ideas for closing a gate or rift to another plane

[Aiden_Keller_]

Could a druidic ritual work?

Perhaps errecting a certain kind of stone circle around the portal and performing the correct rite would cause nature to block the rift? Explaining to the grand uber druid why they need to learn the ritual could be an adventure all by itself? Let alone fending off the waves of the damned determined to prevent the ritual.

Give them a horrid moral dilema - the only way to close the gate is to sacrifice a person of true and pure heart/royal blooded/a unicorn. Does the small evil outweigh the greater good. Do they need to kill them or can they just let them die in the circle.? Can they find someone who would be willing to make such a sacrifice? Can they do this without tainting themselves? Etc.


Could use to introduce to a different setting, possibly temporary?

Make them all jump through the portal. Dig out Ravenloft books. Profit.

Journey to the realm of the dead and petition the God of the Dead (very politely, I suggest!) to close the gate. Cue Planescape shenanigans.

Ravenloft books! LOL

 

[darkbard]

I suggest solving your problem by turning the solution over to your players. Take a page from 4E's handbook and present this as a Skill Challenge wherein PCs need to achieve X number of successes before 3 failures; each PC declares an action that makes use of a skill or ability as it fits the fiction; you apply new pressure on the group after each roll, successful or not. You may be surprised how your players take the fiction in creative directions!

E.g., The Druid declares s/he will channel the forces of nature to mend the rift, rolls the appropriate check (Nature skill?), and succeeds. You declare, "The air tingles with a vibrating hum as Druid sweeps her hands over the disturbed circle. Slowly, yet as if geological time has sped up, you watch as crystals coalesce and rise from the earth, beginning to seal the breech. Nevertheless, the unholy forces are not so easily extinguished! A wave of necrotic energy radiates from the circle, threatening to crack the forming crystals. Who does what in response?" Rinse and repeat until the requisite number of successes or failures has been met.

 

[Eltab]

Somebody somewhere has created a magic item / weapon that is especially effective against Undead. If it can be brought to the tear, and a willing being sacrifices its living spirit to create a sentient magic item out of it, the whole can be pushed through the tear to eternally guard while the tear is repaired from this side without interference. Part of the effort might be building a tomb or mausoleum around the rift, with no doors or other exits in its structure. Maybe an animated statue or a construct - anything but an Undead! - can wield the enhanced weapon.

There was a Doctor Who episode last year that sort of addressed the same theme: Roman / Celt -era Scotland had some magical monsters (looked like a shadowfell Displacer Beast) running around that needed returned to their own plane and a guardian placed to prevent them coming back to the Material World. Watch that and accept any inspiration that arrives.