Night Road
The only way to cross the Uncreated Night is by means of the Night
Roads. These narrow paths resemble titanic arches that span the
darkness that surrounds them on all sides. Some look like bridges
of stone, while others are ribbons of dull metal, or black rivers that
flow without banks or bottom. There are many different seemings
for these Night Roads, and sages argue over their creators. Some say
it was angels who built them in the dawn of creation, while others
credit the One, and some point to records of ancient theurges who
built them to connect the realms after the Shattering. A few roads
appear to condense out of Uncreated Night itself and are fabricated
from a delirious distillation of the worlds they connect.
The Night Roads are dangerous. Many are constructed with wayhouses
and citadels along the path, most empty, some still preserving
life of a kind. These oases of safety in the endless darkness sometimes
shelter the heirs of explorers or refugees trapped upon the road in ages
long lost, and few of these enclaves welcome outsiders. In addition to
this peril, the Uncreated often infest the way and make crossing the
road a feat worthy of a hero’s valor. Yet once a road is cleared, it will
usually remain that way so long as some power is capable of keeping
out the inevitable incursions of the Uncreated.
Entrances to these roads tend to “erupt” in isolated, remote locations
of a realm. It’s almost as if the road was a needle, and only the desolate
places of a world have a “skin” thin enough for it to pierce. Particularly
fragile realms might have a road erupt in the middle of a teeming
metropolis, however, or in some other awkward location. Most roads
soon warp their immediate surroundings into some otherworldly
or monstrous scene, and one of the telltale signs of a hidden road is
the sudden presence of impossible environments or bizarre magical
objects. Adventurers who delve deep in the ruins of the ancients
know to be wary of structures that grow stranger the deeper they go.
Once a road has broken through into a world, it usually remains
connected unless blasted free by some tremendous theurgic power.
Most roads connect only two points, though there are other dark
highways that have multiple offshoots and branches to connect many
worlds and locations.
Entering a Night Road is sometimes as simple as walking through
the right doorway and sometimes as difficult as performing a special
magical rite at the correct time and in the proper place. Leaving one
is simply a matter of stepping through the passage at the end of
each road. Of course, the inhabitants of the spaces between are often
disinclined to allow passage, sometimes charging strange tolls and
sometimes opposing passages with main force.
The worst effect of a Night Road is the inevitable disgorging of its
Uncreated parasites on any realm it pierces. Monsters of sanity-melting
horror can suddenly burst from a dark corner of the world, ravening
through the populace until some brave band of heroes can drive
them back and seal the Night Road’s entrance with powerful magic.
Completely destroying a Night Road is impossible for ordinary
sorcery. Certain powerful theurgic incantations can damage or shatter
a road, however, and the tremendous might of the Godbound
might be able to do the same if the structure’s sensitive points can be
found and smashed. Of course, to do so without some swift means
of escape would condemn the wreckers to an endless, drifting exile
in the darkness of Uncreated Night.
