Protection ideas for bank vault

[Richard Hamel]

Hello,

I'm placing the finishing touches on a con game I plan on running this Labor Day and was hoping to get community help on something;

What kind of magical protections do you think would the Bank of Abadar have within their vaults? Specifically the vaults containing the really good stuff that they would want to keep away from nasty thieves and such.

TIA,

Richard.

[Magda Luckbender]

Gosh. That's a big topic ...

[Hazrond]

How hard to crack is this vault meant to be, because here are some ideas for a high powered one.

The Mega Vault:

Start with the walls being triple layered, i would suggest Iron, Force, then Lead, in that order starting from the outside. Then have the hallway leading up to the vault lined with hundreds Symbols of Sleep, with their safety condition being that your patron diety must be Abadar, the vault door is kept warded with a constant magic item of Symbol of Sealing, and inside is an Adamantine Golem with specific instructions to kill anybody who enters the vault without reciting the correct codewords within one minute of entry, codewords only known by the highest ranking priest in this church. Then have the entire inside of the vault have a constant Antimagic Field effect that is created by the lead-lined wall of the vault, a constant magic item of antimagic field. This vault should be a veritable nightmare for any would-be vault breakers.

[Goddity]

Are your players supposed to rob this bank or defend it?
If robbing it, do what Hazrond suggests but double it.

If defending then it is a wooden shed.

[Hazrond]

Goddity wrote:

Are your players supposed to rob this bank or defend it?

If robbing it, do what Hazrond suggests but double it.

If defending then it is a wooden shed.

Something about this response struck me as incredibly funny. Well done if that was your intention.

[Richard Hamel]

The players would be robbing it, like a bank heist movie;

Have a vault containing something amazing and impossible to steal
Hire a team to steal that amazing
Pull off the heist and escape.

I think I'll work with Hazronds idea.

[wraithstrike]

Since it should be able to keep high level adventures and powerful monsters out it likely has a few artifacts in place and guardians.<--How I envision it.

As the GM I am assuming you want the players to eventually get in so we might need to know the level of your group so we don't take things too far.

[Hazrond]

Richard Hamel wrote:

The players would be robbing it, like a bank heist movie;

Have a vault containing something amazing and impossible to steal
Hire a team to steal that amazing
Pull off the heist and escape.

I think I'll work with Hazronds idea.

If you want a few explanations of my various defenses, the walls of force prevent people from entering through the ethereal plane, the walls of lead prevent divinations to keep them from knowing the inner defenses, the golem is effectively unaffected by the antimagic field for the most part but without all their magic goodies the party will be hard-pressed to actually be able to penetrate the golem's DR, (DR Epic is hard to break when your magic weapons are disabled) the golem's fast healing should be able to out-heal anybody who deals damage. The antimagic field also deals double duty in preventing enemy spellcasters from being able to engage in effective combat with the golem, most creatures should be relatively helpless as the golem pounds their faces in if they make it past the symbols of sleep (there should be like, 20 of them, there is statistically no way they all should survive a save), dont forget that if they try to run from the golem back into the hallway they will have to save against every symbbol as they return

[Lincoln Hills]

Judging by the contents you describe, price is no object. And when the richest temple in the world says that, it means Grimtooth gets called in as the architect...

Mage's private sanctum should be in effect for the entire area, and all high-ranking priests should naturally be wearing a ring of mind shielding - except when entering the vault (see below). The entire vault should be coterminous with something truly nasty on the Ethereal Plane.

The vault guards are well-paid, subjected to detect thoughts on a daily basis, and have beloved children who have been entrusted to the Church for education... if you catch my drift. These guards only allow three specific people through, and even they can't go in if they radiate any magic at all (items, spells, whatever). Attempts to circumvent this rule are met with lethal force.

The outer vault is the typical massive job with multiple locks. The tumblers of the locks are linked - failure on any Disable Device check re-seals any locks that were already picked. Four of those keys are locked in various strongboxes elsewhere in the temple and the fifth is in the high priest's headdress. Beyond this door is another exactly like the first, requiring five different keys stored in different areas - and this time, set up with the nastier style of deathtraps.

The next chamber is the kennel housing the church's experiments in the breeding of mutated rust monsters. (How mutated? Well, flying at least. Breath weapons would be nice...) The passage ends in a permanent wall of fire: people who leap through soon learn that the floor on the other side is just the cover to a 100' deep pit entirely filled by a gelatinous cube. Using the correct word to deactivate the fire and edging around the pit brings one to the mirror chamber.

Authorized personnel enter this chamber without a light source, because a few of the hundred mirrors in this room are mirrors of opposition. One of the mirrors, distinguished by a frame with a specific pattern that can be felt, actually conceals the secret door into...

The gelugon chamber, where a trio of ice devils require a 'password' before they'll allow access to the final gate. There is no password, and by the terms of their service to Abadar, any mortal in this chamber who says anything is their lawful prey. Ignoring them and passing through in silence is the only acceptable response.

And then the final chamber: a room with walls holding dozens of window-sized alcoves and a single pedestal. A small trapdoor, removed from its hinges, is balanced on the pedestal. While this enchanted trapdoor can turn any one of these recesses into a planar portal, all of the portals are one-way - stranding the intruder beyond - unless yet another key has been left in the removable door's keyhole. As you may have guessed by this point, one of the portals leads to the true vault, three to false vaults full of clingy cursed items, and the rest to an unpleasant doom on another plane.

There's plenty more, of course - the entire area being held within forbiddance and riddled with greater glyphs of warding, among other spells. If rust monsters are too tame, try clay golems - or, if you're particularly grouchy, mummies infested with colonies of brown mold.

[Sereinái]

Using the Folding boat for inspiration I would have a vault or at least part of it, such as the strongbox room, fold itself up when not in use, no place to open portals or teleport into and should you try you'd be shunted into a nearby holding cell.

[Arachnofiend]

What level is this? Heisting the Bank of Abadar sounds like a level 20 scenario to me. The kind of thing Norgorber might contract a group of adventurers to do.

[Magda Luckbender]

It seems like the Bank of Abadar should be so well guarded that mid-level PCs should have no chance of a clean getaway. Sure, maybe they clean out the vault, but what can they do about the inevitable response. It's not like the Abadarians will forgive and forget! Ever! After all, it has to stop high level characters. This mission seems like a trap. Smart PCs should not touch it. Stupid PCs who accept should get what's coming to them.

In addition to all the nastiness above, the Church of Abadar ought to have one mean emergency response force. It should be the Church's established policy to ruthlessly catch and prosecute anyone who steals from them. They should be willing to spend 10-100x what was stolen, to discourage future bank robbers. If you can't keep your wealth there's no point getting it in the first place. So, if PC get away with 20,000 GP, the Church ought to invest at least 200,000 gp up to 2 million GP to hunt them down and see that they are publicly executed.

Frankly, I'd rather mess with just about any other church fixture on Galarion before I'd go after Abadar's Bank! Ransack Abadar's Churches? Sure! Kill high ranking worshippers of Abadar? Sure. Rob the Bank of Abadar? Not on your life!

The issue isn't so much the difficulty of pulling off the robery. The issue is surviving the predictable response! The 18th level Diviner Wizard hired to identify and locate the culprits should have little trouble fingering the PCs. I highly doubt they plan to do things in a way that will fool future divination magic. So they will be identified. They will be hunted by every bounty hunter in the land, plus the Abadaran special operatives will mastermind the hunt. Lead by a 17th level Cleric of Abadar and his buddy, the 17th level wizard. Also expect lots of Inquisitors of Abadar.

Seriously, PCs who take on a job like this are signing their own death warrant. GM, perhaps come up with a history of what's happened to other bank robbers. Assuming the PCs do research,they'll learn this. So the response should NOT surprise them. If the PCs do not research the situation then they deserve what they get.

[Nawtyit]

Mage's Magnificent Mansion = giant impenetrable vault.

[Claxon]

Permanent dead Magic demiplane with an adamantine golem to guard it.

If you want to keep something truly safe, only the most exquisite of magics will do so.

[Richard Hamel]

More info:

It's an 8hr con game and I'm thinking 11th level so combat won't take forever to resolve.

As for the background; An item from a long ago era that had to power to change the tide of war. Knowledge of the item is stuff of ancient legend (think the one ring). Current time; there are two nations at war (say evil vs good). The evil side has recovered this item meaning the war is now going badly for the good side. There are many plans in place to try and change this and one of them is to find a way to neutralize the item of power. Divination spells and other magical research (legend lore, etc) say that the answer lies in vault 12 of the grand bank of abadar.

A small team of experts are assembled (string enough to accomplish the task, but not too strong that they would draw attention). A plan is made to get them inside the bank and from there get inside the vault. A modify memory spell is used on the party to wipe out this knowledge, and all they know is that they are delivering some important scrolls to a secured vault in the bank and take/read the scroll that is currently stored there (this will get the party past a zone of truth at the entrance). Once inside the smaller vault, the party will be instructed of their actual mission and the clock starts.

Since it's a con game, why isn't that much of an issue (perhaps they are all agents of the nation)

I originally thought of something like the tomb of horrors, but how on earth would a bank manager get through that?

I like the suggestion of Grimtooth and that book should be delivered well before the game.

Ultimately it can't be an impossible task as that would make the game the opposite of fun. The aftermath of what happens to the party could be an interesting role playing event (usually I allow each player to say what happens to their character at the end of a con game).

I ran a low level (2nd lvl, all rogues) bank heist convention game and it was very successful and wanted to try the same with a higher level party. Unfortunately it's a lot more difficult to plan it out.

My inspiration came from an argument of "What if Gondor knew where the one ring was, and what if that location was a very secured vault in some neutral and powerful nation". I argued that Gondor would eventually go to war for the ring but first send a small strike force to steal the ring (ignoring that the ring would probably subvert the bankers themselves)

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

This looks like a job for greater demiplane with lots of things on it.

That or you could use a permanent magnificent mansion effect. Only those who are allowed in can get in. That is all.

[Unassuming Local Guy]

Dresden Files anyone?

Skin Game follows a very similar plot. Steal something from a place that cannot be stolen from

Book Spoiler:

They are stealing the actual cup of Christ from none other than Hades himself.

I can't think of anything better than ending on a dead magic plane with a an admantine golem. That's true fear.

Whatever you decide make sure to write it up and share, that sounds like an interesting scenario idea

[Trimalchio]

Teleport trap with a prismatic sphere or permanent prismatic walls around the inside and permanent alarm spells throughout and maybe an appropriate symbol spell keyed to a passphrase, have a guardian naga or two here.

Inside the vault have a gate with a thick adamantine door locked which leads to a dead magic greater demiplane where a golem or two, and maybe a bound/hired crag linnorm or some dragon which attacks anyone who don't have a specified item on them.

[Grokk_Bloodfist]

For a start, I would use a little of sleight of hand - for a magical vault with no GP restrictions.

Two demiplanes. One is used for deposits. One for "withdrawals". Both identical in appearance and use of guardians and defences (for outward appearances at least).

When a deposit is made, the item "disappears" from the first demiplane and is teleported to the second demiplane. Only none of the bank staff are aware of this. Only the architect of the bank vault.

Anyone who tries to steal the item from the vault, somehow to teleport their way in, etc, is forced to contend with the "deposit" vault and not the "withdrawal" (real) vault.

You place the real defences around the "withdrawal" vault and how the items get removed, teleported back to the primary vault.

I would imagine any such heist against the vault should focus on how to abuse or bypass the various processes the bank uses (e.g. how does the bank authenticate an individual and authorise them to make a withdrawal) rather than brute force defeating any security measures placed on the vault. This encourages more creative problem solving rather than just toting around level 7+ spells.

For added measure, make it so that the spells and defences are so hopelessly complex that the players know that they cannot defeat them. Make it clear it is DM fiat and only create problem solving will win this one.

One a side note, there are some very interesting ideas and suggests on this thread.

[Grokk_Bloodfist]

Quite frankly, for Abadar's largest city of trade and largest bank vault and temple, I don't see why Abadar himself doesn't guard this thing. Who is to say it doesn't open onto his plane of existence?

[Dafydd]

Hehe, very cool idea, do not have anything more to say, but I do know something that should help give you a limitation. That line in the sand that means you have gone too far.

Pathfinder Wiki said wrote:

The Wasp Queens have broken into the most secure vaults of Abadar's temples, have lifted huge amounts of coin from the banks of Absalom, and are even said to have stolen the scepter of Queen Abrogail of Cheliax herself and sold it back to her.

So obviously it is do able, supposedly even by a group of divine empowered elves.

As a player, I would likely suggest we hire them to do the job again (no, it is not metagaming, I have been playing whip using elves who worship Calistria a lot lately)

[Jericho Graves]

Hmm. I liked how DDO did it. Demiplane with a metric magical ton of wards and defenses, puzzles and riddles that requires a team of six people to actively take turns at once. Then when you finally get the vault open walk in to find the guardian is a LG Dragon, probably Gold, who was hired by the vault to guard the treasures. He gets the benefit of always having a hoard, they get one of the nastier creatures as a guard dog.

Splitting the party is always a bad idea, let your players sweat the choice.