The world of magic, mystery and monsters just a hair's breadth from our own. You can get there... if you know how.
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| Aaaand I forgot to carry the ℷ. Now I have to start all over again. |
Passages
These are the traditional entries. Legal ports of entry, toll stations, guarded accesses to gated communities. If you use these, you will be noticed, observed, and often documented. Of course, there is variation: being vetted, searched and scanned before entering a secure facility is different from pulling your boat into a Somali pirate port, paying the bribe and moving through. The Otherworld has its own equivalents of all these.
Passages are the places where our two universes are closer, the Veil thin enough to pass through. Some examples:
1. Go onto the lake at dusk when the mist is thick. Take a small boat out onto the lake until you cannot see the shore. A GPS will break, so bring only a compass. Bring only people who have taken a Pact. You may tell nobody else where you are or what you are doing. If you fulfill these practices, you will be picked up by a trireme which can take you to many places.
2. There is a statue of Hades beside the entrance to a cave. Leave an offering, pray respectfully at its foot, and enter the cave blindfolded. When you feel the hands of the dead on your body, do not panic and do not speak. They are as blind as you, and will lead you to safety if you follow the Ancient Courtesies.
3. Buy and care for a milk-white stallion for seven days and nights. Then get it drunk, and ride it into the forest at midnight. It will carry you to the Faerie Woods. Bring gifts, but don't sell or gamble the horse, or let anybody eat it. You will need it to get back.
4. Go to a big party. A religious festival, a packed nightclub, your cousin's quinceañera, doesn't matter. It just needs to have the Energy. Get sloshed on maize-liquor. Unless you're in South America, you'll need to pre-game. Get on the dance floor, turn around counter-clockwise three times and look for a young man in blue or a young woman in red. The young man is shy and must be flattered. The young woman is more outgoing, and wants fascinating stories. Either will take you to the Afterparty at this cool place they know, and this place is boring, and hey you're pretty awesome yourself. If you want to have a good time, just party. If you need to do something, slip away from the party before the People ask why you aren't drinking anything.
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| Don't mention the fox eyes |
Of course, there are more ways to move between worlds.
Portals
Anybody can open a portal between worlds. By 'anybody', I mean 'anybody with access to magical reagents and knowledge of basic thaumaturgy.' So, one-in-a-million people. The PCs, luckily, all qualify. Frankly, the PCs should be able to make a magic circle with chalk and oil from memory before level three.
That takes time and preparation. 10 mins for a 10'x10' portal, 30 mins for a 20'x20', 1hr for a 30'x30', and so on.
A spellcaster, however, can make a quick and dirty portal on the spot. Bigger ones take more out of them, but it's instant. Now, while passages are like using normal entryways, portals are like blowing holes in walls, or breaking down doors.
Imagine why you might blow a hole in a wall, or break down a door:
1. You're exploring an abandoned site, and you need to take a rusty door off its hinges to get in.
2. You're a firefighter, and you need to break down a locked door with your axes and rams to rescue people inside.
3. You're a SWAT team, and there are tangos on the other side. Break out the hammers and breaching pads.
| Probably not the PCs |
Mystical equivalents include:
1. Opening a portal into a dungeon or other area abandoned by civilization. Nobody of importance will care.
2. You're on a rescue mission, or 3. your allies are under assault and you need to get there fast. The damage to the Veil is regrettable, but sometimes speed beats subtlety. You can fix the hole in the wall later.
All those are pretty much acceptable. Property damage is a non-issue or there are more important matters to take care of.
On the other hand, there are less lawful ways and reasons to break into places:
4. You're thieves, breaking down a vault door with explosives to steal the money inside and escape before the authorities arrive.
5. You're infiltrating a secure facility, and need to pick mechanical locks and disable electronic security systems.
6. You're breaking out of (or into) a prison, and are making a tunnel, stealthily, over the course of a long period of time.
And similar uses of portals:
4. You're thieves breaking into a (magic!) vault with a portal to steal the treasure inside and escape before the authorities arrive.
5. You're breaking into a secure fortress with magic wards blocking portals, and you need to disable them magically before you can portal through.
6. You're breaking out of (or into) a (magic) prison, and you're subtly carving a makeshift passage into the Veil.
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| Catch that strand of magic, patch that hole, and hope it doesn't collapse while you're inside |
Now let me paint a picture. You're at home, reading this article. Then, suddenly, an explosion knocks you back. A second blast blinds and deafens you.
If the first thing you hear after that is, 'FBI, get on the ground with your hands on your head!' and the first thing you see is very large, serious people in armor pushing badges and warrant papers in your face, chances are a lawful citizen will let the nice people with guns do what they want. And then get the department to pay for the wall.
If you instead hear, 'Give us all your money and get in the van!' you are much more likely to be uncooperative. Especially if you're an immortal Faerie-lord and you've been intruded on by a bunch of apes waving weapons around.
If you decide to use portal magic, know where you're going, and who else is there. Blowing open a magic hole in someone's living room is going to be a major point against you when you inevitably end up in Faerie court. And those things are expensive to fix!
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