Mordecai

## Mordecai Schultz

Just over a meter tall with wild auburn hair and unkempt braids in his beard, this weathered Dwarven Magician is easily overlooked. His best days may be behind him but he fights on with his blend of support and attack magics and the aid of powerful shamanic spirits. Cynical and anxious from years of shadowrunning without much success, his temper masks a secret affection for his younger comrades.

### Past History

Not much has been spoken of Mordecai's past; we know he grew up in the Canadian region of the UCAS and not much else. As of Ep 53, we also know that he speaks Québec French.

At some point he came to be under the tutelage of Sharky, a mentor spirit in the form of a dwarf great white shark, who to this day continues to answer his summon and guide him in the mystical ways of the sixth world.

### Show History

Mordecai met the rest of MMFEC at the Rapid Rabbit, where he was hiding in the bathroom while steeling up the courage to ask the bar's owner Oz for help finding a job. Though initially resentful of the group and his role in it, a vision quest at Snoqualmie Falls led him to the realization that MMFEC was the best opportunity for him to find a meaningful place in the world.

His attempts to better himself led him to convert an abandoned quonset hut near the falls to a magical lodge, where he studied his magic and keeps his friend Cornbread, a small orange and white kitten with FIV that he had liberated from a cat cafe in Japan. The quonset hut is also where he parked Van Helshark, a totally bitching van that Oz found outside the Rapid Rabbit with a glow-in-the-dark shark mural on the side of it. This lasted until the lodge was compromised and he set it on fire in what he called a *carefully planned accident*. Since then, he has refocused on finding a place to share with Ma1nfram3 and being *more of a people person*.

Between runs, he resupplies his magical ingredients at Talia Monger's Den of Magic. Though the nature of his relationship with Talia is unclear to all but maybe Talia, their deep conversations extend far beyond basic business necessities. Mordecai's mastery of powerful Magic more than balances his lack of luck with technology, because of which he is the only character who needs to roll dice on any attempt to send or receive a message through his comlink.`

His heart, if not entirely stone cold, may be divided between Talia and Ma1nfram3, with whom he has shared such touching moments as an initiation to her passion for 1980's music and dancing.

   When not busy summoning spirits, especially one of several versions of Sharky (pictured, left), helping or occasionally maiming an MMFEC companion, Mordecai is known to just rant.

A recurring object of his wrath is the spa being built near his lodge.

During the 2077 Gubernatorial election, the proudly SINless Mordecai repeatedly shared his views of the electoral process and the rigged system of which it is a part.

#### The Brunch

As he stumbled on the fight in which Fang and Ma1nfram3 had been facing two Ares guards, a decker and a rigger, he engaged the guard he was on his way to slapping using a *Punch* sell with these immortal words:*You're the tree and I'm the woodpecker. You're not going away with our decker.* Lauren's decision that the guard would hit him, rather than a badly hurt Fang with a limp arm, resulted in a bad injury for him too. As he got berserk, he directed this short, menacing tirade at the shooter: *Please*. Later in the fight, using *Trid Phantasm* and *Influence* while berserk, he turned into a large, dark demon and asked the guard who had shot him: *Do you like apples?* while commanding him to pee his pants. The spell's drain stunned Mordecai, but whether his *scaring the ~~shit~~ piss out of him* had been successful was not immediately clear.

While everyone else was getting more or less angry at Ma1nfram3 for only revealing secrets about her past after they had nearly cost them their lives, Mordecai chose that moment to get pissed and yell that it was rude to pronounce her name *Mainframe* rather than the correct *Mainfram-three*.

After a lengthy preamble on their way to his lodge, Mordecai introduced Marbles to Ma1nfram3, and the daring, potentially incriminating incident in which Marbles might have appeared, and caused an earthquake and he completely leveled it (the spa). Mordecai also revealed that he might have acquired a higher profile than he, or any Shadowrunner, should ever do. He finally confronted Ma1nfram3, in an indirect passive-aggressive way, over the fact that, unlike other Shadowrunners who had had a SIN, she had not chosen to get rid of it, which meant she might one day sell out her team to return to that life.

#### At the Galahad academy

Mordecai spent the flight to Michigan in the overhead compartment, trolling Fang and Cromwell underneath, because

> *chairs aren't comfortable, everyone knows that.*
>
>

which made for an uncomfortable landing.

After sending Sharky on a non-stealthy reconnaissance that ended with his untimely banishment, Mordecai cast Manascape on himself to avoid detection. He then slept and snored through the whole nightly light reconnaissance of the Galahad academy's buildings (even though, as Lauren reminded the group, *To be clear, MMFEC's light recon can change dramatically into heavy recon.*). He slept well, dreaming of sharks.

   As Ma1nfram3 asked how she should refer to the charisma-enhancing spell she would like him to cast on her if he didn't like the term *Sparkles* she had used,  he replied:

> *You could call it help. I'm a helper.*
>
>

This dialogue continued with Ma1nfram3 explaining that:

> *I need to be more convincing.* *I need to be able to hide my disdain for the people working for this organization.*
>
>

To which Mordecai replied:

> *Something I attempt to do every day with the world. Very well...*
>
>

Then Lauren quipped:

> *Attempt is the key word in that sentence.*
>
>

As Elsie and Ma1nfram3 were discussing plans to break into areas of the campus protected by a mana barrier, he reminded his companions that they would have to relinquish Ma1nfram3's charisma-enhancing spell, Fang's howling Wolfblade and Cromwell's Vision spell (a.k.a. *Daredevil Sense*). He explained the dangers of crossing a mana barrier while using magic, including astral perception, which are at the root of his reluctance, as an awakened being, to use elevators when mana barriers are involved.

#### A run against Shiawase

Mordecai was hired by an undisclosed organization to disrupt Shiawase's attempt to revive their dead (or presumed dead) executive Arislen. Mordecai easily slipped by the mana barrier at the Biotech Facility then used the powerful reagents he had been provided with to summon a new variant of Sharky. When time came to brick the facility's decker, the not-so-aptly named *Cyber Sharky* could do no better than go literal as he yanked on a cable, damaged a wall and used a brick that had been thus dislodged to smack a brick against the decker's head, effectively bricking him. Mordecai fled through the legs of lab technicians who were trying to geek the mage. Mission accomplished.

#### The gym

During a solo run, Mordecai managed to purchase a gym. He has not made much of it since, and has even filtered out the communications related to his duties as an owner.

#### Bluffing in the dressing room

The Veronica's Diary's clerk who helpfully attempted to show Mordecai how to program messaging boxers was probably as unsuccessful at it as she was at clinching a sale with him. His initial terse *See you in 20* had said it all: he was there on a mission and the boxers were just a pretense.

#### Decker for a day

During the ten days Cromwell needed to recover from the Magitek run, a shellshocked Mordecai first thought solace with the Shasta shamans. He was then hired for a side run by an undisclosed corporation that was after technology *Ares might have been developing*. That technology could help against a dragon.

Mordecai, equipped with 2 *Fairlight Excalibur* decks he had been allowed to borrow, was sent to an Ares facility alongside a runner known as *Knight of the Red*.

Mordecai *submerged his consciousness into the Matrix* (or rather, in Dan's words, *started banging on the decks*). In what probably was a coincidence, the city block lost power, the two runners were able to get the technology and the run was a success.

#### An insight into Mordecai's character...

    While getting Naseam Deylan (definitely a scientist, for context) to an appointment with Miss J despite CAT's unambiguous disagreement:

> Mordecai: *I hate machines. I hate vans.*
>
>

> Ma1nfram3: *Hey this van never did anything to you!*
>
>

> Mordecai: *I hate scientists.*
>
>

> Fang: *They are the worst.*
>
>

> Elsie: *They are.*
>
>

Also, in this little bit of dialogue about the archivist Elsie brought back to Seattle:

> Elsie*: Do you not like French people?*
>
>

> *[...]*
>
>

> Mordecai: *No, I don't like French people.*
>
>

> Fang: *Do you like anyone that isn't us?*
>
>

> Elsie: *No. I don't.*
>
>

> Fang: *Do you like us?*
>
>

> Mordecai: *Sometimes.*
>
>

See the pattern here?

#### Burnt by the dragon

The test MMFEC was submitted to by HOD left scars on Mordecai more than anybody else. Not only did he fear for his life when attacked in his astral form by a spirit, he was also shaken by the fact that a group he distrusted (more so than his companions) and that could have killed him if they had so wanted had located and abducted him in his secret lodge. As a consequence, in a moving scene Ma1nfram3 only partially witnessed, Mordecai collected his possessions, loaded them onto Van Helshark, levitated over its lodged, doused his lodge with gasoline and set it ablaze.

He couldn't help having, together with MMFEC, acquired a higher profile than he ever had sought. He had attracted unwanted attention and therefore he was homeless again.

Later, when Fang went to the site where the lodge had stood and initially panicked, it was made clear that the fire had had to be put out by firefighters. Upon hearing that the forest had been burnt, Cromwell was unhappy and informed Mordecai that the Bear god *punishes the wicked who start forest fires*.

#### The unwilling arsonist

By his own account, setting afire a warehouse containing the body of the mage who had fought alongside Elsie's half-sister Violet was already Mordecai's third count of arson. This latest incident was coming right on the heels of the *carefully planned accident* at his lodge. Experience notwithstanding, Mordecai required Ma1nfram3's help to acquire the right combustible.

## Family

* Pictures by Shelley Low
* Pictures by Shelley Low
1/2Mordecai only opened up about his family in precious few occasions.

He revealed that Schultz was the name of his adoptive parents, whose loving home he fled after discovering that he was awakened. Mordecai created his own family. Despite his unusual manners, MMFEC, and Ma1nfram3 in particular, have become the metahumans closest to him.

Cornbread and a diverse menagerie of spirits constitute Mordecai's closest Mordefam. On this group picture, Cornbread sits on Mordecai's lap, Marbles is smiling behind them, Sharky circles the group and the Spirit of Man, Mordecai's chosen Father figure, just pops out in the middle.

## After the Final Run

Dan started a conversation on twitter by revealing Mordecai's character sheet as it was at the end of Ep 65.

1. ↑ 1.17m (or 3' 10"). See Ep 57.
2. ↑ This incident, and others later, are more commonly referred to as *buffing in the bathroom*. It is an interesting characteristic of Shadowrun combat that fighting may be over before adequate buffing has been reached.
3. ↑ See Ep 56.
4. ↑ That's on his list. See Ep 57
5. ↑ *Luck...* Sure...
6. ↑ The tone did made up for the lack of eloquence.
7. ↑ All this sense-making and the ensuing scientific discussion about the guard's ability to do it on command started by a GM that will remain unnamed deserve to be remembered. Said GM wrapped it all up by inquiring whether Mordecai had been expressing a kink in that moment.
8. ↑ See Ep 43.
9. ↑ This particular word may be a tribute to one of the episode's themes.
10. ↑ See Ep 43. The looks, the smiles and Cheryl's reaction in particular are worth it.
11. ↑ And with Elsie drawing a *Knify Sharky* on Mordecai's arm while he was unconscious.
12. ↑ See Ep 44.
13. ↑ He had made clear he saw the term *sparkles* as derogatory. After casting it, Dan said the spell actually looked like sparkles.
14. ↑ See Ep 45.
15. ↑ Note of the editor: Thus lateral and literal thinking joined forces to brick the geek.
16. ↑ See the full recount of the run in Ep 46.
17. ↑ See Ep 50.
18. ↑ See Ep 51.
19. ↑ See Ep 52.
20. ↑ See Ep 6 and Dynah.
21. ↑ See Ep 53.
22. ↑ See Ep 55 and Ep 56.
23. ↑ She didn't interrupt his work; she left after he noticed her and her offer for help was met with this stern reply: *It's precise work*.
24. ↑ Seashells and other magic-related stuff.
25. ↑ About which circumstance, he admitted to Ma1nfram3 over plates of fries when they met right afterwards at the Rapid Rabbit as agreed: *I like it less than I used to, honestly*.
26. ↑ Which elicited a remark from Jeannine that alluded to the 5th World.
27. ↑ See Ep 58.