Shadowrun Legends Beyond The Pale

ONE WRONG MOVE COULD BE HIS LAST... In the mission given him by the Dragon Dunkelzahn, Ryan Mercury promises to deliver the magical Dragon Heart safely to the metaplanes, where Thayla and her song are all that defend the earth against the onslaught of the Enemy. But when the protector of the world is swallowed by the Chasm, all hope for the future disappears with her. Now nothing stands between humanity and the greatest scourge the planet has ever known... AND IF HE FALLS, THE SIXTH WORLD FALLS WITH HIM... The Enemy bears unlimited power, all of it evil. With Thayla destroyed, and the metaplanes unprotected, the Enemy's army of flesh-shredding beasts is about to lay waste to the world. As the ultimate battle is waged between the forces of good and evil, Ryan and his dauntless shadowrunners have only two options: total victory or certain destruction...

Ryan Mercury, the late president's secret agent, must find a mage with the ability to control the awesome power of the Dragon Heart. If he fails, the world will fall prey not only to industrial saboteurs, but spiritual demons as well. But in a turn of good fortune, Mercury will be joined by a mysterious figure--one who's known to be one of the more powerful individuals in the "Shadowrun" universe.

2XS, THE HALLUCINOGENIC CHIP OF CHOICE… To Excess—that's how they say it on the streets…before it destroyed their minds. Private detective Dirk Montgomery thinks he knows those streets. He's watched the change with the world, as the powers of magic grow and alter the balances of power. He thinks he understands even the deepest shadows and the darkest of hearts. He is wrong. Now there's something out there beyond his understanding. Something foul and alien. Something that will consume even the most wary soul. And if he’s not careful, even Dirk’s...

CAUGHT IN A TANGLED WEB… Maria Price is good at her job. Very good. As a corporate operative, she carries out sensitive missions for Ares Macrotechnology, one of the premier megacorporations in the Sixth World. But megacorps are infamous for demanding absolute loyalty from their employees, and equally infamous for not reciprocating. And when Maria encounters an assassin in her own home, she must question everything she holds dear. Her quest for answers leads her to the glittering city of Neo-Tokyo, and a mission for Ares also holds the bonus of being against the corp she thinks tried to kill her. But when she encounters a competing ops team onsite, Maria quickly realizes the scope of this mission is bigger—much bigger—than she expected. And when she finally tracks down her target, the information he shares goes far beyond anything Maria ever expected, and draws her further into corporate machination than she ever planned to go…assuming she can survive.

ONE PROGRAM TO CONTROL IT ALL… Janus is a pro shadowrunner who’s been in the game long enough to roll with the curveballs the Sixth World can throw at him. Whether it’s traveling halfway around the world for a job or finding out his new employer has a much longer lifespan than the average metahuman, the dual-natured hacker/mage has always come out on top—and made a good living to boot. But in the Allied German States, he and the new team he’s leading are on unfamiliar ground. And when what should have been a milk run—transporting some high-tech computer gear from a corp lab to their employer—turns into a bloodbath, Janus and his team have to figure out what happened, who’s behind it, and what’s so important at this site that at least one megacorp is willing to kill to get their hands on it…before the rest of the corps turn their gaze—and guns—on the team. On the run for their lives, never knowing who to trust, Janus and his team unravel a tangled web of invention, deception, and death with a discovery at its core that could shake the very foundations of the Sixth World…or possibly bring it all crashing down around them…

RUNNING WILD IN THE STREETS... Pícaro is a street kid living in the slums of Tenochtitlan, resigned to his dead-end life, and just trying to survive until the next day. But when his grandmother falls ill, he throws in with drug pushers to try and earn enough money to save her, until he gets what he thinks is an even better idea—robbing his connection. Betrayed by a former friend, Pícaro is turned over to the most powerful street gang in the barrio, and expects a quick death. Instead, he is made one of them, and when his own magical ability begins to emerge, Pícaro realizes there’s more to life than just survival. But as he delves deeper into the gang’s motives, and their charismatic, mysterious leader Serpiente, Pícaro soon learns that the gang has its own darker plan for the neighborhood…and if he doesn’t take a stand against them, it could mean the destruction of everything he holds dear…

THE STREETS ARE ABOUT TO EXPLODE… And Puyallup’s local paranormal investigator Jimmy Kincaid is caught right in the middle of it. The neighborhood’s criminal syndicates are on the brink of all-out war, and if they go at it, the streets will run red—literally. But Jimmy’s got more problems besides trying to keep the peace between feuding mobsters. Someone’s sending him a very particular message by sending him severed limbs. And then there’s the pairs of hitmen coming after him. Last but certainly not least, he’s got to broker a deal between the biggest elven street gang in Seattle and a vicious Triad gang—and not get himself killed in the bargain. And when an old enemy comes to town for revenge, Jimmy finds his already fairly chaotic life completely upended—and never to be the same again. To settle the score, he’ll have to face off against the deadliest assassin ever to stalk the Seattle streets—and use every bit of skill, guile, and luck he has to survive…

WHERE NOBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME… Things don’t rise to gutters, they fall there. Same with back alleys and dumpsters. Same with graves. Running the shadows comes with ups and downs, but you never know where those rises and falls will take you. What someone else might call rock bottom…you might call Tuesday. Collected here for the first time, read Russell Zimmerman’s Shadowrun tales of winners, losers, and edge cases constantly somewhere in between. No longer just scattered across sourcebooks and decades, here you can find every short story and intro fiction featuring everyone’s favorite shadow legends rubbing elbows with wannabes and not-shadowrunners-at-all-just-ask-them. But it’s not all yesterday’s news, chummers. More than just a collection of previously published fiction, between these covers you’ll find a handful of brand-new stories, including a classic, pre-On the Rocks Jimmy Kincaid yarn. Also, each one comes with brand new commentary by the author, written expressly for this volume. Enjoy short stories about hearts and souls, elves and trolls, and rock and roll? Then join us here, and explore these dark streets…