So, just to clarify the mages went and took special actions to hide themselves and blend with the ward. Then, two other characters brought astral presences in to trip the wards anyways? (Guessing that Jon is astral something, and the GloMoss on SG)

Thank you Q for staying outside of the ward and not triggering them.

Does GloMoss trigger wards? Maybe so, then.
I think our secrecy only lasted about one round anyway, so oh well.

Isn't 1 round a record for Shadowrun?
Things were pretty much hosed up from the get go

SG--Yep, GloMoss is dual-natured, so it would have activated the alarm ward on the outside from Goth Mage, and would have activated the trap if you had gone first. Instead it got slammed into the Ward and rolled Force vs the Wards force, and apparently lost.

Lain--I've seen teams work together and pull off the flawless job. But yes, once you've rolled Initiative, the jobs ins going south.

The GloMoss is actually similar to the warded box idea e had before, slam an astral presence into another and see which wins. We could force a dual-natured thing through the ward and if it wins, the ward breaks. People who are dual natured and forced through would be knocked unconscious (Disrupted)

Sorry for the delay. Internet dropped due to very inclement weather. Nothing like Fat Man's though so no worries. Real quick post because I have to be going. I hope you all don't mind the place holder in RP. I'll edit it late tonight before bed.

Q's rolling Leadership as a complex action against Cypher to get him not freaking out and helping, even if he quite rationally won't go into VR. ((Rally the Troops WAR 137))
Leadership: Charisma(6)+Leadership(4)+Tailored Pheromones(3)+Kinesics(3)+Veromonasal Organ(2)+Empathy Software(2)+Astral Dissonance(-2)+Distraction(-2) = 16d6.hits(5) = (5)
Any additional benefit for 3 successes over the threshold of 2?

haha yea Jon meant well went in to help protect the team and ensure the kids survived the blast.. I didnt realize dual natured creatures triggered wards (should have I just didnt read the rules on that one.. learned with PbP I have more time to read before I act so next time will take more time to read and prepare before acting

This team has pulled off smooth jobs before - I thought the clinic hit was fairly smooth and a solid win for the team. I think it's always a good idea to do a shake out run with new people/players so this stuff happens - which it will - without hopefully threatening the main story line too much.

About lying, I'm of a mixed mind, and it's coming out as a muddle. I don't want something where rolls become a burden, but there may be times when players should get a feeling about something.

So I'll go with what Strangeglove said.

I can try a Force 14 manabolt at the ward if that will break it, but I'll need a medic standing by.

It doesn't have to be the full F14 if you can get Net Hits on it. The ward wil resist with 14 dice, so for every three dice more than 14 that you have in the spellcasting pool, you can reduce Force by 1, if you want to play strictly by the odds. Spending Edge will also greatly increase the number of dice you're rolling compared to the ward, since it doesn't have Edge to roll to resist to my knowledge.

14 boxes of damage will put a 1m hole in the ward for a combat turn. So F12 with 2 net hits will do it...

Also, remember the ward only encloses the room. (something Jon will have to tell you, since he's the only one inside that can see it. Unless of course, folks power down and walk through...) Ostensibly, we could just go to the next door and bypass this room for the mages.

Lain--does Jon have an exit strategy? Astral combat against that thing is going to be brutal.

Have we verified the whole building is warded? If its only this room, as a trap for the kids (or rescuers), we might be able to hit our secondary target.

We have not - it could just be this room.

JxJxA - I would cast at force 13. It's less drain, and 1 net hit will put it at 14. Since you'd fail with no net hits anyways, there's no reason to cast at 14.

With respect to lying, I think only when there's cause to be specifically suspicious or at dramatic moments makes sense.

I think we would have to ask Buddha, if I understand right, The ward across the door we came in hardened, and the next door lock turned green, I dont believe the ward covered it as well.

Jon went in with the idea of covering the team and checking on the kids, Then continuing on with the team room by room if necessary(Destroying the ward anchor along the way). With the retreat called, his plan would be to allow Strangeglove to remove the kids, provide cover, and fight the ward on the way out..

I think, being dual natured, I should be able to use hand to hand combat to destroy the ward (10P + Successes) (-3AP)

On the other hand I think a mana barrier has a 50m size limit(unless done with multiple people), we could find where it is attached and destroy it and continue on..

Ok, Force 13 would probably be a better bet. I was thinking Force 14 because the ward we first crossed had a Force 15 strength, and I suspect this next one is comparable. I could also try having Adeodatus strike the ward, but I personally like having him there to deal with mundane/tech forces.

Budda, you make a convincing point of leaving the lying and PvP rolling for the story importance, so that's my vote.

• And any additional benefit for 5 successes when I only had a threshold of 2?
• Since Cypher doesn't recognize Q, does that mean he won't accept Q's leadership roll? If so then I'll force leadership (WAR 137), though there is no listed action cycle for that check. If I need to re-roll so that I can split actions I'll do it. We really need him watching our matrix backs, even in AR.
• For the future, can I target more than one type of failed morale or composure test? If the entire team has a different wacky personality trait hijacking them, could I essentially roll a "SHUT UP AND GET BACK TO WORK!" check for the group? The book is non-specific.

And for the crew, do you guys want to pull out or stay and try to grab as much as we can fight for? My vote is for leaving given the forces that might jump us within a combat round or two. We might be able to come back the next night and seeing the response might be informative as well.


If we successfully pull out before security gets here, can we have a fire fight that doesn't actually take place? What do you all say? We could do it here instead of in the RP log. It'd be useful for us to have a team fight against these drones, elementals, named NPCs and 12+ goons. Budda can show his NPCs tricks off and we can learn each other's measure as well. Unless you all have stuff you don't want to show off til actual RP happens. And yes I do as well, but I'm cool with not using it this trial since I'm still new to Shadowrun fights. I'd throw Q and Cypher into it as well to see what we can do in a team fight. And my first order of business is to Invis the hacker so that he can mess their stuff up with less provocation.

I think the run can be salvaged.

Astral--Goth Mage and her goons are on the way, but we have three mages and two adepts--you can handle it. Manageable.

Matrix--the drones are on approach, but Fleet has drones too and Cypher can crash the system once he gets a tap in. Also Fleet could try to commandeer a few for his own. Manageable.

Meat--the guards know we are here, if the panic button didnt go off, the lights are crazy. Strangeglove and Emilio have bigger guns... Manageable.

And we haven't woken Big Brother Boeing next door, so the party can still play on. There's an Autocab on the way, which is preprogrammed to deliver the kids to safety (contingency planning FTW) so we just get them in the car and off-site, then the Sprite should be less worried about melting our brains right now and focused on keeping her Daimyo protected until he wakes up.

I think it's debatable, but at this point Eklipse did call for falling back and several of us have started on that. At the very least we should get the kids out.

One point: we set off the first alarm ward - it just didn't do anything visible, but Gothic Mage was actually alerted a few turns back.

Sorry for the delay all - holiday madness has hit our house, been decorating and we have a weekend long sleepover with kids so activities have been rolling steady.

Q in regards to your Leadership roll I think it can affect Cypher since he is muddled at the moment (that's my impression from the way the character is behaving) so he can make a roll to gather his wits with extra dice equal to half the extra successes (round down) so 1 extra dice in this case. I am going to go with affecting the team with one type of roll (Rally the Troops, Inspire, etc) per skill use. I'm going to test out the extra success mechanic with Leadership and see how it flies.

BishopMcQ you can roll a Composure Test with the extra die noted above to see how much car-cra it puts down.

Lain to clarify, the entire room is warded. Jon can see it encasing the entire space. Also the size limit for a single ward maker is their Magic times 50 cubic meters.

All I agree with BishopMcQ this is still doable, messy but doable but I am fine with whatever you all decide. I tend to play with a "in for a penny, in for a pound" mindset as a player but cautious is a reasonable attitude in SR as well. I always say do what seems like the most fun (staying within character of course). In regards to the social rolls vs players I think I am going to go with a modified stance. I am still going to ask for rolls during high tension/dramatic moments but I encourage players to ask for rolls if they think something is hinky or shady. That way social characters can flex their speciality and it feels like it should maintain a level of realism in the game for the players. So ask for rolls when you want them and we'll try it out.

At this point I need Initiative please - don't forget any modifiers you may have (Stun, Drugs, etc).

@All: I'm still up for finishing the mission. The last few runs were fairly successful at sticking to the general plan. This is the first real clusterfuck we've had with this group, and I'm interested to see how well we can work together on the fly.

Initiative-Zero: Init 14/ 3 IP
Init(6) + Incr Ref(2) = 8d6 for 6 hits.

Initiative-Adeodatus: Init 23/ 2 IP
Init(17) = 17d6 for 6 hits.

All I'm all for continuing, other then the stunball and the ward it really hasnt been that bad yet.. I think going through the run will help people learn to trust each other..

Init (11) 11d6.hits(5) → [4,3,6,3,1,5,6,1,6,4,5] = (5) +11 = 16
4passes

Need to either fight the ward or destroy the anchor.

Good luck with your holiday zaniness Budda

Initiative: Initiative(6)+Increase Reflexes(2) = 8d6.hits(5) = (3)
Total Initiative = 11 with 3 passes

I didn't want to leave the run undone, but Shadowrun seemed a much more stealth and espionage with a very real chance of dying than D&D's heroic fantasy. And from the briefing it'd seemed like the chances of an out and out fight (runner team fire-fighting, elementals, and drones) had a high likely hood of bringing Fed-Boing down here.
Notso, do you have a vote since you seemed to be on my side of caution? Though I'm cool if you vote for Ekilpse since he might be feeling his Wheaties tonight.
And JxJxA is your angel doing the fire elemental thing of blazing corona of it's power? If so, you might turn it down since it's past midnight and might stand quite a bit.

Budda, I might have been a bit confusing. I wasn't trying to ask for multiple different uses of Leadership at the same time. Rally the Troops allows for rechecks on failed composure. It is vague and could be argued that only on type of failed composure, fear or kill 'em all, could be rolled for, not both. So if a group had one person being pinned by a sniper, one person paralyzed with fear, a third going ax crazy and the fourth rolling on the ground cursing the heavens all resulting from failed composure tests, could one Rally the Troops cover that? Or would it be individual rolls?
And I'm totally ok with it only working on stuff I know about. Q couldn't fix Eklipse's failed Daredevil antics until he noticed something was wrong. And the difficulty on that with known combat drugs as a way of life would be staggering since Q has little baseline for the other person's behavior.

Fat Man's initiative: Intuition (7, including +1 from Psyche)+Reaction (3) + Increase Reflexes (2) = 12d6, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3826760/ 4 hits [note: 12d6.hits(5) doesn't do what I thought, it rolled 12 dice and then stuck a 12 at the end and counted that as a hit, so that is 4 hits, not 5]

16, base 12, 3 passes

Shen Intuition 6 + Reaction 6 = 12d6, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3826763/ 5 hits

17, base 12, 2 passes

@copperheed: I'm probably going to put him on standby when we pull out because of the different wards.

Emilio's initiative: 10 + 10d6 10d6.hits(5)=4 = 10 + 4 = 14

I like Fleet's idea. It's both bailing and not bailing. Let's take this as a dry run, and we'll know more for next time. Right now, everything is fairly clean.

As far as Eklipse is concerned the run is a bust and getting out with the primary objective intact is a plus. This was his corp job before becoming a runner. He would need the mages to confirm that they can handle the astral and Cypher back online before he would reconsider. And that needs to happen by the time the kids are in the cab.

Which has not happened yet. And a lot can happen in 3 seconds!

Initiative for Eklipse = 9 + 9d6.hits(5)=1 = 10, 2 passes. Bleh!

EDIT: He would be willing to go with Fleet's suggestion to come back later! And he has history with Fleet, so trusts him more than the rest of the team.

Initiative 17, 4 passes: 14d6.hits(5)=3

My read:
The ground game is currently pretty well in hand, 1/4 security stations neutralized. No problems.
Magic we're currently unopposed. How long would it take a dedicated offsite mage to be in a position to attack us? No problems?
Matrix is the real problem. We don't have any presence, and the Geisha Sprite could presumably be very inconvenient. SG or Jon can slap a tap into the drone line this pass, assuming nothing distracting happens. Moderate to serious problem?

I feel like, with the exception of the Geisha, the run is going as well as could be expected.

Buddha: Are there drone tracks in this room?

Double post.

As a note, SG, I think Magic is about to become the real problem. If the off-site mage has any sense or training at all, she's currently on-site, alerting all the physical security, and grabbing a full stable of elementals somewhere near the top of her ability to summon and bind to drop on us. And keep in mind, this is the mage that put up multiple Force 14 wards at this location. You can expect the spirits to be as beefy. That said, I don't know if it's a deal-breaker by itself.

However, there's a lot more up in the air right now. We've got the mage with an unknown quantity of magical support (somewhere between 1 and 6, most likely), any one of which is going to be effectively immune to a lot of our firepower and just as effective, if not more, than the physical security on site. Plus they can walk through walls and fly. Physical security is alerted, either by the mage or Cypher popping all the strobe lights (remember the lights were a non-matrix way to alert security?), and the drones are going to be active on that point as well.

In addition, Ninja Sex Kitten has a backdoor to Zero's comm, which is tied into the Nexus, which is tied to another half-dozen sources of lethal and non-lethal damage in the way of drones and vehicles, both with and without weapons.

As a last point, this is the absolute last moment at which would could abort and conceivably come back in just a day or two in a better situation with more control. Any further than this, and the cover story's blown. At this point, our cost on backing out would be two doses of combat drugs, a couple of gel rounds, and 2 days of downtime. Minimal.

I'm not saying that we couldn't finish it up, it just wouldn't be as clean as it could be if we came back later, and I'm not sure there's a return on investment in staying, considering the low cost of coming back later.

For the record, Fleet will go with whatever Eklipse decides, so I, at least, am looking to NotSoEvilGM to make that call. Time for that decisive tactical operator to speak up if we're changing the plan!

I disagree about the ground game SG. We have taken out 3 of 12+ goons and still have 2 named security and 10ish drones (30 nodes given 1/3 as drones. I'm new and blind guesstemating) yet to deal with. They'll be disorganized by Cypher's dropping hell in the matrix, or whatever he did, but given the proliferation of IP in the group, I wouldn't be surprised if most of security has 2IP as a baseline. They're wearing good armor which denotes good training and would take about 30 sec to respond. With 2IP this means 15 sec or start of combat round 4. And the drones will likely come in earlier.
The only saving grace would be that we'd hopefully get foes in waves. Geisha Sprite is pissed and hopefully responds as an angry human and jumps the gun instead of sentient machine which could wait years for a time to strike. Of course a good time would be when we're already embroiled in the next minute. I expect her in round 1 or 2. Drones in 2. Guards and Named at 3 or 4. Magical support at 5.
If my threat assessment is too high, tell me.

And with pulling out, we can claim a morale high ground, if we want. Don't know if that files in the Shadows.

Decisive tactical operator has announced the plan in IC thread - pull out. Uppity troll on drugs seems to think he's smarter. Biggest risk Eklipse is currently planning on taking is entering the ward with his abilities active to carry out kid2.

Jon is already in the room, and SG does have two hands so he can carry two kids. Since we're leaving, our biggest problem is probably getting Emilio out of the trap, so Eklipse running in is probably the least helpful thing he could do.

For the record, Zero always takes the moral high ground---he's just above rubbing it in other people's faces.

The more I read your guys' posts, the more I feel like bravely running away is the right course of action. I think Zero can blast a hole in the ward long enough to get everyone out of that room just in case Jon fails to do so on his turn. Without my Increase Charisma spell up it's likely going to cost me some blood sans a kickass drain soak roll.

If SG grabs both kids, Emilio is grabbing his gun and medkit and booking out. He's not magically-active (AFAIK), so the ward's no big deal. The only way he would be is if someone cast a SPELL (as opposed to a power) on him.

Alternatively Emilio will get a kid and the medkit if SG gets a kid and E's alpha.

Happy Monday All!!

I can see the burden of free will taking is toll amongst you all. At this point I would say go with whatever action your character is going to take and we will move forward. I wanted to make sure in OOC to say at this point only Jon is trapped in the room. Emilio and Strangeglove can walk out with no problem from the ward - in fact, as far as they are concerned the "ward" is even really there for them to interact with.

Strangeglove there are no drone tracks in the ceiling of this room.

Copperheed thanks for the clarification and I'm fine with them affecting all the different examples with the RP constraint. Using your example - you barking out "Get your shit together!" would work since it could motivate all of them in those examples. That make sense?

UmaroVI you still have a delayed action from the Surprise Pass - feel free to take it now.

BishopMcQ & Fenris I need initiative rolls please - thanks!

Let me know if I missed any questions.

Initiative Order
Adeodatus 23/2 IP
Strangeglove 17/4 IP
Ninja Sex Kitten 17/3 IP
Shen 17/2 IP
Jon 16/4 IP
Fat Man 16/3 IP
Emilio 14/3 IP
Zero 14/3 IP
Q 11/3 IP
Eklipse 10/2 IP

Fleet ??
Cypher ??

Could Adeodatus attack the ward while materialized, or would that threaten to disrupt him? It's either that or delay at this point, since there's nothing for him to act against.

I will - travelling atm. I will post tomorrow.

Initiative 11 (10d6.hits(5)=1) 3 passes

Initiative 12 Initiative(9) (9d6.hits(5)=3)

JxJxA your spirit could attack the ward directly since it is considered Dual Natured when Manifested. The spirit would use Astral Combat + Willpower.

Initiative Order
Adeodatus 23/2 IP <<<
Strangeglove 17/4 IP
Ninja Sex Kitten 17/3 IP
Shen 17/2 IP
Jon 16/4 IP
Fat Man 16/3 IP
Emilio 14/3 IP
Zero 14/3 IP
Fleet 12/3 IP
Cypher 11/3 IP
Q 11/3 IP
Eklipse 10/2 IP

Adeodatus is up!

Posted too early, but oh well. Shouldn't matter, I hope. I'll delete it if Adeodatus does anything that would affect the actions.
When going through the door, SG will be pay attention to the kids. If there's any resistance or magical nonsense, he won't force them through.

Adeodatus attacks the ward, spending a point of edge to add to the roll:
Will(7) + Astral Com(7) + Edge(7) = 21d6 for 12 hits with Rule of 6.

Fingers crossed!

Damage Soak (ward trying to punch a hole through it)
28d6.hits(5)=13

Base damage is 4 plus the 12 hits to take it to 16 so 3 gets through but the remainder is less than the structure rating of the ward (14) and does not punch through.

Strangeglove this time no problem with getting ahead of yourself so will take the post as your action after the spirit.

Initiative Order
Adeodatus 23/2 IP
Strangeglove 17/4 IP
Ninja Sex Kitten 17/3 IP <<<
Shen 17/2 IP
Jon 16/4 IP
Fat Man 16/3 IP
Emilio 14/3 IP
Zero 14/3 IP
Fleet 12/3 IP
Cypher 11/3 IP
Q 11/3 IP
Eklipse 10/2 IP

Ninja Sex Kitten is up!

Ramming Test (-3 for Running)
5d6.hits(5)=3

Zero you can roll Reaction or burn your next action to roll Dodge + Reaction.

Of course it doesn't break the ward. Well, Jon, you're on your own.

Aborting to dodge:
React(3) + Dodge(3) = 6d6 for 2 hits. Edge rerolling misses for 2 more hits. 4 hits total.

I've got a couple of presents for that Sprite. They're nice, I got them at Target.

Initiative Order
Adeodatus 23/2 IP
Strangeglove 17/4 IP
Ninja Sex Kitten 17/3 IP
Shen 17/2 IP <<<
Jon 16/4 IP
Fat Man 16/3 IP
Emilio 14/3 IP
Zero 14/3 IP (action burned to abort to Full Defense)
Fleet 12/3 IP
Cypher 11/3 IP
Q 11/3 IP
Eklipse 10/2 IP

Shen is up! Also feel free to squeeze in your action from the previous round UmaroVI.

Fat Man's action was to cast Increase Charisma (Magic 6 + Spellcasting 6 + Focus 4=16d6) on the shen at force 7 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3831185/ 7 hits. Drain Intuition 7 + Willpower 6 + Centering 4 = 17d6, I left off a dice but http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3831186/ covers it.

The shen is going to join in the ward-punching and spend edge. I slightly messed up the IC roll - it should be 18d6 (6 will + 6 astral combat + 6 edge) with rule of 6. I forgot that pre-declared edge applies rule of 6 to the whole pool so I split it. It is
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3831187/ 8 hits, 3 sixes on the first 12 dice, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3831190/ 3 hits, 1 six on the last 6 dice, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3831191/ rule of 6 actually added no dice anyways.

11 hits, base damage is 7 (because it currently has 13 charisma from Fat Man's spell) so 18 damage.

Damage Soak (2nd attempt to punch a hole in the ward)
28d6.hits(5)=9

Damage is 18 minus the 9 soaked leaving 9 to get through plus the 3 from before brings it to 12 but still not enough to punch a hole through the ward (14).

Initiative Order
Adeodatus 23/2 IP
Strangeglove 17/4 IP
Ninja Sex Kitten 17/3 IP
Shen 17/2 IP
Jon 16/4 IP <<<
Fat Man 16/3 IP
Emilio 14/3 IP
Zero 14/3 IP (action burned to abort to Full Defense)
Fleet 12/3 IP
Cypher 11/3 IP
Q 11/3 IP
Eklipse 10/2 IP

Jon is up!

Does Adept powers such as Critical Strike, Killing hands, pen strike affect wards? trying to figure out astral combat, wanted to confirm it first.

Lain yes it does as would Smashing Blow.

Correction(Thank you Umaro)
Agility 5 + Unarmed Spec MA 7 = 13d6.hits(5) → [1,4,5,5,2,2,6,1,5,4,6,6,4] = (6) +7P = 13P & -3AP

Correcting Dmg based on that reading, its 1/2 Charisma rounded up