Ooh, forgot about masking. I can try to just fool the ward. Will have to see how powerful it is though. I am masking my foci, and anytime I astrally perceive I am masking my astral form to appear as a normal aura.

Yep. But Alertness shouldn't be treated as a separate skill - if you can roll Alertness, you can roll Stealth.

I just noticed I missed one of mikey's posts oh-so-long ago. It doesn't help very much now...

Okay, time to go inside. I'll open the door, then Kyle goes in first, then me, then the mages. Axe is a hermetic, so he can just send his elementals back to the metaplanes and recall them once he's inside, right?

Not exactly. Axe is a Bacchus shaman

He's going to whip up a few building spirits (city or hearth, whatever applies) and get concealment now and leave the rest on call for when we've passed the ward. Using the metaplanar trick to dodge a ward sucks up a service, but I'd rather have one less service than not have any at all (ie, have to do the summoning inside).

He'll try to synch the ward, too, with his masking.

Ah, so he will have to deal with the ward too if he wants his spirits to enter.

I'm fairly sure they can't. FX, you have any idea? Also, what is the force of the ard?

Oh, I didn't expect the relevant info to be in that book. Alright then, I'll just put my spirits on standby, dismiss my watchers, and deactivate my sustaining focus, and go in behind Slash. Thanks for the tip.

Well I'll be damned. Okay, that nixes that problem. FX, did the delta team chopper crash into this tower, the toer black team landed on, another tower, or the roof of the building at the base of the towers?

Here's an initiative roll if there are enemies behind the door: 20

You know, on further reading, I don't think you can synchronize a spell past a barrier. At least, you can't explicitely do so. So I guess I'm deactivating my focus, as well.

Still, assensing for fun and profit:

13 09 03 03 02 01
#D:6 TN:4 H#:13 S:2

So not much.

I had a quick question - I thought that a shaman could only have one spirit of any type of domain summoned at any one time - regardless if they're great forms or not. I had thought the advantage of GF's were that you could change domains to summon more but that they wouldn't go away. . . am I interpreting this wrong?

Casting Improved Invisibility



Sustained Improved Invisibility, Force 6 with 5 success.
>5 success on Int to Resist.

Allright. Excaliber, place my character wherever it suits for your purposes. I been keeping the rooms vague for just that reason.

Stealth: 1,1,3,3, 10

Perception: 1,2,2,2,5

Remember, I have vision magnification 3, blindfighting and enhanced smell equal to olfactory booster 6.

Fu, that is true of normal spirits, but not great forms.

Alright, back from school. Now, let's see what I have to do...

Fireteam A
The Delta chopper crashed into the actual building a few levels below the roof where the towers are based on. The towers actually aren't that high (4 or 5 storeys).

Assensing reveals that the ward on the roof door heading down into the ritz proper is a force 8 ward.

I plan to have Sioux Asskicker meet fireteam A somewhere on the level they're going into now. I'll see if I can hustle up a post right now.

Oh, and do me a favour and roll initiative if you haven't already. Terry, you too

Fireteam B
Nope, there's nothing you can see when you look up the trapdoor to the roof of the lift cab. The lift shaft's lights are off, and the area is plunged into near total darkness. I'll describe what you see up there when somebody goes up.

Oh, and Reaper got info from the projecting mages he met before going on the run that the mages the Ritz supposedly contacted for security haven't been found.

Right, if I missed anything, lemme know and I'll get right on it.

Making Stealth -> Awareness roll for perception. Defaulting to Stealth (no speciality):

5, 4, 2, 6, 4

TN: Unknown (using Light Systems and Orientation System overlay)

Yuck, definitely not going to try synching that sucker without a good reason.

Initiative: 7

He'll pass the barrier and fling a bind on his first action, since I highly doubt he'll be able to cast stun ball and not nail team members

Either way, rolls:

Initiative (Improved Reflexes 3) 11+4d6=: 29

Initiative 12

Here's Roland's stealth rolls as he's trying to be somewhat quiet along with the others in the elevator shaft.

1: 2
2: 5
3: 4
4: 2
5: 1
6: 5
7: 3

Oh, hey GreatChicken, don't forget the rule of six in Shadowrun, roll and that extra die for that six of yours.

Hey Fu Man Chu, I might be mistaken, but I don't think we ran across any living creatures yet from our part in the elevator shaft. I just read back from what FXCaliber has said and we didn't see anyone, just the bloodstains and clawmarks in the elevatorshaft.... Though, that's a good idea to do an astral peek in the area before we actually send someone up.

Team Beta
Reaper's vital information
Equipment:
Large Halbred which is his primary attack weapon
Valiant LMG carried as a rifle slung across the back (and multiple XX ammo clips)
Bunch of grenades

The main spells used are Improved Reflexes, Invisibility, Stunball, and Heal.

Does Reaper have any spirits on hold?

Is the room with the crates also beyond the reach of the ladder, or is it just the air vent?

I'm still here. Its just that I'm on vacation (or holiday--depending on your POV). I don't check the boards that much. I managed to skim the IC thread and I'll be posting tomorrow between 1000hrs and 1400hrs (EST).

Until then, you can assume that Kyle does what Slash says. (I think there was something about a door...)

Alright FX, just roll initiative for him. It's generally best for the GM to do that anyway in forum games, to speed things up.

Only the air duct is out of reach without somehow bridging the gap of the ladder. I'll roll init in a sec.

Ah, okay. I was wondering why we were trying to climb over the gap if we weren't going to use the duct.

Forgive the late response. Had to jet to do a fragging wisdom tooth op. Bloody mouth hurts like all hell, but eating actually helps ignore the pain. Man, I am sooo putting on the kilos after this Anyway, on to business.

Fireteam A
Combat Situation. Once again displayed in CrappyRedMap format. I swear, I lost all my damn art pens...

Backstage of presumably a performance theatre. Lots of cover for everyone, and ne'er be afraid to get creative on me (you could duck behind a prop for cover, or you could grab a table from the side and swing it in front of you, or...). Three terrorists and a bunch of 4 tied up hostages who are freaking out and about to be executed by human. Surprise was not accounted for because both sides sort of 'surprised' each other.

Here are the NPC combatants

Middle-eastern human holding an SMG to a hostage's head.
Female Ork going for radio.
Large Troll with AK-97 in hand.

Terry's closet is somewhere in backstage. He managed to emerge and walk around a bit undetected (good stealth roll).

And the Initiative Table:

• Terry - 29
• Kyle - 24
• Slash - 20
• Burn - 12
• Ork NPC - 12
• Axe - 7
• Human NPC -7
• Troll NPC - 7

EDIT: Forgot to mention, you guys are pretty close, so most ranged attacks are at base TN for close range, unless you have a weapon with holdout ranges or something.

Gentlemen, declare your actions!

Fireteam B
What do you wish to do now? Have Reaper astrally scout the room of crates, or...?

To speed things up, if you do do that, then...



Ah heck, if you guys go into the room you'll see what I wrote in the spoiler anyway. Stealthy bastards

Stealthy bastards? Yup, that'd be us, going in through the sewers and sneaking around. None of that going in guns ablazing. Though we'll probably have our own horrors to contend with.... such as a crazed lunatic with claws that can gouge metal....

Oh, until I hear the all clear signal, I'm not going into the room, nor am I letting the technician. If we're all that's left, he's the guy I want safe until we get to the freaking bomb.... Though, I do like the idea of him boobytrapping the back entrance.

Oh, hey FX, I know what you're going, I had four removed myself three years ago, all impacted and some were decayed. Had to take antibiotics for two weeks. Ok, maybe I shouldn't have waited those extra few years when they started coming out.... Let that be a lesson to all of y'all!

Well, we'd be stealthy if it weren't for the whole ward thing.

Daylight Helo Rooftop insertion with guns ablazing ain't the start of a stealthy run....

Slash is going to squezze off a couple shots from his Predator 3s. One shot from one pistol at the orc, and one shot from the other pistol at the troll. Smartlink-2 in effect, so base TNs of 2. 9M base damage, APDS ammo.

Shot at the orc: 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 5
And at the troll: 1 2 2 3 5 8 9 10

That used 5 of my 8 combat pool. I'll post the actions IC after Kevyn posts and I find out the results.

I'm going to set an improvised trap, using a Superflash Grenade, on the lift cab trapdoor. Rolling Demolitions (Improvised), defaulting to Demolitions (active).

1,3,4,5,5,6,6 (Dang. Omnihedron sorted results are wierd.)

TN: Unknown w/Light Systems and Microscopic Vision

Free Action: Called Shot--Hit the terrorist not the hostage
First Single Action: Aim
Second Simple Action: three round burst (APDS ammo), no recoil penalty, Called Shot penalty negated by SL2, TN: 2 (I think)

Assualt Rifle: 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7
Combat Pool: None

Successes: 8 (!)

Somebody waste the Ork slitch before she radios in our posistion.

Awww.... don't you remember in the movie 'Speed'?
=====================================
Harry: All right, pop quiz. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away. Jack?

Jack: Shoot the hostage.
=====================================

Heheh.

You guys want me to trap-spam the lift, do you?

Setting up the backup trap...

3,3,4,4,5,5,5 (....Maybe I should roll them one by one instead of macroing them.)

TN: Unknown w/Microscopic Vis and Light Systems

Okay, one thing I did forget to mention that I would have tried to bring along. My large riot shield, hence why I didn't bring along my smg and it's ammo. Well, it's bulky, ok, GM call please, was it brought along or could it even have gotten through the trapdoor?

Terry, being the protective soul that he is, will have to shoot mr. hostage murderer. He'll use the doorjamb for cover and drop to one knee.

2 combat pool into the first shot, 2 more into the second. He has a laser sight on his gun, so target number 3's for him.

1st shot: 1,4,4,2,4,7,5. Good for 9D

2nd Shot: 1,3,3,3,5,7,4. Good for 9D+1 overflow.

The human didn't get a single success for dodge, and Terry's actions were pretty much enough to cut through his armour. Kyle can re-declare another target if you want to. Don't need to roll again.

I'm still fairly certain that the enemy is going to be dead within the round, being outnumbered, outgunned and caught in a pincer attack.

Edited the IC. The bind spell is meant for the troll.

Are we even going in order?

Also, Kevyn, the TN is 3. Base 4, +2 for called shot, -2 for SL2, -1 for one aim action.

We are. Terry's very fast, as is anybody with Improv Refl Level 3. Kyle's up next.

I'm thinking of introducing a way of combat such that everyone declares what they do before the combat actually begins, like right now, with some guidelines. Like, I call shot on the human, if he's dead, then I call shot on the ork instead, and so on.

It'll be speedier, but players may end up shooting the same corpse twice. Bit more realistic, and faster, but might not mesh with everyone.

Stealth roll to sneak up on the girl: 10 1 4 2 10 2 3 1 14 3 1 3 7
High #: 14

Do I make it?

*Rolls*

Yep, you make it. Rather easily, I might add.

You actually have an Arabic skill? That's pretty damn cool.

Okay, so Terry took out the human, Slash and Kyle are both shooting the orc, and Axe is using a bind spell on the troll. I guess I'll manabolt the troll.

Force 6 serious damage manabolt, adding 3 dice from spell pool to the casting roll.
Sorcery: 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 5 11
Drain, TN of 3: 1 3 4 4 5 5 5 11 No drain