Testimony
“A one-meter hole, no railing, and not a trace of the bottom.”
Pits are holes of roughly one meter, with no railing, the bottom between 10 and 50 meters down and a dark chamber beneath. There is no fence, no tape, no sign. The carpet just ends at the edge.
Falling leads to Level 1. Whoever falls doesn't come back the same way.
Figures
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Size | around 1 m |
| Depth | 10 to 50 m |
| Below | a dark chamber |
| Links | Level 0 with Level 1, and Level 1 with Level 2 |
Three variants
- Trap pit, 25 m deep. It's the one marked on the map.
- Sinkhole field, a grid of unmarked holes. See Pit Field.
- Portal pit, the one that leads from one level to another. It is always in the same place and doesn't move.
What happens when you fall
The fall leaves you in Level 1, in the chamber the pit hangs from. To get back to 0 you climb a service staircase (see how the levels connect). The pit cannot be climbed. Pits also link Level 1 with Level 2.
How to survive
- Walk with your eyes ahead and watch the floor in wide rooms, especially in Level 0 after a dark stretch.
- If you see a grid of holes, don't cross it in a hurry.
- If someone in your group goes down, be clear on where you'll meet again. Don't wait up top.
Notes found
A floor note says: “I went down the pit with two people. I came up alone.” It is the only one that mentions the pit and the only warning there is. See floor notes.
What people report
- A group that passed through saw remnants of rope tied to the edge of some pits.
- At the center of sinkhole fields there is more loot, and anyone who steps wrong falls without dying.
See also
The Building and the Descent, Anomalies.
Mentioned in
L-001 · LevelsLevel 0: yellow officesEndless offices of damp carpet and humming fluorescents. Every wanderer wakes here, and nobody leaves by the way they came in.L-002 · LevelsLevel 1: habitable warehouseFourteen-meter concrete bays, shelves and pallets under a sparse amber light. Everything that falls down the pits ends up here.P-017 · PhenomenaThe Wanderer’s GlossaryThe words wanderers repeat until they stop explaining them, with the entry where each one is told.P-010 · PhenomenaThe Building and the DescentAn office tower going up and a chain of basements that rots the lower you go. Nobody has come back from the bottom with news.P-011 · PhenomenaThe 63-Meter StaircaseTwenty-one flights of three meters in a zigzag and, at the top, a place you can't reach any other way. Everyone tells the ending differently.O-017 · ObjectsFloor NotesPapers on the carpet, sometimes pinned. A sentence from someone who had time to write before disappearing.P-019 · PhenomenaGreat HallsHalls 48 to 96 meters across where the ceiling disappears. They are the only relief from the corridors and the only place where you feel small.P-009 · PhenomenaHow It All Fits TogetherThree levels joined by pits, stairs and doors to nowhere, and sublevels that have no door and are reached by mistake.S-017 · SublevelsPit FieldAbout twenty-five small holes in the floor, each with a crude platform at the bottom, and a single walkable path.S-023 · Sublevels“Unloaded Chunks” VoidA gap at least forty-eight meters on a side, with no railing, that looks cut with a ruler. The unfinished world.S-022 · SublevelsThe Space Above the Drop CeilingAbove the ceiling tiles there is a low gap with room for ducts and, some say, something else. A hatch marks it.S-020 · SublevelsBreaking Walls and FloorsSome say a wall or floor in Level 0 can be broken, and that what is broken stays broken for everyone. Nobody has managed it.