Places

The Dimensional Portal sits deep underground in a bright, fluorescent-lit chamber. Electrical cables snake across the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cave, held in place by bolts drilled into the rock. Uniformed soldiers patrol the chamber armed with modern weaponry and Glass Walker ancestor spirits act as officers to command these emanations.

The portal is a large circle carved into the far wall of the chamber. Seemingly random runes mark its surface and glow with power when the Anchorhead is active. The anchors for this passage are two polished rubies as large as a fist, embedded on a dais several yards in front of each rock portal. These rubies bleed inner light when touched or when someone passes through the gate.

When activated, the runes glow in patterns of blue, green, and red, and the featureless rock within the circle swirls and melts into a cool, semi-reflective liquid. Travelers stepping into this feel inexorably pulled along, and see glittering star trails whipping past them at impossible speeds. The journey always seems to take no more than a few heartbeats regardless of its actual duration. When the character arrives at her destination the liquid rock suddenly solidifies with an audible pop and the runes flare before fading to black.

The Deep Umbral side of the Anchorhead is another cave, somewhat smaller than the Near Umbral terminus. This side is more sparsely lit and dirtier than its counterpart. Water drips from the ceiling into permanent, salt-encrusted pools. A garrison force made up of Garou and ancestor spirits protects this entry from the alien creatures that sometimes find the Anchorhead.

An all-Glass Walker sept maintains the Dimensional Portal. These Garou do not forbid other tribes from using the Anchorhead but are conscious that most werewolves are uncomfortable with the Realm’s theme. The Glass Walkers fear that Garou who can’t embrace it will permanently disrupt the gateway. Nobody knows if they are correct in their belief but the sept spends additional time performing ritual maintenance on the Anchorhead each time a more traditional Garou uses it.

The mouth of the cavern leads into impenetrable dark­ ness. The Glass Walkers can summon Moon Bridges here that rapidly take travelers to a fortified bunker dug into one of the cloud-mountains at the foot of the Aetherial Realm.