Knowledge Skills: Magical Theory 2 (Logic; 7 Dice [7]), Shadow Community 2 (Int; 7 Dice [7]), Small Unit Tactics 2 (Int; 7 Dice [7]), Sprawl Life 2 (Int; 7 Dice [7]) Languages: English 4, Japanese 4, Lakota N, Sperethiel 4 Metatype Abilities: Enhanced Senses: Low-Light Vision Qualities:
Mentor Spirit: Mountain
Everyone needs some help in life, even if it comes from someone relatively filmy and insubstantial. Mentor Spirit means the character follows a patron spirit (see Mentor Spirits, p. 320) that guides him in his practice of magic and provides certain advantages and disadvantages to his natural abilities. A character may change mentor spirits, but he may have only one mentor spirit at a time. To change mentor spirits, the character must first buy off the current mentor spirit as if it were a Negative quality. He can then purchase the quality again to follow a different mentor spirit. This cost represents the toll of divorcing from one mentor spirit and bonding with a new one.
Each tradition has a different name for a mentor spirit. Hermetic mages prefer the term "mentor spirit," while shamans use the word "totem" for the spirit that they follow. While the names may vary, the way the mentor works is consistent. This quality is only available to characters that possess a Magic attribute rating.
Perceptive (1)
The devil is in the details, and you see those horns regularly. This quality is available at two levels. For 5 Karma, characters receive a +1 dice pool modifier on all Perception Tests, including Astral and Matrix Perception. For 10 Karma, the modifier increases to +2.
SINner (Criminal SIN): Sioux Nation
The character has a Criminal SIN (either Corporate or National); his Criminal SIN replaces any previous SIN. At some point in his life, the character was arrested and served time for a felony-level offense and was branded a criminal for the rest of his life. He is legally required to broadcast his Criminal SIN at all times; failure to do so is a felony and can lead to re-incarceration. He is shunned by law-abiding society. Law-abiding citizens will, if they must, deal with a SINless character before they'd have any interaction with a known criminal. With his Criminal SIN, the character will experience prejudiced views, suspicion, and/or open hostility from most people with SINs. He will often be denied entry to certain locations (high-end stores, car dealerships, museums, galleries, etc.) and will have difficulty finding legal employment. He can expect to be brought in and held up to 48 hours for questioning anytime a crime is committed in his area. The judicial system in 2075 is more an assembly line than institution of justice. Suspects are treated as guilty unless proven innocent, plausible circumstantial evidence is often sufficient for conviction, and sentencing has more to do with the judge's mood than the crime. In this environment it's likely the cops will be more interested in closing the case than solving any crime; they may try to pin crimes on the character with the Criminal SIN whether or not she had anything to do with it. Some degree of "adjusting" facts and "interpreting" witness accounts to support allegations is common; fabricating evidence, if only to meet conviction productivity goals, is not rare. Magic users tend to receive much harsher treatment from the judicial system than mundane criminals. If the character is a magic user with a Criminal SIN, he is registered with local law enforcement. He can expect regular - but usually not scheduled - checks to confirm he lives and to ensure he is not using forbidden spell formula, foci, or other magical gear. The nation or corporation that issued the Criminal SIN will keep close tabs on the character, if he fails to update residential information or appears in any way to be trying to evade their oversight, he is subject to arrest. He is also required to pay a fifteen percent tax on his gross income to the entity that issued his Criminal SIN.
This quality increases Notoriety by 1 (p. 372).
Wanted
It feels so good to be wanted, or maybe not. Though most runners are probably wanted for questioning in a few cases, this is something different. When the character takes this quality, they work out why they have a bounty or contract on their head. The bounty should be worth at least 25,000 nuyen, enough to tempt even one's own "friends." The character should have to frequently deal with someone coming for them or finding out about the bounty and using it against them.
If for some reason the bounty ever goes away, like the character is turned in or they clear their name, the quality must be bought off with Karma.
Perhaps the most important thing to understand about beliefs in the Sioux tradition is the term Wakan Tanka. By most interpretations it means “Great Spirit,” meaning the power of life that animates everything in this world, from the sun to the earth to the plants and animals that live on it. Wakan Tanka has been described as a sheltering tree covering all the children of the one mother and one father.
But there is also an interpretation of Wakan Tanka that takes it to mean “Great Mystery.” This serves as a reminder that the power that animates the world is not something mere humans understand, and that we should accept it in its mystery rather than trying to impose human understanding on it. Living with this incomprehensibility is part of life, and the sooner one can accommodate oneself to it, the sooner you can be more in harmony with the world and nature instead of living in conflict.
Don’t let this goal of peace fool you into thinking that everything about the Sioux tradition is sweetness and light. Sioux mythology is full of a vast range of characters. Iktomi the spider and Coyote are always around to cause trouble, Unktehi the serpent makes trouble for the Thunderbird, and Double Face preys on humanity. The Great Spirit may be incomprehensible, but the trouble these other beings can cause is only too plain, and practitioners of the Sioux tradition are well aware of what they need to look out for. Or, if they are of a more mischievous frame of mind, who to emulate.
Rather than study formulae or ancient tomes, practitioners of the Sioux tradition try to take clues and hints from how to best do magic from the world around them. The world is full of information to those who take the time to observe it, and Sioux Awakened are usually willing to take that time. They observe carefully, letting the auras and beings around them speak, doing their best to hear the stories they are telling rather than impose their own meaning upon them. Once they have that information, though, they are swift and sure—and devastating, if they need to be.
There is a healthy tradition of Sioux adepts, practitioners who are well versed in the language of the land and use that knowledge to travel swiftly and silently and enter places thought to be secure. They often carry a bit of the spirit of Inktomi or Coyote with them, adding a twist of humor or mischievousness to their actions.
There is also a strong population of Sioux enchanters and spellcasters, channeling their knowledge of the life given by Wakan Tanka into strong protections for creation—or into devastating strikes against the flaws they perceive.
Snana Cansasa meditates in her lodge and spends a part of each day contemplating her place in her surroundings, but don’t go looking for her on a mountain-side or on the plains. She is an analyst with Eagle Security in Cheyenne, and her understanding of designing defenses against Awakened threats is perhaps unparalleled. She will not, of course, willingly pass any of her knowledge with shadowrunners, but a team that can generate the right cover story may be able to get an appointment to see her in her lofty office.
Background:
Born in the Sioux Nation, you led a fairly predictable life for a military mage. But then things went to hell. Before you knew it you were locked up. Then once you were out your world had ended. You suffered scorn and insufferable taxes and fines due to your probation and parole. You couldn't work, unless it was for a smuggler or organized crime. So you took on with a smuggling crew that got you out of the region. Then you stayed in Seattle and began doing runs.
Here you've managed to make a life. You're good at negotiation and convincing people of what you want to convince them. Your magic is a powerful tool, and you have your ace in the hole, your watcher spirit. Still, there is a bounty on you. It's not an official one, thank the spirits! But there is a group of smugglers you worked for that wants you - by any means necessary. To keep your Parole Officer happy you send back periodic payments and have a hotel there listed as your residence. As it is a coffin hotel, the owner simply confirms you are a resident. Occasionally you will rent a tube for a night or two so as to keep up the illusion. You need a better answer, but so far its worked.
You ALWAYS have a plan. the Mountain requires it, and it's served you well. Ideally you have multiple nested plans. When one plan fails you fall back on the next. When, not if, it fails, you have at least three more in the wings. Others can improvise, you prepare.
Tactics: Your magic is what sets you apart, but don't forget the soft skills of negotiation and persuasion (whether genuine or less than truthful). You grew up Sioux, so of course you know how to survive, and while you are no commando, you can at least keep up on an infiltration. But your primary foci on a team is magical recon, taking down the bad guys (by magic or your Ceska), and getting out without being ID'd.
Your spells that disguise yourself, the team's vehicle, and remove evidence of you being there are probably among the newest in your arsenal. Sterilize keeps the enemy from getting material links to trace you. That's doubly important for you - your DNA is tied to your Criminal SIN and you skipped out on parole. Healing and Detox are both necessities in a variety of situations. Detox is good for when you need a drugged extraction target coherent for the Johnson. Invisibility and magically boosting your reflexes are some of the first spells you ever learned and work really well.
For Manabolt and Stunbolt, don't forget you have standard optical binoculars and those spells are line of sight. Much as a sniper can use his optics to his advantage, so can you. With regards to your armor, never enter battle without your ballistic mask. It gives you full access to your PAN without messy cyberware, as well as disguises your voice and keeps you safe from gasses and the like. You have two commlinks. One is for your real SIN and you leave it off (not just wireless disconnected, off). The other is not super powerful, but has a decent firewall for keeping people out of your PAN.
You need to buy some replacement air tanks for your gas mask, but you also have a respirator for those days when the air quality is absolute trash. otherwise you have contacts which protect you from blinding flashes and let you watch your commlink in total privacy, along with ear buds for listening to it. You also have a tag eraser so you can clear any tags on devices you buy (or food you eat, eww).
Customizing The Archetype: So why does that smuggling group want you? What caused them to put a 25,000¥ bounty on your head? Also, why were you imprisoned in the first place? Or were you? Any combination of Negative Qualities that equals 20 will do.
Your fixer trusts you as much as he trusts anyone. Why? What have you done to earn that privilege?
