Overview
The Catacombs Node is a decaying labyrinth of mausoleums, ossuaries, bone markets, blood tunnels, and fungal gardens built atop layers of failed resurrection and soul decay. Here, life and death blur into one long echo. The air hums with whispers, and even the stones seem to remember pain.
A permanent death loop runs through the Node. Corpses twitch. Skeletons wander. Detached limbs crawl toward warmth. Mimic Slimes imitate the living. The Catacombs breathe like something still trying to wake up.
Those who enter often describe a heavy pull beneath the ribs, as if the Node itself resents forgetting the dead. Few come willingly. Fewer leave unchanged.
Access / Entry Conditions
The Catacombs are most often accessed through crypt doors, collapsed burial tunnels, sewer routes, blood-stained stairwells, and unstable death-aspected rifts. Some entrances appear beneath old churches, graveyards, or ruined medical facilities in other Nodes.
Entry is considered dangerous but predictable compared to more unstable Nodes. The deeper sectors, however, are difficult to exit without a guide, Anchor reading, or Soulflow-resistant relic.
Environment / Structure
The Catacombs stretch into an endless necropolis of tomb halls, ossuaries, fungal caverns, bone markets, blood channels, and buried sanctuaries. Rainwater smells of rust, and many channels run red for reasons no one has confirmed.
Key sectors include:
- Ossuary Core: The heart of the Node, where a shattered Anchor pumps faint red light through rib-like pillars.
- Flesh Mire: A swamp of liquefied corpses and necrotic runoff. Slimes and Mimic Slimes gather here to recycle decay.
- Night Abbey: A cathedral shrouded in vines and bloodlight, ruled by the Vampiric Courts.
- Beast Hollow: Lower caverns haunted by feral werebeasts, bone gnawers, and failed resurrection remnants.
- Bone Markets: Trade routes where necrotic materials, relic fragments, preserved remains, and forbidden alchemical goods are exchanged.
Anomaly Behavior
- Death Loop: Corpses, bones, and discarded flesh reanimate in repeating cycles. Destroyed undead may reform unless the source remains are burned, sealed, or removed from the active loop.
- Flesh Reanimation: Dead tissue regrows after nightfall. Detached limbs crawl toward warmth, voices, or exposed Soulflow.
- Mimicry Residue: Some walls breathe. Others whisper names not spoken in centuries. Spoken words may echo back hours later in unfamiliar voices.
- Soulflow Corruption: Residual Soulflow seeps through the Node, increasing hallucinations, emotional instability, and spiritual contamination during long exposure.
- Bloodwater Drift: Red water flows through certain tunnels without a visible source. Following it may lead toward active death zones, hidden markets, or Night Abbey territory.
Objects of Interest
- Shattered Anchor: A broken Anchor located within the Ossuary Core. It appears to sustain the Node’s death loop and residual Soulflow activity.
- Bone Markets: Semi-functional trade spaces where undead, vampires, Rattarians, necrotic alchemists, and desperate Divers may barter.
- Blood Channels: Red waterways running through lower tunnels. Their origin is unknown, but they appear connected to vampire movement and ritual activity.
- Fungal Gardens: Breathing gardens of pale fungus that grow from corpse matter. Some are used in necrotic alchemy, while others release dangerous spores.
- Old Resurrection Chambers: Failed ritual rooms containing broken tables, bone restraints, and incomplete bodies that sometimes react to living presence.
Known Entities
- Skeletons: Autonomous undead that guard tombs, markets, and sealed chambers. Some reform after destruction if their remains are not properly scattered or sealed.
- Zombies: Reanimated bodies of varied intelligence depending on origin Node, age, and Soulflow exposure. Some migrate between regions.
- Slimes and Mimic Slimes: Corpse-feeding organisms that recycle decay. Mimic Slimes can imitate living forms, voices, and injured travelers to lure prey.
- Malformed Revenants: Failed resurrection victims bound to specific chambers, graves, or unfinished rituals.
- Vampires: The dominant power within Night Abbey. Many are bound by ancient blood pacts, Broker debts, and territorial agreements.
- Werebeasts: Feral or semi-organized predators that roam Beast Hollow. Their behavior is influenced by lunar anomalies that do not follow real cycles.
Society and Activity
Despite its horrors, CN-07 functions as a hub for trade, research, and necrotic alchemy. Not all inhabitants are mindless predators. Some barter, negotiate, enforce territory, or conduct forbidden experiments.
The Catacombs are governed by an unspoken law:
Respect the dead, or join them.
Those who disturb graves, mock remains, steal from marked ossuaries, or break blood-market agreements often vanish before leaving the sector.
Survival Rules / Countermeasures
- Use low amber light instead of bright flashlights; white light distorts in fog and bone dust.
- Do not follow voices coming from walls, vents, or sealed tombs.
- Avoid extended exposure beyond eight hours without Soulflow protection.
- Do not trust injured travelers who cannot cast a reflection or leave footprints.
- Burn or seal remains if destroying undead inside an active death loop.
- Avoid Flesh Mire without sealed boots, masks, and corrosion-resistant gear.
- Do not steal from Bone Markets unless prepared to be hunted.
- Never enter Night Abbey without permission, payment, or protection.
Current Status
The Catacombs Node, also recorded as CN-07, remains active and partially mapped. It is classified as a necrotic urban-depth Node with persistent death-loop activity, organized vampire influence, and high Soulflow corruption.
Diver access is possible, but long-term exposure is strongly discouraged. The Node is considered valuable for relic recovery, necrotic materials, forbidden research, and information trading — but every expedition risks becoming part of the Catacombs’ memory.