No that's fine. I was under the impression it was going to appear in the hallway behind the spirit of fire, not in the apartment. I missed something somewhere, no big deal.

ETA: I think the issue is that the Spirit of Air is going to manifest before me, so the spirit of fire might start to manifest before I act. But if I can react to either of those, my actions might change. I can't remember if I can delay across IPs or not. I don't think I've taken really any actions so far.

With regards to where the Spirit of Air is manifesting, per Amy's instructions, it is to attack the occupants of the apartment. She hasn't changed those instructions, so when it manifests, that is where it will go. (I can understand why it was a little confusing with the "behind the fire spirit" language.

Unfortunately you cannot delay your actions across IPs, so you are basically not taking any action in IP 1. The spirit of air will definitely manifest before you get to go, and the spirit of fire may manifest before you, depending on certain actions.

No worry about changing your action, technically you aren't supposed to declare it until it is your turn to go, but with the PbP format it is sometimes easier to have actions posted in advance.

Cool, I was just trying to save some time in the event everything came to a head and I wasn't around.

So... given that we know for certain (barring any wards) that our spirit is going to be manifesting this IP, here's my basic plan:

1) If the Spirit of Fire manifests during my turn, I'm going to run toward the cart and get my stuff.
2) If the door opens suddenly and someone is in melee range, I'm going to pop my blade and get to cutting.
3) If nothing seems to happen, I'm going to delay my action until the cart gets there and grab my stuff.

I don't think I have a lot of good options here, TBH. I probably should have brought the grenade with me.

Let me know if you need more from me Lobo. Initiative passes make something as simple as this confusing

I think my plan is pretty clear, but if it isn't let me know.

-DrZ

Well, honestly we are probably going to have to wait until Amy and the various others go before we can finalize what you are doing.

Sequentially, you aren't going to actually reach the door until next Combat turn, which means that no one is going to actually be throwing anything this combat turn.

At best, assuming the spirit of fire does not interfere, you are looking at reaching the door next combat turn, (at which point the maglock will already be unlocked), and then someone has to open the door and throw the grenade it.

However that ends up happening, I think we would do what was most logical (assuming this fire spirit doesn't murder us all). So whoever is available (between me, Jack, and overkill), would

1) Open the door
2) throw the grenade in
3) throw the fly-spy in
4) close the door

If there's any real skill involved in throwing the grenade it should be Jack doing it, but my thinking was that we were just tossing it inside, not necessarily trying to to get it anyplace in particular. At some point during that process, I would probably pull my mask down (once we're committed to throwing the grenade in). I am more than willing to volunteer to open the door if I am there and I have an action available.

-DrZ

I'm thinking we would still need to make the thrown weapons test. Given the timing we're trying to achieve, we could always accidentally bank it off the door on accident. Jack can throw it, with the added bonus that he doesn't need to mask up, so I can take that action and not worry about breathing in the gas.

I'm of the opinion that this won't end up being that easy. I see much fire in our futures...

I think Jack might as well go to the cart and get whatever he needs from it this turn, otherwise he's just wasting time. This being said, we're talking about 3 seconds...

Amy will attempt to banish the fire spirit at the top of the second pass. She can also use her free action to say "They know we're here!" in subvocal comm with the team. For the record, she doesn't have trodes, but she has a subvocal transceiver.

Just a note, if Amy is going to banish at CT1, IP2 (and I personally think she probably should), the cart is going to be 15 or so feet away from the door. Overkill and Grease probably just need to run it forward on their move. The spirit is probably going to have to take a complex action to materialize, depending on its instructions, if its still around (wouldn't be a bad test to Edge, maybe, although possibly a super-dangerous banishing if the spirit is bound to Falcon and he wants to Edge the resistance roll).

From my understanding, once the spirit spends the complex action to materialize, it is then present on the Physical Plane, correct? There isn't a delay?

I (the player) agree that running towards the door makes sense when the spirit materializes.

However, Grease (the character) has a poor track record with confronting enormous, dangerous spirits. Something to keep in mind.

-DrZ

I doubt any spirit would use edge for staying at someone's service within the current ruleset (or ever?), NPC spirit or PC spirit, unless there is some kind of very special relationship going on (more than just a bound spirit imo). For instance my bound spirit didn't even consider using edge to protect himself and avoid the suffering of disruption, because at least that also set him free.

I can't remember, who's pushing the cart?

A summoner can spend their own Edge to aid the resistance test on behalf of their spirit. By "he," I was talking about Falcon spending Edge.

Even to resist a banishment? Dang...

Grease has the cart.

It's under Spirits and Edge:

Summoned and bound spirits don’t have their own
Edge pools (or if they do, they don’t use them). However,
you can spend your own Edge pool on your summoned
spirits’ tests if you like.

There isn't any specific exemption about banishing resistance tests. It makes banishing bound spirits particularly dangerous. If Falcon was the guy you spotted at the beginning, we know he has Magic 7+. The spirit in front of you has a lower Force than your Magic, so worst case Force (5). That's 12 dice right there... if he took the reroll failures option, it's on average 6-7 successes with a good chance for more.

Hopefully Overkill's 8 Logic and Analytical Mind will tell him that we do indeed need the cart in order to stand a chance if Grease heads for the hills.

Ok - I thought you had trodes for some reason - I'll fix that.

Amy's Banishing test:
11d6.hits(5)=4

Spirit's Resistance to the Banishing:
5d6.hits(5)=0

The spirit vanishes from the astral

Amy resists Drain (minimum of 2DV)
13d6.hits(5)=7

Easily resisting the damage

That's a relief. Go time!

IP 2
Amy 16 - Banishes Fire Spirit - says "They know we are here!"
Spirit of Air 13 - Materializes in the apartment
Overkill 6 - Spoof Command & moves toward the door
Jack 6 - Delay
Grease 4 - runs toward the door
Jack 3 - reaches in and grabs his armor jacket and the CS grenade

IP 3
Amy 6
Spirit of Air 3

Did we ever get an answer on how long it takes to put on an armor jacket?

I imagine a Complex Action? That seem about right?

I'm good with that.

Edited the whole post.

Seeing as Jack is getting ready to go inside, Amy puts her hand on his back and casts Invisibility on him at force 3, using 6 reagents (14 dice to cast, 13 for drain against the minimum of 2DV). She will also say (in subvocal as always) "I'm turning you invisible again, but they might see you anyway."

Next combat turn she'll probably start by putting on her jacket and gas mask.

I think that one complex action is about right to put on a heavy jacket. 3 seconds if you're a slow mundane seems right, and much faster for quick and/or enhanced people.

Hell yeah! If someone will open the door, Jack will toss the grenade in and follow it through whenever it's his turn for initiative. Simple Action to toss the grenade, simple action to take cover (hopefully), and I imagine Overkill still has it slaved to him, so he can do the detonating. (thank God Stinger isn't around... I hope).

Ok - Amy casts the Invisibility Spell:
14d6.hits(5)=8 - reduced by 6 by limit (Jack if you can mark off the reagents)

Resist Drain (2DV minimum)
13d6.hits(5)=1

So Amy takes 1 box of Stun Damage

Spirit of Air goes - but you guys don't know what is happening exactly as the door is still closed.

Sorry - work is nuts today, I won't be on very often

Well, that broke the drain resistance check chain of good rolls. Hopefully it is the last of them.

OK, I'll check off the reagents. Is it time to roll initiative for a new CT? If so, because I have so much stuff I have to do, I'm going to Blitz my Initiative Check. That should put me at 3/5 Edge.

I covet my neighbor's abundant edge.

@Lobo: Let me know if you need anything from me; I think I've made my plans pretty clear but if anything needs clarifying let me know.
-DrZ

That's funny, because I have absolutely no clue what Grease is doing...

Actions we need to accomplish with suggestions on who should accomplish them:
1) Open the door (Amy)
2) Throw in the grenade (Jack)
3) Detonate said grenade (Overkill)
4) Throw in a drone (Grease)
5) Probably have someone go in (Jack most likely, since he's invisible)
6) Put on some of our gear (Jack and Amy)

Initiative for CT 2:

Amy
4d6+11=23
Grease
1d6+10=14
Overkill
2d6+9=18
Jack
5d6+7=21
Spirit of Air
2d6+16=25

Spirit of Air 25
Amy 23
Jack 21
Overkill 18
Grease 14

Actions?

Assuming the door is open and there is a clear sight line, I'm tossing the grenade in (Simple Action). I'll also grab my rifle in addition to the jacket already in my hands (Simple Action?).

You said Amy should open the door, but that was never clear to me, so if you want her to do that, you'll need to tell her to (and then she will).

It was actually just a meta suggestion given that Amy moves faster than everyone else. I don't think we really designated a leader (other than Grease sort of appointing himself the bug-out caller-in-chief) for the operation. Probably should have done that...

Since Amy sort of gave the command to go, she's probably expecting someone else to open the door. I guess you should just delay your action for now. If the door is still closed when it's Jack's turn, he'll open the door and toss the grenade in (I assume that's two simple actions). He'll deal with getting his gear later, hopefully.

Open the door is a simple action, throwing the grenade is also a simple action (just to clarify)

OK, that's what I'll do then. Crossing fingers there are no booby traps or mages waiting to drop a fireball on us when the door opens...

Little did Jack realize that when he opened the door, the augmented Ankylosaurus would drop from the ceiling....

I would absolutely wrestle that... my favorite dinosaur!

I wonder what is going on inside the room... Amy will definitely peek inside as Jack opens to throw. And if a big spiky thing falls on Jack's face, she doesn't want to miss that either ^^

Well, she knows her spirit hasn't been disrupted yet, so that's a good sign! Incidentally, has Amy declared Spell Defense on us yet? Actually, I don't even remember if you have Counterspelling or not.

She has counterspelling 4 yes, and she can cover us, but not that much given the nerf to counterspelling (necessary given the buff to spell resistance across the board). Anyway, it goes without saying that she extends counterspelling on the team pretty much all the time, especially how protective she is about the team... If I need to constantly say it, well I will try to remember, but it's kind of a pain imo.

I just wasn't sure how much of a stickler Lobo was about that, since there is an initiative impact if you have to do it as an interrupt action.

ETA: ...and selfishly, I'd rather have as many dice as possible to defend with if I have to eat a manaball or something.

Here is my take on the counterspelling.

I don't believe that Amy would be walking around at all times with Counterspelling on. Clearly, going into this situation, she would - especially as she knows that a mage is present.

I would say that if you are walking down the street and you are ambushed, you are going to have to then raise Spell Defense. (requiring either a Free Action or an Interrupt Action)

FYI: I asked Lobo if it would be okay to drop an IC post to get us caught up to where we are OOC. He said that was fine. If there are any changes I need to make, let me know.

Fine by me, I'm glad you agree that at least for some situations it's obvious that spell defense is on for the whole team. I'm quite confortable with the idea that when there's no reason to worry about magical attacks, there's no reason to have spell defense up (or at least to have it automatically up).

ETA: Nice write-up for the IC stuff Jack. I wonder what we see inside the apartment...

Yeah, I think we're all pretty much in agreement with that. I think the only issue would be, for instance, we open the door to the stairwell and Grease/Overkill are on the opposite end with the cart. Instead of a spirit in the hallway, it's Falcon and we somehow lose surprise to him. In that case, you wouldn't be able to provide spell defense. Fortunately, we have a mage with a pretty damn high initiative, so even being surprised might not matter, LOL.

She also has combat sense.. it takes a lot to surprise her.

Apologies

What I'd like to do (in this order)

1) toss the drone in
2) put on my mask
3) pull my pistol
4) open the drone's camera feed to the team's tacnet (or whatever we're doing about that)
5) cover the door with my pistol

Let me know if there's anything else you need.

Thanks!
-drZ

Ok - so:

IP 1
Spirit of Air 25 - does something
Amy 23 - per Jack's IC writeup, she puts her Armor Jacket (Complex).
Jack 21 - Open door (simple) throw grenade (simple)
Overkill 18 - Detonate grenade (free), Ready gas mask (simple) ready SMG (simple)
Grease 14 - Throw Fly Spy into room (simple), ready mask (simple)

Jack - great writeup

I'll have another short writeup for IP 1 in a moment, in the meantime, think about IP 2

Spirit of Air 15
Amy 13
Jack 11 -
Overkill 8 -
Grease 4

Question: If I pick up stuff after Amy cast invisibility on me, does it become invisible as well? I believe Jack had the grenade and his armor jacket in hand when Amy would have cast her invisibility spell, but not his helmet or assault rifle. I'm just wondering if it's going to look like a disembodies helmet and rifle floating around if I pick them up after the fact and try to use them. If so, my plans might change a bit...

ETA: In retrospect, I guess we should have checked to make sure there was anyone in the room before detonating the grenade.

EATA: Hmmm... I think my question above is kind of irrelevant for regular Invisibility since it apparently affects the mind. I'm less sure about Improved Invisibility since it bends light, but that's not on the table, so no big deal.

Your character wouldn't know that, but if there weren't any target in that room, Amy would have heard back from her spirit by now.

For Invis, the interpretation is debatable. I'd argue in favor of allowing objects to be picked up (especially in the case of a sustained mana spell), but I could see arguments for the other point of view as well.