Portal of Mogol | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

The Portal of Mogol is an ancient threshold connecting the arch to a realm of oceans. The curtain gives no view of the far side, and those who pass through arrive at the linked shore or in its waters. The portal usually permits deliberate travel, but its oceanic current sometimes surges outward, tugging nearby creatures toward the threshold and carrying the unlucky through without preparation.

Magical
Complex
Teleportation
Water

Stealth: (trained) to notice the magical current before it surges; the arch itself is obvious
Trigger: The hazard activates when a creature comes within 10 feet of the arch or crosses its curtain. Once activated, it rolls initiative and begins its routine.
Disable: Thievery to jam the arch's hidden stone catches, or Arcana or Nature to harmonize the curtain's magical current. Each attempt takes 2 actions. Two total successes disable the hazard; each failure counts toward the two failures needed to make further attempts impossible until the hazard resets. A creature can also disable it by destroying the keystone.
Initiative: Perception +14
Routine: On its initiative, the portal uses Undertow Surge.
Reset: The hazard resets automatically at the start of each round. If disabled by skill checks, it remains disabled until repaired or deliberately reactivated with a successful Arcana check requiring 10 minutes.

Damage

Immunities

critical hits, object immunities, precision damage

Effects

1

Undertow Surge
DC 22
The hazard makes a current pulse against creatures within 10 feet of the arch. Each creature in the area attempts a Reflex save. On a critical success, it is unaffected. On a success, it is pulled 5 feet toward the arch. On a failure, it is pulled 10 feet toward the arch and takes bludgeoning damage. On a critical failure, it is pulled through the portal and takes bludgeoning damage; it arrives at the linked destination in a dangerous but survivable position, such as waist-deep water or a nearby shoreline.

Special rules

A Door, Not a Window.A creature that deliberately steps through the curtain arrives safely at the linked destination. The portal does not reveal the far side before the crossing, and a creature that cannot breathe water may arrive in a hazardous aquatic location if the destination point has been disturbed.

Unprepared Crossing.A creature pulled through by a critical failure arrives at the destination but is off balance and flat-footed until the end of its next turn. The GM chooses a nearby survivable arrival point consistent with the destination.

Spotting it

Discovery

A creature that examines the arch can identify the magical threshold with a successful Arcana check.

Perception

+14

Stop it

Signs of dangerVines near the arch sway toward the light even when there is no wind. · A soft rushing sound rises and falls behind the curtain, like distant surf. · Loose leaves and drops of water slide toward the threshold when the light pulses.

Countermeasures

A creature that crosses the curtain deliberately is transported safely to the portal's linked destination, unless the portal is currently surging.
A creature can secure itself to a fixed anchor with a rope. While anchored, it gains a +2 circumstance bonus to its Reflex save against the portal's pull.
DC 22A successful Arcana or Nature check to stabilize the curtain suppresses its routine for 1 round. Two total successes before two failures disable the hazard.
Destroying the arch's central keystone disables the portal, but also severs the connection until it is repaired.

In short

The portal is a usable passage, not a sealed wall, but its unstable current can drag nearby creatures through without warning.

Its story

What it looks like

A weathered stone arch stands half swallowed by vines.

Why it is here

A two-way passage into an ocean realm, built to allow travel but subject to dangerous tidal surges

Who made it

Mogol, an unknown architect of passages between worlds

Lore

Legends say Mogol built doors where the borders between worlds were thinnest.

Where it is found

Overgrown ruins, coastal wilderness, ancient roads, or any place where the ocean realm touches the material world

Variants

The portal opens onto a reef at low tide, but surges can deposit travelers beneath a breaking wave.

The curtain is cloudy with silt, and each surge carries the sound of something enormous moving beyond it.

The vines have grown through the arch. Cutting them makes the portal surge immediately, but burning them weakens its current and grants a +2 circumstance bonus to checks to disable it.

Plot hooks

Bubu's scouting trip left a small marker near the far side, but the portal's current has shifted the arrival point since then.

The Avengers returned with seawater in their gear that contains unfamiliar spores or eggs.

A tide spirit claims the portal is a stolen doorway and demands that its original keeper be found.

The arch has begun pulsing at times that do not match any ocean tide, suggesting something on the far side is trying to cross.

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