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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Jai Tao <jdfalk@****.COM>
Subject: CHAR: Pooh
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 13:12:46 -0400
CHAR
F-01
Pooh
--------
Ambling along the street in a large town can be seen many strange
characters, but very few are as strange -- and, yet, as familiar -- as the
Taoist speaker known only as Pooh.
"Where do you go," one may ask the cuddly-looking CyberBear,
"wandering the streets all day and all night?"
"I just follow the tip of my nose," Pooh replies. "It always knows
where to lead me."

Though largely a forgotten philosophy in the hustle of the 2050's,
Taoism still has a small following in any large city. The tenets are
simple, though often misunderstood, and appeal to those who've tired of
this high-stress, low-yeild society.
One of the greatest schools of Tao thought in the West was located
high in the Rockies, but was destroyed by an avalanche around the same
time as the Awakening. Hospital reports indicated that the two survivors,
both Westerners, were transferred to a pr ivate clinic as soon as they
were well enough to travel. The records, however, are extremely sketchy,
and it is unknown just which clinic this was.
Thus, it is theorised that one of those survivors underwent a
custom CyberFurry modification (see NERPS: Shadowlore) and became the
soft, cuddly "teddy bear" which now walks the streets and calls itself
Pooh.
When asked any question, Pooh always offers up perfectly sensible
responses, but somehow never gives the information needed. "I am Pooh, of
course. Or at least I think I am. But then, who else would I be? I'd
hate to think that I was somebody else, a nd that the real Pooh was
walking around saying they were me! Except, who would I then be?"

Always a friendly face in an otherwise dark and dreary sprawl,
Pooh has been elected mascot of no less than twelve completely seperate
street gangs, all of which seperately consipire to insure the bear's
safety. They will also, from time to time, help t o assure the delivery
of a jar of thick, viscous, yellowish fluid which Pooh calls "honey." It
is usually delivered by a helicopter, strangely enough, registered to a
Japanese company which seems to have absolutely no other purpose. A new
jar of "honey" is delivered once every week.

GM Notes: Pooh personally has no weapons, but seems to be the
recipient of some strange form of magical protection. Even from Astral
space, all that a mage can discover about this protection is that it is
permanently bonded to the living flesh, has been beautifully crafted, and
bears little resemblance to any known magic.
One possible short session to teach your party to ask questions
_before_ they shoot would be for them to be hired to deliver this "honey"
(which is actually an extremely complicated molecule which I personally am
not competent to describe). Various street gangers will seperately come
up to offer help, but (of course) they'll be swaggering and brandishing
weapons. If the jar doesn't get to Pooh, another helicopter will be
dispatched the next day, and the group of Shadowrunners will be in large
and varied amounts of trouble.

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.