The Gates: Worldwide Travel Better Left Untouched? (SC'20)

Written by Steve Tremblay

The Gate by Sebastian Diaconu

Significance

"The Gates" as they have come to be called are an ancient relic of a forgotten history. Few people alive have ever seen one in person and fewer still have had the privilege of seeing one in use. Only twice in recent years has anyone held both the knowledge and power to make one function.
Briahna Ebelmare was one of those people and on several documented occasions managed to open the gate long enough for people to travel through it and survive to pop out on the other side.
For her, a torrent of psionic energy unleashed into the handholds would sustain the portal for about 30 seconds, just enough time for an adventuring party to pass through.
Another psionic powered individual, Daegon Arcanscape managed to force one to open when his power, spurred by a century of pent up rage flowed through him and allegedly opened ALL of the gates for some time.
There seems to be some connection to persons with massive stores of energy, whether magical or mental and the ability to work these gates. Many others have tried, using magical focuses, multiple casters or powerful magical items and only ended up maimed, injured or killed by the misunderstood artifacts.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The trouble with the Gates is that no one knows who made them, how many there are or why they were originally created. Obviously, they exist for travel and perhaps were created by beings who could wield magic far superior to anyone alive today, or maybe they had a device which was able to power them up without fail.
Daegon and an Elf named Finway Dawnharp did manage to map many of the gate locations after Daegon acquired enough power to open them himself. This was not without a very personal cost but that is a story for another time. What they did learn was that from one of the first found gates in the Evergreen, they could travel to 6 other locations based on carvings on that gate. Each gate has 7 icons embedded on it:a snowflake, a mountain, a tree, a bridge, an island or land mass, a pillar and a ship and each corresponds to another gate location.
How they work: Everyone stands clear as the caster, psionic or "other", stands on the pedestal, taps one of the embedded icons and places their hands on the small pillars. Focusing their power and unleashing a raw burst of energy, sustaining it as long as possible and really, hoping to not explode. If done correctly, with enough power the symbols will light up, a glow will cover the inside of the circle and magically, a portal to another place has appeared.
Before everyone else can join hands and rush through, many will (and should) say a prayer to their favored deity as the perils of the gates opened incorrectly have documented some grizzly fates.
**Mechanically speaking, 3 Intelligence/Arcana checks are performed with increasing difficulties. Anything but success of all 3 results in some less than spectacular, but seriously life altering effects for the caster and those attempting to pass through.

For much more information on The Gates in a Theria world setting, see the NOW AVAILABLE! book The Adventurers Guide to Theria vol. 1: Ellara