**- Sined is Not a Taxi! -**
Portals Can Kill!
The following skills are suggested for non-wizards wishing to portal from scrolls:
The methods changed recently, these may not be valid now.
Although I suggest a 200 (banishing of 250) bonus in the methods, the spell may become usable once the method bonuses all reach about 150 (banishing of 200). However, until bonuses reach the levels suggested the spell is unlikely to be very reliable to cast. Note that even with bonuses above those suggested here, frequent failures should be expected. Wizards with bonuses of 350 or higher in all the spell methods fail the spell as often as once in every ten casts.
You can also look up portal on the Spellcheck Project.
This is a guide to learning skills for portal. I suggest you do all of this before you buy any scrolls or blorples. The XP costs shown are the rounded up self teaching figures from Acim's website, so the cost of learning should be less than shown here.
Total XP cost of learning to portal, approximately 26 million XP. Note that by "learning to portal" I mean having a reasonable chance of a succesful spellcast, rather than getting it right every time. Even with 300 levels in all the above skills you will fail portal frequently!
Acim's website is no longer available, but Hezzel has a similar website here.
Scrolls Kill!
Be very careful when handling scrolls. Experiment to find out what works for you. I have heard so many different accounts of what does and does not seem to cause "exploding scrolls" since the requirements were changed in mid 2004 that I no longer have any idea how the calculations work.
It seems that there is a "level of nesting" factor, a "spell size" factor, and a "time factor" in the scroll handling skillchecks. By this I mean that the following have apparently been observed (not all of these have been verified):
The key to my method of managing blorples is the Witches' spell, Delusions of Grandeur. Using this spell, it is possible to give each blorple a unique name, and additionally, to create a group of wearable containers each with the same name that can be referred to using the plural of that name.
As an example, a utility belt (Assassins' Guild), pocketed leather undershirt (Thieves' Guild), two shoulder pouches (Assassins' Guild), two leather armband pouches (Ninjas' Guild), pocketed boots (Thieves' Guild), a custom robe and custom hat (both CWC Wizards' Guild) can all be deluded to the name "blorples". These can collectively be referred to as either "blorplesses" or "every blorples".
Each blorple can also be uniquely deluded.
nickname jogloran's portal of cheaper travel as jpct
For non-wizards:
alias portal get paper from [packet in scroll-container]; get
$*$ from blorplesses; cast jpct on my $*$ from paper; eat paper; condition my $*$; put my $*$
in blorplesses;
or
alias portal get paper from [packet in scroll-container]; get
$*$ from every blorples; cast jpct on my $*$ from paper; eat paper; condition my $*$; put my $*$
in every blorples;
For Wizards, this is a bit easier:
alias portal get $*$ from blorplesses; cast jpct on my $*$; condition my $*$; put my $*$ in blorplesses;
or
alias portal get $*$ from every blorples; cast jpct on my $*$; condition my $*$; put my $*$ in every blorples;
This method can also be used with Divine Hand remembers. Cigarette papers make good remember.
The portal spell can fail. It can create a portal that is on fire, or one that rumbles when opened. It can create a portal to the wrong place, and the wrong place might be full of agressive NPCs, such as theMedina, Snail, Shades, Grflx Caves etc, or 50 rooms underwater. Any wizard who casts the spell for you should check the portal before saying it's OK, and be willing to move a room and try again if there's a failure. However, if you are so impatient that you leap through a burning rumbling portal, and it kills you, or you jump through a misport without looking and die or get slaughtered, that's your problem for not waiting for them to say "OK" or checking the door yourself!
look door
If the door is burning, leave it and move to another room, then start again.
Now open the door.
open door
If you hear a rumbling noise when you open the door, leave it and move to another room, then start again. It's always a good idea to check that the portal you got is the one you asked for.
look enter door
If it doesn't look like the destination you expected, don't go there.
Please remember that even highly skilled wizards fail the portal spell frequently, often several times in succession. Don't be too surprised if you do too.
Finally, look after your jewellery. Check the condition of my jewellery after every portal, and repair them as soon as they fall below excellent condition.