Info
Like the philosopher, I think that nothing is communicable by the art of writing. Bothersome and trivial details have no place in my spirit, which is prepared for all that is vast and grand.
Sources/Inspirations:
- Through The Labyrinth: A Guide to Navigating Chaos by Eternalized
- How Ancient Megaliths gave us The Backrooms by Paths Seldom Trod
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- The House of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges
- Greek Mythology
- Level 611 by
Sariastuff
- Level c-1900 by
Ambersight
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Name: Level 611 - Name Pending
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Name: CLASSIFIED INTERNAL DOCUMENT
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SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class Hunting Grounds
- Hostile centralized oversight
- Imminent danger at all times
- No safe locations
Security Status: PUBLIC
Security Protocols: All wanderers are allowed free viewing of the current documentation regarding Level 611. However, known entrances in the midst of wanderer activity hotspots (which are sparse in their own regards, but nonetheless notable) are guarded by M.E.G. and B.N.T.G. personnel to prevent unauthorized entry.
Security justification: As any wanderer has the chance to encounter one of Level 611's entrances, it is imperative that all wanderers be informed of Level 611 so that they can avoid any potentially fatal encounters. Warnings to ward off wanderers from entering Level 611 are propagated in wanderer circles with the purpose of aiding this cause.
Description
Entrance Chamber
The starting area of Level 611 is an enclosed space about four meters high and less than thirty square meters in area. Its environment is similar to that of a cave not unlike Level 8 or Level 197. The ground is paved with flat stone bricks, and the four walls are draped with tattered red curtains concealing faded, vandalized murals dating back to the Lost era. These murals appear to depict a Lost deity named Asterion wielding a giant cleaver.
Iron candlesticks are mounted high up on the walls. A large number of painted pottery jars line the ground along the wall, many containing the dried remnants of unidentified specimens while others are filled with wine. Nearby is a clay tablet, inscribed with the following phrase in ancient Hoofish:
“One jar of honey to all the gods. One jar of honey to the master of the Labyrinth. If you dare tread the demon's den, be aware that it knows its domain far more than you could ever hope to do. Be rigid and vigilant in your travel through the belly of the beast, but be not alarmed when it decides to purge its lair.”
The Labyrinth
Beyond the first chamber, past the doorway previously sealed off by a threshold stone, lies an expansive underground maze which comprises the majority of Level 611.
The labyrinth is a dense network of bedraggled, filthy passageways and rooms reminiscent of various architectural and aesthetic styles; examples of which include maintenance and sewer tunnels, asylums, and hospitals, amongst others. The designs of the hallways share no common/consistent identifiable era, ranging from ancient to modern and even futuristic.
An immense amount of unsanitary, excretory, and gory waste is splattered on every surface of the level. Blood, bile, human remains at various stages of decomposition, and other such substances lend a pungent and noxious smell to the level, as well as a slimy mucus coating on surfaces which creates an environmental hazard.
One may describe the level's general make as flimsy in design and atrociously pernicious. Although the level is mostly structurally stable, some corridors are not, which make certain sections entirely untraversable. Long-dead cables and thick, iron chains hang from the ceilings freely, obstructing the main pathways. Water pipes occasionally jut out from the floors and the walls, frequently described as fractured beyond repair.1
A photo of one of the level's dead ends, taken in a passageway reminiscent of a sewer tunnel.
Despite the various architectural styles comprising Level 611, its halls are always covered by a form of tiles (most commonly granite and/or ceramic). Very few of these tiles remain intact, as the majority of them are broken, entirely shattered, or caved in. These tile shards lend to yet another environmental hazard in the level.
Level 611 possesses an esoteric layout, with certain nonlinear characteristics. Whilst it conforms to Euclidean geometry, the passageways' formation is anomalous. For one, their density is alarming, mainly due to the corridors being nestled closely to one another, leaving very little wall thickness between them due to their close proximity. The corridors themselves also frequently twist and turn in ninety-degree angles, with there being no straight hallway recorded to extend more than fifteen meters. The hallways have never been seen to change elevation, leading M.E.G. archivists to theorize that the level is located entirely on a single horizontal plane. Due to the labyrinth's ever-shifting terrain, its exact scale is difficult to determine. Its size and depth varies enormously. The entire level can instantly, and without apparent difficulty, change its geometry.
Lighting inside Level 611 is also a mystery. Candles, LED lights, fluorescent tubes, and many other light generating appliances have been observed, all in varying states of disrepair. In some areas, light is intolerably bright, whilst in others it is entirely absent, engulfing wanderers in darkness. This inconsistency is attributed to the presumed age of the lights or the damage that they may have sustained through the years.
The presence of rooms in Level 611 are infrequent, found solely in junctions or splits in the corridors — oftentimes being just a few inches larger than the corridors of the level itself. They are characterized by the common presence of rotten wooden furniture in their central point, and the rare, inexplicable appearance of fresh fruits on said furniture.
Deeper into the Labyrinth, as one approaches its very heart, a shift into a new state becomes apparent, as if one has entered an entirely different level. This shift is best characterized by the list of documented properties in this area:
- No light, humidity, or air movement (i.e. breezes, drafts etc).
- No sounds, Except for a dull roar which arises intermittently; sometimes seeming far off, sometimes sounding close at hand.
- Walls are uniformly black with a slightly ‘ashen’ hue. There are no windows, moldings, or other decorative elements.
- Temperature remains within 8 degrees of 32°F.
- Compasses do not function there, nor do altimeters. Radios have a limited range.
- The place will purge itself of all things, including any item left behind. No object has ever been found there. There is no dust.
This is believed to be the most "natural" state of Level 611; its true, original form, so to speak.
Entities
Some common entities are believed to have once been present in labyrinth, including hounds, wretches, and even Opeh. However, they have only ever been found in the form of remains, being long deceased. Of note is the "Hellenized" appearance of the humanoid entities, having been found with Lost-era attire and weapons.
The Minotaur
Any of the environmental hazards present in Level 611 pale in comparison to its greatest danger. The entire warranty for the level's alternate classification, Entity 611 (Colloquially referred to outside the realm of professional documentation as 'The Minotaur'), is the sole entity known to occupy and roam Level 611.
The threat posed to all life alien to Level 6112 is of a degree far greater than that of the average hostile entity. As soon as wanderers enter Level 611, the entity begins tracking them, regardless of how far it is from their current location. Upon reaching them, the entity violently slaughters wanderers using what has been described by witness accounts as large, Damascus steel cleavers affixed to chains.
Observations, recordings, and recollections from various different wanderers have observed that the entity is capable of:
- Running at inhuman speeds, whilst also keeping itself steady in spite of Level 611's terrain.
- Throwing objects of seemingly tremendous weight across great distances with relative ease and accuracy.
- Surviving Firesalt crystal explosions of considerable size while sustaining only minor injuries.
- Hearing wanderers across tremendous distances, presumably locating them based solely on said sense.
- A heightened sense of smell.
Detailed descriptions of the entity's appearance are everchanging and apocryphal, and since it is hazardous to even attempt to document the entity via digital media (i.e pictures, videos, etc) due to the previously mentioned abilities, these descriptions are the only means the M.E.G. has of documenting the entity's appearance without risking the lives of personnel. This has, however, not discouraged blithe wanderers from taking photos of the entity, which has obviously resulted in traumatic experiences and unwanted deaths. Whilst the recovered media is generally of considerably poor quality due to the situation in which it was taken, they have, coupled with the descriptions, giving M.E.G. archivists a clear enough description of the entity's physical appearance and manners.
Photograph captured by a wanderer who had an encounter with Entity 611. Context and legitimacy are unknown, but the photo is one of the clearest which the M.E.G. has in its possession.
As its colloquial title suggests, Entity 611 appears similarly to the Minotaur of ancient Greek mythology. However, its face is completely absent of flesh and musculature, instead having a bare bull skull with golden horns. Intricate, swirling patterns are carved upon the skull's surface, with a prominent, geometric mandala-like design centered on the forehead. A golden bull ring is secured in the nose-hole of the skull. The entity's build is tall and muscular, estimated to be three meters tall. Paradoxically, however, it is also emaciated and gaunt, with a shriveled concave abdomen and sickly pale skin covered in festering, pattern-like wounds. Its ribs are pierced by six pairs of iron rings, while its limbs and body are pierced by iron rings in many places, and iron cuffs are secured around its wrists, ankles and neck. The Minotaur is only barely clothed by the tattered remains of a dark blue hooded robe with gold trim.
Although believed to possess a higher intelligence, Entity 611 is completely nonverbal in the presence of humans. Instead, it is often heard vocalizing grunts and moans in a strained, agonized manner.
As it currently stands, research is still ongoing as to what exactly the entity's motives may be, how it detects wanderers from such (presumably) long distances, and where it originated from. Wanderers are generally advised to avoid entering Level 611 in the first place unless they have been explicitly ordered to do so, but should they find themselves in it unwillingly, they are advised to look for an exit before the entity engages them. One can calculate how close the entity is to their location by listening for growling and the clanging of its footsteps. The hallways of Level 611 reflect sound extremely well, so the noises the entity makes reverberate across remarkable distances.
The entirety of Level 611 is believed to be an extension of the entity's will in some form, seemingly conforming to its every whim.
Entrances and exits:
Entrances
Level 611 can be accessed from rusty, blood-splattered metal doors found in Level 8, Level 51, and Level 197. Opening them or entering them without closing the door does not directly lead to Level 611, and leads instead to a small closet-sized area. However, if one closes the door behind them, the door will disappear, and they will find themselves in Level 611.
Level 611 may also be entered through a particular painting in Level 57.
A door which can access Level 611 resides within the inner sanctum of The Keymaster’s tower in The Hub. However, he expressly forbids entry through the door by anyone, and Level 611 is among the few levels which he will explicitly refuse to provide a key for. In his own words, prior to banishing the M.E.G. operative who inquired about the subject: “Of all the realms that I could be asked to grant access to, that is one which I could never permit under any circumstances.”
Exits
From within the entrance chamber, Level 611 may be exited by simply no-clipping through the back wall. This will lead to whatever previous level that Level 611 was entered from.
Deeper into the maze, some unstable areas have a noticeable aura to them which makes it so that they can be identified by wanderers as noclippable. The location of exit is random, but a predisposition to the previously mentioned levels has been noted.
Beware The Minotaur, mural attributed to The Lost. Date unknown.
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