Well of many worlds

Well of many worlds

(Magic item)

Aura (1E)

Conjuration

Caster Level (1E)

17

Type

Wondrous item

Slot (1E)

None

Source: Classic Treasures Revisited, pg(s). 59

A well of many worlds is a magic item that serves as a portal connecting its user's location to another planet, plane, or reality. Unlike planar travel spells, a well's user cannot chose the portal's destination, making its use highly risky.

Appearance

Like a portable hole, a well of many worlds resembles fabric that can be carried, folded, and rolled up. However, instead of opening into a pocket extradimensional space the well opens into a random location, whether on the same plane, another random plane, or a parallel reality.

Usage

The portal created by a well can be traversed in both directions, but in most iterations the physical well itself exists only on the side of the portal where it was placed. After passing through such a well it can be manipulated or closed by anyone on the opened side of the well, potentially trapping whoever passes through it in the destination.

A small number of wells can be manipulated from either side, making them much more useful for frequent planar travelers. However, pulling a well through itself can damage it in unpredictable ways, such as creating temporal distortions and delays, damage to beings or objects passed through the portal, or opening into a destination's parallel reality.

An opened well can stay open indefinitely, and an abandoned well can effectively become a permanent interplanar portal between its origin and destination.

As the well selects a destination at random, the user might unwittingly open a portal into a hostile environment or allow hostile creatures to pass through it into their realm. Closing the well and moving it changes its destination to another random location or plane. The destination can be predicted through divination, however.

Researchers have also identified mathematical means of predicting the destination of a well opened at a specific location, but the methods—which also involve advanced astronomy, significant investments in orreries, and extensive research—require at least a week of preparation and a stroke of genius to confidently and accurately predict a result.

Codices of planar cartography also sometimes suggest methods of predicting a well's destination, but many are riddled with errors or containe deliberate misinformation.

Known destinations

While the true number of destinations of a well of many worlds is infinite, some destinations are known. This includes all of the Inner Planes, Outer Planes, and Transitive Planes, as well as Creation's Forge and the Void.

A well's rarest destinations are demiplanes and dimensions, which have included the Crypt of the Dying Sun, Freehold of the Rogue Angel, Leng, Mnemovore, the Circle Between, the Dead Vault, the Dimension of Time, the Dreamlands, the Fleshwarren, the Immortal Ambulatory, the Lost, and the Machine Armory.

Variants

A liar's well is a cursed well of many worlds that displays an illusory false image of its true destination half of the times it is used.

A shadow well opens only into random locations between the Universe and the Netherworld.

A well of stars opens only into random planets of the Universe.

A well of welcome respite have a secret command word that when spoken changes its destination to a single specific location designated during its creation.

Tegresin's Devouring Well is a sentient well of many worlds that opens only with an offering of blood. At its own whim it transports its user into a prison demiplane owned by its namesake creator, Tegresin the Laughing Fiend.

On Golarion

The cambion thief Nisha Starweather used a well to evade Chelaxian authorities while committing a decade of brazen thefts from prominent diabolists.

A dwarven mercantile house in the Menador Mountains is believed to use several wells to facilitate planar trade routes with Axis, Elysium, and the Plane of Earth.

However, many recorded uses of wells of many worlds have resulted in disaster, including dozens of incidents where wells opened into hostile Outer Planes. A similar scheme launched in 4038 AR by a dwarven clan of Mistholme in the Fog Peaks failed in 4048 AR when they reopened their well into the Outer Rifts, leading to their city being overrun by demons before collapsing the city onto themselves to halt the invasion.

A series of calamities that occurred in Oppara between 4508 AR and 4527 AR were caused by a liar's well intentionally gifted by Illemar Garmin as part of a scheme to assault or murder students of his former mentor.