February 2063

Salish Shadhe Council Treaty Signed

In a historic event Governor Marilyn Schultz, UCAS Vice President Nadja Daviar and Salish Shidhe Council Chief Harold Grey Bear, signed a military mutual protection agreement over the Salish Shidhe / Tsiamshian border. Science Tsiamshians unsuccessful 2 day invasion in May 2062, the border between these two nations has been a hot bed of violence conducted mainly by unauthorised militia groups on either side (although exactly how unauthorised they are is another matter!). The new treaty means that the Salish Shidhe will allow the UCAS military forces (recently dispatched to deal with the Renraku Archology Shutdown) to remain based in Seattle in return for the UCAS military lending assistance in limited peacekeeping duties at the border and military intervention in the case of a full invasion by Tsiamshian forces. Sounds too good to be true eh? Well rumour is that there is a lot of other secret conditions to this treaty to sweeten the deal for both sides. So what does this mean to you Shadowrunners eh, well good times and bad. Running the Salish Shidhe border should become easier over time with the step down of military presence their, which means more out of town work opportunities. On the down side there is another whole battalion of troops with mil-spec equipment hunkered down there in Fort Lewis... Rumours also persist that the UCAS government are keeping Military forces in Seattle to help contain the growing Shedim threat. Whether this is true or not, only time will tell.

MCT Meta Magic Research Hits the Streets

A mysterious figure known only as Jafar has rocked the Magic Shadow community by posting brand new top secret research on Mage Net stollen from the Mitsuhama Computer Technologies top research labs. This cutting edge research includes a new Meta Magic technique called Binding. Apparently discovered in ancient Babylonian writings, this techniques allows spirits such as elemental to be bound into foci called vessels. The Vodoun tradition uses a similar technique involving a spirit known as a Work Loa. Once created this Vessel can be used to trap a spirit on this plane (the spirits can't return to its Meta Plane). The spirits essence is bound into the Vessel and so the Magician does need to use his own force of will to keep the spirit on the plane. In addition anyone who is holding the vessel may comand the spirit as though they summond it. Once the spirit has used all of its services its spirit leaves the vessel and returns to its home plane. Nature shamans are publicly outrages at this saying that it is an affront to the Totems and it's unlikely you'll see any shamanistic magicians using this technique, but I should think that Hermetic Magicians will soon be using this technique to create a few "Genies in the lamp".

Surgeons Reign of Terror Ends

Over the past two months Seattle has seen a series of assaults and kidnappings by a man nicknamed The Surgeon (why The Surgeon well read on...). No new news there (happens every day) you might say except every person kidnapped was returned, an my point is? Well although they were returned several of their non-vital organs were removed! Well what do I mean by non-vital organs, well we're talking Eyes, Kidneys, Hands, basically if you can survive with out one its non vital. These attack took place at a rate of almost one per week since mid January 2063. But the last attack was mysteriously foiled. Lone star arrived after receiving a 911 call, but when no one was on the other end they tracked the phone. They found it was a mobile and triangulated it back to a ware house in Renton. There they found one Hillary Jacobs strapped to a table and prepped for surgery, and around her they found a cadre of dead goons, all shot by a mixture of explosive and normal rounds, and generally turned to cat food (One corpse was even found under an exploded fake ambulance). ID Traces of the goons have revealed that one off the goons was a suspected Mafia Made Man associated with the Biogio Family (although this seems strangely out of character for Maurice Bigio) and one was apparently a member of the New Orleans crime syndicate known as the Zobop, who have been implicated in organ legging and linked to the infamous Tanamous ring. Acording to Hillary Jacobs (A single mother with a son Ben) account she was shopping in a Renton Supper Shopper when she had a terible pain in her head and collapsed. She next woke up surrounded by the police in the warehouse. After further questioning police discovered she had been stalked by a man claiming to be from two doors down in her appartment complex. "He seemed so nice, he just wanted to borrow a couple of cups" later said Hillary. Apparently the man had approached her claiming to be new to the building and claimed to be a single father of a six year old. Hillary Jacobs provided a description of the man (with the aid of a mind probe) and Lone Star are now searching for him (his body was not one of the goons at the scene). The Star may have even contracted a couple of bounty hunters (or even shadowrunners) as well. Although the threat of The Surgeon seems to be at an end, has the mastermind of this plot been captured or is he the mysterious man who want to borrow a couple of cups (and maybe a kidney).