OLD Locations
The City:
The city of Higure is built inside a massive cavern, deep under the Surface. The people who built it used whatever they could find on the Surface and from the remains of their past cities. It was built to both use space wisely and be lived in comfortably in for a long period of time. The city is lit with a series of streetlights, casting it in a constant orange glow. The lights are dimmed at 'night' in order to maintain some level of normality for the citizens. The streets are well maintained by its workforce of oddly quiet Locals. It's rare to see a piece of trash in any of the streets.
- Apartments: There is one building set aside for the Newcomers to live in. Close to the entrance, lucky you. A four-story box full of box rooms. Each has a small kitchen, a small living room, a small bathroom, and a small bedroom. They come furnished with the basics, plain and dull, two small beds are crammed into each bedroom. All the plumbing works and it's free so who are you to complain? There are twenty rooms on each floor, and a laundry room by the main stairs on each floor. Here is the basic layout for an apartment.
- Local's Apartments: Just the same as the Newcomers' apartments except there are more of them. The two buildings stand next to each other and look the same as the newcomers apartments except larger. Feel free to wander the halls. Just don't expect an invitation in to one of the rooms.
- City Hall: A small, official looking building. The receptionist will not let you see the mayor without an appointment. If you decide it would be worth it and get an appointment, you'll be let into the mayor's office. It's a plain white room with an oddly grand oak desk standing in the middle. There are two uncomfortable chairs for guests to sit in front of the desk. The rest of the building is made up of meeting rooms and nondescript offices. There is one room, across the hall from the Mayor's office, that is lined with bookcases and serves as the city's library.
- Shops: More like well organized storage. No need to pay for anything, the shopkeepers are there only to make sure no one takes too much. There is a clothing shop, a grocery store, a general store, and at the very end of the line of buildings, a café with doubles as a bar. The café is in the hands of the Newcomers. They seem to be the only one's who can get some enjoyment out of a drink and a chat.
- Hospital: Like all the other buildings the Locals work in, the hospital is clean and tidy. The straight halls have many different empty rooms for patients. A morgue is also located here, just down the hall from where they do surgeries. But the staff here is really very well trained.
- Warehouse: An abandoned building right on the edge of the ruins. Whatever was stored here is long gone and the far end was partly destroyed in the caves collapse. It is mostly left alone by the locals and is one of the few places you'll see any trash. A nice, big, partly crushed building, if you need one.
- Public Works: This is where the majority of the locals work each day. The large building holds the water plant and the generators powering the city. A pipeline connects the lake to the building and the water is purified before being sent to the other buildings. If one were to look into the shadows they maybe able to see the wires running along the roof of the cave and down the walls and columns of rock, supplying each building with power. The building is heavily protected with fences and guards. No newcomers are allowed inside the building. It is far too important to the city.
- Empty Space: This is an odd structure. Only one side of it is man-made, the rest is dug out of the rock, making a hallway with a few side rooms. It's not clear what use to be here, but the reinforced door way and the hooks and shelves on the wall may make one think of an armory or storage or maybe a bunker for when things get really bad. Not nearly enough room for all the locals to fit in though.
- Gardens: The people who made the city knew they would have to get their food somehow. Space and resources limited what they could do, but they were able to plant a fair sized orchard and garden. Grass and small flowers line the paths. Seems the people where trying to recreate the Earth they remembered. The warm, bright lights are the closest things to sunlight you're going to get down here.
- Lake: The city was built here for a reason. Springs keep a lake full and supply the city with all the water it needs. There is one rocky island in the middle of it, but it's no bigger then one of the apartments.
- Ruins: On the far side of the city, it appears that the large cavern use to be larger but has collapsed. Maybe an earthquake knocked it down? Sure it won't happen again. Any of the city folk will tell you about how half the city was crushed in the collapse. It's said that the ghosts of that half of the city can still be heard crying sometimes. But it's probably just the wind screaming through the mangled remains.
- Caves: There are many little caves in the side walls, some large enough to walk into a few yards. Whee. But one nondescript looking cave by the ruins actually is the start of a maze of caves. Prefect for hiding in or getting lost in. Stalagmites and stalactites, odd glowing fungi, crystals, a luminescent pool of... something... No bats though. Someone must have gotten rid of them in fear that they were actually vampires. The cave doesn't appear to go to the surface, but maybe no one's taken the right turn yet? Be careful. Some paths will take you to pockets of gas that will suffocate you.
- The Computer: Standing in front of the stairs, all by its self, is a large black box. On the side facing the city however it is silver with a computer screen and keyboard. If you are from a certain time period and place, it may remind you of a ATM without the card and money slots. This is where requests are made for food and supplies. Once entered all you have to do is walk up the stairs and out onto the Surface. If you make it to the Platform, you'll find your things waiting.
- Black Pillars: There are six tall black pillars scattered on the outer rim of the city. Each stands twenty feet tall and a large man may be able to just wrap his arms around one. They look like they are made from the same stone as the platform and cannot be damaged in any way. Any Local will tell you what they are. The pillars are tools of the aliens. They collect the dreams to be studied.
- Staircase: The only way up to the surface is a long staircase cut into the rock wall following next to a ramp way. Together they are about as wide as a one lane street and the roof is about as high as you continue up to a short flat path to the mouth of the cave. The mouth of the cave is protected by a screen, letting anyone with a chip through while keeping the dreams out. It doesn't fail that much.
The Surface:
The land around the cavern entrance is a chard wreck of what this Earth once was. It's over grown and twisted trees do little but sit silently and offer cover to the Nightmares stalking you. If you do mange to make your way more then a mile away from the Platform in any direction on the Surface, the aliens will teleport you back to the Platform.
- The Platform: About a quarter mile away from the mouth of the cave is the platform where Newcomers are dropped off as well as all requests. The platform looks like a smooth black stone, with multiple circles and lines etched into it. The stone is a perfect circle, maybe ten feet across and a foot high.
