Rota

The Bridgespace


LIMSPACE CLASSIFICATION


Difficulty 3/5 Provided you make for a shrine as soon as possible and have the right supplies, survival is achievable. Food is unavailable outside of shrines, and shifting geography due to bridge-storms make supply lines nigh-impossible.
Entity Count 2/5 Little to no living entities remain aside from shrine-keepers and caecillian colonies.
Chaos Gradient 3/5 Bridges remain fixed for the duration of calm cycles. Upon the triggering of a bridge-storm, architecture can dramatically shift and rearrange itself in reaction to presumed hostile entities. Phase-shifting is common in the fluids of the 'sea' below bridges in this space in both calm and storm cycles.
Basset-Frazier Index 2.67/5 This level is most definitely anomalous, and while there is a definite seasonal pattern to the chaotic cycles present here, it is difficult to gauge with the current knowledge available to us.

DESCRIPTION


As initially compiled by Scout Archibald Reveren, who lost his eye upon his second visit here to a shrine-keeper. Further amendments made by Archivist Arvind Martinez


liminalspacerota.png

fig 1.0 Approach to one of the shrines commonly found within this limspace



The Bridgespace appears to be a seemingly endless complex fractal system of bridges suspended over flat, dark plains, obscured by a thick mist. Held to closer inspection, the mist hides a frothing 'sea' of a noxious substance that phase shifts at random intervals between solid, liquid, and gas states of matter. Upon exposure to an Archivist, such a substance appears to react corrosively with human skin (I learned this the hard way, and my finger paid the price).

All bridgeways in this mazelike space are straight without bend or curve, connecting with one another at various junctions and angles with edges almost like 'puzzle-pieces'. There is writing on top of them, writing unlike any language in Baseline reality. I am unsure what the inscriptions say, but several images carved and painted in some red substance at bridge-junctions frequently use a decagon with a circle inscribed inside it. Upon further inspection, this appears to refer to some kind of civilisation, though I cannot say much more than that.

At junctions where ten bridges meet, strange structures can be found - the only structures in this place that aren't damn bridges. Deemed 'shrines' after my second visit due to the large amounts of inscriptions and symbols written on their outer surface, they appear to be modified pyramidal domes carved of oily, black stone, set upon squared bases. They are only accessible from the top, and I had to climb to get inside. There, I saw things I cannot put to words. Frozen figures, crabs with crystal eyes. They comforted me in the storm.

I won't talk more about that here.

Upon more extensive time spent in this limspace, it becomes clear it is plagued by seasonal chaos. I have decided to call the turning of such seasons 'cycles'. A 'weather-log' (as I have come to call it) of my time in the Bridgespace can be found below.

Table I: Scout Archibald's Weather Log
Visits Observations Status Length (baseline time)
Visit 1 Bridges are straight. Mist is fairly dense today. I walked for a long time, until eventually finding an exit point. Hopeful. Eager to come back. Provisions proved difficult, and most food spoiled close to rapture-point. 47 days
Visit 2 Weather was the same as before until halfway through my expedition. I camped beside a shrine to stay the night, and burned something by mistake. The next day, a 'storm' ensued. The misty plains exploded in massive sheets of liquid around me, and all bridges rearranged. This chaotic period lasted for a long time, until finally a rapture point appeared, and I left. Hopeful at the start. Tired, and deeply distressed afterward. I ran out of food towards the end, and was running on pure adrenaline. Something spoke to me in the storm, it spoke inside my head. It used pictures. 6 19 days
Visit 3 Same as before, but I stayed inside the shrine this time when storms hit. Three storms, precisely. The shrines do not move. They aren't like the other places. Cooked creatures found within the shrine once rations ran out. Rapture-points occurred several times, but I could not reach them until the storms passed. Lacking patience. They don't speak to me anymore, after I killed their children. I am safe. I am worthy 70 days

_

I am planning to do a fourth and final expedition into the space. There are questions I still need answered, but have no way of knowing until I go back. I need to go back.

Ammended 14/1/2045
A fourth and final expedition into the Bridgespace was indeed undertaken by Scout Archibald, but his body and logs were never recovered by our database. We can only presume the worst.
_


Further investigation of the shrines by subsequent exploration confirm suspicions only briefly capitulated on in Scout Archibald's Weather logs: that the shrines were tied with the bridge-storms that reshuffled reality. Attempts to translate any writing on the shrines has been met with resounding failure.

It is important to also note that the phase shifting of the black plains decreases in a wide radius around the shrines, leaving most of its compositional substance oily and black, much like the material from which the shrines themselves are composed. Supply lines as stated before are very much impossible in this space, and any attempts to retrieve the material back to Baseline Reality have failed (the substance seems to become unstable and sublimate upon leaving the Bridgespace).

The fog grows thicker yet.


POPULATION:


While there is no known life within the Bridgespace in the traditional sense of the word on the greater surface, further explorations have revealed a strange ecosystem residing within and around the shrines themselves (these are possibly the 'crabs' mentioned by Scout Archibald in his weather logs).

Within each shrine there are various crab-like statues, dubbed 'shrine-keepers', each seemingly made of the same solid black rock of the shrine walls. It is unknown if these creatures are sentient life or just statues, but there are depictions in art around the shrines that imply them being some kind of 'slave' for the decagons. They respond to electrical impulses. It is important to note not to look into their gemstone eyes, due to previous Archivists disappearing after performing such an action. Their fate is currently unknown.

After several close calls with these entities, it is strongly advised that any attempts to treat with the bridge-keepers during a bridge-storm should be avoided.

Near junctions by shrines during the transition periods between calm and storm cycles, various caecillian-like creatures can be found living in dense, clumped nests made of hardened saliva where the shrine-walls meet the roadway. These nests are flammable, and while the creatures' meat tastes slimy and bitter, it can sustain an explorer for days. It is important to note that one cannot poach too many nests without running risk of waking the shrines.




There are also whispers in the bridge-storms. Pictures writ from dreams.

We don't know who makes those, though.



I don't think we ever will.


ENTRANCES AND EXITS


Entrances:

  • The only known access-point to this limspace as used by the Archivists is located through a dreamway sourced in Threshold #65: the Yrothi Pit.

Exits:

  • Rapture points; stairways that appear at random indiscriminately of whether there is bridge or simply plains. These are the only exits known currently from this limspace. They most reliably appear at junctions close to shrines.

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