Limspace Classification
| Difficulty | 4/5 | Hostile entities, challenging terrain, and utter darkness all make this space a nightmare to survive for long. |
|---|---|---|
| Entity Count | 3/5 | Only one species of entity can be encountered here, but they have two life cycle stages—both of which are common and dangerous. |
| Chaos Gradient | 0/5 | Entirely stable. |
| Basset-Frazier Index | 2.3/5 | Short-term traversal of this limspace is possible and can get one to a desired destination through the various exit tunnels, but deeper, long-term exploration is extremely dangerous. |
Description
Perdition's Embrace is a web: a trap that ensnares wanderers within its labyrinthine halls. The dirt-hewn passageways of the Embrace deter all but the most courageous from entering its spiralling depths. The tunnels are almost perfectly circular in diameter—they loop and curve vertically and horizontally, forming dizzying mazes that hinder navigation. Coupled with the pitch-black conditions, any sense of orientation that a wanderer may have will soon be lost to the winding depths. A stifling heat fills the unmoving air as it radiates from the soil walls, giving the impression that the tunnels are constantly closing in, even though they are wide enough to walk through unhindered. These hostile passages are spotted with many small indentations and pools of a mucus-like substance, they will sometimes curve steeply downward until fully vertical, forcing any traveller to turn back or take a leap of faith. Some tunnels, when followed to their ends, connect to other limspaces or even back to baseline reality. These tunnels provide relatively easy access to and escape from this space, but these connections are often used by the endemic entities as a method of accessing other spaces to hunt.
The embrace.
The dirt in this limspace is infested with a network of mycelial fungi that devour nutrients and organic matter, outputting heat as a byproduct of their digestion. The Hypnobores, the only entities that call this place home, feed off this heat and bring organic matter to areas of high fungal concentration. These "digestion holes" are accessed through short tunnels leading down into the ceiling, where the Hypnobores drop their gathered organic material into the enclosed space. The material is then digested by the fungus, dead or alive. This raises the ambient temperature of the soil around the mycelium concentration, allowing the Hypnobores to burrow next to the fungus and feed on the heat it creates. They will stay there until the matter has been fully digested and the residual heat begins to dissipate into the surrounding soil.
These adjacent burrows are then filled in with the second byproduct of digestion—dirt produced by the fungus. As a result, areas connected to this limspace, including other limspaces and baseline, are gradually being filled with dirt that supports the growth of the native fungus. There is evidence, in the form of buried objects, that one or more limspaces may have already been subsumed into Perdition's Embrace due to the production of dirt and fungus growth.
The Hypnobore life cycle starts with small larvae, parasitic organisms that feed off thermal energy produced by wanderers or any other lifeforms that stumble into the tunnels. They tunnel through soil with a sharpened bone tip and seek out any source of heat, piercing flesh to gestate within a larger organism. The slime which they produce doubles as both a lubricant to slide through the dirt and a strong anaesthetic to covertly invade the body of any unsuspecting wanderer. Once it forms a cocoon, the grub will release massive amounts of this anaesthetic to put the organism it is inhabiting into a coma and then begin to grow into a Hypnobore. Many larvae have been observed to pupate in digestion holes if they cannot find other sources of heat, but they lack the hard carapace of their fully grown counterparts and are treated as organic matter by the fungus and quickly digested.
Fully grown Hypnobores are large, elliptical creatures covered in a thick, bony exoskeleton. Hundreds of thin, insectile limbs poke through their armoured brown carapace on every side of their rear half. They use these to burrow at unbelievable rates and to shoot through their tunnels like a bullet travelling down an infinite barrel. The front end of the Hypnobore is a hollow mouth cavity that opens like a four-petaled flower and is used to capture any living thing it encounters. The outside and inside of the mouth are both smooth and extremely hard, and the inside of the mouth is bioluminescent. It acts as a lure to anyone blindly seeking daylight at the end of a tunnel, only for the jaws to snap shut, sealing them in the claustrophobic maw of the Hypnobore for transport.
The dirt surrounding the permanent tunnels is too compacted by the Hypnobores for the fungus to grow into, but it can be penetrated by Hypnobore larvae. This is why travellers will only need to worry about the larvae and fully developed Hypnobores while traversing Perdition's Embrace.
Survival within Perdition's Embrace
Entering this limspace is extremely inadvisable due to the treacherous terrain and hostile entities, but it can be—and is often—used as a shortcut to escape to baseline or another destination through the exit tunnels. If you find yourself in these hypogeal halls, you will need to check regularly for any holes in your clothing where grubs could have pierced through and for warm spots surrounded by cold areas of skin. Upon locating a grub that has subdermally implanted itself, you must excise it with any sharp object before it forms a cocoon. Hypnobore grubs will also seek out artificial sources of heat, so checking any equipment is advised before batteries are drained by the grubs.
Care must also be taken to ensure that one does not become enchanted by the promise of light at the end of the tunnel; proceed with caution and only venture forward once you are sure you can feel a cold breeze or smell fresh air. Hypnobore lures are slightly blue in tone, and most real exits seem blindingly bright when one has spent any length of time in Perdition's Embrace.
Treacherous Ground
Shafts that curve steeply downward and holes in the tunnel floors have been known to catch wanderers by surprise, casting them deeper into the hellish domain as they slide down the pit’s cramped walls. Various fates can await such a careless or foolhardy wanderer that leaps or tumbles into such a shaft; a distant light at the bottom may signify an escape or a waiting set of luminous jaws. One without such tempting light can be the entrance to digestion holes, simply more tunnels, or a birthing pit. These pits are tight spaces where the fully grown Hypnobores spawn their young, and any wanderer landing down here is doomed to a terrible fate. There are simply too many larvae emerging from the pit's walls to hold back, and one by one, they will burrow into the victim's flesh and drain them of energy as their struggles slow and they are crushed through the sheer weight of the parasitic maggots.
Other Discoveries
The few that have extensively traversed this limspace and lived to tell the tale report sightings of structures and fragments of strange shapes embedded within tunnel walls. The exposed surfaces tell of complex swirling patterns carved into the stone-like material that have been mostly eroded by the passing of Hypnobores. There have also been reports of a distant, repeating rhythm, possibly mechanical in nature, that plays when one puts their ear against the wall and listens closely. This has only been heard in a stretch of tunnel close to a baseline entrance, but the source has yet to be discovered.
Entrances and Exits
A white light in the distance signifies an exit from the Embrace back into baseline, or occasionally into another limspace. It is also possible to enter another subterranean limspace or baseline cave without knowing it while in complete darkness. A change in the texture of the cave surface or the shape of the tunnel means that you have likely wandered out of this limspace.