Not sure at this point if you were in VR to monitor for signals or trying to do that via AR. But I'd say the long burst would at the very least be enough to get through to you even if nobody thought to message you

Gardner were you actually trying to intimidate him or just in a threatening posture?

Oh and to be clear, everybody on the balcony is fighting around the bar where the human sized blue dragon is also standing.

Well, I would probably have been scanning for signals using AR. Not that it matters - page 225 states that switching from AR to VR is a free action. So I'll use my Free Action on this IP to switch to VR.

On that note, I never indicated I had stopped any running programs when I was booted, which means I've got Analyze 6, Edit 6, Scan 6, Sniffer 6, Stealth 6 running. Deactivate Program is a Simple Action, so I'm going to assume that Activate Program is also a Simple Action. Which means I'm using the remainder of this IP to perform 2 Simple Actions:

1. Deactivate Sniffer 6
2. Activate Exploit 6

My Response is degraded from 5 to 4 due to running 5 programs currently, which means my initiative should also decrease by 1. Now, that brings us to an interesting thing here. I rolled for initiative in the meat world, and I'm now in the Matrix - where I didn't roll initiative. The book states on page 145 that when something happens to your initiative score, you immediately apply a bonus or penalty based on what's happened. Believe it or not, I actually have a lower initiative score in the Matrix (but the same number of passes). My initiative drops from 12 to 7, so I believe (pending your approval) that I get the -5 penalty to initiative immediately, dropping me from 12 to 7 (nice math, thanks to rolling zero hits on those 10 dice). Add in that -1 from Response degradation, and I'm now at a cool 6.

Assuming this is my first IP this combat turn, I have 2 left.

Ok. That all sounds good to me for your first pass.

I was in a defensive stance, putting him within my reach. Thus making it harder for him to shoot me (in melee penalty). Not actually trying to look threatening per say, but I probably end up that way...



Yeah... what's he doing?

White is going to yank the fire alarm when he gets a chance! Should unlock those balcony doors.

Currently you are in the middle of a room full of banquet attendees with security personell directing everybody towards the exit (hmmm...i just realized they failed to think about stairs in the layout of this scenario, i'll have to add those in.
You just told Acson so follow you to the balcony. Are you now going to abandon him to fight your way through the crowd toward the a fire alarm on one of the walls? Are you trying to drag him with you?
Also, you seem to be operating under the assumption that Horizon would care more about their people than the company's security. Are you sure that is true of one of the megacorps?

Hmmm I spy plan B .. evacuate with the Horizon staffers and get in the van?

Not a bad idea, but I fear that will be as complicated as this... Besides, they're likely to just 'evacuate' the guests into some secure space within the building, making getting out even more difficult.

Yeah i guess that's a risk, but at this point I think your chances of getting him to a Balcony mid shoot out are slim,

maybe take the stairs and try and duck into a corridor on a lower floor ? we can always make you a new "exit" window

Slacker, how many security guys do we have in here?

The guests are being herded through a doorway... to stairs? Does White have any clue where we're headed?

I might - MIGHT - be able to pull you a map of the building with potential exit points. But I need to know that you need it first.

Well, I was hoping somebody would actually do something regarding the blue dragon, but I guess I didn't make a big enough deal about where he was in relationship to the team.

Immediately following Gardner's turn, the illusion of water covering the balcony floor vanishes along with the physical mask of a blue dragon. A somewhat mundane looking human appears in it's place, at least momentarily. A split second later he disappears completely as he hides himself behind Improved Invisibility.

High up above the balcony, a faint sound as of something being shot out of a tube comes from near the roof, followed almost instantly by another. Were somebody to look up, they would see two medium sized spherical objects free-falling their way down towards the balcony.

------------------------

And now it's Mr. White's turn.... Let's see you are about 13 meters away from the closest fire alarm, which is right next to the doors and thus directly behind the security guard directing people out. There is another fire alarm by the doors to the kitchen, but that is roughly 40 meters from you.

Are you going to one of those? Walking or running? And what are you donig with Acson?

As i mentioned when you walked in, there was one security guard on each of the double doors leading into the hallway where the restrooms/elevators were. And there were two guards by the doors to the balcony. There was another man that greeted you at the elevator that could have been security, as well as a couple guys watching tv, but you don't know if they were guests/security/staff/party crashers/whatever.

All you can currently see is 4 guys with pistols out.

Ok, so for now Mr. White is trying to get Acson to move along with the crowd, though they really aren't going anywhere because Acson himself isn't moving.

We are back up to the top of Initiative for IP2.

Gardner's spirit Materializes next to him.

Jansen the maitre d' already used up his Complex Action by going on full defense. He's going to try to get the hell out of there. He's screaming into his comm "Where the HELL are those fragging drones! We have a full scale infiltration here. Call in the damn t-birds already."

He will run past Gardner who can make a melee attack against him for free. Technically he's also running past Gardner's spirit, but the spirit's orders were "defend our group from attack" and running away from the group is not an attack.

If he does get past Gardner he will run 8 meters away (all he can do on this pass).

-------------

We'll need to wait to see if Gardner does attack him and how successful he is with that.
But, Silas, Eclipse, and TundraWolf can post up what they plan to do this pass.

I was going to have you roll Infiltration, but the security guards are apparently distracted enough with the penalties they are suffering. The rolled 0 hits, and so appear not to notice you two dashing under the table Acson had just been sitting at.

Simple Action: Observe in detail. I'm looking up at the "foont" sounds coming from above. Intuition 4 + Perception 3 + Vision Enhancement 3 + Actively Looking 3 = 5 hits. These Perception rolls are almost becoming absurd. What am I seeing up there?

I'll post my remaining Free and Simple action after you let me know, Slacker.

Whimper "Mommy!"

Silas is going to do the following :

Free Action : Start running & Yell to team "Heads up Chummers, Grenades!"

Simple action Leaping over the bar after Jansen
Diving across the bar and running for the door / window
Gymnastics (15d6.hits(5)=5)

Simple action Shooting at Jansen without calling a shot.
Shooting at Jansen
moving -2
moving target -2
(8d6.hits(5)=1)
3 shots used this round

Crap, Glitched (I Think?)

No glitch, Mach_Ten, you'd have needed to roll 4 ones rather than 2. It's "# of 1s => dicepool/2" for glitching.

ahhh thought it was more 1's than successes .. whew thanks

and reading Slackers post below this ::

1) ... I hate you Slacker
2) ... I think I'd preferred grenades
3) ... "Mommy !"

It's hard to see past the brilliant lights shining down from above you, but your eyes focus past all of that. You see a pair of Horizon Scamp Roto-Drones with attache AK-97 Carbines locked and loaded. You'd estimate that it will take them a couple rounds of freefall before they arrive at the balcony.

We'll resolve this shot as soon as I know if Gardner attacked him or not. Likely he'll be going on full defense again considering the penalties he's sufferring currently.

Mr. White and Acson, inside: "Let us out! Let us out!"

Silas, Eclipse, Gardner, TundraWolf: "Let us in! Let us in!"

ok, my boss is looking me while I LOL to myself now .. I see a "non-work related internet access" conversation in my future!

Oh come on, the guys on the balcony already have the head of the banquet's security on the run and none of the security inside even sees Mr. White and Acson hiding under the table....
(until of course they clear the room and can see the two AR icons for your commlinks still there).

Oops....that's why i'm glad my boss sits a long way away from me.

Oh yeah I thought about that, and promptly forgot.

Can we silence our comlinks?

I mean - that should be second nature for someone in 2073. (Don't want my wife to know I'm hiding in the garage smoking again, time to silence the comlink)

What's the smartlink's rangefinder showing me for those drones, Slacker?

Yeah, that's why i brought it up. I know it's easy to overlook details like that. Sure you can turn yours off or switch it to hidden mode. You'll have to spend a free action next chance you get to tell Acson to do it too and see if he does.

Hmmm... Somewhere between 70 and 80 meters maybe? Falling roughly 10 meters per initiative pass.

Okay, then.

Free Action: Speak over comms: "Incoming drones, overhead!"
Simple Action: Take Aim at the incoming drones, using my cybereyes' magnification to negate range penalties for when I start shooting next IP.

Gardner will use his reach (+3) to get the edge on the company man, subtracting from his defense. Attack: 1 hit, 5P damage.

Sorry about the delay...

He will again go on full defense sacrificing his Complex action in the next round. With super fast subtle shifts of his body around and under Gardner's reach, he deftly dodge's past the gentle Giant (he got 5 hits on his full dodge).


--------

Following Gardner's swing at Jansen, Silas jumps over the bar moving towards Jansen. He gets off one shot, but Jansen again manages to dodge with his full defense (3 hits).

That's not how the Image magnification works:

You can only negate the range modifier if you and the target do not move. The drones are most definitely moving towards you.

Wasn't he already on Full Defense? When does that reset?

Eclipse is going to fire off another couple rounds at Jansen, since he's there and Eclipse is frustrated, while heading over to the door to the inside. Later, he plans to see just how easy it'll be to blow open.

9d6.hits(5)=2 (Pistols 1, AGI 8, Smartlink 2, -2 moving)
4d6.hits(5)=2 (Pistols 1, AGI 8, Smartlink 2, -2 moving, -4 called shot, -1 recoil. +4 DMG)

...how come I always get the same number of hits each set of rolls? o.O

Hmmm...I've always played it that if you use Full Defense as an interrupt action. it only lasts until the point where you would have used your Complex Action. Re-reading the rules. I suppose that isn't how it's actually written. But for the sake of this combat I am going to keep it that way since I already said that's what he's doing. I'll change it to rules-as-written next time.

Jansen is a slippery motherfucker apparently. I thought he was going to have to use Edge again, but he managed to get 3 hits against the first attack and 2 hits against the second attack. So, no damage.

Read this thread:

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=8521.0

Still waiting on clarification from TundraWolf on his second simple action with the explanation that Image Magnification won't work with the drone moving, but I'll go ahead and post the next set of NPC actions.

-------------------------

Since TundraWolf is looking towards the roof, I'll say he spots the movement of the sniper returning to the roof's edge. He may not have the benefit of his smartlink, but he still has his spare mag of ammo and he is seriously PISSED off now. No other actions currently, he's just making it to that point.

---------------------------

Inside the banquet hall, the guard from the far set of doors has moved to the kitchen and yelling at the staff their to evacuate. The two guards that had been watching the balcony doorways, are physically pushing guests towards the exit "Didn't you hear the man. Go to the exit now! That means you numbnuts!" As the remaining people closest to the balcony doors finally start fleeing, they each knock over a table for them to crouch behind as they cover the doors to the balcony. The remaining guard is still at his station by the doors closest to the elelvators shouting at everybody to move faster.

----------------------------
Needle and Gardner can post up their actions for IP2 now.

It's an interesting argument with lots of people siding with one side or the other. Hmmm.... I think i'm just going to stick with how I've always played it. Using Full Defense as an interrupt action only lasts until when you would have used the action you sacrificed. So, if when Jansen used up his Complex Action from IP2 to go on full defense, it ended as soon as it was his turn. Thus he had to use up his IP3 action to go on full defense again to dodge Gardner's swing and the various bullets heading his way.

Alright, so with his using that next action, and the defense penalties resetting, he was looking at my attack with his complete and full dice pool (except -reach). Yay, but luckily it does start him up for a nice start to cumulative defense penalty

Yep. At this point he's suffering some pretty hefty penalties to his dodge. -2 from wounds, -2 from electric shock disorientation, -1 for Gardner's swing at him, -1 for Silas's one shot at him, and lastly another -2 for Eclipse's two shots at him.

Before I post my actions, a simple question: Do the drones have nodes that are visible?

And I realize that I indicated I stopped running Scan earlier, which is absolutely retarded. Sniffer was my intended program to deactivate as it has next-to-zero use in combat. Your call if I deactivated Scan or Sniffer.

No problem switching it to being sniiffer that was deactivated.

The drones are running in hidden mode as a standard security precaution. Also, I specifically asked if you were scanning the rooftop area for nodes to give you chance at a heads up that they were coming. They aren't yet close to the balcony, but I expect Silas's warning about drones incoming was sent to you too. So you do know they are there.

I know you asked. But there wasn't anything I saw earlier besides the sniper, so Needle would have assumed nothing else was up there. Not to mention that she was entirely focused on the balcony as the alarms went off. But no matter.

I'm using my Free Action to respond over the commlink subvocally. "Drones? This day gets better and better."

I'm using a complex action in this pass to Detect Hidden Node, specifically on the drones.

Electronic Warfare 4 + Scan 6 + Encephalon 1 + PuSHeD 1 + Neocortical Amplifiers 3 + Hot Sim 2 - Disorientation 2 = 15 dice, threshold of 4

15d6.hits(5) = 5

This leaves me with 1 pass left this CT.

You are able to locate the hidden node of one of the drones, whichever one you were specifically looking at.

Still waiting to hear clarification on TundraWolf's second Simple Action and Gardner's actions for the pass, but I don't see him affecting things inside the banquet hall or the drones high above, so I'll post up some NPC actions.

The two drones plummet some more.

Inside the banquet hall, the tablecloth hiding Mr. White's and Acson's position under the table is pulled up as a head dips under the table. Jace Atkins 'Stupid Attendee' spills out his rather full glass of pinot grigio as he leans down. He drunkenly calls out very loudly, "schey, whatcha doing with my new pal Archer..son? Yah, yur name was Acherson, right?"
He swings out with his hand holding the wine glass...well it was holding the wine glass, but it slips from his hand and fly's through the air to crash into another attendee. "They's want us to leave now. Yous guys can come with me. I gots more wine <hiccup> at home."


------------

Mr. White doesn't have a second pass. So that's the end of IP2.

We'll be coming back up to the top of Initiative once I hear from TundraWolf on his second Simple Action and Gardner on his actions this pass.