I have a Big Bad Oppressive Government (BBOG) semi-inspired by the Roman Empire with the conceit that “all portals lead to Mul Khuldir,” i.e., that they’ve figured out super-fast logistics based on a central cluster of permanent Teleportation Circles that can be connected to scroll-cast Teleportation Circles near the battlefield ( (Every warmage has Sending to coordinate and then a few Teleportation Circle scrolls to bring in the first support platoon and additional warmages). The Great Mustering Hall in the ancient Dwarven citadel of Mul Khuldir is where they’ve been refining the martial exploitation of portals for hundreds of year and the Magisterium of Arcana has blah-blah tried to suppress all non-government-sanctioned learning / exploitation of magic.

Anyhow, the party has now made contact with the potentially-revolutionary enslaved dwarves inside the citadel and I’m fleshing out what the defenses of the citadel might be. Since portal magic is central to the BBOG and the citadel’s near a thousand years old, I’ve wondered if one thing you could do is: 100’ vertical shaft with a permanent teleportation circle on the ceiling and floor. The floor’s teleportation circle is connected to a vertical (or even pitched up) circle on the walls. You drop a rock or cannon ball down the shaft, it emerges horizontally at speed.

Thoughts?

  • PrismMind@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 year ago

    Do you have a teleportation circle or a portal? A teleportation circle is like a star trek teleporter your velocity is matched with the destination on arrival no cannon.

    If you have horizontal portal then sure you could drop a Boulder down such a shaft but I would be careful as this is open to exploit.

    • KonaKoder@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yes, it’s the idea of permanent tele circles.

      “Velocity is matched with the destination” : that makes sense, but do you have a citation?

      The character’s are time-traveling, are only 6th level, and a single permanent tele circle takes a year, so I’m not fretting too much about being exploited by the players. Plus, it’s a good group so I think we’d work it out.

      • PrismMind@lemmy.world
        5·
        1 year ago

        I reviewed the spell, I was incorrect in assuming no portal was opened with a teleportation circle. In that case it should work out.

        Glad you got a good group. My only real advice is stay consistent

  • pyrflie@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    Doesn’t the spell only work on Creatures?

    You could table rule this out, but given that your Empire is effectively a nexus city state it could be wiped out fairly quick if the party managed to gain control of said tower or built one of their own. Heck an Illusionist with Mislead and a little luck could probably wipe out the city by impersonating the Emperor.

    • KonaKoder@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      Re. “creatures only”: Do you have a reference for that? I assume it’s “creatures and possessions” and not “Terminator”-style naked?

      Well, the premise is that the BBOG is aware and paranoid of magical overthrow and does everything in its power to discover and “re-educate” or kill casters. They have a Stasi-like “Magisterium of Arcana” with a monopoly on spell books and rare components, informers and spies, etc. The party time-traveled back to this era and even the 6th-level Cleric, Warlock, and Sorcerer (in particular) would be considered major threats and are being pursued by a Hans Landa-esque character who knows they exist, but no details. (Kind of off-topic, but it’s been a really fun couple of sessions at the table developing this… :-) )

      • pyrflie@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        Teleportation spells that function for creatures such as Dimension Door, Misty Step, etc. also transport objects that the creatures are wearing or carrying.

        As to the source the spell specifically states creature.

        A shimmering portal opens within the circle you drew and remains open until the end of your next turn. Any creature that enters the portal instantly appears within 5 feet of the destination circle or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.

        This is a fairly important distinction as there are other higher lvl spells, specifically Gate, that allow for the transport of anything.

        Travel through the portal is possible only by moving through its front. Anything that does so is instantly transported to the other plane, appearing in the unoccupied space nearest to the portal.

        That said your strategy might allow for the use of heavily armored kamakazi Kobolds carrying dynamite.

        • KonaKoder@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          1 year ago

          lol, I only just understood your joke that for the portal cannon you could drop cannon-fodder creatures down the shaft. Shades of “Holy Grail”!

        • KonaKoder@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          Thanks for that! I was going to talk about siege provisions moving through the portals Teleportation Circle, so good to know it’s restricted on that.

          Re. exploits from enemies, my idea is that there are 32 “Teleportation Circle Traps” that are isolated corridors with two permanent circles at either end, an “external” circle that is to be connected to the external environment and an “internal” circle that is connected to the Mustering Hall itself. So you have your highly disciplined troops moving at a precise jog go through an external->trap temp circle in 1 round before it closes and then mages in the Mustering Hall open another internal->trap temp circle. The thought is that if bad guys get into one of these traps, they still don’t have immediate access to the citadel. (If I can figure out a good encounter for the players, I might trap them in one of these and throw in a “can be flooded” vs. maintenance tunnels or air shaftts, maybe a passage above with murder holes, etc. But if I can’t do something with it, it’s just going to be dungeon-dressing and its okay if it’s not 100% logical.)