Toxic Traditions

Everyone loves to hate Toxic Spirits. They make great villains, and their spirits are powerful in places that make great backdrops for fights (tell me it isn't awesome to have a final showdown in a nuclear reactor, or on a bridge over a sludge flow). Unfortunately, the rules presented in Street Magic are incomplete. And that's being generous. Fundamentally, there aren't enough listed spirits to actually fill up the roster of any Toxic magician, and with the Corruption metamagic in effect, a Toxic Mage could easily require a potential Toxic version of the complete set of ten.

It is precisely for this reason that would have liked to have an extremely simple Toxic templating system – but that's not what Street Magic ultimately decided to go with. And the results are long on flavor, but completely lacking in playability.

So here's how we're going to do it: we're going to compromise. We're going to run with the multiple Toxic traditions thing, and assign each of the traditions four favored powers. Then instead of making brand new spirits each time they corrupt something, we're just going to swap powers out of normal spirits to make the new Toxic Spirits. What we are not going to do is move spirit physical attributes around. Lars loves doing that, but the fact is that there are already too many numbers to remember in Shadowrun. Having to look up small stat adjustments on Spirits is unacceptable, especially when Corruption effects can happen in the middle of the action.

Let's consider a couple of Toxic Traditions that together have one of each of the basic ten between them:

Rabid Dog
These magicians feast upon despair and are driven by their hatred of metahumanity. They may feel that they have been betrayed, or they may just be antisocial. Regardless of their original motivations, followers of Rabid Dog ruin lives and kill innocent people.

Spirits summoned by Rabid Dog have a distinct feeling of anger, madness, and betrayal about them. Each is connected to humanity, but only in the way that a child is connected to an abusive parent. The materializations of these spirits are accompanied by the sounds of babies crying, the wet thump of defenseless animals being struck against a solid surface, and the smell of open wounds and feces. Rabid spirits emanate a palpable aura of neglect and despair – the uncontained rage they feel a magnified reflection of the past horrors visible through their eyes.

• Favored Powers: Fear, Pestilence, Accident, Corrosive Spit

Sample Rabid Spirits:

The Rabid Dog (Toxic Beast): (Health)

Consumed with hatred and Disease, the Rabid Dog stands a broken shadow of its former self. Wracked with agony, the rabid dog is as pitiable as it is dangerous. Weep for it, but don't come too close. Its fate may be your own.

B F+2 A F+1 R F+2 S F+2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/45
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Smell), Fear, Materialization, Movement, Pestilence, Sapience
Optional Powers: Concealment, Confusion, Guard, Natural Weapon (DV = F), Noxious Breath, Search, Venom.

The Twisted Protector (Toxic Guardian): (Detection)

A testament of trust betrayed, the Twisted Protector is a liar and an abuser of power. It delights in the trembling of the weak, but it can behave responsibly in the presence of authority. The twisted Protector appears as a teacher, a Lonestar officer, a priest, or some other trusted member of society. Only its depraved actions reveal its toxic nature.

B F+1 A F+2 R F+3 S F+2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+3 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 15/40
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Blades, Clubs, Counterspelling, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Smell), Fear, Materialization, Sapience
Optional Powers: Concealment, Corrosive Spit, Natural Weapon (DV = F), Pestilence, Psychokinesis, Skill (one combat sskill).

The Cruel One (Toxic Man): (Combat)

The hand of man offers food, but can smite just as easily. The Cruel One is Man as seen through the maddened eyes of Rabid Dog – a vicious jester, a torturer who finds joy in the sufferings of others. The materialized form of the Cruel One is hideous and perplexing to metahumanity, resembling a human closely enough only to be hideous. Like a painting by a child. A very angry child.

B F+1 A F R F+2 S F-2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Perception, Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Low-light Vision, Thermographic Vision), Fear, Influence, Materialization, Sapience, Search.
Optional Powers: Innate Spell (any one known by the conjurer), Movement, Pestilence, Psychokinesis.

The Refused (Toxic Task): (Illusion)

The triumph of turning upon an abuser is too easily transformed into the horror of repeated mistakes. The Refused is the bite against the hand that feeds and the fist raised against the helpless. Its materialized form is unstable, altering rapidly between that of child or puppy covered in bruises of every color and that of a monstrous metahuman or wolf with weaponry natural and improvised. Holding tiny hands before its face in terrified supplication or swinging an axe handle down upon the helpless, the Refused is deadly and deceptive.

B F A F R F+2 S F+2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Artisan, Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Concealment, Fear, Materialization, Movement, Sapience.
Optional Powers: Binding, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Thermographic vision, or Smell), Influence, Pestilence, Psychokinesis, Skill (an additional Technical or Physical Skill).

The Lost (Toxic Guidance): (Manipulation)

Life for the follower of Rabid Dog is a nightmare. And the cycle of hatred turns its crushing wheel upon those in its path. Those too weak or slow to escape are subjected to the depredations and sadistic games of the Lost – a spirit born of madness and bile. Appearing as a shadowy form composed of discarded body parts and festering sores, the Lost imparts the wisdom of the damned. Not to those who will listen, but to those that cannot escape.

B F+3 A F-1 R F+2 S F+1 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Arcana, Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Confusion, Corrosive Spit, Divining, Fear, Magical Guard, Materialization, Sapience, Search, Shadow Cloak
Optional Powers: Engulf, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Thermographic vision, or Smell), Influence, Pestilence.


Radiation
The follower of Radiation wants to permeate the world with the deadly rays that emanate from the atom. She might believe that she is cleansing the world of the "sickness" of life or she might just want to hasten the end of order. Whatever her motives, she draws strength from the poisonous yellow dust that drives away all others.

Every spirit of the Radiation tradition walks with its feet bathed in the invisible fire. The black flames of radiation emanate from the spirit and everything it touches, leading them to appear as regions of rainbow static in electronic media such as cybereyes. The yellow dust weighs heavily and drops like a stone whenever the hot winds that whirl it up draw down. The spirits of Radiation lack the manic intensity of other Toxic spirits. Long lived even by the standards of immortals, the spirits of Radiation are a natural force that destroys life. As unfeeling as the black of the night, the children of the atom are relentless, destructive, and worst of all: they don't give a fuck about you.

• Favored Powers: Energy Aura, Elemental Attack, Fear, Noxious Breath

Fallout Spirit (Toxic Air): (Health)

The poison clouds released from a nuclear explosion are spoken of with fear and disgust by those not of the Toxic Tradition. But the fact that this poison strikes unseen, odorless and silent through the lands seeding the soil and the rain with the power of the atom - that's seen through the eyes of the poisoner as a lifegiver. Fallout Spirits manifest as a terrifying heaviness of the air, the winds blow hot and dry and the sky hangs like lead upon those caught in its dreadful glare.

B F-2 A F+3 R F+4 S F-3 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+4 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 15/75 (flight)
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Concealment, Energy Aura, Engulf, Fear, Materialization, Movement, Sapience
Optional Powers: Elemental Attack, Accident, Noxious Breath, Psychokinesis, Search.

Source Spirit (Toxic Earth): (Detection)

Forged from the radioactive ore or nuclear tailings from which the dark light shines, the Source Spirit is a patient watcher. Appearing as an angry and burning pile of uranium or worse, the Source Spirit appears ready to battle on a moment's notice. But their fierce appearance belies a more subtle nature, for they are well aware that their strength will diminish scantly in a hundred or even a thousand years. They are deadly now, and their plans extend to the ends of time.

B F+4 A F-2 R F+2 S F+4 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Divination, Energy Aura, Materialization, Movement, Sapience, Search.
Optional Powers: Concealment, Confusion, Engulf, Elemental Attack, Fear.

Radiation Spirit (Toxic Fire): (Manipulation)

The atomic light itself, the spirit of the very essence of radiation appears as a static filled breach in the field of view of cameras or normal vision that is surrounded by a shimmering nimbus of light. In a way it is beautiful, and perhaps it is this tortuous beauty that draws a poisoner to this path. Spirits of Radiation are the movers of the radioactivity pantheon and can be called upon for all kinds of diverse tasks.

B F+1 A F+2 R F+3 S F-2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+3 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 15/40 (flight)
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Confusion, Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Engulf, Materialization, Sapience
Optional Powers: Fear, Guard, Noxious Breath, Search

Note: Seriously, no changes to the "basic" spirit, it just happens to have Radiation as its energy of choice.

Heavy Water Spirit (Toxic Water): (Illusion)

Capricious and temperamental, the heavy water spirit is an unbearable heaviness . Perhaps the most human of the spirits of Radiation, the spirit of the heavy waters represents the artifice of channeling the power of the atom and the dangers that touching the smallest fire can bring. It is a trickster at heart, choosing at times to appear to offer aid to humans, only to cruelly remove its protections at the last. Appearing as a man or woman composed of water, scenes can be seen with near crystal clarity through its body, but the transmission of light takes an exceedingly long time. Space behind the spirit is distorted thus through the lens of time and the scene it paints is one long past. The air around it glows with a faint and ominous blue light.

B F+2 A F R F+2 S F C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25 (30/75 swimming)
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Concealment, Confusion, Engulf, Guard, Materialization, Movement, Sapience.
Optional Powers: Accident, Binding, Desire Reflection, Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Innate Spell (one spell known by the Conjurer).

Flowering Spirit (Toxic Plant): (Combat)

Even in the face of harsh radioactive fires, plants still grow. On the fields of atomic blasts, flowers bloom, and even in the heart of radioactive power plants a sticky lichen grows. The Flowering Spirit represents life in the face of adversity and to the poisoner this is a terrifying concept indeed. The creation of life and the proliferation of vasculature and bud is a mark of incomprehensible horror. To the observer with a more traditional viewpoint, there is nothing overtly ominous about the Flowering Spirit. It is just a mass of unruly vines, moss, or leaves. And yet, something about its radioactive nature seeps into the consciousness of any mortal onlooker - there is something indescribably wrong about this innocuous form of vegetation. This wrongness gnaws at the soul, where its destructive power is unleashed in full.

B F+3 A F-1 R F+2 S F+4 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 5/15
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Dodge, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Concealment, Engulf, Guard, Influence, Magical Guard, Materialization, Movement, Sapience, Silence.
Optional Powers: Accident, Confusion, Energy Aura, Noxious Breath, Venom.

---

Pollution
Those who embrace pollution wish to poison and destroy life. Dioxins and black clouds fill her dreams and she relishes the destruction of life. Where the Radiation poisoner works for a natural force that simply happens to be inimical to life, the Pollution poisoner wishes to simply destroy life by whatever means are available.

The orange vapors which rise from the bodies of her spirits sting the eyes and throat. The multicolored puddles left in their wake may feel hot or soapy to the touch, but are always dangerous.

• Favored Powers: Energy Aura, Elemental Attack, Corrosive Spit, Noxious Breath

Acid Spirit (Toxic Water) (Illusion)

The rain falls and spreads burning across the land. Appearing as a pool or a column of falling droplets, the Acid spirit is caustic to the ground and poison to living things. It looks harmless, as clear and refreshing as any rain or pond – yet the corrosives contained within are as deadly as fire.

B F+2 A F R F+2 S F C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25 (30/75 swimming)
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Concealment, Corrosive Spit, Energy Aura, Engulf, Materialization, Sapience, Search.
Optional Powers: Accident, Binding, Confusion, Elemental Attack, Guard, Movement, Weather Control.

Miasma Spirit (Toxic Air) (Manipulation)

The clouds of caustics can be brown and orange as smog, black as soot, or clear as carbon monoxide, but the poisoned air is considered the prime mover of the toxic world. Traveling thousands of kilometers around the world to spread devastation across the globe, the Miasma is sacred to the poisoner. It appears as an amorphous cloud angered and dripping with caustics.

B F-2 A F+3 R F+4 S F-3 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+4 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 15/75 (flight)
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Concealment, Corrosive Spit, Engulf, Materialization, Movement, Noxious Breath, Sapience.
Optional Powers: Accident, Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Psychokinesis, Weather Control.

Blight Spirit (Toxic Plant): (Detection)

The poisons of air and rain warp and damage the foliage beyond recognition. These dying plants release their carbon dioxide back into the air and help destroy the world anew. This perpetuation of destruction is a symphony to the followers of pollution, and the blackened leafless trees of the Blight spirits stand mute testament to their glory.
When the caustic rain falls, it is the leaves and roots which burn first. This effect marks them as heralds of destruction in the eyes of the poisoners.

B F+3 A F-1 R F+2 S F+4 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/15
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Dodge, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Astral Form, Energy Aura, Engulf, Fear, Guard, Magical Guard, Materialization, Movement, Sapience, Silence.
Optional Powers: Accident, Confusion, Movement, Noxious Breath, Search.

Poisoned Spirit (Toxic Beast): (Health)

The path of bioaccumulatory toxins is circular, passing from predator to scavenger to foliage to herbivore and back, gaining strength and shortening lives at every turn of the wheel. The Poisoned spirit can materialize at any point in the food web, appearing as anything from a fruit tree to a cougar. The body is always somewhat more gray than normal, and its mere presence sends ripples through the lives of animals around.

B F+2 A F+1 R F+2 S F+2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/45
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Animal Control, Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Smell), Fear, Materialization, Movement, Sapience
Optional Powers: Concealment, Confusion, Energy Aura, Natural Weapon (DV = F), Noxious Breath, Search, Venom.

Chemistry Spirit (Toxic Task): (Combat)

The best poisons do not occur in nature, for compounds that exist in the world tautologically are in the world – and life has managed to exist around and in spite of all of them. There exists, at least in potentia, compounds which do not normally exist for which life has never evolved or innovated a solution or manner with which to coexist. It is these perfect poisons that are the highest order of pollution, the perfect corruptive agents which the Chemistry spirit offers. Appearing as a learned sapient critter or a massive series of small multicolored spheres, the Chemistry spirit represents the worst of artifice: the creation of that which is by nature incompatible with life.

B F A F R F+2 S F+2 C F I F L F W EDG F ESS F M Init Fx2+2 IP 2
Astral Init/IP: F x 2, 3
Movement: 10/25
Skills: Artisan, Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat.
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Binding, Corrosive Spit, Energy Aura, Materialization, Sapience.
Optional Powers: Elemental Attack, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-light Vision, Thermographic vision, or Smell), Noxious Breath, Psychokinesis, Skill (an additional Technical or Physical Skill).


-Frank

I'm very interested to read more!

Hell yeah! give me more Toxic Goodness!

Yes, please! Not that my GM would let any player play a toxic mage but its still fun to read.

Personally, I'd agree that simple templates would have been better, especialy if those templates were based upon aspects and aspected domains, in order to provide some continuity between editions.

Well, I'd like to see your take on my newest corrupted magician, Angela. She's a Great Mother follower who gets pregnant as often as she can with as many children as possible but uses self-abortion and infanticide to power her magic rather than raising the whelps.

One issue: Heavy Water spirit? Heavy water is essentially non-toxic. You have to drink liters of nothing but heavy water for several days before you have any toxic effects.

I guess your description does justice to that though, since it's sorta faux friendly...

Well, for the heavy water... It could be the really heavy water made with tritium and not deuterium. Tritium is radioactive which would fit the bill for a Radiation mage;.

Added Pollution Tradition. It's a mix of Rabid Dog and Radiaition. It's not grounded in suffering the way Rabid Dog is, but it also isn't devoid of caring the way Radiation is. Pollution really wants to kill life, and it is not afraid to use life to attain those ends.

This is all looking very good. 1 question though: when making a toxic spirit, how many of the favored powers of the tradition does it get? It's obviously not all of them, but I couldn't see the pattern. How do we determine what powers are lost in exchange? As always, I prefer specific rules, but if it's not possible I understand.

I'd say that the summoner must swap one power of the spirit for one off of their list. For every 3 force of the spirit, they may swap another power out for one from their list. This is in addition to choosing an optional power. They may also choose their toxic powers as optional powers. Something like that.

Now as a playable PC, it seems that this additional versatility in spirit selection would be more powerful than normal mages. Perhaps being a toxic mage could therefore be a 5 point quality, allowing you to choose a toxic tradition and benifit from it's awesomeness?

What about TOXIC BUG SHAWMANS? Can we get some ideas about that tradition? Two very twisted paths cross how would it change a bug and its Shawman.. and even sicker how does it change the queen?

Yeah I know its not playable but I wanted to give you a challenge Frank

Frank's response concerning Toxic Bugs from another thread...

LOL I caught that

Dude, what's Ikthitkik? I know you used it as a random, meaningless example of their alien mindset as a whole, but what would their mentality be like, in prose English?

If it could be translated into English, then it wouldn't be very alien, would it? And insect spirits are about as alien as it gets when it comes to spirits.

(Note, this isn't the "humans with funny latex shapes on their foreheads" alien of episodic sci-fi television, this is the "utterly incomprehensible because on a fundamental level, your brain just isn't wired to think that way" meaning of the word alien.)

Speaking of which, have you decided on house rules for insect spirits? Treat them like a special kind of toxic mage? I could see doing that, giving it the optional powers just like you described for toxics.

Sorry late comer to the thread, I notice in the original post "corruption metamagic" is mentioned. Can't find any such metamagic in 4th edition material, am I missing somthing or is just a reference to toxic summoning?

look for it in the threats chapter of street magic, under toxic magic.

Street Magic - page 143.

Thanks again Fortune, dont know how many times looked right over it, no listing in index for it either.

I'm thinking of copy & pasting this to a word-doc & adding it to my files. Interesting reading.

i thought of 4chan as soon as i saw this post.

I had a player with a crazy idea: a good(ish) Toxic Shaman. He and I collaborated for a bit, and this was born:

The Alchemical Mage (I jokingly call him the alchemage).

Combat: Acid (Toxic Water)
Detection: Alchemist (Toxic Guidance)
Health: Salve (Toxic Earth)
Illusion: Steam (Toxic Fire)
Manipulation: Chimera (Toxic Beast)
Drain: Willpower + Logic.
Note: This is a materialization tradition.

Change is good. Too little change leads to stagnation, and too much to cancer. There is a war going on between toxic forces and nature forces. As a scientist, this mage has determined a compromise must be reached.

Controlled change.

He bends toxic spirits to his will, trapping them in the tropes of the laboratory in which he is most comfortable. Through his calculations, change can happen through means that will not adversely affect the environment.

while we are more or less at it again:
does feral cities make toxic insect shamans canon?

This is lovely material! Just the kind of thing to throw at family and friends at the cottage this summer. Beer, snacks, cool breeze off the lake, and ravening monstrosities clamoring for their flesh.

Thanks, folks!