Travelemetry

 

“I know a shortcut”

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For the world to work, things need to move from one place to another. This fundamental truth led to the creation of roads, trade routes, even magical portals between lands, all with the express purpose of linking two locations. However, roads and trade routes are slow, and even wizards agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to have magical portals everywhere. This is where Travelemetry, the scientific study of linking two or more locations, comes into play.

Travelemetry typically utilizes tools to survey the land, such as compasses, maps, quadrants and spyglasses. Other useful supplies include hammers and saws, as they can aid in building a doorway. Any piece of equipment like this counts as masterwork and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Knowledge (The Planes) check made to prepare a Travelemetric principle. There are stories about The Marauder's Map, a magical self-adjusting map that outlines the location and status every Gateway created on all the planes.

Key Skill: Knowledge (The Planes)



TVLM 101: Intro to Travelemetry
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial Reference
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle converts an area into a Travelemetric Gateway, warping and softening the planar structure to be more readily able to join to another of its kind. On its own it doesn't appear to do anything at all, but its power comes when it is linked.

Each time you prepare this principle you warp up to 20 square feet of empty vertical space, laid out however you like. All squares must be connected, and you do not have to use all of them if the area you need is smaller than 20 square feet.

A Gateway is intangible, and may be passed through from either side without restriction or damage while it is unlinked. It is immovable, unless you anchor it to a frame of some kind. If anchored to a frame the Gateway will move with the frame, and will change orientation to match.

As part of preparing this principle, you make a Knowledge (The Planes) check. Again, this doesn't do much until linked, but expanding, linking or severing the link on Gateways require that you meet or exceed the result of this check. You can modify a Gateway into treating you as its creator by meeting or exceeding the original Knowledge (The Planes) check used to create it.

Preparing this principle a second time on a Gateway allows you to link it to an unlinked Gateway on the same plane that you know the exact location of. This Gateway must be the exact same size and shape as the one you are linking to it. You do not need to be the creator of the other Gateway for this to work, but you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on this check if you are the creator of both Gateways. You gain an additional +2 on the check to link Gateways if both of them are anchored to frames, as the manipulation is easier to stabilize with a proper anchor at both ends.

Linking Gateways stretches the planar structure between the two, creating a tunnel between them for easy traversal. Each Gateway gains a discernible front and back, chosen by you at the time of linking. The back of each Gateway is opaque, and creatures may pass through the Gateway from the back without penalty. However, the front of the Gateway looks (and is) the entrance to a tunnel, allowing easy travel between the two. While not instantaneous, travelling between Gateways reduces the time it would normally take to travel to the other location by a percentage equal to 1/5th the sum of the Knowledge (The Planes) checks used to construct the linked Gateways, to a maximum reduction of 80% (any further would cause instability in the planar fabric). (Ex: Gate A has a 32, Gate B has a 45. Linking from Gate A to B would require a 32+ on the check, and provide a 15% reduction in travel time. Assuming it would normally take three months to travel from A to B, using the Gateways cuts roughly two weeks off of the travel time.)

The tunnel created is not an extraplanar space, and time progresses normally for all creatures within the tunnel. Any differences between the two Gateways, such as temperature or air pressure are adjusted gradually over the length of the tunnel.

Should you prepare this principle again on an already Linked Gateway, you can choose to sever the connection that has been established between it and its partner. Severing a link is slightly more difficult than creating one, and as such you must beat the creation DC + 5, as if the principle had been locked against tampering. However, you are still provided the same bonuses as when linking Gateways, if they apply.

Should one of the Gateways be closed or destroyed, the planar material rapidly snaps back in place. All creatures currently within the tunnel are instantly ejected from the remaining open side, and take 1d6 damage for every hour of travel they had left before reaching that end of the tunnel. Once empty, the other Gateway automatically severs its connection as well.



TVLM 142: Flow of Traffic [Specialist]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to modify the movement of planar material between Gateways. Normally, the planar fabric is static between them, but by adding a bit of repulsion or attraction to one side, you can make travel in one direction much quicker. Make a Knowledge (The Planes) check as part of preparing this principle, and add double that result to the checks that were used to link the Gateways together to determine the travel time reduction in the direction you specify. However, travel in the other direction becomes more difficult, and is instead increased by that amount.



TVLM 173: Security Protocols [Military Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101
Target: Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle modifies the requirements that must be met to link to the affected Gateway. As with TVLM 101, you must make a Knowledge (The Planes) check that meets or exceeds the one used to construct the door in order to apply the changes, but you may add any or all of the following restrictions to the Gateway you are working on:

• Linking to the Gateway has a special requirement, such as speaking a pass phrase or etching a set of matching runes into the frames of both Gateways.

• The Gateway can only accept a specific number of travellers within a given time frame (it keeps a separate tally for each direction travelled, and any travellers in excess may wait in the tunnel).

• The Gateway can only link with other Gateways that have been modified with TVLM 173.

• Linking to the Gateway can only be performed by the Gateway's creator.

If the Gateway is linked to another Gateway that does not meet the requirements you specify, that link is severed as part of preparing this principle. The changes you make to the gate are permanent, and may only be altered or removed by another application of this principle.



TVLM 212: Temporal Acceleration
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to compensate for planar instability with puissance. After applying this principle to a Gateway it can receive ebbs, with every ebb reducing the travel time by one day as all material between the linked Gateways is accelerated toward the opposite Gateway. You can reach near 100% efficiency by supplying ebbs, although travel between the Gateways will always take at least one round. You may only power one of the linked Gateways at a time. Attempting to power both causes the tunnel between them to fall apart, severing the connection between the Gateways.

However, powering a Gateway in this matter comes with one major drawback: the Gateways can only handle shuttling travellers in one direction whilst powered. Anything within the tunnel when the Gateway is powered must succeed at a Strength check (DC = 10 + ebbs supplied) each round to avoid being picked up by the flowing planar material and flung toward (and eventually through) the unpowered Gateway. Attempting to enter the unpowered Gateway requires a successful Strength check at the same DC to be able to cross the threshold. Creatures that successfully save against the effect must make an additional Strength Check (DC = 15 + ebbs supplied) to be able to move against the current, with a failure indicating a wasted action.



TVLM 226: Casual Causality [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateways
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to use the common factors of the Gateways to your advantage, effectively using each commonality to pull the Gateways closer together. By making a Knowledge (The Planes) check that meets or exceeds the checks used to create both of the linked Gateways, you can reduce the travel time by 5% for each exact match that the Gateways share, and by 1% for items that are similar, but not exact. These common factors include things such as the Gateway size, frame material (if any), average temperature, air pressure, position in the seasonal cycle, and composition of the area surrounding the gate. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of factors, and other ones may apply, given the situation.

No matter how many common factors you match, use of this principle can never increase the total efficiency of the tunnel past the normal maximum of 80%. You also may not apply factors that aren't truly there (such as frame material when neither Gateway has a frame). Should you prepare this principle a second time on a Gateway, the new application replaces the prior one. Oddly, this may cause an increase in travel time, should common factors that were found in the original preparation no longer apply.



TVLM 245: Into Enemy Territory [Military Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Target: Unlinked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you unprecedented options in moving troops, as it allows you to connect a Gateway to an area of world that has not been properly prepared. This works like the linking option in TVLM 101, but does not require a second Gateway to function.

However, this is not without its drawbacks. First, the connection between the locations is unstable, and only lasts for a number of hours equal to 1/4th the Knowledge (The Planes) check used to prepare this principle. Second, when the tunnel collapses it also utterly destroys the Gateway this principle was prepared on, including any frame it was anchored to.



TVLM 301: To Infinity and Beyond
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 15 ranks
Target: Unlinked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle works like the linking option in TVLM 101, but it allows you to link Gateways that are on different planes. The exact distances between planes (and time it will take to travel between them) are heavily dependent on the local cosmic structure, and as such hard numbers cannot be listed here. Consult with your local overdeity* to determine distances.
*Commonly referred to as a "Dungeon Master", although using the term Overdeity may have him or her move the planes closer on your behalf.



TVLM 326: A Perfect Union [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 226, Knowledge (The Planes) 15 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle works like TVLM 226, but you gain a 10% reduction for exact matches, and a 5% reduction for things that are close, but not exact. Furthermore, this principle allows a maximum reduction of 100% on linked Gateways. Should you be able to manage this, the tunnel disappears, instead showing the area you would find at the exit of the tunnel. Travel between them becomes instantaneous, and for all intents and purposes the squares bordering each Gateway are considered to be adjacent to each other, in addition to being adjacent to the squares on the back side of the Gateway.



TVLM 392: Burning Bridges [Military Science]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

This principle works similar to the link severing option in TVLM 101, but it allows you to ensure that the closing connection has disastrous consequences on the other end. Instead of the planar fabric simply snapping back into place, it explodes outward from the open Gateway, causing a catastrophic explosion in the area as the planar fabric desperately tries to form back to its original shape, with an older connection between Gateways causing a more brilliant collapse. Consult the following table to determine the area:
{table=head]

Time Connected

|Area Affected|Maximum Area

Up to 1 Hour

|1 ft per hour*|2 ft x Check**

1 Hour to 1 Day

|5 ft per hour*|10 ft x Check**

1 Day to 1 Month

|50 ft per hour*|100 ft x Check**

1 Month to 1 Year

|1000 ft per hour*|2000 ft x Check**

1 Year +

|1 mile per hour*|5 miles x Check**[/table]
*:Hour = Hour of travel between locations when travelling at 30ft per round, not including reductions provided by the tunnel.
**:Check = The Knowledge (The Planes) check made to sever the connection between the Gateways

No matter the size, the explosion damage is the same: 1d6 per point of the Knowledge (The Planes) check you made as part of preparing this principle. The damage dealt is purely divine in nature, and as such bypasses all hardness, resistances, damage reduction and regenerative qualities. Creatures within the epicenter (inner 10% of the explosion) take full damage, all others can make a Reflex save (DC = 5 + 5 per TVLM principle you know) for half.

The Gateway that this principle is prepared on is destroyed during the process, and it goes without saying that the target Gateway does not survive the blast. Also, the planar fabric affected by the explosion becomes tough and rigid, making it impossible to create a Travelemetric Gateway in that location for the next 50 years.

Discoveries:
All Things Great and Small: You can link Gateways of different sizes. The tunnel between the Gateways will have a noticeable slope to any sides that differ between the two Gateways. If a creature is too large to fit through one of the Gateways, they will be able to realize this fact with a DC 10 Intelligence check, made passively once a day while travelling.
Automatic Cutoff: You must know the Chevrons and Power Down discovery to learn this Discovery. Through a special application of TVLM 101 you can cause Gateways with addresses to sever their connections if the tunnel between remains empty for 10 rounds. This is done simultaneously from both sides.
Chevrons: Rather than linking gates with TVLM 101, you may now assign addresses to them. You may create or sever a link between Gateways with addresses as a logical decision, calculating travel time as normal. If a Gateway has been prepared with TVLM 212, you may channel puissance to further decrease travel time, as normal.
Conversational Causality: You must know TVLM 226 to learn this Discovery. Gateways you link automatically tighten the planar fabric of the tunnel between them, as if you had applied TVLM 226. Also, all connections you make gain a 5% increase in efficiency, though you still may not surpass the limit of 80%
Further Refinement: When using a principle on a Gateway, you may replace the original Knowledge (The Planes) DC with any new check made for the principle being applied, increasing the efficiency and security of the Gateway.
Power Down: You may disable or reinstate connections between linked Gateways as a standard action, or as a logical decision if the Gateway is connected to a Heuristic Circuit. You must be the creator of both Gateways to use this ability, and the tunnel between them must be unoccupied. This does not sever the connection completely, so a disabled gate can only be linked to its original target upon reinstatement, and you must reinstate the connection before attempting to sever it using TVLM 101.
Stretched Circuitry: You must know TVLM 212 and HEUR 101 to learn this Discovery. If a Gateway is part of a Heuristic Circuit, you may extend that Circuit to include any Gateway that it is linked to. This daisy-chained setup does not extend the actual bubble to the linked Gateway, but you may treat it as being part of the Circuit for all purposes, including transferring ebbs and making logical decisions. You cannot extend the Circuit to include a Gateway that is already connected to another Circuit.