Post your character sheets here. I prefer a Google Drive (or similar) link to a Chummer or HeroLab PDF, but as long as it's easily readable, any format is fine.
Name: Oz (aka Mr. Ted aka Tristan Wentworth) Metatype: Human Archetype: Magic Decker Current Job: Teacher
A pale, overweight man, with thinning brown hair going to gray, and cheap plastic reading glasses. His face is drawn with fatigue, his tweed suit is rumpled, and he moves deliberately, avoiding overexertion. But his eyes have a spark - a piercing blue gleam, that speaks to something strong underneath the drab exterior. He speaks quietly, but something in his voice belies any impression of weakness. He can quiet a noisy class just by taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose, showing his oncoming headache is enough without raising his voice. The drab, ordinary looking human walks through the Underground like he belongs, and his students and former students are everywhere, always with a “Hi, Mr. Ted!” and eager to update him when he asks how things have been, because when he asks the question, it’s obvious that he actually cares. He's kind and caring, but pragmatic, and he looks for the good in people, but he knows it sometimes isn't there.
Tristan “Ted” Wentworth was born in Santa Rosa, in the CFS. He had an average childhood, just a nerdy kid living in the suburbs, but began to exhibit magical talent in his teens. He was talented enough to get into the People’s University of Berkeley, and he did well there. He couldn’t decide between Thaumaturgy and Computer Science, so he studied both. He got a Thaum.D. in Theoretical Magic, and a Ph.D. in Matrix Theory. He spent years as an adjunct lecturer, doing interesting research but not making any breakthroughs, until his life took a left turn, and drove off a cliff.
After the Second Crash, Tristan wrote a paper comparing the Crash to the Awakening. Many such papers were written, but his was particularly insightful, and attracted some attention. Phoenix Biotechnology, a AA Corp continually trying to claw its way to AAA status, was launching a research project, and offered him a job making more money than he had ever dreamed of. The Homonculus Project studied the Second Crash, magical talent, and the newly emerged Technomancers, with the goal of figuring out how to trigger Magical or Resonant awakenings through biochemistry or genetic engineering. Tristan was thrilled to be paid so much money to work on such an amazingly interesting project. The research facility housed a couple dozen youths, mostly metahumans gifted with resonance and magic, and even a couple of former otaku. They went through constant aptitude testing and medical testing, but nothing out of the ordinary or invasive. The kids complained about some of the longer, more boring tests, but Tristan knew the kids were from the street, and were getting a better life than they would have had otherwise. There was a certain amount of turnover, as the kids were free to leave whenever they wanted, but even though kids regularly left, none of them acted like they didn’t want to be there.
Unfortunately, Tristan’s naivete was shattered when he was reassigned to the most secret part of the project. At first, he was excited to get access to massive amounts of new data, much better than what he’d had before. The data was so good that he started wondering where it came from; and his combined talents with magic and the matrix meant he didn’t have much trouble finding out. The horrible truth was that the kids weren’t free to leave at all; they were being dissected. An AI had made the decision based on thoroughness and expediency, and the researchers and executives who should have stopped it had convinced themselves that the lives of street-kids didn’t matter, compared to the greater good of their research.
Tristan couldn’t, and didn’t, let this horror stand. After a few days of planning and preparing, he managed to arrange an accident that crashed the AI, brainfried the senior researchers working with it in the matrix, and allowed a window of escape for him and the kids. Ending up with a bunch of kids in the middle of downtown Phoenix in a van, they took off on a “road trip”. He headed to meet up with an old friend from college in Seattle, who was basically the only person he could trust to help him out.
When he got to Seattle, the hounds of the corporate authorities were after him in full force. Fortunately, during their time on the road the kids had opened up to him, and he had found out that most of them were actually from the Ork Underground, in Seattle. Rather than risking the life of his friend, Tristan took them back there, and his arrival with 20 lost kids made a big impression. It was one of the few times the Underground welcomed a human into their inner sanctum. When Tristan saw how rough life was for the Orks, and how hard it was for them to access the conveniences and technology that were part of everyday life for everyone else, he asked to stay there, and help them.
He opened a tiny school in the Ork Underground, the Sandwich Academy. (Named after Tristan’s gimmick - every student who attends class and stays to the end without disruptions gets a sandwich.) He teaches reading, writing, computer use, and job skills. He also offers discreet instruction in magic and cracking to any who ask for it; and once in a while, when the Underground needs a team to do a run, he helps out with that as well. There was suspicion about his motives at first, but after experiencing his lack of prejudice and moralizing, and the usefulness of what he teaches, he was welcomed into the community. His classes started out sparse, but as he stuck with it, they filled up, and now he has a handful of other teachers who help him, and financial support from the Underground to keep the school running. The kids he rescued are all teens and grownups now, and they are the core of a group of kids and young adults whose lives are better off because of him. He never regrets giving up his former life of wealth and scientific resources, but he sometimes gets depressed thinking about the months he spent naively working on Project Homunculus, while innocent kids were being killed.
He was sitting at his desk, with a hot cup of sugary soykaf and a stack of term papers, when the big ork came in. Ted looked up, recognized his friend Kong, and said, “Is it time?” Kong nodded, and Ted drained the soykaf, and stood up to take off his glasses and put on the hat and long coat hanging discreetly in the corner.
…
He sat in the back of the van, rumbling out to a remote research facility with a team from the Underground. He could never get used to how often amoral megacorps had no problem with kidnapping the poor to conduct research on them. This time, it was blood magic, research being done by an obscure A corp trying to replicate the power of Aztlan. They seemed to think that since orks were sturdier physical specimens, they would make the best sacrifices. Apparently they hadn’t heard of the Ork Underground.
…
It hadn’t been too bad, getting through security. But now they were faced with a lab occupied by an initiated bloodmage. They’d managed to keep things quiet enough that he wasn’t ready for a fight, but Oz had warned the team about the risk to the people that were still within the bloodmage’s reach, if they went for a direct confrontation. Fortunately, they had a plan.
Leaning against the wall, he adjusts his hat to make sure the built-in trodes are in place. He reaches into the pocket of his coat, thumbing on the homebuilt deck inside. The world shifts - from reality to the halls of space and light inside the matrix - from a short, rotund man in a dark coat and hat, to a tall figure in wizard robes, glowing with golden light. The avatar of light flies down one hallway, then another. What he wants isn’t hard to find - there it is - a little 3d mop - and in a moment, back in the physical, the rest of the team sees a small floor-waxing robot come around the corner, and stop in the hallway where they all wait quietly outside the door to the lab. His attention back in the physical world, Oz takes his hand out of his coat pocket, and breathes deeply, bracing himself for exertion. He looks at his companions, and they nod their readiness. He speaks quietly in an ancient language, moving his hands deliberately, and one, two, three of his team members disappear. Sweat beads his forehead from the effort of maintaining the spells, but he just needs to wait, now. A mental command through his commlink, and the little robot moves, going through the door, which opens automatically for it. The robot moves slower than it should, ensuring the door stays open for long seconds, before it closes. The quiet lasts for a little longer, as he projects himself astrally to monitor the confrontation in the next room.
…
Heading home now, the group sits quietly, enjoying the satisfaction of a mostly successful run. The van is crowded now, the team of 5 sharing the space with the 8 rescued prisoners. 8 rescued out of 10 taken isn’t perfect, but it‘s better than they’d dared hope. The other team members look at Oz with new respect. They hadn’t known the pudgy human was capable of what he’d done tonight. They’d invisibly secured the prisoners, and knocked out the bloodmage, but though Oz had told them not to show mercy, they hadn’t been been sure what to do with him. Oz came in, looked at the work area, and took in what the bloodmage had been doing. They saw the look of pure rage that came across his face, and they all stood in shock as he picked up one of the blood-caked implements on the table, and slit the bloodmage’s throat as easily as drawing an line through a run-on sentence. Nobody had objected, they’d all seen the horror inside the lab, but none of them had realized what the friendly little man was capable of.
Oz was quiet too. He’d surprised himself as much as the others - he knew, as they didn’t, that he wasn’t really a killer. But he’d recognized the body on the table. Teegan had come from Phoenix with him. He knew they couldn’t all be safe forever, but this was the first of the kids he’d lost. He hadn't been as calm as he looked when he’d removed that monster from the world - but he didn’t regret what he’d done. Some acts were so horrible that the death of the perpetrator was the only answer.
What are you doing? He came upstairs to shop for a new suit.
__________________
Taken the Oath of Sangus
Last edited by gwythion; Apr 27th, 2019 at 11:04 PM.
Current job: odd jobs, mainly as a dock or warehouse worker
Physical description: They don't make clothing for Trolls, so Klara makes her own - usually by cannibalizing other outfits for their cloth. Dresses are easier to make, so that's usually what she's wearing - separates including a skirt and complimentary top. She knits hats and scarves for warmth. Otherwise, her personal possessions are pretty scant. Her hair style could be classified as late 60, German dreadlocks and she prefers to wear some kind of eye makeup when she can afford to splurge on it. Shoes are a problem; currently, she wearing a pair of sandals that have tire-treads as their soles. She large... that's for sure. And nobody would mistake her for a man. She has a habit of snarling at people that she doesn't know when in pubic, so that they'll leave her alone. On the job, she tried to be as gentle and socially acceptable as she can manage.
Personality and background: Klara grew up on the streets of Hamburg. Found in a trash can by some Orks, she never knew here parents and later figured that whoever they were, they weren't worth knowing. Anybody who abandoned their baby were obviously not good people. She left Germany when she was pretty young and worked on various ocean-going vessels whenever she could convince the captain to hire her on - for not much more than the large amounts of food and water she required. She liked the solidarity of the ocean, where few people were around to pester or bully her. Yes, a Troll can get bullied. Over the next decade or so, she visited ports all around the world and finally ended up in Seattle, where she took a liking some people she met on the docks who were oddly accepting of her.
Qualities:
Positive: bilingual (German and English), quick healer, natural athlete
Negative: distinctive style, bi-polar, in debt.
What are you doing in Lundstrung's? Working. Klara has a temporary job working in the on-site warehouse - taking heavy purchases out to people's vehicles and otherwise moving stuff around. There's a new display being setup that she's been carting stuff around for.
Name:At the GM's request, Serenity's name changed.Auri. Metatype:Twentysomething female; bark-brown hair, leaf-green eyesDryad. Team Role:Her skills are solid, and her pedigree is top-notch, but frankly, she's a bit of a noob.Mage, Face What are you doing: Buying some new threads!
Role-play Sample: Commercial lifestyle, garage (Body 5+), Yard, Obscure, Private Room.Panther's is a hard-to-find dive bar in an otherwise unassuming neighborhood. The nutrisoy is nothing remarkable, but the liquor is fairly priced. Styled as a speakeasy, the awkward location and don't-ask-don't-tell gestalt attract a fiercely loyal clientele who value their privacy - including more than a few shadowrunners. Panther, the bar's namesake, was one of them. Auri - the owner, and now also the bartender ever since she had to let Contact(Bartender): Connection 2, Loyalty 4. After she had to let him go, Mac opened up his own place across town selling steak sandwiches and homebrew. He's real popular with magical types.Mac go - is her daughter.
It's a slow night. A dozen or so of the usual patrons are here, keeping lubricated. The bigscreen is tuned to Urban Brawl, with the sound muted and English closed captioning. Auri has her contact lenses set to replace it with Sperethiel.
The externals show that the same Mitsubishi Nightsky has passed this location three times. Another Mr. Johnson having trouble finding the place. Auri chuckles, then looks at her regulars with a different eye. Four of them are pacing themselves. And the way Contact(Lone Star Detective): Connection 3 Loyalty 3. Nick's a regular, and comes to Panther's because the liquor is cheap. He's not a big shot, but he knows pretty much everybody and that's not a bad sort to have around.Nick Ryder keeps looking the other way... Smells like a meet.
Contact(Shaman, Shadowrunner): Connection 4, Loyalty 2. Spends a lot of time in the garden.Dines on Ashes, a Lakota shaman, approaches the bar. "I trust the room is available?" he says. Dead giveaway. If he just wanted some privacy, Ashes would use the garden - it's one of the things they have in common, one of the reasons he keeps coming back. If he wants the Faraday cage, there's a meetup for sure.
"How long do you need it?"
He books the room for an hour just as a well-tailored Japanese businesswoman enters. "Konbanwa, Ashes-san," she says. That catches Auri's attention more than anything else so far. Ashes is the bagman for his crew, but not the face; if he's the contact for this run, that means it's something a little unusual. She picks up a glass, polishes it so she doesn't seem to be staring, and opens up her third eye. Taking a longer look at the businesswoman, she almost drops the glass.
She positively reeks of magic. She's no Johnson... she's a wagemage. Auri's curiosity wars with her professionalism. Whatever the job is, Ashes will be more than able to handle it... and her clientele don't come here seeking her Auri is a Vodouienne, and should be starting play with a few services from a bound Guardian spirit.spirits. Well... except maybe K:Alcoholic Beverages 3THOSE spirits...
If Panther hadn't died, that'd be me taking that job. I'd've paid my dues and then some, by now. But her mother is gone, and no matter how sweetly she asks, Contact(Decker): Connection 1, Loyalty 5. A retired shadowrunner turned software security consultant. Used to run with Auri's mother, but hasn't been able to keep up with the state of the art. Her skills are still good but the tech costs a little more every year...Sea Moss isn't talking about what happened. And at the end of the day... Auri can't bear the thought of losing her garden. So instead of running the shadows, like her mother before her, she tends the bar and keeps the lights on and provides the cool kids with a safe place to meet up.
But as Ashes and his team file into the back room she can't help but catch his eye. "Stay low, chum," she says.
Name: Ami Miasawa Handle: Librarian Fake SIN: Mercury Marvel Metatype: Human Age: 25 Gender: Female Team Role: Investigator, Magical Support
Description:Ami has silvery blonde hair and unnatural violet eyes. She has long pointed ears, but is certainly short for an elf coming in at only 1.4 meters in height. She wears a pair of corrective lenses and can usually be seen with a book in her hand.
Personality: Ami is a bit shy at times and not very outgoing. She likes her books and is a bit addicted to Astral travel from her childhood. The real world is often hard to interact with and understand for her. Even so, she is smart and confident in her skills as a mage and an investigator. When she is working she is a lot more confident than when she is in a social situation.
Background: White picket fence, two kids, a stay at home mom and a rich father. That’s the family Susan Merriweather was born into. With lavish birthday parties, treats, fancy family vacations. It was a life anyone would envy. Right up until her thirteenth birthday. That was when everything ended. Her brown hair turned Blue and her rounded ears became pointed while dark brown eyes became sapphire.
She stopped being Susan Merriweather that day. Her parents made her into a non-person her SIN was taken away and she was thrown onto the streets in the middle of the city. She didn’t understand what happened and tried to make her way back home, but the guards sent her away like trash. She kept trying though sneaking her way back home only to have security forces drag her away to an orphanage and given a new name. From that point on she was Ami Miasawa.
She was sad and lonely at the orphanage, but she stood out as a bright young girl. One day a man named Daust Insere came to the orphanage. He had a school for intelligent young children in the city and he was willing to take Orphans off their hands. The supposed purpose of the school was to “nurture young minds”. He and two assistants named Takashi Kusanage and Sooni Li must have seemed like a gift from the gods to the cities they took their orphans from. They had credentials and permits even if they only wanted the brightest young children nobody would mind, especially not if money helped to grease the wheels.
Inspectors never came to the school and things ran exactly like Daust wanted and the children there either pleased him or they were punished. Boys and girls were separated into their own dorms. They were young, easily controlled and had raw talent. Best of all nobody would miss any of them.
The heart of the school was far from nurturing young minds. It was a portal, a portal Daust had either found or made. This portal allowed an operator, someone capable of activating the portal, to sit in a supervisor's circle. Another person, who need not be able to initialize a portal, sat in the larger circle. The operator would activate the portals and send them into the realms beyond the astral plane.
Such a complex set-up isn't necessary to take a person into the Astral Plane or beyond with you. It does, however, have benefits, at least from the operator's point of view. With this particular configuration the person in the supervisor's circle controlled the dive, and could perceive what was happening to and around the person in the subordinate portal. They were like a ghost, able to see and be seen, but they couldn’t affect anything on the other side.* Of course, nothing could affect them either. They were quite safe.
As for the children in the larger circle they could be given instructions, directed, commanded by the supervisor. If anything happened to the diver, there was a safety system which broke the link between the two circles, like a circuit breaker, preventing any sort of dangerous feedback from reaching the operator. Daust and his people sent a bunch of children into other realms while they supervised, safe from any harm.
The School taught the children about mystic languages and artifacts. They needed subjects who could be taught what to look for, how to avoid hazards and stay alive long enough to bring back something valuable. Over the years, Daust and his cohorts went through quite a number of children. At one point, Takashi disappeared without explanation. Then, when Ami was sixteen Sooni got into an argument with Daust and she, too, vanished soon after. They'd both been able to activate the portal, but perhaps they'd become liabilities. By then there were only four children left, and Daust seemed to be having trouble finding new blood. The children he did procure weren't lasting long, and despite his successes the strain seemed to finally be getting to him. He drove the children, the experienced divers, to take greater risks, and Ami knew that it wouldn't stop until they were all used up.
Ami knew well how the portal worked and she turned the tables on Daust. She switched the circuits and went to find the most dangerous thing she could. When he died screaming the connection cut away and she freed the rest of the students. They all went their separate ways and Ami well she went into running the Shadows.
You can find her to this day working part time in a bookshop and contracting out her services to people who need her. If it is magical in nature and you need an runner to help you she’s your girl. She doesn’t do wet work and she prefers not to kill.
What are you doing: Ami is at Lordstrung's Department store on a job. They called her in because they were having an issue with ghosts and her connection to the Astral is pretty well known in many circles. So, she's basically looking around the store trying to find which areas might be weakened and if a ghost is really in the building or if they are being pranked.
Role-play Sample: This is Silanea one of my current faves.
Priorities:
A: Magician
B: 36 skills/5 skill groups
C: Attributes - 20
D: Resources – 50,000
E: Human
Current job: Student attending Seattle U, part time hooligan wannabe
Physical Description:
Bo is a red skinned asian featured Oni standing Standing 6'3" in height with a clean cut appearance. His dark hair is worn in a style that would be right at home in ancient Middle Kingdom China and his beard / mustache combo would do Ming the Merciless proud. His own version of dress for success includes ‘combat wear’ style suits, or alternatively open neck silk shirts matched with more rugged pants. If all that screams triad member, or maybe triad poser, then Bo considers that message successfully delivered.
Personality:
Bo is the product of an Asian crime family up bringing. He is loyal to the family and those he considers worthy, but can be disdainful or even a bit callous towards those who do not measure up. He respects education, success, hard work and determination, and tries to live up to all of those traits as best he can. He is also a bit of a romantic in the sense that he has bought into the triad mystique more than is practical, is more honorable than is advisable, into looking cool, and also an adrenaline junkie. These later qualities have given both his father and mother pause, and are one set of the reasons they are reluctant for him to enter the family business. Despite all that, Bo is determined to take 'his' place in the Yellow Lotus and succeed. And, maybe if he can grow up a bit more, he will do be able to do so.
He does have a few quirks. Most notably he likes fine fashion, and places a bit of his judgement on appearance. Bo also gambles a bit more than he should, and once in a blue moon ends up in trouble with debt that takes a month or two to pay off. Thankfully its not a true addiction for him, but it could become one if he is not careful. He is also a fitness junkie and frequents the gym and sparring rings. Intellectually? He likes reading, but only likes crime stores, tactics, magical theory and history. He is also a reasonably accomplished Weiqi (go) player, although not quite professional level.
Background:
Bo is the son of a high-level Yellow Lotus Triad mage whom he idolizes. As a child he grew up exposed to ‘the life’, and he quickly latched onto the idea of becoming a high level triad member himself, and maybe even surpassing his dad one day. However as his parents aged, and found out they would be unable to have more children, they went from encouraging his ambitions to discouraging him. It was just too risky for their only child, and his father was unsure he could hack it. The only easy part of ‘the life’ is slipping into it, it is not actually that easy to prosper at it. No, it was better his son seek a more normal life and live long enough to enjoy it.
This obviously presented a problem for Bo. He tried to go along with his parents’ wishes, but normal life just did not sit well with him even as a kid. He was not a bad student. Indeed while he was no genius, he was usually in the top quarter of his class, although more due to hard work than top ability. Still academia and after school activities held little allure for him, and he was always getting into, and sometimes out, of mischief. There followed a period where his parents tried different things from private schools all the way to a military boot camp for kids for a summer to find something that would work. But, none of it could bring joy to a lifestyle where he was determined there was none.
Finally his father and he had heart to heart talk and they agreed that he would try college first. He could even study magic if he wanted, which was the lynch pin of the Yellow Lotus. However, he could never follow in his father's footsteps unless he could prove he could handle it first. After which Bo's fleeting feeling of victory and hope was blunted a bit further by his father adding that he could not join a criminal organization until then, or it would cost his father and mother face with the Yellow Lotus. They had made their position known already to the organization. Dirty pool for sure. Since Bo was no loaner, or rebel without a clue, he was now bound by this as surely as if he had promised it himself. Still there was hope, so off to Seattle U it was.
Aliens: Besides just muscling in where they are not wanted. If he could be the first ‘in’ the organization to beat them, or get leverage on them somehow… Why then that would make his dad and the rest of the organization finally acknowledge him.
Qualities: Not sure just yet as I am coming from 3rd, and that was a good long ago. But, any sort of mob connections would be appropriate. I also saw one quality that I can't recall atm that that granted a lifestyle and an allowance which would also fit his character.
What are you doing in Lundstrung's? Bo is simply here to shop for some new clothes that fit with his style and maybe get a haircut if he can find someone whom he thinks can do a good job. And, although certainly not his priority, if he can pick up a cute bit of fluff while he is at it all the better.
Roleplaying sample:
Bo shooed away buzzing winged vermin with a flick of his head as he focused on his quarry outside the Stuffer Shack across from the alley he was hiding in. An ignored drop of sweat slowly traced its way down his face as he watched the three targets through the shimmering summer heat that rose off street between them. The Red Dragons were on relatively new bikes. So they were not low level scrubs. Check. One stayed outside on his ride while the other two got off their bikes, one punched the other good naturedly and they said something to each other, then the pair went into the Stuffer Shack. So they had at least some situational awareness to leave a lookout behind, as expected if they were not trash. Check. They were outside of Red Dragon territory, just like his informant had said, and that meant they had a reason to be coming back here fairly often. Bo wanted to know why. He might be young but his father had drilled into him observe first, think, and only then act, so often it was pretty instinctual. That lesson, and also that you had to know the enemy and their goals if you wanted to defeat them were practically his gospel.
So here he was, standing in a puddle of 'he did not want to know', in this stench filed alleyway three days after having chasing out its 'inhabiting' vagrant. He was leaning against the wall shoulders slumped with a ragged coat, also curtesy of the vagrant, over his clothes. But the payout should be worth it. He watched the time tick away on his AR contacts. Two... three.. five... Ah seven minutes later and the two Red Dragons left the Stuffer smiling. One had his arm around a reasonably attractive if somewhat street worn red headed girl whom was carrying a bag. He zoomed in and noted the edge of a Stuffer Shack uniform just visible in the bag and he smiled. Bingo. The rest went as he expected. The matched pair laughed and then they all made their way to the bikes before riding off with the girl double with the triad member who was clearly her bf or whatever. Excellent. Bo made note of the details and waited about ten minutes to be sure they were not coming back. Satisfied, he opened his com as he left the fetid alley and made a call to some local Yellow Lotus triad members he knew. He would get someone to hack the Stuffer, id her based on the imagery he had captured, and get her shifts. He smiled with a nasty little grin. Next time she was scheduled to work there would be a little surprise party waiting for all four of them when she got off shift.