Sunken Aleph

Sunken Aleph is a settlement in the Deep Rootbed, and a Site of Privileged Access due to phenomena irrelevant to those outside the Flight. Sunken Aleph hosts dragons on a purely transitory basis, as the properties of the settlement make it unsuitable for long-term habitation. It occupies a curved cavern of around 650x400 meters, with an estimated maximum height of 70 meters (excluding the entry chasm). Exact height is difficult to estimate due to slurry covering the cavern floor.
Further information is granted to non-Flight entities on a case-by-case basis. If a second archival scroll was not attached, you may register an appeal at the Behemoth chapter of the archivist's guild.
== History ==
The extent of damage and lack of surviving records makes Sunken Aleph's age difficult to determine. Correspondences from outside the settlement set a minimum age of the Second Expansion Event, making the city fairly ancient, though still constructed by dragonkind. It's possible that the city is significantly older and that its nature, combined with the nature of the event, made it more likely to appear in correspondences around this time. It's believed to have been abandoned shortly after the Event.
Samples recovered from its laboratory contain a mix of offensive and productive plants, as well as what's believed to be either seedbed materials or the results of genetic drift acting on unstable experimental strains. None have been fully matched to any defensive cultivar, indicating that these may be either ancestors or strains that were somehow lost. Another hypothesis posits the strains themselves as emergent, and that the laboratory had a different purpose entirely, its current properties giving rise to "wild" strains. However, the strains are not believed to be outside the working capabilities of the laboratory. Recovered tools indicate a high level of magical sophistication.
Sunken Aleph was rediscovered during a standard chasm-diving geological survey, performed to gauge the suitability of the upper chamber for settlement. Its discovery led to the founding of Bright Aleph. Exploration has been ongoing since.
== Known Layout ==
=== Entry Chasm ===
Sunken Aleph is reached by way of a vertical shaft descending some 150 meters. The still air and narrow confines make flight unsuitable for all but the smallest dragons; a pulley system is used for most access. Note that its dimensions prevent the installation of a second system, meaning that goods and riders can only move in one direction, and one load, at a time. Expansion of the chasm is not to be attempted pending further geological exploration, as it may destabilize the cavern.
=== Base Camp ===
The main cavern as viewed from the entry chasm is shaped like a backwards comma, with the chasm situated around 2/3s along its length and facing the "tail". The chasm ends on a large stone platform overlooking the main thoroughfare, as well as a series of ramps believed to have been used for cargo loading. The area's been fitted for habitation, with supplies, lights, and bedrolls protected by a series of aerial nets anchored between the edge and platform wall. Base camp is considered safe.
=== Main Thoroughfare ===
Sunken Aleph's main road, as with all low-lying areas of the settlement, is inaccessible due to flooding. The floodwater is heavily contaminated with rotting plant matter, silt, and various organic elements, some toxic when inhaled. It's also highly viscous and, due to the amount of material suspended in it, too opaque to sight-judge depth. The thoroughfare is instead traversed by a system of rooftop root bridges maintained by the base crew. Bridges are recommended over flying due to the presence of stalactites and other aerial hazards, as well as the difficulty in keeping the space lit. While a network of magi-lanterns is installed along the bridges, these are only lit on command, as they'll be swarmed by aleph moths otherwise. Carrying two backup sources of light is advised in case lanterns are blocked or damaged. The main thoroughfare is considered relatively safe.
=== Second through Fourth ===
The first three streets crossing the main thoroughfare consist primarily of warehouses and residential buildings. Sunken Aleph is thought to have been fairly sparsely inhabited, less than one hundred dragons, though there are accommodations for more. This theory stems from the contents of the residential buildings. The accessible upper floors of most accessible buildings are empty, with only two furnished rooms discovered. Exploration is slow due to the buildup of gasses released by the slurry, as well as the poor structural integrity of the buildings themselves. Unusual for Nature dwellings, they're constructed from stone. It's not known whether this was done out of necessity (as it takes some time to render a stone floor suitable for living dwellings) and kept, or was some sort of stylistic choice, but the mortar adhering them has decayed with time, with several collapsing during bridge construction. Additionally, many buildings lack upper windows; removing the roof on one revealed the remains of murals depicting the midday sky, as well as clusters of terracotta pots and glass shards that, when reassembled, appear to have come from a sungrub globe. Second through Fourth are considered unsafe due to instability.
=== Fifth and On ===
Sounding lines have confirmed the presence of a dropoff between Fourth and Fifth. The existence of further streets is difficult to confirm due to the depth of the dropoff, as any buildings would be submerged and inaccessible. Casting and reeling the line has allowed for some mapping of Fifth, which has noticeably lower buildings, several with clusters of terracotta pots on the roof; attempts at moving these pots has revealed that they're not adhered. As such, their presence indicates that the majority of the flooding happened gradually. Further mapping is slowed by the high number of aleph moths inhabiting the dropoff zone. A cast sounding weight is likely to impact moths and, due to their size, land short.
The bridge from Fifth to the Outskirts is the only one adhered to the roof of the cavern, despite the risk posed to cavern stability; it was deemed necessary due to the danger presented by the difficulty of flying through the moths combined with the depth of the dropoff. Fifth and on is considered relatively safe, though due to the number of moths, it may be beneficial to learn to navigate the bridge without light.
=== Outskirts ===
The outskirts are the region directly surrounding the lab, itself situated in the widest part of the "comma". The area exists on a natural dias, slightly above floodlevel. However, the buildings found here--despite being some of the densest construction in the settlement--are largely ruins. This is thought to be due in part to a breach on the left wall, which connects the cavern to a Barrens; given the devastation immediately surrounding the breach and lack of evidence of repair efforts, it's likely the breach either caused or occurred after Sunken Aleph's evacuation. The cover afforded by the ruins and adjoining breaches provide shelter and opportunities for ambush by Barrens creatures; the breach itself is regularly re-sealed, but it's wise to check its integrity before traversing the Outskirts. If breached, the ruins will require sweeping, and should only be traversed by trained warriors until then. Rather than attempting to navigate to the breach to check its integrity (which could expose you to attack), it's best to learn its approximate location and throw a sounding-stone. Barrens creatures are, of course, hostile to light, but the use of lure-lanterns is limited due to the presence of aleph moths. The outskirts are considered relatively safe while the breach is sealed and ruins swept, dangerous otherwise. The outskirts also contain access to the Legs, which are considered dangerous.
=== The Laboratory ===
Sunken Aleph's laboratory is its largest structure, consisting of three wings joined by a central chamber. Only the entry wing has been explored. The central chamber is the largest, and is walled primarily with glass and metalwork, rising as a multi-tiered conservatory dome. The metalwork features a degree of decoration and flourish that, combined with the needlessness of building a greenhouse underground, are thought to indicate that the lab served some political, administrative, touristic, or religious purpose in addition to its primary work.
The lab is completely filled by plant life. When any portion is removed, adjoining plants grow to fill the space. Damaged walls, roofs, and floors are replaced with dense wood, though the majority of the structure remains intact. The regeneration itself is functionally limitless, likely due to the lab's location, as it's constructed at an extraordinarily rich leyline intersect. The mechanism of control is less understood; the plants don't grow beyond the boundary of the laboratory, though they do fill all but a presumed lobby in the entry wing. Attempts at breaching the other wings have been unsuccessful, as the wood grown to replace structure is far denser than internal plants. As such, clearing has proceeded along the entry wing, fanning out to adjoined labs and offices as they're discovered.
The central chamber emits a glow consistent with powerful Nature magic. Typically, it's muted by the aleph moths pressed against the glass; 2-3 times per day, natural leyline fluctuations align and cause a "surge", at which point the glow intensifies, driving the moths up to the ceiling and lighting the entirety of Sunken Aleph. Surges are the safest time to traverse the cavern, typically lasting from 5-15 minutes. Surges can only be predicted around half an hour in advance, and while 2-3 per day is common, 0-9 have been observed, with the longest period between surges being 3 days.
Surges aren't physically harmful, but can be demoralizing for staff focused on clearing the lab. While it's agreed that a temporary halt on the lab's operation would be good for the environment, as it's doubtless the source of the plant matter in the floodwaters (which acts as a feedstock for fungi and bacteria that may present a hazard if allowed to escape the cavern), and that a lab with such a power source could present a major advantage to the Flight, most Nature dragons agree that the plants are only acting to protect something. This instinct can become overpowering during surges, resulting in Nature dragons undoing their own work. Using non-Nature plant control is considered nonviable. This is due in part to the increased risk of information leak, but the greater concern is the effect on the leylines. While Nature dragons can exert some control on the plants to maintain steady (if slow) progress, fire, disease, and the other lesser magics could run out of control, resulting in a spike in growth speed. If the destruction could neither outpace the repair speed nor be halted, the leylines might destabilize entirely.
As the visible portion of the lab is above the floodwater, with no apparent outlet for plant matter, it's possible that the lab has a basement or has otherwise "broken through" into tunnels below. Of course, this remains difficult to confirm with the plants and floodwaters in place.
=== The Legs ===
Further high-ground development occurred along a number of passages splitting off from the Outskirts; these "outskirts of the outskirts" are an area of great archeological interest, with some believed older than Sunken Aleph itself. Unfortunately, due to their proximity to the Barrens breach and turns that cut off access to laboratory surge light, exploration is considered extremely dangerous.
=== The Tail ===
While most of Sunken Aleph is accessed by going left from the entry chasm, the right--collectively, the "tail"--does feature some points of interest. Immediately to the right of base camp is an area believed to have been used for cultivation or a park. The slurry here is shallow enough to walk in for larger breeds, so long as care is taken to keep the head above the toxic gas boundary. Beyond that is the flood outlet, a narrowing, sloping passage that forms a number of "tidepools" of slurry. These are the laying-grounds of the aleph moth, whose caterpillars feed exclusively on the contents of the pools. The slurry is nonharmful to them, and their frass is clear of any active fungi or bacteria. Unusually, these caterpillars void themselves in absence of others, possibly a communal advantage that avoids blocking food access due to frass buildup; as the front of the passage is flooded, voiding happens to the rear, along a dropoff that itself leads deeper into the Rootbed. This seems sufficient to correct the imbalance between water leaching in and out of the main cavern, acting as a biological filter.
The aleph moth has no known predators. It may be that none have found their way into the cavern, or that the caterpillars are too toxic or foul-tasting (and the adults too lacking in nutrition) to make it worth the effort. Nor is any effort to be made to introduce one; the aleph moths are, in their own way, doing Her work, and are to be left alone whenever possible.
== Archivist Notes ==
No one's quite sure what we'll find in Sunken Aleph. A lab with direct access to multiple leylines is enough to motivate all this work and then some, but some of the things we've found past the outskirts are artifacts in their own right. In some ways, we're not cut out for this work; we understand plants and moths just fine, but dredging an ancient city sunken in a cesspit...that's cross-disciplinary. Sunken Aleph isn't the strangest thing in Nature, or even in the Rootbed; it's not the most classified thing, either, not by a long shot. I wonder how long we'll keep this secret, or if we've even kept it? Will some Earthhome snapper brave the chasm pulley in hopes we'll let them? Would we kick them in the slurry or thank them? Maybe they could figure out how Nature built a metal-frame greenhouse with all those fancies on it. No way we contracted from Fire, not back then. My bet's we stole it, piece by piece.
I hate the idea of cutting through those plants, of course, especially given how dangerous the cavern can get, but isn't that the point? What if a Beast comes through and shatters so much the whole lab goes off like the First Seed? What if a new breach forms and the whole cesspool hits an underground river? What if there's an emergency and we all try to get out, but there's just the one pulley? I keep waiting to dredge up bones, y'know, from when this place was abandoned the first time. Was it the first time? Or are we just the latest come to marvel at this thing? Are we really the first to think we could put it to some better purpose?
Category:Communal Locations
Category:Nature
Category:Locations