Dr. Melvin Meisner MD (Vortex) or (Grandfather Winter)

Weight: 140

Apparent Age: 55

Archetype: Med Tech (Mercenary)

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Needler

Runner Song:

 

Bio: Through deeper research I have uncovered yet another Patriot who has been working behind the scenes for decades, this runner turned doctor used to run the shadows of Seattle back in the early 2030’s till the 2040’s the exact time of his work is up to debate but the city is still quaking from the work of Vortex. In order to fully understand this man’s rage, and what turned a good man, bad we must first take a trip back in time and look at the events the moulded Vortex into becoming one of the cities fiercest shadow warriors, Melvin prior to the events being described was a traditional Church going family man, he was a veteran of the war in the Middle East in the early part of the twenty first century and served as a medic in the United States Army, he was as well a proud father and husband who was working his way through medical school to provide for his wife and children. Melvin had the life that everyone dreams of, a decent paying job, a good education, a nice suburban home with a white picket fence and a beautiful wife and three loving children,

         Melvin was living the life and had just graduated from Harvard Medical School with honours and was looking at a valiant career as a surgeon with a speciality in cardiology, he was living in the suburbs of Connecticut and getting ready for his first day in his private practice office. When an evil plot was brewing and his life would forever change and Melvin would become the terror we know as the Vortex. Dr. Meisner was a Seattle native and still had family here and would visit on a number of occasions, on this day he was going about business as normal and had just arrived at office and was getting ready for his first patient when the magic of the Natives was unleashed and Melvin’s life was forever changed in a heartbeat. Once the Ghost Dance was unleashed everything he spent his life building was gone in a flash, his wife and children were dead, his home gone, all his worldly possessions gone, his country turned against him, and war breaking out in the streets of his cozy suburban town. He was trapped in his office with only the clothes on his back and the skills he learned in the Army to save him. Communications where down and Melvin had no way to know what was going on outside, he body ached from the magical assault that had ravaged him and he knew that something big had just happened, and if he stayed in his office he would surly die.

        Melvin carefully made his way to his car and was taken aback by seeing native soldiers on the streets dragging non natives out of their homes and murdering them in the streets, his mind flashed back to the horrors he saw in Iraq and Iran and he kept telling himself this couldn’t be real, though the sudden piercing pain in his shoulder from a natives bullet brought him quickly back to reality. He traversed quickly to his car and made a hasty retreat, knowing he had to get medical attention soon for the would, but he knew he had nowhere to go. Melvin first attempted to go back to his home and thats when he saw his house burning and the street crawling with native soldiers, he knew he would be killed if he attempted to continue on and he only prayed his family had escaped and was safe, but in the pit of his stomach he already new they were gone. That’s when Melvin made his way to the one place he thought would be safe and that was his local Church Saint Anne’s Presbyterian Church and when he arrived it was clouded in a darkness and looked like it had been ravaged but was free of native forces, so he parked his car in the rear and used his key to enter the Church’s basement. Once in the basement he gathered the basic supplies that were available and began to work on the bullet would in his shoulder. He came to the sicking conclusion that he would not be able to fully spare his arm without being in a hospital and all he could do was stop the bleeding and take the pain killers he had in his doctors bag and pray for the best, and move on to a safer location. As he left the Church he saw the pastors home ransacked and his pastor and family dead, Melvin figured if there where any supplies left in the house he best do a quick sweep through.

     While searching the home, he found a small surplus of medical supplies, some canned food and bottled water, camping equipment and the pastors hunting riffle and pistol with a few boxes of ammunition as well as a compound bow and a quiver of arrows in the teenagers room. Melvin gathered up the supplies and put them in his car as well as a two gas cans he found in the garage. Melvin sat in the front seat of his vehicle completely dumbfounded, and in shock everyone he knew was dead, everything he cared for gone and he was unsure of the fate of his arm. He couldn’t believe this was happening and what could he do, where could he go, thats when he just started heading west in what would become the most dangerous cross country trip ever as Melvin leapt out of the frying pan and into the fire. By the time he made it Colorado he knew his arm was a goner and he was going to have to amputate it or suffer gangrene. He was only thankful that only a few days prior a pharmaceutical representative had left a large back stock of samples of antibiotics and other medication and he was smart enough to grab them before leaving his office. As now in the back country of the American mid west, he was forced to do the unthinkable and apply a tourniquet to his left arm at the shoulder and using a heated saw he would have to amputate his own arm or die from infection and blood poisoning. Using vodka to sterilize the area he did the unthinkable and removed his own arm you could only imagine the pain and torment that must have been going through his mind and body.

     As Marvin sat there looking at his own arm laying in a pool of his own blood and covered in dirt, with a bloody hand saw in his good hand he again flashed to the horrors that he saw over seas and now the terror that was encompassing him of the events that transpired only a few days prior. He felt himself fading from the pain and blood loss and he new he had to act quick and cauterize the wound and take the medication to prevent any further infection. He grabbed a log that was burning within the fire and glowing bright, he brought the super heated embers up to his wound and through the  burning and searing of flesh he was over taken by the pain and howled out like a rabid wolf. Marvin had done the unthinkable and he sawed off his own arm and then suffered through the excruciating pain of self cauterizing. eventually from the shock alone he passed out laying in a pool of his own blood only to be awoken by scavengers looking for a easy meal. Through the fog and pain he managed to fight off the beasts and escaped to his car.

    Well we know he made his way to Seattle, though according to journals and witness accounts Marvin had to dig deep and fight hard to make it those last few days, he fought of many native attacks and ambushes, only to arrive in Seattle to find the situation there grim. He went in search of his relatives in the city only to find them dead and gone from the same attacks that took his family back east. The only member of his kin that was still alive was a man by the name of Stanley Rodgers and Tudor Yates. Rodgers a second cousin and Yates being his uncle. These men saw there kin in bad shape and suffering from infection, pain and dealing with the bullet still lodged deep in his shoulder. Marvin was beyond lost in the insanity that ravaged his mind from fever, pain and the emotional ravaging’s of everything he has been through. He was quickly ushered off to shadow doc that his kin knew a Dr. Wilbur Gravel and do to the quick thinking of Gravel and the credits of his kin, Marvin’s life was saved and Vortex was born.

       Marvin awoke from surgery with newly implanted cyber and bio-ware, and was told about the war, the natives attacks and the formation of a resistance to take back Seattle from the Native threat. Marvin at this point swore off his Hippocratic oath and took the streets as a new shadow warrior. He fought along side his kin in those early days bringing a swift death to any and all natives and eventually becoming an urban legend only whispered about amongst the shadows. Once the fighting in Seattle subsided he parted ways with his kin and entered the world of the shadowrunner, his former life long gone, his hands covered in blood and the good man he was once before locked away and the new monster emerged.

      Vortex took to the streets like a moth to the flame, and even though he had the chrome of a street samurai, he was still a soldier and conducted himself in a professional manner and was classified as a mercenary. The work Vortex did in those early days would forge the city we have today and his actions would never be forgotten by most, he worked along side the likes of Stamps, Forge, Orion, Samael, and his kin now known as the Professor and Ringmaster as well as others. He even formed a team as feared as the Wolf Pack called the Old Guard. Vortex is to blame for the destruction of the native culture centrers, the burning of the NAN embassy and forcing the NAN government out of the city proverb. This man killed more natives than any other soldier during the war, and he took his hatred out even further by forcing the natives within the city to band together and live in urban reservations in order to survive, he is the reason we have the NAN districts of Seattle today. He as well would strike elven districts and was the terror of little Nog, his anger made him a force to be reckoned with and very few people of his age can match his skill in combat. This man truly was his namesake and he was a vortex of death, he lived only to bring pain and suffering to those that destroyed his life.

       When Vortex joined the Patriots has been lost in the history books, though the Professor gave him some sort of strange pill that prevented him from suffering the ill effects of age. Vortex left the shadows sometime in the 2040’s though this is where he went to work for the Patriots and continued to strike at the throat of the NAN and recover documents and data files that would eventually expose there Insect involvement and there full intentions to genocide all the non natives on North American soil. Vortex has seen more in his lifetime, then most could ever imagine and this has forged him into the man we know today, the Terror of the North West, The Bringer of Death, or just simply dubbed Grandfather Winter.

      Vortex slipped away into the shadows only to emerge through rumour when a Native or Elven neighbourhood would suffer strange ritualistic murders, no one is safe from the wake of Winters cold Embrace and his name would be whispered through the streets, the homes and schools as the possible suspect, just the thought of Vortex lurking around would cause panic and fear amongst both civilian and security personnel. He is so feared that no law enforcement agency will even acknowledge his existence, they won’t take any cases that even have the inkling of his hand being involved, they just down right refuse to accept the existence of the Vortex or Grandfather Winter. This has allowed him to move like a ghost through the night bringing death to those he finds to be guilty.

       Well I have found out that Vortex is back in the city, and he is the Patriots Chief Medical Officer and as well there chief biochemical specialist, even the thought of Vortex being inside the Patriots makes me worried for the native forces during this war, even though I am in full support of there cause, Vortex is a very scary man and his vengeance burns strong like the Ringmaster’s. He has opened up shop somewhere in Seattle and I refuse to report where, and is working again as a Doctor by day, but once the sun goes down, the good doctor fades away like the setting sun and what remains is the beast known as Grandfather Winter. Let this be a warning to all those that think this little old man, is an easy mark he has been killing longer then almost anyone on this site and his work is well documented in both the city archives or in the Shadow Beat archives. This is a man that even the Seattle Police Department, Lone Star, Knight Errant and even the damned UCAS Military won’t even acknowledge out of fear. He is not an urban legend, he is not a myth spoken in hushed tones, he is not a bogeyman that lurks the streets on All Hallows Eve, no Vortex is very real, very lethal, and very dangerous. You have been warned, Grandfather Winter has returned and he has his targets set on the native threat and he wont rest till he has buried them in the cold embrace of winters grasp.