Haven Contacts

Human Bartender; I Gotta Help Somehow; You Wouldn’t Believe the Drek I Hear.

This job is a lot better than out in the Mess. There’s usually an Auntie bar-hopping at night and bribing people to help other folks get home, and people aren’t as desperate to forget their troubles.

Whiskeys and tequilas and other aged boozes here are all clever fakes, because time and storage space and oak barrels are super expensive here. If you can bring the real thing back from your next trip out, I can find you the folks who would pay well for it.

Adepts can be pretty entertaining if they get into bar bets, but nasty in bar fights. Chromers are trouble because they’re either trying to out-drink their metabolic filters or their metabolisms are out of whack. Magicians are the worst; I think booze gets to spellcasting ability faster than it does driving ability.

One of my regulars is in an odd situation, and I think you could help...

Elf Conspiracy Theorist; Obsession of the Week; City Councilmember.

The Awakening has brought extraordinary threats to the world, and we need to keep the Havens safe from them. We need to be proactive in preparing for them.

Metahumans are present in every population, which means we must have developed before humans left Africa— Neanderthal DNA entered the population more recently than that. How did we manage that without speciating, and without leaving a mark on the archaeological record? Evolution must work differently in the presence of mana.

How does HMHVV turn five metatypes into five wildly different creatures? Did we coevolve with it? Or was it created?

The elves that took over Tir Tairngire and Tír na nÓg were suspiciously well prepared, they promote the use of Sperethiel, which is fantastically more complicated than any constructed language, and they have carromeleg, which is a mature martial art. Are they factions of a secret society that preserved knowledge from the last time magic worked? Are they the ones who were hiding archaeological discoveries of metahumans before the Awakening?

I lean toward the UFOs are manifestations from the metaplanes theory. It makes more sense than extraterrestrials traveling light-years to get here.

Naga Construction Wizard; No Diplomacy Filter; Haven Crew Colleague.

You have that I need a quick grave excavated look again. They were a drekhole, right?

I am not risking my scales out there, but based on your drone footage, if you tell an earth spirit to weaken things here, here, and here, you’ll be able to bust in, no problem.

One defensive fortification, coming up.

Yeah, in theory any naga can learn to be a full magician. Like me, a lot of us get lazy and stop at telekinesis spells and wind up as aspected mages.

Ork Cybersurgeon; Always Learning, Always Teaching; Keeps My Implants Tuned Up.

Even if I could’ve afforded college, I’m an ork. I’d be middle aged by the time I completed my residency. I worked hard in my apprenticeship and have augmented reality expert systems that make me the equal of traditionally educated surgeons.

Keeping up on the state of the art from a Haven is challenging, but customers from outside really bring in the nuyen.

Glamorous Troll Fashionista; Professional Rivalry; We Party Together.

I can make anyone look fabulous.

Step into the changing cubicle, strip, and let the scanner take your measurements.

We may not have fancy artificial materials here, but a well-executed classic will always impress.

You did a good job with a zoom lens! I can fake those uniforms for you, but I’m going to have to betray my craft into not making them fit too well. You would stand out.

The fabbers should have your outfit ready by evening.

Dwarf Gene Splicer; Fugitive from Student Loans; Moonlighting as Your Crime Lab.

I couldn’t find a job that met reasonable ethical requirements until the Havens came calling. Sure, it’s not wiz biotech, but I’m feeding people and cranking out medicine.

I can sequence that for you by morning. DNA is DNA.

Human Haven Scout; Cranky Personnel Directors; Connections All Over the Mess.

We’re still building up a critical mass of skilled people who can pass on their expertise within the Havens. Fortunately, there are plenty of people having a rough time in the Mess who can be tempted to come here, but it requires a delicate approach. Come live in a Z zone! It’s great! is a tricky sales pitch.

We don’t create the situations that push people into considering leaving everything they know behind and joining a Haven, but we do some illegal decking to find them. The white collar slavery rings in West Africa aren’t as scrupulous, and our teams can get in scuffles with them.

I used to do recruiting until a scammer impersonated a trusted vendor, made off with a sizable chunk of nuyen, and a whole just-in-time supply chain collapsed and took our jobs with it.

Troll Holistic Healer; Neverending Research; Keeps Me Tuned Up.

My one magical gift is astral perception, but it’s very useful for my job.

I’ve studied shiatsu and Swedish massage, and I’m part of a working group developing something we call aura massage, which is sort of the opposite of astral combat.

We’re nearly forty years into the Awakening and still cutting dross out of the existing lore of acupuncture, osteopathy, and herbology as we try to discover the underlying science. Who would’ve thought homeopathy would be effective when performed by a competent alchemist with properly gathered reagents?

It’s best to start with conventional medicine to stitch people up, then have a magician use healing spells to knit sutured tissues and evict harmful bacteria, then hand them to me and a physical therapist. A lot of Awakened folks are leery of the conventional medicine part and come straight to me when they have something there isn’t a spell for.

Part of being healthy is living in a healthy environment. We can call it feng shui and get all mystical about it, or interior decoration and make it sound superficial, or we can just acknowledge that the place you live in should be nurturing to your physical and emotional health.

Ork Imam; Twelve Siblings’ Worth of Family Drama; Civic Leader.

The Islamic Renaissance Movement has a lot of work to do; the mainstream Sunni and Shia leaders didn’t react well to the Awakening in the the first place, and having the great dragon Aden level Tehran only cranked their reactionary qualities up to eleven.

I studied at the New Islamic University in Istanbul, and I’d be happy to introduce you to some Sufi colleagues of mine at the Mevlevi Monastery.

The rabbi and I always inspect the vertical farms and vats together so we can certify things kosher and halal. We also use microarray test kits as well, because as long as we’re inspecting, why not use science too?

Elf Infrastructure Rigger; Oh! The Drama!; Lends All Sorts of Drones.

I work construction jobs to bring in the cred, but my true calling is the theater.

Choreographing mobile sets is fun, but the best is playing the nonhumanoid aliens in science fiction productions. Computer animation always looks dated after a while, but you can’t go wrong with a good muppet drone.

Usually we have fabbers on-site running 24×7 and cranking out enough panels and spars to assemble during an eight hour shift, but we can always crank out a truckload overnight, bring another truckload of drones, and get a structure assembled by nightfall.

Ork Jack-of-All-Trades; Ooooh! Shiny!; Can Always Lend a Hand.

Get me a design and the feedstock and I’ll fab it. Give me a couple of hours to practice the AR tutorial on something and I can do it. Don’t ask me to do surgery, but I can close for a surgeon if there’s an emergency calling them away. I have no magical talent, but I can set up a ritual space.

I got into some stupid brawls when I was younger and took on a big restitution goal to earn my way back into the community’s good graces. And it turned out I liked the variety!

Troll Military Strategist; The Conscience of a General; Teleconsulting Sun Tzu.

The Haven military doctrine can be summed up in three words: Make Them Pay. Our greatest opponents have budgets, not ideology; our goal is to make it prohibitively expensive for them to attack us.

Gangs are a smaller threat than corporations, and much more susceptible to attacks on their morale. Helping the community outside the Haven, and welcoming anyone who wants to join, denies gangs the opportunity to recruit for an assault.

Calling me General is a joke. There’s a glass ceiling for orks and trolls when it comes to commissions. I was a master sergeant.

Passive resistance only works if there are cameras running and a truly free press to propagate their images. The corporate-controlled media would never cover a Haven massacre.

Dwarf Mining Researcher; Risky Field Work; Consulting Demolitionist.

We’re eventually going to run out of landfills and wrecked cities, and you can’t capture the whole periodic table with vertical farms. We need a way to dig up ore without wrecking the environment.

Elementals can be effective, but they don’t scale. There just aren’t enough magicians. We’re currently exploring tailored gut bacteria for rockworms.

Oh, good grief. Whoever built that is an embarrassment to the profession. A little plastique here, here, and here and that wall is rubble.

I trust you will be discreet with these shaped charges. It’s vital that the Havens not be perceived as supplying anyone that the media can spin as terrorists.

Ork Monument Builder; Always In Need of Exotic Feedstock; Fabs Up Artwork, Any Size.

It took us a while to get the color right to match the blue from Chartres, but once we did it, we had to recreate the cathedral to match.

The buildings aren’t always perfect replicas. Sometimes we need to make tweaks for accessibility for dwarfs and trolls.

Get me good enough scans and I can make something that looks just like it. It won’t fool a specialist, but the snooty garks can’t tell the difference.

A member of the Monuments Team.

Free Spirit Nightclub Owner; Hard to Book Novahot Acts in a Z Zone; Connections in the Music Biz.

Of course I prefer acoustic music; I can’t even hear amplified music if I haven’t fully materialized, and even then it’s just a shadow of an astral experience of music. Sometimes a friend will let me possess them so I can ride the rush of being a fan, though.

Possession doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing; do it right and it’s like dancing together, especially when you go out on the dance floor. Bound spirits are never going to bother with that sort of thing, though.

All kinds of interesting stuff goes on in the metaplanes, but the pace only gets vigorous when there’s involvement with the physical world. This place is happening!

Dwarf Pandit; MMORPG Shenanigans; Civic Leader.

Your linguasoft is working just fine. That’s not Sanskrit. It’s Pali.

Caste isn’t a big deal on this side of the Pacific. Things get more complicated when dealing with folks in India— it’s a big deal most places, but a lot of the Havens there are full of communists who want to abolish the caste system entirely.

That sounds like something out of the Dawn of Atlantis game! Do you play?

A lot of folks in my guild have seen some really strange stuff in the Matrix lately. Could you take a look?

Good writing on Hinduism: Finding the Path.

Ork Pedicab-Driving Novelist; Tumultuous Love Life; Talks To Everyone.

My books sell well enough that I could write full-time, but riding around and talking to passengers is a big part of my process.

Can I use that in a story? You get veto over any details, of course.

No one would believe that if I put it in a book. Life is stranger than fiction.

Troll Power Broker; Herding Cats; We Trade Favors.

Top-down control doesn’t work in the Havens. You have to lead by vision, get people to buy in by promoting their work, and share the spotlight whenever you get it.

Part of the problem in the Mess is that wearing uncomfortable suits puts you in the mindset to be harsh! Nice casual wear is the hallmark of a leader here.

My family were blue-blooded aristocrats before Goblinization Day. It’s amazing how fast your fortunes can turn if you become trolls. Building up the Havens is my revenge. Every good day for the people of my Haven is to spite the people who want us all impoverished and miserable.

A surprising amount of traditional aristocracy translates to the Havens, but the movers-and-shakers parties are a lot more blue-collar. People have to get things done, not just spend money accumulated by their estates. If you invest in enough people, you get enough cred coming in you can back more people.

Elf Priest; Well-Intentioned Meddler; Civic Leader.

Liberation Theology is a public relations headache for the Vatican, and they’re only too happy when a new Haven springs up and they have an excuse to send any of the more vocal folks there.

I do have some contacts in the Order of St. Sylvester, and that is sufficiently weird to get their interest.

I have heard all the original sin jokes that the modern world has to offer. Every time someone invents a new vice. Which happens disturbingly often.

The Havens are helping a lot of people, and could help so many more— the challenge is expanding them without aggression.

Human Psychonaut Connoisseur; Drug Abusers Give Psychonauts a Bad Name; Vision Quest Supplier.

I get the most cred for writing party-drug programs for the metabolic dashboard, but there’s nothing like the terroir of real plants and mushrooms.

I have to give my metabolism time to straighten out after each trip. Usually a few days. That’s when I put in shifts at the vertical farm.

You need to interrogate someone? Get me their age, body size, and metatype, and I can put together a cocktail of euphorics that could put them in a pliant mood. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone, but I trust your sense of ethics.

Powerful psychedelics are something to be very careful with. Used well, they can get people unstuck when they’re in a bad mental place, help hospice patients shed the fear of death, and even break the psychological loop of BTL addiction if the external circumstances that started it have abated. Used poorly, they can screw you up in a big way. They aren’t a thrill ride.

If you want enlightenment, there’s a dojo three blocks away where a Zen sangha meets on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings.

Elf Psychotherapist; Extended Family Drama; I Bring In New Patients.

My papá would almost certainly be an elf if he’d been born after the Awakening, given all my elf cousins on that side. My mamá goblinized into a ork not long after I was born. My brother is human and my sister became a ork in the middle of her fragging quinceañera. I know a lot about those moments where you learn who your friends really are.

Mess insurance companies just want to medicate everyone. I help people much more thoroughly than I could out there.

The emphasis on profit and efficiency has created a world that traumatizes people and protects those who inflict trauma. We don’t even know what a healthy world looks like. That’s what we need to invent here.

Human Rabbi; Heavy Duty Novel-Reading Habit; Civic Leader.

...hang on, just let me finish this chapter.

The return of magic has led to more terrible takes on the Qabbalah than ever. I usually quote the Rabbi Hillel to overeager occultists: That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah. The rest is commentary. Go forth and study. If you don’t start from there, you’ll never truly grasp the Qabbalah.

This bacon is a genetically engineered mushroom, as is the burger patty. This cheese is made from proteins secreted by microorganisms in a vat. I don’t know anyone who would insist that anything made in imitation of trayf is still trayf, but I must admit I don’t keep up on ultra-Orthodox arguments.

The Haven Project can be seen as a means of tikkun olam, repairing the world. Day by day, community by community, we make the world a bit better each day.

I’ve heard of Jewish mafia but I think they’re all back east? They’re Italians and Irish out here. You’ll have better luck with a Catholic.

Human Recycler; I Got Octuplets at Home; Finding Jewels in the Dross.

Whatever it is, I can make it vanish. Unless it’s radioactive.

Can it wait until morning? The solar furnace would be best for that.

It’s amazing what people throw away.

🎶 In a landfill, in a junkyard / Digging up old junk / I’m a miner 2049er / Got some good loot in my trunk ♪

Her wife is an ork; octuple births are as common as twins among humans. Octuplets are affordable in a Haven, but it’s a stretch, and she can always use some extra cred in exchange for showing you her latest find, or reducing something to its component molecules.

Naga Rodent Rancher; Critter Trouble; Look What I Found!.

The reason the Havens don’t have a problem with devil rats is that we have a bunch of underground ranches that are all Devil Rat Heaven. Nesting areas, toys, clean water, plenty of food scraps. They summon all their little rat buddies to join them by sliding down chutes they can’t scrabble up, because they’re not smart enough to realize they’re in a trap.

Devil rats are full of diseases that are bad for mammals. Leave them to your reptilian friends. One of them makes a pretty good meal for a naga.

We do breed a fair number of devil rats, but we also capture a lot of wild ones. They stay in quarantine eating for a few weeks before they join the herd.

The little taser drones scooting around the perimeter of the Haven are primarily for capturing devil rats that aren’t in range to be summoned by their friends in a ranch, but they pack enough punch for panhumans if necessary.

The ranches have a ton of safety measures. Devil rats are dangerous. Bypassing those measures to, like, dispose of someone who was an incredible drekhead, well, it would require someone who knew how to do it safely.

Human Schoolteacher; We’re Kind of Winging It Here; Passes On All Kinds of Info.

We’ve had to hack the Montessori method a bit to accommodate orks and trolls, but kids from all metatypes generally like the hacks.

Oh! Nandini mentioned that her parents ran into something like that— you should talk to them! I’ll introduce you.

Naga Search & Rescue Ranger; I’m a Nonperson Outside the Havens; Haven Defender Buddy.

I can get into places that panhumans can’t.

A lot of my cousins are growing up feral in places like the Everglades; we go out there every year to see if we can find some before the megacorps capture them for watchdogs.

Retired Ork Street Samurai; My Past Comes Calling; Well-Connected in the Shadows.

I’m getting too old to get shot at any more... so I’m training for the Wired Chef game show! No sous chefs, just superhuman reflexes!

Half the runners in the biz have heavy cases of PTSD and hypervigilance. All of them are constantly worried about being betrayed by their own employers.

Put together a gift basket like last time and I’ll introduce you to someone who can help you with that.

Ork Talis Cat Lady; People Fear My Adorable Fluffballs; Dojo Buddy.

Talis cats are still domestic pussycats. They just turn into cheetah-sized critters when they’re fighting in earnest. I feel a lot better about them facing down devil rats.

Being an adept comes in handy when I need to take them to the vet.

I’m training as a vet tech so I can help people who adopt Awakened critters. The poor dears shouldn’t go without families just because they have magical abilities!

Hell hounds need love too! And fire-resistant furniture. Can you foster some puppies for a couple of months? I fabbed up some puppy pads they can’t ignite.

Human Talismonger; Perilous Wilderness Expeditions; Magickal Supplies Я Us.

Almost no magical materials can be made in a Haven, getting them requires expeditions, and everyone wants to mug you on the way back.

There’s so much we don’t understand about how materials become infused with magic; I don’t think we’ll ever see vertical farms for them, but we might come up with some way to cultivate them. I’m hopeful that the urban geomancy we’re practicing here may have some results, and the living-in-trees Havens outside Gijón could show some results.

Ghoul Trader; Civilized Anthropophage; Trades Nifty Stuff for Haven Goods.

Havens are inclusive, but there are limits. We’re too contagious, and you’re too delicious. There aren’t enough of us to maintain a full Haven supply chain, so the fact that you’re willing to make up the difference is already very kind.

We only need a small amount of panhuman flesh, but we still have to get our calories from meat. We raise a fair number of pigs. Some labs are creating transgenic pigs with human genes for organ transplants; I’d love to get some breeding stock of those.

We don’t all make it through the transformation with our wits intact; I certainly wouldn’t force this condition on anyone else. Some of us can barely handle the most basic chores with the pigs.

I think these items will pique your interest.

I know body disposal is an ugly term, but I’m not going to turn down perfectly good food.

There’s an entire ghoul nation in west Africa, Asamondo. They aren’t exactly ethical in the way they procure their food.

Dwarf Unicorn Express Rigger; Racing for Pinks Habit; Always Has Room for My Goodies.

I’ve got another telesma run coming up and could use some firepower.

I used to drive trucks out in the Mess until a hedge fund bought our company, loaded it down with debt, and cut it loose to founder.

Human Vatmaster; Sucker for a Fluffy Face; Pet-Sitting Buddy.

It’s easiest to tour the lab in virtual reality or the astral plane. Maintaining a clean room is a lot of work.

Not everyone has the discipline to keep the vats working. Out in the Mess they would call me autistic and I’d be lucky to be able to find a job. Here I make so much cred that I need leads on opportunities to invest it with my neighbors.

Our biggest products are milk, albumen, yolk, and heme, but there are many types of medicines, dyes, and soaps as well.

My office is a bit small for your group; can we meet in Café Hush? I find it easier to concentrate without noise.

Human Vertical Farmer; Extended Family in the Mess; My Bribe Supplier.

Most Havenly have a poor grasp of seasonal produce, and it’s the fault of vertical farmers. Our delicious, delicious fault.

We still need a decent supply of minerals to grow nutritious food. We can’t make everything out of air, water, and sunlight.

Out in the Mess I sold insurance. My second kid was diagnosed autistic and the world out there makes no effort to accommodate the neurodivergent. When I found out about the opportunities here, I did my due diligence, liquidated and moved.

Tweaking hydroponic conditions to simulate natural terroir is more of an art than a science right now.

I’ve been studying zymurgy and oenology and distilling. We may not be able to age real whisky and brandy here, but we deserve better fakes.

It so happens that I have a bit of crop space dedicated to luxury goods...