Free Spirits and their agendas, anyody got some NPCs or ideas? Options

[Makki]

There are already plenty of spirits in the books (Core, Street Magic, Running Wild). Despite the ones you can summon, which can go free, many free spirits are described. Furthermore, SM and RW encourage us to come up with your own ideas.
From my experience, Free Spirits are used by GMs to introduce challenges. Now today, I came across an interesting passage in Digital Grimoire:

Though all the rare and elusive entities known as free spirits
are ultimately alien and mysterious, their interests and agendas are
mostly benign (or at least not malevolent).

Of course we do know, that a spirit's agenda can be as inscrutable as we can come up with, but apperantly they're mostly not with evil intent.
Another interesting fact, that I haven't experienced on any table yet, is the fact, that the Free Spirit types described in SM pp 92-93 interact with metahumanity a lot and often live among us secretly and disguised.

What I'd like to know from you guys, whether you came up with Free Spirit NPCs, that follow an agenda, whatever it might be (friendly, evil, incomprehensible, funny, etc). I'd also like to know, if you invented it yourself, or based on a book spirit.
Maybe you have an intersting or funny idea not yet used?

[Pendaric]

I have had several free spirits- across the board.

Mostly book inspired types for SR3 but also from SR4 for unique spirits too.

I have had runner body guard slyph free spirit animus exploring life as a mortal in al its forms and becoming an artist.

A cat familiar free spirit covert agent for a dragon and working all the angles he can for his personal gain.

A watcher animus/anima player come sensualist talislegger.

Several long and short term unique fairy spirits playing, hunting and helping the PCs. The Redcap and Jagernapp bounty hunters freaked the PCs.

Aireal from Harelquinn has turned up for a brief and unexplained cameo or two.

A bevy of shadow spirits, shedim, toxic and bugs o my of course.

I really need to put in the details to explain why this is cool dont I but I dont have the time. arrgh

[bibliophile20]

Got one that started as a logical train of thought and now I need to find an excuse to use it.

Train of thought goes as follows:

Okay, Spirits of Man are archetypes of mankind and the assorted symbols and other paraphernalia of humanity, right? And Guardian Spirits are the archetypes of warriors, soldiers and other fighters. And some traditions have their roots in the mythologies of cultures stretching back centuries or more, while others are a bit more... recent. So, that means that, somewhere in the sixth world, there's some mage that summons spirits who seem to be Superheroes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Thus, I had to design that mage--and a free spirit originally conjured by him.

The spirit is an archetype of the (super)hero archetype, and, as one of the granddaddies of that genre was The Shadow, I've designed a Force 6 (former) Ally Spirit that is deliberately patterned on that classic; he used to be a literal Ally, a sidekick to his mage, but now his old master got cacked by the criminal element, so he's picked up the mage's (figurative) sword and is trying to fight crime! Concealment, Fear, Guard, Exotic Ranged Weapon (Elemental Effect: Metal, manifests as a pair of six-guns), Aura Masking and Natural Weapon seemed to be a good array of powers for a crime-fighting spirit. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Will either end up being an ally (small "a") or an antagonist to my PCs, depending on how things fall out. Also debating on whether or not I should introduce his master, get him killed and then bring in the spirit a few sessions later? Decisions, decisions...

[ShadowDragon8685]

Also debating on whether or not I should introduce his master, get him killed and then bring in the spirit a few sessions later? Decisions, decisions...

Wow, nice Spirit thought.

Anyway, hrmmm...

Introducing him to your players stands a large chance of things going amiss. Either the players will decide they like this mage a lot and consequently will move heaven and earth to ensure his safety, or they decide not to like him and solve the "ally or antagonist" problem by feeding him some 10mm auto at high velocity.


Also, I suspect this to be a tradition wherein a Force 20 Spirit would manifest as Superman, yes?



On the topic of funny spirits, my players whipped up a Spirit of Man with Innate Spell: Shapeshift. They wanted it to Conceal them while they did some pajama ninja recon, and also to sustain a shapeshifting spell on some of the players as well.

I asked if they wanted to come up with the form, they told me to do it. Last time they did that, the summoner in question got a ridiculously caricatured juvenile fantasy of a sexy nurse - who, yes, could certainly heal you. (Instead of binding her, they bargained with her; she demands weekly clothing trips in exchange for her assistance. That spirit has also gotten heat lately, too.)

Not wanting to overdo the "Alex gets a caricature of feminine sexuality," gimmick (so I can save it for when it's least expected, mwahaha,) I thought about it and decided that he got a LEGO. LEGOs change shape all the time, after all, and they're certainly stealthy! Dont' believe me, walk barefoot in a darkened room in which LEGOs have been played with around the hour of asscrack-o-clock in the morning. So it turned out to be a human-sized LEGO ninja girl - form of a giant LEGO minifig and all, in black pajamas, and who doesn't speak at all, just nodding or shaking her head.

[Neraph]

I like the idea of a Hybrid Form Mantis Spirit in a woman who uses magic to disguise herself as a Johnson and hires runner teams to bring her insect spirits... alive. Vaguely neutral, only wanting insect spirits so she can gain Force through the Mantis female's special Power.

Pic.

[Makki]

hihi, by skimming through some texts, I just a funny idea:

Tooth Fairy
Tooth Fairies are a common believe in the Anglosphere and
have similar equivalents in other cultures, like the mouse
Ratoncito Pérez in the spanish culture. Reports state, they
resemble small humanoids with insect like wings, though
witnesses are rarley more than 7 years old and therefore
very unreliable.
It is well reported, that they visit childrens' bedrooms at
night collecting lost baby teeth in exchange for gifts or
mundane currency. However,what their intentions and
agenda are has yet to be unveiled.

B A R S C I L W EDG ESS M Init IP
F–2 F+2 F+2 F–2 F F F F F F F (Fx2)+2 2
Astral Initiative/IP: F x 2, 2
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Assensing , Astral Combat, Dodge, Enchanting,
Perception, Unarmed Combat, Flight
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Banishing Resistance,
Enhanced Senses (Lowlight Vision), Influence, Fey Glamour,
Materialization,Sapience, Shadow Cloak, Vanishing, Wealth
Weaknesses: Allergy (Sunlight, Moderate)

[BRodda]

There are already plenty of spirits in the books (Core, Street Magic, Running Wild). Despite the ones you can summon, which can go free, many free spirits are described. Furthermore, SM and RW encourage us to come up with your own ideas.
From my experience, Free Spirits are used by GMs to introduce challenges. Now today, I came across an interesting passage in Digital Grimoire:

I had one for the "Devil" from the Devil Went Down to Georgia. Stated him out and posted him here on DS. Basically a force 13 Free Spirit.

Freespirit of music.


I had him as the focus of several runs. One was an up and coming musician who wanted him tracked down to the pact.

Anouther was a run for the fiddle made of gold.

The last was the spirit himself sending the runners to raid a lesser dragon' music collection for an original Mozart piece that no one had heard playied before. (As a side note it was crap and he paid the runners even more to put it back before anyone noticed it was missing).

[ShadowDragon8685]

The last was the spirit himself sending the runners to raid a lesser dragon' music collection for an original Mozart piece that no one had heard played before. (As a side note it was crap and he paid the runners even more to put it back before anyone noticed it was missing).

Wait a minute, hold the phone...

Wolfgang. Amadeus. Motzart. Crap?!


Sounds to me like either the Dragon or the Runners pulled a fast one by substituting some BS for the real McCoy here.

[BRodda]

Wait a minute, hold the phone...

Wolfgang. Amadeus. Motzart. Crap?!


Sounds to me like either the Dragon or the Runners pulled a fast one by substituting some BS for the real McCoy here.

Yes that Mozart. And it was written when he was 8. Still incredably valuable (they were debating if they wanted to try and sell it on the open market).

But from a musical perspective it was a "childish and unsophisticated"

[ShadowDragon8685]

I am unconvinced... This is W.A. Motzart we're talking about, after all.

[Daylen]

Of course we do know, that a spirit's agenda can be as inscrutable as we can come up with, but apperantly they're mostly not with evil intent.
Another interesting fact, that I haven't experienced on any table yet, is the fact, that the Free Spirit types described in SM pp 92-93 interact with metahumanity a lot and often live among us secretly and disguised.

What I'd like to know from you guys, whether you came up with Free Spirit NPCs, that follow an agenda, whatever it might be (friendly, evil, incomprehensible, funny, etc). I'd also like to know, if you invented it yourself, or based on a book spirit.
Maybe you have an intersting or funny idea not yet used?

A spirit is as lacking of evil as great Cthulhu. Or in other words, spirits are http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AboveGoodAndEvil . They aren't going to eat your innards because of evil but because your intestines WANT to be eaten.

[snowRaven]

I am unconvinced... This is W.A. Motzart we're talking about, after all.

Mozart at 8 wasn't Mozart at 30 though...and not everything Mozart wrote is of equal quality.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Mozart at 8 wasn't Mozart at 30 though...and not everything Mozart wrote is of equal quality.

Too True... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[fistandantilus4....]

Free spirit types I've used in our games:

Nightmare - Shadow spirit, possession type, ended up taking control of the Halloweeners in our little version of the world. He was twisted and wrong, and fond of makign spirit pacts.

Earl - Took the form of an old disheveled homeless man that frequented Seattle's streets, mostly during the winer. He liked people, and so would hang around social areas. His back story was that he was once an ally spirit to a street shaman who met a bad end. The spirit went free and decided to hang around and get a better look at humanity. So now he begs for food (and uses Masking), and gives "Karmic Rewards" to those that help him out, usually by lingering around their home and looking out for them, etc. Became the unofficially adopted homeless guy by one runners squat for a while, and they never realized that he was a spirit or helping them in little ways.

Desiree - Mimic type, had Realistic Form, Aura Masking, Desire Reflection and Endowment. Always a "she" but the metatype would change, a very social spirit that liked to make deals and pacts, but also very mercurial. Like a spiritual drug dealer, could and would give a person whatever they wanted, for a time, and a price (ideally, in Karma).

O'Malley - This one was another Ally spirit that had gone free, but he was created by a PC, not an NPC. The character was a proud Irish man, and so made his little Ally into a leperchaun. Short story long, the character was a bit of a prick (ask the guy who posts here as 'Sinn' sometime), and so his ally ended up hating him. He took a shotgun to the chest at close range and ended up dying, and the Ally went free.
Now O'Malley likes to pal around the city appearing to people as a leperchaun and "granting wishes". He has the Wealth power, but usually prefers to twist whatever "wish" they make into something hilarious and disastrous. I say "pals" because he spends time with two other allies that went free from PC deaths, one named "Puck" and one named "Samhain" who appears as the Cheshire Cat. All three are Tricksters.

[Mickle5125]

Free spirit types I've used in our games:

Nightmare - Shadow spirit, possession type, ended up taking control of the Halloweeners in our little version of the world. He was twisted and wrong, and fond of makign spirit pacts.

Earl - Took the form of an old disheveled homeless man that frequented Seattle's streets, mostly during the winer. He liked people, and so would hang around social areas. His back story was that he was once an ally spirit to a street shaman who met a bad end. The spirit went free and decided to hang around and get a better look at humanity. So now he begs for food (and uses Masking), and gives "Karmic Rewards" to those that help him out, usually by lingering around their home and looking out for them, etc. Became the unofficially adopted homeless guy by one runners squat for a while, and they never realized that he was a spirit or helping them in little ways.

Desiree - Mimic type, had Realistic Form, Aura Masking, Desire Reflection and Endowment. Always a "she" but the metatype would change, a very social spirit that liked to make deals and pacts, but also very mercurial. Like a spiritual drug dealer, could and would give a person whatever they wanted, for a time, and a price (ideally, in Karma).

O'Malley - This one was another Ally spirit that had gone free, but he was created by a PC, not an NPC. The character was a proud Irish man, and so made his little Ally into a leperchaun. Short story long, the character was a bit of a prick (ask the guy who posts here as 'Sinn' sometime), and so his ally ended up hating him. He took a shotgun to the chest at close range and ended up dying, and the Ally went free.
Now O'Malley likes to pal around the city appearing to people as a leperchaun and "granting wishes". He has the Wealth power, but usually prefers to twist whatever "wish" they make into something hilarious and disastrous. I say "pals" because he spends time with two other allies that went free from PC deaths, one named "Puck" and one named "Samhain" who appears as the Cheshire Cat. All three are Tricksters.

Oh God. Is this the Desiree from Family Reunion?

[Leahm]

Once long ago in a game where I played a conjuring-specialized mage, I had a problem with a freed spirit.

In an early skirmish with the as-yet unidentified enemies, we nuked down one of their spellslingers, and the fire spirit he had with him happened to go free. It was a lucky roll on that random chance occurrence. I knew having seen it in that rebirth moment, I could use its name to bind it, so I did -- on the chance I could get it to give us some information on its former masters. After an exchange of Karma, I got what I wanted. Later, he got what he wanted when I decided to free him in exchange for assistance in learning a rather difficult spell. He wasn't getting along with my ally spirit, so it was also meant to help keep the peace.

Unfortunately, the re-freed spirit was a disaster that had been patiently waiting to happen. Addicted to the power it got from Karma gifts, it set itself up as the leader of a gang with rather cultish overtones. It learned it could extort and torture humans until they gave up "donations" of Karma. My conjurer never had to face it directly, but it was impossible not to see the effects second-hand. Eventually I even convinced my group to come with me on an astral gated metaplanar quest to destroy it on its home plane.

[fistandantilus4....]

Oh God. Is this the Desiree from Family Reunion?

Would I do a thing like that? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Mickle5125]

Would I do a thing like that? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I don't know whether to be proud or disturbed by this...

[squirr31y]

Several campaigns that I run/have run in have a free spirit that I designed as a PC at one point. I'd just gotten done watching a new anime, Madoka Magia, and I made a free spirit based entirely around Kyubei. He would grant favors and requests in return for contracts and karma, occasionally saving the very people we were hired to kill. He did all this to try and generate enough power to oppose Aztechnology and the Horrors, since he rather enjoyed watching humanity putz about. He ended up working with an AI PC, and designed magically awakened cyberzombies with the AIs aid. In most campaigns now he's actually the Head of an Ares subsidiary(in the original campaign we'd been working for them) called Interplanar Networking Corporation, or INCorp. He pretty much views everything in terms of an endsum confrontatio with the horrors. So long as his actions don't aid them, he's fine with crossing any lines.