Need help with ideas: SCP Foundation Vault heist

[DM Nate]

I know there's a heist-related adventure book coming out in a week, though from the spoilers, none of the missions inside are quite what I'm looking for. I might borrow some details, but I need a better base scenario.

The setup is that my players are agents for what essentially is the Forgotten Realms version of the X-Files + SCP Foundation. They research strange events and quarantine anything that shouldn't be allowed in the general populace (e.g. Deck of Many Things). The organization has an incredibly-resilient vault where they store their most dangerous items. The players have to heist something out of it about the size of a potion bottle.

What is a believable set-up for an "impregnable" vault designed to house some of the most dangerous artifacts in existence? I was picturing:


An underground stone vault, its walls enforced by Forbiddance spells.
Rows of Bags of Holding sit on shelves in an Anti-Magic Field (meaning the contents inside were sealed off on pockets of the Astral Plane until the bags are withdrawn).
Down below the shelves and the catwalks, at the bottom of the silo, sits a Sphere of Annihiliation in case of catastrophic containment failures. It won't affect anything that can fly or climb easily on its own, but it'll catch a lot of typical threats.
There will be additional measures for the entrance of the vault—only two allowed in at a time, remote viewing, periodic check-ins, etc. There will probably also be a Bank of Karabraxos-style mental screening for anyone entering. However, I'm planning for these measures to be the weak links in the armor, as they always are in heist movies. Allies planted on the inside, schedules of guard shifts, the like.

What additional magical precautions would an order take that could cast permanent 9th-level spells to protect a lesser artifact of Vecna (of which they have several)? I would much prefer to stick to spells from official sourcebooks; Candlekeep had a hand-wavy "oh, anything that's pilfered just gets teleported back cause magic" that I found to be a real cop-out.

And what are the best sorts of tools to encourage a team of 8th-level characters to use for such a task? I have an idea involving the Bagman floating around in my head.

[JackPhoenix]

Demiplane + Forbiddance + your favorite anti-divination measure (optional). Extremely simple, extremely cheap, extremely effective: The item as good as gone if it's stuck in a demiplane inaccessible to any means of planar travel. Good luck getting anything out of that.

Give the object in question to a skeleton (or any expendable creature, really, something with low HD and bad Wis save is ideal), cast Imprisonment (hedged prison version). Destroy the material component. As above, the object is as good as gone.

See, that's the issue, you don't need anything complex to get rid of dangerous objects, the issue is that it's so simple (if you can cast the spells) and yet so effective it's hard to justify anyone doing anything else.

[DM Nate]

Demiplane + Forbiddance + your favorite anti-divination measure (optional). Extremely simple, extremely cheap, extremely effective: The item as good as gone if it's stuck in a demiplane inaccessible to any means of planar travel. Good luck getting anything out of that.

Give the object in question to a skeleton (or any expendable creature, really, something with low HD and bad Wis save is ideal), cast Imprisonment (hedged prison version). Destroy the material component. As above, the object is as good as gone.

See, that's the issue, you don't need anything complex to get rid of dangerous objects, the issue is that it's so simple (if you can cast the spells) and yet so effective it's hard to justify anyone doing anything else.

Perhaps my description wasn't very clear, but it's more of a bank vault than final solution. I.e. sometimes they might want to take something back out for whatever reason.

[GeoffWatson]

The SCP don't want the items gone permanently - they want to be able to get the items out if they feel like it.

[JackPhoenix]

Perhaps my description wasn't very clear, but it's more of a bank vault than final solution. I.e. sometimes they might want to take something back out for whatever reason.

Imprisonment still works, just instead of destroying the M component, throw it into a pile of identical objects. If you need it, you pick the right object (you may give them serial numbers or something) and cast level 9 Dispel Magic on it. End the spell and switch the object once in a while, just to be sure. (Of course, the true object isn't in the well-secured pile, it's the expensive paperweight on a random clerk's desk). Alternatively, set the ending condition for Imprisonment to the person who should have access to the object doing something very specific (stand on the left hand, flap their arms around and recite alphabet backwards while wearing pink tutu and top hat), then you can either keep or destroy the M component as before.

Accessible if you really want it.

[DM Nate]

Imprisonment still works, just instead of destroying the M component, throw it into a pile of identical objects. If you need it, you pick the right object (you may give them serial numbers or something) and cast level 9 Dispel Magic on it. End the spell and switch the object once in a while, just to be sure. (Of course, the true object isn't in the well-secured pile, it's the expensive paperweight on a random clerk's desk). Alternatively, set the ending condition for Imprisonment to the person who should have access to the object doing something very specific (stand on the left hand, flap their arms around and recite alphabet backwards while wearing pink tutu and top hat), then you can either keep or destroy the M component as before.

Accessible if you really want it.

Hmm, k, I might reserve that for the really dangerous items that need to be under permanent lock and key. What about the others?

[awa]

Remember what ever you decide on it needs to be a fun adventure, if the best method of securing the object in universe would not result in a fun adventure then its not the best method out of universe.

Further if the defenses are perfect the pcs wont be able to succeed and that wont be fun.

So my suggestion is a bound demon forced to protect the location a bored demon that is deeply uninterested in actually doing its job and would love to find a way to weasel out of its contract. So its a puzzle the demons strong but not smart and the pcs can help it find a loop hole so it can go home or at least not stop them from from achieving their goals.

[Damon_Tor]

You can make anti-magic "spotlights" using petrified beholders.

[JackPhoenix]

Remember what ever you decide on it needs to be a fun adventure, if the best method of securing the object in universe would not result in a fun adventure then its not the best method out of universe.

Further if the defenses are perfect the pcs wont be able to succeed and that wont be fun.

So my suggestion is a bound demon forced to protect the location a bored demon that is deeply uninterested in actually doing its job and would love to find a way to weasel out of its contract. So its a puzzle the demons strong but not smart and the pcs can help it find a loop hole so it can go home or at least not stop them from from achieving their goals.

Yeah, that's the thing. On one hand, it's a vault build by organization with frankly ridiculous resources, and presumably experience in keeping things locked. On the other hand, the security must be bad enough a few mid-level characters can beat it.

[DM Nate]

Yeah, that's the thing. On one hand, it's a vault build by organization with frankly ridiculous resources, and presumably experience in keeping things locked. On the other hand, the security must be bad enough a few mid-level characters can beat it.

That's what makes this more of a puzzle for the DM than the players! I have a few ideas. For example, a proper heist needs someone "on the inside" to circumvent the strongest levels of security. They could find one of the Bags of Holding that the party previously turned into the vault and remove the safeties on it; the other players could then Plane Shift (with outside help of course) into the extra-dimensional space of the bag and bypass the perimeter security.

Another fun thing to do would be to Speak with Dead on one of the original architects of the vault and ask about weaknesses.

I'm interested in a range of ideas of other cool ideas that would both add flavor to this sort of vault and offer unique challenges.