Teleport Circle - Destroyer of Worlds

[Altalazar]

It could take hundreds of engineers and construction workers to build a bridge, while a high school drop-out could simply drive a bomb onto it and blow it up instantly.

Obviously, when you invest a lot in a project, you also invest in protection. If the King had this 'magical highway' built between two cities, how long, exactly, do you think that 5th level mage would live after destroying the highway?

And I'm sure ways could be researched to protect it from a simple dispell magic. Or make it an item - in my game, the teleport arches are massive stone monuments.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Altalazar: On a side note, nice campaign idea. I particularly like the fact that the Ryla weren't the ones who destroyed your Magic Empire. A refreshing angle.

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

I agree that it would be hard to find a 17th level caster to cast this spell just for your pleasure (and gold), but I think it is beside the point as these teleportation circles in all probablility are already in place. Most cities in a kingdom would be interconnected by teleportation circles, as they would ease defence, trading and information sharing.

Thus, the costs have already been payed, and every income is pure profit and thus the price is immensely lower - possibly non-existant if the adventurers are on a mission for the circle's owner.

 

[Altalazar]

Why thank you Jere, Lord of Pendragon.

The current timeline is thousands of years past the end of the empire, and there are other nations about.

And the Ryla have showed up to try again, but this time there is no empire to oppose them, though they are also still not up to par from their previous defeat. Mostly, few have noticed them. I won't get into a description of the Ryla here, but perhaps I'll put it in Story hour or somewhere else appropriate.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I agree, that is a nice idea from Altalazar...

In my mind always existed a "Universe" in which, as an example, the Earth would have been attacked by aliens. They were fought back - not like in Independence Day (or Mars Attacks ) - they really underestimated Earth War Capabilities and were completely elimaneted by the Earth - but since the Humans had such bad expierience with Aliens, they decided not to negotiate with any other races but instead attack and destroy any of them they might encounter.
And so the Human would become the most feared species in the universe ...

(This is a nice alternative to Startrek and/or Babylon 5, isn`t it? )

 

[FoxWander]

All this talk about how hard such a circle would be to guard is kind of pointless as you could easily slide a stone block of several tons weight over the circle and shut it down until you moved the block. This would work cause Teleport has a weight limit, at 20th level its 1000 lbs. Anything weighing more than that covering the circle would shut it down. There is nothing in the spell discriptions of Teleport, Teleport Circle or Teleport w/out Error to suggest that stuff would be "shunted" to the closest clear space, as someone said earlier. That's Dimension Door that has a shunting effect. Teleport w/out Error mentions trying to teleport with misleading information about your destination causes you to blink out for a second only to reappear at your original location, so that's what would probably happen if you stepped on a Teleport Circle whose destination was currently covered in rock. Also, as far as simply dispelling the thing goes, if I were the mage who made such a thing purely for mercantile reasons I'd certainly view it as an investment. After all, why take a one-time payment of even 100,000 gp when you coul easily demand, say 20% or more of the profits made of the things use. So as an investment I'd take the time to enchant the 'Blocking stone' with a Antimagic Field. So much for dispelling!

 

[Zappo]

FoxWander -> what's the point of the antimagic field? I don't understand.

 

[Ravellion]

The wizard loses personal power, and gains gold.

However, in pure game mechanics, casting a 9th level spell without XP cost 6 times against the usual fee, would give him the same amount of money, and it wouldn't cost him all that more time. Rather tough choice if you ask me.... NOT!

So even though there might be wizards who still sell their sevices at level 17, I doubt they would perform this particular service...

I am also a strong believer of Merchant Coster A sabotaging Merchant coster B's new toy. That is, if the clerics of Fharlagn (GH god of roads) don't destroy it first out of their own accord.

I think the "Craft Gate" feat out of the FRCS might give a good example of how to handle such things in a more efficient way... I believe they too come with their own hazards, however.

Rav

 

[Plane Sailing]

Teleport Circle.... I hate it. A 17th level wizard can create a Teleport circle for a measly 1000 gp, and then make it permanant for 4500 xp (out of his 136,000 total).

I just had to take you up on this since noone else has.

What does a 17th level wizard have to do to earn 4500xp?

I think you are forgetting the sliding exp scale - defeating a CR17 threat like a Mature Adult Red Dragon only just gets him, what, 5100xp. Or a CR15+CR14 combo like a glabrezu and a Hezrou only nets 4250xp.

For a 17th level wizard 4500xp is a tremendous investment in time and risk...

 

[Hatchling Dragon]

I agree that it would be hard to find a 17th level caster to cast this spell just for your pleasure (and gold), but I think it is beside the point as these teleportation circles in all probablility are already in place. Most cities in a kingdom would be interconnected by teleportation circles, as they would ease defence, trading and information sharing.

Thus, the costs have already been payed, and every income is pure profit and thus the price is immensely lower - possibly non-existant if the adventurers are on a mission for the circle's owner.

This is very much like how I see the situation in my own 'version' of FR. There are the Portals (basicaly the same idea, they're just 'items'/structures/gates) already mentioned in the FRCS and/or Magic of Faerun, and then there are no doubt quite a few Permanent type Teleportation Circles linking various locations. Examples of those would be allied Wizards, or even Merchant Guilds (especially low-bulk/High-value types, ie: Gems/Jewelry).

These secret links would doubtlessly be kept hidden and/or disguised for security reasons, likely in a secret/secured room, with some form of masking magic to prevent Scrying. If few know of thier exsistance you need not pay small armies to guard both ends and thus keep your up-keep costs down (as was already mentioned). It's my midevil version of a military-style air-lift, too exspensive to maintain for general public use, and they keep it secret so as to avoid needing exspensive security measures.

As to the arguement that someone presented: Where it'd be cheaper in the long-run to build a Portal (to use the FR nomenclature) between two cities, as opposed to guarding caravans/shipping through monster-infested trade routes, how long a term are we talking? It could easily cost hundreds of thousands of Gold to establish a pair of Portals, as well as establishing a reasonable sort of protective scheme (both magical and mundane). For the same expendature you could pay guards, or even pay the 'monsters' tribute, to safe-guard your goods. There's even the option of funding an Adventuring Group or two to clear out the area. This would be cheaper and would provide the benefit of opening up new lands for settlement. This would help in creating an even larger market for your goods traveling through the area, not to mention the possibility of generating 'good press' for whomever rid the world of monsters.

I can't think of the spell off-hand, but there's the one (I believe in FRCS or MoF) that is something of a magic 'sponge', waiting untill spells are cast in the area it covers, and when a certain level of magic is absorbed it sets-off a spell chozen when the original 'trap' was set. Couldn't something like this be cast with the intention of disrupting/destroying anyone attempting to Dispel the protected Portal? I don't remember the limit of the spell you can 'set', but if possible a Wall of Force around the Portal itself would probably provide enough of a delay to allow some sort of responce to the attack. If this isn't viable I'm sure that the more clever of you readers could come up with something far more devious, I have faith

Hatchling Dragon