Constructing an Anchor

The construction of an Anchor is a complex process involving a number of magical rituals calling for a team of 13 archmagi and lasting several years, as well as a number of specialized components. The most unique of these items is the core: an artifact that bears a spiritual connection to the region, which powers the device. Others are simply rare, difficult to come by, or the products of complex alchemical processes.

The Core

When magical storms occur, sometimes the built up energy is not burned away in an uncontrolled burst of power, but is sealed within a specific object. Such events happen several times a year, but there is no known logic that determines what object will be imbued with the charge. Sometimes it's one rock in a field of rocks, sometimes it's a tree, or a building, or even a person. The resulting magical occlusion is difficult to detect, as there is no magical activity - without careful analysis it appears no different from anything else in the region: saturated in magic.
These objects act as a drain for the magical energy, though they fill up quite quickly, pulling energy from the exact point at which this link was first formed. Once a suitable core is found - something small enough to be portable, and preferably not something still alive - it can be incorporated into the body of an Anchor, which is effectively a pump, drawing magic from the object as it flows in. The closer the completed anchor is to the point where its core was formed, the more efficient the transfer of energy will be, and the greater the area a given Anchor will cover.

Other Components

Anchors also require a number of other exotic materials:

• One of the alchemical preparations calls for fresh blood - no more than a week old - from some extraplanar beings. Lingorm blood is preferred for this stage as they are a reasonably well understood creature, are a threat to the public, and are one of the few extraplanar beings that have managed to persist even in civilized lands.
• The most complex component is a construct that maintains a one way portal to a special kind of pocket plane that holds a vast amount of magical energy. It can be constructed of fairly mundane, if expensive, resources. Here, it is the construction process that provides the difficulty: several enchantments have to be layered into a single device, several of which require well over a hundred daily castings in order to become permanently established. Each enchantment must be added in sequence - experiments in combining two or more layers together results in the spells interfering with each other - they are too volatile until they have had a chance to settle in. This component is generally made in a secure location under the protection of an existing Anchor, but some layers call for High-order magic that can only be used in uncontrolled lands. Fortunately these rituals can be completed in a matter of hours, and the device can be moved back into safety for the next stage of construction.