WATCHTOWER is an impressive place. The first thing anyone approaching it will see is the wall. It's a rather impressive wall, befitting a fortress, over 12 meters tall, made of stone 4 meters thick. Four towers dot the wall at regular intervals, not including the southernmost gate tower, which is larger than the other four, and of course, has a gate in it.
Inside the walls is a large open courtyard, filled with grass, wild flowers and bomb craters. A gravel path leads from the main gates, splitting off to lead to each of the buildings within the fortress.
To the west, one of the wall towers has been extended to be slightly taller than the three others, and has a few smaller buildings coming off it. This is the
Training Tower, and in front of it are the
Training Grounds. Also to the west are the
Lab Tower, built up against and into the cliffs, as well as the
Airship Gantry, built higher up, halfway between the base of the cliff and the top. Directly under it, near the vehicle lift, is a small stable for whatever animal mounts may be brought into WATCHTOWER, though their owners are required to take care of the animals themselves.
To the east is Overlook Waterfall itself, tumbling off the cliff and into a river which flows south out through a grate in the walls. Most of the east courtyard is occupied by an apple orchard, dotted with small magic obelisks which enhance its growth and fertility, ensuring that it is always in fruit, spring, summer and fall (but not in winter). Up against the cliffs, next to the waterfall, is the
Hospital building.
Directly to the north of the front gate is the
Keep, set into the cliff and towering above all the other buildings in WATCHTOWER, flanked on either side by the
Barracks Buildings, which serve as extra housing for the growing membership. Slightly to the east of the of the Keep is a small forge built by Harnel for his smithing.
Training Tower + Training Grounds
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Converted from one of the defensive towers, the Training Tower serves as the main training resource for WATCHTOWER members. The bottom floor of the tower contains a small armory full of basic weapons and armor for training. The upper floors hold a fully equipped gym. At one wall on the bottom floor is a secret panel that when pressed by an active member opens up a portal to the Safe Room. Non-members pressing the panel will have no result.
The Training Grounds take up much of the west part of the courtyard. Facilities in the Training Grounds include a track, a shooting range, a modular obstacle course, and several rings for sparring.
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Ground Floor
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- Main Room - A sort of wide, square lounge area. There are several low tables and comfy chairs. And a TV. To one side is a 'fireplace' which is really just a stone recess occupied by the illusion of a fire, and several heating glyphs. No chimney, you see. Several torch brackets hang on the walls but are empty. Light here is provided (as in all rooms of the building) by glyphs in the ceiling. At the back are three doors, leading to the barracks and stairway. At one wall is a secret panel that when pressed by an active member opens up a portal to the Safe Room. Non-members pressing the panel will have no result.
- Stairway - A small square room dominated by a spiral staircase which leads up the tower, to identical such small square rooms on every floor. Has two doors, which lead to the Main Room and Kitchen.
- Kitchen - A large kitchen and storage room. It contains modern kitchen equipment.
- Barracks (East) - An 'L' shaped corridor, which leads off to several bunk rooms. Each room was originally designed to house four soldiers, but has since been re-furbished to provide a sort of quarters for a single (or perhaps two) member(s). A room initially contains a single bed, a dresser, a desk with a chair, and a miniature closed off bathroom area containing a toilet and a sink with a mirror. All rooms have 'windows' which are not actually real windows, due to being inside a cliff, but magically show what it looks like outside anyway.
- Rooms
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- Room 1 - Cessie Mithar and Harnel
- Room 2 - Room with Bathtub, belonging to Cessie Mithar and Harnel
- Room 3 - Ilpholin Xar'Cha
- Room 4 - Dominic
- Room 5 - Decker and Butler B. Butler
- Room 6 - Spyridon
- Room 7 - Boris Krestyanov
- Room 8 - Jakob
- Room 9 - Nathaniel Hutchinson
- Room 10
- Room 11
- Room 12
- Barracks (West) - An 'L' shaped corridor, which leads off to several bunk rooms. Each room was originally designed to house four soldiers, but has since been re-furbished to provide a sort of quarters for a single (or perhaps two) member(s). A room initially contains a single bed, a dresser, a desk with a chair, and a miniature closed off bathroom area containing a toilet and a sink with a mirror. All rooms have 'windows' which are not actually real windows, due to being inside a cliff, but magically show what it looks like outside anyway.
- Rooms
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- Room 1 - Terrowin
- Room 2 - Shrine to Dalachrech, Demon Lord of Invertebrates, made by Terrowin
- Room 3 - DC
- Room 4 - Jeremy
- Room 5 - Catherine
- Room 6 - Mr. Sirtch
- Room 7 - Harin Grael
- Room 8 - Yazon Skala
- Room 9
- Room 10
- Room 11
- Room 12
- Showers - A shower room accessible at the end of each barracks corridor.
...
Wait wait wait, communal showers? How barbaric! :smallyuk:
NOTE: There are cubicles. The showers are 'public' not in the sense that WATCHTOWER members will be forced to look at each other naked, only in the sense that they are not present in the rooms. :smalltongue:
(Of course, there's nothing stopping members from buying themselves a nice little bathtub or something.)
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- Stairway - A small square room dominated by a spiral staircase which leads up the tower, to identical such small square rooms on every floor. Has four doors, which lead to the Library, Planning Room, Infirmary and Labs.
- Library - A large room, with a large window that overlooks the courtyard. In the center of the room is a statue, perhaps a shrine to some long-forgotten god of knowledge, that has been covered with a purple cloth, and a sign that warns 'Do Not Remove Upon Pain of Death.' How strange. Radiating out from the statue are masses upon masses of shelves, upon which sit books on all topics, but mostly magic. At one wall is a secret panel that when pressed by an active member opens up a portal to the Safe Room. Non-members pressing the panel will have no result.
- Planning Room - Once an office, this room has been converted to provide something slightly more useful to WATCHTOWER's needs. Still relatively sparse, it has a cupboard full of maps covering most of the Nexus, as well as most of its major locations, though some of them, such as Remnant HQ or MURDER, are incomplete, for obvious reasons. The center of the room has a large table white table for maps to go on. If a slightly more high tech option is what you need, there is a computer in the room as well, with access to the WATCHTOWER database as well as digital copies of all the maps. Images form the computer screen can be projected onto a wall or the table, and there's a drawer full of miniatures to play with as well, if you're into that. :smalltongue:
- Infirmary - A stark white clean room, with several partitions. Each segment contains a bed, as well as various medical equipment both magical and technological. The beds themselves are sturdy, quite comfortable, and also have straps if restraining the patient is necessary. There are several shelves in each section containing medicine and healing herbs and stuff. The infimary is meant for general use and minor surgeries, and is not equipped for anything more 'heavy duty'. More extreme medical emergencies should be dealt with in the Hospital, and the Hospital is probably more convenient for such anyway, since unconscious and wounded people don't have to be dragged up a flight of stairs. :smalltongue:
- The Labs - Previously where the Dillinite mages performed unholy experiments and summoned volatile beasts. The first room is a semi-circular one, which leads to four labs which are separated from the 'main' room by thick blast doors and decontamination chambers. Access to this room is restricted to Members only, or guests accompanied by a Member, as determined by a magical handscanner. These four labs are intended for general use only, and are identical to each other. Personalized member labs for larger projects go in the Lab Tower.
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- Stairway - A small square room dominated by a spiral staircase which leads up the tower, to identical such small square rooms on every floor. Has four doors, which lead to the Security Room, Rec Room and the two Vaults.
- Security Room - Access restricted to Members only, as determined by a magical handscanner. If WATCHTOWER were a ship, this would be the bridge. Overlooking the courtyard, this room is filled with magical interface panels which control the base defenses, internal and external, as well as the prison cells. Computer wires and ports interlink with the panels, converting mana signals into binary, allowing control from one of the computer terminals in the room for the less magically inclined. The computers are also wired to the WATCHTOWER mainframe, which is located in this room, allowing for access to the main database. The mainframe itself is also contained in this room. At one wall is a secret panel that when pressed by an active member opens up a Doorway to the Safe Room. Non-members pressing the panel will have no result.
- Rec Room - Once an arena for fighting, this roundish room has been turned into a rec room, for relaxing and having fun. I wonder what that says about WATCHTOWER. Like the Main Room, it has a bunch of couches and soft chairs and low tables and a TV, though the TV is larger than the one in the Main Room, and may or may not have several gaming consoles attached to it. There is also a pool table, because no Rec Room is complete without a pool table, dartboards, and cupboards with boardgames like Twister: HALO Edition (like regular Twister except all players are required to be female and also nude), The Game of Undeadtime and Magopoly. Generally, if it's fun, it can be found here. Though... not that kind of fun. Save that for the rooms.
- Prison Cells - A 'C' shaped corridor that surrounds the Rec. The prison cells are actually along the inside of the C, and once could open backwards directly into the Arena, something that the Dillinites used regularly, to much enjoyment. Now that the Arena is a Rec Room, this capability has been removed. The cells are sparse, three walled affairs containing a chamberpot and a mattress. The front of the cells (facing the corridor) are barred, of course, and the bars can be magically charged or supplemented by a magical forcefield, activated from the Security Room.
- Vaults (East) - An 'L' shaped room, this particular Vault acts as an armory, containing racks of weapons and armor (magical or not) left behind from the Dillinite days, as well as a few extra additions.
- Vaults (West) - An 'L' shaped room, this particular Vault holds some gold, and also some of the artifacts, good or evil that WATCHTOWER have managed to procure. This vault has more security than the other vault, and has a handscanner much like the security room. Right now it contains:
- A large block of an incredibly strong concrete-like substance, etched with runes of binding and sealing, warded against teleportation or dimensional irregularities, and a number of other things. Sealed inside are a pair of ceramic jars, similarly warded, which house the captured souls of Shepherd and Cynthia.
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- Safe Room - A large room located deep underground, filled with mattresses and several months of consumables. Virtually impregnable, and accessible from the main building only via the secret portals scattered around the base. The portal may also be used to return to any of these locations (even by non-members, if they entered through different means or as a guest). In the back is a small door that leads to the Escape Tunnel. There is also a large bronze door, locked and inscribed with runes of sealing and warding, which leads to the Catacombs. This room is teleport proof, scry-proof, psi-proof, spy-proof, teleprot proof, and whatever other proofs you care to imagine (including 180-proof!) save for Epic MagicTM.
- Escape Tunnel - A long tunnel. It leads to a hidden one-way trapdoor further south, near the Taverna Generica.
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A bunch of catacombs and stuff below the basement, extending into any direction under WATCHTOWER. Excitement and plots sure to be found here, as well as a viable avenue for a sneak attack. This isn't technically, part of the building, merely a network of DungeonsTM under it. NO probably has a tunnel leading into here. If not, they're being painfully lax with their network.
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- Observatory - Accessible through a trap door at the top of the spiral staircase. The room is enclosed at the front half by a tremendous glass dome, which serves as the focus for the powerful scrying spell etched all around. In the center is a raised circular viewing platform, with more runes etched around. On three sides are magical interface panels linked to computers like in the Security Room. The computers here are partially networked to the Security Room computers, and allow searching to a copy of the Central Database. The computers and interface panels are primarily used, however, to control the view from the observatory. The scrying spell is capable of reaching across a large area of the planet, as well as deep space. Things can also be viewed from any angle, eliminating conventional obstacles, however things underground or inside buildings cannot be seen. The scrying can of course be severed, blocked or traced back to its source using magic. There is a door to the side of the Observatory that leads to the Airship Gantry. At the back wall, opposite the Gantry door is a secret panel that when pressed by an active member opens up a Doorway to the Safe Room. Non-members pressing the panel will have no result.
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To the east of the Keep, this building holds extra barracks for members. It is constructed somewhat similarly to the Keep itself: the front has a small sitting area and kitchenette, though neither are as large as the Main Room and Kitchen in the Keep; the middle of the building is a long corridor with rooms on either side; and the back is a communal shower room like the one at the back of the Keep. The rooms are identical to the ones in the Keep, except contain real windows instead of magic ones (due to not being inside a friggin'
cliff), and are so are slightly better for fresh air purposes (though the Keep is well ventilated anyway) but worse for security purposes, as you have some panes of glass in the middle of your stone wall. A secret panel in the shower room opens up a portal to the Safe Room when pressed by an active member. Non-members pressing the panel will have no effect, though they can still walk through the portal if a member opens it for them.
- Rooms
- Room 1 - Adir and Sakura Frescot
- Room 2 - Shawna von Letters
- Room 3 - Jasper
- Room 4 - Vizekasadriz
- Room 5 - Claude St. Aureon
- Room 6 - Hildur Lange
- Room 7 - Matt Vulpan
- Room 8
- Room 9
- Room 10
- Room 11
- Room 12
- Room 13
- Room 14
- Room 15
- Room 16
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To the west of the Keep, this building holds extra barracks for members. It is constructed somewhat similarly to the Keep itself: the front has a small sitting area and kitchenette, though neither are as large as the Main Room and Kitchen in the Keep; the middle of the building is a long corridor with rooms on either side; and the back is a communal shower room like the one at the back of the Keep. The rooms are identical to the ones in the Keep, except contain real windows instead of magic ones (due to not being inside a friggin'
cliff), and are so are slightly better for fresh air purposes (though the Keep is well ventilated anyway) but worse for security purposes, as you have some panes of glass in the middle of your stone wall. Four of the rooms in this building are currently reserved for use by guests to WATCHTOWER. A secret panel in the shower room opens up a portal to the Safe Room when pressed by an active member. Non-members pressing the panel will have no effect, though they can still walk through the portal if a member opens it for them.
- Rooms
- Room 1 - KR and Wenomir
- Room 2 - Darcy Diavolo
- Room 3 - Valeriya Waskensen
- Room 4 - Mia Mechanicus
- Room 5
- Room 6
- Room 7
- Room 8
- Room 9
- Room 10
- Room 11
- Room 12
- Guest Rooms
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Set into the cliff on the west side of the base, the Lab Tower contains personalized member labs, for those more tech or magic or SCIENCE(!) inclined members that might want a personal space to work on their pet projects. The Lab Tower has four floors, with the first three floors each having three labs arranged around a central room. Like in the Keep, each lab has two doors for decontamination purposes, if necessary. A secret panel in the central room of each floor opens up a portal to the Safe Room when pressed by an active member. Non-members pressing the panel will have no effect, though they can still walk through the portal if a member opens it for them. Like the labs in the Keep, these labs can only be opened by members, and
certain members *cough*KR*cough* may have installed extra security measures. The fourth floor has a walkway to the Airship Gantry.
- Labs - Players of members who have labs are free to write up descriptions of their labs to be posted here if they are particularly bored, or inexplicably popular and therefore sick of having to describe their lab over and over again.
- Lab 1 - KR
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KR's lab is kind of a mess. For all her genius and despite (or perhaps because of) her former existence as a robot, KR is apparently no big believer in a clean workspace. Workbenches are scattered with wiring and machine parts and the innards of half-complete or half-disassembled (it's hard to tell really) weapons and robots. Slightly more complete robots stand deactivated in every corner, and racks of weapons created on a whim and promptly discarded adorn most walls. A row of laptops remains on at all times, in strict defiance of the environmental movement, and a minifridge holds a rather dangerous combination of computer parts, drives, and soft drink cans. To one side, a hovering tray carries several high-tech containers full of some sort of molten metal. Though no heat seems to emanate from the containers, it's probably not suggested that you dip your hand in there just to make sure.
- Lab 2 - DC
- Lab 3 - Mia Mechanicus
- Lab 4
- Lab 5
- Lab 6
- Lab 7
- Lab 8
- Lab 9
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A largeish building near the cliffs on the east side, near the waterfall, and thus mostly sheltered away from the rest of the base, with a nice view of the orchard. The building, though not as large or extensive as a proper civilian hospital, pretty much lives up to its name. The first floor has several rooms fully stocked with surgery equipment, an x-ray room, and several other rooms filled with most of the kinds of things necessary for treating a membership with a distressing habit of getting shot, or stabbed with swords, or smacked with maces, or burned by magical fireballs, or bitten by horrendous demonic monsters, etc. The second floor, accessible by stairs or a lift large enough to carry a bed (as all of them are on wheels), contains several wards for recovering patients. Aside from the PC doctors, the Hospital is staffed by a number of drones, specialized to serve as surgeons, nurses and orderlies, so that patients here are always in good care. A secret panel on each floor opens a portal to the Safe Room when pressed by a member. Non-members pressing the panels will have no effect, but they can still enter portals opened by a member.
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Jutting out the side of the cliff to the west of the the Keep, near the Lab Tower, and even slightly set into it for protection, is an large gantry, which is accessible from the Observatory and Lab Tower by elevated walkway, or from the ground by lift or (really really tall) spiral staircase. The Airship Gantry acts as an airdock for WATCHTOWER's small (but ever increasing) airfleet. It's pretty awesome. There is room for expansion, and the WATCHTOWER construction golems have built a larger lift as well so that land-based vehicles can be stored up here too.
- Vehicles
- A large, heavily armored zeppelin of K-Corp design, captured after a failed attack on WATCHTOWER. It's been decorated psychedelic patterns painted all over the envelope, as well as a pair of angry eyes and mouth. The gondola, while not as eye-blindingly colorful, has a memorial to Butler B. Butler painted on the side. The zeppelin has a rather large cargo hold, as well as a separate bomb-bay, which can drop rather large bombs (though they are currently in rather short supply). It's armed with a rather heavy variety of weapons, including: two disruptor quad-cannons mounted in the aft of the envelope (one ventral, the other dorsal); two heavier disruptor quad-cannons mounted on either side of the gondola and two long-range flamethrowers mounted on the fore. The thing is powered by one of DC's zero-point modules, and can pretty much stay aloft and fire forever, carrying no fuel except for that which goes in the flamethrowers. It has energy shielding, though prolonged use cuts into the ship's energy supply significantly. Currently WATCHTOWER's only functioning aircraft, and is usually used for large scale assaults.
- A smaller airship stolen from Lethargia, built for transport. It has controls, two seats for the pilot and co-pilot, and cages in the back for prisoners. It's currently in a state of refurbishment, (and has been for several months, due to KR's lack of proper materials). The combustion engines have been replaced by much simpler ones, seemingly powered by magitech, and everything that can possibly be simplified has been. The hull has been reinforced slightly, and is now both fireproof (up to several thousand degrees centigrade) and vacuum proof. The inside has been hollowed out somewhat, regular controls having been replaced, again, by much simpler ones, and benches have been added along the sides, for extra passengers. The center is dominated by some sort of receptacle, for what looks like a large cylindrical device that stretches from floor to ceiling, though the device itself is currently missing.
- An alien spacecraft, hijacked by DC during an extraterrestrial invasion of Inside. Details in the spoiler:
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-It's solar-powered and never lands, instead meant to sit in space and recharge. The solar power tech is enough that so long as it's kept charged, it shouldn't run out unless it's being used heavily.
-Its main weapons are high-efficiency laser cannons (basically, more shots than usual) with a single mass driver mounted somewhere. I imagine the bottom or something like that. He said it was better for ground targets due to being difficult to aim, so I imagine it's on the bottom or something.
-It has shields, with variable amounts of power able to be diverted to them. They're quite strong at max power, but this takes power from movement and weapons.
-The main method of boarding it consists of transporter beams (aka cliche 'abduction beams'.)
-There are, of course, airlocks.
-There are shuttle ports.
-The ship's actual frame/armor is pretty tough, though some of the interior is...flimsy at times, or so I saw during the hijacking.
And of course, the ship has an armory!
-Many laser rifles (can be dialed down for weak rapid-fire or dialed up for more powerful shots but slow-firing)
-Power armor designed for aliens
-Beam focuser modification for lasers (allows greater armor-piercing capability for the lasers weakens them a bit, they have to be dialed up fully to regain normal power)
-Deployable uni-directional shields (can be fired through from one side but not the other, lasts a minute maximum, can be depleted by enemy fire)
-Mines, grenades, and directional charges, probably fairly standard explosives or something since they weren't described much. The grenades are supposedly some kind of cross between frag and incendiary.
-Pickaxe/hammer-like melee weapons that use pistons to deliver a secondary shock to drive the pick in deeper. Designed to pierce armor.
Much of the armory (including all of the alien power armor) and quite a bit of the interior have been disassembled and/or removed by WATCHTOWER's rather large cohort of mad scientists for study, though some of it's slowly being put back and reassembled. As of the moment, it's non-functional. - Several generic cars and motorbikes intended for use by members. They're unarmed and (mostly) unarmored, and though somewhat futuristic looking (running on electricity rather than hydrocarbon fuels), are plainly intended for transport only.
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The internal defenses of each building include magical forcefields in every doorway that can be activated singularly, or all together in an emergency.
External defenses include extra strong magical forcefields on the main gate and front doors of each building, a magical forcefield bubble that starts at the walls and encloses the entire base, as well as magical forcefields over the windows. There are also a variety of cunning magical traps buried in the courtyard and the path to WATCHTOWER, that may be deployed for explosive effect.
Forcefields may remain active for roughly 4 hours before having to recharge (for 24 hours), or until they are beaten down or dispelled. Traps take a roughly 12 hours to recharge. Simply dispelling the forcefield or traps (or indeed, any of the various glyphs in the building) only deactivates them. More powerful spells (like a Mage's Disjunction, for instance) must be used to get rid of them permanently.
All the defenses are triggered from the Security Room.
