As the rules explain the process of a elemental, spirit or ally spirit going free it seems very easy. I may have this wrong but it seems to say that any spirit or elemental held in service for longer than two weeks will go free when its services are finished. As long as they are not banished or slain in the process of course. So keeping this in mind I would assume a growing population of such spirits in the shadowrun world. Outside of them being a bad guy how have people fitted them into their games? Any suggestions? My own thought would be that one would make a really interesting fixer.

The fact that they go free does not necessarily mean that they remain on the 6th world. Many, one might presume, would return to their home plane.

Some of the others that remain would have little interest in the affairs of man, and therefor never interact with PCs.

I assume that they are still fairly rare. Most of those that are around tend not to advertise that they are free spirits- after all, they have to fear that someone will successfully complete the astral quest and learn their true name. Better then for them to keep their nature a secret.

Stuff we've done with Free Spirits-

We play in Tir Tairngire, where they are a little more common, and also where they have the rights of citizens.

My favorite was, the PCs stopped a blood sacrifice ritual that was meant to empower a place, though they didn't know where or why. One of the PCs was a member of the Peace Force. Some more PF folks showed up, took the mages into custody, and their plane ended up getting downed by a free storm spirit. This did not make Kyle, the Peace Force PC, very happy.

Later the PCs had to go to the location that the ritual had been linked to, because they were now marked and could get in. The entrance was guarded by a barrier, and when Kyle touched it he ended up on an astral quest, in the domain of a being called the Master of Storms, and in the end he learned a word. He woke up (seconds later on the outside) he spoke the word that he thought of as an open sesame- and the spirit opened the barrier.

What he didn't know was that when he spoke the word in the metaplane to get out, I rolled a test, and he bound the free spirit. (Yes, I know that's not how it's supposed to work. I'm an evil GM, deal.) So much later, he learned that he had, as an officer of the Peace Force, bound a Free Spirit, which is against Tir law... and that if he released it, it would likely kill him... and the other PCs, who all heard the spirit's name.

So, I guess that was more "story" than "suggestion." Sorry 'bout that, but maybe someone will get an idea out of it.

i never used it in a game, but i'll be using one soon. in some fiction i wrote, one ran a magic store (Zaps Magic Emporium), but in my current scenario i'm gonna make Mercer Island sort of a free spirit haven...very out there, but i've got some ideas i can link around it...

mich

I think the books even say that most spirits that go free don't hang around on earth very long. The ones that are more likely to are those more interested in people or the world. Spirits of man have a higher chance of staying, and allies an even higher chance.

I used one once. It was a free hearth spirit who backed some shadowrunners in resisting the evil scheme they had gotten themselves messed up in then became a very usefull contact so long as they stayed relatively good.

I recently possessed a character with a Force 8 free spirit... (ie, Hidden Life).

He doesn't know yet. He just gets these "blank spots" in his memory every once in a while He hasn't even had the chance to experience what 16 points of invisible hardened armor is like.

Grim Shear
"Stupid timeframe... never framing anyone useful!"

When a spirit's "contract" ends, it returns to its native plane, and can be summoned again at a later time. It only becomes a Free Spirit as defined by the rules when something happens that wasn't supposed to. For example, it might become free and decide do stick around if its summoner drops from conjuring drain, or is killed while the spirit is still bound.

What if a summoner released the elemental/spirit when it still had services to do?

The rules allow you to summon a spirit or elemental and assign it to guard an area. normally this duty would be discharged after 24 hours but if you pay 1 karma point per force point of the spirit/elemental it will continue that duty indefinitely. The rules go on to say that that spirit/elemental is no longer counted against the summoning mage or shamans maximum spirit count. So does this mean that it becomes a variant of a free spirit? You have given it karma for its duties and it is no longer attached to you. Thoughts?