Expanse Wayfinding
"The Network provides trail signage, a posted map, and two clearly marked exits. Runners who are lost are lost on their own initiative."
Floor 2 does not navigate like Floor 1. There are no corridors. There is land, and the land is organized — the runner who learns the organization crosses the floor; the runner who doesn't wanders it on camera, which the Network also accepts.
Expanses and junctions
The floor is built from two kinds of space:
- Expanses — the big open cells: the Orchard, the Wash, the Deadfall, and their neighbors. Each is a place in its own right, anchored by a landmark you can orient on, and each is a full camera pan to cross. Whatever lives in an expanse is in there with you for the duration.
- Junctions — the seams between expanses. These are not doorways; they are typed crossings, and the type is tactical information:
| Junction | Character | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Open trail | Plain crossing | Most edges. The connective tissue of the preserve — no pinch, no trick. |
| Hedge-gap | Single-file, sight-blocked until you commit | The floor's default pinch. The classic ambush mouth. |
| Streamford | Slowed and exposed | Two of them, both on the watercourse. Rain flips a ford to swept — impassable until it lets up. |
| Log bridge | Single-file, over a drop | Wash to Canopy Walk. Knockback on the bridge is exactly as bad as it sounds. |
| Ranger gate | Lockable | Canopy to the Seam. A Janitech grounds gate that can be closed — by whom is a question runners are encouraged to ask early. |
| Back-climb | Slow and dark | Deadfall to the Seam. No pinch to hold, but the distance is patrolled by things that hide. |
The four regions
The Network's posted maps group the expanses into four regions. Learn them; every direction anyone gives you on this floor is in these terms.
| Region | Expanses | Character |
|---|---|---|
| The Lost Treeline | The Lost Trailhead · The Windbreak · The Overlook Loop | The arrival rim — an abandoned park gone feral. Every runner starts here. See below. |
| The Grounds | The Old Orchard · Groundskeeper's Yard · The Meadow | The tended core. Odette's garden-tree, Bram's Yard and the companion paddock, and the one genuinely calm-looking lawn (see the Head Groundskeeper before trusting it). |
| The Watercourse | The Wash · The Streamside | The floor's water system — the dry central arroyo where everyone crosses paths, and the live riverbank where the water starts. Care-package drops favor the Wash. So does everything else. |
| The Wilds | The Deadfall · The Canopy Walk | The back-country pair, and the two ways to risk yourself reaching an exit: slow and dark through the fog, or fast and exposed along the treetop boardwalk. |
The Seams — getting off this floor
Two exits, both on the eastern rim, both marked by the visible cut-weld the runner learned to look for on Floor 1:
- The Seam — Grounds Gate, past the Canopy Walk and its lockable ranger gate. The fast, exposed line.
- The Seam — Back Cut, past the Deadfall via the back-climb. The slow, dark line.
Two distributed exits means no single farmable choke. The Network describes this as generosity. The Network's schedulers describe it as "pacing."
Havens along the way
Seven safe structures, each built where a preserve would actually build one: the Ranger Station (Treeline — the first haven, with the posted trail map), the Potting Shed (Orchard — the Sanctuary door home), the Groundskeeper's Office (Yard — the companion hub), the River Lodge (Streamside), the Canopy Perch (the boardwalk's shelter), the Hunter's Blind (the Deadfall's one mercy), and the Wayside (a bench in the Meadow, which counts). Wherever you are, a haven is a reasonable journey — not a guaranteed one.
Out on the trails, signposts stand at decision points and point toward the nearest haven. They are examinable, accurate, and Janitech-issue, which means exactly one of those three properties surprised the runners.
The map and the minimap
The runner's map fills in as the runner walks — walked ground stays revealed, adjacent unexplored expanses appear as stubs, and unwalked pathways are marked so you can see where you haven't been. Exits carry a peer-through glyph: look before you commit to a junction. On a floor of hedge-gaps and fords, the runners who peer outlive the runners who stroll.
The Treeline is a gauntlet. It is not a safe zone.
The Network wishes to correct a rumor. The arrival Treeline is combat-enabled, watched ground — a newcomer's gauntlet calibrated for a fresh arrival, not a scenic nature walk. What the floor actually gives you:
- The bunker is the sanctuary. The arrival bunkers are fully combat-free, and the few tiles around each bunker door are a no-spawn, no-PvP apron. Nothing camps your doorstep.
- A grace window, not a guarantee. Each arrival carries a short PvP-immunity window (about two minutes) — long enough to get your bearings and move. It ends early for exactly one reason: you throw the first punch at another runner. You cannot gank from behind grace.
- The danger ramps. The trail out holds a docile critter and one low Lurker; the exit end holds a second Lurker or a slow Mower. Single, telegraphed threats — and walking back toward the bunker always drops the danger to zero.
Cross the Treeline and you've earned the Orchard. Stand still in it admiring the trees and the floor will conclude you were volunteering.
Next → Mana & Casting — the bar that appeared on the way down.