Can you have a ward without an attached mage? Can they be quikened like a spell or supported by a spirit?

1) Wards can be created by any Awakened creature that can Assense. That includes:
Spirits
Dual-Natured Beings (Ghouls, Dragons, Barghest...)
Adepts with Astral Perception
(More or less) Mundanes with Astral Sight
ect, ect.

2) Wards already last for weeks at a time; quickening is not required (and cannot work besides, it specifically mentions spells, which a ward is not).

3) They cannot be supported by a spirit, although a spirit can create one.

Is there a connection bewtween a ward and the being that created it?

Yes and no. In one sense, the ward retains the creator's signature, in the same fashion as a spell's signature is linked to the creator. Also - and I forget if this is 'certain types of wards' or 'all wards', as I don't have my book - a creator may know if a ward is destroyed.

However, there is no visible link to the creator - i.e. you cannot trace the thread back to the creator from the ward.

That is what I was trying to figure out. Under the Free Spirit listing they talk about following the thread back to the caster as a way for a free spirit to getr through a ward. I can't find any supporting RAW though.

I think what they may have meant is since the spirit can assense the ward, the spirit can then use the Search power for a matching signature (the creator's), rather than flying blind with Search. I've never seen anything to indicate that wards have astral threads that link to their creators, either.

Well this turned up which supports the players claims

One way to do this is to track the astral link present between a ward and its creator (see Astral Tracking, p. 185, SR4). Then an Opposed Test is made between the initiate’s Intuition + Magic + initiate grade and the ward’s Force x 2.

So I guess there is a "cord" between the ward and its creator.

Huh. Ya learn something new every day.

The idea that spirits can make wards and that wards can be made perminate through the expenditure of karma gives a couple ways around the whole tracking thing though. If spending karma is like Quickening then a character or NPC could create a ward with out any outside link. Not sure how cannon that would be but I can live with it.

My question would be "why would you want to do that"? Wards are generally not that difficult to overcome and push through. Their great benifit is that the creator of the ward always knows when his ward has been breeched by an astral entity. So it's a great alarm, but a crappy barrier. Heck, if I was a corp, I'd insist that all my wards be created using teamwork tests from my whole astral security team, so whoever was on duty at the time would get the head's up and runners couldn't just break in while security mage #1 was asleep.

Deosn't eh jingle still default to the group leader or the warding ritual?

As a ward has a astral link can you then mask the ward? After all if you turn the entire building invisible it does you no good to have the ward announcing the presence of the building to anyone who can astrally percieve.

There are no rules for masking wards that I'm aware of though the Advanced Metamagic Flux could help, but your example wouldn't work anyway - recipients of an invisibility spell shine like a beacon on the Astral anyway. Now Concealment on the other hand could work.

K.

Masked Wards are indeed available. It's in Street Magic, under the expanded rules for Wards. You'll need to already know the Masking metamagic (and check out the Ward that fights back if you have Reflecting!). A kind GM -MIGHT- allow you to combine the types if you meet all the requirements. Something for GMs to consider too if your runners have a lot of magical firepower. But it's total GM call as it doesn't mention if you can combine or not.

Also if it generates a cord, you can hide the link with a Metaplane Quest, same as a Foci or such.

Dunno about group ward makings tho, would have to look that up n I'm at work

If you are using RAW you can just shortcut around it if you can see the other side.

If you have the astral gateway power? Or are you talking about something else?

No, Concealment is a magic power, and as such leaves a big, fat astral signature.

Per SR4A, Concealment used by a dual nature creature - like spirits - also reduces chance to notice you on the astral.

Noted; I don't have 4A yet.

HappyDaze I would think so yes, but it doesn't really take very long for that Mage to make a phonecall to the security head on site.