Info
The original authors of this Entry are Stretchsterz,
Dr Bierre,
ShadowOfTheProphet and
PrinceBun.
LEVEL
94
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY
CLASS 2
Exit: 0/5
Guaranteed Exit
Environment: 3/5
High Environmental Risk
Entities: 2/5
Some Hostile Presence
Level 94 toes the line between real and unreal. Located behind strange clay doors, this level consists of an ever-sprawling neighborhood, a floating castle, and rolling grass hills as far as the eye can see. Yet everything from the ground to the sky feels almost fake, carrying a surreal "grainy" effect as if artificially crafted.
Description
Houses
The houses of Level 94.
First stepping foot in Level 94, one will likely find themselves standing before a landscape of suburban houses seated atop rolling green hills. Besides the houses, the only other things that can be seen on the hill-scape are water towers housing Almond Water.
Every house is identical in its features: off-white color, one door and two windows on the front, oddly scaled bricks lining the base, and almost billboard-flat dimensionality. However, the interiors of the houses (where accessible) widely vary in design, with some breaking the boundaries of the house's exterior.
A standard house typically consists of a mostly empty but colorful space, often mimicking the styling of live children's shows. Although otherwise barren in decoration, the following items can usually be found in the center of the house:
- A cushioned chair of any kind.
- A vibrant rug, sometimes featuring the pattern of a town with roads for toy cars.
- An oddly shaped lamp.
- A CRT television, unplugged yet still operating on full functionality.
From afar, the televisions only display static. Those who draw too close become entranced, seating themselves on the floor before the television and staring at the screen. When questioned, they will claim to be watching 'their favorite childhood show', yet observers outside the range of entrancement will continue to only see static on the screens. Attempts to pull them away from the TV are either met with aggression from the afflicted, or the unafflicted being pulled into the lure of the television by the captive. If left behind, the afflicted eventually die from lack of sustenance (starvation, dehydration, malnutrition, sleep deprivation, etc.).
Other, rarer interiors can be found within houses, typically guarded Animations. These rarer interiors include the following:
- A large, dark interior filled with giant slabs of clay and large claywork materials, presumably where more Animations are created. Rarer alternative versions include other materials like woodwork and paper.
- "Backstage" areas with props, stage construction materials, recording booths etc. No signs of life are present here despite the mess displayed in these areas.
- Straight drops into a void.
- Exits from the level.
Sometimes, houses may only exist partially; random sets of furniture, walls next to furniture, or entire single rooms of a house can be found atop hills instead of an entire house.
The roads of Level 94.
Regardless of entry point in Level 94, one is never far from a roadway. They bend and wind around the houses and hills, often converging on each other and looping. Walking along these roads, one often finds oddly shaped cars scattered about, either entirely stationary or moving without visible drivers or passengers inside, with an odd bobbing rhythm. Following the direction of the vehicles is the fastest way to reach the town center.
The Town
Any and all roads eventually lead to the town center, the most populated area of Level 94. This town seems to be in the 1930's, in a stop-motion type feel. This town has tiny houses, with some furniture, mostly in 1930's to 1950's. The town also has 1930's styled cars, and milk vans, filled with Almond Milk. The town also has siren poles, which play happy cartoony music during the day.
While not necessarily large in scale, hundreds of animations flock to the streets, markets and shops, attending to usual activities of peacefully loitering or perusing the many stores located nearby. During the day, they are largely docile unless provoked.
At the center of the town stands a large fountain styled like a King chess piece, flowing with Almond Water.
The Castle
The castle of Level 94.
All throughout Level 94, its presence is ever-looming. You always see it, just off in the distance above the hill-line, peeking over the roofs of the houses. At first, it seems like a distant, painted mirage; a backdrop that sets the scene of the level and unreachable by any means. What may initially appear to be a floating castle is in fact situated atop a transparent mountain. The moment you step foot into the town square, one of the roads leading out trails directly to its front door.
It would be a fruitless endeavor to make the trip during the day, as all ways in are shut and guarded by the knights of the castle. It would be ill-advised to try and force yourself inside, as the guards — as unassuming and cartoonish as they seem — are quite mighty, and can send anything flying with just one swing. While Animations who suffer their wrath have the laws of cartoon physics apply to them, wanderers can and have died from the force of the swings and the landing impacts of their eventual falls.
While it is ill-advised in general to go to the castle, if you truly wish to have an audience with what waits within, then await nightfall.
This is where Level 94 can be really trippy for the human mind, so bring some Almond Water. This area for some reason, will lose it's cartoony effect on photos, which possibly means this Level is losing it's effect in this castle.
Inside the castle of Level 94.
Stepping inside, everything visually looks and feels uncannily realistic, so close to being right but in a way that feels so characteristically wrong. Unfitting of a castle, the interior looks like a kid's play center, and a mess at that. Colorful crawlspaces embedded in the walls, scattered toys and other strange knick-knacks, base shades of every color you can think of on every floor, surface and item you can see. It may be tempting to mess around, to explore and have fun but there is no time for fooling about.
This castle appears to be a strange fun-house area, and is very bright in some rooms. You can find ball pits, playgrounds, and an animation studio, with a miniature replica of the town, and it's Entities. In this castle, the only Entities that can appear, are what we call "Robo-Men", their appearance is an old styled robot toy, from the 1930's, in an animated form. They seem to be guards of this castle, and are hostile if they spot you interacting with any object in the castle.
While your presence is expected, the game has already begun and you better hope luck is on your side, as no punches are pulled from this point on. There is little record of what rooms lay within the castle's interior, as no path is the same beyond the entrance room, but expect lots of danger, lots of turmoil, and many rooms that will lead you to a cartoonishly deadly fate.
Notable Rooms and Hazards:
- A hallway that stretches beyond infinity, growing longer as it is traversed more deeply. The bounds grow thinner with each step, until eventually the hallway traps one in place.
- A room with no collision. There is currently no evidence that death occurred here, but communication cut off quite swiftly after an explorer fell, and they had never been seen since.
- A room with a dioramic replica of itself seated upon a table, including models of the room's occupants. A safer room, as death is only guaranteed if one is careless with the handling of their own replica.
- A floor with many colored tiles, whose effects have yet to be completely deciphered. There are presumably over fifty different colors, with many that result in instant death.
- Assorted trapdoors and tripwires that result in the cartoonish goring of a person.
- Multi-choice doorways. This one likes to repeat for quite a while, with bad choices leading to aforementioned death rooms.
- A room with a wheel listing a hyper-specific and agonisingly drawn out death on each notch. The door behind you seems to lock itself should you enter this room, and trying to backpedal when you open it causes some unseen force to trip you inside.
The one constant in each experience of the castle is its end point: the throne room of the King. It could be over the moment you step inside, you could be strung into the belief that you may have a chance; there are few confirmed records of anyone leaving here alive, let alone unchanged.
From what has been noted from regaled tales, very few have found their way into the throne room: some after much turmoil, the rare few with the red carpet rolled right for them. As every path inside is different, every audience with the King is different too. Some say the table they were asked to seat at reached far into the darkness, some say they could only kneel before the being that resided within. Some were offered a challenge too dastardly to recount, some were sent right back out the door whilst being called unworthy.
After wandering through the castle, you will find the throne room. in this room, you will find the Entity known as The Animated King, at first, doesn't seem hostile, but will in fact, control you, and you can soon become apart of the Animations, but, he will at first put you through a test of withstanding your own nightmares in animated form. If you succeed, he will let out a burst of light, and you will be sent to Level 11.
Phenomena
Weather
Currently, Level 94 has two known weather events. While these events are reflective of regular weather events, their existence within the level is heavily modified and far more dangerous. Wanderers are advised to seek immediate shelter the moment clouds begin to heavily accumulate within the sky.
Clayfall
Level 94's version of rainfall. Where one would often expect water to fall, instead varying sizes of blue clay begin to fall from the sky, with all the stylistic animation that comes with. On all surfaces native to the level, they will land as regular raindrops, leaving mere splashes in their wake before 'melting' into the ground entirely. As pretty as this is to view, the wild variations in size mean that these claydrops can cause physical harm not just from the speed they fall at but by their recorded mass reaching a recorded heaviest mass of the average human (or 75kg).
Snowstos
The name given to snowstorms within Level 94. While clayfall can bring a quick death to wanderers, this can provide more long-term negative effects if one is to breathe the 'snow' in. Where one once again would expect frozen water, snow within Level 94 is instead replaced by asbestos, reflecting a common special effect trick in old-timey films made prior to the 1990s. The asbestos within this level has been recorded to show an accelerated process of causing symptoms within the unlucky who do inhale the substance, with a current record of three M.E.G. explorers who have succumbed to lung cancer induced by the asbestos.
Night Time
At night, the music will stop completely, and at this time the Entity known as Animations will start to appear, and will attack violently, if spotted.
Other Entities that appear in the night are Smilers, Skin-Stealers, Hounds and Male Deathmoths, But there are also Death Rats, which they have evolved to look like a normal rat, in this stop-motion look, because the Animations usually attack anything that does not look animated.
All means of escape become locked. If you are trapped inside a home, you have a chance of survival so long as it is not a home with a TV. Their effects become stronger at night, and your trappings are all but guaranteed should you be locked in.
It is far worse to be stuck outside, however. The Animations, desperate to maintain their illusion, become violent and rabid. If they see any creature that is not an Animation, they abandoned all their cartoonish stylization and will charge you en masse, melding and melting into each other until it becomes one shambling mound with the single-minded goal to kill you.
Your only options are to escape the sights of the Animations for the entire night, or flee to the castle. Unfortunately, you know the better option here — you waited for this moment, after all.
Run fast, run quick, up the invisible hill and to the gate that allows you in. You'll find that the moment you take a step inside, the Animations all but flee from the path. It will just be you and the castle, with whatever awaits inside.
Bases, Outposts and Communities:
Since the Animations appear at night, it is really hard to survive Level 94 as a group. The M.E.G. are currently finding a way to set up an Outpost in this Level.
Entrances And Exits:
To Enter, you must first be in Level 601, and successfully escape, and make your way to the Hub. Once there, a rectangular-shaped hole will appear on the ground, in a random area of The Hub, and will close very soon after entering, but slowly. To Exit, you must either complete The Animated King's trial, and get to a random main Level, or some houses will lead to Level 7, Level 9 and Level 53.