Pakaanan's Iron Shutters

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a portal. The portal must be nearby; if it is part of a regio the ritual must be performed within or within arm's reach of that regio.

Effects

This ritual temporarily seals a magical portal so that it cannot be used in either direction by any character, item or force.

A magician casting the operate portal spell will find that the spell fails but they do not expend any a mana. If an entity is traversing the portal at the point the ritual is completed, the creature in question can decide which side of the portal it ends up on (although it may be hazardous to their health if they choose to pass through to the side where the ritual is being performed).

The seal lasts for 10 minutes.

Description

This ritual has two primary uses. Firstly, it can be used to seal access to the Hall of Worlds for a short time. The ritual can be performed on either side of the portal at Anvil, and prevents anyone from entering or leaving the Hall for the duration. It can also be performed on portals that open out of the Hall of Worlds to other destinations, such as those used to attend audiences with Eternals.

Secondly, it can be used to temporarily seal a portal encountered as part of a regio. It is most often used in this way to stop creatures entering or leaving the portal while a more powerful ritual (perhaps Wind of Mundane Silence) is used to permanently deal with the regio, and by proxy the portal.

Pakaanan's Iron Shutters is named for a volhov who first used it to seal a regio ahead of a fleeing monster that was terrorizing a nearby vale. He and his apprentice Ijena beat the beast back to the regio it was using as its lair, and sealed the portal before the beast could pass through, allowing the pursuing schlacta to capture and dispatch it. After this initial success, Pakaanan used his influence with the Rod and Shield order to have the spell researched and codified; over the rest of his career he used it several times to variously hold a portal closed while a cabal dealt permanently with the regio; to prevent an angry Herald following him after a disastrous negotiation; and on at least two occasions with ilium to create permanent seals that (to this day) imprisoned monsters in their mystical lairs. Obviously this ritual cannot be made permanent with ilium as it has a limited duration; the likelihood is that Pakaanan had mastered a different ritual that lasted a season that they did not share with the rest of the Empire.

Experimentation by members of the Unfettered Mind order has demonstrated that this ritual has no effect on the Sentinel Gate because, while it transports people from one place to another, it is not a portal as such.

Common Elements

This ritual is often performed with an extended invocation. Elements such as rock salt, iron locks, chains and measures of ambergelt are all used to symbolise the sealing or closing of the portal, as are evocations of the runes Hirmok and Yoorn and the constellation of The Lock.