Alicia's Fortress of Solitude

[Ebiris]

It's high time I got started on Alicia's fortress of solitude via copious spamming of Limited Wish to copy all the fun spells involved in the process. A lot of this is going to cost more than I can afford at the moment, but it's good for planning/budgeting, and it opens the process up to feedback.

The location of said fortress is the hidden mountain valley where the Sword of the Sealed Gate was originally found in its sundered state. Said valley currently boasts the ruins of several houses, mostly reduced to their foundations, a river that passes underground at either end, and an underground alchemist's lab and summoning chamber placed over a natural ley point that boosts summoning magic. Said area also includes a forbiddance effect that deters outsiders from approaching.

The very first thing to do before any work is done on the area is to cast Commune with Nature.

You instantly gain knowledge of as many as three facts from among the following subjects: the ground or terrain, plants, minerals, bodies of water, people, general animal population, presence of woodland creatures, presence of powerful unnatural creatures, or even the general state of the natural setting.

In order of priority the subjects I'd focus on would be unnatural creatures (potential threats/allies), people (we don't quite know where the valley is so this could narrow it down), and minerals (this could make finding construction materials easier down the line).

The spell will give me info on everything within 20 miles above ground, and 2,000 feet below ground.

We can RP this stage out, Dune, or you can summarise it in post format. It needs to be resolved before I commit to the construction phase, however, and if it turns out there are exciting creatures nearby I probably will want to investigate.

As for construction, there are two spells that will be used for most of the heavy lifting here; Move Earth, which lets me flatten/raise/lower up to 750x750 feet per casting (it's just like Populus!) and Greater Stone Shape which lets me alter the shape of up to 21 10ft cubes per casting. Between these I'll effectively demolish the existing ruins so that there's no trace left, cut off cave entrances to the mountain (except for the river), and excavate the fortress itself.

I won't belabour the actual layout of the place too much, but maybe I'll draw a floorplan some day if I'm bored.

Anyway, it'll all be carved out of the rock itself, giving it a very rough dungeon/cave-like ambience. Not what I want for a Doomsday Vault designed to safeguard knowledge for the future! It'd also be terribly boring for the guardians who live there. We can fix that, but before we do there's something else that can be done - if Commune with Nature found me some lead deposits earlier, I'll go get them now. If not I'll go somewhere lead is plentiful to get it straight from the ground. Borrowing Anty, I'll have her use her metal working skills coupled with the Metal Melt spell (or just lots of fire, it's not like it'd bother her) to make thin lead sheets which would be affixed to the walls and floors of the fortress.

So now I've got my underground vault which has been protected from scrying, it's time to pretty the place up a bit. To to fix that I'd use Commune with Nature again to find any cool decorative stone deposits, like marble or something like that, in the vicinity. Greater Stone Shape should allow them to be easily extracted from the earth for me to teleport to the fortress, then Stone Shaped some more to form a polished decorative finish over the lead plating and stone ceilings.

It's not even close to done, but the bare bones have been established all without actually costing a penny. It's late so I'm going to bed but tomorrow I'll get into the details of furnishing and guarding this hidden repository of knowledge. Comment as you please.

[Anastasia]

I would like to RP this out, yes. Most of this is fine pending Commune with Nature and seeing how that works out. I'll withhold full comment until you finish this, but I don't see anything glaringly wrong.

[Ebiris]

Okay, most of the above has been done except from the lead sheeting. She's also put in a nice garden nearby that will brighten the place up and provide fresh produce once it blooms. Now instead of lead sheeting there's something better. Alicia first buys 5,000gp worth of Permanency reagents, then casts Mage's Private Sanctum and Permanencies it (via Limited Wish for both castings) to cover the full interior of the fortress.

Next she takes the wood she's already acquired and wood-shapes it into furniture such as doors and bookshelves and such, and casts Hardening on each to improve its durability. The door to the vault gets made out of Hardened steel and outfitted with an Amazing lock (150gp) which Alicia will keep the key for. I'll also earmark 850gp for simple furnishings like beds for the living quarters, carpets, cushioned chairs for the library, that sort of stuff.

At this point we can start moving all the books into the library, but our fortress needs its first guardian. Elle can hopefully provide a scroll of Simulacrum for 2,275gp. The reagents to create a 10hd copy cost an additional 11,000gp. A further 100gp is spent so Copy Alicia can summon a familiar at the ley point (netting it a +4 bonus to strength and constitution)

Copy Alicia
Half Celestial Human Paladin 2/Sorcerer 4/Spellsword 4
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 2d10+4d4+4d8+40 (85)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 60 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 28 (+3 dex, +1 natural, +7 armour, +7 deflection)
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+8
Attack: Falchion, +15 (2d4+8 18-20/x2) (includes bonuses from greater magic weapon)
Full Attack: Falchion, +15/+10 (2d4+8 18-20/x2) (includes bonuses from greater magic weapon)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft
Special Attacks: Spells, Spell-like-abilities, Smite (1/day), Spellfire, Channel Spell (3/day), Undead Bane, Holy Radiance, Knowledge Devotion
Special Qualities: Divine Grace, Ignore Spell Failure, Nimbus of Light, Reversed Euyale, Damage Reduction 5/Silver and Evil, Sonic Resistance 2, Electricity Resistance 3
Saves: Fort +19, Ref +14, Will +17
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 25
Skills: Concentration +8, Diplomacy +21, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (Arcana) +16, Knowledge (Religion) +14, Knowledge (Planes) +16, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +16, Tumble +9
Feats: Apt Learner, Power Attack, Practiced Spellcaster, Arcane Strike, Flyby Attack, Exalted Familiar
Alignment: Lawful Good.
Equipment: Nichtrusten, Masterwork Silver Falchion

Spells DC 17 + level Caster Level 10
0th (6): Detect Poison, Amanuensis, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation
1st (8): Magic Missile, Shield, Critical Strike, True Strike
2nd (7): Mirror Image, Alter Self
3rd (5): Greater Magic Weapon

Spell-like-Abilities Caster Level 10
At will: Detect Evil, Arcane Sight
1/day: Summon Monster V (Fire Elemental only), Protection from Evil, Cure Serious Wounds, Holy Smite

Copy Alicia's Lantern Archon familiar
Outsider 10
Size/Type: Small Outsider (Extraplanar, Good, Lawful, Archon)
Hit Dice: 42
Initiative: +4
Speed: fly 60 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +5 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+1
Attack: Light Ray +8 ranged touch (1d6)
Full Attack: 2 Light Rays +8 ranged touch (1d6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft
Special Attacks: Spell like abilities
Special Qualities: Aura of Menace, Damage Reduction 10/evil and magic, immunity to electricity and petrification, magic circle against evil, teleport, tongues
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +1, Will +7
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 10
Skills: Concentration +6, Diplomacy +14, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (Arcana) +12, Knowledge (Religion) +10, Knowledge (Planes) +12, Sense Motive +4, Spellcraft +12, Tumble +4
Feats: Improved Initiative
Alignment: Lawful Good.

Spell-like-abilities Caster Level 10
At will: Aid, Detect Evil, Continual Flame

The familiar can immediately be put to work making eternal torches throughout the up till now pitch black fortress with its Continual Flame SLA, while Copy Alicia can work on sorting the library as Alicia ferries books back and forth. She'll also make a point of taking the familiar on short trips to all the notable cities in the world she knows of, so it can teleport to them itself in the future should supplies or knowledge of the outside world need to be gathered to stave off cabin fever.

An alchemist's lab will also be put in place for 500gp, which will allow Copy Alicia to repair herself in future, or just futz around and do magical experiments to provide entertainment.

19,875gp spent so far. The magical traps and defences as well as various fluffy things to pad the place out are still to come.