> Seattle is a magical city. A lot of people said that in the
days before the Awakening and its more true now than ever. The Seattle Metroplex
sees corporate wizards, tribal shamans, Elven mystics, street mages, and
magickers of every stripe, along with magical creatures once relegated to
the dark and dusty corners of myth and lore. The Awakened shadows of Seattle
hold opportunity and danger aplenty, if you learn how to recognize them
when you see them. That's why I tapped some chummers for the lowdown on
the magical side of the metroplex. Lex Talonis starts it off.
> Capt. Chaos
Seattle has an Awakened population slightly above the national average, about 1.5%. That means some 45,000 people with the Talent in the 'plex. Of those, maybe only five thousand are fully capable magicians. The rest are adepts, magicians with varying degrees of training and talent, or Awakened people with little or no training or even awareness of what they are. The majority of the Awakened work for corporate or government interests. The rest run small businesses (usually as talismongers), work in other "cottage" industries, or work the shadows.
The Metroplex has its share of magical groups, each working to promote their own agenda, whatever it might be. Some of these groups are magicians simply trying to advance their Art and maybe do some good for their fellow creatures along the way. Others are shadowy organizations with their own secret goals and plans. Step carefully around the plans of these groups unless you're really interested in spending the rest of your sorry existence as a toad or something equally unpleasant. Even the "good-guy" magical groups in Seattle take their privacy very seriously. Mess with them at your own peril.
We Awakened-types are stubborn, opinionated fraggers (just ask us!). Doing magic well requires a strong personality and a strong will, so we tend to develop, shall we say, established personalities. Although trid-shows like "the Odd Coven" exaggerate the matter, it is difficult for different magicians to get along. Sooner or later, magical groups turn into clashes of ego. On side wins out over the other or the group breaks up. When it comes to keeping together, magical groups are as bad at it as rock bands, if not worse.
There are around twenty recognized magical groups in the metroplex, probably more unofficial gatherings as well. The groups described here are the largest and most influential in Seattle, but they're only the tip of the iceberg. Magical groups are often tempoary arrangements: they spring up, get some things accomplished, then break up.
Before anyone asks, I do not belong to any of the groups below, so I don't have access to any of their deep, dark secrets or rituals (and I couldn't tell you if I did).
The Bear Doctor Society is the largest of several Native American magical groups based on Council Island. It is made up of shamans (mostly Bear totem) who serve as healers to the community. Many of them combine the skills of an M.D. with the magical arts and folk-wisdom of a tribal medicine man. The Society operates a free clinic on Council Island, open to anyone who needs their services.
> One "sickness" the Bear Doctors want to treat is BTL
addiction. I hear the Society is quite concerned about the number of BTLs
smuggled out of Seattle into the SSC. They may be working covertly to ferret
out beetle smugglers and turn them over to the authorities.
> Black-Eagle
> Council Island is also home to several other Native magical
groups, not all as public and benevolent as the Bear Doctors. There are
definitely members of the Truth Dancers (the NAN's shamanic secret service)
on the ambassador's staff. Other Native magical groups use Medicine Hollow
Lodge on the island to conduct their rituals.
> Silicon Mage
More of a cult than a magical group, the Children of the Dragon definitely includes Awakened members. The group was founded by David Emerson, a minor functionary in Dunkelzahn's presidential campaign, who had a magical awakening following the dragon's assassination. He changed his name to David Dragonson and claimed Dunkelzahn was a divine incarnation sent to Earth to educate humanity and bring us into a new age. He started doing magic and gathered a group of followers around him.
Since the founding of the cult, it has spread across North America. The Seattle chapter was founded a little more than a year ago by a former housewife named Amanda Goldwing, a vocal prophet of "the divine dragon" with magical abilities similar to Dragonson's.
> The weird thing is Amanda, like David Emerson, was a mundane
before she joined the Children. After attending a meeting of the cult, Amanda
developed magical abilities, left her husband and become a cult-leader.
Could the Children have some secret for Awakening people?
> Air-wisp
> If they do, they're ahead of every magical R&D division
and university in the world. I suspect the strong emotions whipped up by
the cult, combined perhaps with a little old-fashioned faith, is enough
to unlock the latent magical gifts of some.
> Silicon Mage
> Might be, SM, but it doesn't explain how those abilities appear
full-blow and ready to use. David Dragonson and followers like Amanda Goldwing
started out mundane, developed magic and started casting spells in a matter
of days. That kind of skill doesn't come overnight.
> Miss Tick
> The Children of the Dragon are a real thorn in the side of the
Draco Foundation. The Children think they deserve special treatment from
the DF because they both serve the same cause, the dream of Dunkelzahn.
The Foundation considers the Children embarrassing flakes who make it difficult
for the Foundation to get taken seriously. The Children complain that the
DF doesn't accord them the respect they deserve as the chosen of the Great
Dragon Spirit. And 'round and 'round it goes.
> DC Insider
The largest local hermetic magical group in Seattle, the Hermetic Order of the Auric Aurora (HOAA) was actually founded before the Awakening, in the 1990s. At the time, it was just a bunch of harmless cranks who liked to get together and talk magical theory and trade crystals or something. It's an open question who was more surprised when 2011 rolled around and the magic started working for real: the Order or their detractors.
These days, the Order is a serious scholarly organization for mages (sorry, no shamans allowed). The members devote themselves to furthering the Great Work (that's magic for you mundanes). They also get together sometimes to help out with magical problems, like protecting communities on the outskirts of the Barrens from the odd wizzergang and doing a little ghostbusting. The Order's reputation for civic-mindedness makes them okay in the eyes of most mundanes.
The current leader of the Order is Dylan Pike. The Order operates out of Pike's home, a sizable storefront Downtown near Pacific University. The basement serves as ritual space for the Order. The ground floor is the Blue Moon lore store. Living quarters are upstairs. Members receive a 25 percent discount at the store.
The Order prefers a quiet, scholarly approach to magic and frowns on violent shadowrunning. Healing and magical assistance to the needy are the principal pursuits of the members, along with study and initiation.
> That doesn't mean the order doesn't have any shadowrunners as
members; they do (although I can't say who). They just frown on violent
shadowrunning. It doesn't matter a whit to them if you rip off the corps
or anyone else, so long as you don't involve the Order and you only use
magic for self-defense. Wetwork and magical forms of murder are sure to
get you expelled from the Order, if not cursed by your fellow mages.
> Wiz Kid
> I heard the Illuminates of the New Dawn offered Pike a chance
to join them, or to make the Order a chapter of the Illuminates. He told
them very politely to frag off and die.
> Nightwind
Based out of DeeCee, the Illuminates of the New Dawn (or IOND) is the largest public order of magicians in North America, with members in all North American nations and chapters worldwide. Originally established to further research into the Art, the group has taken on the air of a large "magician's union" in recent years, especially after their support of High Magus Rozilyn Hernandez's run for President of the UCAS.
The Illuminates include professional magicians from business, government and academic circles. The members are all mages. Some concern has been raised over the fact that the group doesn't formally admit shamans and practitioners of other traditions. Generally, however, the shamans of the NAN and other North American nations haven't shown any interest in joining up.
In addition to conducting magical research and promoting initiation into the higher mysteries of the Art, the IOND works as a contact network for its members, providing professional support. Illuminates tend to stick together and membership in the IOND seems to grease the skids of a magical career. The Illuminates also pour considerable resources into pro-Awakened legislation, lobbying and support of Awakened rights. Members are often very politically active.
> The IOND is more a political animal than it is a magical order.
Sure, they conduct initiations and do magical research, but they spend a
lot more time making contacts and playing influence games. They've managed
to keep such a vast magical group together by organizing it with a "cellular"
structure of "circles" with no more than a dozen or so members
each. A mage belongs to a particular circle, which then belongs to a particular
lodge (which may be made up of several circles). Lodges belong to chapters,
which answer to the Grand Lodge and the Inner Circle in DeeCee. It remains
to be seen how long the IOND can survive internal political squabbles and
conflicts between the various circles and lodges.
> Silicon Mage
The Sisterhood of Ariadne is based out of Snohomish. They are a small, devoted group of "wymyn" who practice Wicca, or witchcraft. The group is limited to no more than thirteen members (a witch tradition) and only women are permitted to join. The Sisterhood has a strongly eco-centered and matriarchal. They believe that patriarchy (the rule of men) led to the destruction of the environment and most social ills. They work with eco-activist organizations like Sierra, Inc. to protect the environment in their home district. They have threatened magical retribution against those who threaten what little unspoiled nature exists in Seattle.
> The Sisterhood may also be working with eco-terrorist groups
to protect Snohomish from "being raped by industrial concerns and the
almighty nuyen." Nothing definite, but it's likely they've behind some
of the trouble the agricorps have in the district.
> Condor
> The Sisterhood has its own headquarters on a small farm somewhere
in Snohomish. I was there once for an operation where they needed some outside
help. They went to the trouble of putting together an all-female shadow-team
and had us run interference with Ingersoll Aquaculture while the Sisterhood
did some kind of ritual. They've got a small grove with a circle of standing
stones they use as a kind of temple for their magic.
> Nightwind
This shadowy magical organization works in concert with the Atlantean Foundation. They are not part of the AF, however, but independent. The Crusaders seem to share the Foundation's goal to uncover magical artifacts and knowledge, although whether they believe such things come from a lost civilization like Atlantis I can't say.
What I do know is the Crusaders are seriously devoted to their mission. Their ranks include mundanes as well. The Crusaders all wear a tattoo of a crescent moon beneath a crossed sword and banner. Each member usually has some kind of personal symbol or motto on the banner.
Mystic Crusaders operate in Seattle from time to time. The presence of items from Dunkelzahn's will seems to draw them like flies to drek, along with some other activities in NAN territory and Tir Tairngire.
> The Mystic Crusaders are much more than just magical flunkies
of the Atlantean Foundation. They're some kind of warrior society with their
own goals. I've run into Crusaders running operations along the Cascades
that had nothing to do with the Atlanteans. They were hunting a pack of
wendigos lairing in the mountains. I think the Mystic Crusaders consider
themselves some kind of self-appointed guardians of the world against magical
threats.
> Wiz Kid
Coming out of California, the UTA is a professional association of talismongers and enchanters. They have practically cornered the market on magical supplies and services in CFS outside of the major corporations and they're making inroads into Seattle. The Association is run like most other small-business professional associations and even less like a traditional magical group than the IOND. UTA President Tamara Nimbus promotes the group as a united front for small, individual talisman shops and lore stores to join together and gain some of the benefits of larger businesses.
Members of the UTA receive business advice, discounts on supplies and finished goods, legal assistance and various other benefits. The Association's recruiting drive in Seattle has already netted them eight lore stores, with at least that many more considering signing up.
> Don't let the their New Age trappings fool you, the UTA is a
serious business. Their recruiting drive in Seattle is part of an effort
to become a serious power in magical lobbying along the Pacific Coast. It
puts them in direct opposition to Lone Star (who controls magical licensing)
and the Illuminates of the New Dawn (who are putting together their own
magical network at a somewhat higher level than the UTA). All three organizations
are ultimately struggling to see who will be in charge of administrating,
licensing, and controlling magic. Be warned.
> Blackstone
It can be difficult to get the kind of gear needed to do serious mojo (or any magic at all, for that matter) if you don't have the proper licenses, permits and paperwork the law requires. I don't know about the rest of you, but my SIN isn't too good with Lone Star these days, and I'd prefer not to have the cops coming around my doss to ask why I wanted the materials to whistle up a big-hoop fire elemental and cast a powerful ritual transformation spell a few days before the wall of the Federated Boeing fuel depot melted and some of their aviation fuel went sky high in a big fireball (and you didn't hear it from me).
If you're a magicker working the shadows, you need to buy your gear on the black market or use some good forged credentials to get past the security checks. The growth of the UTA is going to make it more difficult to get magical gear "under the table" if the Association unites talismongers into a network.
> In the meantime, the infighting between the different organizations
allows some good stuff to slip through the cracks. And there are still plenty
of people who are willing to sell talismans on the side, no questions asked,
for the right price, whether they are independent, part of the UTA, the
IOND or even Lone Star licensed.
> Wiz Kid
by Miss Tick
Mundanes fear us. Deny it all you like, but it's true. The Awakened are Different with a capital "D" because we have access to powers and abilities mundanes cannot use or understand. We are aware of more than they know and we can do things once believed impossible. How could anyone see something like that and not feel more than a little afraid?
For a long time, the Awakened were left alone by the mundane population. For one thing, a lot has happened since the Awakening and most governments were busy keeping themselves together through war, famine and plague. Magicians helped against some of those things, so we were accepted.
But magic also caused much of the conflict in recent history. Certainly the Ghost Dance War would have ended very differently if the Native Americans didn't have the power of magic on their side. Bug City showed the kinds of dangers lurking out in astral space. Dunkelzahn's election and assassination demonstrated the power of magic to influence our culture and government. People are beginning to realize how much power magic places in the hands of a tiny segment of the population. That scares them and they're taking action.
I'm sure this sounds alarmist, but it's not. Governments like to keep control over things and magic may be a force no one can really control, but you can control the people who practice magic. In the past several years, more and more laws have been passed regulating the use of magic and the licensing of magicians. It started with simple licensing proceedures. Then the barring of magicians and adepts from many professional sports and similar activities, on the grounds that magical ability was "unfair." Then barring magicians from gambling establishments for fear of cheating. Then tighter regulations on the use of magicians in business. And so on. And so on.
Mundane society is systematically shutting the Awakened out of positions of power because they are afraid of what we might do with that power. Have you noticed how much the trideo tends to portray the "evil witch/wizard" stereotype these days? It's another reflection of society's growing fear of magic. There's talk of radical new treatments intended to remove a criminal magician or adept's powers, treatments that are civil liberties nightmares that often leave their victims burnt out vegetables, but which are being pushed through by concerns about how to imprison Awakened criminals.
What's next? Tattooing or branding the Awakened so the mundanes know us on sight? Mandatory cortex bombs or toxin implants to ensure compliance with magical regulations? The choice of forced government service, imprisonment or the permanent loss of all magical ability? Don't think it can never happen, chummers. It can, and it will, unless the Awakened start banding together, recruiting allies and trying to change some of the perceptions about us. No matter how powerful magic may be, we are only a tiny minority. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "if we do not hang together, we will surely hang seperately."
> Okay, even assuming this piece of rampant alarmist is completely
true, why the frag do I care? I'm already a criminal. Breaking a
few more magical regulations and laws doesn't bother me. The corps and the
government can't put me in jail for more than a lifetime.
> Wiz Kid
> You'll care when Lone Star and other law-enforcement companies
start making it a point to crack down on Awakened criminals, Kid. And the
cops won't just put you in jail; they'll stuff you so full of wire that
you can't even think straight, then feed you sims to frag up your ability
to use magic, maybe along with a bomb in your brain that will go off when
you cast a spell. Still don't care? What happens when they start rounding
up the Awakened and shipping them off to concentration camps?
> Silicon Mage
> Oh, come on. Now you're getting paranoid. I agree with the Kid.
What are a few more laws to those of us who are already outside the law?
I feel for those of my kind who have to deal with this drek but they have
the same choice as they rest of us: deal with it or strike out into the
shadows.
> Magister
> While I share some of the concerns above, I think it's more
important to be aware of what we're doing to each other. Mundanes are never
going to get over their fear of us. That's a fact. But the united front
Miss Tick is talking about isn't going to happen until the Awakened community
manages to put aside its differences and stops all the petty squabbling
and "magical wars" going on behind the scenes.
> Sereena
> Won't happen, my dear. Like I said, Awakened folk have a serious
ego problem that seems to go with being "more than human." We're
all chiefs and no Indians (with apologies to the Natives on Shadowland).
Add to that the fact that-despite mundane stereotypes-there is no unified
"Awakened culture." The Awakened are found in all cultures, all
walks of life and all backgrounds. Present a united front? Hell, we can't
get the mages and shamans to get along!
> Lex Talionis
> Okay, wait a minute. I getting a little tired of this "you
mundanes don't understand" drek. It's like you spellworms all belong
to some exclusive club and you're looking down your noses at the rest of
us. No fragging wonder people are hacked off at you lot!
> Findler Man
by Paranaturalist
Some folks say the Awakening gave Momma Nature a shot at fighting back against the drekheads who have been raping her for centuries. One thing for sure is that homo sapiens aren't necessarily at the top of the food chain any more. There are creatures, both in and out of the urban sprawl, that can shake off bullets and crush a full-grown troll in their jaws (or coils, or claws, or whatever the frag they've got).
Some creatures are hunters, playing out the ancient game of predator and prey, only this time you might be the prey. Others are pretty harmless if left alone, but mess with their turf and they'll geek you all the same. Want to know what kind of critters you might run into in Seattle? Read on.
In the urban areas of the sprawl, there are basically two kinds of creatures you're likely to run into outside of a zoo: wild critters who make their homes among the concrete canyons and animals trained to act as guards for some corporate facility. We'll look at the last one first, since it's when most shadowrunners run into these beasties.
Guard critters are trained and often bred to protect a place, like magical "guard dogs." As a matter of fact, some of the most popular guard animals are Awakened canines like barghests and hell hounds. Other favorites include piasma, bird men, cockatrices, basilisks and sometimes weirder things like eyekillers and nagas. Intelligent creatures can work for corps just like anyone else and some corporations have sasquatch or ghouls watching their grounds. United Oil even had a dragon as head of security for their Seattle facility for a while, although that relationship didn't last.
The main advantage guard critters have over their mundane counterparts (other than their various magical powers) is the ability to see and affect things on the astral plane. A hell hound can spot an astral projector as easily as a mundane intruder and raise the alarm. This gives mundanes working security some warning when a spirit or astral magician decides to drop in.
Many critters inhabit the sprawl, living off the tons of garbage Seattle produces every day. Some of them also hunt live prey in the streets and back alleys. Lone Star has a whole sub-division devoted to controlling "animal pests" like rockworms, talis cats and ghouls. (They sure have come a long way from the neighborhood dog-catcher!) Critters like harpies, devil rats and the like are usually ignored, as long as they don't cause any trouble. You can find all kinds of things living in garbage dumps and nesting in abandoned buildings in places like the Barrens.
The other "creatures" inhabiting the Sprawl are at least as intelligent as we, if not moreso. They include various free spirits, dragons, sentient paraspecies like the sasquatch and people affected by magical conditions like HMHVV (vampires and their ilk).
> At least two western dragons live in and around Seattle that
I know of, and there may be more. A female named Urubia lairs in the Cascades
somewhere near Mount Rainier. She can be recognized by her deep reddish
scales. A male who goes by Kalanyr spend his time in the 'plex high atop
an apartment tower in Madrona Park in Downtown, right along the shore of
Lake Washington. I also think he has a lair somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula.
Kalanyr owns stock in several Seattle corporations and conducts his business
affairs in the metroplex.
> Dragonslayer
> Seattle is a haven to the Infected. Areas like the Barrens,
filled with squatters who will never be missed, are perfect hunting grounds
for vampires, wendigos and others infected with HMHVV. I have also encountered
at least one banshee in Tarislar and hear numerous tales of wendigos and
dzoo-no-qua living in the forests outside of the metroplex. Ghouls hunt
in packs in the Barrens, feeding on the leavings of urban violence as well
as fresh prey.
> DeVries
The numerous lakes, rivers and hundreds of kilometers of shoreline around Seattle are home to a broad variety of marine life. In addition to many different species of fish, there are whales, dolphins and seals. The waters around Seattle are home to paranormal creatures like merrows, megalodons, sea drakes, mermaids, torpedo sharks and giant krakens and leviathans.
> Some of the seals that live along the coast are seal shapeshifters,
able to assume human form. They are curious and peaceful creatures, but
pollution and hunting often drives them to work with eco-terrorist groups
for protection. Some seal 'shifters have been known to work with smugglers,
helping guide them through the Sound and avoid patrol boats. Whether they
do it for the money or the thrill, I can't say.
> @kins
> All the toxic drek being dumped into the water creates some
nasty mutations from time to time. Sea creatures with bony armor, poisonous
scales or worse. Every once in a while, something nasty will crawl out of
Lake Washington or the Sound and the authorities will have to hunt it down.
> Hunter
The natural weather conditions of the Puget Sound area has spared Seattle much of the smog and air pollution of cities like Los Angeles. Seattle has fewer stage-one smog alerts than just about any other UCAS city. However, the rest of Seattle's environment is by no means clean. Hundreds of factories and corporate facilities throughout the metroplex pour pollutants into the air, water and soil. Waste dumps struggle to handle the tons of garbage and other waste the metroplex generates every day, and recycling plants and waste reclamation systems aren't enough to even begin to address the problem. Some areas of the metroplex, like the Barrens, have no waste-disposal systems at all and open sewers back up onto the streets while unregulated factories pour contaminants into the environment.
All of the pollution in the metroplex causes some serious concerns, but it also has a direct effect on many of the creatures living in and around the urban environment.
Some parts of the Sprawl are so polluted that the creatures living there become twisted and mutated by radiation, toxic waste, chemical mutagens and other drek. Not only can you run into hell hounds, devil rats, harpies and gargoyles in Seattle, but they may have mutant physical characteristics and strange powers like acid spit or poison claws.
The creatures worst affected by the toxic pollution are nature spirits, which are embodiments of the powers of the Land, Waters and the Sky. When the environment is poisoned and polluted, so are the spirits, which become twisted mockeries of their true selves. These spirits almost universally hate humanity for the destruction of their domain.
> No sane shaman can call on the spirits of nature in a place
warped by pollution. Some insane shamans, however, call upon the forces
of corruption and raise toxic spirits to obey them. These shamans may operate
from a misguided desire to protect nature from those who would destroy her.
They do so by treating people like a disease infesting the body of the Earth
Mother-and exterminating them. Others revel in the power of the blight and
work to spread pollution and corruption wherever they go. They are unbalanced,
like the domains they claim to control, and must be stopped.
> Man of Many Names
> Seems to me that toxic spirits and shamans are just a symptom
of the greater disease. Want to stop them? Maybe we should stop poisoning
the land, the air and the water!
> Deep Green
> Good idea, Green, but it's kind of tough to "think globally
and act locally" when some nutter shaman is whistling up a spirit that
looks like a pool of chemical waste, capable of dissolving a fragging car
by flowing over it. All the eco-slogans and good recycling habits in the
world aren't going to stop something like that.
> Steel Lynx
The Bug City disaster in Chicago made the entire world aware of the existence and threat of insect spirits, which possess living hosts in order to exist in the material world, working to expand and protect their hives and nests. Insect spirits worked covertly for years, kidnapping people and using them as host bodies. Some of these hosts remain completely human-looking, able to blend in with the rest of humanity, while the vast majority become twisted combinations of humanoid and insect.
With the exposure of the Universal Brotherhood (the biggest front operation for the bugs), insect spirits are considerably rarer in Seattle. Government and corporate military forces rooted out the major insect hives in the wake of Bug City, cleaning out cities infested with insect spirits to prevent another disaster like Chicago.
It appears the surviving insect spirits have gone to ground, hiding from discovery and trying to rebuild their hives without being discovered. Bugs most often infest areas where they can capture host bodies with minimum chance of discovery. In Seattle, that place is the Barrens. Rumors continue to circulate about insect spirits living in Redmond and Puyallup, although authorities claim they have not discovered any hives.
> Naturally. The government and corporate authorities keep a tight
lid on information about bugs. The official policy is to track them down
and clean them out with a minimum of fuss and no media exposure. The authorities
are still trying to keep the public in the dark about how extensive the
insect threat is and keep Chicago an "isolated incident."
> Tiger Faux
> The insect spirits in Redmond are in a struggle to the death
with a gang called the Spiders. The gangers hate bugs, fanatically hunting
them down and killing them. Their efforts have probably done as much or
more than the legitimate authorities in keeping Redmond safe from the bugs.
> RAID-22
> On the other hand, some of the isolated parts of Puyallup are
ideal places for building a bug hive. There are lots of abandoned buildings,
nameless squatters and nothing resembling centralized authority. Things
I've heard suggest that the bugs are most likely to regroup and rebuild
in Puyallup than anywhere else.
> Blackstone
> What about Fort Lewis? The district is littered with giant anthills,
towers as tall as an ork built by huge colonies of ants. Sounds like an
ideal place for some ant spirits to get going.
> Facade
> I doubt it. First off, a lot of those anthills are in full sight
of the fragging UCAS military, not the ideal place to build. Secondly, the
military has taken to "unofficially" using the things for target-practice
and conducting sweeps through the anthills to make sure there are no ants
too big to be stepped on out there. Any ant hive would have to be really
well hidden.
> Tac Fire
> Of course, if you're looking to hide, there is something to
be said for hiding in plain sight, right under your enemy's nose....
> Steel Lynx
> Friends, the biggest threat isn't from the hives. They're pretty dumb. No matter how many times they get shot, blown up, or knocked down, they do the same thing: move somewhere else and build a new hive. Eventually, they get detected and someone comes in and exterminates them. The government and the corps know about the bugs now, so they're wise to how they operate.
The real threat comes from the free insect spirits. That's right, you heard me, free bugs. These critters are worker or soldier drones that somehow survive the destruction of their hives. They become free-willed and able to operate on their own-and increase their power-just like other free spirits. No longer tied to the will of the queen spirit, free bugs can develop their own agenda and you can bet it doesn't involve putting together another hive to get stepped on.
The worst part is the bugs most likely to go free seem to be the
ones that look the most human. Some friends and I ran up against a new crimelord
in Renton who was putting together a gang to take over the BTL trade in
Issaquah. I had him figured for a twisted shaman, but he was actually a
free roach spirit possessing a human body. I saw his real aura, and I hope
I never see anything like it again.
> Serena