Inspired by the Dragon Hunting Team thread.

We all know down cycle hunting occured, but who? Who was doing this hunting?

Sure Synner will swing in here and say [i[Loose alliances[/i], but in the mean time lets speculate.

Religous Orders

St. George slew the dragon, and the gave him the keys to the chapel. But I really don't know the full story here. Any one care to fill it in?

Elves

Alamaise made them, and now they'll unmake him. This is Ancient History's ball right here.

Who else?

Mr. Rogers.

Horror Agents.

the IEs--or, some IEs--seem to be the prime suspects. glasgian destroyed some eggs under lofwyr's care, right? i imagine you'd use some of the same tricks and techniques to track down a clutch of dragon eggs that you'd use to track down a sleeping dragon. wonder where he learned such tricks?

Little yellow birds.

The eggs were eaten by giant magic weasels.

There were some 'posts' in DotSW from some dude who sounded like he hunted dragons. Or at the very least, hated them. I forget which guy it was and I don't feel like thumbing through.

Other Dragons.

The estate of Wilhelmina Graf-Beloit

~J

Vampires that existed prior to the downcycle may have raided dragon lairs for magic lore and Essense. I find this idea amusing since we have a canon group of vampire druids working on cybermancy, though don't count it as the primary Hunters.

I've always assumed that the mystery passenger on Flight 329 was a human, if due only to the lack of a race descriptor. Things like the Sears Tower Attack pulled off by Alamos 20K two years earlier, make me think an international cabal of powerful magical humans was "resisting" the Awakening (they may also be part of the Human Nation).

Ignoring the other options for a moment, I think regular metahumans would probably be the most interesting. People like Dragonslayer who don't trust dragons and think they have to be gotten rid of before they enslave the human race or take too much power and influence.

This brings up questions like how much do they know and how are they financed? Are they independently wealthy or do they have a backer/patron? Maybe a church or religion- Shi'a Islam seems to have more trouble with dragons than Christianity if you look at things like Tehran. Maybe they're backed by a government. I could see elven extremists from the Tir's doing something like this. Or a corp, or corps, possibly as a way against SK- Wilhelmina perhaps?

Now if they do have someone backing them, do they actually know it? Maybe someone's using them as a front or cover- feed them cash and information and point them in a certain direction. I could see IE's using groups like these, either general ones or Tir based ones, as proxies. Hell, dragons themselves aren't above using humans like that in their own internal conflicts. Maybe one of them's decided to play for keeps.

Or if you want and ED slant, how about the Cult of the Great Hunter?

Kanada, what book are those vampire druids in?

I'm assuming he means the Ordo Maximus, which I primarily remember from two texts off hand, London and Threats.

The Ordo Maximus has supposedly infiltrated the upper echelons of the Druids that run the Britons

So in review we have:

Immortal Elves

Angered by their running feud with Dragon kind, the down cycle was a gift to some of these people. They also weild the skill and power to do this, as well as the knowledge.

Religous Orders/Magical Cabals

Masons, Illuminatis, the Ordo Maximus? They all have the power, and certainly the motivation. The need for treasure, the hunger for power make Dragon Hoards the perfect target. Plus gawd says their evil!

Joe Schmoe

Joe Metahuman is in on the game, but why? Some, like Wilhelmina Graf-Beloit, have the power and the motivation, but most don't. Not to mention who told them?

Eaten

Maybe there is something out there likes scrambled dragon eggs, and wyvern bacon, with a slice of Naga toast on the side. Could have been Vampires, could have been rabid century ferrets.

Other Dragons

Even in hibernation they're damn dangerous.

Boy, this is going to be fun...

what he meant to say was, "Loose Alliances!"

The Duke.

Lets just hope that these dragon huntings teams don't inadvertently turn Shadowrun into Dungeons and Dragons, where it's not unusual to see a team face of against a dragon and win. Since I have always regarded the dragons in Shadowrun to be somewhat more powerful than those in D&D just look at what Aden did to Tehran & Ghostwalker in Denver, besides the sixth world would be so less interesting without them around. Killing a dragon should be a monumental event, just not something you do because you hate them or want their treasure.....

Since they apparently will appear in Loose Alliances (DIVE) I hope that they aren't that powerful so that they will turn the dragons into a endangered species, since there aren't that many dragons around in the first place. If they are then I'm sure the Great Dragons would take them out one way or another.......

Did we mention Westphalia yet?

The german state?

Yaar.

how did you come to the conclusion that they hunt dragons?

[whistles]Someone hasn't read the original Germany sourcebook[/whistle]

Actually, they're rumored tae have found a corpse complete with loot, which is how they managed to keep their economy goin' asides from sausage. I like to think the authors were making a discrete reference to some old German wyrm-slaying myth.

Should read the old DidS again i guess.

Which old german wyrm slaying saga?

Oh, I dunno. Given the hoard of (presumably) geld, I'd say the Nibelunglied or a variant thereof.

I know. That was ironic. *sigh* I try to be ironic one time and it didn't work

I don't think ironic is something you can be. Were you shooting for sarcastic? I could go back and change my reply to an eye-roller.

Yeah, true. One never stops learning