Help Me Seal Three Dangerous Portals

[Stoat]

What with one thing and another, my players have come into possession of a large castle overlooking a small village. Unfortunately for them, a previous owner dabbled in things which man was not meant to know, and there are three dangerous planar portals in the castle's lower dungeon. One portal leads to a stable area of the Elemental Chaos, one to the Nine Hells and one to the Far Realm. Although the player's don't know it, the portals are mostly inert right now. Nothing can pass through them until the proper rituals are enacted.

The players want to clean up their new basement and permanently seal the three portals. I'm looking for suggestions how. I'm running a 4E game, but I can convert any ideas. I know there's WotC has published at least one relevant skill challenge, but I'm not keen on running it three times.

Any ideas?

 

[amerigoV]

Now why would you want to let the PCs seal the portals? That takes all the fun away from you.

You need a huckster to come along and claim he can do that for the PCs. Lets face it, they are busy people and need not worry over such a trivial thing! A bit of spackle, two coats of paint, a fake rune or three, and off with the PC's gold!

 

[Vorput]

Now why would you want to let the PCs seal the portals? That takes all the fun away from you.

You need a huckster to come along and claim he can do that for the PCs. Lets face it, they are busy people and need not worry over such a trivial thing! A bit of spackle, two coats of paint, a fake rune or three, and off with the PC's gold!

Also, the huckster is really an evil wizard who opens the portals...

Also, if the PCs go looking for someone to close there portals (or ask around how to do it), they might arouse the attention of someone who has an interest in using them before the PCs have a chance to close them.



But more seriously, how about a ritual that closes the portals but does so by "overloading" them, so to speak. A tremendous blast of arcane power which seals them shut. BUT, before they're sealed- because of the power, they may open up one final time.

Any number of things could happen. One could let lose a monster the PCs will have to deal with (9 Hells portal). One could cause a weird warping of space/time leading to some puzzle the PCs will have to solve (the Far realms). The Elemental chaos one could spawn some elementals, or let loose an inferno that needs to be extinguished, etc. Maybe one opens up the wrong way sucking the PCs in before it is permanently shut. The possibilities are limitless.

The 'overload' option could be one of several options too- one significantly cheaper, but also much more dangerous...

 

[Goken100]

I'd say the best way to permanently seal each of the three is to destroy the portal from BOTH sides. There could be various interesting ways of doing this to create variety.

1) Maybe for one, a special ritual (with accompanying skill challenge) can be acquired without having to open up the portal.

2) Perhaps for one, the heroes will actually have to open the portal, journey to the other side, complete a ritual, and zip back in the nick of time. This will be fraught with danger, and could even result in quest on the other side if something like a keystone is missing.

3) As a variant to #2, the heroes might be unable to return through the portal if they destroy it, so would need to find another way home, a quest in itself.

4) The heroes could attempt to contact a being and bargain with it in order to seal the gate from the other side (while they seal it from their side). The being might require the heroes to complete some task, which could lead to no end of trouble.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I say, put them end to end and perform the ritual. Having each realm open up to the other.

Plot wise, how can your players become the Guardians of the Universe if you seal them. It also allows for high level adventures in the future.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I recommend duct tape.

I say, put them end to end and perform the ritual. Having each realm open up to the other.

Nasty - and all kinds of possible fun for the future when the PCs discover that the planar war began when some devils "invaded" the Elemental Chaos.

Stealing a bit from this idea and the rituals suggested earlier - the PCs need to create three new portals placed on top of the original three that lead back to their original planes, creating an infinite loop.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Maybe one opens up the wrong way sucking the PCs in before it is permanently shut.

There is at least one adventure in that.

In my game I had a PC stuck in the far realms for 200 years (a symbiotic far realms creature saved him by melding with him). We actually ran 2 seperate short adventures with new PCs who were also stuck in the far realms by different means (and from different times) working for the PC (as an NPC) trying to find a way home.

The symbiotic creature was of course evil so the PC tricked it into leaving his body before he made it back to the middle world. The creature vowed revenge for his treachery and actually turned up in the main plot a number of levels later.

 

[grodog]

My two most-recent columns in Knockspell are about gates, including destroying gates (in the KS#4 column). I've excerpted the section about gate destruction effects, in case it might interest you, Stoat: http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/from_kuroths_quill_04_12-destroying_gates.pdf

Enjoy!