Porte is a Bargain Sorcery, passed down through the centuries through the bloodline of Senator Montanus. Porte allows its practicioners to tear open portals into the "walkway", a nebulous dimension where they can quickly cover any distance and tear open another portal to re-enter the world.
Those with the gift of Porte have hands which are stained red. This is not a surface stain, like a bloodstain. The very skin of their hands, up to their forearms, is a deep red color, like a port-wine stain birthmark. This mark is faintly visible even from birth, and grows darker as the sorcerer ages and practices his sorcery.
Porte is the most difficult of the sorceries to make consistent, without making it overly powerful. The rules, as written, are intended to balance the power of Porte with playability and "common sense". Sometimes this requires things to be a little "weird" and/or unintuitive, but as Basil Exposition told Austin Powers, "I suggest you don't worry about those things, and just enjoy yourself."
Porte has the following Knacks:
To mark an object as an anchor, the sorcerer must stain it with his blood. Most Porte sorcerers thus keep a small clean knife or pin for the purpose of drawing this blood. In addition to physically marking the object with blood, the sorcerer must also imprint the "feel" of the object into his memory. Blooding an object takes one full Round without interruptions, and inflicts 3 Flesh Wounds of damage, which requires an immediate Wound Check (which is almost certain to succeed unless the sorcerer is already wounded). A sorcerer can only blood an object which is equal to or less than his maximum Apporter capacity.
Only a single physical object can be Blooded. If the object is broken apart, the Blooding goes with one part of the object. Even if the object is later reassembled, the part which lost its Blooding does not regain it. For instance, if a sword was Blooded on its pommel, and the sword was later disassembled for cleaning and put back together, the blade would no longer be Blooded, and the unwise Porte sorcerer would wind up Bringing a bladeless hilt if he were to try to Bring the sword.
Blooding a container is also possible. If the sorcerer Brings the container, all objects inside the container also get brought along.
Anyone with Porte can identify that an item has been blooded just by touching it. Techniques of detecting sorcery will also detect blooded objects.
Washing the blood off of the item will neutralize it as a blooded object. The sorcerer won't necessarily notice this immediately unless he is actively concentrating on the anchor for some reason (like if he were in the walkway heading for it). But as soon as he directs his attention back to the anchor, he will notice that it has been neutralized.
It is a well-known technique for a sorcerer to give another person two anchors, so that the receiver can wash one off to signal for a "pickup". The sorcerer won't necessarily notice the signal immediately, but once he notices the neutralized anchor, he can walk to the remaining anchor to pick up his associate.
Opening a portal requires that the sorcerer has full and free use of both hands. He feels around in the air for a weakness, then digs his fingers in and tears an opening in the fabric of the world. With one Finesse Action, the sorcerer can tear open a hole with a Size Rank equal to half his Déchirer Rank (round up). A second Action is required to further tear the hole up to a maximum of Size Rank 5 (6 feet). Each further Size Rank beyond 5 requires another Action.
Tearing holes larger than Rank 5 (6 feet) requires more than one Porte sorcerer, since a single person can't spread their hands further than 6 feet in any case. An additional sorcerer is needed for each Rank beyond 6. Only one sorcerer needs the full Déchirer Rank to create the portal. The supporting sorcerers only need Déchirer Rank 2 or greater.
Portals stay open only for a limited time after the sorcerer stops holding them open. Once the sorcerer stops actively holding the portal open with at least one hand, the portal maintains its current size for a number of Phases equal to the sorcerer's Déchirer Rank. After that, the hole begins shrinking by one Size Rank per Phase until the portal closes completely. It is not possible to stop the portal from shrinking by blocking it with an object. Only the hand of a Porte Sorcerer can hold open or widen a portal. If an object is caught halfway within the portal as it shrinks, the object will either be sucked into the walkway, or spit back out into the world, at the GM's option.
If a portal is the absolute minimum size for a person to enter it (normally 2 feet) it takes 3 Phases to get through the portal. If the person merely needs to duck (normally 4 feet) it takes 2 Phases. If the portal has plenty of room (6 feet or larger), it only takes 1 Phase to enter. Similar guidelines apply for other objects- if the hole is not quite big enough for a horse, for instance (6 feet), the horse needs 2 phases to get through, but if it's clearly large enough (12 feet) the horse needs only 1 Phase to enter.
If the sorcerer is attempting to Bring a blooded object to him, he first tears open a hole large enough for the intended object. He then reaches in and "feels" for the blooded object within the walkway, which takes a varying amount of time depending on his Accord Rank. Once he locates the item, he pulls it into the walkway. This does not leave an open portal behind the object, but it is accompanied by a distinctive "ripping" sound which is familiar to those who have witnessed Porte at work. Then the sorcerer pulls the object back through his portal. Objects which are externally attached to the blooded object are not brought with, but objects contained inside the blooded object are.
The sorcerer needs a high enough Apporter Rank to meet the weight of the object, in addition to whatever arrangements he needs to make to pull particularly large or heavy objects through the portal. If the sorcerer cannot pull the item out, it is lost to the walkway (which might have been the sorcerer's whole objective in the first place, you never know).
If the sorcerer has enough Déchirer to tear a big enough portal (Rank 3), and enough Apporter to carry at least a person's weight (at least Rank 3), he may enter the portal himself, and "walk" to an anchor instead of bringing the anchor to him. The sorcerer first tears a large enough portal (as detailed above) and steps in. If he is bringing others with him, they need to either hold his hand or be connected somehow (often through ropes tied around the waist). The journey within the walkway takes a certain period of time, dependent on the sorcerer's Accord Knack. Once the sorcerer locates his anchor, he tears another portal at the anchor's location, and leads everyone out.
The sorcerer must always be the first one to exit the portal, and must exit it completely. It is not possible for the sorcerer to just reach out of the portal and grab something (even his blooded object) while in the walkway.
The portal enters existence immediately adjacent to the anchor. The environment of the anchor may limit the maximum size of the portal that the sorcerer can open. If, for instance, the anchor is a pin that has been placed in a jewelry box, the sorcerer might be physically strong enough to break open the box while tearing the portal. If the pin had been placed into a strongbox instead, the sorcerer would not be able to open the portal wide enough to get out.
If the portal cannot be opened large enough to go through, the sorcerer is stuck, and will need to find another anchor to walk to instead. Hope he's got one.
Multiple Porte Sorcerers can pool their Apporter strength together to move larger objects. Their weight capacities (not their Apporter Ranks) are all added together to determine the total capacity.
Liquids will not enter portals unless they are in containers. A portal opened at the bottom of the ocean will not cause the ocean to drain into the walkway.
Objects in caches sometimes disappear. Nobody knows why.
Coming out of a portal is disorienting. Those exiting a portal have all of their TNs increased by 5 for 4 Rounds. Those with Porte sorcery reduce the duration of this penalty by 1 Round per Mastery Level.
It is well-known that those who open their eyes within the walkway disappear forever. People who travel via Porte will frequently blindfold themselves as added protection on top of keeping their eyes firmly shut. Even if a sorcerer's "passenger" has a rope firmly tied around his waist, if the passenger foolishly opens his eyes, there will be a still-securely-tied empty loop of rope at the other end of the trip. Sometimes people hear ethereal voices in the walkway, trying to persuade them to open their eyes. Don't listen.
The sizes and weight limits of Porte are designed such that Half-Blooded Porte sorcerers are just barely capable of transporting themselves via Porte, if they train to the normal limit of their ability. And they don't look very dignified doing it.