"The Portal Driver is not some clockwork toy or common appliance. It's a scientific wonder so advanced that merely operating it feels like performing actual magic."
When a respected scientific figure like Ramsgate's famed aethersmith Arkan Drew waxes poetical, you know some big discoveries are on the horizon. The aetheric engine dubbed the "Portal Driver" has that effect on people. Even in a dormant state perched atop a dais, this mystery orb demands one's complete attention. According to the man who knows more about its workings that anyone else, it's a far more complex machine than he first suspected. Learn how Drew cracked the Portal Driver code in this Dispatch exclusive!
"Every major frequency on the specturm interacts with the material realm in its own way. When such power is given living form in the shape of a Behemoth, these creatures can seem to do the impossible. Tear open reality. Become living flame. Ride a bolt of aetheric lightning. But the Umbral Void is unique. No other form of aether opens gateways into an elemental dimension."
We asked the Orrery scholar what's next for him and the recently rebuilt city, which now sits in a brand-new, barely charted arm of the Ram formation. Perhaps it won't come as a surprise but the longtime Ramsgate native is looking forward to a well-deserved break. For Drew, that means retiring to his rebuilt laboratory where he can continue his ongoing experiments with aether and "aethertech." We'll ask him all about it on a Dispatch Deep Dive!
"There is no question that 'portal travel' through the Umbral Void, as it is now often described in the common vernacular, is quick. Despite my very real concerns we might enter a realm where time slowed to a crawl, it also appears to be completely safe. So that's good."
Is Ramsgate's amazing new Portal Driver capable of even more impossible feats? And how will those feats affect your coin pouch? It's all inside this edition of the Ramsgate Dispatch!
Get the latest edition of the Ramsgate Dispatch including cover story, long-term aether forecasts, and Uncle Bosun's Puzzle Pages. On sale wherever fine broadsheets are offered.