The City boundaries are immune to teleportation magic so the only way into or out of the
City is through its many portals. Even the most powerful mages, however, have been unable
to create these portals and it would seem that only The City itself can do so. Many of
the City portals have existed for as long as most of The City's inhabitants can remember but
some are ephemeral, appearing suddenly and disappearing a few days later.
It is said that
somewhere in The City there are portals to all known planes and worlds and there are
organisations in The City which try to keep track of them all. Some of these organisations
are commercial but some act out of a sense of civic duty. At any one time the commercial
organisations
will be gradually increasing their influence and one commercial concern
is heading towards dominance. Sages say, however, that the
Great Lady, who always has an interest in the portals to
her city, eventually loses her patience with people who are too greedy and balance is restored.
Gambling dens in the city are currently betting on whether Aglac the Barghest will still be
owning any of his portals by the year end.
The portals to the city, however well-used, always have a 'key' which in theory (but not
always in practice), mitigates against their accidental use. Most are two way but
some are one-way only although they usually have a counterpart going in the reverse direction
in another location in the city. A portal may take the form of a normal door or arch or just be a
paving stone. One of the most famous was in mid-air and required potential users to jump off
the Tower of Seleen. Although the portal itself was stable the key was a rhyme needing
sufficient concentration to make sure that the Tower was a popular tourist attraction for the
more ghoulish races.