How best to hide a construction site?

[Third Mind]

So, my character was turned into a vrykolakas vampire in the mountains of California. Such vampires must spend their entire Saturday in the ground at the site of their death by vrykolakas. My DM has given me the ok to attempt to make a sort of hidden base underground at the site of his death, so he can rest in there when Saturdays come around. I'm intending to use a lyre of building to get the job done, but since this is modern day based, there's an alright chance some hikers are going to traipse through the area and see floating tools digging and building in the middle of the park.

So, my question is this. How would I best hide the work and construction going on at the site? I have access to basically an all day major image. Not sure of the length of time it'll stay up (forgot off hand). So, what illusions or other ways can I use to hide such probably large work from close people passing by?

[InVinoVeritas]

Hallucinatory Terrain.

You don't put the illusion on the site, just on the grounds around the site. Can't see past the hill to see the site.

[Bob Bob Bob]

So, a lot is going to vary based on whether this is a Masquerade (where all magic is hidden from the world) or magic is just another force in the world. I'll try giving the more restrictive suggestions first.

Wildfire cleanup.
Mudslide cleanup.
Biohazard cleanup.
Pot farm cleanup.
You know, I'm not sure I need any more. Just cordon off an area a good ways away from where you're working and post some dire warnings from the government. Not even illusionary, you can use real caution tape (in case detect magic might be a problem). Just don't use animals. That never stops anyone. I could slap a "rampaging hungry grizzly" sign on a trail and it'd still get hikers.

Depending on what else you have available to you you might consider charming whatever park ranger is in charge of the area and having them close off the trail for a week for trail cleanup. If it's not on public land it's private property and you can charm the owner instead.

[Third Mind]

Bob Bob Bob wrote:

So, a lot is going to vary based on whether this is a Masquerade (where all magic is hidden from the world) or magic is just another force in the world. I'll try giving the more restrictive suggestions first.

Wildfire cleanup.
Mudslide cleanup.
Biohazard cleanup.
Pot farm cleanup.
You know, I'm not sure I need any more. Just cordon off an area a good ways away from where you're working and post some dire warnings from the government. Not even illusionary, you can use real caution tape (in case detect magic might be a problem). Just don't use animals. That never stops anyone. I could slap a "rampaging hungry grizzly" sign on a trail and it'd still get hikers.

Depending on what else you have available to you you might consider charming whatever park ranger is in charge of the area and having them close off the trail for a week for trail cleanup. If it's not on public land it's private property and you can charm the owner instead.

Sounds like a reasonable plan for sure. I like the biohazard one quite a bit for this. Charming is also an option too, I could probably also get access to suggest if I thought it'd be useful too.

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

[RaizielDragon]

Screen
Antipathy
Mirage Arcana

[Rednal]

Hiding things in plain sight is often easier than using magic. XD It also gives you a chance to demonstrate more creativity in how you solve problems, so it might be more fun as well.

[RaizielDragon]

I think the issue they are having is their magical Lyre of Building was going to be magically manipulating construction equipment in a world that (likely) doesn't know about magic.

It's kind of hard to "hide in plain sight" if you're in the middle of a park, playing a musical instrument, surrounded by levitating shovels and picks that are digging holes by themselves, while casually commenting to any passersby to "move along, move along, nothing to see here, I'm simply a street magician". You're likely to attract MORE attention that way.

[RaizielDragon]

Having said that, telling everyone you're a street magician, and it's just a trick/illusion sounds kind of plausible, depending on how much you allow them to interact with it. If you rope it off a bit in a "this is my performance area, please do not intrude" kind of way, that might actually work.

[Cevah]

Have a music festival set for a few days later a few miles away. Now the sound of music is explained as "practice". Conjure up fog in the area in the middle of the night, and now you have blocked line of sight. Hikers are probably asleep in the middle of the night, and unlikely to be about when you play, and the music won't alarm them.

/cevah

[LazarX]

Traditional villain route is to simply kill everyone that finds it.

[Guru-Meditation]

LazarX wrote:

Traditional villain route is to simply kill everyone that finds it.

Yeah, and that is why they traditionally always loose.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Kill a few hikers and get local news to report dangerous wild animals in the area. That should buy you some time.