Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

[Bengalelf]

I just recently bought this 43 scale diecast truck. I thought it would make an excellent Stronghold van (Stronghold Prisoner Delivery truck). Any ideas on what colors to paint it? I was thinking of the blue and yellow from the old Stronghold cover. I was also wondering if anyone has made up a Stronghold seal they would be willing to share.

Also has anyone made up any fifth Ed. Stats for a Stronghold van yet? I realise the new Stronghold book is due to come out in 2006, but that doesn't help me now.

I would really appreciate any help.

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

I haven't written up the FSPD Containment vehicles (they're basically plot devices), but they look like dark grey tractor-trailers with the FSPD shield on the side.

 

http://www.westguard.org/index.php?title=Federal_Special_Police_Division

[Bengalelf]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

I have noticed that even plat devices seem to end up in battle every now and then

[Trebuchet]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

This is how we do it in our campaign (below is the press release from our campaign newsletter, the Weekly Globe Enquirer):

 

Supervillain Prison Opens on Isle of Man

London, UK – The British Government today announced the official activation of Europe’s first dedicated paranormal detention facility, located on the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland. The facility, a UK/EU corroboration, is designed to hold paranormals either awaiting trial or serving their sentences. The facility will be administered by the British Army. The facility is entirely modular in design, so additional wings will be constructed as needed. The bulk of the facility is deep underground, carved out of solid bedrock. Total cost of the facility thus far is over £520 million.

 

The island of Man has a number of high-security prisons; its isolation and insular population making escapes more difficult. A small number of paranormals are currently being held in the facility, but the number and identities of these have not been released. Civil rights activists have protested this lack of information, but under a new law enacted by Parliament in January 2004 the identities and location of terrorists and other extraordinary criminals such as paranormals are being detained need not be publicly disclosed in order to prevent outside parties from attempting to liberate their incarcerated comrades. Studies of incarcerated paranormals will be conducted by the Europa 2000 Foundation*, which has been investigating paranormals since they first appeared over five years ago. The Europa 2000 Foundation will also monitor conditions for the prisoners and ensure their civil rights are not being violated.

* Our heroes all work for the Europa 2000 Foundation in their secret IDs.

 

 

This is the writeup I did for my fellow GMs:

 

Located in a valley about 10 miles north of Man's capital city of Douglas, it was originally built deep underground in 1953 as a secret Cold War-era command and control bunker complex for the top echelons of the British government. A small dual strip airbase above provided access in case of national emergency. In 1975 the base's main runway was lengthened to 11000 feet in order to handle larger aircraft, including 747s and B-52s, and a half dozen hangers and a number of other buildings were constructed. The base was slowly enlarged over the next fifteen years, reaching a maximum complement of 1800 military personnel. Deactivated in 1993 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was reactivated in 2001 after the emergence of paranormals made it clear that a facility would be needed to hold and study paranormal criminals. The deep underground bunkers of Bradden RAFB needed only minimal work to create a holding facility that could resist the attacks of most paranormals.

 

The cover story for the secret facility is that Bradden RAFB is currently a testing ground for new military hardware, which helps explain the presence of a largish garrison, several Challenger main battle tanks and Lynx armed helicopters, and other heavy weapons plus the occasional arrival of large containers (Transport modules for villainous paranormals are cleverly disguised as standard shipping containers.) The "inside story" in case the outer layer is penetrated is that the site is a training ground for SAS troops developing tactics and testing weaponry to combat paranormals. The fact that paranormal villains are held at the base, or that the base has an underground facility of any type, is highly classified. Most prisoners are flown in on C-130 transports. Entry to the underground portion of the base is through one of the hangers, a 100 foot square section of the three foot thick reinforced concrete and steel floor of which descends like a giant lift some 500 feet down at a 45 degree angle. The lift must be operated from both the ground and subterranean levels simultaneously with keys.

 

Total personnel at the base are about 500, including a company of SAS troops, RAF staff, pilots and technicians, Royal Army tankers and helicopter crews, and various civilian consultants and medical staff. The base is commanded by an RAF brigadier, Sir Wendell Hyde-Smythe, a highly energetic and intelligent combat veteran with nearly 30 years of service to the Crown.

 

Typical equipment at the base includes several Challenger main battle tanks, three or four Lynx armed helicopters, several surface to air missile batteries. State of the art sensors, including IR, low-light, seismic and chemical detectors surround the entire perimeter. Patrolling is performed constantly, and a squad or two of SAS troops are generally "on maneuvers" outside the perimeter fence at all times. A Lynx attack helicopter with IR cameras patrols the area constantly day and night. The entire base is approximately 90 square miles, and the airfield sits almost exactly in the center. A fence at the outside borders of the base is clearly marked with signs every 20 meters: "Government Property. Trespassers Will Be Subject To Full Penalty of Law." The perimeter fence is marked: "Attention! Do Not Enter. Deadly Force Authorized." Only one road leads to the airfield from outside, connecting to the highway about two miles outside the capital city of Douglas. The area inside the perimeter fence is cleared and mowed regularly.

 

The surrounding terrain is low rounded mountains and hills quite similar to the American Appalachians, heavily wooded with scrub oak and other mid-sized trees along with a smattering of conifers at the higher elevations.

[Bengalelf]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

Tractor trailers. I always imaged them about the size of a UPS truck. Something small the could have its bed or the entire truck put onto a large Stronghold carrrier plane to be shipped out to The Mesa....

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

Tractor trailers. I always imaged them about the size of a UPS truck. Something small the could have its bed or the entire truck put onto a large Stronghold carrrier plane to be shipped out to The Mesa....

 

Standard shipping containers (or at least, containers that are that standard size) can be moved any number of ways. Besides, a mesa is a dumb place for a prison. I don't use that version of "Stronghold" at all (what I do use is covered in that link a few posts up).

[Bengalelf]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

Trebuchet, would have any Red Harrings press release from your newspaper I might borrow. I have no problem writing articles about the main story to come, or one that has finished. I just cannot come up with any false leads.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

Trebuchet' date=' would have any Red Harrings press release from your newspaper I might borrow. I have no problem writing articles about the main story to come, or one that has finished. I just cannot come up with any false leads.[/quote']I can probably dig up a couple. One great source I have found is the schlockfest known as the Weekly World News http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/ which is just chock full of bizarre and phony stories to act as filler or red herrings for heroes. Just take any random headline or story, throw in an NPC or location from your campaign to provide the connection, and presto! Instant diversion. (An old buddy of mine used to say "There's a Champions adventure on the front page of every Weekly World News.") I wouldn't go quite that far, but he's not far wrong.

 

Here is a headline from my campaign (this wasn't a red herring in my campaign since our team is based in Oslo, but it certainly would be mysterious in yours):

 

Ghost Plane? 747 Flies 6900 km without Crew

Oslo, Norway - A Central African Airlines cargo 747 mysteriously landed at Oslo Airport Tuesday night after a 7 hour flight apparently without a crew. No crewmembers were found on board, the aircraft was completely empty except for a single large open wooden crate of about six cubic meters capacity labeled "Biological samples". The box was filled with nothing but a bit of straw.

 

According to Norwegian government officials, the plane took off from Entebbe Airport in Uganda around and flew straight to Oslo almost entirely on its GPS-controlled autopilot, a journey of approximately 6900 kilometers, or 4300 miles. The rear loading hatch was hanging open about 3 feet; the flight recorder showed the aircraft had been on autopilot since approximately thirty minutes after takeoff and the hatch was opened somewhere over north Africa.

 

The aircraft was tracked over all the way across Europe by Italian and German-based fighters, who were unable to see any crew, for 3 hours until it was lost over the Baltic Sea due to low cloud cover. It was briefly considered shooting down the jet, but as the aircraft was not passing over any major cities it was decided to simply escort the aircraft instead until such time as it made a threatening move. Two Norwegian F-16s scrambled to escort the 747 as it approached Oslo, but were unable to locate the aircraft due to dense fog. The mysterious aircraft came straight in to the Oslo runway and shut down its engines, narrowly avoiding a collision with a British Airways flight headed for the same runway.

 

No flight plan had been filed for the aircraft; which had just finished a full avionics refit and was scheduled for delivery to Central African Airlines the following Monday.

 

"We are conducting a thorough investigation of this incident, with the full cooperation of both the Ugandan government and Central African Airlines," stated Lt. Orle Knutsen of the Norwegian Royal Air Force. Central African Airlines is jointly owned by eight central African nations, including Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, and the People's Republic of Congo.

[CBikle]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

Stronghold Van.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Stronghold Prisoner Delivery

 

I've got Stronghold outfitted with both air and land vehicles to transport villains to the New Mexico installation ... though I'm also thinking of making that a holding center for a larger prison that lies on an island, so there'd have to be larger and more secure transportation to bring prisoners in masses to the core location.