The Stalkers of the Gate

From LSWiki

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\=\                         Stalkers of the Gate                        \=\
\=\                                 News                                \=\
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\=\ The Stalkers have been revised in many regards.  The best way to    \=\
\=\ stay up to date is 'show changes to the Stalkers of the Gate'.      \=\
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\=\                                               -- Chaos, 2008-03-12  \=\
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    The Stalkers of the Gate are the elite, reserve force of the Shadow
Lord Kalyxes, the creator and owner of Shadow Tower.  In days gone by
the Stalkers of the Gate would go out in the land and kill or capture
creatures which upset the balance Kalyxes was trying so hard to obtain.
Now with his prison he is more or less content with the balance of the
world, and has put the Stalkers of the Gate on reserve.

    The Stalkers of the Gate see movement as paramount, and Kalyxes
found that creating portals to preset locations was the best way to
accomplish rapid movement.

    Members receive their powers from the marble amulet which
Kalyxes gives them upon entering the Stalkers of the Gate.  Wearing this
amulet provides all of the special abilities with which Stalkers are
empowered.  Its weakness is that it is sensitive to imbalances of holy
and unholy forces; in effect, a Stalker may only safely carry one more
holy item than the number of unholy items he has, or vice versa.  For
example, if a Stalker is carrying two holy items, and no unholy items,
the amulet will react violently, releasing harmful shadow magicks until
the Stalker has balanced himself either by getting an unholy item or by
dropping one of their holy items.  While not worn, the amulet is dormant
and does not display this behavior.  It takes some time after the amulet
is donned for it to synchronize itself with you, allowing the use of its
powers, however, so removing it is not always the best course of action.

    The amulet's powers, like Kalyxes's, are tied to the Umbra, and
portals are most easily opened to planes cosmologically adjoining it,
including the Prime plane that constitutes the ordinary world as most
folk know it.  Opening portals to more distant planes requires a good
deal of skill in spatiomancy and considerably more expenditure of
spiritual resources.  Since all portals are routed through the Umbra,
the distance from your current location to the Umbra and the distance
from the Umbra to your destination are both relevant.

    Stalkers of the Gate can set their present location as a destination
for one of their portals via the command 'link portal here', and they
may remove a portal destination with 'unlink portal #', where # is the
portal number they wish to remove.  They may also list their current
portal destinations using the command 'portals'.

    Stalkers create portals through the command 'conjure portal to #',
where # is the portal number destination they would like to create the
portal to.  Once the portal has been created, it will last for only
a short time; usually less than a minute.  Portals may be entered, or
looked through, to see where they lead.  A stalker may also 'conjure
random portal', to create a portal to a random location.

    Creating a portal is not without cost, however, as it requires an
expenditure of both spiritual and physical energy on the part of the
Stalker.  The exertion necessary is greatly reduced if the Stalker is
conjuring a portal to or from the Umbra, and even moreso if conjuring
a portal from one location to another within it.

    The amulet's magicks also empower a Stalker to easily determine what
plane of existence he is on at any time through the command 'determine
plane'.

    Finally, Stalkers of the Gate may communicate with one another
via their own channel, which can be accessed using the commands 'stalkers',
'stalker' or 'assoc'.

Affiliation Incompatabilities

Kalyxes says, [/\ You cannot join the Stalkers of the Gate because you are a fanatic. \/] to you.

Kalyxes says, [/\ You cannot join the Stalkers of the Gate because you are a proponent of order. \/] to you.

Specialty Details

			min	max
Cosmology			 +3
Exoma Fieldcraft		+10	(adventurer's don't have)
Orienteering			 +3	(adventurer's don't have)
Spatiomancy		1	 +5	(adventurer's don't have)
Subordination		1	 +2
Umbral Fieldcraft		+10	(adventurer's don't have)