Locking up the Base at Night

[Supreme]

I've volunteered to design the base for our golden age team (I get an extra EP for it). I need some sort of ultra-cool method for keeping the bad guys out of the base, that still lets the good guys and visitors in. An additional caviat is that we have no team technologist, so the "device" must be magical in nature. I welcome all suggestions. Anything done in an Egyptian theme is especially welcome as our mystic is an Egyptian sorceress.

 

The idea I have, which I'm feeling very lukewarm about is a force wall that doesn't stop anyone who truthfully recites an oath to uphold truth, justice, and the law (to keep out villains who think that their conquest of the world would be a good thing). This would work by means of a detect and a FW with a -0 limitation that it doesn't affect anyone who truthfully recites the oath.

 

I recognize that no system will be 100% villain-proof. Heck, it would be no fun if the villains could never breach the security. Thanks for the help, guys.

[Blue]

I always liked the guardian spirit effect: Someone/thing that knows who belongs there and who doesn't. Like a sphinx with a Detect: Virtue who only lets the righteous pass. Else an entangle barrier springs into play covering the entrance.

 

Don't know how you'd do it in game mechanics, but what if the door was always hidden and never in the same place. Upon speaking the password it reveals itself. The images for making the door look like a wall would be easy, but it's the moving locations thing that might be hard. Hmmm... Maybe

Teleport, from a random location on the exterior surface of the base, to a fixed location inside the base!

[Sketchpad]

Actually the Sphinx idea is a good one Maybe have a riddle given to each person ... when they walk up to the door, a sculpted piece that looks like a Sphinx's head asks the individual a riddle, they then tell the Sphinx the answer and are allowed in. You could explain it as a voice recognition program that also does a mystical scan of the person's body to see if they belong

 

Another idea is to have glyphs on the front that must be pressed in the right order or else the person is detained in an energy pyramid or a gravity trap that draws even the faster flyier into it's depths

 

Or, how about two guardian statues that wait outside the door. If the person doesn't enter the right code, they attempt to detain the target until the team can react. The Guardians could be techno-magical constructs that resemble some of the collosal statues on some of the Egyptian ruins

[Supreme]

Interesting ideas. Basically, an Egyptian-themed secret password variant. Very Golden Age.

[death tribble]

Mystical voice recognition ? I could go with that.

 

If you need anymore Ancient Egyptian sort of ideas with a more practical application you could google Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series. That might help. Or readers of her work might.

[Victor]

"We need to open the door from the inside, again. Major Fantastic says he's double-parked, and can't get in."

 

I second the notion for the teleport, although I'd probably go for the gate option. The Guardian of the Portal is probably best left as a special effect, perhaps for Trigger.

 

Bought on the cheap, it might look something like this;

 

Cost	Power	END
2	Guardian Portal: Teleportation 1", Usable By Other (+1/4), Trigger - Swearing of Oath/Answering Riddle (+1/4), Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2), Continuous (+1) (7 Active Points); Can Only Teleport To Fixed Locations Fixed Locations (-1), Limited Power (Gate) (-1/2), No Noncombat Movement (-1/4)
1	Other side of wall: Teleportation: Fixed Location (1 Locations)

 

If you want to enter from anywhere on the base perimeter, you need to buy it with a floating fixed location, and if you want to go to any point in the base instead of the other side of the outside wall, you need more inches of teleport to cover it (square root of the base's area should do it). However, those cost extra, and can be added later as the magic is strengthened.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Victor

"We need to open the door from the inside, again. Major Fantastic says he's double-parked, and can't get in."

 

I second the notion for the teleport, although I'd probably go for the gate option. The Guardian of the Portal is probably best left as a special effect, perhaps for Trigger.

 

Bought on the cheap, it might look something like this;

 

Cost	Power	END
2	Guardian Portal: Teleportation 1", Usable By Other (+1/4), Trigger - Swearing of Oath/Answering Riddle (+1/4), Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2), Continuous (+1) (7 Active Points); Can Only Teleport To Fixed Locations Fixed Locations (-1), Limited Power (Gate) (-1/2), No Noncombat Movement (-1/4)
1	Other side of wall: Teleportation: Fixed Location (1 Locations)

 

If you want to enter from anywhere on the base perimeter, you need to buy it with a floating fixed location, and if you want to go to any point in the base instead of the other side of the outside wall, you need more inches of teleport to cover it (square root of the base's area should do it). However, those cost extra, and can be added later as the magic is strengthened.

 

Reminds me of a great trap on the heroes base... [Looks around to see if any of the city's villains are listening]... Basically it's an area effect TPort over the entrance that when turned on will send everyone who enters the area to the detainment cells, or alternately to a fixed location far away from the base.

[Doug McCrae]

A doorless, windowless tower in witch-haunted Salem

[Victor]

I almost forgot... you could also throw in a Triggered Summon of poisonous snakes, or scorpions, or something like that, if a person of "evil intent" attempts to defraud the guardian spirit.

It might be better as a Drain of STUN, END, & REC so as to disable the fiend, however... and just make the special effect be that they're bitten/stung by a small plague of poisonous critters.

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Victor

"We need to open the door from the inside, again. Major Fantastic says he's double-parked, and can't get in."

 

I second the notion for the teleport, although I'd probably go for the gate option. The Guardian of the Portal is probably best left as a special effect, perhaps for Trigger.

 

Bought on the cheap, it might look something like this;

 

Cost	Power	END
2	Guardian Portal: Teleportation 1", Usable By Other (+1/4), Trigger - Swearing of Oath/Answering Riddle (+1/4), Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2), Continuous (+1) (7 Active Points); Can Only Teleport To Fixed Locations Fixed Locations (-1), Limited Power (Gate) (-1/2), No Noncombat Movement (-1/4)
1	Other side of wall: Teleportation: Fixed Location (1 Locations)

 

If you want to enter from anywhere on the base perimeter, you need to buy it with a floating fixed location, and if you want to go to any point in the base instead of the other side of the outside wall, you need more inches of teleport to cover it (square root of the base's area should do it). However, those cost extra, and can be added later as the magic is strengthened.

I like! My only problem with the secret password option is that anyone can overhear it. The location of our base has been dictated as within major city, in an abandoned old theater ("The Presidio"). Perhaps that's where the oath comes in...

[Highwayman]

Didn't Egyptian tombs have fake doors that the souls of the departed were supposed to use to come and go? Maybe for unauthorized visitors, the door is just a painted niche in the wall. Until, of course, your arch-villain gets ahold of that long-lost Egyptian scroll...

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Highwayman

Didn't Egyptian tombs have fake doors that the souls of the departed were supposed to use to come and go? Maybe for unauthorized visitors, the door is just a painted niche in the wall. Until, of course, your arch-villain gets ahold of that long-lost Egyptian scroll...

Yeah, I toyed with the idea that the FW would only allow members of the team to pass through, but then we'd never be able to admit visitors. Also, we have a Phantom Zone-type imprisoning device in the base so we have to be able to bring in unconscious villains. Sounds like the oath-activated Gate t-port option is really the way to go.

[Vondy]

What about a concealed entry/panel that can only be opened by pressing the correct pattern of heiroglyphs on the wall. The pattern could be dependent on time of day.

 

It could even be a design they lifted from an ancient tomb (hence no gadgeteer needed) that effortlessly swings a 50 ton block of limestone (disguised as a part of the wall of course) out of the way, revealing the entry.

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Supreme

Yeah, I toyed with the idea that the FW would only allow members of the team to pass through, but then we'd never be able to admit visitors. Also, we have a Phantom Zone-type imprisoning device in the base so we have to be able to bring in unconscious villains. Sounds like the oath-activated Gate t-port option is really the way to go.

Have them recite an oath and use a detect lie - if they lie when they recite the oath they don't get in.

[MarkusDark]

The trouble with secret entrances, combination locks, etc. is that people who wish to visit cannot enter the base. From playing in the game, it seems that they'd like any non-villian type the ability to at least enter the foyer. The idea of an enchanted sphinx that asks for the oath that they are there for the good of the city and its inhabitants would be perfect. Especially if the sphinx then stood up to allow passage. Also, it would make a good guardian against those who wanted in for nefarious reasons.

 

Go Scarab Sorceress!

[McCoy]

Originally posted by Agent X

Have them recite an oath and use a detect lie - if they lie when they recite the oath they don't get in.

 

That was my thought. And as a GM I also realized this would be the equlivent of leaving the key under the mat for all twelve year old sidekick wannabes. You and your GM can decide if that's an advantage or a limitation.

[Trebuchet]

Just remember that base defenses are really only sufficient to keep out encyclopedia salesmen and pesky DNPCs. Any supervillain(s) would in all likelihood waltz right into the place. The real defensive systems are the PCs.

 

We recently graphically demonstrated this in our campaign. Our remote base has state of the art sensors including motion sensors and IR cameras, guard dogs, and a well trained security detail of 150-point agents armed with hi-tech weapons and commanded by a 250 point superagent. In a drill-type scenario four of our team acting as a "supervillain team" managed to completely overwhelm the guard force, penetrate the base and "kidnap" the team leader's wife (a 120 pound dummy), and successfully escape in less than 30 seconds. And we didn't even know the interior layout of the building.

 

It was a fun and different twist on the old "danger room" scenario. It also showed us our security has a lot of room for improvement.

[JmOz]

HOW ABOUT:

 

A follower for the base, make the sphinx be a follower capable of holding it's own in a fight, think a magical doorman robot type thing, it could report on who comes in and who comes out, I like the idea of a riddle...