Shadowrun 5 street grimoire pdf download

Magic can burn your brain and sear your soul. It can inject power into every millimeter of your veins, or leave you a lump of ashes at the end of a dark alley. It’s dangerous, but to spellslingers in the Sixth World, it’s worth it. Because magic is power, and power in the Sixth World needs to be grabbed with both hands. Spells, rituals, alchemical preparations, adept powers, metamagics—all of those elements and more can be used to help an Awakened shadowrunner move off the streets and get a taste of the high life. Street Grimoire has more options for Shadowrun players, along with information on magical traditions, magic societies, and the dangers and benefits of living as a spellcaster in a world where “geek the mage first” is a common adage. With more options, deeper rules, deadlier threats, and dozens of way to have fun with magic, Street Grimoire is an essential book for anyone playing Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

FIFTH

E DI T I ON Under License From ®

taniaarraindegia.esy.es © The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Street Grimoire, Shadowrun and Matrix are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC. Printed in the USA.

>> STREET GRIMOIRE <<

INTRODUCTION

5

WHERE FEW DARE TO TREAD

6

SURVIVING MAGIC

10

BORN AWAKENED

11

Magic in Popular Culture Magic in Ethnic Cultures Magic in the K System College Life Working for the Man Working for the Church Magic in the Shadows

12 13 15 16 17 19 21

MAGIC IN THE WORLD

24

LAWS OF MAGIC

25

The Rules We Impose

26

ASTRAL TOPOGRAPHY

28

Astral Rifts Astral Shallow Alchera

28 28 29

BACKGROUND COUNT

30

ASTRAL PHENOMENA

32

Mana Ebbs Mana Voids Mana Warps Mana Lines Sha and Sheng Effects Mana Storms

MAGICAL TRADITIONS

32 32 33 35 35 36

38

THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE

39

TRADITIONS OF THE SIXTH WORLD

41

Aztec Black Magic Buddhism Chaos Magic Christian Theurgy Druid Hinduism Islam Path of the Wheel Qabbalism Shinto Sioux Vodou Wicca Wuxing Zoroastrianism

2

41 41 43 44 44 45 46 46 47 48 48 49 50 50 51 52

MAGICAL SOCIETIES

54

WHY WE GATHER

55

Public Groups Corporate Societies Secret Societies Hysterical Societies Religious Organizations Local Groups The Periphery

57 60 65 67 71 74 77

DARK MAGIC

78

THE DARK ARTS

79

Falling Into Darkness The Dark Twin Tainted Spirits Paths of Damnation

79 80 80 80

THE UNKNOWN

81

TOXIC MAGIC

84

The Twisted Way Toxic Adepts Toxic Mentor Spirits Sites of Corruption Twisted Arts Toxic Spirits BLOOD MAGIC

84 85 85 87 87 87 89

The Path of Blood Metamagic Foci Blood Spirits Blood Rituals

89 90 90 91 91

SHADOW SPIRITS

91

Types of Shadow Spirits

92

SHEDIM

93

INSECT SPIRITS

93

Summoning Insect Spirits Insect Shamans Queen and Mother Spirits Hive Insect Spirits Solitary Insect Spirits Insect Spirit Types CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN

93 94 94 95 96 98

Manananggal Engkanto Evanescence (Weakness)



EXPANDED GRIMOIRE



INTRODUCTION



COMBAT SPELLS



CONTENTS/CREDITS >>

Corrode [Object] Melt [Object] Sludge [Object] Disrupt [Focus] Destroy [Free Spirit] Destroy [Vehicle] Firewater Napalm Insecticide [Insect spirit] Ice Spear Ice Storm One Less [Metatype/Species] Slay [Metatype/Species] Slaughter [Metatype/Species] Ram [Object] Wreck [Object] Demolish [Object] Radiation Beam Radiation Burst Pollutant Stream Pollutant Wave Shattershield DETECTION SPELLS Astral Message Astral Clairvoyance Borrow Sense Animal Sense Eyes of the Pack Catalog Diagnose Dragon Astral Signature Enhance Aim Hawkeye Mana Window Astral Window Mindnet Mindnet Extended Night Vision [Sense] Cryptesthesia Spatial Sense Spatial Sense, Extended Thought Recognition Area Thought Recognition Translate HEALTH SPELLS Ambidexterity Alleviate Addiction Alleviate [Allergy] Awaken Crank Decrease Reflexes Enabler Fast Forced Defense



>> STREET GRIMOIRE <<

Increase Inherent Limits Decrease Inherent Limits ILLUSION SPELLS Camouflage Check Physical Camouflage Decoy Chaff Double Image Dream Euphoria Opium Den Foreboding Hot Potato [Sense] Removal Mass [Sense] Removal Stink Stench Sound Barrier Switch Vehicle Signature Vehicle Mask



MANIPULATION SPELLS



Bind Net Bind Mana Bind Mana Net Bug Zapper Calm Animal Calm Pack Catfall Clean [Element] Compel Truth Control Animal Control Pack Deflection [Element] Aura [Element] Wall Fashion Fix Gecko Crawl Glue Glue Strip Increase Noise Decrease Noise Increase Gear Limits Decrease Gear Limits Interference Lock Mana Static Makeover Mist Offensive Mana Barrier Preserve Protect Vehicle Pulse



Reinforce Slow Vehicle Shape [Material] Shapechange (Critter) Form Spirit Barrier Spirit Zapper Sterilize Turn to Goo

SHADOW RITUALS





Introduction Rituals Individual Strictures



SECRETS OF THE INITIATES



INTRODUCTION The Initiation Rite Initiatory Ordeals HIGH ARTS Geomancy Necromancy Psychometry Divination SPIRITUAL ARTS



Invocation Channeling Exorcism



UNSEEN ARTS



Masking Flexible Signature DEFENSIVE ARTS Apotropaic Magic Quickening THAUMATURGICAL ARTS Advanced Alchemy/ Ritual/Spellcasting Advanced Alchemy Advanced Ritual Spellcasting Advanced Spellcasting Centering Cleansing Sensing PHYSICAL ARTS The Undecided Way The Athlete’s Way The Artist’s Way The Beast’s Way The Burnout Way The Invisible Way



The Magician’s Way The Spiritual Way The Speaker’s Way The Warrior’s Way



BUTCHER’S BILL



PHYSICAL MAGIC



ADEPTS IN THE SIXTH WORLD



Public Perceptions Walking the Path Mystic Adepts: Blurring Magical Lines Adepts In The Shadows



WAYS OF THE OLD MEET THE NEW



NEW ADEPT POWERS



Analytics Animal Empathy Berserk Berserker’s Rage Blind Fighting Cloak Cool Resolve Commanding Voice Counterstrike Elemental Body Elemental Strike Elemental Weapon Empathic Healing Facial Sculpt Flexibility Freefall Hang Time Inertia Strike Kinesics Mastery Linguistics Magic Sense Melanin Control Metabolic Control Missile Mastery Motion Sense Nerve Strike Nimble Fingers Pain Relief Penetrating Strike Plague Cloud Rapid Draw Riposte Skate Smashing Blow Spirit Claw Spirit Ram



<< CONTENTS/CREDITS

3

>> STREET GRIMOIRE <<

Stillness Sustenance Temperature Tolerance Three-Dimensional Memory Toxic Strike



NEW ADEPT QUALITIES: WAYS



The Artisan’s Way The Artist’s Way The Athlete’s Way The Beast’s Way The Burnout’s Way The Invisible Way The Magician’s Way The Speaker’s Way The Spiritual Way The Warrior’s Way

THE IMMATERIAL TOUCH THE NATURE OF SPIRITS What Spirits Are Where Spirits Come From How Spirits Behave What Spirits Want ASTRAL DENIZENS Great Form Spirits Mentor Spirits Avatar Spirits Free Spirits Ally Spirits Other Spirit Phenomena SELLING ONE’S SOUL Karmic Exchange Spirit Pacts Balancing the Scales





GAME INFORMATION



New Spirit Rules Astral Movement Disruption Spirits and Vessels



NEW SPIRIT OPTIONS



Long-Term Binding Fettering



© The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun, Matrix, and Street Grimoire are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.

4

Reckless Conjuring



NEW SPIRIT TYPES



Guardian Spirits Guidance Spirits Plant Spirits Task Spirits



NEW SPIRIT POWERS Anaphylaxis Astral Gateway Aura Masking Banishing Resistance Desire Reflection Deathly Aura Devouring Divining Elemental Attack (Pollutant) Elemental Attack (Radiation) Endowment Energy Drain Hive Mind Inhabitation Magical Guard Mind Link Mutagen Pestilence Possession Quake Realistic Form Reinforcement Sense Link Shadow Cloak Silence Sonic Projection Storm NEW QUALITIES Restless Servile Spirit Champion Spirit Pariah NEW MENTOR SPIRITS





AVATAR SPIRITS





FREE SPIRITS





Berserker Chaos Peacemaker Oracle



ALLY SPIRITS



First Printing by Catalyst Game Labs, an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC PMB • st Ave. NE, E Lake Stevens, WA

CONTENTS/CREDITS >>

Ally Spirit Formula Creating an Ally Spirit Formula Conjuring an Ally Ally Spirit Abilities Enhancing an Ally Losing an Ally

Born Free True Names Free Spirits and Karma Binding a Free Spirit Banishing a Free Spirit Free Spirit Powers Greater Powers



GREAT FORM SPIRITS

REPUTATION IN THE SPIRIT WORLD Accruing Spirit Index Astral Reputation Ally Spirit Loyalty Setting Things Right

TURNING LEAD INTO NUYEN





INTRODUCTION



ALCHEMY BASICS: THE PREPARATION



Orichalcum, The Standard of Reagents Creating Refined and Radical Reagents Talismonger Shop (All Sales Final!)



ADVANCED ALCHEMY



Magical Compounds



THE LIFE OF A TALISMONGER



TALISMONGERS AND REAGENTS The Business Side of Talismongering Find us online: [email&#;protected] (Shadowrun questions) taniaarraindegia.esy.es (Catalyst Shadowrun website) taniaarraindegia.esy.es (official Shadowrun Universe website) taniaarraindegia.esy.es (Catalyst website) taniaarraindegia.esy.es (Catalyst/Shadowrun orders)



>> STREET GRIMOIRE <<

INTRODUCTION Awakened individuals in the Sixth World are coveted, feared, and targeted. They need to keep building their powers not just so they can make a few nuyen successfully completing runs, but so they can stay fend off their rivals and keep themselves alive. We all love Stunballs, but if they’re the only weapon in your magical arsenal, it won’t be long before you’re over-powered, blown away, and eventually fed to one of the critters of the Sixth World that has developed a taste for Awakened blood. There is a whole spectrum of power out there; Street Grimoire is here to help you access it. This book exists to give Awakened characters—and the Awakened NPCs the gamemaster wants to throw in their way—a full range of powers, giving them a chance to get their work done however they see fit. They can go in loud or quiet, covert or overt, or however they want to get the job done. More specifically, here’s the information and tools this book holds: Surviving Magic talks about what it is to be Awakened in the Sixth World, how manifesting the Talent can be both a blessing and a curse, and what any magically talented person should know to get by. Magic in the World talks about the various magical phenomena Sixth World residents encounter, including voids, mana storms, ley lines, and more. Knowing how to use them—or avoid them when necessary—can give Awakened characters a much-needed edge. Magic Traditions covers the different ways of looking at magic talent in the world and provides guidelines for building characters who fit in those traditions. Magical Societies covers some of the various organizations that host Awakened individuals, discussing the benefits and possible difficulties that come from being a member.

Dark Magic provides some of the reasons people of the Sixth World find magic scary. Bug spirits, shedim, shadow spirits, and more—if you want to throw something especially nerve-wracking into your game, or if you want to know just what kinds of threats are out there, this chapter needs to be reviewed. Expanded Grimoire is especially for the spellslingers, as it lists dozens of additional spells with a wide range of effects, greatly expanding on how spellcasters can go out into the world and take care of business. If the Expanded Grimoire doesn’t provide enough options, then check out Shadow Rituals, which offers several new spellcasting rituals for groups of mages looking to wreak havoc in the world. Secrets of the Initiates talks about the ways of expanding your magical power and the benefits available from those who choose to walk difficult paths. Physical Magic is there to make sure the adepts have plenty of toys to play with, including a host of new powers and new qualities, which give adepts the chance to follow a certain Way, building their talents in a particular area to maximize their power. The Immaterial Touch dives into the mysterious and wild world of spirits, including details of new types of spirits the Awakened can conjure to do their bidding. Turning Lead into Nuyen shines the spotlight on the alchemists of the Sixth World, providing new recipes and compounds for them to cook up. Lastly, The Life of a Talismonger is there for the enchanters and reagent hunters, providing advanced rules addressing customizing foci and using different qualities of reagents in enchanting work. So whatever your brand of magic may be, Street Grimoire has resources for you. Nothing left to do now but dive in!

STREET GRIMOIRE CREDITS Writing: Peter M. Andrew, Jr., Mark Dynna, Jason M. Hardy, Adam Large, Philip A. Lee, Scott Schletz, R.J. Thomas, Malik Toms, Michael Wich Editing: Kevin Killiany, Philip A. Lee Art Direction: Brent Evans Cover Art: Victor Manuel Leza Moreno Cover Layout: Matt Heerdt Iconography: Nigel Sade Interior Art: Gordon Bennetto, Joel Biske, Echo Chernik,

Daniel Comerci, Victor Perez Corbella, Peter Dora, Homeros Gilani, David Hovey, Igor Kieryluk, Miklós Ligeti, Melanie Maier, Victor Manuel Leza Moreno, Alessandra Pissano, Mark Poole, Michael Rookard, Rob Ruffolo, Andreas “AAS” Schroth, Bryan Syme, Christophe Swal, and Damon Westenhofer Interior Layout: Matt “Wrath” Heerdt Shadowrun Line Developer: Jason M. Hardy Playtesting & Proofing: Jackson Bruntsing, Derek Dokter, Mike Gearman, Tim Gray, Lars Wagner Hansen, Mason Hart, Pete Houtekier, Kendall Jung, Matt Riley, Leland Zavadil

<< CONTENTS/CREDITS

5

WHERE FEW DARE TO TREAD Every shadowrunner on the planet has three things that every other runner has, whether she chooses to acknowledge them or not. Aleksandra Severnaya, ThD, had no problem admitting the first thing—her birth name—because it appeared on her business cards. Not until she received the strange request from unusual channels did she remember the other two. Everyone, from SINners to SINless, from mundanes to Awakened, has a mother. And everyone, whether a homeless vagrant or well-to-do corp man, has a home. Not necessarily a “where I sleep at night” home or “where I feel safe” home, but somewhere they come from. Once Sandra got a call from an unknown number in the opposite hemisphere, she remembered her real home, the place where she was born. “Sashka,” the caller had said when Sandra played the voicemail in her Atlanta office. Only a select few had her commcode; fewer still knew her well enough to use that name. No matter how much she had tried to forget, no matter how much noise from the distant Matrix connection garbled the audio, her Uncle Grigoriy’s husky, accent-laden voice was unmistakable. “Your mother and many others here have taken ill,” the voicemail continued. “Doctors are not sure what is wrong. She keeps asking for you. If you want to see her before she takes a turn for the worse, I would suggest coming home as soon as possible. Perhaps—perhaps maybe you can find out what is wrong.” There was more to the message, but Sandra stopped listening

6

WHERE FEW DARE TO TREAD

about halfway through. She hadn’t been home in more than a decade, mostly because she wanted to forget where she came from. For years, her busy life in the CAS capital pushed any recollections of Pripyat, Ukraine, out of her head. But unless she was mistaken, Uncle Grigoriy had been fighting off a good cry while recording that message. What to do? she thought. You want my opinion? Judah volunteered in her head. Sandra’s ally spirit was hovering nearby in astral space, doing whatever it did when she didn’t have any active tasks for it. She liked to imagine it was sitting in the corner chair of her office, licking its giant, golden paws and cleaning its fur and mane like the big cat that it resembled when materialized. Always, she replied, turning her astral gaze on the spirit, whose fiery, leonine aura blazed with golds and oranges and reds. The spirit stared right back with an eerily level gaze. If you don’t get a chance to say goodbye, I guarantee you will regret it later. I know you don’t like going back home, but it’s more than just your mother who’s sick. And what is it your scriptures say? “Whatever you’ve done for the least of my brethren, you have done also for me.” Something like that. Sandra turned away from the spirit. Plus, Judah added, it might be fun to get away from Hotlanta for awhile. She closed her eyes and conjured images of her mother and her hometown, as she’d last seen them ten years ago. How many

PHILIP A. LEE

people were barely scratching out a living over there while some mysterious sickness ravaged through the town? Sandra bit her lip and shook her head. Judah was right. Go wake up Miles, she told the spirit. And tell him to pack for an international flight. ✖ As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the Master of Thaumaturgical Arts degree that Sandra’s elven assistant Michael “Miles” Dorchester got from Texas A&M&M was on the level. Only Sandra and a few facilitators knew his degree was a forgery, but she knew no one who needed occult investigation services would take her seriously if they knew her assistant only had a bachelor’s from Georgia Tech. The rumor was that his nickname came from his initiatory ordeal, where he had to walk barefoot for untold kilometers out in the Mojave Desert, but this was not actually the case. She once got him drunk enough to learn that he was called “Miles” because of a childhood prank involving some Robert Frost poem about snow. Of course, once she stepped off the semiballistic at Boryspil Airport, no one in the whole Ukraine gave a devil rat’s ass what kind of magical degree her assistant had or where his nickname had come from. Back in the Confederated States, Sandra would hand out AR business cards at the drop of a hat—”severnaya spiritual

investigations: we know what haunts you”—but here, everything felt different and detached, even in Kiev. The whole landscape of the city held a somber tone, as though some kind of intangible storm had blown through and sucked up all traces of life and color. This was not the Ukraine she remembered. Her childhood home had never been the lap of luxury, but seeing it like this pricked her insides with an icy spike of unreality. “What a dump,” Miles said, absently scratching the tip of his pointed ear as they waited for a taxi. “You sure this is where you grew up?” Am I remembering this place wrong? Sandra thought. No, Judah replied. The spirit hovered about in astral space, prowling around like a caged circus animal. Puffs of annoyed breath fumed from its catlike nostrils. It’s not just you. There’s something wrong out there. I can feel it. Sandra shuddered. Go see what you can find. And be careful. Judah grinned, his astral form revealing sharp canines that would have frightened just about anyone else but her. Then the spirit vanished. ✖ “Pripyat, please,” Sandra said in Ukranian after sliding into the next available airport taxi. She had spent so long in the States that she had to deliberately remind herself to add a little native touch to her accent.

WHERE FEW FEAR TO TREAD

7

The ball-cap-wearing ork taxi driver turned pale, as though she’d just asked him to drive over his own grave. “Not a chance,” he growled with an accent far more convincing than her own. “I can take you as far as the Exclusion Zone perimeter, but if you want further than that, you’re on your own.” Sandra frowned and glanced sideways at Miles in the seat next to her. “What’s wrong with Pripyat?” she asked the cabbie. “No one goes to Pripyat anymore. Not since the outbreak.” Uncle Grigoriy had said some people were sick, but his message didn’t sound like there was a full-on epidemic going on. And the newsnets never mentioned any problems in the region. “Outbreak? What outbreak?” “You know as much as I do. If the feds say ‘You can’t enter the Exclusion Zone,’ then I can’t enter the Exclusion Zone, paying passengers or not. Simple as that.” He turned around in the driver’s seat and fixed her with an inquisitive stare. “Why you wanna go to Pripyat anyway? There’s a ton of Kiev landmarks I could take you to instead.” “I grew up there,” she replied. “My condolences,” said the cabbie. “Now, unless you want me to take you somewhere else around the city, get the hell out of my cab.” Uncle Grigoriy’s voicemail replayed in her head. How much longer did her mother have? Sandra knew that unless she took some shortcut, she might never get a chance to say goodbye. She and Miles could probably slip into Pripyat by themselves, but time was running out. Wheels would help speed things up. She fiddled around in her pockets and then reached at the back of her neck to unclasp her necklace. “I’ve got a better proposition,” she said. “You take me and my partner here to Pripyat, and I’ll give you this necklace as payment.” The shimmering, orange-gold charm on the reinforced golden chain was an Eastern Orthodox cross, with a smaller crossbeam at the top and a slanted cross beam near the bottom. Every millimeter of the cross was inscribed with scripture passages in enameled, red Cyrillic text. The glint of greed reared its head in the cabbie’s eyes. “How— how much is it worth?” Sandra shrugged. “I haven’t gotten it appraised, but it’s made out of solid orichalcum. The metal alone should be worth several thousand hryvni to the right buyer.” The cabbie licked the corner of his lips. “And how do you expect me to get you past the quarantine checkpoint? You got another one of those trinkets to bribe security?” “Let’s say I’ve got a few aces up my sleeve,” she said with a smirk. The ork looked her up and down. “All right. I’ll take it.” Sandra clasped her hands around the cross to dissolve the enchantment on it before handing it over. The necklace had been a minor spell focus—no big loss, all things told. She could always make another, but she couldn’t make a second chance to bring her mother back from the brink. “Name’s Petro,” the cabbie said. He readjusted his cap and faced the steering wheel. “Okay, let’s do this before I change my mind.” ✖ Years before Sandra was born, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone created by the infamous nuclear reactor disaster of had been deemed safe for human habitation. Both Chernobyl and Pripyat had slowly repopulated in the years since, and Sandra and all of her childhood friends had grown up without any trace of

8

WHERE FEW DARE TO TREAD

mutations that the Exclusion Zone naysayers had warned would happen. Now, as Petro’s taxi approached the Exclusion Zone border, she saw something completely unexpected. A guardhouse with an electronically controlled chain-link gate, electrified razor-wire fences, drone patrols whizzing about overhead, and dozens of armed guards who were more security than she had ever seen in the area. Under the cover of Sandra’s sustained invisibility spell and Miles’ silence spell, the taxi followed right on the heels of an official government truck that pulled up to the checkpoint. Once the truck cleared, Petro floored the taxi and followed the truck through the gate before the guards could close it. While security was present, they were either unobservant or lax; none of them noticed the maneuver or cared about it. Beyond the gate, the landscape Sandra had grown up with felt completely foreign to her. Grey everywhere—grey tree trunks, grey earth, grey sky, grey buildings—as though the whole physical plane had been photographed in monochrome. “Everything looks … dead,” Sandra said with a shiver. “Yeah,” Miles said. “Anything from ol’ Jude?” “No. He’s still scouting ahead, but—” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t like this one bit. This is more than an epidemic.” “Almost looks like an aspected domain,” Miles said. And he would know. His bachelor’s thesis dealt with that very thing. ✖ They say you can’t go home again, and Sandra saw the truth of this firsthand as Petro drove through Pripyat. Her old stomping grounds had fallen victim to the ravages of decay. Collapsed fences, dilapidated buildings, and wilting vegetation ruled each block of the street Uncle Grigoriy’s message had mentioned. Not even the worst Atlanta ghetto looked this bad. Petro parked in front of an ancient-looking hospital that Sandra knew had been built before she emigrated from the country. The few staff she saw milling about were green around the gills—dark, sunken eyes and pale, clammy skin. Grigoriy was waiting for her in the somber reception area and gave her a fierce bear hug. His haggard face looked no different than those of the hospital staff. Sandra didn’t need a degree in medicine to know her uncle had also contracted the contagion. “What happened here?” she asked. “They say it’s radiation sickness,” he said, coughing. “But that’s impossible. The Exclusion Zone has been radiation free for decades. Government doesn’t want to cause a panic, so we’re all stuck here until they find out what’s making everybody sick.” “Something in the water, maybe,” Miles mused. Sandra’s quick dip into astral space revealed how wrong her assistant was. Grigoriy’s aura was muddled with blacks and greys of what was likely radiation sickness, but it carried a faint astral signature too, which was not at all normal. Trying to assense the signature set her stomach doing backflips, and she suppressed the urge to throw up. But the urge won. All over Miles’ thousand-nuyen deathrattle-leather wingtips. “You all right, Sashka?” Grigoriy asked. Sandra wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “No,” she said. “But I think I know why everyone’s sick.” She felt the floor wiggle underfoot, as though someone heavy was walking too hard nearby. Then the ground shook beneath her, hard, nearly knocking her to the ground. Miles stumbled to his knees; Sandra braced herself against the wall.

Another tremor followed it, then another. Something of incredible mass was heading toward the hospital. Judah’s ghostly feline face suddenly appeared in front of her, his auburn mane rippling in the air. Grigoriy and the nearby hospital staff gasped at the manifested spirit. “Sandy, Miles,” Judah said, “we’ve got incoming. Better get outside now, or it’s going to follow me in here.” Sandra snapped into operating mode. “Uncle, keep these people inside and make sure my mother is safe! Miles, follow me!” Between earthquakes, she burst through the front doors into stark daylight and saw something that turned her blood to ice. A massive wolf, larger than anything imaginable, loped down the street, crushing—no, rusting—whole cars beneath its massive paws. Its hide was a knotted tangle of mange and bloated, mutated pustules. Chipped and broken fangs dripped a ghostly green saliva, as though the wolf had been chewing radioactive rocks. One of its eyes was ghosted over with a cataract; the other was crusted closed and leaking vitreous fluid. Sandra had no doubts the wolf could still see her. On the astral, the spirit was just as twisted as its exterior. Its aura radiated a dizzying swirl of browns, greys, and blacks that made her want to throw up again. A shimmering astral tendril connected the spirit to its nearby summoner. This diseased and mutated spirit had to have been summoned by a toxic magician, a path few sane magicians dared to tread. Sandra had faced a toxic spirit before, but never one like this, never one so powerful that its radioactive energy aura had polluted the whole landscape. Just looking at the spirit in meat space made her feel weak in the knees—and, once again, in the stomach. But she had no time for nausea. She coughed hard into a fist. Her hand came away bloody. “Miles!” she shouted. “The summoner! Take out the summoner!” “On it!” Her assistant ran down the street to avoid the incoming monstrosity, but it was too fast. The wolf spirit lunged forward and swatted Miles aside. Its giant paw struck him so hard that one of his wingtips was left where he’d been standing. Miles hit the side of the nearest building, fell down, and didn’t rise. The vibrant colors of his aura meant he was still alive—for now—but he wouldn’t be able to help her. Chips of concrete rattled free from nearby buildings with each of the monster’s steps. Sandra readied as many spells as she could to try stopping this monstrosity, but it was too close. Fireballs barely singed the mutated hide. Other magical distractions only seemed to anger it. It stood above her. Toxic waste dripped from its teeth. Its waiting jaws exuded a storm of heated air laced with the stink of burning metal. A massive current of mana flooded to her fingertips. Before the toxic wolf could bite her in two, Sandra was ready to blast it with a spell powerful enough to incapacitate or kill her. Better her own magic kill her than something so twisted. As if from nowhere, a reddish-gold blur slammed into the wolf’s side and crushed the beast against the building across the street. When the bricks and dust settled, Sandra saw a gargantuan lion the same size as the wolf grappling with the spirit. Judah reared back on his hind legs and swatted at the wolf with both paws. Her materialized ally’s mouth was open in a snarling rictus of hatred. Better late than never, Judah said. At least that toxic summoner won’t be causing us any problems for awhile.

Sandra let her spell fizzle. She could only watch in awe, spellbound as Judah ripped the toxic spirit apart, one swipe at a time. But he was paying the price. Huge patches of the lion’s coat were falling out. Misshapen tumors formed across his face and hide. Another bloody cough wracked Sandra. Dizziness swept over her, and she fell down to her knees, unable to focus her vision. She knew the radiation was quickly killing her. Banish it, Sandy! Judah shouted in her brain. Now! It’s our only chance! Sandra propped herself up on one knee and shifted her focus to the astral plane to home in on the gossamer tendrils connecting the wolf spirit to its incapacitated summoner. She envisioned herself slashing through the cords with a sword made solely out of wind. The strands were slick and oily. Just grazing them made Sandra empty her stomach again; blood and bile splattered the pavement. In her lightheadedness, a sense of euphoria mixed with a sickening sensation. Vileness mixed with a cloying, heady stench. Come now, the wolf spoke directly into her head. You know you want a little taste of corruption. She could barely keep her eyes open. Her limbs felt heavier than shipping containers. To buy herself more time, she abandoned her doomed meat body and freed herself from fleshly constraints. No matter what happened, she couldn’t let this monster destroy her mother or her home. Go to Hell! she commanded the spirit. With the last of her willpower, her astral form shattered the bond between spirit and summoner. The wolf’s tortured howl reverberated throughout astral space. With nothing to anchor it to the physical plane, the spirit vanished and departed for whatever twisted metaplane it called home. Judah’s astral form drew up alongside hers as she sat down next to her meat body. His aura was weak and tainted with strands of brown and black, but he would eventually recover. Her own body, bruised and bloody from severe radiation poisoning, would not. I’m sorry, Judah said, rubbing his muzzle against her astral shoulder. I wish there was a way to fix you. In astral form, she found it impossible to cry. Keep an eye on Miles for me, will you? she said. He’s an idiot, but he means well. Shall I stay with you until you go? the lion asked. With her meat body close to death—or already gone, for all she knew—Sandra felt her astral form already beginning to slip away. Go chase down that summoner, she said. There’s something I have to do. Judah nodded. You’ve been good to me, Sandy. I won’t forget you. At a loss for words, she merely smiled and wandered off into the hospital. Her astral form drifted from room to room, searching. Even after all these years apart, she still recognized her mother’s aura when she found it. It was faint, just like her own, but Aneta Severnaya was a fighter, and now that the source of radiation was gone, she and all of these radiation sufferers would likely recover. Sandra didn’t even have the strength to manifest. Instead she sat by the bedside and touched her mother’s aura, which was strengthening by the moment. Goodbye, Mother, her astral form whispered. It was all she had left. ✖

WHERE FEW FEAR TO TREAD

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S T REET GRIM OIR E

SURVIVING MAGIC No. The corner of Ayana’s “Brackhaven For President” poster curled beneath blue flames beside her pink fourpost bed. A thin scent of plastic drifted towards her. “This isn’t real,” she said in a choked whisper. If it were real, she could control it. She could call it forth at will. But she couldn’t could she? Anya snatched her Maria Mercurial doll off her bed. She concentrated on the silver hair. With a sound like a zipper closing, the doll’s hair drew together. There was a hint of smoke and the hair began to glow ember red. Then it was ash. No. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Didn’t she have enough to deal with? Fat and blonde, Ayana had too much working against her social status. Acne scars pitted her face. The boys called her Ork, and the orks laughed alongside them. She called up her playlist in AR and spun the music dial until her favorite Latch-Key Kids song flared up. Music blared from tinny wall speakers, Kids don’t bother to love, because love has nothing on drugs. She wished she could dive into the music, go away, be anywhere else but here right now. Here was not safe. A commlink sparkled and buzzed on the desk against the far wall, her mom calling her down for dinner. One last meal? The thought brought a teary-eyed smile to her face. Yeah, that worked. She’d go downstairs and eat with her drekhead of a little brother. With any luck her ability could go off again and set her brother on fire. Wouldn’t that be wiz? No. They would test again in the fall. Maybe by then she could find a way to beat the test. She could run away. Bobby Paine ran away from his parents back in the fifth grade, after the test. Everyone thought it was because he failed, but he said it wasn’t. Nobody believed him. Nobody would believe her either. The pink bed squeaked as she stood. Her father still used a straight-edge razor. He kept it in the bathroom on an old tin tray. She went there now, careful to avoid the planks of the old wood floor that could give her away. Ayana didn’t know if her father would be angry with her or proud for doing this, but one thing was certain—she would do it. The dishonor of her

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curse was worse than anything spilt blood could produce. She saw it first out of the corner of her eye, a flame like the ones she was cursed to make. It started as a candle’s flicker and grew until it was as round and full as a grapefruit. Ayana wanted to run or scream, but she was too afraid to do anything. The thing hovered inches away from her. It had no eyes or mouth, only the candlelight flicker of its form. All at once a voice came out of it, like that of a young girl. It said, “Stop.” Ayana gulped hard and stepped back, half falling unto the bed. “Stop, girl. It isn’t your turn to go yet.” “Wha-what are you?” “You’ll learn one day. If you let yourself.” “My family—” “Will never understand what you are or what you are meant to become.” The tears came now, cutting dirty rivulets down her pocked face. She sobbed and could not talk. “Continue to pretend. I will continue to protect you, and when the time is right I will come for you. Do you understand?” Ayana looked up at the light and nodded. The candlelight orb flickered twice and it was gone.

Outside, winter rain pattered off the roof of a black Hyundai Shin-Hyung. Sandman moved his hands through the air, working the ant-sized AROs that danced above his steering wheel. He sighed and stretched, rolling his neck from left to right. A form materialized in the leather seat beside him. It held the shape of a ball and flickered like a candle. Sandman said, “Is it done?” The spirit shimmered slightly, “The girl believes.” “Good.” He tapped on an ARO and it spun upward, shifting from red to join a second green ARO hovering just below the roof of the car. The rest remained red. Sandman yawned, but shook it off quickly. Two more stops on the list before he could finally sleep.

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I’d like to say I came up in the shadows, but you all called bullshit on that backstory a long time ago. There is a difference between being raised in an environment where magic is praised and growing up where casting a spell can get you killed. That is the harsh reality most of us deal with every day, and who better to walk us through it than Man-Of-Many-Names. In spite of his often-cryptic postings, he has some straight facts to share about magic and the way things work in the Sixth World. Pay attention and I’ll bet you learn something. Frosty

BORN AWAKENED I was not born into a world of magic. I came from a family who believed that magic was something that happened to other people. My father used to tell us, as many still do, that magic was another scientifically definable resource so limited as to be negligible. I believed him. When my father saw Daniel Howling Coyote dance he turned away, oblivious to what the moment meant for our people. He was a nuclear engineer. He wanted magic to represent just a fraction of what the future held for us, and he worried our people would suffer if we put all our faith in magic. We Dineh (Navajo) call those who possess magic Haatalii. When I was young, children pretended to be rich with magic and tradition. We didn’t pretend to be the Indians of old. We were the native people of a world with plenty of riches, and when the cowboys attacked in our games we hit them back, hard, with the ferocity of spirits. My father didn’t like us playing this way. He kept doubting magic, and I kept believing him. When the Haatalii came to my school to test our potential, I refused to participate. I thought that might make my father happy. Instead it made me an outcast from my own people. Simply put, people thought I was weird and picked on me. Some things don’t change much over the years. I discovered my ability at the age of I had no idea what happened at the time, but now I recognize it as Astral Perception. I’d been shielded from magic and tucked away in private schools that favored data over dreamcatchers, so my first impression was that I’d gone blind,

even insane. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to turn it off. I could see that trigger deep in my mind, but I didn’t want to turn it off. The astral world is beautiful contrast to our normal world of stone and steel. For the Awakened, the physical world is a skin we can peel away to see what lies beneath. There was no one in my life who could tell me what I could do, or at least not anyone I trusted. I attempted to discover the Ways for myself and floundered until Wolf found me and showed me the Path. Once I knew what I was, I learned to hide my magic. The teachers wanted us to be Haatalii to earn the bonuses the schools offered for finding people like us. Gangs wanted us as evidence of their power. The military wanted us to project the Native strength Howling Coyote forged. I thought my story was an isolated incident until I walked in the greater world. I was lucky. Others never live long enough to enjoy the gifts of the Awakening. Across the globe the Awakened are honored, revered, feared, or persecuted according to the rules of their culture. In some dark places even gender affects how magic use is perceived. Women born with the gift can be seen as cursed, and their lives end once that curse is discovered.

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There is real money in the business of locating and extracting girls like this. I’m not in the biz for feel good stories, but once in a hunter’s moon I get to do a job that benefits more than the corp I’m pushing mana for. When I get a chance to rescue kids from people who don’t understand magic—folks like the Human Brigade—I feel like maybe I’m earning a bit of karma for some of the fucked-up shit that goes down the rest of the time. Ma’Fan

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But who are you extracting them for? These girls are probably looking at a life of serving corporate masters, beholden to the group that saved them and earning a minimum wage for their loyal service. Mika

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That isn’t my problem, omae. Ma’Fan

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After the initial investment, the washouts end up in experimental programs or just dumped back out on the streets where they bleed into the shadows. A few can handle it and become shadowrunners or even stable members of the society, but most end up the property of gangs. Jimmy No

Magic is a curse. Magic is a gift. Magic is a choice—all depending upon where you are born. Since the Awakening we’ve been trying to make sense of who becomes Awakened and who doesn’t. For a time scientists assumed that to be goblinized or born of the elven breed made you more susceptible to having magical ability. Despite what science is capable of, there is no scientific way to determine whether a child is born with magic until magic decides to show its face. Likewise there is no scientific procedure to guarantee your child can wield mana or what style of magic that child will manifest. As Ehran the Scribe said, “Magic is the purest expression of the relationship between man and the spirit world. There is something in our DNA that opens the door to that other place. However, it is the paradigms that we adopt that allow us to step through.” Believing in Wolf is a paradigm, or system of understanding, that allows me to use my magical potential. The Christian priests believe their power comes from God, and they pray to manifest their abilities. Magicians write complex algorithms, Wujen manipulate qi to pro-

WORD ON THE STREET HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAGIC? (Asked at The Galleria, Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex) Mark Tucker, 64, business owner: It ought to be regulated better. I mean, how do I know the guy I’m trying to hire isn’t casting a spell on me and making me hire him, so he can take over my business? Samantha Epstein, 15, student: The books never got it right. Gandalf the Grey? Harry freaking Potter? No way, man. Mages are nuclear. One time I saw this cop step into the road and smash a getaway car just by pointing her finger. Now that’s some wiz stuff right there. Peter Duncan, 28, unemployed: It’s not at all what people think. That power has to come from somewhere, and not some drekking manasphere. Where was that power all this time? And what about the dragons? The more people use that mojo, the stronger Dragons get. I’m telling you there’s a connection! Kevin Hardaway, 47, political lobbyist: The idea that one person can wield that kind of unregulated power is terrifying. They need to be registered, and if they threaten society, they need to be put down.

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duce magical effects, and so on. As a magic user your paradigm can be nearly anything. The way you interact with magic determines how the world interacts with you.

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I heard a story back in Germany about doctors kidnapping women of child-bearing age who had magical potential. They would inseminate them with the seed of a magically active male and try to birth a child with the potential. Red Anya I believe it—people will try a lot of things to get magic to appear. I was hired once to deliver a medical package to a lab in Amazonia. I snooped, of course—you don’t waltz into Amazonia without understanding exactly what the frag you’re getting into. I learned the package came from somewhere in Boston and was the ‘male product’ of an imprisoned shapeshifter. I don’t want to know what Mr. Johnson was planning for that specimen, but it sounds a lot like Red Anya’s story. Lyran

MAGIC IN POPULAR CULTURE Sukie Redflower 5 is an abomination. Thanks to the power of organizations like Horizon, the popular perception of shamans is that they’re either beautiful NAN princesses or weathered Amerind men wearing feathers and smoking peyote. Granted, there are some people like that out there, but the stereotypes do harm in the expectations they create. The media portrayal of magic is fundamentally flawed. Magic is normally an invisible process to the non-Awakened. A normal can no more discern the casting of a spell than a casual shopper can read the coding behind a sales algorithm directed against them. But this invisibility doesn’t look great on camera, so media outlets find ways to portray spellcasters as different and readily identifiable. Shamans are reduced to old men dressed in outdated tribal gear and mages return to the robes of Tolkien fantasy. In rare cases we can see the physical effects of magic, and this is the type of magic the media tends to like. The portrayal of magic in the Sixth World leads to a strange separation from the reality of what it means to be Awakened and how the Awakened are viewed by the average person. Thing number one to remember is that magic is extremely rare. The average citizen is more likely to encounter a shadowrunner than they are to encounter a spellslinger. In fact, if they actually encountered an Awakened individual, it’s unlikely they would even know it. Nevertheless magic insinuates itself into daily life, acting as either the carrot or the stick. It carries with it a certain promise of wealth, with all those highend medical clinics that promise magical healing. The top security firms all claim to offer protection packages that include a personal mage—as long as you pay a hefty

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premium. At the other end of the spectrum, parents still remind their children that the bogeyman is real and he haunts the night waiting to cast spells on naughty children. Folklore and cultural mores are teeming with examples of what can come from magic, both good and bad—from the fairy godmother who will get you to the ball to the devil who will gladly buy your soul. So, even if no one really experiences it, the stories of what magic is and does shape the culture around us, affecting what mundanes think we can actually do.

This prejudice resonates on a national level, fundamentally as a result of media perceptions. You’ve heard it all before: Tír na nÓg is crawling with druids, Chinese magic users are all Wujen, and if someone looks like they come from Aztlan, they probably want to tap your vein for their next spell. This isn’t what everyone in a particular place believes, but enough do that it can effect how you are perceived. The NAN is open about this. Shamanism is seen as the traditional path, and those who call themselves magicians or otherwise are still viewed as outsiders. A handful of Sixth World cultures are notable for their treatment of the Awakened.

MAGIC IN ETHNIC CULTURES

ASAMANDO

Few cultures initially greeted magic with exuberance. Many fell into the old prejudices. Fear drove those in power to seek control over the Awakened, and what they could not control, they destroyed. In parts of Africa, Eastern Europe, and deep within the CAS there remain pockets of denial where being a mage is punishable by death. Kids work hard to hide their abilities and sometimes are driven to suicide when they discover their talent in order to avoid the ridicule and disgrace the family would face for producing a spellcaster.

Several metahuman nations sprouted up just after the awakening. Each handled the legalities of magic differently. In Asamando, the country’s laws were designed with magic in mind. Nearly thirty percent of the citizens are magicians from various traditions, but because they are also ghouls very few outsiders dare to venture inside the borders to learn what Asamandians have to offer. With a population that hovers around ninety-five percent HMHVV-infected, Asamando is known as the Ghoul Homeland. A nation of ghouls is a guaranteed

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draw for the attention of the Awakened. In addition to all the ghouls, Asamando boasts a sizable population of free spirits, which led to laws against spirit binding in certain parts of the country.

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Corporations won’t openly speak about the recruitment and research they do in Asamando. They are extremely interested in the high concentration of magic in the region. Yet they are afraid that the senseless bigotry that forces my people to live in the shadows may affect their bottom line. Hannibelle Senseless bigotry? Let’s not forget that ghouls eat flesh. But anyway, Asamando’s not the only metahuman nation in Africa causing a stir. If you’re a round-ear, avoid going down continent to Azania where the Zulu elves are extremely worried about losing their grip on the nation and have been making that fact known to outsiders. Turbo Bunny Mujaji’s absentee leadership in that part of the world has led to a great deal of taniaarraindegia.esy.esns-Swazi federation has even gone so far to reach out to other nations, including Asamando, for help with the growing crime problem in CapeTown. So far the only sorts willing to help have been mercenaries and shadowrunners. Frosty

ARABIAN CALIPHATE Sharia law is rarely a constant throughout the Caliphate, where magic is considered to be against the teachings of Allah. The faithful treat magic as one of the seven deadly acts and openly oppose its practice within the Arabian Caliphate. Any use of magic within the Caliphate is outlawed. Meanwhile, the Islamic leadership itself is quick to differentiate between magic use and “gifts” handed down to the faithful by Allah. The Sufi, or Islamic mystics, are not magic users. In Caliphate thinking and terminology, they have received the gifts of Allah and use those gifts to advance His word. This distinction can be political as well, as shown through Islam’s acceptance of Ibn Eisa, leader of the Islamic Unity Movement, who was assassinated in only to rise from the grave and continue leading his order without challenge, even after he was outed as a shedim in

PHILIPPINES The Philippines makes this list for two reasons: Yomi Island and the Huk. Yomi Island, or Lagu Lagu as the natives call it, remains a hotbed of spirit and metahuman activity. Despite the island being liberated from Japanese rule in ‘61, Japanese intelligence keeps re-

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cords of everyone coming and going from the Island. Smugglers who know the waters earn a decent living moving people to and from Lagu Lagu in secret. Smugglers can also earn some nuyen smuggling magically active teens out of the country before the Huk government can sink their claws into them. The Huk government came under fire in when a Horizon reporter exposed a connection between a rash of kidnappings in Marawi and the Huk government. The report proved that members of the government’s military branch hired guerrillas to kidnap children known to have magical potential, possibly to recruit into the army or for other as yet unknown purposes. The government denied this program existed, but the kidnappings continue to this day. The problem has gotten so bad that children are refusing to be tested for the talent in fear that it could lead to them being snatched from their homes in the middle of the night.

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Try broad daylight. The Huks are using former guerrilla warriors who refused to go straight after the Huks seized control of the country. It has created a huge political backlash for a government that is still struggling to maintain legitimacy with the UN. If another link to government-sanctioned kidnappings can be uncovered, it would cause a lot of trouble for the Huk. Kay St. Irregular

ITALIAN CONFEDERATION Nowhere else is magic so clearly a gift and a curse as in the Italian Confederation. The power of the Catholic Church stretches into every household of the nation. The mandate of the Church to locate and recruit Awakened children drives action. The Church considers a magical child a gift of God and pushes them to orders and societies where they are indoctrinated into the Catholic traditions and ways of magic. The Church runs aptitude testing throughout the Confederation. It is embedded as part of weekly worship and teachings. If any child suspects they have been chosen by God to receive the talent, they are told to self-report. Most reporters have little to no magical aptitude and only do so for the increased social standing reporting gives their family.

TÍR NA NÓG Being born behind the veil means starting life in a place where everything is shifting beneath your feat—literally. Tír na nÓg is controlled by magic, and those born with the gift are seen as heralds of this improved, Awakened world. While citizens with the talent are treated well by the rich, the poor and downtrodden don’t see Awakened kids as instant shoe-ins to the Seelie court. They know fame and wealth is a distinct possibility for an Awakened child, but they also know that exploitation, strange metaplanar journeys, and madness can also be part of the equation.

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ATHABASKAN COUNCIL The tribes of this region languish in the enduring lie of “rugged individualism.” You are free to practice any sort of magic you want, so long as it is shamanism. Those who don’t follow tribal tradition are shunned as outcasts. Most power sites are closed to all but shamans, and even then sites are often restricted to particular totem followers. As a result non-shamanic traditions tend to practice their magic in secret or simulate the tribal wear and ritual in order to pass.

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Council leaders are aware of this, and they regularly have spirits sweeping the nation and reading auras to see if they find anyone practicing anything besides shamanism. Those people are reported to local authorities. So if you’re a non-shaman in Athabaskan territory, make sure your astral overwatch is up to snuff. Jimmy No

AZTLAN To understand the cultural impact of Aztlan you have to recognize that the president also serves as the emperor of the national religion while holding a high rank within Aztechnology. This close relationship between state, church, and corporation fuels everything from international relations to the country’s criminalization of unsanctioned magic. Prior to the Awakening, eighty percent of the people living in the region practiced Catholicism. As magic returned, so did worship of the old Aztec Gods. Today Catholicism, along with all other non-native religions, are banned within Aztlan, severely limiting the number of traditions that can be legally practiced there. As with the Athabaskan Council, spellcasters born to other paths than the shamanic traditions hide their abilities or mask them in the garb of the Aztec gods. The people stand by the Path of the Sun. There is an ingrained sense of cultural value in the word of the church, so much so that mothers will turn in their children for practicing unsanctioned religions.

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If you don’t understand the general fanaticism of the Aztlan people, you have no business running there. Marcos If you don’t understand how to undermine that fanaticism and use it against the citizens, you also have no business running there. Traveler Jones

HAWAI’I The islands of Hawai’i are notable in that Fifth World prejudices were only strengthened by the Awakening. Hawai’i remains one thing to tourists and something else entirely to natives, only now the law reflects this divergence. Haole, which covers both visitors and

non-natives, are forbidden from practicing magic without a license. Getting a license is a multiple-day affair that requires the petitioner to have a native sponsor who is willing to take legal responsibility for the applicants actions as if they were their guardian. The datastores of paperwork reduced the number of haoles practicing magic legally to a handful of university professors and corporate researchers. More practice magically illegally, using forged permits and occasionally corporate writs.

AMAZONIA It would be a joke to call the Amazonian government anything more than the puppet of the dragons who nest there. With those dragons recovering from wars against Aztlan and each other, the Awakened are high-value assets, both to assist in that recovery and replace what was lost. The Department of Amazonian Intelligence and Security (DISA) tries to keep a file on all the Awakened entities in the country. DISA utilizes an intricate network of informants to uncover the newly Awakened and visiting magicians alike. The spy organization falls short in some of the ghettos, but it is best to believe that if you’ve been tested, then the dragon has a file on you.

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Which dragon? Hualpa? Boiuna? Possibly even M’boi or another Lindworm? It’s been a free-for-all down there lately since the multiple blows Hualpa and the nation have taken. Winterhawk

MAGIC IN THE K SYSTEM Media interpretations of magic ripple across all the institutes of socialization. Schools must answer to parents, and parents (bless their hearts) are afraid of everything. In public and private institutions across the world, testing for magical aptitude falls under the category of standardized testing. Some school systems begin testing as early as third grade, while others wait until fifth grade to see if your child displays magical aptitude. Testing continues annually into the high school years. Puberty is widely accepted as the point where Awakened abilities begin to manifest, so testing is mandated by the end of your freshman year of high school. Scientists suspect that the timing has to do with hormone levels, so research has largely focused on the relationship between genetic markers and the key chemical indicators of puberty. However, no one has been able to isolate a specific gene as the cause of magical ability. The fact that children of Awakened are very frequently not Awakened seems to argue against a strict genetic explanation for magic. Once tagged as having magical potential, children are tracked by the school system. In some cases, such as school systems in Aztlan and many Southeast Asian

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nations, kids are separated out into classes where their abilities can be monitored. School districts say the reasoning behind this is to help the child reach their potential, but more often the separation is about security.

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Whose security? The kids? The schools? The separation is more about putting the magic kid in a bubble so authorities can keep a closer eye on how those powers develop in order to take advantage of them one day. It is no secret that K schools sell database records to universities and corporations. Data miners troll through school records in order to identify recruitment targets. The more people get recruited from your school, the more notoriety your school gains, the more nuyen ends up in your pocket. Nephrine All it takes is one kid accidentally falling off a jungle gym and everyone’s screaming about how the magic kid used her powers to push him. Short of erecting expensive detection wards, schools can’t track who is using magic on that level. Kids can get away with that “his abilities make me feel unsafe” drek. The fact is the magic kid is going to be the target of bullying a hell of a lot more than being the bully. Powers are extremely unpredictable at that age, and most kids are too terrified to actually use them. Lyran

The pre-high school magical testing process is optional in most of the world. Surprisingly, few students opt out of the testing. A Awakened World Research study found that elves refused testing at a significantly higher rate than other racial groups. The study suggested refusing the test tends to do more with the social stigma of refusing than it does any fear of being found out as Awakened. This doesn’t hold true for elves, who reported that the refusal had more to do with being outed as not having abilities.

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Well that’s simply terrifying. Imagine being an awkward teenage girl just trying to fit in. Now throw in trying to hide the fact that you have the barely controllable magical potential to go nuclear and powerball the entire freshman class. Sunshine

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Gives a new meaning to Teenage Wasteland. Snopes

nanotechnology. UCLA claims to be the first university to have conferred a Doctorate of Thaumaturgy, but before such things had names Oxford and the University of Oslo were offering courses of study in Magical Awareness. Still, MIT&T is the most well-known program and one of a handful to offer magical degrees to non-Awakened individuals.

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Undergraduate courses fund day-to-day university operations. Course competencies are designed to provide maximum access in order to generate maximum revenue. So, if you have the nuyen to take the classes, you can feasibly earn an undergraduate degree in magic without ever casting a spell. It’s rare, but non-spellslingers can still play at graduate level where degree paths diverge into Research/Philosophy and Application-styled tracks. Elijah The Magical Studies Undergraduate Program at MIT&T is more about understanding how magic works than honing your individual abilities. The courses are especially useful when you’re running with a crew that doesn’t have a mage. They tell you how to know when magic is working against you. /dev/grrl

Universities present the most consistent career path for magicians, but they create a problem because magicians often end up with the same flavor as their university, taking away from the individuality of the form. Overall there are Associate, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral level degrees conferred in Thaumaturgy. The organization of Thaumaturgy colleges has sparked debate how magic should be taught. Traditionally speaking, Thaumaturgy is considered a science at the university level. Magicians construct spell formulae and follow traditions rooted in reason. Newer programs relate magic more closely to schools of art, treating the traditions as individual art forms and conferring Thaumaturgic Arts degrees at the Bachelors and Masters levels.

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COLLEGE LIFE Awakened life is a very different experience in college than in K Academia did not get around to pledging support to magic until about five years after the Awakening. Now magic as a field of study draws in more grant and contract dollars than any other field save for

Wait, what? How can you give a magical degree to someone who can’t wield magic? Snopes

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The American Association for the Advancement of Thaumaturgy (AAAT) and other academic governing bodies live with the political nightmare of deciding what does and does not count as academic magic. These bodies hold a conference every year in Marseille hosted by the DIMR. AAAT leans towards defining magic as an academic science, which is why hermetic initiations often involve a thesis. The conference finally accepted Shamanastic Studies as a ThD degree path. Jimmy No

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The debate between defining magic as Thaumaturgic Arts or Thaumaturgic Sciences is mired in political quicksand. No shadowrunner cares if you have a M.M. or ThD, but it affects payscale at the university level and within corporations. Universities and corporations pay you more if you hold a doctoral degree. That thinking even filters down to the Johnson hiring you to pull a job. The fact is, having the degree can affect the quality of work you get and how much the client is willing to pay. Winterhawk

Slowly other paradigms are being accepting and cultivated based on their benefit to the supporting institution. Wellesley College outside of Boston began recruiting physical adepts and training them to harness their abilities through forms of dance. Local corporations quickly glommed on to the potential of this art-based methodology, so it is becoming more common in trade schools and specialized corporate schooling. In these types of programs, the degree conferred is a Masters of Applied Magic, M.M.

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I’m surprised at how often I’m contacted by Doctoral students looking for help running down a particular reagent, background data on some obscure magical order, and what not. Getting the Doctorate requires a tremendous amount of specialized knowledge that can be hard to come by without the help of those connected to the shadows. Elijah

For those who follow the path of shamanism there is little a university degree can offer. Shamanic studies are mentor based and some (including myself) work with the totem spirit and develop that relationship. This is preferable to training from an individual, because an individual will teach you all that he feels is useful to function in the Awakened world, as refracted through their biases and sensibilities. Your totem spirit is the truest reflection of your tradition and capabilities, so the learning you receive accentuates what you can do. More importantly it leads you to the path you are meant to follow. I serve Wolf, and from Wolf I learn all I need to in order to fulfill my total potential as a shaman. I have studied with others on occasion, but no training helped me to find my way in the same manner as Wolf. In recent years there has been a spike in the number of community colleges that cater to the Awakened. Administrators found that so many Awakened were overlooked in the early days of magic that there currently is a marketable number of middle-aged students returning to the classroom to discover what they can do. The majority of them lack the discipline for university training or have so little magical potential that a two-year focused program is enough to maximize their abilities.

AMERICAN ASSOC. FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THAUMATURGY LIST OF AWAKENED DEGREE FIELDS Arcanoarchaeology Astral Studies Centering Divination Forensic Magic Metaphysics Occult Studies Psychometry Shamanistic Studies Applied Thaumaturgy

Artificing Attunement Cleansing Feng Shui Geomancy Metaplanar Studies Practical Conjuration Somatics Talismongering Theoretical Magic

Additionally, the community-based nature of twoyear colleges lends itself better to non-traditional pathways. Universities focus on the science of Thaumaturgy, while CCs remain dedicated to the curriculum needs of the community. So it would be easier to find a class on Druidic history at the CC down near Boston’s Irish quarter than it would be, say a class on Westphelian Theurgists.

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The CC system is a safer bet than universities for the SINless, given that the CCs are locally funded, meaning they supposedly won’t be selling information about their students to the corps and major universities. Glitch Mayor Jonathan Blake, who happens to own the multinational Centurion Services Group, backs Bellevue Community College. Likewise, the Northridge CC program down in Austin, CAS is wholly backed by Lone Star. Many other CCs and private colleges are funded by anonymous donors, which raises questions about the true purpose of the donations. Mr. Bonds

WORKING FOR THE MAN It pains me to admit that magic owes a great debt to the corporations. Wagemasters were among the first to embrace magic in the Sixth World. Though spellcasters and adepts are barely a fractional portion of the world population, the power we wield makes us extreme security risks. Corporations first sought to understand how magic worked and moved quickly to find ways to exploit it—and us. Early spellcasters profited much in the same way as pioneers of social media. The newness of invisible power allowed those savvy enough to step into the void and provide a much-desired service. The first spellcasters set their own rates. A few even par-

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layed that into corporate ownership and remain players in the corporate game.

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Man-Of-Many-Names paints a few pretty brushstrokes of the relationship between spellslingers and corps, but he isn’t telling you that he’s covering over several years of outright abuse perpetrated by these same corporations. In the early days the Japanacorps would kidnap magically active individuals and experiment on them, trying to find out what made them special. Mihoshi Oni Aztechnology collects ritual samples of its mages as a security precaution to ensure they can be located if abducted. This is the same reasoning used to collect samples of top execs. Hard Exit Every corporation with the means to do so takes ritual samples. The real question you ought to be asking is: Who controls the samples? Mr. Bonds The Jaguar Guard controls the samples and stores them in secured facilities throughout Amazonia. I know because I tried to hit one. I couldn’t break through—the ju ju they have down there is beyond lethal. Ma’Fan It sounds like instead of going to work for a mega, you might be better off working for the smaller outfits better chance for promotions and notoriety. That is until you get poached by one of the bigger houses. Kia

The choice to sell yourself to a corporation is dangerous and some might say asinine, however the benefits hold enough allure to sway even the most radical of us. Corporations hire freelancers because they fill a skillset that would otherwise be unavailable to them. As such, hiring corporations continue pay top nuyen for specialized magic users, even going so far as to put up with our eccentricities. The smaller the corporation, the more they are willing to offer, in order to avoid seeing magical talent lured away. Those born to in corporations have an entirely separate path. Corporate control starts at a young age, and individuals are specialized and tracked, almost from birth. This is as much a function of the corporate family as of the corporation itself. Having Awakened children means instant advancement for the parents. It moves them to another echelon, and the only cost is subjecting their children to the rigors of corporate training. Working for the corps can mean access to resources you won’t find elsewhere. The cost of that access is that everything you do for a corporation is recorded some-

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where. Even off-book or ‘black’ jobs are logged by Mr. Johnson, and occasionally their superiors, in order to see if the operator is corporate material.

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I don’t know how much corporate work you do, but the line of drek you’re feeding us here makes you smell like a n00b. The file corps keep on magical operatives has more to do with ensnaring that person than checking to see if they are reliable. Wuxing got real unpopular with local Wujen after a runner caught them sending a cleanup crew to the op site in order to recover enough material to constitute a ritual sample. Snopes

Every corporation takes a slightly different stance on how they pursue and ultimately utilize magic. It is worth your nuyen to increase your understanding of at least the a handful of major magic players.

WUXING Wuxing is a rising power that deserves attention but doesn’t get it. Sometimes the most overlooked of the Big Ten, Wuxing gained prominence after being gifted two hundred million nuyen and two mysterious magical items in Dunkelzahn’s will. Chief among Wuxing’s assets in the magic field is Ming Solutions, a magical asset integration company. Ming works closely with Wuxing’s construction arm to ensure that all new construction is designed around the principles of Feng Shui. If your field is geomancy or the pursuit of qi, working with Wuxing can provide the opportunity to advance your craft.

MITSUHAMA MCT is a world leader in magical goods. Their Thaumaturgical Research Division operates a magical research database favored by top universities. The gem of the Mitsuhama magical empire, Pentacle Distribution, is the number two telesma corporation in the world. They would do well to remember that just because you’re the emperor it doesn’t mean the crown is safe. In London, Glendower Export Associates trying to muscle into Pentacle Distribution turf, and there is a lot of money to be had as a soldier in that war.

ARES MACROTECHNOLOGY Despite what they advertise, Ares is a military solutions company first. Ares Firewatch is considered the UCAS’ first line of defense against insect spirits, locating and destroying hives before they become a problem. Scouting out suspected bug hives tends to be contracted out to shadowrunner teams who have a better understanding of whatever local environment might be hosting the hive. Ares isn’t just trying to wage war against the bugs on our plane either. Several Ares subsidiaries are engaged in researching how to strike at the bugs before they reach us.

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TRANS-UNION INTERCORP SEARCHNET

Search Parameters: Top Magical Goods and Services Labels Search Results: Multinational results listed …

The real cutting-edge extraplanar research has been happening at Institut Thaumaturgique du Québec. Ares contracts out some of the institute work to specialists with extensive experience exploring the metaplanes.

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ARCANE SERVICE PROVIDERS Manadyne Parashield Ares Firewatch Mysticks and Magicks HermeTech Associates Ming Solutions Elementals’ Services Rees Arcana Centurion Applied Magicks (Formerly Cross Applied Magicks) Kami Consulting Farsight

Ares acquired Institut Thaumaturgique du Québec when CatCo crumbled. Instead of merging the research corp with Xerxes Positive Research, Ares held it at a distance at the behest of Damian Knight himself. The move turned out to be a smart one. ITQ barely survived a hostile takeover by a conglomerate of companies a year after its acquisition. Most of those companies listed in the takeover bid were indirectly connected to the Draco Foundation, including MechAnima, Libra Holdings, and Centurion Financial, strengthening the claim that it was a bid orchestrated by Nadja Daviar. Mr. Bonds

MAGICAL GOODS MANUFACTURERS Pyramid Arcane Supplies The Arcanum Magicknet

AZTECHNOLOGY

LORE STORES

Aztech is known for its perversions, specifically the blood magic that is commonplace there, but it is more than that. The corp is very much interested in druidic magic, for example. The earth-centric rituals of Druidism would lend power to their expansion into Amazonia and give them something of a defense against the jungle itself.

Ipissumus MageWerks Pentacles

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The other fifteen percent are washed, dried, and shipped out to various Yakuza interests, often as a payoff for services rendered. Occasionally Suichini capital ends up funding shadowruns against the Vory. Recently I’ve met with a lot of private contractors who are being paid through shell companies shared by Suichini and the Yakuza to explore the West Siberian Plains. Mihoshi Oni

WORKING FOR THE CHURCH Once major religions stopped shouting “Demon!” and holding crosses to the foreheads of spellcasters, they figured out that magic could be a helpful recruiting tool. Religion is based on the premise of believing in things that cannot be seen, but it must account for the things that can be seen. This is more easily accomplished when the folks doing the casting are sitting in the pew beside you praying to the same God. Therein lies the problem. To truly gain mastery of the

Lore Stores Inc. Yin and Yang Pentagrams

MAGICAL IMPRINTS & PUBLICATIONS Pentacle Press Pentagram Publishing LoreNet

SUICHINI MAGICAL MECHANICS A dragon owning a corporation is nothing new, but Ryumyo hasn’t shown the profit-based instincts of his kind when it comes to this corporation. Eighty-five percent of corporate profits are put back into the corporation in order to fund magical research.

Pentacle Distribution TalisPoint Manadyne Manufacturing

Ambrosius Publications MagicMind

craft, especially at the higher levels of initiation, a magician must become aware that the paradigms are just that—age-old traditions we use in order to manifest the mysteries of the magical world. That understanding exposes a truth about belief that often contrasts with the realities of the Sixth World. Most world religions are predicated on the belief that their word is the one true word. The existence of magic and the metaplanes suggests there may be more than one manifest faith. I can believe the slice of stone wall dividing my kitchen from my living space is a higher power and pray to that for guidance, but unless there are others who share my beliefs it isn’t a faith. In the sense that faith is shared belief, even a cult can become an organized faith. Through that faith Awakened members of a church can gain the ability to initiate and grow their abilities.

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The Church of Scientology, once recognized as a fad cult and tax shelter for the rich, crossed the threshold to faith in the late forties when its members began manifesting magical abilities and formed an order within the ranks of the church. This order now oversees auditing of new members, the process by which members uncover their spiritual awareness. Elijah

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Religion is about membership as much as it is about faith. Religions need people in order to flourish, and as pre-Christian religions gained sudden prominence following the Awakening, the big three recognized the threat for what it was. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam united for one flickering moment, though with the limited purpose of labeling these new religions as neopaganism and denouncing them. Neopaganism lumps together a number of polytheistic texts, cobbling the mythos of Wicca, Druidism, Asatru, Native American worship to name a few. The labeling was brief and managed only to slightly limit the number of followers the big three lost to the newer (or older, from some points of view) faiths.

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The intentions behind the denouncement neopaganism were far more insidious than that. If it were just about preserving membership, they would have called out Hinduism and Taoism as well. All I can say is the churches play the long game nearly as well as dragons do. Frosty

The battle to be the true word is far from over. Many of faith have turned to the shadows to find the talent they need to pursue their goals. Take note of these potential employers:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The power of the Vatican reaches across the world like rays of sunlight to some, like polluting smog to others. They had the potential to make a smooth transition to a magical world, as the structure for the acceptance of magic was already in place, laid out by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Acts of magic in the Fifth World were deemed miracles or relegated as the work of the devil, but they were acknowledged as something that existed in the world. Negative reactions to new metatypes and magic by the highest officials of the church, however, slowed their acceptance of magic as a whole after the Awakening. The climate has thawed, though, and today all but the most conservative congregations incorporate magic into their theological worldview. They distinguish between good magic and bad based on whether or not you are practicing your craft in service of the Church and in accordance with a tradition the Church accepts. This last part is not absolute; the Church will hire the Awakened regardless of tradition so long as the have the skills to complete the needed work.

ISLAM It can be an extremely difficult road for a child of Allah who discovers they have magical potential. Islamic law outlaws the practice of magic—that is, unless it doesn’t. Within Islam the fine line between being an outlawed spellcaster and a herald of the Islamic faith often comes down to who you know and how well you are respected. There are other loopholes as well. Countless

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Muslims who believe they are blessed with potential or have family members that may be blessed turn to the sufi mystics. Sufism is considered to be the will of Allah, and thus exempt from the ban on magic use.

HINDU Given the number of people India, the Hindu faith is relevant on size alone. Proponents of Hinduism continue to believe they practiced magic prior to the Awakening. I’ve heard some describe practicing their brahmanas pre-Awakening as a turning on a faucet before the water actually flows to the house. Once it flowed it came out with such force as to wash away all doubt about the Vedic Texts. Specifically, the Atharva-Veda  Samhita has developed a large following. This Vedic text speaks of the spells, charms, and magical formulae of the religion.

WITCHCRAFT Wicca regained prominence in the post-Awakening world almost as swiftly as my own Native American traditions did. Without the flash and thunder of the Great Ghost Dance, Wicca was able to stay off the public radar for years, slowly gaining an informal structure that morphed into a network of initiate groups. Unlike most large religions, there is not a central organizing body to determine what is or isn’t Wicca, a fact which allows many groups to practice forms of neo-paganism under the guise of Wicca. The “do no harm” principles inherent in the religion are largely forgotten in the public misinterpretation of Wicca. At the core of the religion is a principle that comes from the Wiccan Rede, “An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will.” However, when people think of Wicca they still see green witches and the spectacle of Halloween. Unfortunately, that longstanding tradition colors what many think of magic. Many of the Wiccan faith feel it is their duty to change the perception.

VODOU Vodou, or Sèvis Gine as it is known in most of Africa, is not one religion but many, all of which center around the Iwa-yo, a collection of spirits that are presumed to exist on the metaplanes. Vodou is closely entangled with Catholicism, and often Catholic prayers and rituals will be used as part of the process to invoke loa. Vodou is extremely popular amongst the pirate clans that roam the Carib League. Even non-practitioners continue to ‘practice’ rituals, be it an extension of their faith, or as habit learned from their parents.

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Vodou is a way of life in the Carib league. Everybody believes in Vodou and is both scared and respectful of it. Vodou priests are treated like simstars on the islands, the reason being you don’t want one of them throwing some juju on your rig to make you disappear beneath the waves. Kane

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MAGIC IN THE SHADOWS The most dangerous path we of magic can choose is to walk in the shadows. You may read my words and question why one would choose a life in the shadows when so many other options exist. The answer is simple: freedom. Though we are beholden to others, even in the shadows, the puppet strings are much longer, affording us a control over our actions that corporate, academic, religious, and other forms of SINner life cannot. The shadows represent the greatest freedom for Awakened individuals, but this also comes with risks. Foremost amongst those risks is the isolation. A wage mage or even an academic has the backing of a cohort of like-minded professionals who have some responsibility to support what their paymasters are trying to achieve. Those of us who live in the shadows tend to operate without a coven or some other organization to support us. It exposes us to more risk to work alone, but it also means we are beholden to no one but the Great Spirit. You can survive the shadows, so long as you understand the rules.

RULE #1: GEEK THE MAGE The first thing a combat mage needs to understand is they are the primary target in any combat situation. As such you have to take steps to not be so easily identifiable. Holding an AK marks you as a warrior. Standing there empty handed marks you as the one who gets geeked first.

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Makes perfect sense. Combat is about recognizing the variables and controlling what you can. A magic user is an uncontrollable variable. By the time you figure out what they are capable of, the fight is over, generally with you strapped in the back of a DocWagon extraction vehicle. So you geek the mage before she makes your stomach explode and deal with the bullets later. The same holds true for physical adepts. In close-quarters combat a physad is the most dangerous force in the room. Black Mamba

Fear can be your greatest advantage. Your enemy doesn’t know what you are capable of, so until you cast you are capable of anything. This principle carries over to interrogations, negotiations, and even social settings where people know you are a spellcaster or social adept. The threat of a lie-detection spell or magically heightened charm is often enough to keep people honest.

RULE #2: THERE IS MUCH MORE TO FEAR THAN FEAR ITSELF When I discovered my ability I was naïve. I followed spirits believing they were honest about their intentions to aid my learning. I once encountered an entity

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that claimed to be willing to teach me advanced techniques. But something felt wrong about the encounter. It was too eager to share what it knew for nothing in return. I refused the teaching and set about finding out where the spirit came from. I learned the entity was not what it claimed to be but instead a toxic form that had already claimed the lives of three shamans. We spellcasters and adepts represent a fraction of the entities roaming the magical realms. Some are here to help us understand the gift of mana. Most have darker intentions. Don’t trust any being you don’t know unless you can vet it through sources you trust.

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The old-timey runners used to kick around stories about an entity named Tutor. Nobody quite knew what it was, but they knew it was trouble. Tutor never went away. I’ve heard the name as recently as last year associated with some of the twisted magic coming out of Chicago. Axis Mundi What do you all know about The Smoking Mirror? The name came up in my research on a little-known metaplane tied to the Aztec God, Tezcatlipoca. I’m not sure if the mirror is an artifact, ritual, or something else, but it seems to be the only way to access knowledge about this plane of existence. Ethernaut

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Think about what you’re asking, omae. These are reckless energies that have motives and power far beyond your understanding. Getting involved with them is not only dangerous but also extremely foolish. Frosty

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I have my big boy pants on, Frosty. I know what I’m doing. Ethernaut

RULE #3: KNOWLEDGE IS NUYEN Ehran the Scribe tells us the more obscure your tradition, the harder it is to find someone to light your path. The other side of that maxim is if you have the knowledge to teach others, someone out there is willing to pay for it. Let’s face facts; the problem with the shadows is that you don’t have a deep-pocket connection to university donors or corporate interests. Harvard is not going to bankroll your efforts to acquire reagents. Pentacle isn’t going to hand over the latest formulae for a Ball Lightning spell. A shadowrunner needs to develop a strong network of contacts that allow him to stay connected to people who he needs and people who need him. What surprises me about runners is how quickly they forget their value outside the run. The Awakened can operate in a variety of roles. It is the sole area where the media helps

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our lives. Martial arts students, for example, are drawn to adepts and eager to pay for lessons from a true master of the craft. The same is true of shamans who can manage a good living dusting sage around wageslave’s homes to ward off evil spirits.

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Formulae are in especially high demand for nascent magicians. There is a good amount of nuyen to be made by creating spell formulae and selling them on the black market. Jimmy No

Pre-existing networks of contacts are there if you can find them. Lore stores rarely offer anything more than basic fetishes, so gaining access to people with real knowledge of local magic means tracking down a legitimate talismonger (I’m told the Magical Societies part of this posting might have useful information about contacting talismongers). Another option is to scan the local Matrix. Private usenet groups are crammed with people offering services. Usenets are difficult to breach, requiring an invite much like our JackPoint. Membership is often restricted to individuals who benefit the group, be it through knowledge, skill, or connections. If you cannot work your contacts for a link to a private usenet, try the colleges. Major university programs operate accessible networks that help them understand what’s going on with magic off the grid. It is a good place to find basic contacts.

RULE #4: YOU ARE THE COMMODITY No offense to my good friend Netcat, but the spellcaster is always the most valuable player on a runner team. We execute a skill set that no one else on the team can learn to replace. Take care of yourself and get the nuyen you’re owed for a job, especially when you think you’re owed more than those around you. Your costs are higher, so the cut should reflect that.

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