Anthology - From the Street

Now it was my turn. "Damn it, Shavan! Haven't you ever read Saeder-Krupp's profile? Who do you think builds more heavy industry plants in Europe every year? Who do you think pumps more toxins into the atmosphere? Who do you think pollutes more rivers?"

"Those are all companies he bought. It takes time to bring them into line environ-" A shape moved somewhere beyond the shield and I cut her off hard.

"I don't run Der Nachtmachen. A friend of mine does. And he doesn't want his brother screwing around in Europe!"

We both moved. My hands slammed together and I pumped all my will into the Shattershield spell. Raw astral force ripped around us, and hot power streamed upward out of me, tearing into the lattice of the shield. I felt tendrils of ice whip into me as her attack struck. I reeled, trying to control the power arcing around me. As my bolt impacted, the shield was hit hard from the outside. Unable to withstand the dual concussion, it shattered, raining prismatic energy. A dark form poured down through the shards as the music exploded out of my copper energy globe.

Falling away, my power slipping from me, I saw her for the last time. The Dragon's astral form slammed into her, its unearthly claws tearing great jagged rips into her spirit body. Magical energies flowed from her to course ineffectually around the Dragon. I shuddered as her screams merged with the Dragon's roar.

"Shavan, meet Alamais!" I cried out, unheard.

The world spun into the red-tinged darkness, the music stopped, and I grew calm.

Sometime later, I floated. My senses were dead, but I was acutely aware of the sensation.

"Alexander."

I tried to turn toward the source, but found it to be everywhere. Alamais, I thought.

"Good guess."

I may have smiled. "You have a distinctive thought-voice."

"I would imagine."

There was a pause, and I waited.

"So?" I said finally.

"So?"

"So, did you get her?"

The Dragon snorted, and I felt a warm shudder. "Every last bit."

DUNKELZAHN: THE MASS-MEDIA DRAGON

by Tom Dowd

This article originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #199.

The streets are dark in the Shadowrun roleplaying game, and the masters of those streets are the shadowrunners. Deckers, elves, mages, dwarves, riggers, mercenaries, trolls, samurai, orks, and shamans take on the jobs that the megacorporations don't want to dirty their hands with. It's a hard world, and it takes more than strength to survive. It takes guts.

In the Shadowrun game, magic and technology exist side-by-side in a game made for them both. In the year 2054, megacorporations rule, magic has returned to change the world forever, and nothing is what you'd expect. Remember the street proverb: Shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, deal with a dragon.

›››››[lnformation dissemination being the soul of the Shadowland electronic network, it fails to me as its local controller to post information of interest and watch the fur fly. The following profile is excerpted and abridged from the far-too- hip-for-its-own-good online edition of the infozine Meta Trends (January 2054). Some of the information presented in the article has been disputed by various sources. Believe it at your own risk. As always, electronic readers of this file are invited to post their own comments and observations. Believe them at your own risk as well.]

– Captain Chaos 08:21:51/2-23-54

If dragons are beasts of legend, why is it that modern Man can periodically flip a cable channel and find one alternately babbling good-naturedly on some fascinating (to him) facet of human society or having an equally good-natured chat with a celebrity of the moment? Why is it that a dragon, once the bane of Saint George, the near-consumer of darling/annoying Bilbo, and the quarry of knights-gallant has his own talk show? The answer, very simply, is ratings and power.

›››››[Yeah, when a great dragon asks for his own trideo show, are you gonna be the one to tell him no?]

– X-VP 02:13:1312-25-54

To understand Dunklezahn even somewhat, one must look back to his first appearance. The dragon's arrival in Denver on January 27, 2012, only weeks after the first appearance of others of its kind, was notable not only for his examination and inspection of that steel-and-concrete sprawl, but for the exuberance he displayed in doing so. The handful of dragons seen to that date had been aloof, elusive, and the subject of fevered and often reactionary public and media debate. Suddenly, there was this great beast of mythology utterly and completely fascinated by the concept and workings of a simple automobile. The impact was tremendous.

Quickly, the great media machine sprang into action. While the military tried to seal up the area around Cherry Creek Lake where the great dragon snoozed, reporters from all over the globe battled for an interview with him. The winner was then-neophyte and local second-string, early-evening weekend anchorwoman Holly Brighton. Through not without some technical hitches, the resulting interview, 12 hours and 16 minutes of mind-boggling questions and answers, give and take, banter and blather, between the quasi- intellectual Brighton and the towering dragon Dunklezahn gave humanity its first real clues to the breadth and depth of the Awakening. The kicker was that Dunklezahn, amazed and befuddled at the world in which he had awakened, was still savvy enough to insist on an above-the-line cut of the profits from the sale of the interview tapes. It is estimated that those sales alone netted the dragon over $13 million dollars, tax-free.

It was also at that time that Dunklezahn began his association with the first of his three 'interpreters'. Though the dragon was able to quickly learn to communicate in English (with the assistance of magic, he explained), getting his comments recorded onto videotape proved a tremendous task. Dragons, it was discovered, do not 'speak' in the way that humans do, expelling air across a constantly changing landscape of tongue, teeth, and lip, but instead through a 'thought-voice'. clearly understandable by all those to whom the dragon chooses to speak. Unfortunately, microphones are immune to thought-speak.

The solution was found in a local Denver resident, a young black man named John Timmons, who agreed to 'speak', for the dragon and relate the words spoken into his head. Together, the unearthly presence of the dragon and the carefully modulated words of the young divinity student cap- tured the imagination of millions. Many sociologists today agree that were it not for the powerful but calming presence of Dunklezahn in the early days of the Awakening, mankind's reaction to the changes to the world and humanity itself might have been far more traumatic.

Dunklezahn maintained an informational-business relationship with Holly Brighton until her retirement from media in 2042, and he allowed her exclusive access for that time. The dragon gave Brighton status and respectability, and she in turn gave him humanity. Timmons remained the voice of the dragon in the media and in public. In return, Timmons' own words became a major voice in Post-Awakened North American Protestantism, where he preached tolerance and clear-mindedness against a tide of religious reactionism. The exact relationship between the three has been hotly argued, but what is clear is that the three needed and used each other to achieve their individual goals. Brighton and Timmons both wanted notoriety for their own reasons. And Dunklezahn the dragon, like a great mythological Willy Loman, simply wanted to be liked.

Timmons' relationship with the dragon ended in 2022 when he was killed by a assassin with connections to the burgeoning anti-metahuman movement. Police were unable to question the killer because he made the mistake of taking his shot in the presence of Dunklezahn. The dragon, eyewitnesses reported, reduced the gunman to his component flaming atoms with a glance. Critics of the dragon were harsh, questioning why with all his power Dunklezahn had been unable to stop the assassination from occurring. Normally verbose, Dunklezahn remains silent on the matter.