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Chicago Shadows Fiction

Cor’s Backstory Tale (Featuring Jay Clem, Nick ‘925’ Peth, Vandalious, Kazman)

Cor applied her own pressure to her belly as Jay, the closest thing to a medic they had, popped open the automatic medkit. Hopefully, it would plug the bullet hole in her gut; if not, Jay had a drug cocktail that would get her back on her feet. Either way, she needed to be back in the fight before the rest of the street gang pulled in and turned their little soiree into a full-blown block party.

Cor applied her own pressure to her belly as Jay, the closest thing to a medic they had, popped open the automatic medkit. Hopefully, it would plug the bullet hole in her gut; if not, Jay had a drug cocktail that would get her back on her feet. Either way, she needed to be back in the fight before the rest of the street gang pulled in and turned their little soiree into a full-blown block party.

They weren’t even being paid yet. A simple field trip to meet up with the headhunter went to hell six ways from Sunday when Kazman lost control of the van. Now they were holed-up in an old donut shop, their wheelman dead in the street, pinned down by a handful of violent thugs with something to prove. Typical barrens bullshit.

An autodoc’s bedside manner is generally lacking, and Cor pinned her upper lip with her tusks, sucking in a tight breath as it administered a series of injections into her wound. Taking her mind off the pain, she focused on the situation at hand, replaying the events leading up to the crash and trying to figure out what they missed.


She was sitting in the back of the van, eyes tracking the foot traffic as they drove past, sparse as it was in the drizzly fall weather. Kazman was driving. His hands were actually on the wheel, rather than trusting the autodrive. There was no streetlink in the barrens, but plenty of opportunistic hackers ready to pull off an electronic carjacking. He was yammering on about some virtual show he was into.

Vandalious was riding shotgun. The street merc always had his head on swivel. Rounding out the team were their grifter, Jay Clem (currently frowning at the readings on the autodoc), and their ‘tech coordinator’ Nick “925”—that’s 9-2-5—Peth. Jay had been psyching himself up to smooth talk the upcoming client while 925 slouched in his seat, eyes closed but watching their surroundings even so, from his vantage point in the virtual world.

 She’d been thinking about names. About how ridiculous she felt every time she said Vandalious instead of cutting it short to Vandal. About how endearing it was that Jay refused to take on a more imposing alias, bucking the ancient traditions of tough-guy naming conventions. About how the same thing didn’t work for Nick Peth, because that was his real name. You had to think highly of yourself in all the wrong ways to roll in the streets with the name your parents gave you. The 925 part hadn’t made any sense to her until he told her he was only Nick Peth from nine-to-five and 925 the rest of the time.

She’d just concluded that it still didn’t make sense when she heard the bang. It wasn’t a gun, years on the street had given her an intimate connection with that sound. The immediate shift in their momentum followed by a second bang provided the context for their evolving situation. A front tire blow out preceding a rear tire blow out meant the road had been rigged. This was intentional.  

The van started to weave as Kazman fought for control. Despite his skill, the deteriorated barrens road and a lack of traction ensured a losing battle and the van turned, careening sideways. Cor saw the crack in the asphalt, another accomplice to the pending crash. As the van continued to slide, the naked rear rim caught the fracture and the van flipped.

In her mental replay, events went into slow motion, and she couldn’t be sure this didn’t match them exactly as it happened. Kazman’s fingers were still gripping the wheel in a futile attempt to regain control. Vandalious braced himself, one hand on the dash and the other pressed to the roof. Jay’s limbs flailed under the control of the world’s worst three fingered marionette and 925 was blissfully unaware, still busy playing in the land of 1’s and 0’s.

A sickening crunch and time shot back to a frenetic real-world pace as the van immediately stopped, jerking all of the occupants in their seats. A dark puddle was spreading on the floor—no the side—of the van. Her ears were ringing, but she registered the muffled pop-pop as gunfire. A pair of heavy boots splashed through the growing puddle and Vandalious pulled the latch overhead. With a grunt, he pushed the sliding passenger door open, exposing Jay and 925 to the light drizzle.

“Kaz…?” Cor looked to the driver’s seat… and the source of the dark liquid pooling beneath them. A large metal rod had punched through the roof, bolting the driver forever to his ride.

“He’s done. We gotta’ move.”

The realization of Kazman’s death jolted her into action. She cut her seatbelt, falling to her feet. She shouldered her pack and took a rifle under each arm before kicking open the rear door. The steel frame of the van provided reliable cover against a steady influx of anonymous gunfire. She gritted her teeth, took a steadying breath, and then stepped out. Her augmented, orcish muscles enabled her to fire both rifles from the hip. The Colt branded assault rifle barked triplet staccatos punctuated by the single boom every time she pulled the trigger on the larger caliber Ranger. Accuracy wasn’t the point, she just needed folks to get their heads down. She didn’t know who the opposition was, and collateral damage wasn’t her thing.

The appearance of an orc dual-wielding heavy rifles had the desired effect and the incoming gunfire slowed enough to give Vandalious the opening he needed to pop up from inside the van and add to the covering fire. She remembered Jay calling out that 925 was still under and telling him to yank the jack. It was a brutal separation from the virtual realm, but better than the brutal separation from your life.

Jay pulled the plug on 925 and hauled him out of his seat, pulling the hacker’s arm over his shoulders and practically carrying him out. Cor offered to carry him, but Jay shook his head and hustled forward. Cor nodded and returned to the business of throwing lead down the street.

As she took up the cover fire, Vandalious cleared out of the van and took a position behind a burned-out car rusting in front of an old donut shop. He picked up where Cor left off, trying to give Jay and 925 all the time they needed to get inside.

Too slow, and they were out in the open. Even trading evenly with Vandalious for a constant barrage of fire, they were easy targets. All it would take was a single bullet and they’d be down two. Cor calculated the odds and stepped fully from her position and crab-walked towards the donut shop, firing at anything that moved.


The medkit was working on the results. She took two, near as she could tell. One was a scratch, but the other still had the potential to be deadly. As long as their mystery assailants gave her enough breathing space, she’d be on her feet. That was a chance, at least. Those bullets would have outright killed Jay Clem.

“Kit says six minutes,” Jay said as he dropped to his ass, exhaustion overcoming the initial rush of adrenaline.

“What about Nine? He up yet?” She preferred focusing on others rather than herself.

Jay reached into his jacket, pulling a patch and a pistol from an inside pocket. “Groggy. Pissed. Ready to get some electro-venge on whoever is out there.”

As he peeled the sticky backing from the patch, Cor laid a hand on his arm, softly. “Easy on the stims. Could be a minute before we spin back up.”

Jay’s brow furrowed, “This,” he held up the patch, “This is to calm my nerves, so this gun ain’t shaking like a whore in a nunnery.”

Cor chuckled. She looked down at the small pool of blood where she parked her ass and appreciated that it wasn’t getting any bigger. “Where’s Vandalious?” She hated that name. It was a mouthful and she wished she could just call him Vandal, but he hated when anyone shortened his name and now it was fully ingrained.

“Tossing bags from the back behind the counter there. Reinforcing I guess,” Jay shrugged, then licked his dry lips. “We really gonna to be stuck here awhile?”

Cor sighed. “I don’t know who’s out there. I saw a couple muzzle flashes when we moved but no gang tags… and I didn’t see any shooters to catch colors. Could be a local crew, but they’re poppin off with decent hardware.” She knocked on the armored jacket she was wearing. “I don’t wear cheap plates.”

Jay nodded, his anxiety evident.

Cor considered playing it down but knew better. In a tough situation, she’d found honesty was the best policy. Fear was valuable as long as she tempered it with resolve.

“We need to get an idea what we’re up against. Think you can get eyes on the opposition?”

Jay’s eyes darted towards the street, then back to Cor, then to the floor. His pupils were dilated, whatever was in the patch was taking effect. He took a steadying breath and nodded. “Of course. Team player here.”

He rose, trying to turn at the same time. His balance faltered, but he caught himself on the hop and scurried to the front part of the store. Cor lost sight of him just as he dashed behind the front counter.

“You use everyone you work with?” 925’s voice came from the darkness behind them.

Cor made a show of looking at the watch on her wrist, “It’s seventeen ten, you even on the clock anymore?”

“Mmm. Perfect time to slide into the shadows,” he said as he shuffled into her view.

“Can you get us targets?” Cor asked flatly.

“Seeing as I got no desire to die in a donut shop that don’t got no donuts… gimme a few.”

He flipped down his glasses and waved a hand once through the air. He grimaced slightly—and only for the slightest moment—before his fingers curled and danced in front of him, a blur of motion. He didn’t complain and Cor respected that. Getting yanked gave kids migraines, sometimes for days. She made the call, Jay did the deed, but 925 knew where to lay the blame.  Revenge was a powerful motivator. 

Cor looked down at the medkit, the timer ticking in slow motion. At least she felt like it was. She spent several seconds willing it to go faster, before letting her head fall back with a heavy thud against the wall. She needed to relax for a few, let the kit do its work and get back in the fight without massive bleeding slowing her down.

She’d had worse injuries, but that was in the presence of professional soldiers, not a strange mix of shadow talent. Vandalious was close, he hadn’t said it out loud, but she could sense it in him, the emotional scars of someone who’d left the service with more than they’d taken into it. He seemed solid enough and anyway, she had her own baggage. At least she knew the weight of it.

With the Colt tucked in close on her shoulder, she kept an eye on the rear door. Vandalious had shoved several shelves up against it, but she needed to focus on something—feel like she was doing something. It helped to pass the time while she waited for the rest of the team to check in.

“I got six with commlinks,” 925 announced, his fingers not stopping. “But I can hear more over their comms, my software counts sixteen distinct voices. The commlinks have closed connections but I could brick ‘em all in a blink. Right now, I’ve tagged them, so I can hear what they’re saying.”

“Any idea who they are?” Cor asked. Some gangs were heavier than others, more prone to violence. The nastier the gang the more of them you needed to kneecap before they learned a lesson. The craziest sets never learned.

“I heard one say something about ‘protecting the four two’. It’s running searches right now, but I don’t know it offhand.” He almost sounded normal, a guy making conversation, not some know-it-all hacker.

“Got a GPS on our locale?”

“Yeah, we’re just off the corner of forty-third and Ashland.” His fingers stopped. “Oh. The ‘four two’ is their block.”

“Exactly. This is a crew protecting their turf, must have thought we were rivals. Would have been simpler for them if we were.” Cor tensed as pain lanced up her side in small bursts. “Any chance of reaching out to talk some sense into them?”

925’s face fell at the suggestion. “Uh… remember how I said I could brick their links in a blink?”

Cor sighed. “You already blinked?”

His brow furrowed. “Hey, I just wanted to break their communications.”

Cor was upset but the drugs were keeping her even. She wasn’t one to fly off the handle, but right now she felt particularly unconcerned.

“Oh! They’re moving up,” Jay called from the front of the shop.

“Fraggers,” Cor heard Vandalious call out just the merc’s assault rifle started to bark. “GET SOME!”

The short, disciplined bursts from Vandalious were answered with sustained automatic fire from the outside. Cor leaned as low as she could, her arms wrapped around the little box that was pumping a swirl of nanites and chemicals into her system. She ignored the rain of dust and debris created by the rounds that tore through the dilapidated structure. With more than a decade of combat experience, she had few worries. There was enough between her and the source to keep protected. Any bullet that got through was meant for her anyway.

When the incoming fire stopped, she heard Vandalious screaming, “…to rip your heads off and shit down your throat! You apocalyptic fragtards are going to die gurgling!”

The angry epithets continued, but Cor focused on sitting back up, checking the rear door, and brushing the collection of dust off her clothes. She looked over to 925, who was leaning against the door of the freezer, and saw the small pool of blood forming near his hand, the spatter on the door.

A medical check would reveal a ricochet had clipped his carotid. Instead, she had to speculate. She wondered if he’d even felt it.

“Guess that one had your name on it. Sorry, friend.”

On a practical level, it meant they were down one. Maybe 925 was shit in a gunfight, but the man was a wizard in virtual space and with modern firearms living there as well, he could have wreaked his own brand of havoc.

Glancing down at the medkit, she swore as the progress bar ticked just past the halfway mark. She needed more time.

“Jay, what’s the scene out there?”

A moment of silence and she thought it might just be herself and Vadalious, but there was a shuffle of movement and finally his timid response. “Three moving around the back, four on the right, six on the left… that’s all I got, I didn’t see anyone else.”

“Did Vandal hit anything?”

“I didn’t—”

“It’s VANDALIOUS!!!” the merc roared, right on cue. She heard him slam another mag into his rifle. A moment passed, then two and the gunfire began again, this time with more focus. Tight, controlled bursts, target hitting bursts. Satisfaction as she heard more than a few cries of pain from beyond. The right motivation at the right time.

As Vandalious fired, Jay returned to the back room, crawling over to Cor. He paused when he saw 925, then looked away and finished his low crawl through the field of debris strewn across the linoleum. As he sat up next to her, she considered offering some encouraging words, then thought better of it. It could only come off hollow at this point.

What did help in these situations was having a job. She slid the medkit a few inches towards him and tapped the casing. “Any way to make this run faster?”

His eyes were wide and his pistol was held in a death grip, but his expression was stoic. She believed he was genuinely ready for what came next.

“It’s risky, but I can override the narco-delivery system. Flood your system. That and a stim will get you moving just fine. If we’re lucky, you won’t tear that open and bleed out in five minutes.

“But the most you’ll have is an hour anyway. You tell me you’ll be on the surgeon’s table in sixty minutes, I’ll flip the switch and follow you there.”

A moment’s thought was all she spared, “Flip it.”

Jay put the gun down and popped open the casing, exposing the interior of the medkit. He tapped the screen a few times, then reached into the guts to flip a few switches. Cor saw the red flash of various warning indicators, but Jay’s input forced the box to ignore them, overriding the emergency shut off protocol. Whatever he was doing, she could feel it. She went from painful recovery, to feeling good, then great… and finally superhuman.

That sense of invincibility was dangerous, she’d seen it get people killed more often than not, but now she embraced it.

She scrambled to her feet. Her words came rapidly. “Follow, hand on my back, shoot anything that pokes its head out. Got it?”

Jay nodded. She could see his concern at shooting the wrong person, a non-combatant. But in her experience, this far along into a running gun battle, anyone not involved would keep their head down.  Anyone who popped up was a hostile… or an idiot. She wouldn’t waste any tears for either.

Without another word, Cor rose to a crouch, slinging the longer sniper rifle across her back. She spared a glance for the front of the store, noting the shattered glass, any obstacles, and that the exit was wide open. Ducking back down, she formulated her path, gave Jay a nod, and swung completely out of her cover, her Colt pressed into her shoulder.

She darted quickly, practically running while crouched, beelining for the door. She could feel Jay’s hand on her back. She hadn’t got halfway out of the shop before the first targets presented themselves. With cool precision, she pulled the trigger. The closest man took the bullet that spun him to the ground. Another squeeze and a dull thud as she dumpstered a second attacker. She was detached, back at training, moving through the quick reaction range. Knocking down pop-ups faster than they appeared.

If they survived, she knew this would cost her. Today, the jungle was concrete and steel, but the horrors of war didn’t care about the setting. Another set of ghosts to haunt her, to infiltrate her dreams, and reveal themselves in the periphery of her waking hours. But not now, now she flowed with the violence and death. Just more to bottle up and deal with later.

As she expected, Vandalious followed her lead without instruction, falling into that familiar, and comfortable, pattern. He’d nearly cleared the center, already, and Cor pushed through it, Jay in tow. The squirrely fellow was doing his best to track any targets, firing more than once, contributing to the team’s survival. He even found a few targets. Cor allowed herself a feeling of pride.

Vandalious fell into the rear. His wasn’t as precise as Cor, but no less effective. His fully automatic weapon traced lines of destruction through cover, before catching their targets with multiple heavy rounds.

Cor tried to keep a body count, a ticker to the finish line. Previous counts put them at no more than twenty assailants. At ten, with no end in sight, she suspected that assessment was off. When she dropped her fifteenth target, she realized they had been completely wrong. Passing twenty and she realized it didn’t matter, she’d kill a hundred of them if that’s what it took.

She pushed on and Jay followed close. Vandalious shredded anyone they missed. They weren’t even being paid for this. They hadn’t even made the meet.

Typical barrens bullshit.

But they kept on, the three of them—all that was left of their initial quintet—advancing in a haze of gunfire and blood.


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Interview with the creators of Chicago Shadows

The creation of Rem Alternis

Aaron Dykstra

Content Writer
Aaron is latecomer to the world of role playing games and has found a huge love in helping out in this vibrant community. Aaron has helped out running games for multiple companies and most recently with the Catalyst Demo Team at GenCon and Origins since 2016. He has contributed to the writing for Shadowrun Missions and enjoys the creative side of writing and telling stories. When he isn’t helping Rem Alternis, he is earning some cred working for one of the big Zaibatsu.
Danny Yun
Content Manager
Our content manager is known more broadly as Danny Yūn, a stage name taken at the turn of the century when he was performing in various raves across the country. He still puts out continuous dance mixes from time to time and accepts the odd booking here and there, but he’s shifted his focus to writing. Danny currently works as the Shadowrun Missions Developer for Catalyst Game Labs, managing and writing the official Shadowrun RPG ‘living campaign,’ as well as overseeing the errata process. He leverages over two decades as a Senior Military Intelligence Analyst, writing and editing reports for strategic consumers, to add a high degree of attention to detail and consistency to his creative energy.

He just launched Coddlesworth’s Clockwork Circus, checkout the patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/dannyyun

You can hear Danny’s mixes at Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/dannyyun/
Or follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djdannyyun/
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O. C. Presley
Script and Content Writer

O. C. Presley is the host of the Neo-Anarchist Podcast, giving Shadowrunners the chip truth on Shadowrun history. He’s written some of your favorite Shadowrun books like “Shadowrun: Anarchy,” “Forbidden Arcana,” “Street Lethal,” “Chicago Chaos,” “Kill Code,” and “Better Than Bad.” When he isn’t doing that, he waters the garden of marriage and learns from his two amazing kids. His true passion is inciting everyday folks to rebellion against the global domination system of therapeutic, technological, consumeristic Militarism.

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>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name: None of your Business Chump!
Aliases: 3D, The Dashing Duke of Dataheim and don’t you forget it!
Status: Whatever he wants it to be.

Date of Birth: Wiser than his years Subrace: Trolls RULE!!
Place of Birth: Mama’s kitchen floor Nat/Cit: Man of the World
Height: Pretty Tall Gender: Male
Weight: RUDE question Eyes Color: Green
Build: Sexy! Hair Color: Brown
Occupation: HACKER!!!!! Obviously Complexion: Well taken care of
Talent: Hacking your stupid network you nosey git! Scars/Marks: Pristine

 

He’s the best hacker around. Stop being nosey. You want info on me just drop me a comm at 1-800-EAT-BITS!

DARK rating: A Billion!

>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name: Unknown
Aliases: Bulldog
Status: Active TEST

Date of Birth: Unknown Subrace: Human
Place of Birth: Unknown Nat/Cit: Australia
Height: 1.9m Gender: Male
Weight: 127 kg Eyes Color: Grey
Build: Brick drekhouse Hair Color: Dark Brown
Occupation: Hoopkicker Complexion: Ruddy
Talent: Augmented Scars/Marks: Numerous

 

An augmented street soldier, the DARK operative has a clean track record. Bulldog provides suitable transportation for tasks requiring hot exfil. Extent of augmentations unknown, but considerable. Prefers assault and close quarters combat.

DARK rating: 8

>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name: Unknown
Aliases: Floyd
Status: Active

Date of Birth: Unknown Subrace: Human
Place of Birth: Chicago, UCAS Nat/Cit: US
Height: 2.0m Gender: Male
Weight: 82 kg Eyes Color: Blue
Build: Slim Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Unknown Complexion: Fair
Talent: Gifted; Social Aptitude Scars/Marks: None

 

Former grifter turned professional. Floyd is gifted, converting magical energy into social agency. Lacks augmentations, relying on innate ability. Avoids combat when possible, unsuitable for solo tasks requiring violent action.

DARK rating: 8

>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name: Unknown
Aliases: Hood
Status: Unknown

Date of Birth: Unknown Subrace: Unknown
Place of Birth: Unknown Nat/Cit: Unknown
Height: Unknown Gender: Male
Weight: Unknown Eyes Color: Unknown
Build: Unknown Hair Color: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown Complexion: Unknown
Talent: Unknown Scars/Marks: Unknown

 

Query data minimal. DARK file opened.

DARK rating: 1

>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name:  Evelyn Conrad
Aliases: Cor
Status: Active

Date of Birth: 20561010 Subrace: Ork
Place of Birth: Atlanta, CAS Nat/Cit: CAS
Height: 2.1m Gender: Female
Weight: 102 kg Eyes Color: Green
Build: Athletic Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Mercenary Complexion: Tan
Talent: Augmented Scars/Marks: Numerous

 

Augmented street soldier. Specializes in distanced liquidation of problematic liabilities. Training received through military vocation. Extent of augmentations unknown.

DARK rating: 7

>Query…
 Searching…
 Information Recovered….
 Parsing Data…
 Preparing Display…

Name: Unknown
Aliases: Curie
Status: Active

Date of Birth: 20541020 Subrace: Human
Place of Birth: United Kingdom Nat/Cit: UK
Height: 1.62m Gender: Female
Weight: 59 kg Eyes Color: Green
Build: Athletic Hair Color: Brown
Occupation: Unknown Complexion: Fair
Talent: Magician: Science; Thermal extraction Scars/Marks: Unknown

 

Sparse information available on the magician known as Curie. Recent addition to DARK operatives, Curie is a magician specializing in thermal extraction, able to weaponize cold. Generally seen in a traditional labcoat and speaks with an English accent.

DARK rating: 5

Return to Talent for Review

Talent For Review

  • 3D
    3D: Hacker
  • Curie
    Curie: Arcane Support
  • Bulldog
    Bulldog: Combat/Driver
  • Floyd
    Floyd: Negotiations
  • Hood
    Hood: Networking
  • Cor
    Cor: Sniper
Name: Unknown
Curie
Status: Active

http://remalternis.preedgeproductions.com/main/bios/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=popup
 


Tori Laverman
Costumer
Tori Laverman is a self-taught artist from North-West Indiana who thrives when she is creating. Growing up in a lower-class family, she learned something that defines the world she works in: “limitations breed creativity.” Since the earlier years of school, she’s loved to draw and make messes of all calibers. With age came more and more resources and her work has spread to sculpting, painting, and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on. Learning as she works is a staple, and working for Rem has stretched her to create new things she’s only wished could come to life!
Sarah Krause
Executive Producer

Sarah fell in love with acting as a teen, when a little girl at the renaissance fair thought she was a real fairy. Since then, she escapes from the real world in books, gaming, and acting. In her free time, she also enjoys fencing, archery, learning new skills, and living new adventures.
Sarah created Rem Alternis in the Fall of 2019, out of the desire to share some of the stories she so loves. Chicago Shadows is her first production for Rem Alternis, and she’s excited to share the journey with the community.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” -Game of Thrones

Madison "Jack" Macklin
Editor

Madison Macklin is a producer of live events in Columbus, OH. On the side, she dabbles in directing, photography, editing (scripts, videos, thoughts, etc.), and getting angry about people who genuinely like the Transformers movies. She is currently hungry.

RT Falimirski

Marketing Media Coordinator
Aside from marketing and graphics design for Rem Alternis, RetryRT is quirky, enjoys long days playing video games, and dabbles in Adobe Creative Suite as much as possible. He has a wonderful wife who always supports him in whatever silly plan he comes up with. Last, but not least, RetryRT enjoys writing bios, as it is a socially acceptable way to talk about himself in the third person.
Thomas Augstein
Technologist

Tom is also known in the Shadows as Teslan Kierinhawk. Wait you don’t know who that is??? Well that suits him just fine as it’s the Shadows, folks. Tom has been involved with RPG’s and creative endeavors since the 1990s. He has been GMing Rolemaster, Dresden Files Accelerated and Shadowrun Missions, at conventions such as Gencon, Origins, and regional conventions since 2015. He primarily makes his scratch in Information Technology, but his true interest lies in building things. Hardware, software, websites, mechanical gizmos, or woodworking; it doesn’t matter – it’s all just pieces that need to get put together to do something.

Currently when he’s not working on Rem Alternis stuff he’s diving into the deep matrix exploring being a Technomancer.

Debra Schott
Costumer
Debra has been costuming for the past 20 years, but likes to point out that while others played with Barbies, she built homes and made clothes for her’s, so it’s really been a bit longer. She has to be creating something at all times. Her engineering career began at NASA where she learned how to push boundaries, then on to Star Wars intercept system. While raising her two boys she dabbled in politics, public relations, and fundraising before falling in love with every aspect of costuming. Her work on Overshadowed Theatrical Productions’ 2018 musical production of “A Tale of Two Cities” was nominated for Broadway.com’s Chicago area competition. After costuming, her passion is traveling the world.
Dusty Wilson
Script Editor

Dusty Wilson is a playwright whose works include “Ephebophilia,” “Poison,” and “Beige Tea.” Dusty’s work has been produced by The Plagiarists, Chicago Dramatists, American Blues Theatre Company, Hobo Junction Productions, Piccolo Theatre, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Dusty is a resident playwright with Mercy Street Theatre Company and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s MFA Writing for the Stage and Screen program.

Scott Schletz
Head Scriptwriter
Scott Schletz is a creator of fiction. With published work in the Shadowrun setting by Catalyst Game Labs, including dialogue and storyline work on the cult hit “Shadowrun Chronicles,” work on the super-teen school series “Hope Prep” by Melior Via, and efforts within his own settings, “Shattered Sky” and “Netherworld Chronicles,” he has contributed over two million words to the gaming industry and world of fiction to date and keeps adding on.
He lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his beautiful wife and awesome son. When not toiling away at the keyboard he spends most of his limited free time learning how to sail and working on sailboats, as well as slinging a few dice with his friends and captivating them with tales of other worlds keep it all fresh and close.

Follow Scott on Patreon

Daniel John Harris
Director – Redleg Films

Daniel John Harris is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer out of Chicago. After serving 6 years as an artilleryman with the Illinois National Guard, he turned in his stripes and traded his cannon for a Canon and got to work.

Though specializing in directing, his experience includes time spent as a writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, sound designer, assistant director, and everything in between.

Follow Dan’s other work:
www.redlegfilms.com

Jason M. Hardy
Consultant

Jason M. Hardy is real. That much, he is sure of. He is not just a figment of some unknown being’s imagination, unless that’s what all of reality is, in which case, he’s in the same boat as everyone else, so he at least is no less real than them. He has worked in tabletop gaming for nearly twenty years, including almost a decade as Shadowrun line developer. He has published nine novels, dozens of short stories, and enough text about imaginary worlds to make him question his grasp on reality, which is kind of where this paragraph started.

Follow Jason’s other works:

Jason’s Facebook page
Jason’s Amazon page
Pale Fire Press at Drive Thru Fiction
Jason’s sporadically updated blog

Joshua Schilling
Producer – Redleg Films
Frances Mullozzi
Props and Prosthetics Artist

Frances Mullozzi is a well rounded makeup artist. Her background includes four years of beauty and makeup SFX education and is certified in beauty artistry. She is an educator and freelance artist. Fields of work include, film, television, theater/stage, music video, haunted attraction, photo shoot, runway, weddings, and more. Some of her favorite work includes Chicago Fire, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare haunted attraction. She has been Midnight Syndicate’s artist of the month in 2015, and her first short horror film as a key artist won first runner up at the hardcore horror film fest. Her favorite genre is horror, and loves to create realistic and stylized makeups. She also enjoys creating fantasy and beauty looks. Frances gets inspiration from Fangoria Magazine, and from artists such as Rick Baker, Christopher Nelson, Tom Savini, and Bill Corso.

Osye Eldridge Pritchett III
Social Media

With almost 40 years experience with RPG’s, and over 15 years supporting independent film and web shows, Osye is excited to bring his talents to Rem Alternis. His experiences include playtesting RPG systems and adventures, such as D&D, Traveller, Vampire, Shadowrun, and Ars Magica. Osye lives in Texas with his two kids and his two dogs.

Clifton Wright
Composer

Prism Shard is a musician and a tabletop RPG media content creator. He’s best known under the name Mr. Johnson, creator of the Arcology Shadowrun Community Podcast and founding member of The Shadowcaster’s Network. You can usually find him in his Wisconsin family home busily editing recordings of Shadowrun games for release as actual play content.

Listen to and download music from SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/prism-shard
Follow Prism Shard on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrismShard/
For Podcasts and Videos about Tabletop Gaming: https://shadowcasters.network/
Twitter: @arcologypodcast

Brandon Borgman
Props and Prosthetics Artist

Demons, Orcs, Alien Armor, Dragon Heads, Mechanical Skulls, Steampunk Weaponry, Zombies, and Severed Heads/Limbs are just a few of Brandon’s favorite projects from recent years.
Before creating Special FX and Props for use on film, Brandon’s background was primarily in Fine Arts Sculpting, 2D Drawing and Print Making, and 3D Metal and Wood Working. His love of movies goes back to his early childhood where he was fortunate enough to have parents who introduced him to movies like Willow, Star Wars, and the Dark Crystal. As he grew up watching Horror Movies like The Thing, Hellraiser, Lost Boys, and Interview with the Vampire, Brandon’s interest in Special FX grew.
With a focus on realism and detail, Brandon strives to create props and prosthetics that are increasingly believable and beautiful on camera. His belief is that the best Special Effects are often the ones that the audience doesn’t realize they’re looking at. Suspending the disbelief of the audience to create truly amazing or terrifying moments is what drives Brandon’s Special FX and Prop making ambitions, and he is honored and excited to be working with Rem Alternis Productions.

Jen Dust
Web Developer
John Helfers
Script Editor

John Helfers has been involved with games for more than thirty years, from playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as a teenager to editing game books and fiction in multiple universes, including BattleTech and Shadowrun (Catalyst Game Labs), Aetaltis (Mechanical Muse), Golem Arcana (Hairbrained Schemes), Skies of Axia (Nomnivore Games), Tyranny (Paradox Interactive), and Terminator: Genisys: Rise of the Resistance and The Fall of Skynet (Lynnvander Studios). Recently he added game co-creator to his resume with the release of Henchman (Clarion Game Studios). He lives and works in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Find out more about John and his work at www.johnhelfers.net.
Facebook: John Helfers.
twitter:@radiojonpanda