Threats Post is Live
March 24, 2057
Alright chummers, put on your metallifoil hats and be prepared to have the drek scared out of you (with a healthy dose of salt, of course). The first ever Threats post is up, detailing the ominous conspiracy-tastic death dealers that are simply waiting in the wings to annihilate you and me, and everyone else. I've enlisted anyone in the know to send me these files, and some are a bit more reliable than others. I've deleted anything that smelled deeply of bulldrek, everything left is still suspect, but much better sourced than the rest. Dive in chummers, and find out how you'll be destroyed by:
Alamos 20,000: A terrorist group that focuses on anti-metahuman agendas. Their modus operandi is bankrolling and executing large scale terrorist hate crimes against non-Human metatypes. It appears to be an Illuminati-type organization with several “key members” and personal agendas that split into various cells. Alamos 20,000 has claimed responsibility for hundreds of terrorist attacks. The most famous attack is probably the bombing of the Sears Tower on February 10, 2039, which destroyed several city blocks of Chicago as the Sears Tower collapsed.
Mr. Darke: A powerful initiate or free spirit, Mr. Darke seems to be using spirit powers of ritual magic to create a number of psychotic episodes leading to bloody massacres. The most notable being the Renraku Arcology massacre of November 1, 2056 when a decker friend of mine, named Lensman, went to a fourth floor Arcology Stuffer Shack and emptied his FN-HAR assault rifle into the assorted bystanders. It took forty-seven bullets to take him down. Read Lenny's diary in the post, and track the other sightings of this "Darke" person.
Winternight: An apocalyptic terrorist cult that seems to be using mind altering chips as well as drones and magic to collect a nuclear arsenal in order to bring about Ragnarök, the end of the world. The post has the last recordings of UCAS Brigadier General Lucas Harding who, according to the newsnets, killed his family and bombed the Pentagon a few years back. Read the post and find out how Harding was involved with something far worse than mere murder and treason. Three words to scare you drekless: Nuclear Weapon Foci.
The Vampire Conspiracy: Martin DeVreis, a self styled vampire hunter, gives us the lowdown on bloodsuckers. He's got some interesting evidence that HMVV infected slots aren't just poor diseased wretches, and are in fact working through a known initiate group, the Ordo Maximus, to do some very nasty things. Things not limited to genetic engineering to create breeding vampires, and vampires immune to their very few weaknesses. If DeVreis is right, we'll be looking at stake-proof sunbathing vampires that can have children in the next five years.
Halberstam's Babies: Whoah. Rumors floated around a few years back about this Dr. Halberstam scag. He was taking babies, putting them in tubes and raising them plugged into the matrix to create little god-decker-children that obeyed him and decked on his behalf. Rumor goes that one of the decker kids figured out that he wasn't just a matrix entity, and hired runners through the net to break him out. Since then, if the post is accurate, Halberstam is up to his old tricks again. Only, in order to keep history from repeating itself, he's been removing the brains from infants and keeping them alive in jars. Now there's nothing to escape, and his little god-decker-brains are running around the matrix, collecting whatever the doctor needs for his research.
KSAF: Culled from a Shadowland open conference, check out the data on that lovely third-tier newsnet KSAF. Somehow, this little news provider is at every single event of importance in the Sixth World. They show up where nothing is happening, just in time to see history unfold out of nowhere. Then they sell their footage to the big guys. Word is, their receiving help from someone with major divination abilities. Who would want to help this little Trid-network? Why would someone who sees the future want it televised? Who can see the frakin' future?
The Atlantean Conspiracy: I let Lone Gunman go off on this one, but still, he's got some good intel. Gunman's a quack, but he brings up some interesting points about "elven culture," new magical theory, and the Atlantean Foundation. While on the surface, it's a trid-provider and archaeological endeavor into mankind's magical past, numerous of their "discoveries" have links to Tir magical events, and the writings of Ehran the Scribe. Gunman believes that elves came from Atlantis. I know, I know... But he illuminates some interesting points.
Lofwyr: "Never deal with a dragon." Wise words. Read the post and find out a local runner team had been running against Saeder Krupp facilities for a few years (buried subsidiaries, they probably didn't even know half of it was SK), only to get hired by SK for a datasteal. Turns out, the steal wasn't a steal. The runners were all geeked and they ended up making Lofwyr fat bank on insurance, among other things. The result: The dragon knows who you are, the dragon will kill you. Of course, it could all be manufactured to keep runners away from Saeder Krupp.
Bugs: New information from Chicago claims that the bugs are getting smarter and more powerful. Now they are not only able to look like people, they seem to be able to do everything from mask their auras to control people's minds. I don't even like to think about that possibility. You read the post and decide for yourself.
Blood Mage Gestalt: Post from an ex-Azzie owl shaman about how the Blood Mages are using communal blood catheters (gross!) to perform ritual sacrifice sendings that seem to be able to 1: teleport in the astral plane 2: Link the Aztlan teocalli together through some horrible astral vein network 3: potentially create a massive summoning network, roughly the size of a nation. Worse, they're sacrificing magically active students to make this all work. If you believe it, be scared. You might want to reference more horrible Azzie crap, check out the Aztechnology post as well.
Black Lodge: Immortal human mages from before the awakening, first as the Knights Templar, then as the Freemasons, now as the Black Lodge. They are trying to control the world and have access to magic that most mages will tell you doesn't even make sense (not the least of which is the whole immortality thing). Every time you drive by a masonic temple, just remember, they control your world.
The Human Nation: Global conspiracy of human supremacists, but not as harmless as your neighborhood lynch mob. These guys are major money makers and power players who use their dough and their influence to create "social programs" to "help" metahumans. Programs that give free medical care to ork women, then sterilize them to prevent more ork babies. High level research is also being funded for meta-only viruses and whatnot. Listen up to this one chummers, cause this one is ugly.
Tutor: Mages and Shamans beware. There appears to be a fee spirit out there that is seeking magic users for weird training purposes. This powerful entity teaches people new and amazing spells and metamagic techniques, but in the end, they're somehow killed by their new powers. It's all very strange, but this Tutor has shown up several times in the nets, so be prepared, and be careful what you wish for.
Strain III: Another one for magicians to watch out for. Apparently FAT bacteria, the astrally active bacteria that can be used to block astral travelers, has mutated into some nasty drek that latches on to astral forms and destroys them. This stuff kills dual natured beasties pretty quickly and is absolute hell on magical foci. Consider yourselves warned kids, because this stuff was discovered by corporations. No telling what nasty uses they'll find for the stuff.
