Making a Magical Bunker

[KOFFEYKID]

I've been thinking about what kinds of defenses you could setup or aspects in place to tag if you were making a magical fortress. Some ideas I've had:

1. Build over a leyline with defensive energy to power your wards.
2. Have the grounds consecrated.
3. Lay down tons of aspects during construction to be used when casting your wards.
---The bricks are all etched with protective sigils.
---The building itself is built over a specially crafted magical circle.
---The foundation is poured over a rods (etched with magical symbols) of each noble metal.
---The walls are painted with a (non-radioactive) version of ghost dust.
---Furniture arranged in Feng Shue.
4. Clear away undesirable stuff on the Nevernever side.
5. Bind nasty stuff to the Nevernever side for watchdogs.

So what types of things would you do if you were trying to make a magical fortress? Like Archangel?

[The Mighty Buzzard]

I'd start by taking a lesson from other fortresses.  Build it underground in rock.  See Cheyenne Mt or the WC headquarters.

You're probably not going to be able to clear the Nevernever access to it.  Mortals staking a claim to real estate there would honk off whoever has dominion over it something fierce.  Also, changing the nature of the place into a fortress is highly likely to change where it connects to.  Just cut off access to the Nevernever aside from a few heavily defended points.

One physical way in or out.  Your most destructive power brought to bear on the entrance.  A Loooong entry way with several fortified fallback positions.  A way to make the entrance collapse in stages in the event that you do have to fall back.

Magical constructs such as the temple dog statues.

And, of course, a self destruct spell to Hiroshima the entire place and as much surrounding area as you can manage in case you have to use one of the exits to the Nevernever.

[sinker]

You're probably not going to be able to clear the Nevernever access to it.  Mortals staking a claim to real estate there would honk off whoever has dominion over it something fierce.  Also, changing the nature of the place into a fortress is highly likely to change where it connects to.  Just cut off access to the Nevernever aside from a few heavily defended points.

One of the things you could probably do is build your fortress with the intent of linking it to a specific piece of realty in the Nevernever (perhaps one that you have claim to, or is at least friendly to you). If you put a lot of effort into atmosphere, symbolism, etc, then it might actually work too. 

[Todjaeger]

One of the first questions which come to mind is who is this for, and for how many people?

Those two questions will determine a number of different things which are important to know.

Depending on who this is for, can determine just what is available in terms of resources, as well as the potential threats which need to be defended against.  As for how many people, that dictates how 'big' the fortress/bunker/panic room needs to be.  Another consideration is whether this is going to be a complete 'built from scratch' place, or modifications made to an existing structure. 

For a place made from scratch where possible the following are desired.

1. On a ley line, preferably strong defensive in nature, but beggars can't be choosers.
2.  On a small island where possible, magic (and people) have a hard time crossing over open water.
3.  On consecrated ground, as a number of nasty things either can't operate on such ground, or are at significant disadvantages.
4.  The place should be built with a combination of stone, concrete and steel, as this allows a physically strong and reinforced location, for when non-magical methods of forced entry are used, tends to be fireproof, and gives the opportunity to cut/carve symbols into stone or metal.
5.  The structure should also have at least two points of entry and exit.  A single entrance/exit makes it easier to track the comings and goings from the structure, as well as limiting the routes those seeking to flee can use.
6.  Where possible, there should be multiple lines of defense which need to be crossed.  In other words, not only should there be the structure itself, but also an encircling wall or fence.  This provides both a second Threshold to work from (and hang a Ward onto) as well as an additional barrier which needs to be crossed.
7.  The site (structure and encircling wall/fence) should likely cover at least an acre of ground, large enough so that a greater circle can't realistically be raised around the entire thing to cut an area off.

That's it for now, need to get some sleep.  I'll put up more ideas when I get a chance.

-Cheers

[Belial666]

What kind of time a serious, old wizard can devote to their stronghold? Even with a bare minimum of 2 hours per day for 13 years or so, it is still ten thousand spells of "raise an undead dinosaur" kind of power, for a wizard as strong as Harry Dresden. For one of the more paranoid members of the Senior Council or a Dark Lord type evil wizard, 4 hours per day for a century is a hundred and fifty thousand spells of however strong a Senior Council member could cast in one hour each. For a 3-century-old Dark Lady that never needs to sleep, is paranoid and is feeling bored at nights it is seven hundred thousand spells. 


 

[Haru]

Like Todjaeger said, it all depends on what and who it is for.

You could create sort of a submarine type of bunker for one person only. You'd need a container that is big enough to fit a person and a supply of air and food that will last you long enough. A wizard might even be able to recycle the air, so he can stay longer. If you submerge it and keep it locked in place with chains to the ground, but still floating in the middle of a river, so it is surrounded by water, you have a great protection against almost any supernatural predator. Of course, any mortal will just rip a whole into it and be done with you, but still.

-As I suggested somewhere else, I would probably layer a lot of different types of wards on top of each other to build a defence.
-If you have lots of land around the actual bunker to play with, planting trees, setting up statues, footpaths, etc. around in magical patterns and as wards themselves.
-The footpath are magically twisted into a labyrinth that can be activated to lead invaders around the path without ever reaching the main building.
-Bushes and Trees that grab intruders and grow around them. Together with the labyrinth, that can hold of a lot in itself.
-Against magical attacks, I would probably not build the equivalent of a wall, because in the long run it will not protect you. I would probably go a lightning rod way, catching the energy and channeling it around the complex where it will "harmlessly" crash into the landscape. Or maybe even funnel it into a magical capacitor to use in the defence later. Would sort of make for an adaptable ward, the harder you get hit, the stronger your defence is.
-The bunker itself should be embedded into the the construction of the ward in shape, material, pretty much every aspect about it should be incorporated into the design of the defences.
-If it is supposed to be for a selected circle of persons, include a bit of their blood in the mortar, so you can spread it from there into the magical defences, making them automatically immune to the defences while everyone else won't be able to get in (sadly, not even friends who are not included).
-Illusions can make for great defence, too. Coat the whole area in total darkness and any intruder will have a hard time getting in. Better yet: if someone creates light inside that area, the offensive wards attack them.
-Like the one man submarine bunker above, use water in your design. A water tower for example to wash over the outsides of your bunker, once the wards are broken will wash away a lot of supernatural predators. Or use a pump to create a steady flow of water somewhere in your design, maybe around the innermost panic room.

If I come up with more, I will add it later, when I have more time.

[Belial666]

Here's Elena's (the sorceress I am playing in a high-level game) wards in her house in Salem. The house isn't part of the campaign, sadly. Of course, no GM would ever let a PC have that kind of protection in his place, even if they are capable of creating it;


1) Dark magic leyline under the area to power stuff in case someone manages a big enough greater circle (a couple hundred yards across).

2) An outer circle of 666 coffin-sized stone tiles buried under the ground goes all around the estate. Each tile is individually marked in blood by her and enchanted with a permanent alarm spell, a permanent major veil, a permanent ward and a permanent worldwalking spell just powerful enough to teleport anything crossing above a stone to the corresponding stone at the far side of the circle. This layer is intended to hide the existence of the grounds beyond under many veils that add up to conceal all angles of sight and send people and objects accidentally moving in on to the other side without them realising they crossed the area. Should someone see through the area with magical senses, they still act as a moat of sorts and have to be dispelled before one can go through... or magical forces can cross.

3) Second layer of defense is a ring-shaped graveyard around the estate but inside the outer circle. Each one of the graves is the building foundation needed for the permanent ward that covers them, and the wards are big enough that there is no free space between graves; an attacker would have to pierce the wards on many individual graves before going forward, like tearing bricks in a wall. However, each grave is also individually perma-veiled and inside each ward are imprisoned seven rather large tentacled beasts from Outside that physically manifest and attack intruders when each ward falls. In addition, they act as a detterent; anyone using The Sight or other similar senses upon the area is going to see the true forms and natures of dozens upon dozens of Outsiders, suffering a devastating mental feedback that would obliterate any wizard stupid enough to do so after crossing the outer circle.

4) Six circles of standing stones (ala stonehenge, only thinner and smaller) surrounds the estate, each one curved with hundreds of runes and symbolic images. Each circle has eleven such stones is the foundation of a very major triple Ward that took three months' work for a senior-council-level warlock to erect. The outer and inner layers are typical barriers and between them lie bound Outsiders bigger and more numerous than those in the graves. The rationale is that if they beat those in the graves, they are major opposition and need to be adressed accordingly.

5) The actual estate has a single massive permanent Ward on it that took a few hours every night for two years to erect. Its number of shifts is about twenty-one thousand, nine hundred and seventy-eight (666 nights x 33 shifts/night) and it is more or less impenetrable to anything short of the concerted efforts of an entire supernatural nation (such as the White Council), or a god.

6) Inside the estate there is a teleportation circle with a single-use 1000-shift worldwalk effect, enough to open a very brief gateway through a 200-shift block vs worldwalking, drag the caster instantanously through 600 zones worth of Nevernever (roughly about two hours' walk), and open a second very brief gateway back to the physical world. Basically, it's a spell big enough to teleport those standing within the teleportation circle anywhere in the world through any kind of hastily-erected barriers.

7) Beneath the estate is a big cavernous chamber once used to amass water for a now-vanished village. It's about 30 yards across and just as deep. Currently, it is filled with dry wood from nearly a thousand trees cut down over a year by summoned minions. Each one of its nine zones is enchanted with thirteen landmines, each at about 13 shifts of power, keyed to go off once the teleportation circle is used. When the landmines go off, each piece of wood there takes 169 shifts of damage, enough to superheat and instantly vaporise it. The superheated vapors under extreme pressure blow the estate above into smithereens and upon encountering the air (and thus enough oxygen to burn), flash-burn in an instant. About ten thousand tons of wood burning instantly unleash roughly the same energy as the same amount of TNT. That's roughly equal to the Hiroshima event, and a fairly nasty surprise for those guys that breached all the wards. For extra nastiness, the sorceress that cast this Boompit has added several tons of cold iron objects in it that make fairly good sharpnell vs spiritual entities and fae.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Of course, no GM would ever let a PC have that kind of protection in his place, even if they are capable of creating it;

I might.  I'd even let it work as intended.  Right up until I wrote in a baddie capable of finding a way around it.

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Harry's wards in Changes were pretty badass but they got bypassed by less than five bucks worth of materials put into a molotov cocktail.

[Haru]

You don't even need a villain that can bypass their defences, a good compel on one of the player characters can be enough to make the situation interesting again.
I am not sure which book this was, I think Death Mask:

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When Harry and Susan flee to Harry's place and he lights up that ward candle for the big ward and then he is trapped with a bloodthirsty Susan in his apartment.

[Belial666]

Harry is a relative newbie at ward-smithing. The ways around and through his wards are big enough for a herd of elephants to run through. Plus, he rarely puts enough effort into making his Wards that we see - not nearly as much as he puts into Little Chicago, for example. The point of Warding is to spend a long time into building a defense that takes an equal effort to penetrate. How this benefits you;

1) The enemy cannot penetrate the Ward -not powerful enough- and you're safe.
2) The enemy needs time to penetrate the ward - time you spend buffing up and/or preparing your big guns to flatten him when he does breach it.
3) An enemy has to spend his resources to breach the ward so when you do face him he is so much weaker while you are actually stronger for spending the time preparing.

For most master wizards, #1 applies against 99% of their enemies.
#2 means that even bigger fish take time to reach the wizard. If you spent a year raising the ward in your free time and the enemy is ten times as strong as you are, it will still take him a month to break through. Most baddies don't bother wasting a month against you, especially if at the end if the month, they take in the face a death-spell you spent the whole month casting.
#3 means that if the baddie is determined enough and spends enough resources, they do get to fight you - when they are at their weakest and you are at your strongest. If they were to win that fight, they'd win any other fight anyway. So better to make a last stand and try and take them with you or they're going to flatten you at any other battlefield.


As for compels, there are four types of people that make big Wards their main business;

1) Those whose job is to guard something important and that's their greatest goal in life. (i.e. Gatekeeper and the wards on the Outer Gates)
2) Those paranoid guys or people with large numbers of enemies who spend most their life in their magical fortress.
3) Old wizards that have retired from active duty or go to desk jobs, living under polar ice caps or distant planes and have nothing better to do.
4) Happy-go-lucky or insane people that build the Dark Tower of Ominousness because its awesome, big and cylindrical. And because they can.

#1 you can hardly compel away from their duty, especially if they're oathbound as well as have chosen that life.
#2 have been self-compelling themselves to stay inside their wards in the first place.
#3 don't much care if they're compelled. They've been building the Wards as an alternative to playing cards or gardening.
#4 want to be compelled out of their tower. They need the excuse to use their other pet project after all; their army of undead, demons and outsiders. Yes, they might go down but there will be rain-o-fire and wailing and gnashing of teeth... which was their goal all along.




As you can see, those four types of people are not your typical PCs. But they could be if the game was epic enough. 

[KOFFEYKID]

Harry's wards are so good that when Ramirez shows up in White Knight he says something along the lines of "Jeezus you beefed them up even more."

I think you are underestimating his setup.

[Belial666]

Harry's wards can be beaten down by a small army of zombies, eventually. I'd peg them at about 30 shifts, given that they can stop the Barrabus Curse from Nick's noose, at least for a time.
The Wards at Archangel done by Simon should have been able to stop a major offensive of the Red Court if they didn't have the key. An offensive that four separate Death Curses that could level several city blocks and an entire team of powerful battle-wizards were not able to stop.
The Wards at the Edinburg HQ are powerful enough to stop anythigh short of a deity - including a major attack from the full strength of the Red Court. (hence their plans to have a newborn god bring them down instead of their own forces attacking).
The Wards against Outsider intrusion Rashid's job is to oversee are powerful enough to hold back a group of beings that once ruled the Dresdenverse.


So Harry's wards are rather small compared to even older wizards, let alone really major wizarding strongholds.

[Haru]

Remember that Ramirez is a lightweight compared to Harry. If I throw a ball and a little kid is watching, it might be impressed at how far I can get it. But I myself would be equally amazed at a professional baseball player.

I was going to answer to each point individually, but the point is pretty much always the same. Every player character worth playing should be able to be compelled to not spend all their time behind their wards. Most of the time, that will involve saving some innocence or something. If the good guys are shut away behind their wards, the bad guys can do whatever the hell they want. So I would be fine with giving a character a strong ward, a safe house is always a good thing to fall back to and lick your wounds. But as soon as the proverbial shit hits the fan, the characters should head out again.

Or you could play a defend the castle game, which might be fun, too. Sort of an "defend the artefact until sunrise" thing, although the wards should have a limited number agreed on before everything starts. It might even make a fun oneshot: Preset characters, a fix amount of points to create defence lines and a set amount of exchanges you need to survive.


I just had to think of this 

2) Those paranoid guys or people with large numbers of enemies who spend most their life in their magical fortress.

"DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?"

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Harry is a relative newbie at ward-smithing. The ways around and through his wards are big enough for a herd of elephants to run through. Plus, he rarely puts enough effort into making his Wards that we see - not nearly as much as he puts into Little Chicago, for example. The point of Warding is to spend a long time into building a defense that takes an equal effort to penetrate. How this benefits you;

...

As you can see, those four types of people are not your typical PCs. But they could be if the game was epic enough. 

Yeah, I get all that.  Problem is, nobody can think of everything.  Me, I'd drop a little effort into some geomancy to build up some levies then burst the water main and let the running water take out every bit of magic guarding the place.  Wizards may be as paranoid as nine kinds of hell but they still want their toilets working, so there's probably water service unless they're out in the boonies and have their own well.

[Belial666]

Running water impedes magic- it doesn't wash it away completely. Harry can still summon some of his 8-10 shifts of power in Changes (and other books) when standing in running water. The curse that turns MacFinn into the Loup Garou is powerful enough not to be bothered by several generations of people having taken tens of thousands of baths and the entropy curse was powerful enough to nearly kill people while taking a bath despite Harry's attempts to deflect its energy. A major ward with a lot more shifts than that curse is going to ignore any amount of water. Also, nobody is going to think of everything. That's true. But consider that some people do have centuries to think that, and centuries of experience to draw from. Plus, they can summon spirits of knowledge to do the thinking for them.
As in anything, building a serious magical bunker is a matter of time. If a great mage spent literally decades designing and building that bunker, nobody is going to find out a weakness that he did not think of without also spending similar time thinking - especially if they cannot see what protections he or she has designed.


I'll tell you what. I'll sit for a day or so fully designing a magical bunker my current character could build in a year's effort. I'll send the writeup to my current GM. Then you, playing as a group of warden-level wizards, will have to plan an assault on it on paper (not actually run it - it would take too long). See if you can think of a way to find it, find what defenses it has, and penetrate them in a reasonable amount of time.