Rusting Door
 | |
| Region | Drift Network (south wing) |
|---|---|
| Level range | 38-42 |
| Entrance | Portal in the Drift Network hall, south-wing alcove |
| Landblock | 0x017D |
Rusting Door is the second rung of the south wing's ladder off the Drift Network hall, built for characters of roughly level 38 to 42. Its own anchor-iron corrodes at a rate the founders cannot explain, and whatever leaks through grows that same iron back inside its hide.
Overview
The door opens onto a single, legible descent: you drop in near the surface and fight your way down through one clear route to a dead end at the bottom, with a second Surface exit waiting there. Along the way, four wheel-valves are seized into the wall at four different depths of the descent - Meridian ironwork, driven to hold the line, now rusted shut.
Forcing a valve wakes whatever is nesting nearest it, so each wheel is a fight fought where you stand rather than one you choose.
Inhabitants
The crew that laid this stretch of the anchor-iron line never stopped working it, and they still hold the descent:
- Rust-Drowned Linesman - the common melee, thick along every depth band.
- Mooring-Hauler - heavier and slower, one to a nesting site.
- Line-Overseer - the caster who still keeps the tally, one to a nesting site.
The four valves
The descent's dynamic is forcing all four Rust-Seized Valves open, in any order:
| Valve | Depth band | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| A | shallowest | Turning it wakes the nearest nest; the iron screams before it gives. |
| B | mid | Same fight, deeper in. |
| C | mid-late | Same fight, deeper still. |
| D | deepest | The last wheel. Once it turns, the line goes quiet. |
Each valve can only be forced again after the same day-long window the rest of the door runs on. Turning one that is already open just confirms it - nothing more comes of it until the cycle resets.
Access
The entrance is a portal in a south-wing alcove of the Drift Network hall. Step through and it drops you near the top of the descent; two portals named Surface - one near the entry, one at the deep end - bring you back to the hall.
Line-Greaser Tobbin Mott stands beside the arch and keeps the ledger on the four valves. Force all four and report back to him for the reward - see his page for the exact cadence and payout.
See also
- Rust-Drowned Linesman, Mooring-Hauler and Line-Overseer - the crew holding the line.
- Line-Greaser Tobbin Mott - the Meridian line-greaser who keeps the ledger.
- Drift Network - the hall this door opens off.
- Dispatcher Corwen Hale - the wing's greeter.
- Meridian reward pieces - the set this door's ledger contributes to.