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Message no. 1
From: Guido Ferraro <crs@****.UNITO.IT>
Subject: SUBMISSION -Mantra is here !
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 1995 23:51:40 +0100
NERPS: Dragons & Other Paranormal Entities
Mantra, dragon sysop
XX-XX (I've no id for now...)
--------


Mantra is a young female western dragon, who's got an uncanny knack
for decking and staffs a small BBS, known as The Lair. Her board is
primarily a virtual campfire to hang and relax between runs, but it
doubles as a gateway access to the Shadowland Seattle hub.

Her appearance is strikingly beautiful even to non-dragons. She has
smooth metallic blue hide composed of tiny overlapping scales, soft
features and deep, highly intelligent eyes. Mantra is small in size
for a western dragon, leading to the impression that she hasn't yet
reached adult status: in fact, she behaves much like a young woman,
both in real life and on the net.

In the Matrix, her Persona looks like a girl with long blonde hair,
who wears a chaotic mish-mash of clothes from all times, traditions
and places, real and fictional. The only two recurring elements are
Mantra's favored color (red) and a small ying-yang symbol, often in
the form of a pin or earring.
She also keeps a set of alternate handles and icons, the most famed
being an obnoxious little girl with rounded eyeglasses and a winged
red baseball cap; Mantra is fond of shapechanging into this form to
play pranks. (1)


The dragon came to Seattle two years ago, seemingly to attend class
in Matrix Programming at Washington University. At present time she
resides in a rather large loft, which had previously been the abode
of an artist of some renown. Mantra liked his crisp, graffiti-style
paintings, and after some finishing touch (mainly adding computers,
a big hottub for relax, and various plants) she felt right at home.
The loft is also The Lair's physical location, and the meeting site
for its four key co-sysops: these are among the few people (a dozen
or so, all trusted acquaintances from her BBS or the Nexus) knowing
of the sysop's real nature.
Mantra strictly keeps a low profile, shapechanging to human form to
move about freely and blend in the decker community when the Matrix
doesn't cut in. Persistent buzz says that she's in close touch with
the Red Wraith and at least another nova-hot surfer, who moonlights
as a co-sysop on The Lair. She also handles data-pursuit ops on her
own, and to date has earned a good reputation for quiet jobs.

Mantra seldom speaks of it, and only in allusive terms, but she had
a good reason to come to the plex. She had been sentenced guilty of
treason in the nearby Tir for helping "invaders": actually, she had
hid and brought to safety a group of runners messed up by the Peace
Force. Since it was Ehran who promoted investigation, it's feasible
to suspect his involvement in the affair. As for the shadowrunners,
they wisely pulled a fade and disappeared shortly after.
In any event, the young she-dragon chose to flee. Using her decking
skills, she sent a number of fake alerts to divert the attention of
the Border Guard from her chosen escape route. The hired assistance
on the outside duped the few goons left on patrol into having blown
away the traitor with a SAM, and Mantra was free.

Or she's not ?

Sometimes, trouble can take very unusual forms... Heh heh. Check my
forthcoming postings for more.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Notes

Use the statistics given for western dragons (under the "Dracoform"
heading, SR II hardback, pg. 234) with the following modifications:
raise Intelligence up to 6 and lower Body to 13, Strength to 30 and
Power of the attacks to 12D. Our lady sports a pair of datajacks on
her neck, near the base of the skull, so adjust Essence (and Magic)
accordingly. (frag, who did the surgery ?)

Leave all other stats unchanged. I would advise to use the rules on
dragon breath published in _Paranormal Animals of Europe_, however,
since I think they reflect better the inherent power of dragons; by
the way, Mantra's breath weapon is a cone of frost.


-Suggested skills (and a few spells, too)


Computer : 6 Shapechange : 8
Decking (S) : 8 Invisibility : 6
Computer Theory : 5 Detect Enemy : 5
Matrix Programming (S): 7 Flamethrower : 5
Computer Build/Repair : 4 Magic Fingers : 6
Electronics : 4 Confusion : 5
Manabolt : 5
Magical Theory : 5 Sleep : 6
Sorcery : 4
Spellcasting (S) : 6
Conjuring : 4

Etiquette, Matrix : 5
Etiquette, Dragon : 6

Negotiation : 4
Bargain : 6
Biotech : 4

English : 6
Sperethiel : 6
Dragonspeak : 8


-------------------------------------------------------------------


- Gillian -
crs@*****.cisi.unito.it



Addenda
(1) Someone will recognize Arale, a character from Akira "Dragon
Ball" Toriyama's _Dr. Slump & Aralechan_ old gag comic. Arale is
a cute, endearing little android girl (about age 10) gifted with
tremendous strength but totally lacking common sense: she's born
to wreak havoc, and usually does. For more info e-mail me or get
in touch with the rec.arts.manga newsgroup.

--------

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