The Spell Mystic Portal

[darthauthor]

The Spell Mystic Portal in the book Rifts Ultimate Edition page 219.


Question #1:

Can the spell be used under water to enter an undersea habitate without having to enter by way of a hatch or such?

[ShadowLogan]

Q1:
What do you mean by "used underwater"? If you mean cast the spell, it can be done see BoM on pg201 (it's C&P from WB7 at the start of the Ocean Magic section IIRC).

Assuming you can meet the requirements to cast underwater, yes you can use it to provide a temporary access point (it also works in the vacuum of space per DB11:Fot3G use of the spell for a TW-missile on pg91, granted TW can "bend" things).

Now the spell has two ways of working (teleporting and "tunneling") and must be cast on something solid (water is liquid) to work. What isn't clear is if the water would "rush in" through the portal due to a potential difference in pressure in this situation. For simplicity I would say that the water doesn't rush in (unless you want to work out 200ft^2 portal area letting in water for 1minute per level and the rate of the water flow).

[darthauthor]

The adventure I was working on had the player characters using a TW device that they used to tunnel their way into an underwater habitate without breaking the walls. They could not find the hidden entrence/exit latch.

What i don't mean by it is, "Can I recite the words to a spell while under water?"

[ShadowLogan]

I will point out there was nothing in the initial post about using a TW device in a situation, allowing a respondents to consider it as just a spell casting situation and not a TW-device question.

There is a difference (in general) though between asking if a SPELL works in X-situation vs a TW-Device using that Spell(s) in the same situation as the TW-Device can alter parameters of the spell(s) involved in its use. You can't normally use "Carpet of Adhesion" Spell for added traction (so you can walk on ice, or up a wall, on the ceiling as normally you'd be stuck in place), however it is certainly possible to do that using the same spell in a TW-Device (in point of fact RUE text uses this spell for a hypothetical car traction system.)

[darthauthor]

I apologize for any confusion.

I meant for the operation of the spell and not the limitations of speaking a spell while under-water.
It was always about getting to the other side of a wall.

Question that were unanswer were about whether or not water would also go through the Mystic Portal.

[ShadowLogan]

As I said though the operation of the spell can differ between a regular casting and a TW device. A TW device could "tweak" the spell even w/o a spell chain (as CoA example in RUE seems to go with) or via a spell chain (how the spells in Flaming Sword interact per text in RUE/RMB).

As to weather water would travel through the Mystic Portal (either way), remember that MP can work via two methods (teleportation and passage) each of which could have their own respective differing answers. Also sense we are dealing with magic here you could simply say the surrounding water/air doesn't travel through as some function of the magic and leave it at that (we know some magic is "picky" about what/when/where it will work).