Ah I see, I assumed you entered from the opposite side, because otherwise you wouldn't have had line of sight to the mercenaries standing in front of the door without turning a corner first.

@ Jack:
Yes, it can't ram through doors or anything, so I would have it exit through an adjacent flat, not crash through the walls.

Wraith is still only astrally perceiving, not projecting. My mistake then, I thought he could connect with the mage as Influence is a mana spell and he's now also present on the astral plane.

Seems like I misunderstood our discussion about "being present on the same plane lets you engage them" and assumed that astrally perceiving already lets me see them (which is why in his last post I stated that he was "looking for the astral forms of his enemies and prepared to engage them."), overlooking the fact that there were ceilings and stuff between us.


Wraith will just start astrally projecting then, what you wrote is fine by me.

I'll edit my post accordingly.

Luckace - take care that Assult is right next to you now (and in a vindictive mood). I would be cautious about projecting.

Tricksy thing, this language-stuff

Yeah, line of sight is still needed to use spells

I imagined Anna using the door to cover her from the mercenaries as she opened it, leaning out of it and shooting at them. It seemed all tactical and cool in my mind... but then they used radar and started shooting through walls Oh... and not like her meager pistol can harm them... but I had a vivid picture of how cool it could have been.

My original intention was to peek into the mage's place (to see if she could target him without entering the ward).

Anyhow, it makes no sense for her to disengage from battle if her friends are so eager to continue.

green light from my perspective. I edit the post accordingly.

Alright, then let's keep this moving through the last phase:

Anna: 5 (Stun Bolt at Assult)
Mage: 4 (Mana Barrier)
Guardian Spirit OP-Force (with Mage): 3 (tries to hit Anna's spirit, moves to Mage)
bnc: 2
Nova: 2
Bound Spirit OP-Force (Astral): 1 (tries to hit Anna's spirit, moves to Mage)

Assault resists Stun Bolt:
Defense vs. Stunbolt: 6d6t5 0
Takes 6 stun to the face - pain editor active

Mage: Casts manabarrier F9 w/spellshaping -5

Manabarrier (Astral): 13d6t5 3
Resist Drain: 15d6t5 7
No Drain
Mage is surrounded by a F9 Mana barrier on the astral with a 4 m radius

Guardian Spirit assaults Anna's spirit:
Astral Combat: 14d6t5 4
Full Defense: 18d6t5 9

Bound Guardian Spirit:
Astral Combat: 14d6t5 5
Full Defense: 17d6t5 5

Both move into the barrier and next to the mage after their attack

[quote name='Gilga' post='1341977' date='Aug 26 2018, 02:05 PM']

Anna's spirit has mana barrier.... So we can try to trap the mage and his spirits.

You can do that, but manabarrier vs. manabarrier will cause intersection where usually the higher force one wins...

Init phase 2:
Free Action to swap Attack for Data Processing (8 )
Remote-controlling the rotodrone to fire a long burst at the fleeing Assault.
Logik (8 ) + Gunnery (4) + PuSHeD (1) + hot-sim (2) + smartlink (2) - environmental modifiers (should be 0 with smartgun system and low-light vision) - recoil (6 - base (1) - body (4) - weapon recoil (1)) = 18 d6: Gunnery: 18d6t5 9
That should be within my accuracy but as it is limited by Data Processing, I can only use 8 hits.

You had a Crocket Rifle on your drone with APDS, right?

Defense: 11d6t5 0

Soak: 29d6t5 13
Spending Edge For Rerolls:
Soak (Edge): 16d6t5 5

No Edge remaining,
4 additional Stun damage.

Stun is at 10 now

So, if I want to follow Assault, I would just jump out of that window as well, I suppose?

How high from the ground were we again? I can jump down 8m without a problem (probably a bit more, since falling damage only starts after 3m).

Do you have to do anything to stay on your feet when jumping down like that (i.e. spend some action)?

Bye
Thanee

Right. Though I think with 12 P damage + 8 net hits - 18 soak there should only be two boxes of damage, not 4, unless I made a mistake.
36 soak dice is quite a nut to crack, damn... I guess that bugger has 4 heavily armored cyberlimbs?

And he also has a pain editor, which means he does not go down when his stun track is full... and damage that transfers from stun to physical is halved (and doing physical damage is next to impossible).

Bye
Thanee

Anyhow, Nova has an action at initiative 2 - and then we do another round.

Anna is no much of a combat mage. So, I don't think we can actually incapacitate him easily. Stunbolt on average will do just 1 physical, and the cyber limbs also add physical boxes. So we'll never finish.

The best bet is levitating as he will not be able to run or dodge. I'll do that:

Initiative: 18+2d6 24

Anna's action Complex action levitate.
Levitate F7 - (5 drain).
Levitate: 13d6t5 8 Wow --> only 7 hits kept.
drain: 15d6t5 4
1 drain.

Anna's spirit:
It will use a Mana barrier in a way that intersects with the Mage's barrier AND with the mage and two spirits crowded inside. These can perhaps use run for your life interrupt action to escape an area of effect spell, (but then they are perhaps outside the protective barrier - hough they might find a place inside which is not intersecting - but will they know exactly what position to take within the sphere(?)

The intersection will cause all entities to roll FX2 vs 12 dice - failure means they are disrupted. Mage rolls Charisma + magic vs 12 or fills his stun track. (not sure if he is maneuverable enough to 'run for his life' your call Jack. )

All intersections will happen at the same time so my barrier will likely lose one of them and be disrupted, good chance that one of the 3 combatants lose as well. Anyway if I understood correctly then perhaps my lone spirit may actually take down a mage due to wits which I find out to be really cool. (or at least force them outside of the barrier, and to lose initiative).

Initiative: 14+3d6 30
Mana Barrier F6: 12d6t5 5
drain: 13d6t5 4

Frag, that's insane -.- :-O

@Volker
Yes, my bad, I was still thinking about an other character of mine (Isaint uses the Crockett but has custom ammunition for one more damage)

@Thanee
With R6 Jumpjacks you won't suffer any falling damage, but for the moment you are still all on the scaffold and could climb down easily

@Gilga
You can't cast the Mana Barrier into the other Manabarrier as you don't have line of sight into the barrier or rather your opponents would get the Force of their barrier added to their defense

p.315
Anybody trying to cast a spell through a barrier
must contend with the Force of the barrier, which is
added to the Defense or the Resistance dice pool. If
the spell doesn’t normally have an opposed dice pool,
the Spellcasting test becomes an Opposed Test against
the Force of the barrier.


Also you can't force an intersect without having a physical element - like the dual natured fog being squished against another, immovable physical object. The purely astral spirits would just be pushed aside.
Also also, order of opperations would be the two barriers interacting first since they are the outer layer.

In short: Intersecting between the two barriers does work, but you can't force the spirits. The mage is in fog form and could be forced to intersect, but only after his barrier has been defeated.

Also, I thought your spirit was F6? In that case, as purely astral being it should have an ini base of 12 not 14

Adapsin, Biocompatibility and Betaware (as well as 1 Million Euros) allow for some pretty slick soldiers.

@Jack The spirit is F6, but spirits of man have +1 to intuition, I think astral initiative is intuition *2? (or does spirit also do Force x2 for simplicity?)

What about enveloping their barrier with one (or two) of my own? Keeping them stuck inside.

Nope, only when they are materialized:

Spirits are naturally astral forms, much like you’re nat-
urally a physical form. A spirit exists entirely in astral
space, with astral attributes equal to its Force.
p.301 core

Sure, you can use two of your barriers to squish something in between. But spirits can't cast recklessly, so it would need two separate complex actions.

Okay, so the spirit will have 28 init (and not 30?)

Perhaps we are not on the same page with Anna's goals. She wants to keep the mage occupied so we don't have to fight him. She does not know that he is 'escaping'. That approach seems to work, as her action caused the mage to recall a spirit that could be fighting us to protect himself.

Not reckless. But can't the spirit cast multiple mana barriers with splitting its dice pool? My logic is that it takes a complex action to move past a barrier (either by smashing it or by stealth) but you still need an action. So if the spirit can keep them inside we are less likely to fight these opponents. I was thinking F5 sphere enveloping their 4-meter sphere, and then F6 sphere to envelope the F5 sphere. Just to make sure they stay inside.


What good are the spellcasting hits in a mana barrier anyhow?

The hits determine how hard it is to smash the barrier with damage

Enveloping the other barrier works fine.

It's not determined if Innate Spell allows for the same splitting the dice pool as normal spell casting, but I'll err on the generous side and allow it.

and would two barriers give more spell defense?

I am beginning to think that mana barrier is ideal for projecting mages to protect them from spirits targetting them with spells, or astral combat. Heck, it seems really good for melee as well. If you want to engage me - you intersect with my barrier. Or if you have an unarmed combatant - that barrier can intersect with sustained spells.

I never imagined it to be such a powerful spell, I think I learned something!

Can a mage see through his own mana barrier? (in the astral)

I only have R4 Hydraulic Jacks.

The main question is, what I can still do on my turn. Can I move to a position from where I can shoot him (and, well, shoot him)?

Bye
Thanee

As it's 8m up from the ground, R4 are still sufficient
And yes, you can just walk up to the window and shoot outside.

Apparently. At least with a Frankensteinian master mind

I guess I can't access his pain editor via his commlink, can I?

It's biotech. Unlikely.

Bye
Thanee

Jupp, there was even essence left to pay for an internal router so wired reflexes and reaction enhancers can work together without matrix access.

Ok, new Round:

Anna's Spirit: 28
Mage: Ini: 16+4d6 27
Guardian Spirit Ini: 14+3d6 25
Bound Guardian Spirit Ini: 14+3d6 23
Assault: Ini: 15+3d6 22

Iinitiative 28:
Anna's spirit will cast two mana barriers, one to envelop the mage's barrier and the other to force intersection with the mage.
I assume that forcing intersection is an attack, so can only happen with one barrier.

Mana barrier: 2#6d6t5 2 3

Intersection: 12d6t5 5
Intersection(mage barrier: 18d6t5 6
fails to collapse the mage's barrier.

drain: 2#12d6t5 4 3

Spirit takes 1 damage.

Initiative Aeraziel: 16+2d6 23

Initiative Wraith (astral): 10+2d6 16

Nova's Initiative 26

Bye
Thanee

As I just changed my data processing to 8, my init is Initiative: 4d6+14 31
Noice!

Initiative Rd 3: 3d6+11 24

Two questions:

a) Can I see the spider without performing a Matrix Perception?
b) Do you still have the overall map somewhere? I'd like to move the van as close to the row of windows where Shark, Nova and bnc are at the moment. If it's unclear, where I mean, I'd like to indicate it on the map. I can search for the link but in case you have it at hand, that would be, well, handy.

a) No, as the decker is not within 100m with his device
b) https://pyrophilios.files.wordpress.com/201...appartments.png
Assault lies pretty exactly at the O of Scaffolding 8m above the ground.

So Ini is then:

bnc 31 (Calls Car, Aims)
Anna's Spirit: 28 (Trys to intersect Mage's barrier, loses one barrier)
Mage 27 (Leavs Fog Form, shuts off Dual Nature, walks out of room)
Nova 26
Guardian Spirit 25 (Breaks remaining Astral Barrier)
Sharkboy 24
Bound Guardian Spirit 23 (Tries to frighten Anna's spirit)
Aeraziel 23
Assault 22
Wraith 16

Ah, the merc isn't on the ground, yet? I thought he were.

So, essentially, we are right next to him?

And the mage is now in the corridor?

Bye
Thanee

In the corridor two levels above you (or in another flat - you don't have eyes on him right now)

@Jack Wow... I did not know that vampires could stop being dual nature. What happened to the mage's F9 barrier ? are the spirits now out of it?

You are missing Anna - at initiative 24, would cast levitation on Assualt.

@Gilga
Thanks,

bnc 31 (Calls Car, Aims)
Anna's Spirit: 28 (Trys to intersect Mage's barrier, loses one barrier)
Mage 27 (Leavs Fog Form, shuts off Dual Nature, walks out of room)
Nova 26
Guardian Spirit 25 (Breaks remaining Astral Barrier)
Sharkboy 24
Anna 24
Bound Guardian Spirit 23 (Tries to frighten Anna's spirit)
Aeraziel 23
Assault 22
Wraith 16

And there are actually three ways to that - one from SG, one from FA and one from SL

Ohh... okay, he is further above. Alright then...




They cannot... normally. But there is a quality in Forbidden Arcana, I think, that allows you to supress your dual nature for a while.

Bye
Thanee

Thanks, Jack!

Short recap:
bnc is in the van.
Wraith is in the van.
Sharkboy is next to Assault at the Scaffold (approxiametly the "o" in "Scaffolding")
Anna, too, is on the scaffolding, somewhere nearby.
Nova is next to Sharkboy but still inside, standing at the window.
James is at the window in the next flat, so probably somewhere between "S" and "c" in "Scaffolding".
Battery is sprayed about in the whole fucking flat bnc and Kerstin once used to live in.
The vampire mage is somewhere two stories above.

Everything right?

If so, I'd command the van past the containers and around the corner so it can pick us up quickly once we jump/climb down the scaffolding.


Ah, and something else: I realized I only declared it in the spoiler section and forgot to describe it in the IC part. bnc shared an ARO feed with Eliza and the rest of the team to be able to perform I am the Firewall if need be.

Just to help a bit:

bnc 31 (Calls Car, Aims)
Anna's Spirit: 28 (Trys to intersect Mage's barrier, loses one barrier)
Mage 27 (Leavs Fog Form, shuts off Dual Nature, walks out of room)
Nova 26 fire (6 hits - to be resolved)
Guardian Spirit 25 (Breaks remaining Astral Barrier)
Sharkboy 24 -
Anna 24 - Levitate Assualt 7 hits - to be resolved.
Bound Guardian Spirit 23 (Tries to frighten Anna's spirit, fails)
Aeraziel 23
Assault 22
Wraith 16

@Volker:
No, Wraith is still in the janitor's flat, he didn't have time to get to the van or anyhting yet. But he does have his bike close by, which bnc probably noticed.

@Jack: As I commanded my spirit to prevent the mage from escaping, it would go after him. Floating to the upper floor and entering physically seems like the quickest choice (walking rate 18m, running rate 36m).
But tecnically, barriers ignore stun damage (CB p197), so... does this really mean there is no way for my spirit (unarmed combat without natural weapon) to enter/break the cheap glass except for spending a complex action to shoot an elemental attack at the window (or perhaps the Called Shot Splitting Damage)?

Sorry guys, I got home very late tonight, so no update today.

@Luckace

A called shot to turn stun into physical damage will suffice, but that is no different from just using an elemental attack to break in - in both cases you need a complex action.

Also, your spirit doesn't know where the mage is exactly, so it will have to spend time looking for him.

Jack i think that Writh is astrally projecting toward mage. So the spirit should know if Wraith knows through Wraith's telepathic link to it

Yeah, but as far as I can see, he didn't move in the Astral yet - or was that implied and I just missed it?

bnc 31 (Calls Car, Aims)
Anna's Spirit: 28 (Trys to intersect Mage's barrier, loses one barrier)
Mage 27 (Leavs Fog Form, shuts off Dual Nature, walks out of room)
Nova 26 (shoots assault)
Guardian Spirit 25 (Breaks remaining Astral Barrier)
Sharkboy 24
Anna 24
Bound Guardian Spirit 23 (Tries to frighten Anna's spirit)
Aeraziel 23
Assault 22
Wraith 16

Don't worry! I doubt anyone insists on an update every day. This is leisure time not an obligation. At least to a certain degree.

I think Jack is correct that I'm not yet close enough to identify the mage, but I shall most likely do so as soon as my next action comes up. No, you didn't miss anything.
So basically: 23 spirit can go astral -> 16 I can zero in -> 13 spirit could find him theoretically
But that's only anticipated, of course. From what we've seen so far, anything could happen in the meantime

@Jack: If it indeed goes this way, would you approve without my spirit having to look for him?

Yes, if Wraith spots him, so does his spirit. Don't forget that those mana barriers do block line of sight on the astral (or rather make it hard to see through)