I know drakes cannot become "full" dragons because they aren't naturally-born dracoforms. Then again, metahumans (specifically, elves) aren't supposed to be literally immortal.
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Spider is a particularly nasty spirit kept locked away under Ayers Rock by one of the Immortal Elves. (Novel: Find Your Own Truth, the aforementioned Secrets of Power book). Just thinking about that book makes my head hurt, but I think it was lying when it claimed to be THE Spider.
[spoiler]Spider in the book tried to cause a nuclear holocaust.[/spoiler]
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Hey, my suggestion that True Drakes might be able to change into something more powerful never referred to becoming a Dragon!
There are plenty of other possibilities... ::)
[spoiler](http://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/g851000.jpg)[/spoiler]
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Heh
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As far as I know drakes cannot become "full" dragons because they aren't naturally-born dracoforms. Then again, metahumans (specifically, elves) aren't supposed to be literally immortal.
There are always exceptions, even in canon.
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So what I'm seeing is that you want Ryan Mercury to become a dragon.
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So what I'm seeing is that you want Ryan Mercury to become a dragon.
Not specifically him, but I can't think of a Canon Character other than Mercury that is a Drake. Truth be told, there really isn't much on them in general, from what I can tell. Then again, they are super rare, with what a few dozen in North America?
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There is an older drake than Ryan Mercury, who might actually be a True Drake: Scale, in service to Lofwyr & Saeder-Krupp (in that order ::) ). At least I think he's older - he seems to have more history as a drake behind him, whereas Mercury is recorded as Awakening as a drake after Dunkelzahn's death.
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One interesting point to remember is that in Earthdawn, Icewing/Ghostwalker created the first True Drake after the Horrors and therefore as Mana in the world was in decline.
In the Sixth World, as the Mana increases or there is a Mana Spike, there is the possibility of interesting things happening to True Drakes and possibly other Awakened creatures.
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Drakes are like pygmy dragons that never get any bigger and are only good for being servants of dragons.
They should stay that way.
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Here's another one.
7) Kenneth Brackhaven "goblinized" in 2023, but went into "remission?" He was cured of his ork-ness? How did this take place? and how/why does it say that his father brought in the best scientists to "cure" him? And it seems to have worked. What is the deal here?
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Here's another one.
7) Kenneth Brackhaven "goblinized" in 2023, but went into "remission?" He was cured of his ork-ness? How did this take place? and how/why does it say that his father brought in the best scientists to "cure" him? And it seems to have worked. What is the deal here?
Real!Kenny was "Cured" with a pillow over the face, while Fake!Kenny became the new Kenny.
In other words, they substituted a stolen baby.
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CanRay, is that detailed in a book somewhere, or behind the scenes gnosis?
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Oh, NM, I found it. Super Tuesday. I guess its safe to assume that in the "official" timeline, the runners in that story weren't able to get the truth out, lol...
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Either way. The way the adventure ends is that either way KB benefits.
If the story's buried, then so be it.
If the story is released, it's only that "Kenneth" isn't the original Kenneth and he manages to spin it into a sob story in his favor and a dead man takes the fall for murdering the real Kenneth and lying to this one.
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Understood. Thank you very much!
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Here is one more, for the most obscure knowers of knowledge out there.
8 ) is there anything known about the "fine old fixer traditions" that Charlie Tarrow was a part of with Wyrd back in the 30's? The only thing I can find is that they were doing and setting up "Shadowruns" before the term was popular. Does this group come up anywhere in the fiction or in a sourcebook?
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What book is that from?
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The only place I've seen it is in the second act of the Harlequin adventure, called "Hates." Charlie is the Johnson, and she gets called out of retirement by a network of fixers for this run. The legwork section mentions she was a "Shadowrunner" with that group of fixers back in the 30's.
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Well, fixer exist in this day and age, especially in areas like Africa and the Middle East. They are exactly what they are in the books. Contacts, runners, suppliers, guides. The traditions are probably in reference to the fact that whenever there is business or war, there will be people that thrive off it.
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Either way. The way the adventure ends is that either way KB benefits.
If the story's buried, then so be it.
If the story is released, it's only that "Kenneth" isn't the original Kenneth and he manages to spin it into a sob story in his favor and a dead man takes the fall for murdering the real Kenneth and lying to this one.
The official word is that it did get out, according to Brackhaven's bio in Runner Havens, I believe - and yes, he spun the story pretty easily.
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That's what I thought, but I didn't get around to check.
And FastJack is right. Fixing predates the game by quite some time, so it's nothing really remarkable.
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A good example on TV for fixers would be Leverage (and awesome show) and Person of Interest when Chloe is around (also awesome show). If you needed something else to watch.
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A good example on TV for fixers would be Leverage (and awesome show) and Person of Interest when Chloe is around (also awesome show). If you needed something else to watch.
Try Ray Donovan as an alternative.
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I'd say 'Mr. Wolf', but he's a cleaner. ;)
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I'd say 'Mr. Wolf', but he's a cleaner. ;)
Lone Wolf or Wolf & Raven? ;D
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as in... "You're sending the Wolf? Shit Negro, that's all you had to say!"
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as in... "You're sending the Wolf? Shit Negro, that's all you had to say!"
As in. Like I said, a cleaner.
Impressed me so much I created a niche organization ...
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Check out the Missions book for that info. There's is an entire Adventure hook that talks about the photos and those "in the know". Of course, being and adventure hook, it leaves the big questions unanswered, allowing you or your GM to fill in the blanks.
The Missions book was excellent. Just what I was looking for. Thanks, FastJack.
Which one is the Missions book? Didn't sound like the SR MIssions series...
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FAS7325 - Missions (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/84135/Shadowrun-Missions). It was for the alternate campaigns first introduced in the 2nd Edition Shadowrun Companion. One of the adventures was for the media campaign, and it was investigating Project: Cydonia.
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Actually, the Cydonia campaign was a Corporate campaign - you worked for AresSpace.
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here is another...
9) Was there ever any significant storyline surrounding Thomas Roxborough and his strange brain-in-a-jar condition? Is he still an Azzie shareholder? Is he still in a vat? Has he ever caused problems for runners? I was able to pick up that he was a Decker... does he have an online name?
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here is another...
9) Was there ever any significant storyline surrounding Thomas Roxborough and his strange brain-in-a-jar condition? Is he still an Azzie shareholder? Is he still in a vat? Has he ever caused problems for runners? I was able to pick up that he was a Decker... does he have an online name?
Roxy hasn't really been seen or heard of since Crash 2.0 ... we know that he lived through it, but nothing beyond that. He still has Azzie shares, but his big investment is in Universal Omnitech out of Vancouver. I don't think that he's an Aztechnology board member anymore, however... the breakup between UO and Aztechnology was pretty tense. As someone that's spent every waking hour in the Matrix for thirty years-ish, he's an *astoundingly* good Decker. He tends to use his real name instead of a handle online. (Unless you buy into the rumors that he's FastJack, of course.)
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He couldn't be Fastjack, right? The into the Shadows book indicates that Brandon Cross met with Fastjack in Denver in the 2050's in person... That would have been long after Thomas liquefied...
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He couldn't be Fastjack, right? The into the Shadows book indicates that Brandon Cross met with Fastjack in Denver in the 2050's in person... That would have been long after Thomas liquefied...
It's very unlikely, but it's a rumor. Damien Knight is another one that gets accused of being FastJack.
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My favorite is that Ard Bell is FastJack.
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I thought fastback was born in 1999? Art bell was already ancient in '99.
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Nah, there's enough material about Fastjack out and about that he can't be Roxborough.
Roxborough left Aztechnology's board shortly after Crash 2.0, apparently with some ill feelings towards them - he works full-time with UO now.
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I thought fastback was born in 1999? Art bell was already ancient in '99.
Elves, yo.
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He couldn't be Fastjack, right? The into the Shadows book indicates that Brandon Cross met with Fastjack in Denver in the 2050's in person... That would have been long after Thomas liquefied...
It's very unlikely, but it's a rumor. Damien Knight is another one that gets accused of being FastJack.
???
Really?
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He couldn't be Fastjack, right? The into the Shadows book indicates that Brandon Cross met with Fastjack in Denver in the 2050's in person... That would have been long after Thomas liquefied...
It's very unlikely, but it's a rumor. Damien Knight is another one that gets accused of being FastJack.
???
Really?
Numerous times. But we all know he's David Gavilan.
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Fastjack is David Gavilan? ;D
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Fastjack is David Gavilan? ;D
Hmm.. has anyone ever seen FastJack and David in the same room at the same time? ;)
And does either wear glasses? :P
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Fastjack is David Gavilan? ;D
Hmm.. has anyone ever seen FastJack and David in the same room at the same time? ;)
And does either wear glasses? :P
Only when I'm working.
Oh, the other Fastjack.
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He couldn't be Fastjack, right? The into the Shadows book indicates that Brandon Cross met with Fastjack in Denver in the 2050's in person... That would have been long after Thomas liquefied...
It's very unlikely, but it's a rumor. Damien Knight is another one that gets accused of being FastJack.
???
Really?
Numerous times. But we all know he's David Gavilan.
Don't screw with me man. Where do people get Damien Knight of all people?
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Been around forever.
In essence, when people figured out that he was the leader of Echo Mirage, and thus was one of teh world's first Deckers who also has access to the best gear on the planet, it made sense that he might also be the legendary decker FastJack. This ignores the time constraints of course, or why the CEO of one of the Big Ten would bother, but hey. RUmors, gotta love 'em. :)
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Been around forever.
In essence, when people figured out that he was the leader of Echo Mirage, and thus was one of teh world's first Deckers who also has access to the best gear on the planet, it made sense that he might also be the legendary decker FastJack. This ignores the time constraints of course, or why the CEO of one of the Big Ten would bother, but hey. RUmors, gotta love 'em. :)
Has this been confirmed? I always thought the the Knight-EM connection was rumor.
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Been around forever.
In essence, when people figured out that he was the leader of Echo Mirage, and thus was one of teh world's first Deckers who also has access to the best gear on the planet, it made sense that he might also be the legendary decker FastJack. This ignores the time constraints of course, or why the CEO of one of the Big Ten would bother, but hey. RUmors, gotta love 'em. :)
Has this been confirmed? I always thought the the Knight-EM connection was rumor.
Depends on how confirmed Knight being David Gallivan is. It's one of those "99% certain, but never stated as absolutely true" things. Teh Shadows have come to terms with the idea, but the majority population has no idea. (It's a popular subject of conspiracy Matrix sites, of course.)
Interesting side note: Knight is one of those "Mysterious, unknown history" guys who makes vague noises about the Crash having wiped out his history and whatnot, but there are quite a few 'distant cousins' in the corporation as well who use Knight, or a variation of it, as their own name. Does he support them? Does he allow them? Do they have leverage in some way? Are they too small to worry about? It's never gone into, but while he has no official relatives, he has quite a few 'claim to be' relatives. Always thought that was a neat thing. :)
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10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
Opti
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Depends on how confirmed Knight being David Gallivan is. It's one of those "99% certain, but never stated as absolutely true" things.
Blood in the Boardroom, page 57
As David Gavilan, Knight had worked with Cross on numerous projects for Acquisition Technologies.
This part of Blood in the Boardroom is not written in-context. It is information for the gamemaster, and as such, not subject to the unreliable narrator.
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10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
Opti
wouldn't that be giving away the 'morel' of the story? :P
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10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
Opti
None that have been published as far as I know.
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Thank you, sir. Can I just say that the fact that this forum exists makes being a Shadowrun fan/gm/podcaster extraordinarily fun and much easier?
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My best guess would be it is a throwback from Earthdawn. It has a living aura so it could be one of those stones that give Obsidimen life.
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All I know is that they look like decorative stones you'd find in an Indianapolis hotel lobby fountain. :)
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11) I seem to have gotten the idea in my head that Dodger was the best decker around in the 50s. Yet I keep seeing other places people refer to Fastjack as the best decker ever. Since it appears Dodger is back (or never left), has there ever been a comparison between the two? Is there a reason everyone says Fastjack is the best, other than people saying he's the best? Or is it apples and oranges?
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12) The Bot' Kham seem to be popping up all over the underground these days. They also seem to be a pretty violent and unruly gang (even by OU standards). Kham himself seemed to be a pretty decent and down to earth dude. Is there some record of how we got from one to the other after "Never Trust An Elf?"
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I think there were a number of deckers vying for the title of "best decker" back in the 2050s. It's pretty clear that Dodger and Fastjack were among the best of the best, and likely that others like Valerie Valkyrie (one of Dr. Raven's crew) could be counted among that number. The differences between the people at the very top were likely much smaller than the differences between the elite and the rest of the Matrix-runners. I suspect they all had areas where they might edge out the others; for example, Dodger seemed to be the top dog when it came to knowing the Renraku systems.
Fastjack has certainly outlasted pretty much everyone else, at least at the highest levels, until very recently - as far as the shadowrunner population knows. I think it remains to be seen just what is up with Dodger.
In the metagame sense, I think Fastjack simply became a very popular fluff personage very early on, and he certainly appeared in the Shadowtalk much more frequently than any other decker other than the Captain, at least as far as my memory goes.
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Red Wraith was also a badass FastJack praised like a motherfucker in Aztlan. Then he had a bit of a, uh ... Career shift. He's still around; retired from running, but he's now a fixer in Brussels/Amsterdam.
There's also Priest, but he went missing. But, yeah. FastJack somehow became the go-to fave probably around the time of the Denver Box Set when he smacked around Bash in the Nexus so Perri could introduce the Otaku.
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Well, 'Jack did knock Bash around good, and he did make it so Perri could be both uninterrupted and untouched, but they weren't happening at the same time. The former was when he was talking about the Nexus' security. ;)
In regards to 'who's the best', Dodger was never considered 'the best'. Very good, sure - and maybe even A Name. I always got the impression that he went out of his way to slip in and out; his full name was 'The Artful Dodger', slipping in and out without a trace, but YMMV on that one. Fastjack has a reputation, and build that reputation, and maintained that reputation. IMO, he did - or must have done - a hell of a lot of things mainly to create and keep that reputation, for the simple fact that you can't get a reputation like that without tooting your own horn more than a little.
In my opinion, it's like gunfighters in the Old West. There are those who become legends, and those who are incredible shots and wickedly lethal - and the two are not necessarily overlapping. Look up the actual deadliest men in the west, and for every big, famous gunfighter - Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok - there's two or three others just as good or better, but not as famous. Going by the same measure, for every great decker - Dodger, Sutherland (the ponce), Fastjack - there's two or three others as good or better but without the big rep. Those are the smart ones, the ones you really want to hire, because though yeah, they'll still command top dollar, you won't have to worry about the run getting talked about even with the names changed ...
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Oh Sotherland. How I miss him.
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Yes, he might have been a traitorous snake, but he was a likable traitorous snake. Streak was my favorite out of the whole bunch.
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At least Sutherland was honest about being a whore.
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Sutherland, likeable? I wanted to shoot him from the first moment I read his writeup. His appearances didn't make me like him any more, but considerably less, instead. For two bent thermoplast nuyen I'd've finished the job the shotgun started ...
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What Wyrm said.
His honesty about being a sell-out made him even more insufferable.
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Serrin wouldn't have gotten anywhere without him, Sutherland basically bankrolled everything. So no roguish cocky charm for you two?
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Nope.
The operative word in roguish charm being charm, which he certainly lacked.
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So maybe an adventure with him as the target? ;)
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I ... just cut most of what I think about the Sargent & Gascoigne stuff, but suffice it to say that I don't think there's anything worse written for the SR universe. Do they have little gems, yes - but the works had a lot of the 'everything is better better badder and my people know stuff nobody else does' syndrome that, fortunately, most of the rest of SR stayed away from, or had only small parts being B3. So ... Sutherland getting stuck as a Head of Matrix Security is wonderfully precious to me.
As for adventures with him as the target, well - everyone who hacks Wuxing is sticking a knife into him, which makes me giggle.
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So, what all books is Sutherland in, anyway?
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Prime Runners, Black Madonna, Nosferatu, Streets of Blood, and I think one of two more.
Edit- Maybe Target: Matrix?
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Yes, Target: Matrix. That's when he became Wuxing head of Matrix security.
I like the character for really only one thing I think, that discussion in Black Madonna, which was something along the lines of:
- I can go in the field this night with you. I know how to shoot.
- How come?
- I grew up in New York. Shooting at night is the second thing you learn there.
- What's the first?
- Shooting at day.
Made all the more tasty (or insufferable, YMMV) by the fact Sutherland grew up in a wealthy family. Otherwise, I consider Sutherland is showing that shadowrunning is not the fasttrack to the top, and social determinism is still pretty much alive. If you're a punk, you'll stay a punk, the guys who will actually get the chance to became head of Matrix security in a megacorporation were already born in the upper class.
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Nath brings up a good point. For all some people really love the Neo-A, white-hat, fight against the man types, the ones that really succeed in the end are the ones who not only started off a step above, but are also willing to play the game.
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But that kills all the romance. :)
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It's the way of the world, try as you like the rich senators son will always be seen as better than you. They are the officers and we are the grunts.
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But that kills all the romance. :)
Depends on where you find the romance, Crim. I find the renegade noble running the shadows as an outlet for all the things he can't do in 'polite' society appealing. But then, I always favored Batman over Superman, Punisher over Daredevil, and Wolverine over Cyclops. The kind of character that does it for me is the "Bad Man who does Bad Things to Bad People".
The anime/manga Shingeki no Kyojin is a perfect example. Gotta love it when the main character says his life's goal is to slaughter every last titan in existence.
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12) The Bot' Kham seem to be popping up all over the underground these days. They also seem to be a pretty violent and unruly gang (even by OU standards). Kham himself seemed to be a pretty decent and down to earth dude. Is there some record of how we got from one to the other after "Never Trust An Elf?"
The Bot'Kham first show up in Runner Havens. I have a story kicking around about Kham, and some plot development about the Bot'Kham (as well as a bit about their origins), but it's a project that's kind of on the back-burner as I deal with a lot of other stuff.
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It's especially funny to see them bad mouth some of the drug operations in their area, but that could just be a case of the Bot' calling the Cartel black.. :P
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12) The Bot' Kham seem to be popping up all over the underground these days. They also seem to be a pretty violent and unruly gang (even by OU standards). Kham himself seemed to be a pretty decent and down to earth dude. Is there some record of how we got from one to the other after "Never Trust An Elf?"
The Bot'Kham first show up in Runner Havens. I have a story kicking around about Kham, and some plot development about the Bot'Kham (as well as a bit about their origins), but it's a project that's kind of on the back-burner as I deal with a lot of other stuff.
Ooh. Fun stuff. I look forward to that.
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13) I know that Horizon had a rep as a "good" corp, until recently, but what was the event (or events) that pulled the curtain back? In other words, we all sortof "knew" that their "goody-two-shoes" act was BS, so what happened that proved us right? Also, sources would be aces.
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Twilight Horizon on both counts.
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I got the pdf and have been reading. That is a great book.
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14) Can someone point me to some reading on Neon Samurai and Night Fire? Something about a feud?
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They sniping has been ongoing, but if you look on pg 49 of Field of Fire, Nightfire (an Ares America company cog) claims that Neon Samurai has spread
slander against Ares Arms, claiming that the company killed a certain Doctor Elliot Mills-Fargo (Neon's Dad) after he created
the key patents for the MP Laser. Counters by saying the claim is untrue and that Stephen Mills-Fargo, aka"The Neon Samurai," killed his own father after a drunken argument.
Needless to say, not a happy pair. They snipe at each other all the way back in the original Street Samurai handbook, carrying through other weapons/tech books.
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The thing is about Horizon, is that they were not a "Big Bad". They were exactly as they seemed, a grand social experiment. The problem was that the whole idea behind the corp was flawed to begin with - the "greater good" predictably mutated into "the greater good for Horizon".
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Which is still not as bad as, say, Aztechnology.
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Only in methods (maybe), and only because ORO/Aztechnology has been around longer. But Aztechnology is also concerned with what's best for itself.
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Well, nominally, at least. The Smoking Mirror, however, is likely still trying to open the door for the Enemy...
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That doesn't disprove my assertion.
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Well, nominally, at least. The Smoking Mirror, however, is likely still trying to open the door for the Enemy...
Smoking mirror??
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Smoking Mirror is a cult of blood mages buried within Aztechnology/Aztlan and prone to doing naughty things like trying to leave the world door unlocked so things can come crawling through.
Interesting tidbit, the original translation of the cult name was actually Cloudy Window, but changed it when they got tired of hearing the jokes about not doing windows.
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Smoking Mirror is a cult of blood mages buried within Aztechnology/Aztlan and prone to doing naughty things like trying to leave the world door unlocked so things can come crawling through.
Interesting tidbit, the original translation of the cult name was actually Cloudy Window, but changed it when they got tired of hearing the jokes about not doing windows.
Interesting. I knew of the bloodmage gestalt in Aztlan, but was unfammiliar with 'smoking mirrior', thanks.
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Not quite. The Smoking Mirror is the power behind the cult of blood mages, essentially the driving will behind Aztechnology. It has long been rumored that the Smoking Mirror (which is the translation of a name of one of the Aztech gods) is in fact a dragon, potentially a Corrupted Dragon or even Corrupted Great Dragon. (By the way, Corrupted is something that makes Toxic look cute and fluffy by comparison.)
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Where can I read up on that? Corrupted dragon/aztechnology hierarchy/blood mages?
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You're not going to find much spelled out. A lot of this was inference from the Earthdawn Verjigorm metaplot (see Earthdawn: Horrors), shadowtalk in the Aztlan sourcebook, and some stuff in The Blood Mage Gestalt (Threats 1) writeup. The thread was sort of picked up here and there but I would hard pressed to tell you exactly where else it was mentioned.
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Ha! Everyone knows ****** is the current incarnation of the Cult of the Great Hunter.
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Ha! Everyone knows ****** is the current incarnation of the Cult of the Great Hunter.
Ok so the charachters name is six charachters long...
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Ha! Everyone knows ****** is the current incarnation of the Cult of the Great Hunter.
Ok so the charachters name is six charachters long...
*counts the letters in his own name*
Uh oh
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Ha! Everyone knows ****** is the current incarnation of the Cult of the Great Hunter.
Ok so the charachters name is six charachters long...
*counts the letters in his own name*
Uh oh
<locks and loads>
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Ha! Everyone knows ****** is the current incarnation of the Cult of the Great Hunter.
Ok so the charachters name is six charachters long...
*counts the letters in his own name*
Uh oh
<locks and loads>
Nuke him from orbit. Only way to be sure.
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I don't think that's going to be enough.
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Reaver is also six letters... It's a trap!
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Reaver is also six letters... It's a trap!
We've been tricked! >:(
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Reaver is also six letters... It's a trap!
We've been tricked! >:(
Where's a Dalek invasion when you need one?
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Actually, the full name is:
"Reaver of Souls" after my Mage a made a custom death touch spell that made it look like he was sucking the life energy out of the target. (worked exactly like 2e death touch spell, but with +2 drain for the combining of an illusionary effect)
Which got shortened to "Reaver"
And I don't actually eat souls
Just baby heads
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Reaver: "I'll swallow your soul!!"
Hawatari: "Come get some."
;)
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Reaver: "I'll swallow your soul!!"
Hawatari: "Come get some."
;)
.....
Reaver: <Hobbles away as fast as his cane will let him>
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Reaver: <Hobbles away as fast as his cane will let him>
CANE FIGHT!!! ;D
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*points at CanRay*
Six Letters!!!
*slips away in the confusion, muttering to himself about how this isn't his fault, not like he asked for it.*
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I do believe this has gotten a bit off-topic and feel that I should point back to the topic of the thread.
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I do believe this has gotten a bit off-topic and feel that I should point back to the topic of the thread.
I appologize for the derailment, I didn't expect the comment to spawn so much sillyness, maybe some but not that much.
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1) According to the 6th World Almanac, on June 2, 2042, Damien Knight was reinstated as chairman of Ares. I can't find any source that says that he was removed from this office in the first place or why.
Answered: There was a power struggle within Ares in the late 2040s. See Corporate Shadowfiles, Blood in the Boardroom, Corporate Download, and Corporate Guide.
2) According to the same almanac, on December 8, 2041, Veil agents intercept and destroy all data from the Cydonia Mars probes. What are Veil agents? Where do they come from? Why the destruction? Is this related to the Pyramids and Bones? Any source material for mars?
Answered: See, SR2 Missions campaign book.
3) Are Spider spirits considered Bug spirits? Do they show up at all after Sam Verner kicked Spider's ass?
Answered: No. No.
4) Of the 3 Mars pictures that are on the end of Big D's will, I have read that the UFO one is fake. But I haven't read anything about the other two. Presumably, two are from Operation Discovery (the Pyramids and the bones), and the UFO one was planted on Cydonia. Is this correct?
Answered: Yes. See, SR2 Missions campaign book.
5) Was there ever any "actual" data that survived from Cydonia?
Answered: Yes. See, SR2 Missions campaign book.
6) how does a dragon "become" a great dragon as Masaru did in 2042? I thought I saw that he was already a "great dragon" when he showed up in 2014?
Answered: Not answerable. It's sort of explained in the Earthdawn Dragons book, and speculated upon in Dragons of the Sixth World. There is no overt answer.
Masaru is the first Great Dragon of the Sixth World. Whether he made the transition after awakening or during the Fifth World is unknown.
7) Kenneth Brackhaven "goblinized" in 2023, but went into "remission?" He was cured of his ork-ness? How did this take place? and how/why does it say that his father brought in the best scientists to "cure" him? And it seems to have worked. What is the deal here?
Answered: He wasn't. The real Kenneth Brackhaven Goblinized and was murdered by his father at Seattle General. Gov. "Kenneth Brackhaven" was a SINless kid surreptitiously "adopted" by Ken Sr. and Karl and raised in the dark as to this fact until the UCAS presidential election in 2057. Covered in one of the adventures of Super Tuesday!.
8 ) is there anything known about the "fine old fixer traditions" that Charlie Tarrow was a part of with Wyrd back in the 30's? The only thing I can find is that they were doing and setting up "Shadowruns" before the term was popular. Does this group come up anywhere in the fiction or in a sourcebook?
Answered: Offhand remark to how the profession of "fixer" has been around a considerable time IRL and thus in SR.
9) Was there ever any significant storyline surrounding Thomas Roxborough and his strange brain-in-a-jar condition? Is he still an Azzie shareholder? Is he still in a vat? Has he ever caused problems for runners? I was able to pick up that he was a Decker... does he have an online name?
Answered: He appeared in The Dragonheart Saga novels. His background is explained in Aztlan, Corporate Guide (Universal Omnitech subchapter of Rising Powers).
10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
Answered: No further information has been given (yet?)
11) I seem to have gotten the idea in my head that Dodger was the best decker around in the 50s. Yet I keep seeing other places people refer to Fastjack as the best decker ever. Since it appears Dodger is back (or never left), has there ever been a comparison between the two? Is there a reason everyone says Fastjack is the best, other than people saying he's the best? Or is it apples and oranges?
Answered: Generally speaking, FastJack is the GOAT. There are some who may be really close, but he's the benchmark by virtue of age and cunning.
12) The Bot' Kham seem to be popping up all over the underground these days. They also seem to be a pretty violent and unruly gang (even by OU standards). Kham himself seemed to be a pretty decent and down to earth dude. Is there some record of how we got from one to the other after "Never Trust An Elf?"
Answered: To be revealed/discussed at a later date.
13) I know that Horizon had a rep as a "good" corp, until recently, but what was the event (or events) that pulled the curtain back? In other words, we all sortof "knew" that their "goody-two-shoes" act was BS, so what happened that proved us right? Also, sources would be aces.
Answered: The Twilight Horizon.
14) Can someone point me to some reading on Neon Samurai and Night Fire? Something about a feud?
Answered: Fields of Fire.
We seem to be done here.
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Neon and night fire go at through pretty much EVERY source book from middle 2nd edition to late 3rd edition...
Some books have more or less of their banter.... And you never really learn the "truth" of the incident.... If their even is one...
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15) Was understood who is the anonimous poster on Jackpoint?
Seems an hypotesis was Fastjack himself but I don't know if the identity of the Anon poster got uncovered.
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15) Was understood who is the anonimous poster on Jackpoint?
Seems an hypotesis was Fastjack himself but I don't know if the identity of the Anon poster got uncovered.
I seem to recall that all got traced back to Horizon and their Elite teams (can remember the name: Dawkins? Darwin? Hawking?)
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The organization's name is The Dawkins Group.
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Oh was one or more of Dawkins Group then and that continued even after the Fastjack run to end the interference? I mean, that anon posting continued after that run
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Oh was one or more of Dawkins Group then and that continued even after the Fastjack run to end the interference? I mean, that anon posting continued after that run
You sure? I thought the Anon poster stopped after 'Jack and a few others pulled off the run in 'conspiracy theories'... And in the Horizon mini-books
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Did any books ever make clear what the spooky thing Horizon was doing was? Was it spirits or AIs?
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Did any books ever make clear what the spooky thing Horizon was doing was? Was it spirits or AIs?
Horizon was screwing around with both.
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Oh was one or more of Dawkins Group then and that continued even after the Fastjack run to end the interference? I mean, that anon posting continued after that run
You sure? I thought the Anon poster stopped after 'Jack and a few others pulled off the run in 'conspiracy theories'... And in the Horizon mini-books
What are the Horizonmini books?
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Oh was one or more of Dawkins Group then and that continued even after the Fastjack run to end the interference? I mean, that anon posting continued after that run
You sure? I thought the Anon poster stopped after 'Jack and a few others pulled off the run in 'conspiracy theories'... And in the Horizon mini-books
What are the Horizonmini books?
There are three book-length adventures centered around Horizon.
A Fistful of Credsticks
Anarchy, Subsidized
Colombian Subterfuge
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Not quite. The Smoking Mirror is the power behind the cult of blood mages, essentially the driving will behind Aztechnology. It has long been rumored that the Smoking Mirror (which is the translation of a name of one of the Aztech gods) is in fact a dragon, potentially a Corrupted Dragon or even Corrupted Great Dragon. (By the way, Corrupted is something that makes Toxic look cute and fluffy by comparison.)
The name of the god you are referring to is Tezcatlipoca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tezcatlipoca). All in all, not a likable fellow as mythology goes.
-Ariketh
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15) where can I find some good source material for what Shiawase was up to from 2072 to 2075?
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15) where can I find some good source material for what Shiawase was up to from 2072 to 2075?
I don't think there is much..... Shiawase has been the "sleeping" giant of the Megas for a little while now.
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15) where can I find some good source material for what Shiawase was up to from 2072 to 2075?
Storm Front. "Escaping the Ghost Decade" chapter.
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There's also some info on their underwater research in Hazard Pay. And of course there's Corporate Guide. Really, of all the Big 10, only Renraku and Wuxing have been quieter.
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There's also some info on their underwater research in Hazard Pay. And of course there's Corporate Guide. Really, of all the Big 10, only Renraku and Wuxing have been quieter.
Makes sense, Renraku would still be recovering from the PR fallout of the Shutdown in Seattle and Wuxing has troubles off-planet thanks to the new Sybil cyber-virus.
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Makes sense, Renraku would still be recovering from the PR fallout of the Shutdown in Seattle and Wuxing has troubles off-planet thanks to the new Sybil cyber-virus.
A corporation that actually tries to recover from such a disaster should actually be striving with new projects and products. Doing nothing for a decade is the exact opposite of what they should have been doing (though it may have been difficult to come up with new products if R&D people still suffer from mental block). Or at least, there should have been some action during each of the multiple purge the management and PR and marketing departments would have gone through as a consequence of such failure to overcome.
Wuxing has no major space assets, so I think you're mistaking with Evo and its Mars station that got cut from Earth.
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Makes sense, Renraku would still be recovering from the PR fallout of the Shutdown in Seattle and Wuxing has troubles off-planet thanks to the new Sybil cyber-virus.
A corporation that actually tries to recover from such a disaster should actually be striving with new projects and products. Doing nothing for a decade is the exact opposite of what they should have been doing (though it may have been difficult to come up with new products if R&D people still suffer from mental block). Or at least, there should have been some action during each of the multiple purge the management and PR and marketing departments would have gone through as a consequence of such failure to overcome.
Wuxing has no major space assets, so I think you're mistaking with Evo and its Mars station that got cut from Earth.
Well, Renraku has been up to something... making money while keeping their head down. They have been playing the ol' "Nose to the grindstone" routine. They just aren't making the wakes in the shadows that the others have been.....
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There's also some info on their underwater research in Hazard Pay. And of course there's Corporate Guide. Really, of all the Big 10, only Renraku and Wuxing have been quieter.
Makes sense, Renraku would still be recovering from the PR fallout of the Shutdown in Seattle and Wuxing has troubles off-planet thanks to the new Sybil cyber-virus.
By 2075, Renraku is recovering from the Shutdown like ExxonMobil is recovering from the Valdez oil spill, which is to say it's occupying about 1% of their time and resources. Maybe. And in both instances only because the victims don't have the decency to die off so the lawsuits go away.
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Makes sense, Renraku would still be recovering from the PR fallout of the Shutdown in Seattle and Wuxing has troubles off-planet thanks to the new Sybil cyber-virus.
A corporation that actually tries to recover from such a disaster should actually be striving with new projects and products.
Such as the non-human-looking more-simple drones production line that they push out, as to make people less afraid of them? Covered by Arsenal.
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By 2075, Renraku is recovering from the Shutdown like ExxonMobil is recovering from the Valdez oil spill, which is to say it's occupying about 1% of their time and resources. Maybe. And in both instances only because the victims don't have the decency to die off so the lawsuits go away.
Well, yes and no. They've recovered financially and are in the business of making money hand over fist again, but they haven't recovered the same standing they had before the shutdown. They aren't back to the same Renraku that would put out a shiny new product every three months, and was constantly pushing the bleeding edge of tech just that much further. There is still a perception problem (at least in North America) that connects Renraku to that big building that used to have their logo on the side in downtown Seattle, and is now a glorified homeless shelter/prison. The smear on their reputation from trying desperately to cover up the shutdown as long as they could is still there. They designed the Manservant drone to be deliberately slow and clunky so people knew that it couldn't become a threat to them. Meanwhile, Mitsuhama has the sleek cyborg bodies out. That alone says how very far Renraku has left to go.
But it has been a decade since the Crash, and if they could start bringing out the big products again, then unless something happens to bring that incident back to light, they may really be able to put it to bed. An updated version of the Nadeshiko drone, for instance. Or maybe the hottest new cybersuite? A heavy pistol version of the old Fubuki, that can hold its own against Ares and it's vaunted Predator? Products designed for Technomancers? There are a lot of possibilities out there, plenty of underserved markets that could be captured almost instantly if a name like Renraku comes out saying that it is going to 'turn the page'. They've been keeping their nose to the grindstone, and making money, while keeping off the radar. But the last real thing anyone remembers about Renraku is the Shutdown, especially since it got released to the public during the TM/AI scare that Deus and the otaku who served him in the Arcology were majorly to blame for the Crash. They've weathered that storm, but they need something big to really create a new narrative. Of course, the biggest thing they could do is to find a 'cure' (or at least an 'immunization') for Sybil.
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16) Arthur Vogel - from what I can find he was an environmentalist. But Dunky tells him in his will to give up the Toxic stuff. Seems to contradict. Anyone have source material or explanation/story for Mr. Vogel?
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From his introduction in Super Tuesday! His legal and advocacy background involved dealing with eco-terrorists and other less pleasant elements of the environmental movement.
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Vogel was a lawyer for TerraFirst! and other such groups, IIRC. Which is effectively the same as being consiglieri for a Mafia don. Sure, you don't go killing people yourself, but you do help shield them from the law, and other 'consequences'. The thing about the environmental groups is that the awakened types in them got to see a bunch of environmentally damaged areas, and felt really strongly about such things. So it wasn't surprising to see a rising tide of toxics in the eco-terrorist movement.
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17) Regarding EVO's Yuri Shibanokuji, does anyone know how he REALLY overcame his Methuselah's disease in 2065? I have heard plastic surgery, cloning, leonization, spirit magic. Nothing seems to add up...
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No one knows for sure. The three most likely theories I've heard are:
1. The 'Shibanokuji Yuri' people think they know is actually an actor with plastic surgery, possibly a 'jumping jack' or metahuman biodrone like the Proteus board uses, controlled by the real Yuri.
2. Buttercup laid some mojo on him. Whether this mojo cured the disease or just suppressed it until she doesn't feel like doing it any more is unknown.
3. Early test case of Leonization.
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10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
opti.
Not much about what it does spelled out in Shadowrun, but it seems to definitely be an Earthdawn link. In Parageology, P. 19, they talk about Fiona Craig finding a "morel sael" or Morel Stone.. Morel being Sperethiel for Life, and this being basically a shard of a Liferock. The stone didn't have a magic aura, but sort of a living aura.
In Earhtdawn, Liferocks were the souce of life/energy/etc that spawned the Obsidamen.
So, this could have been a bone to indicate that if magic keeps rising, then Obsidamen might return in some fashion.
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10) in Missions, Season 4-00 (Back in Business), the runners are sent to find (among other things) something called a "morel stone." My runners kept it, sensing that it was worth more than they were being offered. Is there any properties or stats or further hints as to what this artifact does, or what it can do?
opti.
Not much about what it does spelled out in Shadowrun, but it seems to definitely be an Earthdawn link. In Parageology, P. 19, they talk about Fiona Craig finding a "morel sael" or Morel Stone.. Morel being Sperethiel for Life, and this being basically a shard of a Liferock. The stone didn't have a magic aura, but sort of a living aura.
In Earhtdawn, Liferocks were the souce of life/energy/etc that spawned the Obsidamen.
So, this could have been a bone to indicate that if magic keeps rising, then Obsidamen might return in some fashion.
Given that SR and earthdawn are now owned by separate companies and SR has made a move away from Earthdawn connections in recent years, I think this is a really big leap. (legally speaking)
As to what the stone actually does? that might come up in a later book or mission.... many of the artifacts recovered required very specific rituals to unleash their power... Knowledge that you can either use to keep the stone as a mysterious trinket, or let your imagination run wild and have the ritual unlock some fantastic ability.........
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Given that SR and earthdawn are now owned by separate companies and SR has made a move away from Earthdawn connections in recent years, I think this is a really big leap. (legally speaking)
As to what the stone actually does? that might come up in a later book or mission.... many of the artifacts recovered required very specific rituals to unleash their power... Knowledge that you can either use to keep the stone as a mysterious trinket, or let your imagination run wild and have the ritual unlock some fantastic ability.........
I don't see it as that big of a leap. It is presented in the section of Parageology that discusses True Elements, also another Earthdawn Port.
excerpts...
[spoiler]
.who specializes in pre-Awakening magical artifacts . . . a shard of obsidian. . .theorized was a piece of a larger stone she found references to called a “morel sael,” or morel stone. Unlike most magical artifacts, the item doesn’t have a magical aura. . .appears to have a faint aura similar to that of living being, hence the Sperethiel name for “Life Rock.” When compared to primal stones, there are similarities, but the morel stone is a natural formation and of such a large size that it implies that it is not a derivative of longpi.[/spoiler] longpi being the sperethiel (I guess) for True Earth. So, the Earthdawn link is not much of a leap at all.
Unless you mean the hinting of Obsidamen. In that case, yeah, I doubt it'll ever happen, unless particular GMs want it to happen, but this section of the book deals with Earthdawn material brought forward into the Shadowrun universe.
But, Parageology doesn't say the morel stone does anything, it's just an artifact from another time...
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18) Looking for info on the "D-Team," Dunklezahn's shadowrunner team. Who are they, what did they do? Sources?
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19) Also, looks like something went down in 2054 when the Elves put Crater Lake on Lockdown. Big D and Harley seem to have had something to say about it on Shadowland, but can't find anything concrete. Thoughts?
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18) Looking for info on the "D-Team," Dunklezahn's shadowrunner team. Who are they, what did they do? Sources?
Sources are mainly novels that I don't have on hand right now. There was Ryan Mercury aka Quicksilver (who is still around as of 10 Mercs), Axler, Grinder, Jane-in the Box, a whole bunch of dead mages, and Talon who left to form his own team in Boston and is still around as of Street Legends. Axler was mentioned somewhere as working for the UCAS government fairly recently IIRC. I'll try to dig it up.
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Thanks, chummer. I am literally going to start holding my breath... now!
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longpi being the sperethiel (I guess) for True Earth.
For the record it's not sperethiel, but Chinese. "Longlei" is documented as a "natural water radical" (true water) that Wuxing discovered in 2064 or true water. It translates literally into "dragon tears"
Longpi, following the same translation would be an earth radical, (true earth) that just as literally translates into "dragon skin"
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In Fraterese, the international language of frat boys, Longlei and Longpi have a much different and more humour meanings. ;)
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Unless you mean the hinting of Obsidamen. In that case, yeah, I doubt it'll ever happen, unless particular GMs want it to happen, but this section of the book deals with Earthdawn material brought forward into the Shadowrun universe.
Although there is that bit in Clutch of Dragons about a "stone-men" conspiracy theory (p113, Plan 9 mentions metavarient trolls with "tough, rocky skin" working for the Sea Dragon). Could be a throw-away, could be a shout-out.
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Have you tried seeking absent friends? Usually helps me...
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Have you tried seeking absent friends? Usually helps me...
Well done. :)
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20) Anyone clear on how to pronounce Wuxing? Is it Wu-ZING? or Wu-SHING? Or Wu-KSING?
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Wux On, Wux Off
Sorry, couldn't resist. :D
I believe it is pronounced wu-hsing or more simply woo-shing from what I have heard it as.
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Ha! Thanks, boss.
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21) Anyone have current info on the Jade Dragon of Wind and Fire? I know it had been used around '62 to re-align mana geomantically (any source for that info?), and that at that point was still at the skytower, but what about since then? Still in the same place? Has it done anything of note?
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It was first mentioned in Dunkie's Will (pgs 78-81).
Since then in Shadows of Asia (pg 32) it was mentioned how a party of shadowrunners broke into Wuxing’s penthouse suite and cast a geomantic ritual on the
Jade Dragon of Wind and Fire. Interestingly they did not steal it or damage it.
Since then, Wuxing has encountered several minor setbacks that have curbed its sudden rise to power.
Leading suspects for who financed the run are Lung and Ryumyo.
They would have the know how, though to what end remains a question.
However this is all 2nd and 3rd edition stuff, there may be a newer mission that touches on it, but I do not really do those so could not say.
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last mention of the statue that I could find was in the Corp guide from 4e.
In there, it is still at the Wuxing HQ in Hong Kong
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Considering it's a heavy-ass piece of jade on the top (or one of the top) floors of a Big 10 megacorporate HQ, and said megacorp treasures it more than any one entire major subsidiary, I'd bet it's still there. Making away with that sucker might be the only way to get Wuxing to fall.
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Stealing something like that is the kind of run an entire book centers around.
I'm still ... n/m
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Fish 'n Run? :P
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22) What is a "shallow" in the context of mana? Can't seem to find a source... my matrix skills are drek....
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22) What is a "shallow" in the context of mana? Can't seem to find a source... my matrix skills are drek....
Basically its an area where the mana count is weak. (Often due to an outside factor, like pollution, or the set up of feng shi to deny an area mana, etc)
They impose a dice pool hit equal to their rating for those not attuned to it
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synonymous with a background count?
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synonymous with a background count?
A little different, but yes.
A background count is more like emotional static in the mana, while a shallow is a lack or weakness in mana
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dig.
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Actually, an astral shallow is not a weakness in mana so much as a thin spot between the Astral Plane and the mundane world. It might be aspected or something, but it's not an ebb or void by any means.
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Oh. Well that is different. Any sources for where I might look into it?
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5th ed Street Grimoire pages 28-36 covers a range of Astral/Mana effects like Shallows, Ebbs and more.
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A mana shallow has a background count, but calling it synonymous with a background count isn't doing either of those terms justice. A background count is always the absolute value of the change in mana for an area. A shallow has a negative background count, but not so negative as to be a void.
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Pages 28 & 29, Street Grimoire.
ASTRAL SHALLOW
Astral shallows are places where the barrier between
the astral and physical space has become thin, allowing
even a mundane to use it like a window to perceive
the astral plane. While within the astral shallow, Awakened
people find astral perception to be easier, while
mundane individuals may look at astral forms as if they
had astral perception, though they cannot touch them.
Communication visually and audibly can be easily done
through an astral shallow. Astral shallows are normally
temporary in nature, lasting a few hours or days.
GAME INFORMATION
Astral shallows: Awakened people who can normally astrally
perceive can switch between astral and normal vision with
a Free Action instead of a Simple Action.
SAMPLE ASTRAL SHALLOWS
ABERDEEN AND FUZHOU SKY TOWER, HONG KONG
The unique construction and placement of the Wuxing
Sky Towers in Aberdeen and Fuzhou on intersecting mana
lines have allowed a permanent astral shallow to form
around both of them. Aberdeen’s shallow has grown up to
five kilometers in diameter, while Fuzhou Sky Tower’s is at
two kilometers in diameter.
TAJ MAHAL, INDIA
With the inhabitation of a great spirit at the Taj Mahal, the
emotional domain also became an astral shallow, allowing
many to believe they can see their deceased loved ones
walking the halls.
There is nothing indicating an astral shallow is a mana ebb or void. Nor is there any indication that it'd even have a background count. It's a thin spot, not a negative or drain.
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.... wow was i remembering wrong!
Sorry for the confusion!
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Durka - I fell into the same trap as Reaver. :)
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I've done the same thing, it happens to the best of us.
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18) Looking for info on the "D-Team," Dunklezahn's shadowrunner team. Who are they, what did they do? Sources?
Sources are mainly novels that I don't have on hand right now. There was Ryan Mercury aka Quicksilver (who is still around as of 10 Mercs), Axler, Grinder, Jane-in the Box, a whole bunch of dead mages, and Talon who left to form his own team in Boston and is still around as of Street Legends. Axler was mentioned somewhere as working for the UCAS government fairly recently IIRC. I'll try to dig it up.
Post-Dunklezann they also operate under the moniker Assets Incorporated.
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23) I can't help thinking I heard that the head of Wuxing, Wu Lung-Wei, was awakened somehow, but I can't find the source. Any help?
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Pg 77-78 in Blood in the Boardroom says that several sources report that Lung Wei is magically active, but no confirmed instance of him actually casting a spell or other sorcery stuff.
It is noted that he handles all important meetings face to face rather than using the vidphone or matrix, and given his powers of persuasion could mean he is a social adept, possibly of the Speaker's Way.
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Excellent. Thanks, partner.
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24) having solid difficulty tracking down info on Fu-Peng. Is that because there is none? Or because I am looking in the wrong places? I can see he has some sort of mystical influence on Wu, and is mysterious (terribly mysterious), but other than that... I am coming up empty...
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As far as I can tell Fu-peng is supposed to be mystery plot hook #52. He *is* involved in the Coin of Luck mission from Corporate Intrigue…
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25) I keep seeing a reference to some sort of magic or magically caused earthquake in Richmond, Vancouver, Salish lands. Can't find the details. Anyone point me to a source or info?
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The earthquake hit back in '59 and you have to remember that particular range of mountains also contains Mt Rainier, which was caused to erupt back during the GGD and the range remains an active spot, so this might not have been intentionally caused and just a bit of ongoing rumbling.
If it was done intentionally, I have never come across any credible groups claiming responsibility.
Plus from a game POV, it created a nice little Barrens area now filled with vagrants, ghouls and other oddities making a perfect area for more shadowy business, whether offloading that t-bird or just laying low for a while.
runner havens pg 71
sixth world almanac pg 187
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hmmm. One of my sources definitely says caused by magic. I wonder why that detail if it was never addressed?
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well it could well be of magical origin.
The earthquake hit the region, yet the areas surrounding the devastation were not even affected by a quake, which some probably took to mean it was magical in nature due to the tight area affected.
But beyond that tantalizing detail, there is not really a whole lot else.
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Actually did find something in "Tails you lose" that would make sense, but that is 3 years later. Grr. I hate lose ends...
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Actually did find something in "Tails you lose" that would make sense, but that is 3 years later. Grr. I hate lose ends...
Might be left open for GMs to use it as a plot hook.
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26) Big one. The shadows have been connecting Damien Knight, David Gavilan, Fuchi, Lucien Cross, and Big-D for some time. The info is spread all over. Is there either a paragraph run down or a consolidated thread/upload about this, laying out the pieces?
27) Further, what specifically has Ares been up to (what have they learned) regarding Vogel and Daviar? What have they been doing from 2073 to present?
28) Any bleeding edge current info on Damien Knight/Ares' Excalibur project?
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Storm Front for Excaliber.
Basically a dead end mana-tech weapon that never worked. Got refitted to AR specs and is blowing up in user's faces. Other then that, nadda.
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26) Big one. The shadows have been connecting Damien Knight, David Gavilan, Fuchi, Lucien Cross, and Big-D for some time. The info is spread all over. Is there either a paragraph run down or a consolidated thread/upload about this, laying out the pieces?
The Dragon Heart trilogy of novels which starts the day Big D checked out unearths much of the relationship between Big D, DK and Galivan Industries. It also digs deeper into Crash 1.0 and Big D's connection to it. Big D might have been one of the few individuals who knew DK from before the Nanosecond-Buy-Out so that info might still exist somewhere in his former datastores.
I'll admit that most of the novels aren't as cannon as the RPG material.
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Clockwork Asylum I think had some of the skinny on Knight/Gavilan, but that's assuming you trust a brain in a jar.
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Now that I have just finished the Dragon Heart Trilogy, I pretty much have the answers I needed. Roxx's info was pretty much confirmed by Alice and even some by Damien Knight, so it seems as good info as any. Thanks for pointing me there.
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29) ANY info on Mag Mell? Source would be appreciated.
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Never even heard of Mag Mell.
Edit: Having thrown it into Google, apparently it's the Irish version of the Elysian Fields. Here's your Wikipedia article. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mag_Mell)
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Sounds like someone is planning a trip to Tir na nOg maybe or having guests over from same?
According to legends, Mag Mell (or Magh Meall s some spell it) is sort of the Valhalla of Irish mythology, although you don't have to be dead to get there as it was rumoured to be an island off the Irish coast so maybe a bit closer to being like Olympus as it was where the Irish 'gods' were said to hang out.
As for SR, not much there beyond a word or two scattered a bit.
In Aetherology pg 7 we have this:
Old legends tell of battles between the courts over rule
of the metaplane. At one point the Seelie Court tried to
create a ritual to banish the Unseelie Court. At the same
time, the Unseelie Court was doing the same. What occurred
was a sophisticated fracturing of the Faerie Plane
that placed both courts in limbo, meaning they did not exist
in any metaplane. However they both found themselves
bordering on the physical realm and Faerie metaplane. The
Seelie Court was able cross into the world in what became
Tír na nÓg, while the Unseelie Court crossed into what
became known as Mag Mell. Lady Brane Deigh currently
rules over the Seelie Court, though while it is known that
the Unseelie Court is ruled by Lord Gwyn, associations
with him are mere speculation.
So like it's legends there seems to be a physical location to the place, but not a lot on it yet.
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30) Anyone know what happened to the Decker "Jack the Ripper" from the Whitechapel Rose story in Into the Shadows?
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Fairly confident Jack is alive by the end of Whitechapel Rose at least; if I remember correctly, he celebrates success with Emily at the conclusion of that particular short story.
I'd have to go back to the book to confirm, though.
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31) Is there any confirmation regarding the relationship between King Berthold of the Troll Kingdom and the Great Dragon Kaltenstein? Further, does anyone have any insight as to the reason why Lofwyr and Nebelherr fought Kaltenstein to prevent him from rescuing Feuerschwinge? The accounts are vague on the why...
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31) Is there any confirmation regarding the relationship between King Berthold of the Troll Kingdom and the Great Dragon Kaltenstein? Further, does anyone have any insight as to the reason why Lofwyr and Nebelherr fought Kaltenstein to prevent him from rescuing Feuerschwinge? The accounts are vague on the why...
This is pure speculation on my part.
Odds are Nebelherr got a good look at the SOX earlier and knew it was a toxic zone and would kill or at least corrupt any dual natured being, counting dragons. Once Feuerschwinge got shot down, Nebelherr probably knew that Kaltenstein would try to save her. I believe that Harlequin hints that Kaltenstein and Feuerschwinge were mated in Dragons of the Sixth World, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, Nebelherr didn't want a great toxic dragon, so attempted to stop Kaltenstein from entering the SOX and probably just assumed Feuerschwinge was dead or that the mana warp inside the SOX would finish her off. Nebelherr being only an adult couldn't possibly stop Kaltenstein himself, so called in a favor to Lofwyr to help stop old Cold Stone.
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31) Is there any confirmation regarding the relationship between King Berthold of the Troll Kingdom and the Great Dragon Kaltenstein?
Kaltenstein may have been an advisor to King Berthold, but he wasn't King Berthold. Kalteinstein's form is of a different, large troll with a limp (He has the limp in his true form, which he got from crash landing during his fight with the other dragons).
(http://www.shadowiki.de/images/thumb/b/be/Kaltenstein_in_seiner_Troll-Gestalt.jpg/180px-Kaltenstein_in_seiner_Troll-Gestalt.jpg)
Further, does anyone have any insight as to the reason why Lofwyr and Nebelherr fought Kaltenstein to prevent him from rescuing Feuerschwinge? The accounts are vague on the why...
That's the running theory.
Kaltenstein's entry in the German Street Legends also suggests that Nebelherr was involved because he is one of Kaltenstein's vassals, and so his "attacks" on the Great Dragon was his way of stopping his master from getting hurt. He was basically the other Pikers trying to keep Brad Pitt from running into his mom's trailer fire to rescue her in Snatch.
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is that ONLY in the German version? Is there a translation available?
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is that ONLY in the German version?
Yes. There are entries for Kaltenstein, Nebelherr, Monika Stüeler-Waffenschmidt, and the KonWatch decker group.
Is there a translation available?
No.
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Is there a translation available?
No.
I really wish CGL would bring over some of the German books. I'd really like to read up on modern 2070's Berlin and see what Coldstone's been up to.
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is that ONLY in the German version?
Yes. There are entries for Kaltenstein, Nebelherr, Monika Stüeler-Waffenschmidt, and the KonWatch decker group.
Is there a translation available?
No.
Humbug.
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You piqued my interest, and I'm translating the Nebelherr doc again since I don't want to dig through my backup for the old one that never got used. The two entries are connected and this one seems more relevant. But the gist is, yeah, Nebelherr is one of Kaltenstein's vassals and tried to stop Kaltenstein from doing something stupid. When he failed (and got fucked up in the process) he sought help from Lofwyr, who was able to stop the bigger dragon.
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By "something stupid," I am gathering that it would be bad for everyone, not just Kaltenstein and Nebelherr. Nebelherr wants to save Kaltenstien from toxic harm, and Lofwyr wants Nebelherr in his back pocket and to not start a war with humanity right out of the gate. Sound about right?
PS. thanks for the help.
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Seems that way. Losing Feuerschwinge is bad enough. Having Kaltenstein go into the SOX and either or both later emerging while irradiated or worse would bring far too much heat on dragonkind right out of the gate.
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Hmm. A lot of this information seems to be a rehash their respective entries in Dragons of the Sixth World. There are some interesting twists, though.
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29) To add a bit of whats already been said in regards to Mag Mell and it's location. I believe that 6th World Almanac talks about several mystical islands off the western coast of Tir Na Nog, as far as i recall, they made it sound like these islands were Alchera phenomena.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
> There were even paternity suits filed by wannabe starlets against Nebelherr that always failed. If even a quarter of the rumors are true, he regularly unleashed the dragon.
> Snow-WT
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29) To add a bit of whats already been said in regards to Mag Mell and it's location. I believe that 6th World Almanac talks about several mystical islands off the western coast of Tir Na Nog, as far as i recall, they made it sound like these islands were Alchera phenomena.
Probably.
There are similar magical alchera stones in northwestern Spain and I believe in the sea between Eire and Iberia.
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32) any updates on the Church of the Undying Light since the year of the Comet? Did they end up being pawns for DEUS? Legit charity?
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32) any updates on the Church of the Undying Light since the year of the Comet? Did they end up being pawns for DEUS? Legit charity?
Two:
In Sprawl Survival Guide, a runner discusses being a member to the reporter doing the story on runners.
In Loose Alliances, the church gets grants from the UN Development Program. The poster refers to this being the same kind of shortsightedness that caused the UNDP to fund the Universal Brotherhood in the '50s.
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Solid. Please tell me that you have searchable PDFs and are not just coming up with these off the top of your head... either way, i am impressed and grateful. Expect to see the result of your research on today's episode release....
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Solid. Please tell me that you have searchable PDFs and are not just coming up with these off the top of your head...
Both, depending on the subject. That last one was me searching the PDFs.
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What are the Horizonmini books?
There are three book-length adventures centered around Horizon.
A Fistful of Credsticks
Anarchy, Subsidized
Colombian Subterfuge
And Twilight Horizon. My first work, that!
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Well, Renraku has been up to something... making money while keeping their head down. They have been playing the ol' "Nose to the grindstone" routine. They just aren't making the wakes in the shadows that the others have been.....
Storm Front, Escaping the Ghost Decade has more on this, too. Short form is that Renraku's turning into "The People Corp", and has been using their massive databases and communication skills to win people over the old-fashioned way. Instead of automated help lines and Knowbots in the Matrix, you get actual human (not Metahuman, just Human!) assistance, people smiling and happy to help you, walking beside you the whole way. Need yoru dog walked? Renraku has a service for that! Need your hair styled? Come in, sit down, and chat with all the friendly people! Read magazines that feature stars from Renraku shows, wearing Renraku clothes, and afterwards, you can go eat in some Renraku resteraunts. Much like Aztechnology, they're using tons of false-fronts rather than pasting their own name on everything, but 'the family' directs people at other 'family members', who use the database build-up to make an experience tailored to what you enjoy. If you don't trust Technomancers and AIs messing with your tech, why don't you come over to Renraku's nice, safe environments, where the computers and drones are never, ever, EVER going to rise up and rebel due to being near-cripples, while real live PEOPLE wait on your every desire.
Renraku, "How can we serve you?"
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16) Arthur Vogel - from what I can find he was an environmentalist. But Dunky tells him in his will to give up the Toxic stuff. Seems to contradict. Anyone have source material or explanation/story for Mr. Vogel?
There are two types of Toxics.
The Type A Toxic are the crazy pollution people, with radioactive spirits, poisonous water spirits, and so on, who go all Captain Planet Villain and try to sludge up the place.
The Type B Toxic are the crazy enviro-terrorist sorts who want all technology destroyed, want people to live in harmony with nature, and who spike trees to injure/kill loggers or blow up industrial plants to save the Blue-Footed Snail-Warbler.
Vogel's a lawyer with ties to the B-Type Toxics.
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19) Also, looks like something went down in 2054 when the Elves put Crater Lake on Lockdown. Big D and Harley seem to have had something to say about it on Shadowland, but can't find anything concrete. Thoughts?
Harlequin novel for this one. Basicly it was a mana fwoosh from teh Astral, but was used by Harley and ... shoot. Alachia? No. The Dark Elf Who Totally Isn't a Drow. Her son was a half-Horror, who brough the two of them there, and in the end she sealed him into the Astral by using the mana tear, reversing it from 'blow' to 'suck'. It's a long novel and its been a few years, but, "Immortal Elf Stuff" should be enough.
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Careful, Wak. "Harlequin novel" and "novel about Harlequin" aren't quite the same thing. Let's not start up a line of bodice-ripping fantasy Immortal Elf romance novels, here. ;)
(PS, it's Worlds Without End.)
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Let's not start up a line of bodice-ripping fantasy Immortal Elf romance novels, here. ;)
Why not? Those things make a drekload of money, you know :D
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33) Noticed that Ares finally landed a probe on Hally's comet in 2062. Any lead on what they found?
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Careful, Wak. "Harlequin novel" and "novel about Harlequin" aren't quite the same thing. Let's not start up a line of bodice-ripping fantasy Immortal Elf romance novels, here. ;)
(PS, it's Worlds Without End.)
Ah! Thank you on the name! I can never remember that. Harumph.
(And I'd totally write Shadowrun romance novels! BUt I think the bosses would give me the stinkeye if I tried...)
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Well there's that story in Run Faster with Netcat and the toaster ...
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The authorship of that was never proven.
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Let's not start up a line of bodice-ripping fantasy Immortal Elf romance novels, here. ;)
Why not? Those things make a drekload of money, you know :D
Why limit oneself to just the IE, am sure Nadja Daviar has inspired more than her fair share of fanfic. :P
The authorship of that was never proven.
For which the author is no doubt still breathing and happy to do so because of it. ;)
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34) Is Magicknet still up and running in 2075/6?
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Very likely. I'd be willing to bet that it expanded during the Matrix 2.0 era, and has weathered the change to Matrix 2.1 just fine.
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34) Is Magicknet still up and running in 2075/6?
It's mentioned in Street Grimoire. Unwired describes it as a VPN similar to JackPoint, but in SR5 I think it's back to just being a private host like JackPoint. That said, depending on how much of a pain you want it to be for mages to access, you could treat it like a Prime Data Haven.
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34) Is Magicknet still up and running in 2075/6?
It's mentioned in Street Grimoire. Unwired describes it as a VPN similar to JackPoint, but in SR5 I think it's back to just being a private host like JackPoint. That said, depending on how much of a pain you want it to be for mages to access, you could treat it like a Prime Data Haven.
I remember one of the posts by a Jackpointer mentioning that it now has corp sponsership behind it, rather then the wild and free place it was before. If I can find the page again I'll post it up (provided my memory is not full of drek and I'm imagining it anyway).
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Let's not start up a line of bodice-ripping fantasy Immortal Elf romance novels, here. ;)
Why not? Those things make a drekload of money, you know :D
Why limit oneself to just the IE, am sure Nadja Daviar has inspired more than her fair share of fanfic. :P
As I recall, she was very popular in the bunraku scene, with many look-alikes done up as her.
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34) Is Magicknet still up and running in 2075/6?
It's mentioned in Street Grimoire. Unwired describes it as a VPN similar to JackPoint, but in SR5 I think it's back to just being a private host like JackPoint. That said, depending on how much of a pain you want it to be for mages to access, you could treat it like a Prime Data Haven.
I remember one of the posts by a Jackpointer mentioning that it now has corp sponsership behind it, rather then the wild and free place it was before. If I can find the page again I'll post it up (provided my memory is not full of drek and I'm imagining it anyway).
Nope. Just speculation in Corporate Guide that Manadyne might be able to use Mangadyne to put up a decent competitor, but nothing's come of that to date.
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35) Halley's comet, according to different sources, became visible to the naked eye on two different dates: September 5, 2061, and in March of 2062. Was it BOTH, because of the nature of Halley's orbit, passing by twice? Or is this a mistake/difference of view/unreliable narrator issue? Thanks!
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Page 8 of Year of the Comet has it as:
The comet will be visible to the naked eye from September to late November of 2061
It will be visible again on its return pass from March to April of 2062, but less so since it will be farther from Earth.
Extend these times for telescope viewing
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Bam! Sendaz on the spot!
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36) I am having trouble with the Proteus AG/Ares War. What could have caused Ares to want end the war with a Thor strike, and why would striking the Arcoblock be the target? I just feel like my lack of German language understanding is preventing me from getting the nuances. A summary of the war, please? Or a primary source? much obliged.
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37) Can anyone give me a brief rundown of the Rose Croix storyline?
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36) I am having trouble with the Proteus AG/Ares War. What could have caused Ares to want end the war with a Thor strike, and why would striking the Arcoblock be the target? I just feel like my lack of German language understanding is preventing me from getting the nuances. A summary of the war, please? Or a primary source? much obliged.
It's explained in the Shockwaves e-book, which I admit that I should have done a better job editing (I just assumed I was translating it. Oops.).
The Frankfürter Bankenverein (Frankfurt Bank Association, FBA): President Monika Stüeler-Waffenschmidt had to wait for a while before she could claim ownership and control of the group. She thought at first that the attack came from Essen (S-K’s HQ), but discovered soon that the real culprit was none other than the infamous Proteus AG. The concentrated attacks finally unveil it and the other companies involved.
When she realized she was facing several enemies and not just one secretive corp (but three AAA megas), MSW sought allies. Saeder-Krupp was obviously out, and Chong-Chao’s involvement in the past led her to believe another Asian corp was involved (a false assump- tion), eliminating Mitsuhama, Renraku, Wuxing and even Novatech (because of its former ties to Fuchi). The only corps that remained were Aztechology and Ares. It was easy: Ares was the best choice in the case of an open conflict, and Proteus was its direct competitor in several fields (for instance construction and space).
Moreover, simply dropping the name “Cross” besides that of “Proteus” in Damien Knight’s vicinity would assure his interest and support.
Ares Macrotechnology: Ares quickly understood the opportunities offered to it: a cooperation with the FBA would help the mostly North America-focused corp to take an important step into the European market. The other reason was the preservation of the FBA’s weight to coun- terbalance Saeder-Krupp. The corp also had the opportu- nity to directly attack a serious competitor (Proteus), and indirectly all the corps involved in it, thus strengthening its positions.
Proteus is unable to prevent Ares from intervening, and a spiral of violence and reprisals is triggered. But Ares and the FBA need evidence to incriminate Proteus: they will find it in one of Proteus’ ultra-secured aquacologies. As its next move in its escalating conflict against the AA, Ares triggers Thor orbital shots on the newly finished hermetically sealed Proteus Rømø arcology, piercing the corp’s armor, and giving the runners the opportunity to enter the place in the resulting chaos and confusion. Looking for intelligence, they finally find it deep within the habitat. It reveals that scary experiments are conducted aboard the Treffpunkt: Raumhafen space station, regard- ing manipulations on living human beings. Proteus on the other hand uses the attack to lodge a complaint against Ares before the Corporate Court on Zürich-Orbital. If the highest corporate judicial body accepts it, Proteus can possibly emerge from the crisis with the upper hand.
Ares is walking a thin line, because the data retrieved in Rømø is not enough to stand in a trial. Since a direct operation by Ares on the Treffpunkt: Raumhafen station isn’t possible, the runners are sent there immediately after their previous assignment, to uncover the real dirt. They meet the Board of Directors there and discover the identity of the Founders, then barely escape from the station.
Things look like they’re settled and Ares is about to perform an Omega Order, in other words to impose capital punishment on Proteus, thereby destroying the corp. But the situation changes one last time, taking another direction. Through subtle plays Lofwyr manages to keep Proteus alive but to give it a new face.
May 15th 2063: Back from Fiji, the runners are sent to Europort to extract a member of the Board of Directors of Proteus. As things turn ugly, they’re helped by Ares troops.
Late May 2063: Ares Macrotechnology publicly sides with the FBA, and ships in some troops. Warships cruise in the North Sea and the Sea of Japan.
Early June 2063: The runners are sent to meet Kevin Goldammer and learn more on the background and secrets of Proteus AG.
June 3rd 2063: Incident in the Sea of Japan: an Ares warship sinks a Proteus sub.
2nd and 3rd weeks of June 2063: The Proteus/Ares conflict escalates. Another incident occurs in which an Ares warship is badly damaged and another Proteus sub is sunken. Both sides express their regrets and call a truce. Both sides try to argue it was victim of an aggression.
June 27th 2063: Proteus sinks an Ares frigate in blatant violation of the cease-fire. In reprisals Ares sinks another Proteus sub.
July 4th 2063: Proteus attacks Ares facilities near Thule; they’re severely damaged.
2nd week of July 2063: Ares retaliates with the orbital bombing of the Rømø arcol- ogy. The runners are sent amidst the resulting chaos to find evidence of the conspiracy, but they can’t find enough of it.
3rd and 4th weeks of July 2063: Proteus attacks Ares in front of the Corporate Court for its unjustified attacks and shadow operations. To find the necessary information, the runners must infiltrate the Treffpunkt: Raumhafen space station.
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37) Can anyone give me a brief rundown of the Rose Croix storyline?
It's from Season 1 of Shadowrun Missions. Do a find of "Rose Croix." http://www.shadowruntabletop.com/missions/downloads-season-1/