[Teyl_Iliar]

I think "flying" up and out of there is a last resort of possible. it's pretty high profile to start levitating yourself all over the place in an attempt to flee. (No matter how effective it is.) Anyone not immediately trying to escape will see you and you will have no cover if they want to take you down. Seeing as how your powers seem to revolve around you being charismatic I would try either getting alone with the target and stunbolting him out quietly and covering it with an illusion, then commanding your spirit to kill him as the illusion plays out. (That is provided you can get him and keep him separated from security, and/or out of sight of the other mages.) If you can't pull him away somehow your thought of 2 spirits vs the other mage#2 and then acting like the mage#3 is the attacker and conning the guards to mix it up with them while your spirit does away with the target is a good call. Regardless, Depending on your current 12 charisma a strong base for swaying the guards. If you hold your attack until the distraction kicks off using their sound system you might be able to play that to your advantage. If things to go to shit on you cast foreboding and focus on the target, we'll cover you from above. Making short work of the other mages on the floor and well pretty much everything in the room. Once the target is dead and it's a certainty you get the fuck out as fast as you can possibly move. Be advised, once we engage, smoke will drop into the room as well as flashbangs. If you aren't viewing in the astral you may lose sight of the target.  We of course will try our best to make sure those things don't end up at your feet, but they do have a splash radius of 10M. You'll have to resist 6S if you're caught by one. Your flare comp should keep you safe from any visual modifiers that may pop up from them too. Anyway I think I'm tapped out on suggestions for now. Good luck. Remember Speed, surprise, and violence of action are going to be your best friends.

[inca1980]

@Storm:
This is not an ambush situation as described in SR4A, just normal surprise with foreknowledge of the situation which is a +3, so I'm knocking off 3 dice from you roll, leaving you with 3 hits for surprise.  Now just roll your actual initiative.  You used a simple action to command your Valkyries and now have a simple action left to use on your initiative against anyone who has <= surprise to you. 

I"ll assume you're astrally perceiving right now so you need to spend a simple to change your vision back to normal.  Non astral/magical actions are all at -2. 

Also remember that AR doesn't work when you're astrally seeing since it's through your "mind's eye" so if you want to keep track of the target in the crowd or pick out anyone else (guards) you'll either need to make an assensing (2) test or switch back to normal vision and use you're AR overlay which has him and all other baddies marked out.  The illusionists are clearly on the pedestals so you can readily see them.

With you're spirits, the unbound has optional power Concealment so that it's attack will just be Str/2 unarmed attack ok.

@Everyone:
Those who haven't role up surprise and inits do so!   What actually starts the combat is Storm's Spirits being in the astral plane and then materializing as well so I will have them spend their complex action materializing and then everyone else will fit in depending on their initiative. 

@Rooftop Team:
Remember, the green circle shows the circumfirence of the skylight, so you don't have LOS on people who would be directly "under" you.  It's pretty clear who would be LOS and who wouldn't be.... for example Brick doesn't have LOS on G9, but does on G5.  Just ask if you're unsure.

[Thermo]

@Inca: I wasn't planning on astrally perceiving while commanding my spirits back from the metaplanes, unless there's some common sense reason that I'm not aware of where I'd be advised to do so. (in which case, carry on! but I'm new to running mages so let me know for my sake please)

Why isn't it an ambush situation? None of the enemies are aware that I'm planning an attack, and I can start the attack at a moment of my choosing.

As for the Guardian spirit, it says that they almost always appear armed and they automatically have the skills of blades and clubs, so I assumed that they would be able to use a sword or axe or club in combat to do physical damage just like anyone else who was wielding a weapon. I assumed that the optional power of Natural Weaponry (DV=Force) was referring to having a Guardian spirit that wasn't armed but could attack with Unarmed Combat and do physical versus stun damage.

Assuming that the damage works out like I'm assumed it would with the second spirit (physical DV), I was going to have it attack the target since it could use Concealment to hide whats going on from the rest of the party. If that's NOT the case, I'll need to change its power so it does physical damage (so it can, you know, kill the target)

[inca1980]

@Thermo:
--

She begins the process of casting her Improved Invisibility spell, but she keeps the final invocation on the edge of her brain until she gets the signal from the team above as they take out the other mages and sound the fire alarm. She plans to make sure there's nobody around that can astrally catch of glimpse of her and spoil all the fun that's about to come.

The only way you could see if someone could astrally catch a glimpse of what's going on is if you're astrally perceiving as well so that's what made me say you were.  Since that's the last physical action you described I assumed you were astrally perceiving.  This time i'll let you decide what plane you want to be looking on, but make sure in the future that you clearly state what mode you're in since it's a Simple action to change in between and you get penalties in the physical realm for being astrally active. 

--In SR4A pg. 165 it says: "Characters who plan an ambush and delay their actions while they lie
in wait for the arrival or appearance of their targets receive a +6 dice
pool modifier on the surprise Initiative Test."
You're not waiting for the appearance or arrival of the targets.  They do see you and are aware of you.  Otherwise every single surprise attack would get the +6 bonus because the very definition of surprise is that the attackers are able to start the attack at the moment of their choosing.  I did give you the +3 though.  Technically I didn't even really have to roll surprise because almost every encounter starts with someone jumping into action with the other side not knowing when it's going to happen.....but since there is no reason for the opposing side to expect violence I included the surprise roll.

--As for the guardian spirit there is no RAW for them to just have weapons which do actual physical damage unless you give it the actual Optional power.  A spirit can look however your tradition dictates it to look and by all means your Valkyrie's can look like they are wielding weapons, but that's not translated into a different damage code.  Otherwise I could just say that in my tradition spirits of man are Vietnam soldiers with M16's and then say those guns actually shoot bullets etc.  Since you already chose the power, even if you misunderstood, the misunderstanding still would be contradicted by most readings of RAW so i'll rule you gotta stick with the powers you chose at Character Creation/Summoning.  Don't worry, this is how you learn to use these types of characters.  I actually did accidentally make the 2nd Valkyrie's damage physical, so we'll just keep it like that and Tahldrin is in physical damage overflow like I stated in the IC thread. 

[Thermo]

So in summary here are my two spirits:

Valkyrie 1 (bound spirit): Force 5, 3 services, armed with a two-handed sword doing physical damage, optional power: Thunderclap (Blast)
Initiative: 16

Valkyrie 2 (unbound spirit): Force 5, 3 services, armed with a battle-ax doing stun damage, optional power: Concealment
Initiative: 19

I'd like to have Storm viewing non-astral space when the action starts, she was switching back and forth just before combat so she'd have as up-to-date info as possible.

Are we in the first combat round yet or is this still pre-combat? if we're in combat how many actions does Storm have left this IP?

[inca1980]

@Storm:
We're doing it like this:  You use a simple to command the spirits, Illusionist 2 saw this but isn't fast enough to act, the guards still don't know what's up so they held action and now the spirits acted and each used a complex action to materialize.  Now we proceed as normal and each person gets to act on their initiative against anyone with <= surprise roll.  So it's still the first IP, and you have a simple action left to be used on your initiative. 

@Dos:
just waiting for you to roll surprise and init now.

[Thermo]

10-4, sounds good to me.

[inca1980]

@Thermo:
So that free action telling Dos that info needs to wait until your action phase.  just edit it or remove the post.

[Sichr]

--In SR4A pg. 165 it says: "Characters who plan an ambush and delay their actions while they lie
in wait for the arrival or appearance of their targets receive a +6 dice
pool modifier on the surprise Initiative Test."
You're not waiting for the appearance or arrival of the targets.
...
 

Just IMO: it is about that "delay their actions" part...since Storm is part of the show, her actions re fluid andcelarly visible by others, so there is no option for her to Delay action for ambush, on the other side rest of us may have that +6 bonus since oposing force is unaware of our presence and we have our actions delayed...

[inca1980]

@Sichr:

But the opposing team already has been alerted to the fact that there's danger.  +6 in my opinion is if they have no freakin idea they're gonna get jumped or that violence is gonna go down.  If they fail the perception test then they don't get any bonus to their surprise roll.  For example, since you're an infiltrator, if you want to sneak behind someone while combat is going on and back stab them, you wouldn't get a +6, just a +3. 

[Sichr]

@Sichr:

But the opposing team already has been alerted to the fact that there's danger.  +6 in my opinion is if they have no freakin idea they're gonna get jumped or that violence is gonna go down.  If they fail the perception test then they don't get any bonus to their surprise roll.  For example, since you're an infiltrator, if you want to sneak behind someone while combat is going on and back stab them, you wouldn't get a +6, just a +3.

Since we are starting at Time 0 there was no violonce prior to the surprise roll. I dont care, Ive rolled +3 so it doesnt matter now, just a theoretical discussion

IMO it is 1st pass, is it? Would any visible attack happen? Zach is delaying action after such thing...

[inca1980]

@Everyone:

Also if you are holding you actions, please state that you are doing so and IC something small.

[SeriousOne338]

me hold an action god I got loads of work to do and little time to do it.  So right now I am hacking the Tacnet for the next couple of IP passes/turns. Tell me when I get to act.

[Thermo]

I have to assume that Storm falls on the ice, since her AgI plus Rea is only 4 and the threshold is 5. If we just assume she falls, can I use edge to go first in the second IP? Would I have any modifiers if I wanted to spend a complex action casting a spell?

[inca1980]

@Storm:

You can spend Edge to go first in the the Third IP but not the second because the second IP already started and the Guards and Spirits already acted.  Those guards that haven't acted are holding their actions.  It is currently your action phase of the 2nd IP.  Since you're prone i'll say you only have full view of G9 and the two illusionists who are on pedestals, all other guards and the Tahldrin are under good cover (+4 to spell defense).  If you stand up then this becomes only partial cover (+2 to spell defense).  Many people always come to me saying that cover doesn't help spell defense but pg. 160 SR4A says explicitly that it does.....if you're already knew that then great, but just trying to prevent a possible question. 

Since the ice is so slick that you probably can't stand up unless you get a crazy edge roll or burn some edge, then i'll say that you can slide in one direction at 1m/CT.  So at the end of the CT you can move 1m in any direction. 

So just IC yourself falling on your ass and then you can go ahead and spend your complex action casting a spell.