Shadowrun: Technical Contacts

   Ariadne Slavisek (“Jet”) is an armorer, specializing in exotic weapons – to the point where it’s hard to get her to look at standard stuff unless you want something really weird done to it. Of course, if you just happen to need some dikote-edged shuriken with explosive cores, she’s the one to see. Ariadne occasionally has some odd modification or special-purpose weapon which she’d like field tested – but very few shadowrunners like to use unproven gear on a run. Personally, Ariadne is short, solid, and so dark-skinned that it’s hard to make out her old tattoos.

   Nathan Smith (“Phantom”) is a surveillance expert, and may not be completely “retired” from whatever intelligence service he worked for. He’s equipped with a wide variety of sensory and recording gear, some specialized tools, skillwires, and a personality and appearance so bland that he comes close to being able to blend in with an empty room. Secondarily, he seems to have as many contacts as most fixers, a variety of information sources, and a knack for coming up with bits of specialized gear.

   Erikia Windborne (“The Rowan”), while no mage, is a skilled talismonger, alchemist, and chef – as well as an avid student of theoretical magic who has produced several usable spell formula. It’s often difficult to tell whether those curious herbs and powders she has laying about have an arcane, or a culinary, purpose. Given her alchemical skills, it sometimes may be both. Personally, Erikia is middle-aged and efficient – although her reliance on cybermemory to keep track of her bookmarks, rare tomes, and where everything is can be endlessly frustrating to anyone else who wants to find anything in her shop or home.

   Durnik Ivisin used to work for Aztechnology, but found them a bit unethical for his tastes – so he arranged his own extraction. Currently he works at Teradon Bioresearch, where his programming skills are more than adequate to handle his job with very little difficulty. That gives him plenty of spare time to indulge in playing and programming computer games, supporting civil rights for non-human sapients, and dabbling in artificial intelligence research.

   Personally, Durnik is surprisingly imposing and physically active for a computer geek, as well as being surprisingly good with a variety of weapons – perhaps a consequence of running an exercise-chip while working in the matrix and of playing games using muscle-sensor controls as much as neural interfaces.

   Moonwater Talasien specializes in mine and hydraulic engineering, with a sideline in geology and hydrology. She was originally assigned to monitor the operations of a small mine the Salish had rented to Renraku. Fearing a conflict of interest, she eventually “resigned” her position to marry the Renraku manager who’d negotiated the deal. Renraku promptly hired her to run the place, pleasing everyone.

   Personally, she’s unexpectedly sympathetic to runners, lending some credence to the rumor that one of her younger sons ran off to become one, and was killed on some ridiculous mission. Thanks to corporate medical treatments, she appears to be in her early 20’s, although she’s probably closer to 50. She never discusses her actual age however.

   “Mr Lizard” (real name unknown) is a skilled decker and completely obsessed with dinosaurs – to the point of living in an old movie theater where (for a nominal fee) you may watch an endless round of old dinosaur and Japanese monster movies and of having had his body entirely rebuilt to turn himself into a cybernetic raptor. Having coated himself with ruthenium polymers so that he can become near-invisible, and having installed his cyberdeck in his cybernetic body, he likes to sneak into his target buildings, plug into their systems, and “eat” their data. He may have a few weapons installed as well – but for the most part he relies on stealth. After all, he can’t carry external equipment and maintain his near-invisibility (or use many of his other anti-detection systems), which means that his external resources are pretty limited.

   The fact that he’s taken up the study of genetics, and is now trying to gain access to gene-synthesis and cloning equipment tends to make most of his friends extremely nervous.

   Shelina Yancer (“Wonder Woman”); Not only is Shelina a wonderful parent, housekeeper, business executive and nuclear engineer, she’s also beautiful, athletic, and the current High Priestess of the Secret Amazon Order – equally skilled as a councillor and martial artist. She can be extremely helpful. On the other hand, she rearranges your life with brisk efficiency, sends her students out on strange and mysterious missions without explanation, and has very little time for wishy-washy foolishness. If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s so nice she’d be quite insufferable.

   Wait a moment… She IS insufferable.

   Well, one player decided that she wanted her character to be an “Amazon”, and a member of the “Secret Amazon Order”, and have the “High Priestess” for a contact – so here she is. I suppose it’s no more insane than most of the little cults and groups running around in Shadowrun.

   Professor Prometheus (real name unknown): uses a low-grade vehicle control rig, at least one cyberlimb full of built-in tools, skillwires, and an assortment of headware, skillsofts, drones, shops, and facilities. If you need some device built, examined, duplicated, or modified, the Professor is the one to see about it. He has been known to go shadowrunning, but far prefers stealth missions to fights – although if there is a fight, you never know what insane gadget he’ll pull out, and he can be counted on to use any run as an opportunity to field-test a bunch of weird gadgets.

   Personally, the Professor is relatively young, and can usually be found in his old warehouse – which he has fitted out with a wide variety of security systems. He likes to acquire exotic knowledge `softs and collects awakened memoribilia, information, and pets whenever he can – although the disaster which resulted when he tried to adopt a bargheest seems to have moderated this tendency for the moment.

   “Synthesist” (real name unknown) is an expert in exotic explosives, body bombs, and concealed “stealth” communications systems. He’s noted for his ability to smuggle bombs past even the most expert security operatives and most sophisticated detection systems. He – or perhaps she – is best known as a weapons supplier, and secondarily as a master assassin. His or her sidelines seem to include exotic toxins, nerve gases, and chemically-induced insanity. In most cases, the Synthesists work is encountered second-hand, since he or she usually seems to sell his or her lethal creations to various unpleasant organizations.