Life in the Sixth World

by waywardshepherd

This is a series of short in-character responses to various aspects of life in the Sixth World that were discussed on our Shadowrun group's mailing list. The character doing all the talking here is Rake, a 50-year-old elf sharpshooter/face-man with a law degree and a checkered past. Standard disclaimer: Shadowrun ain't mine, Rake is.

4. Chapter 4 - Toxic Magic

Toxics, huh? The week's theme on this node must be "creepifying magic stuff that keeps you awake at night". Definitely not in my wheelhouse.

Still, I've been around a while, so you do hear about stuff like this and even come across folks who have dealt with such things first hand. I've got two stories on the subject that are probably worth sharing.

First, a secondhand story, courtesy of Vasily, a comrade from my previous "employer" who had started out "professional" life as a mercenary in the old country. After too much drink, he would sometimes recall this horrifying tale of his unit crossing paths with something their combat mage described as a "minor radiation spirit" before his eyes glowed like flares and he died, burnt from the inside out. Vasily goes on to say that they were a good 30 klicks away from the old Chernobyl reactor site when that happened. Many were killed as they tried to flee, and those who survived all suffered from radiation sickness. Vasily claims the only thing that saved him and the other survivors was luck: the fallen mage's bound earth elemental went wild and decided to attack the radiation spirit instead of them. shudder Just thinking about it makes my wires twitch.

Unfortunately, I know from firsthand experience that the more "common" toxics are still pretty frightening. Way back during my time with the UCAS Army, my first assignment as a new 1LT was taking my platoon of sharpshooters and scouts up to the Everett Naval Yards to help them with an infestation of some kind of dangerously large fish-y critters. After we tracked and sniped a few of them, the mages and scientists on hand went to assensing, dissecting, and whatever-ing they do. They determined the super-fish were some kind of salmon or trout that had grown massive and Awakened under the influence of some sort of toxic beast spirit (a.k.a. "abomination"), likely drawn there by pollutants dredged up from the harbor bottom during recent construction. There I was again: bringing bullets to a magic fight. Fortunately, the UCAS military has its share of magic types, so the problem was eventually solved. Did I say "experimental weapon"? No, of course I didn't. I said "experimental bio-drones" and "corporate partnership". You guessed right: sharks with lasers, but way more effective than that old pre-trid movie would have you believe.

Am I feeding you a tall tale? Maybe so, chummer. Maybe not. Even I have to keep a few secrets, especially those that aren't entirely mine to tell.

-Rake