February 2063

Salish Shadhe Council Treaty Signed

In a historic event Governor Marylin Schultz, UCAS Vice President Najia Davis and Salish Shidhe Council Chief Harold Grey Bear, signed a military mutual protection agreement over the Saish 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 Technolgies top research labs. This cutting edge research includes a new Met 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".