3.P - What Spells or Items Would You Use to Hide an Underground Foundry?

[unseenmage]

Subterranean base with workshops and forges and smelting and geothermal energy.

But you want all this under a house in the middle of the city.

How do you hide the emissions while also not dying to them?

Other suggested spells or items to resolve other dwarven Batcave issues are welcome as well.

[Palanan]

Reroute all the emissions to an actual foundry?

It would take a lot of plumbing, but if you're building a large secret installation anyway, adding some lateral pipes leading to a legitimate foundry shouldn't be too much extra work.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I'd actually use the genesis spell to create a suitable demiplane, and I'd build a portal near the entrance of an old (and quite dangerous) mine shaft, or, in a city, in a sub-basement dungeon. When the portal is turned on and functioning, the mine shaft leads to the demiplane. When it's turned off, you get stuck in a severe hazard to life and limb, full of the toxic waste dumped from the foundry to the outside.

[Zaq]

Depends on who's looking for it, really. Are we talking hidden from casual observation, hidden from people doing mundane searches, people doing magical searches, or what?

[unseenmage]

Depends on who's looking for it, really. Are we talking hidden from casual observation, hidden from people doing mundane searches, people doing magical searches, or what?

Definitely hidden from casual observation and it would be likely useful to hide it from government inspections or mundane searches as well.

Hiding it from magical investigation would be prohibitively difficult so I'm less focused on that.

[Maat Mons]

Are custom items allowed?

If so, an at-will item of Wall of Iron would cost 86,000 gp or 123,800 gp depending on whose spell list you were using for the calculation. And an item of at-will Shape Metal would cost 50,400 gp or 81,000 gp, again depending on whose spell list you were using.

[AvatarVecna]

Turn the foundry into a Genius Loci (which, while colossal, can be any size and is supposed to be geographic in scale). Have a caster cohort. Mindrape the cohort into being absolutely loyal to you. Have them Magic Jar or Psionic Sandwich their mind and casting into the Genius Loci. Use the Savage Species ritual rules to turn a Wish spell into granting the caster-Genius-Loci the Vecna-Blooded template.

I think that's a decent start?

EDIT: Having a way to toggle the template so you can make people re-forget all knowledge of the foundry would be a good idea.

[Crake]

Turn the foundry into a Genius Loci (which, while colossal, can be any size and is supposed to be geographic in scale). Have a caster cohort. Mindrape the cohort into being absolutely loyal to you. Have them Magic Jar or Psionic Sandwich their mind and casting into the Genius Loci. Use the Savage Species ritual rules to turn a Wish spell into granting the caster-Genius-Loci the Vecna-Blooded template.

I think that's a decent start?

EDIT: Having a way to toggle the template so you can make people re-forget all knowledge of the foundry would be a good idea.

Haven't you just kinda screwed yourself though? Cause you would also forget everything about it.

[AvatarVecna]

Haven't you just kinda screwed yourself though? Cause you would also forget everything about it.

They're perfectly loyal though, so they'll make sure to inform you immediately afterwards.

[Crake]

They're perfectly loyal though, so they'll make sure to inform you immediately afterwards.

Sure, though you wouldn't know that.

[the_tick_rules]

a source of water like that decanter would be great, forging requires lots of water to cool things and less external needs means less exposure. Same thing for air source, is there a bottle for that to? I think there is. there is also some rod that lets you move earth, stone or something as a spell i believe. you could have no door at all and get in and out. i suppose a rock to mud would work if getting dirty is acceptable. what's a great way to magically cool things down? without a vent or something it would probably get hot down there.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Genesis could take care of breathable air, valuable metals to help fuel startup costs, and heat (in a portion of the plane with the fire-dominant trait), which would negate the need for fuel for a number of activities that require heat. And if you have a science-minded crew-member or two, have a cold-dominant area next to the fire-dominant area for additional energy production (as well as to make the areas adjacent to the fire-dominant area more livable).

You'd still likely need a decanter of endless water for fresh water, since the runoff from smelting would pollute what's there naturally. Gotta dump it elsewhere; perhaps via planar ring gates? Have someone with access to plane shift take one end of the planar ring gates to someplace where the heavy metal pollution won't matter much -- such as the elemental plane of earth. You might consider another set with one end on the elemental plane of air for a constant influx of fresh air, and an outlet for whatever polluted air you make in the smelting process.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Stronghold Builder's Guide has a room enhancement that always ensures clean, fresh air.
Use that together with making your underground cave airtight and you should be set.

[Jack_Simth]

Stronghold Builder's Guide has a room enhancement that always ensures clean, fresh air.
Use that together with making your underground cave airtight and you should be set.

I'll add that there is also an airtight wall augmentation in the same book.