The Shattered Lands

Q01

Distinctive physical fact

Pocket 7-Gamma appears, on first arrival, to be an ordinary mid-industrial city. Slightly Eastern European in architecture. Cobbled streets, gas lamps, brick buildings. Population in the tens of thousands. Pleasant climate.

The buildings have no interiors. Doors do not open. Windows show painted scenes that do not match the time of day. The streets contain people who walk, talk, conduct business, and respond to passers-by — but cannot be touched, and do not appear in photographs.

Q02

Dominant want

Unknown. The "people" of Pocket 7-Gamma respond to questions, but their answers do not always match what was asked. They appear to believe they want things — a meal at a restaurant that has no kitchen, a meeting with a colleague who is also not real — but cannot articulate motivations under sustained questioning.

Q03

Relationship to the Paths

Unique. The Path leading into Pocket 7-Gamma is one-way during most periods. The Path out manifests irregularly and unreliably. Solace classifies the world as Strongly Restricted; teams are not normally dispatched here. Several teams that have entered did not return.

▌ The Paths

2 documented

№01

The Inbound Path

one-way · most periods

Form

Varies by world of origin. Most commonly manifests in Solace facilities as a service door marked "Pocket 7-Gamma — Restricted." Solace has never authorized such a door. They keep finding them anyway.

Cost

Free in. The cost is paid on the way out, or not at all.

Personality

A Mystic Reading the inbound Path senses the warm, slightly stale air of an empty waiting room with the heater running.

№02

The Outbound Path

irregular · unreliable

Form

Manifests irregularly throughout the city. A specific shop window. An alley that wasn't there yesterday. A room in a hotel that has no other rooms. The Path is always recognizable — there is a pull, a sense of something elsewhere.

Cost

Dangerous. The Path requires the traveller to want to leave, in a specific way the city subtly discourages. Spirit roll required (T11–T14, GM call). On Failure, Spirit Stress and the Path moves elsewhere — try again. On Catastrophic, the traveller loses something they came in with (a memory, a possession, a relationship).

Personality

A Mystic Reading the outbound Path senses almost nothing — the Path is silent, deliberately, in a way the rest of the city is not.

▌ Filed Entry · Cartographic Survey Division

Pocket 7-Gamma

Filed by [redacted] · Cartographic Survey Division · date [redacted]

[Body of entry redacted in full.]

Operational classification: Strongly Restricted. Field deployment requires Authorization Code Beta-Seven or higher. Standard team rotation does not apply.

Hazards: Significant. Specific hazards omitted for operational security.

Useful contacts: None on record.

Notes: [Redacted.]