:Class 3
- Unsecured
- •
- Moderate Hazards
- •
- No Hostility
Level ???.
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Level Overview
Level ??? is a forested wetland of indeterminate area, distinguished from similar expanses by the vast luminous bodies that dominate its skies.
Description
Level ???'s wetlands under a particularly dim sky.
A variety of waterlogged biomes comprise the ground of Level ???. While distinct in and of themselves to an individual, on a grander scale these all blend into each other with almost unnatural frequency and brevity. Continuing in any one direction will inevitably bring one into a new sunlit environment before too long: coniferous forests give way to stunted deciduous groves, which sink into weedy fens and lakes bordered by yet more forest. No one landscape dominates the rest, but none are shielded from the constant flood of light from above.
The entirety of the level is trapped in an eternal summer afternoon, due in no small part to its unusual lighting. While rarely too hot for comfort, the air is infused with a degree of humidity rather becoming of a marsh. Cloud cover and rain are sparse, yielding to the humid winds seemingly sent down by the sky itself.
Level ???'s terrain itself, although not actively hostile, can prove a challenge to traverse if caution is not exercised. The most pertinent ground hazard is posed by unstable muddy ground, which have a tendency to collapse under one's weight. These sinkages are rarely deeper than a meter, but do well to thoroughly ruin the clothes of reckless travellers.
Needless to say, the overbearing glare of the sky does little to prevent such blunders.
Here, the light is as palpable as the leaves it filters through.
Of particular interest to those crossing the basked woodlands is the frequent impediment posed by its numerous lakes and ponds. Though it is inadvisable to cross these directly, they are—like their smaller and muddier cousins—rarely deep enough to pose a significant hazard to humans. They may reach around two meters below ground level at their most extreme.
Most of Level ???'s water is contained within these stagnant reservoirs: due to a lack of regular precipitation and altitude variation, flowing bodies of water such as creeks and rivers are extremely rare. As such, the vast majority of water within the level has long been subject to little disturbance outside of the odd breeze or impact event, providing a comfortable breeding space for aquatic microorganisms of all forms.
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Resident Lifeforms
The forest floors remain illuminated, no matter how large their occupants grow.
The vast majority of Level ??? is dominated by ferns, grasses, and trees of all make and manner—there is no rock left untouched by moss, nor soggy patch of mud unexplored by curious sprouts. Any spade taken to the dirt will inevitably strike roots. Classification of every species within is a fruitless endeavor, though most bear at least a strong resemblance to Frontrooms flora—albeit often with overlarge leaves to match the availability of light.
Many of the lakes and ponds within the level, particularly those surrounded by dense forests, have long been overtaken by other kingdoms of aquatic flora. Mosses and lilies cleanly coat their surfaces, while hydrophytes of all shapes flourish underneath. Such reservoirs may very well be the only locales around in permanent shadow.
Level ??? is in no shortage of more animated inhabitants, either. The clouds of migrating insects would blot out lesser suns, and their collective chatter reaches volumes comparable to a busy highway. Here, they are free from the threat of larger predators: there are no birds or amphibians or fish to thin their numbers, though the high population of carnivorous plants appear to have taken advantage of this abundance.
Most species within Level ??? are known to exist within the Frontrooms as well, but a minority have been documented previously as entities within other levels. These include:
- Nguithr'xurhs, on one occasion. The recorded instance was noted to have spun a large flat web instead of the usual balloon-like sacs of sedative, likely having adapted to catching insects en masse rather than larger prey.
- Ants, which coexist and are not to be confused with the Frontrooms species of the same name.1
- Oxids, which are relatively scarce in the open but gather in enormous numbers around impact sites to feed.
- A species superficially resembling the Scit, albeit far removed from the docile prey radiodonts found in many other levels. These are several centimeters in length and live almost exclusively in water, rarely using their frontal appendages to drag themselves across the muddy shores in search of large insects.2
The minute number of formal expeditions to Level ??? have also procured descriptions of several insectoid species unrecorded elsewhere. These are given provisional designations until further documentation is deemed necessary.
- Entity ???-1: Beetles with bright off-white shells that form large colonies in shrubbery. These bushes are repurposed into hollow hives by the workers, who adhere the outermost leaves together into one solid covering using a mixture of mud and spit.
- Entity ???-2: mayb like 3-4 more of these ?? Think about em atleast
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Phenomena
While not expressly forbidden, Level ??? rarely lends itself well to being photographed using conventional cameras.
More mundane observations aside, Level ??? is most easily characterized by the unidentified luminous bodies that sprawl across its sky. These most closely resemble massive, radiant clouds: far too large and amorphous to be called stars, and far too bright to be classified as auroras. Photographing them directly is an exercise in futility. For convention's sake, these objects are given the working designation of Phenomenon ???-P.
Instances of ???-P are not stagnant, but chart a steady journey across the sky over the span of hours or days. Whether this would constitute an upper-atmosphere current or a day/night cycle is unclear, but the weather remains a constant regardless.
Thankfully for those on the surface, ???-P instances output far less heat than light, generating only enough to warm the level to slightly above room temperature. However, the quantity of ultraviolet radiation generated notably exceeds that of sunlike stars. Thick clothing and headwear is strongly recommended when entering Level ??? to prevent severe sunburn, as even the densest foliage provides very little protection.3
Although bulk high-UV shielding is an entirely possible development in the future, Level ??? is by no means a potential spot for long-term habituation.
An impact crater, long weathered by time and water.
Level ??? is constantly peppered by falling bodies of foreign matter, ranging from dust particles to objects the size of small islands. Due to the relative rarity of this occurrence and the difficulty of observation, the means by which these objects enter the level is not known. What is known is the relative danger posed by their appearances, and the remnants that suggest this these impacts have occurred long before their discovery.
Two (2) accounts of these objects in descent have been recorded at present, but Level ??? is littered with wreckage from larger debris.4 These are often sizeable chunks of land and, on occasion, pieces of manmade/adjacent architecture.
Several of these more intact structures have been noted to host functional apertures to and from the level, suggesting that these are not isolated bits of matter but discarded pieces of other levels within the Backrooms. Only some of these locations these connect to are documented elsewhere; those that are not have been given provisional PA designations.
