This four-hundred page text contains the personal log of an unnamed
Dwarven starship captain, and describes a series of experiments conducted around their expedition into the
Sideways Steps — which they refer to as the "Sidewards Schism". It was discovered by
Lockette in the ruins of the
Rookery (see
S10E4: "The Who-Was"), and given to
TRAVIS to scan and store.
Summary
Dated beginning in year 419 AG, the text immediately identifies itself as originating from another Iteration of the
Entwined Infinities. As described by the captain, they were searching for potential mining locations on
Aucturn after the fall of the
Cult of the Elder Mythos, when they encountered a dimensional wormhole unlike anything they'd ever seen. After gaining permission from
New Bon Terris, they began experimenting with the wormhole in hopes that it could recreate some of the functionality of the
Drift, which had been lost after the fall of
Alluvion.
As the weeks went by, they began to call the wormhole the Sidewards Schism, due to the peculiar sensation they felt as they approached the area. Although only sending objects through in these early days, they eventually upgraded to drones, but were frustrated as they lost contact almost as soon as the robots went in. After threat of lost funding should they fail to produce results, the captain decided to walk to the entrance of the Schism, and recorded seeing a version of Aucturn where the Cult still reigned supreme.
The captain was able to successfully return and made similar explorations twelve different times across a four-week period. In these realities, the captain saw a
Pact Worlds torn apart, a version of Aucturn with
Righteous buried into the planet's core, and several sub-variants of the world as they knew it on their home reality. Of particular interest, they discovered a reality where the Drift still functioned, but Aucturn had been completely abandoned, and no signs of life could be seen in their quick scans.
Delighted, the dwarves were commanded to draw a
Tether between this reality and their own (suggesting they had an
Alignmatist on board), in hopes that they could use it for mining and to one day recreate the technology they had lost. In the following entry — a mere twelve hours after the one before it, implying that the dwarves possessed FTL communication even without the Drift — the dwarves had taken their entire ship through the Sideways Schism.
Whatever method they had hoped to use to bind the realities failed, and they were horrified to find that they could not return home, even after weeks of exploring the new reality's version of the Schism. As supplies ran low, the captain wrote at length about his fear of a mutiny, and that others on the starship had begun to send out secret messages to the stars in hopes of rescue. After this entry, there are no others, and the remaining dozen pages of the journal are blank.
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